How do I handle a 70.3 during training for Kona?

congrats on the lottery! how awesome & lucky!!

IMHO, I would treat the 70.3 like a regular race, you are nearly 18 weeks from Kona at that point, which is a huge amount of time.

figure in a week taper, and a week recovery, and then pick up the pieces to ramp back into a IM plan.

I wouldn't play around with the 70.3, it's a real race and no way to make into a training weekend. You don't want to hurt yourself and have a problem getting back into the IM plan.

Unless you're absolutely confident you can complete the HIM without a taper, I would treat it as a normal race.  Because if you have a bad day and DNF, well...you might not get another chance at another 70.3 to validate your Kona slot.

Good luck and congrats. 

Congratulations!

You have a pretty good start on training in your logs (thank you for keeping them!) What are you planning to do during May? My point is that though the 70.3 falls Week 6 of the iron plan, you'll actually have been training for quite a few weeks before that. You may not need much of a taper, especially if you take the workouts a little easier that week. Swimming, for example, you can probably do right up to the race; no need to pull back on the long bike the weekend before, just no crazy hills or anything; running you might want to cut the volume that week a bit.

Also, if you will be hitting close to the cutoffs, do give yourself some margin so you absolutely ensure you make the cutoffs in case you have a flat/mechanical or need to puke or something on the bike, or need to patch up a scrape in T2, stuff like that. (Also make sure you know how to fix common bike problems quickly even when you are wet, tired, dizzy, hot, etc. and have something like duct tape around in T2 in case you need to fix part of yourself or your running gear). Preparation is usually prevention.

Provided your training has gone well thus far, you probably won't need a lot of recovery afterward--couple of light days and then back at it.

That's just my experience with doing HIMs (or simulations) in the middle of Iron plans. All the best!

I agree that you should treat the race with respect.

Lighten up on your workouts the week before, but you wouldn't need a full taper.

It will also probabaly necessitate a little recovery, but since you are well trained, it shouldn't be too bad. Maybe avoid intervals and extra long work the week after.

I wouldn't plan on racing at your absolute hardest, but plan on working hard.