Kona Inspiration

Last week I was glued to Kona coverage leading up to the race and finally all day on Saturday watching the race unfold. I think social media has done so much for the sport of triathlon. It's allowed us to kind of live all of these pros and age groupers experiences on the big island and provide countless inspiration for those that weren't there. By the time the race came I was so pumped to watch it after following all the coverage all week, I was telling Amy that this is better than the Superbowl!

Needless to say I was even more intrigued this year. I want to get there next year and I'm going to be making huge sacrifices to do whatever it takes to qualify in 2014. For the most part each athlete that qualified  paid their dues to get there. For most qualifiers, triathlon isn't just a hobby they do for fun. It is taken very serious and they breathe and live triathlon every single day of the year for the ultimate experience. A ticket to Kona. You could almost see it in everyone's eyes there. The energy, excitement and pride of making it there and racing. It truly is an incredible accomplishment and I thank everyone that shared their experiences (especially teammates) with us that didn't race because you created new dreams and goals and inspiration that will fuel us for 2014!

[caption id="attachment_2375" align="alignright" width="225"] Swam a few times in my custom Wattie Ink Blueseventy Helix to get back used to swimming in a wetsuit![/caption]

The World Championships aside, I've been trying to get ready for my last race of the season. Soma 70.3 is this Sunday in Tempe, AZ. After a week off of unstructured training from Worlds I ran into some calf issues a few weeks later that left me without running for a week and then recently some wrist pain (self-inflicted ha) that kept me from swimming and riding outside. Needless to say, my focus was Worlds and even though I'm excited to race this weekend, the focus hasn't been where it should've been when I'm trying to race well and PR. Who knows - going into this race with zero expectations and well rested may leave me with a great race?

I am going to approach this race (and future races) differently though. Vegas was the first race I've actually "raced" a 70.3. I've always been so concerned with pacing in the past and a lot of that was from fear of cramping (and for good reason). Now that I've got my cramping and nutrition nailed for the most part, I'm just going to hit it hard for the entire 4.5 hours like I did in Vegas. No gradual builds or specific pacing - just race hard the entire time staying as taut (swim) as possible, aero (bike) as possible and holding form (run) until I cross that finish line. Flanny and I are also going to experiment with taking down more liquid calories. In the past I've always taken in most of my calories via solids and although they settle fine, they definitely make things more difficult to take in enough calories (especially on the run). Wish me luck, Amy should be tweeting out updates as usual throughout the race.

Here's pictures of some fun over the past few weeks. Bare with me on the formatting, still trying to work out all of the bugs on this site before January, thanks for reading!

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