25 days to Kona....uh, wait- How about 15 days Knucklehead!!

A couple of days ago I posted on Facebook that I had 25 days to go until Kona. Someone dropped me a note on my FB wall and said, "uh dude, its only 15 days away! Now of course I know I am headed over there next week, but this entire build toward Hawaii has been constructed around my little ticker on my computer that tells me how many days I have left. Somehow, the date on the ticker is wrong! Beauty. Classic Scott Jones maneuver. Set up a time line for success and be off by 11 days:) Ain't the first time I have pulled crap like that.

Since my last post, I have had my challenges in my training. I travelled to Penticton to watch 4 of my athletes race Ironman Canada and, also, to train. Out of laziness, I relied on a buddy of mine to loan me his bike so that I wouldn't have to spend the exorbitant fees airlines are charging athletes to bring their bikes with them. I won't rant about this, I will just state my own opinion on charging an athlete $175 bike fee- that it is sick and wrong and they should be killed for coming up with such a ridiculous fee for athletes to travel on the airline. I wouldn't say boo if they charged for golf clubs! Fat white guys get all the breaks in this country. I'm done with it, I won't talk about it again.
So I got up to Penticton and got in a good swim. The next day I was going to ride the course on my buddies' bike. I will spare you the details, but I was out there for over 8 hours with 6 flat tires on the day and descended down off Yellow Lake Pass in the pitch black dark. For those who know that course, it is a perilous descent where most hit speeds of 50 mph without pedaling a stroke. I got stuck up there with a dead cellphone and no choice but to get back to Penticton and descended off that mountain scared out of my wits. I lived, but I will never put myself in that situation again. I was fortunate in that once I descended down off the mountain and got back on the main highway, a Canadian saint by the name of Carrie Graham, stopped and asked me if I would like a ride back into town. I didn't let her finish the question before I was loading my bike on her bike rack on the back of her SUV! So I made a bad decision to not call the baby ugly early in the day when it was questionable if I could finish the course in time after I got all those flat tires. I was fortunate in that I didn't end up paying a greater penalty for a bad decision.

I was hoping to race a couple of weeks ago at the Harvest Moon Half Ironman and got off to a good start. I got out of the water with the leaders in site. I ran out of the water at 25 minutes flat and then ran up to come across the chip line in 26:10. I felt solid in the water and it was good to race in the rubber again. I got on the bike and was riding well, looking at a lot of watts while riding very comfortably. I hit some sort of pothole and snap! I broke one of my bar extensions on my tri bars. I rode along with it hanging down 90 degrees from where it should be and I just pounded away on my bull horns and thought I could at least get in some good work and see some watts to use as caps for power numbers in Kona. Unfortunately, over the next 50 minutes the allen screws that hold the bar extension on the bar worked their way out and the bar extension separated from the base bar altogether. The bike was then not safe to ride and I had to DNF. It was the first DNF of my tri career. I have raced 50-70 races or so (I tried to count and gave up) over the years and I have finished a few really ugly, but I have always finished. It hurt me in my heart to drop out. Early in my life, I quit a few things. I quit 7th grade football. Later, I quit high school- by far my greatest failure in life. I was able to recover from that through a lot of really hard work in my life, but I still think about it everyday. I made a promise to myself that I would never quit anything again. I hate quitting. I hate the thought, I hate the concept. I remember someone early in my navy career saying "quitters never win, winners never quit". I live by that ethos, so even though I had a mechanical that prevented me from continuing, I still had to work through it. It bothered me for about a week or so, but my consistent training helped me in just moving by it.

So with those two obstacles over the past few weeks, things haven't been perfect in my training, but I have to say with all honesty, my training on the whole has been fantastic. I am in the best shape of my life. I am leaner, at 156lbs, then I have been since I was younger than 22 years old. My watts have never been higher, my swim intervals are starting to really come around and my running is showing great numbers. I just started riding power about a month ago. My normalized power in 2006 in Kona was 242 watts. In my build on my intervals prior to that race I rarely sustained over 300 watts. I would be in the high 200's but not much more than that. Yesterday on my last long ride, I would sit on as much as 345 watts on the intervals with 280 being the floor. I needed to surge up a hill to go by someone yesterday on a steady climb and I was able to command 440 watts and hold it until I was past the other rider. I have just never seen numbers like that. On the swims, I am not accustomed to swimming meters everyday, but now that I am training at Flatirons, I am swimming nothing but meters. For me in the past, to hold sub 1:25's was a good thing. Thursday, Brandon and I were swimming some hard 100's and I hit 1:17 and held the rest below 1:20 while at altitude at the end of a long week. I don't know what this really means other than I, at 44 years old, am going faster in my training than I have ever gone. Lastly, for me, it comes down to running. In 2006, I laid down a solid 4:53 bike only to run a lumbering, lethargic 3:37 and nix probably one of my only opportunities to ever break 9:30 in Kona. I have worked very hard on my running the last year or so. Last Sunday on my 19 miler I was able to hold sub 7:40's for the second hour in my 2:25 run. I put in 20 minutes of 7:00-7:15 from miles 15-18 miles of my run which gives me confidence as I get ready to race my first ironman in 3 years.

As I finish my last hard block of training today with a 2 hour run and a recovery swim, I have to confess that I could not be more proud of my training this summer. I started this 100 something day journey to Kona (who knows the exact number of days-remember, I am the guy who can't even get his computer to count it right for me:). I started in earnest for this race on June 14th. I weighed 176lbs the day I graduated from NWC and moved west. I only had about 8 swims in my body at that point with none of them over 2k. I have amassed a summer of really hard, solid, consistent training. My weight, the power numbers, swim numbers and Garmin don't lie, baby. I have done the work. The only thing I have not done is race this distance in a few years and that is where the questions arise. I am so used to having tested my fitness over 6-8 races over a season to know where I am as I fly to Kona. I am going over there this year in the dark, so that is where I guess the questions come in. Can I go fast over the course of a whole day? Will I stand up under the pressure of the brutality of the conditions on the Big Island? Will my body tolerate such a violent abuse of my musculoskeletal, adrenal and aerobic systems? Kona is a course that humbles even the very best athletes in the world to a walk, crawl or the dreaded DNF.

I guess all these questions are why we work so hard to qualify for this race, eh? It is a privilege to race in Kona. I am looking forward to that challenge. For me, I come to the race 80 percent complete. I am ecstatic with what I have been able to do with my fitness over the summer and feel confident I will have some good stuff on the Island. Now I just need to go finish this off and secure the other 20 percent to make this journey over 2009 complete. For me, that would be to bear down and summon my best when it is called for in just a few days. I am digging the journey for sure and feel so blessed that I am healthy and well enough to engage in something so special.

Jonser

52 days to Kona…time to hit press to test?

In aviation, most of our instruments and emergency systems have a button or switch installed that we can “press to test” to ensure the system works as advertised. I am almost inside 50 days to Kona and my days of training hard have been fruitful and productive. I feel better now than I have in years. As a matter of fact, I don’t remember ever feeling this good. That doesn’t necessarily mean I’m faster than I’ve ever been. I don’t know the answer to that question. That brings us to the subject of press to test. In a couple of weeks I’ll race my first Half Ironman as a tune up for Hawaii and I’ll get that opportunity to press to test the system and see how everything is coming together.
My last month of training has been as good a block of hard work as I’ve compiled in a very long time. I have appreciated the Boulder playground and the community of athletes I have to train with here. Yesterday, I tagged along with my pro triathlete buddy, Brandon, to Flatirons Athletic club to get in a swim. It was supposed to be coached by the famous 6-time Ironman Champion, Dave Scott. I swim in his sister’s masters classes often, but thought it would be neat to see what kind of pain package Dave is offering over at Flatirons. Unfortunately, Dave was a no-show and former Olympian and pro triathlete, Joanna Zeiger, put up a session that was first rate. In most camps and Masters programs I’ve been involved with I typically hang out in the fast lane, either leading or in the mix somewhere. To let you know the quality of the Flatirons scene…I was four lanes down from the fast lane and happy to be there. Greg and Laura Bennett, Matty Reed, Craig Alexander, Joanna and a few other big boys were “over yonder” swimming 300’s to my 250’s. In the lane next to me was Chrissie Wellington leading the boys interval after interval in a fire breather set. Kind of cool to be in the same pool with three or four former Olympians along with both of the 2008 Hawaii Ironman Champions in Alexander and Wellington.
Sitting on the pool deck with Brandon before the workout, I started to feel real anxiety and fear as the heavyweights all started to emerge onto the pool deck. It is kind of funny (funny ironic, not funny ha ha) the feeling that came over me just prior to the swim. I was having a personal “what the f… am I doing here with these thoroughbreds?!”. I get this from time to time. The last time I got that was the first day at the National War College in DC. I was thinking, “How does a fleet average dude like me get to hang out with these future generals and admirals”. I’ve gotten these feelings of fear and anxiety all the way back to age group swimming and water polo when I was in high school. It is an irrational feeling, and usually not deserved. I was sharing my thought with Brandon about the fear I feel when I train with the tough guys of the sport. Brandon understood what I was talking about. For a younger fella, he is quite wise for his years. I appreciate his counsel.
The good news that goes with this fear emotion that wells up in me is that I don’t let it stop me from doing anything. I am fearful and apprehensive often, but luckily I am capable of just pressing through it. I’m glad I can, because usually good things happen. Like I mentioned before, the emotion is quite irrational. As I got comfortable in the water and was able to make my way to the front and lead my lane through the tough sets, I started to give myself a talking to. You know, I’m not some “wanna be” guy, trying to stargaze on these pros. I go plenty fast myself and have competed on the world stage within my category with excellent results, and I win stuff, too. I also do all that while holding down a couple of pretty cool careers and carry on a pretty busy life outside the sport. Its ironic that at almost 45 years old I have to work through some of the same emotional shit I did when I was a teenager. My philosophy is that everybody on this planet is mildly insane in some area of his or her life. I guess this is mine, eh? I’ll continue to work on managing it the best I can☺
So my last thought on training with pros. I’m fortunate enough to have good friends that happen to be pros. I never expected when moving here that I’d actually train with them. I just thought I’d see them often and hang out. I’ve been quite surprised how open some of my pro buds are to my training with them. One of these pros, besides Brandon, is Tim O’Donnell. Timmy and I have been on a number of All-Navy teams over the years. Tim was on the short list on making the U.S. Olympic team and is a World Cup pro who is lighting the world on fire this year with not only victories, but also course records to go along with those victories. I would think that Tim would want to be out training with all the other elite big boys who live in this town. Who would think that a pro of his caliber would be open to training with an old dude like myself? It has been great for my training to head out with him on the bike and see how he does business and do my best to stay in the same zip code☺. It’s a blessing for sure and I look forward to training more with him in the future.
So before I wrap this up and upload it onto my website, I just wanted to add that as I write this I am flying to Seattle to drive to Penticton to sign up for Ironman Canada 2010, and watch my athletes race on Sunday. I’m excited about riding the course tomorrow. I started my ironman life in Penticton and I hope to race there for many years to come.
I’m excited my training is coming along as solidly as it has the last month or so. I am anxious to lay down another month of really solid work and show up October 10th at the Kailua pier knowing I did all I could do in my summer of hard training to be ready to represent the U.S. Navy honorably. I don’t need to win anything, I just need to go race as hard as I can and let my race come from within. I don’t have a time goal for this race, as Kona is too hard of a race to go down the “paper Ironman rabbit hole”. The conditions can be down right brutal. I’ll know when I am cooking down Alii Drive toward the finish line if I have stayed tough throughout and given my best effort. Best effort…what more can men offer on a given day?

Sj