Tomasz (Tomek) Kowalski is a triathlon coach with a great track record of athletes racing Kona, among them age-group world champions and podium finishers. With the IRONMAN World Championship coming up again in Kona we cover everything age-group triathletes need to know to have a successful race there, including when to fly out, training and tapering on the island, heat preparation at home, equipment choices, and pacing, fuelling and hydration on race day.
HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY TOPICS:
The single most common reason a Kona race goes wrong for age-groupers, and roughly how much of the damage it accounts for.
When to fly out: the time-zone rule of thumb, the trade-off between arriving early and arriving fresh, and whether you need to fully adapt to Hawaiian time at all.
Training on the island: how much lower your watts and paces can be at the same RPE, how long the last long ride and run should be, and whether to keep touching threshold in the final three weeks.
Swimming in the last ten days: open water or pool, how to structure an open water session with no buoys to swim between, and how to use the Hoʻala training swim.
Heat preparation before you travel: a hot water immersion protocol with durations and water temperature, and why using a CORE temperature sensor or sweat testing gets less weight than you might expect.
Kit for the heat: aero or road helmet, visor or no visor, three headwear options for the run, and whether to change from trisuit to running kit in T2.
Pacing the swim, bike and run: how many watts to expect to give up compared with a cooler Ironman, and how the impact of the rollers changes depending on how strong a cyclist you are.
Fuelling and hydration in the heat: the body mass loss on the bike that puts your run at risk, and how easily caffeine intake creeps too high.
That Triatlon Show Group Ride on ROUVY - 5 October, 18:00 CET (12pm ET, 9am PT), 25 km / 15.5 miles on the Kona bike course. Social ride, easy, everybody is welcome regardless of speed!
Follow Tomek on Instagram and his coaching business Trinergy on his website
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