Swam the full 2.4 mile course Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Stepping onto Dig Me beach again, the swim start area, was pretty special! On Tuesday out near the turn-around buoy, over a mile off-shore 4 dolphins swam a couple of metres under me. On the way back to shore I saw the same 4, then a couple of seconds later a pod of approx 10 seemed to stop right under me, then surface with dorsal fins out, breathe, then swim off. Fantastic!
Dig Me beach
First practice swim on the course completed
Biked 2hrs on Sunday from Waikoloa on the Queen K Highway to the 13 mile marker on the 270 (road to Hawi) and back - legs felt very good. Ran a controlled 50 mins on the hottest part of the course on Monday at 2pm in the Natural Energy Lab with the temperature hitting over 100 deg F. Melting hot and took a while to cool down after that but very good to get that run done in the heat 5 days out - I ran past the run turn-around, right down to the end of the road to the shore, to spend as much time in there as possible. On Tuesday I rode for 1 hr up on the Queen K highway in the afternoon and then took the bike to Bikeworks for a final tune-up on the gears.
Easy days on Wed and Thurs with no bike or run and feet up as much as possible.
Friday, the day before the race, was another swim at the pier, 25 mins, followed by 30 mins on the bike heading south from Kahaluu beach and back on the undulating road out there. Legs are feeling really good.
Heading out for final pre-race bike ride
Also spent a couple of evenings down at White Sands beach with Kata this week. Amazing surf
Going to get my head in the right space for what is going to be a brutal day. Going to embrace the course, heat, humidity and wind and eat it up.
