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Qualifying for the Hawaii Ironman
by Ahmed Zaher
Qualifying for the Ironman World Championship in Kona is the dream of virtually every triathlete...
Qualifying for Kona is tough, but once you have had the opportunity to compete there, you can't help but agree that it is pretty cool. Unlike other world championships where you qualify to represent your country by beating your countrymen, to get to Kona you have to compete with everyone in your age group, regardless of nationality. However, for me, it's more about the birth of the sport and the lifestyle that I love, since Hawaii is where it all started!
After qualifying for Kona eight times, many athletes over the years have asked me to reveal my secrets. Lots of athletes are under the impression that to qualify for Hawaii you have to be very talented, work out for hours and hours, and have no life. I do not consider myself the most talented athlete, and for those who know me, I am a big guy (205 lbs) who works 60-70hrs/week, is married with kids and can train only an average of 6-10hrs/week.
So, what does it take?
Four Keys to Qualifying for Kona
1. Commitment
The biggest thing is a sincere commitment to recovery and nutrition as much as training. Athletes always ask me how many hours they can train to get to their goal, and my answer is always how many hours can you recover to get to your goal? To get the most out of your body/workouts, an average athlete needs to commit to proper diet, enough sleep, frequent massage, regular chiropractic care, use of ice, frequent stretching, etc. These things typically don't take too much time, just discipline and knowledge!
On average I get one massage a week, stretch 2-3 times a week, ice everyday, and go to the chiropractor at least once a month.
With that said, training is still very important and lots of times I hear athletes giving excuses about why they couldn't get the workout in. Don't make excuses. Make adjustments - and get the workout in. I remember many times when I started my workouts at 3:00am so I that I could get to work at 6:00am!
As age groupers, we are all limited on time. Because I can only train 6-10 hours per week, I travel to a Training Camp (with no wife, no kids) for at least three days to train, eat and sleep - hard, fun and very beneficial about 4 times/year!
2. Specificity
I always shake my head when I hear or see athletes doing the same thing week after week and year after year and expecting a different result. A typical triathlete always wants to bike and run as long as they can and think that if they go longer and farther than the next athlete, they have a better chance of beating them. Really??
You have to know your weaknesses and strengths and make sure you improve on the weaknesses and work to maintain the strengths. There is a wealth of information you can get from Playtri's Performance Testing that can help you understand your strengths and weaknesses, analyze what you are doing and get you to where you want to go. You have to be specific to the race course,
Study the course and build your workouts to duplicate the race. So if you are doing Lubbock 70.3, use a good specific workout that duplicates the bike course that starts with 2 hills - flat /wind - hills - flat / really windy - real big hills - flat/big time wind!!
Here is one of the many specific workouts I use to prepare myself and my athletes for Lubbock:
- 15mins warm up (always warm up)
- 45mins up and down a hill (short hill -hard effort)
- 45mins 4mins fast hard effort 1min easy
- 45mins 2mins shift to a hard gear and pedal hard - 2mins easy (this is good substitute for hills)
- 45mins 10mins fast hard effort - 5mins easy
- 15mins cool down (always cool down)
Do this great, race-specific workout, and to make it more specific, make sure you hit the right power numbers! If you train with power and you don't hit the numbers, then wrap it up and go home. That is how you train smart, because if you don't reach the goal of the workout, you are just doing useless junk miles.
The goal is to have been specific enough in your training that you are REACTING on race day, meaning that your body is responding like a pre-programmed robot. Your body should already know when the hill is coming, when the wind will hit, etc.
The same obviously needs to be done for swim, run, nutrition, and transition.
Reacting at the right moment is what makes the difference between 1st place and 30th.
3. Location
Where will you try to qualify? If you live in the Texas area, you probably train in hot, humid, windy conditions most of the year, so carefully select a race that is consistent with your training conditions and shows your strengths and hides your weaknesses. For example, Oceanside 70.3 or Ironman Utah might be in a bautiful location, but Ironman Texas, St. Croix 70.3, Hawaii 70.3 or Lubbock 70.3 will probably give Texans a better chance.
4. Heart (Or, Suck it Up)
How much do you want it? All the training in the world can't prepare you for the moment when you are running side by side with another athlete for one slot. The pain is unbearable, the cramps are coming and going, and it feels like your heart is going to bust out of your chest. Do you want it more than the athlete next to you? Many times...that is what it comes down to.
There are lots of workouts to help you be more mentally tough, but I think it comes down to you talking yourself into placing one leg in front of the other. What I usually do is talk to myself - I say, I hurt and so does he, I'm cramping and so is he, all I have to do is hold the pain one more second longer than him.
Looking back at my files, 90% of the athletes I coached to qualify for Hawaii qualified averaging 8-12 hours of training/week. We were able to accomplish that by setting commitments which included at least one Playtri Camp, having a specific training plan for their needs for the specific course they were racing, selecting the right race course and oh yeah, they wanted to qualify, and that is why they got the prize!!
Most important, don't stop here, there is so much more to learn - please contact myself or one of Playtri's other qualified Coaches to learn more about power, heart rate, nutrition, etc. There is so much specificity in triathlon that it's almost endless, but you have to start somewhere! We offer consultation, coaching, testing, camps and much, much more to help you reah your goals.
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