Road to Kona, Part I

Those Full Distance Ironmen Are Insane, Aren't They?

Although I have now been doing triathlons for about six years and raced even at half distances, I couldn't for a long time fathom trying a full distance ironman. I mean it felt like a whole different sport to me. How on earth could anybody even think of running a full marathon after a 3.8km swim and an 180km bike?! Every triathlete knows, however, the empty look on everybody's face when you're trying to explain them that no, you haven't been to Hawaii and there are other distances as well.

It would have probably taken me at least a year more to dip my feet into the deep end of ironman racing without my training buddy Alex Stubb texting me one afternoon in June 2011: Ironman Frankfurt 2012. Who's with me on this one? The project sounded like something I wouldn't want to miss although I didn't quite know if I was really up for it. So in I dived.

I finished my first full distance triathlon in Frankfurt in a reasonable time of 9:36. I didn't particularly enjoy the race itself but I learned a lot about myself on that cold and rainy day. The feeling of achieving your goal and pushing through tough patches during the race was overwhelming. I was now an Ironman. Everything seemed possible!

I started to dream about the Big Island.

A Goal Is a Dream With a Plan Chris McCormack, 2-time Ironman World Champion

Hawaii Ironman is one of the hardest one-day endurance events there exist. First swim 3.8km in the ocean, then bike 180km in gusty wind conditions and finally run a marathon under scorching sun in the lava fields. I had the dream of qualifying there in 2013 so I had to lay down a careful plan to make it an achievable and relevant goal. Getting to Kona would be my main goal for the season.

The first thing was to decide the qualification race. By July 2012, when I decided to have a go for Kona, almost every European Ironman race was already sold out so I didn’t have a lot to choose from. From the ones left, I ended up picking Ironman Kalmar because of the flat course that suited my relative strength on the bike. The timing of the race wasn’t perfect though, being only two months out from Kona. It would be hard to recover and build up again. In addition, I would only have one shot at it since there weren’t any races left if I would fail in my attempt.

Optimized Training Plan With Omegawave

Choosing Kalmar for qualification did give me plenty of time to get myself ready however. I made a progressive training plan for the season with a few key half-ironman races on the way and some Olympic distance to keep my speed up.

By this time I got to know also about Omegawave. Although a little sceptical at first, I started using their new application as a beta tester. I was really excited about the possibilities that the service could provide me. Omegawave would help me optimise my limited training time and get the most out of it while keeping me healthy.

With this tool and the plan I was good to go!