Kona Day 3

So today was another acclimatization day calling for an early morning swim at the Kailua Pier and a moderate effort bike ride of 2hrs.

Workout #1 - An early morning swim with the intent of getting used to the swim venue, locating landmarks, practicing sighting, a little drafting, and keeping the arms loose. I hit the water at about 0645hrs. There was a few other athletes there at this time in the morning. I saw Matt Russell again as he hit the water just before me. I did an out and back of about 45minutes using the buoys as my sighting points. Upon returning to the pier there were considerably more athletes just hitting the water. I figured this would provide a good opportunity to practice drafting so turned around and sat on someone's hip for a little over five minutes and then turned around and headed back to the pier. I was satisfied with the workout, just over an hour in duration and a little over 3kms of swimming.

I headed back home, had a quick Starbucks Kona Coffee (this stuff is great!) and packed the bike in the van. The plan for the second workout was to drive with the family out to Hapuna Beach State Park, they could swim, while I biked out to Hawi and back. I was anxious to do the ride because from what I have heard, this section is the hardest part of the course (or at least it can be dependent on the wind). Drive out to Hapuna Beach State Park was uneventful, but it provided me the oppertunity to review the section of the course on the Queen K (I had pretty much ridden all of this section on Saturday minus ~10kms of it)

Ruthie and James enjoying the beach while their father enjoyed another workout in Kona!

Workout #2 - The ride out to Hawi was a light pace mostly Z2 with the occasional harder effort to climb one of the many rollers. The wind wasn't strong so I was able to ride at my prescribed easy pace. I was expecting a few tougher hills but it was significantly easier than what I had expected... I guess I'll be sticking with a 54/39 up front and an 11-23 for the race. On the way back from Hawi, I inserted three moderate effort intervals on the bike (very similar to my intended race wattage and intensity). This section of the course is definately more scenic than the Queen K. Total time just over 2 hours and just shy of 70kms.

Elevation profile from today's ride. Just shy of 700m elevation gain.

I enjoyed lunch with the support crew on the lovely Hapuna Beach and then we headed back into Kailua-Kona to shop at the International Market and picked some fresh veggies from the market in downtown Kailua-Kona. Of course I had to make a stop at the Cytomax house to pick-up some Muscle Milk on the way back to the resort!

Cytomax/Musclemilk pitstop on Ali'i Drive.

 The race atmosphere in Kailua-Kona is continuing to build with more athletes pouring into town and race packet pickup starting tomorrow.