This is an excerpt from my “Kona 2018 Rating Report“. You can download your copy here.

Thorsten: You’ve been struggling to figure out “your Kona puzzle.” Have you been able to make progress or come up with new ideas and plans?

Meredith: All you can do with Kona is keep learning, adjusting and tweaking some more until you can finish feeling good about your race – and have really RACED IT! I have yet to accomplish this, so it is always back to the drawing board, taking the good things that happened and changing the negative ones. The list is too long to properly discuss: from mercury poisoning, periods, swallowing salt water, heat strokes, crashing, and so on. The competitor in you keeps coming back, and that’s why we as triathletes love racing. This sport is genuinely a beautiful and perplexing type of pain and an enriching and rewarding type of pleasure.
The bottom line, working with Darryl Griffiths of Shotz Nutrition has helped dial in my nutrition and hydration, training in humidity should hopefully help the body adapt better to the heat, getting Mak on a good schedule should allow more rest, and having the goal to finish with gusto should all be positive things. In addition, I have the utmost trust in the team to get me to the start line ready to fire. Now, you just race and see how it plays out.

T: How’s the recovery from Mont Tremblant been for you? Have you been able to get in another “big build phase” for Kona?

M: There was a lot of information that I learned from racing Mont Tremblant, so you take that and apply it to your training and lead into Kona. I had been racing on adrenaline the past few months, and this deficit came to fruition during the later stages of the marathon. It’s been key personally to focus on the pillars of performance outside of training and racing such as recovery, sleep, nutrition, hydration and whatnot – the ones that I preach yet haven’t done a good job practicing myself since Mak was born and that is on ME to correct. The primary objective is to fix this heading into the world championships or else, like in many previous years in Kona, I will be in a coffin on the Queen K!
The goal for Kona is to execute a race where I finish like the athlete I started and show better GUSTO out there. I’m hopeful that training in the humidity of Ohio will help a bit as my experience from countless failed attempts trying to perform up to par on the Kona course.

T: How much of a rhythm have you been able to get with Mak and how is that affecting your ability to train hard?

M: Sticking to a schedule and being efficient is a must when also caring for the life of a human. He is my world and priority so you need to work around his needs and dictate, as much as you can, a regular schedule he can adhere to. Some days this happens with clockwork-like precision and others it is a little touch and go.
 As mentioned, the biggest thing that I learned after Mt. Tremblant is that I need rest and recovery; I couldn’t operate at the pro athlete elite level with getting an intermittent three to four hours of sleep per night. My husband and I devised a plan to get Mak semi-sleeping through the night which has helped me get the training/rest/recovery balance back on track.

T: In your 2018 IMs you’ve been struggling to have a good run towards the end of the marathon. Have you figured out where this is coming from, and have you been able to work on it for Kona?

M: It is always a work in progress since having Mak. No manual tells you how to give birth to a child via an emergency C-section and work your way back to pro athletic condition. In addition, no manual tells you how you can also nourish your child (most important) and return to racing at the same level as well. You learn as you go through trial and error. As I have said before, all of your deficiencies show up in the second half of the marathon. They surely would, even if I didn’t just have a child! In my case, if you were not getting proper sleep a month before a full-length triathlon and nursing your son four or five times per night, your legs would feel it on mile 20. If you didn’t make the time to hydrate the weeks leading into a race, it would hit your hard once your legs hit the pavement. I know better and was flying high on new mom adrenaline, which I thought would help me do better in that back half. SO: shame on me! Those are things that you can hide in a half Ironman – less so in a full Ironman!
So, to answer your question, the reason I have raced so much through the summer was to qualify for Kona and to figure out my body after it has gone through such a rigorous procedure, childbirth. Yes, you have to worry about nutrition, hydration, rest, recovery and training. But, as a female, after giving birth, you have to deal with hormones, milk production, interrupted sleep, etc. These are not excuses in the slightest, they are simply the reality that a considerable portion of the population navigates through if they are trying to come back on their athletic journey. It is all new to me, so we train, race, learn and do it all over again until you have the formula somewhat down.

T: All in all, what’s your plan for this year’s race? Any plans on following the super-fish Lucy and Lauren or is it going to be “race your own race” (maybe until late in the marathon)?

M: I know it sounds cliché yet this Kona race is me against the course and conditions because they eat me alive year after year. If I get to that run and all systems feeling somewhat vibrant, then maybe I might start thinking about the competition. If I am in Energy Lab and not in a coffin, I might check out who is around! The goal is to cross the finish line with my wits about me and hold Mak in my arms and give AK a big hug – this will be a good day!
ALSO: Lucy and Lauren are in a league of their own.  In Mont Tremblant alone, Liz and I had a little laugh after the race as we tried to stay with Lauren for literally 20 yards before we realized that it just wasn’t going to happen!  So us “front pack” swimmers are going to be chasing those fast fish! The goal would be to try to keep them within even 5 minutes…that would be good!

T: I’m sure that after your Kona your season won’t be over and that you’ll be racing Arizona again? How much is the new qualifying system affecting your race plans?

M: Although I will continue racing for as long as the body will allow, I know that I am on the pointy end of my career. These old legs still have several years left in them and I hope these next few years are the better years within the career! You got it – aside from last year when Mak was born IMAZ weekend, we have never missed a running of that event.  We look forward to being back in Tempe mid-November and then we will head to race Challenge Daytona in early December.
My husband and I will then sit down and map out 2019. We have been dreaming of taking Mak to our haven of Taupo, New Zealand so we look forward to heading there in March for Ironman New Zealand with a stop in the South Island along the way for Challenge Wanaka, a race that we have been wanting to do for a long time!  It would be a luxury to qualify for Kona, as that means you won an IRONMAN so we will just have to go with the flow on all of that or it might be an offshoot if things play out that way. After 60+ Ironmans and countless half races, it sometimes is beneficial to step back and smell the roses without any particular race or objective in mind!

Photo: Meredith and son Mak after winning 70.3 Mont Tremblant. Credit: Sachin Shresta

This is an excerpt from my “Kona 2018 Rating Report“. You can download your copy here.

Tim Don‘s return to Kona after breaking his neck just a few days before last year’s race is one of the positive, inspiring stories of this season.

In order to fully recover from his life-threatening injury, Tim opted to wear a halo for three months, an ordeal that is well documented in “The Man with the Halo” (search for it on YouTube). It was clear that Kona qualifying would be a struggle for Tim and he had to race a lot in the summer before receiving the last official August slot.

Just being on the Kona start line is a victory for Tim, but he is too much of a competitive athlete to treat the race as a victory lap. Hopefully two more months of training have helped Tim to race in better form than his summer IMs when he wasn’t able to run a good marathon. If he can race at a similar level to where he was last year, he could be in the running for a Top 10 finish – and that would be a truly remarkable happy end to his recovery story.

Photo: Tim on the run at IM Copenhagen. Credit: James Mitchell

Another athlete struggling after Kona 2017 is Matt Russell.

While racing Kona 2017, Matt was hit by a car and suffered life-threatening injuries when he lost a lot of blood. He has recovered and is back to racing but still has some remaining issues and a lot of scars. Matt was racing a lot to make it back to Kona, and when he ended up being the first non-qualifier, he was offered a wildcard slot by Ironman. Matt is one of the most consistent athletes in Kona and has been working towards a Top 10 finish for the last few years, and he’ll be racing for a good result in Kona. But at least to me, just to see him finish on Ali’i Drive this year will be awesome.

Photo: Matt racing IM Kona before being hit by a car. Credit: Jay Prasuhn

This is an excerpt from my “Kona 2018 Rating Report“. You can download your copy here.

Thorsten: As it’s going to be your first Kona what are your goals there compared to 70.3 Champs?

Emma: This year’s Kona is purely about going out there for the experience. I have heaps to learn about Ironman let alone Kona but really want to take my time with the journey and do it the right way, taking every bit of experience that I can from each race but without it taking away from the key goals of the year. The A race is the 70.3 Worlds, and this fits in perfectly with Kona after. Kona is ultimately the big life goal so I think it’s never too early to gain experience.

T: You had to DNF at IM South Africa in April with an injury, is that completely behind you or is it still something to manage?

E: I changed my bike position for South Africa and trained on it in our camp in Spain. But we trained predominantly in the hills and so I never really spent too long in the bars. We knew my shape was good and I wanted to be as aero as possible for what was quite a flat course because this is definitely one of my weaknesses at the moment. But I had back problems (at the time I didn’t know it was from the back) and the sharp pain in my calf halfway into the bike which was worsening every step on the run caused me to pull out. After that race I had some treatment for the great BMC-vifit staff on our camp in Mallorca and we readjusted my position and now all is feeling good. I still have to learn to spend more time in the bars to ride more strongly on flat courses but again this is something we are gradually building up over time to protect the back for a long-term career in Ironman.

T: What have you learned from your first IM in Austria, and how will these lessons be applied to your Kona prep?

E: I loved the experience at Ironman Austria and it certainly sealed my ultimate goal that this is what I love to do and want to pursue for the future. I have a hell of a long way to go still on my nutrition but this was the same a year and a half ago for the 70.3 and from Austria we have already taken away some pointers on that. Also with my hydration, I am a very heavy sweater and we are going for some testing set up by the BMC-vifit team. I had a bad bike crash at the end of last year when I hadn’t drunk enough on the bike in Lanzarote and fainted descending one of the climbs. We had tests after this and I have a very low blood volume, blood pressure and heart rate so I need to keep super hydrated. I didn’t do this in Austria so this was a massive learning point to take forward and warning because I wasn’t very well after the race. But the overall take away was all the positives of how much I loved it, how much you can push and the real test of Ironman, I don’t think I have ever experienced anything better in my life!

T: How will the logistics of 70.3 Champs, Kona camp and travel to Kona work for you?

E: Unfortunately my best friend’s wedding (Olympic middle-distance runner Steph Twell) is getting married on September 28th and I’m her chief bridesmaid. So I have to fly back from South Africa to do a few weeks preparation in Lanzarote and then fly from there to the wedding and then out to Kona. My coach Michelle Dillon and her husband (my training partner) will be in Australia for AG World Champs so I will train on my own this time. But I think if you have the right attitude you make the best of it and just push everything possible. I will give this preparation all my best and I love the great team there at Sands Active who are hosting me!

T: Is there something you’re looking forward to in Kona? How much of the “mystique” of Kona have you been following in previous years or are you just going in there without any pre-conceived notions?

E: For sure, I think the harder the race the bigger the party right, so this one must be epic!? I don’t really know a lot about Kona but the week before will be staying with the BMC-vifit team and getting as many pointers from my teammates as possible! But as the pinnacle of endurance sport I think just being at this event is going to be amazing and I will be making the absolute most of my time there.

T: Will you go into the race with a specific plan (is this something that’s still being discussed between you and the Dillons) or will you just “go with the flow”?

E: I know that the game plan will be super thought-out and mainly targeted on my weaknesses (being nutrition and pacing!), so I will really be trying to not get overexcited, keeping calm and being a bit more savvy in this one. But as always in a race I think it’s about pushing your body to the limit and getting the most out of the race. You’re always building up to one moment, to one pinnacle in your career. Every time you went for it and couldn’t quite hold on, made you stronger and all builds to the race of your life, the one that matters and the point at which your body is at its all-time fittest and you manage to hold the deepest of all darkest places. My training partner Stu Hayes is a good example of this: He spent his life trying to break away from the front of ITU fields – then eventually it worked and he won the Kitzbühl World Series race.

Photo: Emma running at Challenge Samorin. Credit: James Mitchell