I cruised down to DM beach early this morning for a bit of people watching - and trying to put faces to some of the big guns. I was pretty surprised at just how many people were coming and going. There were never more than 10-15 entering or exiting the water at any one time, but it was continuous.
Swimming is getting to be more like driving in the third world; semi-organised chaos. There is no 'correct' side to swim, so it's pretty important to keep looking for oncoming traffic. Colliding with other swimmers is a real possibility, and one to be avoided.
Today for training I did a mini-tri, as I mentioned last post. I was quite interested to see how the heat of the hottest part of the day would feel, especially coming off a reasonably hard hour of cycling into a 40 min run. Well, it was actually pretty bearable, but it was very noticeable that running into the wind on the way out to the airport (wind was blowing from 10 o'clock, with 12 being the way I'm headed) was not too hard. I was maintaining a heart rate of around 145, which is about where I want it to be for the duration of the marathon. However, after turning around, with the wind now at my 4 o'clock, it was a different story.
With the wind now coming from behind me, there was no cooling effect. Within 3-4 minutes of turning around, and with no increase in pace, my pulse had shot up to around 155 bpm. This would be OK for a shorter race, but for this race it is territory I would rather avoid until perhaps the last 10km. There is just too much risk of 'blowing up', ie getting into heat exhaustion/heat stroke country.
I have some new neighbours tonight. Trev and Heather Wurtele, the Canadians, have headed down to stay on Ali'i Drive with some family members. A German couple have moved in. In the other part of the house, there is now a kiwi couple that lives in the States, Peter and Carol Wood. Peter is in the 60-64 age group, and is a world age-group champion here, plus the half-ironman world champs, plus the age-group xterra world champ (a tri that involves mountain biking and cross-country running). He even completed the Mizone race - the 30 day length of NZrace that was held 10 or so years ago. I think its fair to say that he's a bit of a legend. Check this out:
Thanks Macka for adding the list of kiwis here as a comment under the last post. We have a team get together on Tues morning, and then there is a 'parade of nations' affair at 5 pm. A bit like the opening ceremony for the Olympics. Last time we were here, Teresa and I shared carrying the flag.
I've just found out that Jon Ackland (Terenzo Bozone's coach) has come over to see him race. Jon used to work with Teresa at the Institute of Sport in Auckland in the late 80's, and the three of us did most of our training together before coming to Kona in '88. Every time I see him, I remind him that because I beat him, what he knows about tris, he learnt from me...
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