First of all, we would like to thank you from the bottom of our fitness loving hearts for your constant and unwavering support of Kona Fitness and Café over the past year.  It has been an honor working with all of you and we look forward to a continued involvement in your fitness lives.  That being said, we have decided to evolve our business in order to best serve the fitness needs of our community.  By closing the physical location on Lakeshore Drive, we return to the heart of what we love to do: help you realize your fitness goals.  This change allows us to focus more energy on training our clients, from couch to 5K to long course triathlon and beyond.  We are currently developing new relationships in the New Orleans fitness community in order to best serve you.  We will continue to offer coaching, personal training, group training, event specific training, and nutrition counseling.  Please call or email either of us to discuss your options.  Keep an eye on our facebook page or sign up for our email list for day-to-day updates on our programs and whereabouts.

The volunteers and race workers were all very helpful and the giveaways were fun.

The race was well organized and seemed to go off without a hitch starting with a relatively calm Gulf swim.  It was a little intimidating to look all the way out to the turnaround buoy, but once I got going it was just buoy to buoy.

I enjoyed the bike route on flat, smooth roads with only the one bridge to cover (twice of course).  The run had some nice distractions with lots of turns .

Throughout the course there was ample support and the stations were all equipped with a variety of cold drink refreshments, food, ice, and cool sponges.

Race day was pleasant with a little lower humidity than usual and not quite as hot as folks had to contend with in years past.

I would definitely recommend this 70.3 and will likely do it again.

– Deborah Plescia

Just got back from the Gulfcoast Triathlon.  It was my first time racing in the Panama City 70.3 distance race.  The conditions for the swim could not have been better.  The wind was maybe blowing around 3 to 4 mph at the start and there were no big waves to speak of.  This was the second time I swam in the Gulf for a race and it was beautiful both times.  It was setup as a rectangle course with six buoys out and six buoys back.  At the turn around the water got pretty deep and stayed clear and there were hundreds of fish to look at as you swam by.  There were no large jellyfish although they did have some very small jellies that I swam through like a cloud.  Being a wetsuit legal race I felt some minor itching on my face, my only exposed body part, but it was nothing to worry about.

The wind picked up a little for the bike.  It seemed like we never really got a tall wind, as the wind was whipping around a little.  The course is an out and back ride that includes a bridge and two “fingers” to ride down to make up some mileage from the old bike course that was lost to some construction.  The roads are next to perfect for riding with no real areas of bad concrete.  We had a lane coned off on the highway for the ride out, but rode with open traffic on the ride back in.  The traffic was not heavy so there was no issue there.  We crossed through two main intersections and the police handled traffic perfectly each time for me and the surrounding riders.

The run was also an out and back run that turned around through a park.  The sun was shining and the course has very little to no shade, as it was advertised.  The temperature was not that hot, but the sun got to me as the run went on.  The start and finish was at the Boardwalk Hotel/Condos.  They did a great job for the race which included a breakfast on Friday morning, a pasta dinner Friday evening, and pretty good Expo with a variety of goodies.  The race Swag was interesting as they had boxes and boxes of toiletries they were giving away.  It included razors, shaving cream, shampoo, conditioner, and some other beatification items that I can’t identify and would never use.

I heard from some of the volunteers that they were short handed on the course.  I will tell I would have never known that.  I thanked as many volunteers as I could during the race and I would still like to say thank you.  The volunteers went above and beyond to make sure we had water, ice water, ice, sponges, pretzels, coke, Gatorade, cold Gatorade, etc.  I would definitely recommend this race and advise to prepare for the hot summer run.  I was able to bring my wife, three kids, and a mooching first cousin.  All had a fun time.  This is a great race and venue for friends and family to watch and relax at the pools or the beach.

Have fun and good luck with your next race!

Joe Paul “lil joe”

- Eve Kazik

I also want to give a shout out to Darlene Baldwin for her third place finish and Eve Kazik’s second place finish. Other MagNOLAS on the route were Tina Marquardt, and Georgia Thomas showing their colors!  Special congratulations to Courtney Rowan on her first triathlon. We love her style in transition!!

Before I continue this blog, let me take a moment to talk about time commitment to train. This is a struggle for me. As someone who has always cherished my free time, an additional 2 hours a day (one in the am, one in the pm) and all of the time surrounding travel and prep is a lot. However, when I think about what I would be doing otherwise: talking to the dog, drinking beer, reading the Sunday New York Times, or sleeping — the hit to my down time really doesn’t seem so significant. When I see returns on the time investment: reaching a goal in a race (or almost reaching that goal – more on that below), or fitting into my jean jacket from before my post-Katrina weight gain, or the overall feeling of strength – the time spent is completely worthwhile.

Now for that goal reached:

Sunday was the Rock and Roll Mardi Gras Marathon and Half-Marathon. I saw plenty of Kona members participating. At least one of the 70.3 training group ran the marathon and a few of us ran the half. After the Old Man River, I decided I wanted to take 15 minutes off my time (2:30). Last week, I was unsure if I could do it – at more than one minute per mile, it seemed a daunting challenge. Enter Coach Rick, who tells me “2:10”. Somehow I took it as a challenge, and decided, “Ok. 2:10 it is.”

A little background:

Last year’s RnR half-marathon was my first long race, and first race since high school. I trained in a very cursory manner. All I can really say is I did my long runs on Sundays. I can count the number of weekday runs I completed on one hand. On the day of the race, I took off like gangbusters – for the first 3 miles. I ended up walk-jogging the last 3 miles to finish with a time of 2:48. About 6 weeks later, I ran the Pensacola Gulf Coast Half Marathon, and had a miserable finish with a 2:40 or 2:35. I waited until the Old Man River this year to run another half and had a bit more fun, finishing it at 2:30.

This year, I set out for the start line chilled to the core of my being in the 36 degree weather. All kinds of things went wrong, from leaving my Garmin at home (and having to turn around to get it), to being unable to find the “mandatory” gear bag RnR gave us at the Expo (I used an old one and it was no big deal), to getting stuck in the portalet line and missing my corral start.

I finally started the race at 7:22. I took off a little faster than I intended, but I felt so good that I didn’t force myself to slow down until mile 7. 1 to 7 went phenomenal, 7 to 10 went pretty well and 10 to 11.5 went ok, and 11.5 to 13 was tiring. I sprinted toward the finish a little early, but still felt good at the end.

According to my Garmin, I finished in 2:11 (apparently I did some weaving) and according to the chip time, I finished in 2:12. So – I missed the goal by 2 minutes, but managed to run 18 minutes faster than my last race.

After finishing the half, I watched the finishers for the full come in. I experienced the same feeling as when I cheered on the finishers for the NOLA Half IM last year. Most runners looked so strong, many sprinted. Even those who didn’t managed to still look accomplished. Afford me a little sappiness here: every runner Sunday inspired me.

So far this week, I have done nothing. Blame it on sore muscles recovering and a design project for school due. Today I feel strong and fully recovered from Sunday. Today will bring a bike ride and perhaps even an unscheduled swim.

The rest of this week brings the usual mix of running, swimming, a long slow 10 miles and a long bike ride on Sunday, and hopefully a yoga class in there sometime (lunchtime yoga, anyone?).

Instead of riding outside, I went to Kona and joined a few others on the trainers for a spin workout video by IronGirl trainer Coach Troy Jacobson.  The video includes three 30 minute workouts: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced, all with Coach Troy instructing you on intervals.  The cool thing is that it instructs you which gear to put your bike in (mostly, large or small chain ring and gear 15) for the intervals.  There are a bevy of fit women on trainers and a few on spin cycles in the video, all gently dabbing the sweat off their brow in order to now smear their perfectly made up faces.  But seriously, these workouts were HARD and at 30 minutes a pop, they would make great – fit ‘em in – workouts for the weekdays.

With great trepidation, I forced myself to the pool every Monday and Wednesday.  Inevitably, I always suffered some version of a panic attack two or three slow laps into my workout.  Last Monday was by far the most hideous version yet.  Everyone else (the majority of the people, who didn’t break into nervous sweats at the prospect) swam a mile for time.  I was on the other end of the pool, and the coach instructed me to swim 10 laps.  I got one lap into the swim and the self-doubt crept in:

I can’t breathe.  Why am I doing this?  I can’t breath.  I am never going to be able to swim to 1.2 miles.  I can’t breathe.  I am going to drown in Lake Ponchartrain.  Why can’t I breath?  OH MY GOD I CAN’T BREATH!

At this point, I put my feet down (4 ft depth here), took my goggles and swim cap off and cried.  Like a baby.  Who couldn’t breathe.  Needless to say, but I’m going to anyway, I am horrified and embarrassed thinking of this.

Kendra (our awesome swim coach) talked me down, had me bob up in down in the water once I caught my breath and pointed out that there is no way I need as much air as I was taking in.  She reassured me that this was something I could DEFINITELY DO.  Rather than coddle me, she made me swim building laps: 2 laps, 3 laps, 4 laps, 5 laps, 6 laps, 7 laps, 8 laps and finally 10 laps.

I got out of the pool feeling a little shaky, and more than a little silly for my performance.

I swam Wednesday morning by myself, but just could not catch my rhythm.  I stopped after twenty minutes of false starts.

All day Friday, I dreaded swim practice.  I tried to find a reason to skip it: Too cold (but the pool is heated).  Maybe I should run instead ( not on the training plan).  Maybe I should visit my grandmother (can do that afterward).  So I went, reluctantly.  Kendra immediately gave me 8 laps, and then 16.  From there I actually completed a work out.  I never freaked out, was never too out of breath, never even hesitated.  I’m going to call this a breakthrough.  I found my rhythm, my speed (slooooow) and actually enjoyed it.  I never thought I’d have a good day in the pool, but perhaps all I needed to get over the hurdle was to get the major freak-out out of my system.

I am so glad to have such great support in this training.  If I were doing this alone, I would’ve gotten out of the pool on Monday, burned my swimsuit and joined a relay team.  But, with support from the Kona Fitness team, I was able to put my fear into context and not dwell upon it.  So often I forget that there is a major mental component to this.  The brain is trained to want to protect us from pain.  It tells us to quit when it gets too hard.  It convinces us that we are in danger and that we must stop at this very minute.  One of the most exciting things I’m learning in this training is to push past those mental roadblock and finish.  Traditionally, I’ve been more the cut the workout short because I’m tired type, rather than the push through and finish type.  When I’m finished this training, I hope to say I’m more often the latter.

Welcome to the Meet Me at the Kona blog.  My name is Kelly Landrieu and I am 4 weeks into my training for the NOLA 70.3 (which will also be my first triathlon) with the Kona Fitness.  This blog came about through discussions with Coaches Jen and Rick about how interesting it would be to have someone’s first 70.3 training recorded for posterity.  So here I am.

Let me state this clearly:  I am NOT an elite athlete or anything near it.  Sure, I’ve always been slightly athletic over the years.  In grammar school I played indoor ball and danced.  In high school I ran cross country (but definitely not in any way I’d consider fast).  In my mid-twenties, I joined the local roller derby league, but was sidelined after my first season due to a very expensive and painful complete ACL tear and subsequent ACL reconstruction.  I continued on for the next few years skating a bit and training new derby girls to skate.  About two years after the surgery I decided to run a half-marathon.  I’m not really sure why, other than I was bored with sitting on the sidelines and needed a project.  Shortly thereafter I ran another one and volunteered for the NOLA IM 70.3 last year.  While standing near the finish line with my good friend (and now coach) Jen, I was overwhelmed with a sense of happiness and pride on behalf of all the race participants.  I’d been hanging around the club that became Kona for a little while and recognized many of the finishers.  Watching everyone smiling as they embarked upon the final mile of their race, sealed it: I wanted in.

So here I am, 9 months later and almost one month into my training.  I have to say, I don’t think I’d be too successful training on my own for this.  Kudos to those who can, but I need guidance so I don’t overdo it, or (more likely) underdo it.   The first emotion-filled month has led me from elation at my first speed work, to panic, doubt and fear in the pool.  This isn’t easy, but it is incredibly satisfying.  Coaches Jen and Rick have been nothing short of incredible, always generous with their time, advice and encouragement.  Every week the Kona 70.3 training participants receive an email from the coaches outlining what our week will look like.  So far, we have on average between 12 and 17 hours of training laid out, with both led and self-led sessions mapped out for us over the course of the week.  I find it incredibly helpful to have this to help plan my week, because lets face it – adding between 12 and 17 hours to your week for training if you have not done it before can be completely overwhelming.