Kona Blog Post #4 Epilogue

My 12^th Ironman and my 6^th Kona are now in the books.  This race, as I wrote in my last post, means so much to me and I respect this course and the talent that races here like no other.  The athlete experience here is wonderful.  It all starts when you register.  There is no line, the volunteers are really wonderful and know exactly what they are doing.  When you put your bike in transition, it is like parading in front of the grandstand like a thoroughbred horse prior to the start at Pimlico.  All the industry guys are lined up on the side and are taking copious notes on what bike you are riding, what shoes you are wearing, what handle bars are on your bike, etc.  They really do their homework on their products here.  Once you get to your first volunteer, they inspect your helmet and bike and then you are assigned your own personal volunteer to escort you through the entire transition area.  The volunteers are wonderful.  I have always had great chats with them as they walk you over to park your bike, tell you any changes in the rules and then hang your transition bags in T1 and T2.  In the morning when you walk into body marking the volunteers are super attentive.   You wait for very little time.  My volunteers yesterday were from Brisbane, Australia.  They know our friends Robbie and Susie, so we had a great chat.  I asked if they knew my wife, Teresa.  They looked at me as if I had two heads and said you aren’t allowed to call yourself a triathlete in Australia if you don’t know the name Teresa Rider.  I smiled with pride. 

I got in the water and paddled out to the start.  I decided to go far to the right up against the pier.  It was crowded everywhere and I thought I would at least be on the buoy line.  I am a big believer in the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

Mike Reilly, the race announcer, does a fantastic job in keeping the swimmers in place prior to the start.  It is more challenging than one would think with the swells moving us in and out, up and down.  Imagine 2000 bodies treading water in close proximity awaiting the cannon to go off.  Being on the inside line the whole way, I marveled at the terrific job the kayakers and surfers did to keep us from swimming out to sea, which would have happened, as we tried our best to avoid the contact from the frenzy of swimmers to our left.  The water was choppy and the swells large.  It was a big boy swim.  I enjoyed it. 

The first transition and the bike mount are always crazy.  Luckily, I spent seconds in the transition vs. minutes.  Not much to see in there.  The tent is filled with naked dudes doing all kinds of unmentionables with their get ups and electronic whatever’s as they get ready to go ride for half a day.  The ride up Kuakini was as dangerous as ever.  I had some clown drive me straight over an orange pylon as “on your left, excuse me, come right” meant nothing to him.  I hit the pylon at about 27 mph.  My front wheel popped up and I was thinking that this was not a good thing.  I threw all my weight aft like a mountain bike jump and just thought about staying upright.  Luckily, my front wheel only slid a few inches when I landed and I stayed on my bike.  There is a lesson here for my athletes- do not overinflate your tires.  Just because your tubular can be inflated to 150 psi, don’t do it.  If I had done that, I can guarantee you that I would have touched the floor when that overinflated wheel bounced off the asphalt.  So I pulled back up to this guy and let him know I was less than pleased, and for him to calm down and not be such a knucklehead.  Actually, that is a lie- I wire brushed him (navy term) rather harshly, drawing freely from the Jonser lexicon.  He told me to relax.  He didn’t care that he almost took me out.  Some triathletes are absolutely terrible bike handlers.  If you are going to be a terrible bike handler, stay right so you don’t endanger others.  To his credit, he apologized when I passed him on the Queen K and we had a pleasant exchange.   So the bike ride was brutal, windy, and everything Kona is supposed to be.  I survived.

This run course is by far my favorite.  The crowds in town are unbelievable.  It was great to see the smokin’ hot wife and my sister from another mother, Kaye Hert, in their lime green bikini tops and short zebra skirts.  I am motivated by chicks wearing next to nothing- its how I roll!  My buddy Paul was cheering at the top of his lungs, and always ran beside me for a few seconds when he would see me to offer words of encouragement- very much appreciated.  Bob Korock was all over the course and he had great things to say when I made the turn to Hawi and when I came back the other way.  He and Mark Pietrofesa were out on the Queen K when I went running by.  It helps a ton to have your buds out there, as the Queen K is a rugged stretch of running.  Bob was also there when I popped out of the Energy Lab.  Thanks Bob!  The run was long and hard, like it always is, and when I did finally get back into town, it was wonderful to see so many folks I know.  Simon Ward, Scott Greene, Sergio Borges, Denny Meeker, Linda Rahal, and a host of others were cheering their guts out for me.  A number of current and former military guys stepped out of the crowd, saluted me and cheered me on.  I saluted back and worked hard to keep from getting emotional when a young man saluted and said “well done shipmate!”   He was standing on two prosthetic legs.  It was this visual that reminded me that my challenge was for only a day…    

So there it is.  Another Kona is in the books.  We enjoyed a fantastic vacation here in paradise with two of our closest friends, Paul and Kaye.  I am rejuvenated from taking a mental break from work and seeing so many friends that I have gotten a chance to reunite with here on the island.  I go home renewed in a trust in myself that when things get really difficult that I won’t fold -that when tested there is absolutely no quit in me.  This stuff bleeds into your real life.  If you can muster the courage to persevere in the lava on the hard days, and you can endure the suffering that comes with that challenge, you can do the same in other aspects of your life, whether it is work, a challenge in your personal life, or any other aspect of your life that requires you to cowboy up and grind it out. 

As the vacation comes to a close, I now will get caught up on work and flying.  This afternoon I get the honor of presiding over and reading the oath of office, as we promote my navy teammate Cam to the rank of Lieutenant.  I love administering this oath to junior officers.  In my mind, I always recommit to that oath myself. 

 I plan on taking a few days off to reflect on what I can do better next year and then stand by- I am coming back stronger and fitter next year!

Train with joy or not at all!

Jonser

Kona Blog Post #3

This week in Kona has gone by in a paradise infused blur.  I was able to put in the last bit of my training here on the Big Island before pulling the pin earlier in the week.  The remainder of my days have been spent relaxing with short, sharp training sessions in the morning followed by coffee and catching up with friends. 

I was thinking today while I was swimming in the ocean what this race means to me.  I first came to notice this race when I was still in high school.  I remember watching Dave Scott and a Navy SEAL by the name of Chuck Newman battling it out on ABC's Wide World of Sports in one of the earliest Hawaii Ironmans.  I was instantly captivated by the event.  Ironman was always a sport I thought I would love to do.  I remember having pictures cut out of a Sports Illustrated magazine of Dave Scott, Mark Allen and a few others and having them taped in my navy locker while I was still a teenager.  The story on how I went from being a youth with these guys as my heroes to not even doing an ironman until I was 37 years old is a story to be told on a different day, but this morning I was thinking about how strange it is that I would admire those dudes from afar so long ago and now here I am getting ready to roll in my sixth Hawaii Ironman.  I am a big believer in the saying that if you can dream it you can do it. 

I was asked this morning by a friend on Facebook if I was nervous.  Nervous isn’t the word, but it is a word close to that.  Right now I am not sure what that word would be.  It is a mix of fear, anxiety, anticipation, excitement and a feeling of triumph. 

I think anyone who doesn’t experience a little tinge of fear coming into this race doesn’t know what is coming.  I respect this course and the difficulty of the day to come.  I fear the potential  what if’s out there.  What if I get a broken nose from an unlucky heel strike in the swim?  Broken orbital bone?  Broken goggles?  What if I get a front tire flat coming down off Hawi at high speed?  My response is-what if my sister had balls?  Well, she’d be my brother!  So I can intellectually move through the fear component.

I feel a bit of anxiety.  I think this is very normal for all triathletes coming into a big race.  We just want things to go smoothly and get it rolling.  I go to a “flat mind” and I can handle that one as well.  Anticipation and excitement are the emotions I am feeling the most intensely.  I am ready to roll and want to get in the water and hear the cannon go off.  I spoke a little in my first Kona blog this year on the triumph part.  I am literally just glad to be here.

Having done this race 5 times before, I know that this race cracks you wide open at some point and you get to look at a part of yourself you rarely get to see.  I have never completed an ironman here where at some point I didn’t genuinely wonder if I was going to finish.  I know there is pain coming.  I know there will be issues out there I will have to deal with in real time, be it mechanical, physical, mental, or all three.  At some point I am going to reach a level of genuine difficulty and get cracked wide open and get a real look deep inside and see what I am made of.   My hope is when I get to that point tomorrow and I have to go inside for a look, I am not disappointed.

There is a lot of chatter about the military boys this year.  This is by far the most talented field of dudes we have brought to the lava.  Cam Loos, Brad Williams and Rob Hilton are all the real deal and I would imagine all three are shooting for a sub nine hour effort.  I had a pro cyclist tell me one time that the first key to your own success is “to know how good you are not” and from that basis you can start building yourself into the athlete you could like to become.  That is where I am.  You will never hear me confused with a sub nine hour guy in Kona.  My PR here is 9:38 or so and I am realistic of my capabilities.  I cheer those younger guys on and I hope they all race out of their skulls and have the day they would like.  For me, it is not necessarily tied to time, but in full disclosure; I would love to go my fastest ever.  This island and the conditions can make this course completely different on any given day.  The wind and the heat one day can make the brutality of the course exponentially harder than a calmer, cooler day that could follow the very next day.  I am not that fussed about the predictions of tomorrow being an extremely difficult day with regard to heat and wind.  I have been able to summon up the toughness and strength to be successful on the brutal days in the past.  I am cautiously and respectfully confident that I will be able to do the same tomorrow. 

The whole race changes for me when I put on a navy race uniform.  I know that I am here to go fast, but I am here, more importantly, to be an ambassador for our service, our presence in the sport, my leadership with the other service members, and to continue to show how we military athletes race with honor and dignity.

So those are my goals for tomorrow- go as big as I can, be ready for what I find inside when it gets painful and hard, and above all- to race with honor and dignity.  You can look forward to me crossing that finish line happy with what I found on my day long journey and look for that sharp salute!

Shaka,
Jonser

Kona Blog Post #2

I have completely enjoyed my time thus far in Kona. After getting settled in, I have been able to get in my training, and more importantly, rest and recover as I get ready for Saturday's race. When it comes to rest, it is actually more important than the training during the last 10 days. My everyday schedule in normal life is pretty aggressive and dynamic. If there is one thing that is not optimal in my training, it is my ability to adequately rest the way that is appropriate for the amount of training I lay down week to week. This week has been great in that I have been able to truly rest. A couple of weeks ago, I was still training with a pretty considerable amount of volume, but my work travel was the same so there was definitely some sleep missed and have accumulated an appreciable amount of fatigue. Being able to lay around mid day and take big naps has been huge. This is one of the few times I allow myself to be lazy. It feels great!

There is definitely a buzz happening here in Kona this year. I always write about how the town comes alive slowly from the weekend prior through the week. I was commenting to a friend of mine yesterday that the crowds seem to be here a bit earlier this year. I don't remember it being this alive this soon. Of course, that could just be my perception and not the reality. I never get over how bloody fit everybody looks walking up and down the street. It is really something to see. I know of no other town where it is completely acceptable to cruise around town in nothing but a speedo. We swam at "Dig Me Beach" yesterday. It is always fun to get in and swim the course or portions of it. The most fun part is the people watching. I will start to lay low the further we get into this week, so as to stay off my legs and out of the heat, but it is really fun to check out the whole Ironman scene. It is something one has to see if they come to the race.

The race. As I get closer, I can tell I am getting more amped about getting this thing rolling. Our training gets shorter in duration with pieces of sharper intervals to both shed the fatigue from the big weeks of training while sharpening and ensuring we activate all three energy systems and recruit all our muscle groups to keep that engine idling for the big day Saturday. The key during a proper taper is to keep the engine idling without either removing the key and letting the engine stall or more likely, burning matches by getting excited about being here and digging into our fitness a little to ensure it is still there. The latter is very easy to do. As one feels better and more rested, the natural energy of this place, along with the caliber of athletes, creates the perfect environment to go harder than is appropriate.

The social side of this race is by far my favorite part of the pre race life. I have seen so many folks the last few days that I only see at the big races. Yesterday, I got the chance to meet up with one of my mentors in this sport and one of the guys I respect the most. Eric Hodska and I met while coaching a camp together almost 7 years ago. Eric is a personal trainer and triathlon coach from Connecticut. He is a family man and speaks non-stop about how crazy he is about his wife Lisa and kids. His balanced approach to our sport is something I really admire. It is very easy to go OCD about Ironman and start blocking out stuff in our life that is clearly more important. Eric does not make that mistake, yet is still one of the best age groupers around. He has competed here in the lava 9 times and his age group record still stands for his performance a few years back at Ironman Lake Placid. It was awesome to grab a cup of joe with him and solve the world's problems.

Another one of my mentors arrived last night and I cannot wait to see him today. I met Bob Korock through a mutual friend back in 2006 and he was my coach for over 2 years. I still reach out to him regularly to keep me on track and to ensure I am not doing anything stupid with my training. I have written a ton about Bob in the past and we coached a camp together in his home town of Lodi in 2011. Bob is a former pro, and in my opinion, one of the true sages in our sport and in my life. We text back and forth all the time and our friendship gets deeper each year. I dig that.

That leads me to a topic that just dropped into my grape. One of my anchor themes these days is authenticity. Authenticity is a key component to how I want to live my life. I want to be authentic in all I do. Inauthentic relationships are no way to go about life, if you are asking me. Twelve years ago or so, I used to do some negotiating and collective bargaining for a major union in my profession. My major take away from that role was the temporary and tenuous nature of the friendships formed. Those friendships all hinged on what my positions were on various issues, and a good number of the folks I dealt with were solely my friends based on my role within the union. What a bullshit way to go through life. I apologize to bluntly spurt it out in such vulgar terms, but that is exactly what that life was for me-bullshit. I want a life that is authentic! What you see is what you get. If you are talking with me or we are training, flying, whatever- it is authentic and real. That is what I enjoy with the friendships I enjoy today- they are authentic. The two gents I mentioned this morning are exactly that, and that is why I love my life.

Today should be another dream day here in Kona. I plan on running and swimming and continuing to sharpen up for Saturday. I am excited what today will hold, as every day has held something to truly be happy about. The sun comes up in an hour and then I will get out there on the road. I can't wait to get this day rolling!

Shaka,
Jonser

Kona 2012. Me? I am just digging the ride.

It is hard to believe I am on a jet to Kona this evening. It seems like yesterday I was talking with a friend of mine, who is also a coach, and I was telling him I thought that I might not have a season at all this year. In February I was really struggling to get in 7-8 hours of training in a week. My work commitments and travel schedule were pretty aggressive and I had, yet again, found myself training in the seams of my life, instead of it being a normal part of my daily routine. I was really struggling with my motivation to train, along with the reality that my life was filling up with so many "have to's" that my "want to's" were getting squeezed out of the schedule.

I don't do well when I am not fit. I think about it non-stop and it adversely affects my morale. As the year progressed, I came to the conclusion that if I am not training regularly and am not in decent condition with regard to my fitness, why am I signing up for any races at all? It was then that I made the adjustment in my schedule and my season started to come together. By April, I had gotten myself into decent early season shape and raced respectably in a local Olympic distance race down in Texas. This was the boost that I needed all winter. Things started to come together after that. My fitness was still slow in coming, but with some help from my friend, Scott Davis, I started to put things together. A call from the Navy Triathlon coach, Jim Felty, really motivated me when he asked me to not only coach this year's squad, but would I send in an application as an athlete. To be very honest, I thought my days of actually racing as an All-Navy team member were over. I am almost 48 years old and ITU draft legal racing was never my bag, but especially not something I would think I'd be doing now in a crowd of young military elites.

The short story is all of this lead to me showing up ready to go at Armed Forces National Championships and rolling my best time ever. I had gone faster in 2006, but the course was a bit short that year, so my 1:58 in June was very encouraging. I also PR'd at Eagleman 70.3 and now was starting to think good thoughts about Ironman Canada coming in August. As I was just about to start my taper for Canada, I received another call from the All-Navy coach. It was very disappointing to hear that our All-Navy Ironman selectee, Nick Brown had crashed and broken his elbow and wrist. I was genuinely heart broken for Nick. Nick is a fantastic young navy officer, who I have written about before in my blog. He, and a few other navy officers like Cam Loos, are the future of the Navy Ironman teams. These disciplined and gifted athletes have yet to go as fast as they will in the coming years. As things go in my life, Coach Felty asked me if I was fit and could I represent Navy at the Hawaii Ironman. I told him I was quite fit and would be honored to once again represent my service at this prestigious race. So that is how I found myself on my way to Kona this year.

I honestly believe that my fastest races in the lava are in front of me, too. So why do I think that I will go faster in the future? There are a bunch of reasons, but the major ones are that my life is really starting to settle down. My personal life is beyond wonderful. I have a lovely home life with my wife, best friend, training partner and soul mate, Teresa. We live a simple and quiet life in Boulder. We both feel we have hit the jackpot living there. Another reason I think my racing will improve, is I switched to a plant-based diet (vegan) 6 months ago and the results for me have been amazing. My recovery, sleep quality, and wellness have changed dramatically. I have leaned out and feel I am at my optimum or close to optimum body weight at 152lbs. That is 10-13 lbs lighter than I raced in 2009 or 2010. Lastly, the major reason is that I have made a conscious decision to carve out that space in my life to make room for the thing that I truly love to spend my days doing-triathlon. I no longer train in the seams. I don't make any excuses or avoid the question. I schedule in my training into my daily calendar and I am open about it. In the past, I have been a bit self conscious about admitting that I regularly train on the north side of 20 hours per week. Yes, it is true, I have to say no to a few more work commitments. I had to commit to getting up earlier in the morning to get in my training. I have also had to ratchet up my time management skills to continue to have the capacity to be successful at 3 jobs while being Ironman fit.

So when I get off the jet tonight in Kona, this season is already a success. I am stepping onto the island in literally the best shape I have ever been. My personal life and work life are the best they have ever been. I am the healthiest I have ever been. Lastly, I am the happiest and the most content I have ever been. I want for nothing. I am scary fit, my wife digs me, I am closer to my friends than ever, and I love living every day. We never know when the journey will end, so we better dig it while we can. Me? I am digging the ride more than ever.

Shaka,
Jonser