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

The 2014 Kona Champion is arguably one of the most meticulous workers in the world of triathlon. Every training session is planned to perfection and then analyzed together with his trainer Lubos Bilek to gain even the smallest of margins. But how does Sebastian Kienle’s final weeks and days before IM Hawaii on the Big Island actually look like?

It is now the sixth time that he comes to Kona to race and true to the slogan “never change a winning formula” he always comes to the island 5 weeks prior to the race. The perfect training environment, but also to be able to adapt to the special race conditions and time zone makes it worth to travel early to the Big Island.

“I really enjoy it when it is calm, a few weeks before the race when there are not too many athletes here.” said Sebastian Kienle. “The down time here is definitely quality time especially this year with my wife. I just love to grab a coffee in the morning after training with an ocean view and have dinner with an ocean view. I think it just puts me in the perfect mindset for the race and the final weeks of preparation.” 

One guy who always made the trip with him is his coach Lubos Bilek. The Czech native follows every training session of his protégé on Big Island and also knows how to entertain him or take his mind off triathlon.

“It is really important to relax after every training session and to distract him from triathlon. One evening during the race week we go for example to the cinema. This year it is also great that his wife could make the trip with him. It just helps Sebastian to think about different things than triathlon” said Lubos.  

“In the last week you can’t win the race, but you can just lose it. You see so many athlete in the morning on Alii Drive running at a speed where you think they will bet Jan Frodeno or Sebastian Kienle on race day. A lot of guys just destroy themselves in the last week.” 

According to his coach many athletes and especially age groupers train too hard in the last days before the race and then arrive exhausted at the start line.

“All the hard work should be done until the final week, it is just impossible to really make some gains during these last days. The question is more how can I show all my potential on day X. Here the best recovery is often the key” concluded Lubos. 

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Photo credit: Korupt Vision