Kona Pacing Tips Part 1….

Strike a pose?

The Ironman World Championships are looming, which means the overthinking is ramping up and those race-day nerves are starting to creep in.

So, we’ve cooked up a few tips from some Kona sun-weathered veterans to help minimise the chances of all that hard work getting overbaked on race day.

Part 1 - Swim feedback.

Part 2 and 3- Bike and run feedback to come (..exclusively for RPG Circle members)

We are basing this on some advice given to one of our Kona athletes on their Kona simulation session from the weekend in the hope it will be of value for others who might be lacking a little info around race day nutrition, hydration and pacing.

“Working through your simulation session Jimbob Mcquintus, starting with the swim.

1) In your 1500m IM effort swim time trial you lost 0.8kg. In addition to a zone 3 HR (should HR be accurate) this is telling me that you’re swimming too hard and getting too warm.

Especially given there are spiky climbs that require inevitable surging in the first 5km of the Kona bike course, we need you not having burnt through precious muscle glycogen stores so aiming for a mid zone 2 to high zone 2 swimming HR/effort.

Instead of 150bpm which is close to anaerobic threshold, I want more like 125-130 bpm!

For pros it’s different as they have to make the front group to take advantage of all the media bikes that give the front of the race a huge advantage over any chasers, but in the age group race the gain you get in liquid is not worth metabolic cost when you consider what is ahead.

2) If we can’t bring down the sweat losses in the swim despite lowering intensity (Kona is actually not that hot in the water if you’re not swimming too close to threshold) then I want to experiment with drinking an extra 500-600ml of the right electrolyte concentrate for you in the 10-15 minutes before the start so you can digest and absorb that while swimming at zone 2 .

3) Those long luscious locks of yours might need to be shaved off :)

Swim caps trap heat and Ironman, despite my suggestions on multiple occasions to allow people not to use a cap, don’t seem to care about anyone ‘accidentally’ losing their cap.
Have your goggles under your cap and as soon as you’re settled onto some feet, I would pull it off and tuck it in your swim skin.

The first year I did Kona as a pro and realised I was one of the few pros who left my cap on when exiting. I then proceeded to melt into the lava fields relying entirely on the cheers of support generously given for the quality of my moustache to get me to the finish line.

4) I’ve never actually done this but I’ve thought about it a lot!  It might be worth considering ingesting a gel halfway through the swim if you can work out a smooth way to pull it out from under your swim skin collar, roll onto your back and ingest it like the 10km Olympic open water swimmers. Again, I don’t know anyone that does this, but from a fuelling stand point, I do think the idea has its merits! 

Main moral to the story post simulation-
Pull back the intensity!

Remember that in salt water and on the right feet you’ll be a lot faster than a solo race specific session.

You can’t win the race in the swim but not only can you lose the race, you can make the entire bike and run a lot more painful than it needs to be!”

The great and powerful Dave Clarke. Kona podium in his AG which came about largely from Ironman failures resulting in testing his lactates at IM intensity in the swim to find out his perceived IM intensity was waaaaay too hard.

Follow up posts on bike and run and race day conditions, tidal tips etc will be in the Kona space in our RPG Circle member space.

Consider monthly Circle membership if you’re racing or just generally interested in how to manage the big island race vibes.  All RPG athletes and RPG TrainingPeaks plan purchasers have access to RPG Circle membership.  Contact us at info@rpgcoaching.com with any questions.