07.01. Nachmelden für Ironman EM 2009 in Frankfurt?
07.01. Hamburg Triathlon 2009, Startplatzkontingente werden knapp
06.01. World Triathlon Corporation kauft Ironman Rennen in den USA zurück
06.01. Achilles' Verse
05.01. Deutsche Meisterschaft im Wintertriathlon: Gute Bedingungen in Freudenstadt, Streckenpräparierungen in Kniebis sind angelaufen
02.01. Siegerland-Cup und Triathlon Buschhütten ausgebucht
01.01. Diskussion: "Der olympische Triathlon hat aber nicht den Glanz, einen Hero zu produzieren"
01.01. Red Bull Tour of Sweden  mit Jonas Colting vom 17.-31. Mai 2009
30.12. Achilles' Verse

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Ironman Hawaii 2004 - das 3athlon.de Special::

Mark Allen talks II

Wednesday for so many of us throughout the year is the pivot point that holds Monday at arms length from Friday. It sits as far away from the weekend as any day can. This particular 24-hour period seems to have an upward angle, if a day can actually have a slope. Reach the end of it and it’s all downhill baby.

Nowhere is this truer than at the Ironman. It is the last day of anything one would call working out. It is the end, the final swim, bike and run workouts that are the bookends to the first ones you did just after that other bookend we all call New Year’s Eve. The only task left ahead is the grand prize, the race itself. Anyone caught working out on Thursday is a) neurotic, b) not on the Mark Allen Online training team, or c) just plain scared. The only obligation left to be prepared for Saturday is one that defines a triathlete. And that role is to become an eating, sleeping machine.

What led up to this moment in the very public workout hall called Alii Drive was just as important as the mountains of pasta that will be devoured in the next 72 hours. One of those items is the timing of an athlete’s final workouts. Here’s a scenario that I just happened to come across that magnifies the difference in styles of this particular training point, and you get to take a test to see if you would pick the better of the two options. Ready?

Here’s the first. I saw Peter Reid running on Tuesday at about late midday, around 1:00pm in the afternoon. His course took him on a part of Alii Drive that is more frequented by roving packs of mongooses than triathletes tapering for the Ironman.

Now, the second sighting. I also spotted, on the very same day, another set of runners. Actually there were three groups of note. One was Luc Van Lierde, a two time Ironman champion, running on a much more populated section of the same road. His workout timing…around 4:00pm. A second group contained Viktor Zyemtsev of the Ukraine, a champion of Ironman Austria and like Van Lierde, a deadly runner in an Ironman distance race. He and his compatriot were also running on a busy stretch of the same road at about the same four o’clock hour. The third, was another top European pro, Olaf Sabatschus, who just by coincidence was running on the same congested stretch of road at the same time.

So here’s your test. And let me preface it with a few pointers that may help you make your choice. First, the pro men will be finishing their race conceivably before 3:00pm in two days time. They will be starting their marathon at around 12:30pm, which just happens to be the time o’ day when you can start to do your charity bake sale cooking on the pavement instead of in your oven here in Kona. That’s just a reminder of when the heat really gets your attention. By around 3:00pm the late afternoon cloud cover starts to do its thing and significantly reduces the ambient heat that you feel on your searing skin when the unfiltered sun gets a chance to illuminate you with direct contact.

Now it’s time to make your choice. And here is the question. If you were a professional male triathlete trying to adapt to the heat that you will most likely encounter here at the Ironman, when would you do your run workouts in hope of taking maximum advantage of your early arrival into Kona?

A) 7:00am when it is the coolest part of the day?
B) Sometime around midday when it is absolutely baking?
C) Around 3:00pm or later when the clouds start to take the edge off the
heat of the tropical sun?

You got it. The correct answer it “B”. And the only athlete I mentioned who was spotted taking care of business during business hours was last year’s champ, Peter Reid.

I took a while to make this point so clear as a way to help you understand what the dynamic is here during the final days before the Ironman. Each and every move during this week has a direct effect on one’s race. It’s enough to drive you crazy. Every moment is hopefully perfect and each athlete is striving to have that be the reality of these final days. But what really happens is that seat bolts break, wheels go out of true, you realize you forgot your race singlet as you pack your race bags, and so on. Each athlete will have a story of catastrophic proportions about something that didn’t fit the perfect Zen prerace prep plan.

So here is my strategy to help these moments return to the void from which they came. It’s called DWI. That’s not “driving while intoxicated”, but rather “Deal With It”. Yes, these three simple words can have a profound impact on all the imperfections, both small and tall, that come up during the golden taper week of Ironman. This is what it takes to make it a perfect prep.

Catch you tomorrow.

Yours in Sport,
Mark Allen

Mark Allen Online