Training intensity picks up
as race day approaches

Just one week until race day.

Our group training is getting shorter and focusing more on intensity.

We've done portions of the Honolulu Triathlon course before. Last weekend we did the entire course, despite a box-jellyfish warning. Some of us were stung. None of the stings was serious.

JAL International Triathlon Union World Cup When: Saturday, women at 9 a.m. and men at 11:30 a.m. Where: Sans Souci Beach Note: The JAL Honolulu Triathlon for age-group entrants will be held next Sunday at 6 a.m.

Doing the course was a good opportunity for us to gauge our levels of fitness and develop a race strategy. And doing it as a group presented conditions that may arise on race day; like learning to handle someone swimming on top of you. It was also an opportunity to practice the triathlon's fourth discipline -- the transitions.

You can lose a lot of time in the transition between the swim and the bicycle leg and between the bicycle and run portions if you don't plan what you're going to do and practice it.

Placing your bicycle shoes, helmet and sunglasses in the right spot to enable you to put them on quickly after the swim not only saves time, it can prevent panic that can ruin the rest of your day.

You don't want to be rummaging through your bag searching for your equipment. And I learned the hard way that a jersey will not slip on as easily when your skin is wet. So you may want to roll up your jersey so you won't have to struggle putting it on.

One part of the swim-to-bike transition that can only be practiced on race day is the run up from the beach to where you placed your bicycle on the bike rack. I've seen people frantically running up and down the bike corral looking for their bicycles. Some people compound the situation by burning a lot of energy trying to make up for the time they lost.

Transition also describes what your body goes through as it adjusts from one type of physical activity to another.

In my first triathlon, I had one helluva bicycle split. I hammered those pedals.

I was a little stiff getting off the bike. And when I started the run portion my legs felt like lead. The stiffness eventually worked its way up my entire body. Believe me, this was not the time to have buns of steel.

I could only manage baby steps. Going up Monsarrat Avenue seemed like an eternity.

So the following year, I took it easy on the bike so my legs would still be loose for the run. I figured it was a balancing act. If I had a good run, the following year I could push a little harder on the bike.

Years later a friend told me about "brick" workouts that are designed to train your body to adjust more quickly to the change in activity. There are bricks for the swim-to-bike transition and the bike-to-run transition.

None of our training workouts involves just one discipline. Many include running after biking. We also run after swims, swim after runs, bicycle after runs and bicycle after swims.

If you don't live where the race is being held, you probably won't have time to do the entire course nor would you want to if you arrive just one or two days before the event.

For 140 visitors from Japan who are coming here to take part in the Honolulu Triathlon next week, husband and wife Jay and Shoko Paul have arranged for them to at least see the entire course and try portions of it. On Friday, they will swim at Queen's Beach to get accustomed to the ocean conditions and pick out landmarks that will enable them to stay on course. They will also take a bus tour of the bicycle course and practice the transitions.