Stories about the final preparation for the world’s most famous triathlon

The 2014 champion Sebastian Kienle changed his final preparation for Ironman Kona as he optioned to train on the island of Maui for his strive for a second title. Check out what this island has to offer.

In previous years Sebastian Kienle came to Hawaii 5 weeks prior to the race. This year it is the same. But with one big difference. He decided to train in Maui instead of the Big Island to have a difference approach to the most prestigious triathlon in the world.

Maui is more than 5 times smaller and way greener than the Big Island. Despite its small size the highest elevation goes up to over 3 000 meters and offers a unique diversity of landscape in a very small area. That’s why it has such a wide range of climatic conditions and weather patterns.

“Maui has been pretty good. We have always been in Hawaii pretty early usually on the big island and this year its Maui. Now Maui is the center of triathlon universe. Jan Frodeno is training here. Daniela Ryf is training here. Of course, our group is training here. So this makes it the center of triathlon universe I guess. I like the combination of tough conditions. Soo really challenging for your system for your body and getting ready for the big race, but at the same time you want to use all your mental energy. At one point I had the feeling I had to use really a lot of mental energy during my training on the big island in Kona. I think here it is definitely easier for me to accumulate some running, the pool is a little bit colder and the café is little bit less crowded. So it makes it quite a nice place for training, but at the same time, still being able to stay relaxed and not to think about triathlon 24/7.”

“The success of the past is also one of the bad things. The success is expectations from yourself and I am doing a lot of races where everything else than first place is not enough for me, not enough for my sponsors. The people expect me to win and I expect myself to win in those races. This is something good, because it means you earned that pressure. So, it is not really something negative but at the same time you can’t really win anything anymore in those races and therefore I love the big ones like Frankfurt, 70.3 Worlds and obviously the biggest one. Ironman World championships in Kona, because even a third place. I wouldn’t say that I am really unhappy with that. It is for everything the same. Even the best guys can’t take it for granted to win that race. That makes it so wonderful to win it because it still feels like winning and not like just fulfilling some expectations of your own and the people around you. I am definitely ready to race.“

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Video/Photography: Korupt Vision