Kona Simulation Home Edition

One of the biggest challenges I will face in Kona will be the heat and humidity. As Winter is almost with us, most of my training will be during the winter and when it will starts to warm up in September I will begin tapering. Therefor I will need to use all resources I have and try to simulate the heat in Kona to prepare myself for it. I know I won't be able to simulate the conditions 100% but it's better to train in some form of heat generated conditions than in single digit temperature figures.

Last night when I did my 1h15 bike session I set the Air Con's temperature in my training room at 31c, the maximum it can go up too in the heater mode. All the windows were closed and I also dressed up to increase my core temperature.

I loaded the Interactive Real Course Video of the Kona bike course on the Computrainer and off I went. Must say since I got the DVD last year I did ride it a few times but now it had a different meaning and purpose. As I cycled I looked at the bike course in a different way. Last year it was just another bike route on the Computrainer. Now I will cycle it comes October. It was also nice to get familiar with the environment.

First I want to get use to the course and then later on I will do the same as I did this year with IM South Africa and start breaking up the course in segments and give myself time targets for each sections. I know conditions on the day play a big role but it worked for me at IMSA.
I only cycled 1h15 and covered 40km of the course but with the air con blowing full speed at 31c and me going aka Thorbjorn Sindballe with the long sleeve I was sweating like a pig at the end of the workout. Only difference is Thorbjorn is wearing that type of cloths to bring his core temperature down and I am dressing up to increase my temperature.

Since last week I am also spending some time in the steam room at the gym after my swim and Gym workouts. First I could only manage 5 minutes in the steam room before it became uncomfortable but yesterday I was in there for 13 minutes before I called it a day. Will see if I can push it longer with every session.

Yesterday's workout:
Run :50 min, 9.75 km, 143bpm, 786kcal, 5:08 min/km

Bike: 1h15, 40 km, 136 bpm, 1090 kcal,

Today's workout:
Run: 36 min, 7.31 km, 141 bpm, 554 kcal, 4:57 min/km