"Getting to Kona Plan"

To reach such a high goal, you're likely going to need to do a lot of self evaluation of your strengths, weaknesses and resources...or hire a coach to help you through it.  I doubt there exists a generic plan that will "effectively" get you prepared to qualify for Kona.

But, there are plenty of generic plans that can simply get you across the finish line in a WTC branded IM race.  Just do 12 of them and that plan can take you to Kona. 

Heh, you beat me to it.

Even being a 12-iron "Legacy" finisher, though, one'd have to wait a few cycles to get into Kona, as all the ones who completed 12 before you have priority.

I wonder if at some point WTC is going to pull the Legacy program. I do think the 12x Ironpeople amount will level off for many reasons, including competition from other independent and series full-distance races.

But yeah ... there isn't any one or even many "plans." What it takes for any one individual to get to Kona--which includes luck as well, and times that qualify are only getting faster--is far beyond a single approach to training (other than consistency and a stable life, day in day out, YEAR IN YEAR OUT). It's something on the scale of years and many factors of magnitude.

The other "getting to Kona Plan" is to stay healthy, uninjured, and live long. Interestingly enough, doing lots of high-load training for a long period of time may not be the best way to do this. I guess people who want to get to Kona this way should be thinking in terms of building up to it over decades ... not years.

Keep racing into your 90's

1) Quit job

2) Forget that you had a family.  Forget dating. Forget about pizza.

3) Rob bank

4) Train all of the time.  When you are NOT training, sleep.  When you are not training or sleeping, get a massage.

5) Have a better proclivity for speed than I do!

For 99% of us (if you have to ask if you are the 1%, you aren't) you are looking at YEARS of solid training (mostly injury free) to get you to a point where you have *A SHOT* at a Kona slot. After that, It's all a matter of who show's up on race day and whether or not you have any problems (mechanical, nutritional, etc) yourself.

Basically, you need to be pretty freaking fast AND have a little luck on your side.

Good Luck

Lose weight.

This ^^^^

There's a reason that only the best of the best make it to Kona.  If you're not killing it at the local/regional level, then you likely aren't ready, or may never be ready, to make it to the big show.