The last time from Kona :-(

Aloha, this post will be my last from Kona. Since the Ironman Its been pretty hectic, so far we've had the Endura afterparty (Sunday), a day of snorkelling and watersports with the family (Monday) and today (Tuesday) was spent going for a kick of the footy with Stevo & Tom on an American footy field, impressing the locals with a few mighty torps and some centimetre perfect drop punt passes, after that we walked back to the condo absolutely dripping with sweat and discovered a small part of Kona that I never new existed, it is private complex very close to the King Kam motel and is full of these massively exotic houses with awesome sea views. I'll go for a ride through there tomorrow and post some piccys up as it looks to be Kona's answer to Toorak. Very luxurious to say the least!

My body has pulled up pretty well since the race. The only concern are my feet which are covered in blisters and are pretty painful - although not painful enough to stop me from kicking the footy. This will be my last IM race in Asics runners, they chop my feet up badly, so the quest for finding a new type of running flat starts ! I think the Newtons may be the shot, or maybe these ones from K Swiss - Very me!I'll add a heap of stuff I've written down over the past few days and list them in point form below.

• Endura Afterparty was awesome, we started at 12:30pm and didn't pull up stumps until 10:30pm. We were with Tony from Endura who is a fantastic fella and spent a lot of time picking his brains on nutritional stuff. Bloody big hangover as well !
• We missed the IM awards night which as it turned out was a good thing because the whole show went pear shaped when it bucketted down rain for 3 hrs !!
• 'Team Lewis' all survived race day really well. Dehydration & sunburn took its toll on a lot of spectators as well as athletes. The junior members of the team are below!Left to right - Rochelle, me, Tilly, Meggie & Tommy.
• The kids were stars on the day in their own right. As you can see by the team issue they are very patriotic and were getting their pictures taken by Triathlon mags, newspapers and supporters all day.
• All my race gear worked perfectly, no hiccups from any quarter with all sponsors and WSTC getting great coverage as you can see below.
  
• I checked my bike in at the same time as Chrissie Wellington. As previously mentioned she is 'the chick!' again taking time out to have a yarn and a laugh at what is usually quite a stressful time for a lot of athletes.
• The little bit of sunburn I got during the race is bloody painful ! I took time out on the bike and run to put sunscreen on because of the blistering sun, although there were some parts I couldn't quite reach as I was pedalling at 35km/h. OUCH !!
  
• The bike and equipment count pre race is awesome. As you check your bike in you have various bike & component manufacturers, web site editors, bike and tri mag dudes all having a squizz at your bike and all the bits on it as they all take official tallies of everything that goes into transition.
• The presidential race even had an effect on the race! Obama had a manned booth set up on race day handing out policy information, t-shirts etc. What they look to be targeting is the people who don't turn up to vote and work hard on persuading them that they (and Obama) will make a huge difference.
• Ambush marketing is alive and well in the lead up to race week. Even though Gatorade and Powerbar are the nutritional race sponsors, other companies such as Gu, Beastie Milche, Cytomax, Clif Bars etc. pop up throughout race week and flood areas with sample products & merchandise. Bloody fantastic I reckon...
• Tom and I have been flat out snorkelling over the last couple of days. Tom bought an underwater camera to take some photos of all the tropical fish so fingers x'ed they all turn out good. We even had a run in with a giant turtle who wandered over to check us out as we were floating about.
• It's amazing what the Ironman race ID wristband does - It elevates you to celebrity status! A lot of people stop you and ask you how the day went, people in shops ask you to sign posters and merchandise, the greatest buzz has been signing the huge race poster in the West Hawaii running club store that will be up on the wall along with 30 other posters from every year!

I must hit the sack, it's 1:30am local time and we leave for Honolulu in 13 hrs, I haven't even packed my bike yet. I'll do a quick update from Waikiki then will probably see you all over the next couple of weeks.

Mahalo, Matty

Bloody tired, bloody sore, bloody happy !!!!!

Aloha,

I'll make this a short one, then post up some photos tomorrow once downloaded. As for the race, I'm absolutely bloody stoked! Jeez it was a tough one. As previously mentioned my Heart rate monitor has decided it doesn't want to play anymore. Fine, I'll race by feel! So off into the swim I go, brand new Orca skinsuit on and I'm ready to rumble. Well I didn't rumble as the swim just flowed rather smoothly. I didn't cop a knock until the turnaround boat, gaps seem to appear everywhere so I took the opportunity to fill them. After the turnaround I latched onto a set of feet for half the way in, he tired so I picked up another set, this time a chick who had a great stroke and a nice light kick, perfect. I was wrapt to hit the shore in 1:09 but am a bit disappointed I wasn't far off the 1000th person out of the water......
The ride started smoothly, no wind and the sun starting to warm things up. Did the little loop on the Kuakini Hwy, up Palani hill which was absolutely huge! Very Tour like with the people peeling away about 2 metres in front of you, there were thousands there, then we headed out onto the famous Queen Kaahumanu H'way. It was pretty well plain sailing until near the Waikoloa resort where a head wind greeted us. It was a Sth Westerly which turned into a massive side wind on the way up to Hawi. Strewth it was hard. There was virtually 1 hour of riding where you couldn't take a drink as it was too dangerous to take your hands off your aerobars. I saw Faris Al-Sultan nearly come a gutsa going downhill at one section. Also saw a dejected Macca doing something to his bike and was looking pretty angry. The flip side of this was it gave us a 'slight' push going back but this turned into another headwindfrom Kiholo to near the airport were speeds picked up again for the bolt home. I had a drama on the bike where my Endura Opti and Electrolyte drink went off because of the heat. I ditched this and relied on Gels and water to keep my calorie intake up. I dropped the bike off with another 'fastish' sub 3 min transition saw me off on the run. Things didn't start real well on the run. My stomach was all over the joint. I was burping and farting and this was taking my mind off the job at task. At the 3 mile marker I had the biggest chuck ever. I mean an out the nose as well type chuck. I was shaking so had to walk for a couple of hundred metres while I spat and snotted chunks out of places where they shouldn't be. At the next aid station I spent a bit of time cleaning myself up, guzzled a few cokes then off I went. My splits were pretty were ok to that point but I thought I may have lost a bit of time so upped the pace a touch before settling into a 7:30ish mile. I had a few more gastric dramas - 3 more chucks that were only liquid. I don't know how much time I lost overall but it felt like a couple of minutes. The run from the Energy Lab, where it had thankfully 'Vogged over' and dropped the temperature substantially, back into town was about trying to get back into town under 9:40. This didn't quite happen as the last km went a bit pear shaped. I crossed the line not long after Pete Jacobs, Belinda Grainger and Bec Keat did a song and dance routine and was caught by the catchers. They asked how I was with the only words coming out was "take me to the bushes I'm gunna be sick" so they happily escorted me over to some shrubs where I yodelled all over them. Straight to the Med tent for this Black Duck. I was put under observation, had blood tests and from this diagnosed as slightly hyponatraemic. This is a condition where you drink to much water and it dilutes your blood sodium levels to dangerous levels. Death is the worst case scenario. But Mr. Death is scared of Ironmen who have just rattled off a 9:42 at Hawaii and mine was diagnosed as a 'mild case'. An injection was administered and I was cherry ripe in 30 minutes. The Med tent looked like a war zone. They said of the 150 or so finishers 28% had been in with some sort of ailment. This will only get worse as the day progresses. It was a tough day out there, my toughest yet most satisfying IM yet. It had everything, a 'good' albeit slow swim, a good bike with legendary Hawaiian trade winds, a curve ball thrown in with a nutritional plan change, some sickness, a run that was good but could have been better and finally my first ever visit to a Medical tent.
Gotta go, must watch the fireworks as the race has 10 minutes left. I can still hear Mike Rielly going nuts. It sounds like Chrissie Wellington has been down the finish line since the 12:30 hr mark. She is 'The chick' ! I've never met anyone so friendly and willing to talk to a mug age grouper. Gotta go - 9 mins left.

Mahalo, Matty

The Countdown has begun.

Aloha,

Thursday night, and yes I should be at the carbo party, but food sitting outdoors in the high 20's for a while has a touch of the '07 Faris & Norman's about it. I prefer play it safe and put the feet up as they are pretty sore from hoofing it everywhere with the kids 'n crew.

First up I have made a mistake. I have some photo's up from a previous day of a Cervelo P4. I even commented on the beefy BB. Not so, the offending beefy item is actually a startegically placed water bottle. What this does when the water bottle has been removed is make the frame look like a Great White has taken a nip out of the frame. Check it out sans waterbottle below. A thousand apologies Mr Cervelo. Still looks friggin' weird though.Wednesday was a funny day. A 50 min swim in the morning was totally awesome. Any predictions from myself of a fast swim went out the window as it was a bit up & down out there and bloody hard to get a good rhythm. If it's like that on race day it will be a looooonnnnggg swim for me. Oh well, so be it ! A major drama started before the swim with the trusty old Polar S720 heart rate monitor. It wasn't picking up my HR. A quick ride up the hill after the swim to one of the bike shops to get a new chest strap was fruitless, I tried a new one on but still no response, bugger..... A quick (2.5 hrs) of running around trying to find someone to test it confirmed that she's stuffed. So another couple of hours were spent looking at Garmin watches. The new 405 looks good but has to many bits that are unfavourable for Multisport so I looked at the 305. Many more Tri friendly functions on the 305 but the size of the face is the same as the width of my skinny wrists! So I've made the decision to not worry about my HRM and I'll do the race without it. As Tom say's I'll have to 'use the force' !! The day ended off with Fee & Marie getting stuck into another $2 Mai Tai, Martini and Margaritas at a happy hour, with DIRE CONSEQUENCES - See below (Marie downing a Martini in record time!).

Thursday (Today) started off with the famous 'Undie Run'. It is an absolute scream!! For the uninitiated it is a 'piss take' against the Germans who prance around Kona wearing their Budgies as normal every day clothing, much to the disgust of the Hawaiian locals. The 'Undie Run' was born to take the mickey out of the Germans and all proceeds go towards West Hawaiian Athletic development. About 400 people turned up wearing their undies and joined in on the Fun run. The crowds were HUGE, I think it was mainly due to Stevo running in his new Bundy Bear boxers and Compression socks. I turned up with Aussie flag boxer shorts and my ever present sponsors behind me (on my butt actually !!)

The big fella & I enjoying the sights of Kona and as you can see there is a lot to look at. The one over Stevo's right shoulder was pretty tidy for all the fellas reading this.

Finally here is a photo of me, as Marie calls it 'in skun rabbit mode'. All shaven up and ready to go. All my race stuff is nearly ready. I'll do a quick post tomorrow night then will have a few days off for obvious reasons. I may stick up a quick post the day after the race, of course this all depends on how the race and afterwards goes (Endura Afterparty etc). Until then, chill.

Mahalo, Matty

More photos of TT bikes - so much to look at !!

More Argon 18's than you can poke a stick at, as mentioned previously they are going in BIG TIME. Great looking bike.
Bugger, I hate it when the bike you own gets a major upgrade ie: complete new frame, tube profiles etc. Here is the new Q Roo, very sexy.
Cadels bike swinging in the afternoon Kona breeze.
Yesterday I said that the LOOK was the most awesome looking bike around. I'll retract that - FUJI have unveiled this rocket ship, and what an absolute beast. It has more curves than a Hawaiian hula dancer and I must say looks as good Jen Hawkins. Yes, I do love my bike porn.
This baby slots into No.1 as the best looking bike I have seen in Kona.

Mahalo,
More later

Photo time - check these out the all new Cervelo P4...

Phil White from Cervelo spruiking the virtues of the new P4
Very beefy BB, hidden rear brake, better in the wind tunnel yada, yada, yada
A close up of the beef, note the little sticky outy brake bits !!
And, yep - this is the front, actually he's a bloody good speaker
The sunset was just to the right of this, it was absolutely spectacular !!

Not too sure what to make of the first 'public' unveiling of the P4. Apart from Mr White (1/2 of the Vroomen White Cervelo team) saying that this is the most tested bike in the wind tunnel etc etc, it looks - well um, I dunno, heavy ?? Surely a BB doesn't need another 6" of carbon fibre to stiffen it up ? It looks boxy and bulky. The expo opened straight after the athletes march which started at 5pm. Every bike manufacturer who wants to be noticed is there, it is absolutely massive. More updates later.

Mahalo, Matty

Scorcher in Kona.

Aloha !

Dropping in again to say g'day. It's 8:40pm local time and about 25 Deg C, very nice indeed. Today has been the hottest by far and if it's going to be like this on race day things could get a little fuzzy. Just got in from a bit of a stroll around and grabbed a coffee at the local - a quaint little shop called 'Hula Bean Cafe'. Not as good as Strudel's coffee, I don't think they have the wizardry of Robbie Taranto but they do have a great product to work with. Hawaii grown coffee is pretty tastie stuff but the variances in quality from shop to shop baffles me.
Since I'm confined to the odd coffee, water and Gatorade, the other adults in the party have made up for my share in the alcohol stakes. Marie, Fee and Stevo have done a great job in sniffing out happy hours and have come across some great bars with equally great scenary. They've been going pretty solidly since we arrived and their itinerary is full untill Monday next week. I'll list their findings below:

• Sat 4th - $2 Budweisers @ Pancho & Lefties. This is quite often seen in IM dvd's as one of the last bars before the finish line on Ali'i Drive, it's quite prominent with its Power Bar flags out the front. Result - Chicks: Game Over, Stevo: Just warming up !!
• Sun 5th - Kona Brewery for lunch, 6oz sample glasses all round to taste many of the different brews - all very nice as well , then onto Kona Inn for Pina Colada's for the chicks and Mai Tai's for the big fella. Result - Chicks: Game Over again, Stevo: starting to hit his stride.
• Mon 6th - Sushi El Segundo for $2 Mai Tai's. This place has some of the best views in Kona. Photo's to come. Result - Chicks: Need a bit of down time, it's starting to catch up with them, Stevo: Looking dazed but powering along.

Tomorrow night is a night off for the trio as it's the Parade of Nations. They'll be watching with the kids then running on down to the expo as it opens straight after the parade rolls through. It's a massive freebie night so the kids will no doubt be feeling like they have just come back from the Melbourne show with the amount of showbags, samples, brochures, food, drinks etc. they will get for knicks - the competition is on between them! The parade is HUGE and fair dinkum gives you tingles. It's great for myself and the fellow Aussie athletes to be all wearing the same colours (thanks IMG who gave us all a polo shirt !) and marching under the Australian flag. The crowds are so much bigger this time around so it promises to be massive.

As mentioned the crowds are getting big. I rode out the Queen K this morning for a 2.5 hr ride & rolling past the pier on my way out, man, what a crowd. This was at 6:45am and I reckon there would have been 300 people swanning around watching, with close to equal numbers in the water swimming. On my return it was easily double !! A lot of riders out on the Queen K on what was a relatively calm but stiflingly hot morning. My training is going well with my heart rate dropping to where it usually sits for any given effort so my acclimatisation has worked well. Training is really scaling down now with only a few swims, a short ride and a few runs left before this Saturday.

Observations & Ramblings!

I'll continue to do this, as you see a lot of things around here that are common, right through to the outlandishly ridiculous. so i'll keep on adding them in RANDOM point form on every post I put up.

• Haggled to get a pack of 24 Power Bar gels (Cafe Latte of course!) down to $26.40/box or $1.10 (USD) each. I don't need them of course as I am looked after by ELEMENTAL NUTRITION - www.afan.com.au who have supplied me with my nutritional needs for the race.
• The Orca skinsuit works !! Well it felt like it anyway. I won't tell you my time but I made it out to the 1.2 mile marker buoy in PB time, then negative split on the way back !! I won't tell you the time preferring not to put the moz on myself for raceday.......
• Sat next to Ben Fertic's (WTC Pres) table last night at Kona Inn. He said hi after I gave him a nod on the way out.
• I have not seen one Giant TT bike about. This is great and the word should be spread that NO-ONE rides them and they should be recalled as a fashion faux-pas, they look horrible. Personal view of course !
• Xentis wheels are HUGE. It's probably weighted unfairly at the moment as the majority of athletes getting around at the moment are European where Xentis looks to be by far the favoured wheel. This will no doubt change when the Americans armed with their Zipp wheels start arriving en-masse over the next couple of days.
• Cervelo P3C's are by far the most popular bike. Scott's are everywhere as well, TREK look to be the 3rd most favourable,next would be Kuota & Specialized then the rest. The Specialized TT bikes aren't to my flavour either. They look like the geometry has been designed around the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
• Of the rest I've seen a handful of Felt and BH's around, both fantastic looking machines.
• Argon 18 are doing a huge push, they have a massive fleet of demo bikes and you see an endless stream of them going out along the Queen K to the airport and back. They are an awesome looking machine.
• Best looking TT bike thus far would have to be the new LOOK. Saw one yesterday and the finish is unbelievable. You virtually had to line up to get a look at this dudes bike.
• Saw Cowman out on his bike, yep - they're REAL HORNS !!
• Spoke to Chris Lieto yesterday (yep, it was him I saw the other day). A nice bloke who has got stuck into road racing to improve his cycling - my type of athlete. We spoke a bit about racing and from what I could understand he started off the summer riding a grade that was similar to Oz's 'A grade' and was getting spanked. By the end of his racing season he was winning comfortably. Great talking to him about some of his races and he even asked what the Aussie road scene was like. A friendly reminder that we had more riders in this years TdF than the Yanks had him believing that it was pretty strong.
• Pete C - Thanks for the tip on Fuel Belt and Lava Java, I'll grab one of those !

If anybody is after any specific merchandise, stick up a comment and let me know.

Next post is due not long after the Undie Run. I'll have this photo bit worked out by then so there will be some photos up - Rated PG of course !! The Big Fella is participating and putting on his new Bundy Rum boxers for the event, so watch out weedy triathletes !!

Mahalo, Matty

Aloha from Kona !!

G'day all,

Today is Saturday Oct 4, we all made it safe, the luggage made it in one piece and we are now settled into our condo for our first full day in Kona. The weather is very warm - I'm currently sitting on our lanai (balcony) in just boxer shorts at 9:50 PM !! The swim start (Dig me Beach) & the race finish line are a mere 300 metres over my left shoulder. Back to the weather - Kona is currently enveloped in a haze, or what is known as 'Vog' - Volcanic fog. This morning was quite clear but when the trade winds pick up it blows the vog from Mt Kilauea which is currently going through some quite violent eruptions, this morning was quite hot then by 11am the vog blew in making the temperature drop off but had the added effect of lifting the humidity - sweat city ! I got badly sunburnt on my 3 hour ride this morning, I headed down the Queen K for 1.5hrs then turned around and headed for home. I was back by 9:30am but this was long enough to do plenty of damage.
It was quite an interesting ride down the Queen K, I made it to somewhere around the turnoff to Hawi. On the way out I thought it was calm but as soon as I turned around this wasn't the case! I was going down hill at 29km/h having to stand up to push harder! I had 2 head winds and a tail wind on the way back, the ride ended up ok with an average of 32.3km/h. The roads are just beautiful over here - Billiard table smooth, you are fair dinkum spoilt.
Star spotting is going very well - saw Stadler and his German cronies doing a photo shoot on the pier. Meg and Tom did their bit to get on German TV news, doing butterfly and breaststroke in the backdrop of the interview. Also spotted Macca and Luke Bell on my evening 1 hr run down Ali'i Drive, spotted Natasha B on her unique carbon 'winged fighter' bike down on the Queen K - an unprompted big smile and wave from her put a smile on my dial, what a chick! Saw some others that are a bit harder to identify, Rutger Beke and Chris Lieto, I could be mistaken though. I've also ran into Bruce Baddely quite a few times, Niall Mai from Knox Tri Club and a heap of other Aussies who are all very very friendly.
Off for a 45 minute swim tomorrow, it is still quiet in Kona town, but this will all change over the next couple of days. I'll test out the new Orca swimskin and give you all the low down on its performance.

I thought I'll add a few quick points below:
You know your in Kona when.......

• You're riding along and you hear the rumble of what you think is a truck, but turns out to be a Toyota Hilux 4WD with MONSTER WHEELS & TYRES. So big that you can see the gearbox and diff and all the rest of the drivetrain whilst in the aero position on your bike.
• You buy a serve of teriyaki chicken and rice for $10 USD and you get 1 kg of cooked rice with 4 massive chicken breasts sitting on top and smothered in half a litre of teriyaki sauce. And no I'm not joking.
• Powerbars cost the equivalent of $1.50 AUD.
• You see Japanese IM athletes swimming in their compression socks ??
• You get to see the latest tri products that you would never get to see in Oz until next season.
• You go mad buying the Ironman World Champs merchandise - and the stuff looks absolutely brilliant this year.

I'll work on getting some photo's up over the next couple of days. Until then, chill.

Mahalo, Matty

Random thoughts on training

Now seems as good a time as any to throw down a few random thoughts about my lead up to Kona. There’s been plenty of time to ponder over things as we’ve now been flying for nearly 10 hrs. The flights have been pretty non eventful, apart from Tom’s inevitable travel sickness and a cracking storm about 30 minutes out of Sydney en route to Hawaii with bulk amounts of lightning, spectacular to say the least. Bloody warm in Sydney though – 36 deg C when we landed!
Back onto training! It probably started in earnest about 4 months back, and it didn’t start that well. A crash at speed down the bottom of Waverly St. in Essendon in the wet saw me hit the deck in the high 40’s (km/h) according to the trusty old Polar, and slid right through the Holmes Rd intersection on my side. It was a good thing I had the green light otherwise things might have been a bit scary. Damage was limited to a stack of bark off the legs and elbows – luckily very little damage to the bike.
On the bike it was a tough winter, bloody cold and even though the Victorias water levels don’t really indicate it, it was always raining. It made it pretty hard to sometimes muster up the courage, put 4 – 5 layers of clothing on and hit the road. The track wasn’t really an option this time around, time is getting scarcer, even though I did go a few times and as usual enjoyed it. Amongst all this there were some great rides – The WSTC Bright training weekend where we (GSP and I) climbed Hotham, Falls Ck and Mt. Buffalo on successive days. It had a bit of a Giro d’Italia feel about it – pounding away at the pedals with metres of snow right beside you, absolutely awesome!! GSP is a marvel, he hadn’t trained since coming back from Ironman Switzerland and despite being on blood thinning medication for the deep vein thrombosis that he suffered from the flight back from Europe, he was nipping at my heels the whole way. The Rapido ride on Sunday mornings was also a ride I really looked forward to. Robbie’s plucking of destinations ie: Kinglake/Humevale climb in the pouring rain and single figure temperature, Wildwood during Magpie swooping season and various others kept us on our toes. The endless sledging that goes on during this ride is what makes it, Pete & Shane baiting each other, Rob Taranto doing his best Muslim impersonation wearing a burkah on the cold mornings, hanging it on Robbie Bell about his ‘Dancin’ shoes’ – shiny black leather Nikes, setting up the young fellas just to watch them explode later in the ride. It all takes your mind off the numbing amount of miles that you need to clock up and makes training a lot more enjoyable.
Running was a joy, I really enjoy this pursuit and relished my long runs along the Maribyrnong River to Brimbank Park. My longest was 2 ½ hrs and that was at a solid 4:30min/km pace, well above race pace. Even though the volume has come down on my running, it seems to be going from strength to strength, last Saturday (GF day) I rattled off a brick (3Hrs ride/1Hr run) and was sitting comfortably at 3:40 –3:50km/h pace with my HR sitting at 150ish – Promising signs indeed.
Swimming – well that was swimming, still like a brick with no style or technique, just muscle through the water. My left shoulder that was dislocated at the start of the year flared up about a month out but it should be fine. I’ve got an Orca skinsuit to use for the swim, they’re very similar to the BlueSeventy brand and the claim of the material being 50 times slipperier (is that a word??!!) than skin is big and the time saving of approximately 4-5 minutes over an IM distance will be most needed.
My fears for the race are probably the usual – not enough training. I look at my last months training and it has been erratic to say the least. During September I was in Warrnambool for 3 days, NSW for 1 week, did not train for 1 1/2 weeks due to the flu, to say training was interrupted would be an understatement! In the end I missed 3 weeks out of 4 for my BIG VOLUME month. It’s unfortunate, but work has priority and the flu was unforseen. How this will effect me will only be known this coming Saturday 11th October.
Until my next bit of waffle, Chill !

Mahalo,
Matty