Ironman World Championship 2010

What a fun day! I had a goal of racing sub 10 hours regardless of conditions. I was so close last year finishing in 10:03+ so I thought this was quite doable with the experience I gained from 2009. Read below to see how the day went.

                       Pre-Race

I woke up my usual 3 hrs early to get some food in the system. I took a shower. I know it seems strange that I'd take one knowing I'm going to sweat all day but it refreshes me and helps me get going. Not being a coffee drinker, this gets me going. I went down to the race area and got marked. I went into the hotels internet cafe and just relaxed in there for a while. I was trying to stay off my feet as much as possible. Around 6:30, I went down to the transition area and sat there until 6:50 before heading to the beach. I went in, looked around to truly appreciate the crowds and competitors and then swam out to the race start.

             The Swim

This years rules changed so that we couldn't wear a speedsuit. I had no idea how this would affect me but guessed it should be the same for everyone. I just wore my tri-shorts with no top and was ready to roll! Unlike last year, I started well to the left of the pier. I had been bruised and battered during the early part of the swim in 2009 and was looking to avoid that this time around. The gun went off and I was surprised by how much clean water I had in front of me. I was drafting others and not getting beat up. I was feeling great! About 10 minutes into the swim, a huge group all got together. We beat the heck out of each other for about 20 minutes plus. It was slow going but I stayed focused and just took the beating while moving forward. At the turnaround, things started to spread out. I tried my best to draft but wasn't doing so well with it. I swam solo most the way back and unfortunately, there was a current we were swimming directly into. While it's the same for everyone, it's still hard. Unlike last year, I came out of the water feeling GREAT and I was about 2 minutes faster than last year in 1:13:12. I was in 1017th place after the swim. I am a TERRIBLE swimmer!!

                               T1

I had practiced this a little because I knew I'd have to put a dry jersey on a wet body. I'd never done this before because I've always worn my full triathlon kit under my wetsuit or speedsuit. Everything went as planned and I got out of transition in 3:07.

                            The Bike

I jumped on the bike and felt pretty good right away. Rather than hammer away right out of the gate, I went into an easy ring. I did this for the first few minutes to make sure I was settled before the short climb up Kuakini Hwy. Once on Kuakini, I put it in a gear that was not giving away any speed but not beating my legs. After the turnaround on Kuakini, I was flying. I was also incredibly relaxed. I was more relaxed for this race than I have been at any of the 6 previous Ironman distance races I've been in. It felt kind of weird not being all worked up. There was a slight tailwind with the downhill from Kuakini.. Everyone was motoring so my concern was to not get caught up in someones poor bike handling skills that could take me out early. The bike was really uneventful for the first 30 miles. I was taking in my nutrition at regular intervals with no issues. About that time, I was coming up on a small group of riders. There were 6-8 of them riding legally and I figured I would pass them over the course of the next mile. Right as I came up on the guy in the back, a group of 10-15 guys who were not riding very legal boxed me in. At this point, I was full on drafting the three guys riding three abreast at the front of the group so I immediately hit the brakes. Doing so had all those other guys spring past me. I was trying to stay legal and doing a good job of it but was now going pretty slow. The group ahead were jockeying back and forth, out of the saddle....just hammering. I knew I needed to get past them but these guys weren't the type to let someone pass easily. I saw an opening that was created when the original group of 6-8 guys got passed by the group of 10-15. I hammered past them and tucked in to a legal position between the two groups. I gave myself a couple of minutes to get my heart rate where it needed to be then hit the gas to get past them. I got past all but 3 of them. Those last 3 were not going to let me go. 2 of those 3 guys got penalties over the next 3 miles. I have to say, one of them was a tough call because he was trying to pass someone then got blocked. The guy blocking got no penalty but the guy who didn't (couldn't) pass got nailed. I was now past this big group and only focused on passing individual riders and small groups ahead. As I made the turn to climb to Hawi around mile 41, I was feeling good. There was no wind and no whitecaps on the water so I was thinking this could be an easy climb. I made sure I was up on nutrition after riding harder than I wanted to get past that earlier group. Everything changed 2 miles later. There weren't whitecaps in the water. It was more like waves. I had my bike completely leaning toward the water to stay upright. The wind was relentless. I was in the small ring on the front and needing all of my gears on the back to keep moving forward. There wasn't a whole lot of passing now. I was just trying to keep my HR at a reasonable level until the turnaround. About 2 miles before the turnaround at Hawi, the wind eased. It did pick right back up on the descent but I did much better with it than on the trip up. I ended up getting past a lot of people who were upright and nervous. Once at the bottom of the climb, I was feeling really fresh. I didn't go hard but went at a pace to keep my speed up but not pushing hard enough to damage the legs for the run. There was a head wind the final 30 miles but nothing too bad. Living in Colorado has made that type of wind the norm so I just focused on getting calories in for the upcoming run. There were no issues the rest of the ride and I made it back to T2 with a bike time of 5:12:39. The ride was pretty drama free except for that short section where I was trying to avoid drafting. My time was slightly faster than last year and I passed 437 people during those 112 miles. I was now in 580th place..

                    T2

I came into transition and just let my bike fly off to a volunteer as I was trying to save every second possible.  I had a little issue with the tongue of my shoe but got through that and headed out to the run feeling AMAZING. My T2 time was 2:49.

                  The Run

The run was where I hoped to pull back the majority of those 3+ minutes from last year to break 10 hours. I had never felt so good starting an Ironman run as I did on this day. While not 100% fresh, my legs were completely underneath me. No Ironman shuffle or anything like that. I was able to immediately start running like I would on any other day. I was running most of my miles in the low 7 minute range (don't pay attention to those run splits or Ironmanlive...they were quite inaccurate). I was really focused on a solid first 10 miles. This is by far the fastest section of the run. It is completely flat and there is a good breeze off the ocean before you head out to the Queen K Highway. It really helps keep the core temperature down.  I hit the 10 mile mark feeling pretty good. I was determined to run out of town better than I did in 2009. This happens just after the 10 mile mark. I took me over 11 minutes for that particular mile last year. Not only did I run it that slow, I was beat down and it took a couple of miles to get back into a good rhythm. Not this year. I ran up the hills well focusing on my cadence. While climbing Palani was tough, I managed to run that same tough mile in 8:24 this time. It was way slower than any mile I had run so far, but a lot faster than 2009 and I still felt pretty good. This was very encouraging. I continued to keep checking my internal systems to make sure I wasn't losing cadence and keeping fueled. I would count my cadence at least once per mile for a minute and I was holding the same turnover. The conditions were pretty good. While still hot, there was this cloud cover that would come and go throughout the run. I tend to do well in the heat so when we'd have longer stretches of direct sun, I'd end up passing a lot of people. When the clouds would come out, I'd just kind of hold my position. I started to feel the effects of the day around the 13 mile mark. Nothing drastic. Just some fatigue in my hamstrings. It was a reminder that this was not easy! My cadence was still the same but the push off wasn't quite as strong. I had no issues for the remaining miles into the Natural Energy Lab. It was pretty hot down there and I passed a lot of people even though I was slowing down. After the climb out of there, I was feeling good but ready to be done. The legs were achy and wanting to stop but I never did. I'm proud to say I never stopped the entire marathon...not even to walk an aid station. I was taking in all the volunteers energy and hopefully giving back some of my own with high fives and hang loose signs. They were fantastic the entire day. I hit mile 24 and all of a sudden, things weren't feeling so good. The left hamstring was really tight. This went on for the next 15 minutes or so but eased up to the point where I was loose and running well. That was the only excitement of the entire run. Here are my run splits. Miles 1 and 2 are combined because I forgot to hit the lap button out of transition.
1.14:40          8.   7:13         15.  7:50       22.  7:59         
2.                   9.   7:22         16.  6:35       23.  7:53
3. 7:11          10.  7:28         17.  7:43       24.  8:39
4. 6:59          11.  8:24         18.  7:32       25.  8:38
5. 7:00          12.  6:51         19.  7:48       26.  6:59
6. 7:11          13.  7:20         20.  7:59       .2    1.22
7. 7:11          14.  7:39         21.  7:45

Signaling to my family watching me back home

I ended up running the marathon in 3:17:55 passing another 256 people in the process. This had me finish in 9:49:42, 13:44 faster than 2009! Overall, I had a good but not great day. I do consider my run to be great for my standards. This was a run PR in an Ironman by almost 8 minutes. I'm feeling pretty good about it.

               Wrap Up

I look at this race as real boring as far as things happening out of the ordinary during the race. There was no spot where I was in a real bad place that I had to pull myself from. That doesn't mean it wasn't very hard. It was and I had to dig deep at various parts of the race. That's expected and had been planned for so it was very normal in that sense. I enjoyed race day much more than last year. Having done it before, I knew a lot of what to expect. I was able to enjoy the crazy groups of spectators, the energetic volunteers, men hammering so a woman wouldn't pass them, and most importantly the amazing group of athletes that I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to race against. This is a race I would love to be able to do every year. I had to go without my family so I had an empty feeling the entire week as well as post race. They are such a big part of this journey and to not have them there took a lot away from it. For that reason, I am done racing Ironman as far as I can tell. Unless we come into a bunch of money to bring the entire family over, I'm going to go for some different things here in Colorado. It's been a great ride. I raced my first Ironman at Ironman Coeur d'Alene in 2005 in 11:52+. Since then, I've been able to take over 2 hours off that time at the World Championship. With the help of a great group of friends and an incredibly supportive family, I've been able to race in the pinnacle event of our sport in Hawaii twice. Hopefully I'll be back some day but if not, I have no regrets.

I'm as ready as I'm gonna be

I'm counting down the days until I race the Ironman World Championship. I'm 11 days out and feeling good. I am in a different place than I was last year. Last year, I had what I feel is more endurance going into the race. I have had to alter a lot of my longer runs and rides the past 6 weeks. Illness with the family and family obligations have put triathlon well down my priority list. The good news is that I've got significantly more speed going into the race in all 3 disciplines. Speedsuits aren't allowed in the swim so that part could be a wash. My run is a heck of a lot faster. I've managed to race PR's in the 10k, 10 mile and 1/2 marathon this season so I'm looking good there. My bike speed is a little faster than at this point last year. Lets see how that compensates for the overall endurance being a bit down. Can't wait to find out.

American Discovery Trail 1/2 Marathon

I raced my final race today before Ironman World Championships in Hawaii next month. This was a test to see where I am with my running. The number one goal was to run a sub 1:20. After last months sub one hour 10 miler, I thought this was doable. The race was less than 20 minutes from the house so it made it easy logistically. I got there early to make sure I got a parking spot in a nearby lot and just read the newspaper until 5 minutes before race time. I quickly lined up on the front row then got ready to go. I wanted to go out controlled the first mile. The course has some gradual downhill that makes it pretty easy to do something stupid like go too hard. I wanted to go out smart because I had gone a bit to fast the first 2 miles of the 10 miler and felt it hurt me with my overall time. The race started and I was immediately in the front. I felt like I was holding back but wasn't quite sure as I was in the lead which is something I'm definitely not used to. I came through the first mile in 6:11. I wasn't looking at my splits on the watch as I came through the early miles. This was a conscious decision as I tend to get caught up in the pace. This causes me to tense up and end up going slower. I planned to check my splits at 6 miles to see where I was. I continued on in the lead until mile 3. At that point, a runner came up on me and sat a step behind me for the next mile. After that, he came alongside me. I found myself racing now instead of just running a nice consistent pace. When he would pick it up, I'd match his pace. This would end up hurting my overall time. I had no intention of doing this but then again, I had no idea I would have a chance to win. There aren't a lot of opportunities like that for this old fart so racing became the priority. At mile 6, I checked my split and it showed 37:02. That meant I was 26 seconds behind the pace I needed to get my sub 1:20. I still felt really good so I felt I could bump up the pace a little to go for my goal. We ran the next 2 miles in 12:05. There was a short downhill in that general area and I picked up about 3 seconds on my competition. From that point on, I just gradually pulled away from him. I came through the next 2 miles in 12:04.

At this point, I was 5k from the finish and was confident I would win so the main goal was to get that sub 1:20. The next mile was 5:56 and I had to work harder than I wanted to get it. Those early mini surges to match pace with the competition was starting to have a negative impact on how I was feeling. The next mile was 6:18. Ouch. I would have to dig deep to get this PR. Mile 13 was a 5:48 with a sprint to the final .1 (probably not much of one as I was pretty tired) to the finish to get my time of 1:19:50. This was a PR by well over 3 minutes. I ended up with my goal time AND the win. I am excited to get both but most excited with where my run is going into Kona.

Click here for a link of my post race comments.http://pikespeaksports.us/video/neal-oseland-of-colorado

Top 10 Ten Mile Race-Late.....

Here's another late race report. It's a shorter one. I did the Top 10 ten mile run on August 7th. I did this as a run to see where my fitness was going into the ADT half marathon a month later. I wanted to break 1:20 at the half and this would help me see where I was in accomplishing that goal. I felt anything under an hour would have me right where I needed to be. The race started on a track. After the gun went off, we started around the track but there were no volunteers to turn us onto the road so the lead group of 10 runners went the wrong way. Only a couple of seconds lost but confusion in the first 1/4 mile is not good. My fellow Team Aquaphor athlete, Nathan McCrary went out hard and as a result, so did I. I definitely did not feel good only 1/2 mile into the race. I continued on and eventually caught Nathan who was still looking strong around the 2.5 mile mark. We ran near each other and then a gap slowwwwwly started started to develop. That guy is so strong and I felt the rest of the race like he was right behind me. I checked my watch for the first time at the five mile mark and it showed 29:09. While I was well under pace to break an hour, I felt terrible and was unsure if I could even hold pace to break that hour mark. I ran miles 6,7,8 and 9 in 5:57, 6:08, 6:10 and 6:02. The final mile had me side by side with another racer who had caught up with me so I dug deep to hold my position. We ran together until we hit the finish on the Colorado College track. 2 loops and then the finish. I started to sprint with 300 and gapped him by 7 seconds. To be honest, this was the best sprint I had ever had so gapping a great runner like him was unexpected but welcome. I ended up running the final mile in 5:39 for a final time of 59:06. My teammate Nathan finished lest than a minute behind me for a good Team Aquaphor showing!

This was an all time PR of 5:43 so I was really pleased with the result. I ended up 8th overall and 1st place master. I felt this had me on the right track for my sub 1:20 next month with proper training.

A VERY late race report...Ironman Coeur d'Alene 2010

Goals-The number one goal for this race was to qualify for the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. I trained to race a sub 9:40 as I felt that would guaranty me a spot in Kona. The biggest part of meeting that goal would be to run a sub 3:10 marathon off the bike. I had spent a ton of time and energy preparing to execute this. All my markers along the way showed me this was possible but I’d need to execute the run to perfection while coming in feeling good off the bike. I set the bar high for myself but felt confident I could accomplish all these goals. At the same time, I respect the distance and the competition so much that I was not going to take anything for granted. This also had the potential of being my last Ironman. Due to a variety of factors, if I didn’t qualify for Kona, this would be it. I didn’t want the last one to be a qualifier. I wanted the last one to be the big one. That was a serious motivation.

Race morning started off pretty normal. After a GREAT nights sleep, I woke up and got breakfast going. I threw the last remaining race items in the car and made the 25 minute trek from Spokane to Coeur d’Alene. Having done this race in the past, I knew of a little neighborhood right near the venue that people overlook when parking. I found a spot 2 minutes from transition and got going. I did a final check on the bike then dropped off my special needs bike bag. I went back to the car and just chilled out reading a book until 6:30.

The Swim

With the swim being my big limiter, I wanted to do something that kept me within reach of the people I would be competing against for a Kona spot. I lined up about 25 yards to the right of the buoys. I was in the first 5 rows of athletes. Most athletes were 50 yards to the right of the buoys so I was hoping this might help me avoid getting beat up. The gun went off and I immediately settled into a nice rhythm. The group I was swimming near wasn’t too big so I was able to swim without a lot of contact. There were plenty of drafting partners so I focused on that. I felt like I was swimming well. I was very comfortable and liked the speed the drafting was allowing me to maintain. I completed the first lap and went to check my Timex to see my split. The dang watch had reset itself so it didn’t take a split. Off I went to the second loop with most swimmers behind me. The water was pretty clear of swimmers. I had a difficult time finding someone with comparable speed the draft with. I felt this cost me some time but I focused on my stroke and came through the swim just fine for my standards. I finished 46th in my age group, 292nd overall for the swim.

Swim 1:07:00

The Bike

My goal for the bike was too ride a comfortable pace with a ride time of around 5:15. The beginning of the bike was a challenge. The race had so many more people entered since the last time that the course was extremely congested. I was focusing on not getting a penalty. The groups were so large the first 10 miles that it was challenging to pass them all at once but I managed to do it and get clear of them. Around the 17 mile mark, I came up on a sharp right hand turn. I was in the process of a gear shift when I came up quickly on 3 riders who were all hitting their brakes going into the turn. I got out of my aero bars the make sure I didn’t have an incident with them. As I made the turn, I stood up to get past them. Well, I had never completed my shift before the turn so when I got out of the saddle, I jacked up my drive train. I was now unable to move the chain up to my 53 on the front. I was stuck in my 39. The good news was that the bike still moved forward. The bad news was I had a decision to make. Manually put the chain on the 53 and ride the non-stop hills in a big gear or stay in the 39 losing precious time on the back side of the climbs? After 2 miles of consideration and 2 stops to see what exactly the problem was, I decided to go big. 53 tooth on the front for 95 miles. The bike was a pretty calm affair. I didn’t panic when I had the mechanical. I didn’t get excited when I passed people. I just tried to stay relaxed and businesslike. The first steep hill is preceded by a nice descent. Knowing I didn’t have the right gearing combo, I decided to push that descent so I could utilize the momentum of it up the hill. This worked very well. The hill wasn’t that bad. I did this whenever I could. I never coast a descent but I truly pushed it to gain that length up the hill. It seemed to work as I was passing people climbing even in a less than optimal gear. I finished the first loop feeling pretty good but not as good as I would have like in the quad area. Clearly, I was mashing based on my gearing but that was the choice I made and had to live with. The hills had taken a small toll but it could have been much worse. I just told myself to hold it together and not do anything stupid. Steady, steady, steady. I did just that and came through the second loop having passed 221 of those 291 people that started ahead of me. My quads however had worked harder than I would have liked. They were fatigued and now I had to run 26.2 miles. I finished the bike with the 5th fastest bike split in my age group, 45th overall.

Bike 5:09:39

The Run

After stopping during the first mile to relieve myself, I got in a decent rhythm. My original goal was to run a sub 3:10 marathon. To do that, I would have needed to come off the bike fresher than I was. I knew right away that this goal was not feasible after what happened on the bike. My quads were fatigued to the point that the goal was just to run 26.2 without walking. I was running well. Most miles were within 10 seconds of each other. I was just waiting for total quad failure but it wasn’t coming. 8,9,10 miles….still going well. It wasn’t until the 15th mile where the quads just gave out. I didn’t have a gradual fade. I immediately started running a minute per mile slower. Too my surprise, I was able to maintain that pace. Each mile got progressively worse. I was in the belief that my legs were going to buckle from underneath me at any point. The muscles just weren’t holding up. At mile 24, my friends wife had told me I had ran into 2nd place in my age group. I would have liked to have upped the pace to make sure it stayed that way but I was physically incapable of it. With ½ a mile to go, I heard someone coming up from behind. Crap, he was in my age group. I tried for 1/10th of a mile to stay with him. At that point, he took off in a sprint. I tried to sprint but my pace didn’t change at all. He managed to put over 30 seconds on me during that final 4/10’s of a mile. At 150 yds out, I slowed to high five the crowd and soak it all in. I knew no one else was behind me and that my Kona slot was in the bag so I just enjoyed my finish.

Run 3:26:36

Final time 9:48:27


I feel VERY lucky to have been able to qualify for Kona. I feel lucky in the sense that my bike issue could have made it so I couldn’t ride. The fact that I was able to continue in any kind of gear was a huge break for me. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I’d rather be lucky than good….luck is more fun. Training now starts for my final Ironman race. I don’t have my goals laid out yet but I’m very excited to compete against the best in the world. I truly consider it an honor to be able to toe the line with these amazing athletes. That being said, I intend to do my part and suffer, hoping that I’m putting the hurt to others in the process. We’ll see!!!

It's been a while......

I'm back after a long hiatus. I've been doing plenty of endurance sport but not much endurance writing. I'll try to get better with that! Since I last posted, I have been training a lot. Over the years, I have changed from training to race to racing to train. I love to race but love the training so much more. Racing just gives my training a focus. In May, I raced an altitude PR at the BolderBoulder 10k in 36:06. That was pretty exciting as this race used to have my number. I got to enjoy the race with my 12 year old who ran her first 10k. That made it a truly great day. The main goal for this season was to qualify for Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. I was fortunate enough to do so at Ironman Coeur d'Alene so Hawaii training has been the focus. Training has been good but I have to be honest, my head hasn't always been where it needs to be. I am so geeked up to do the Leadville 100 Trail Run next year that I find myself getting ahead of myself. With the race being held over the past weekend, I'm more in that mindset than ever. We''ll see how that hampers things. I raced a 10 mile race a few weeks back in a PR of 59:06. I was pretty pleased with the result since it came during a high volume week. Anyway, I'm having fun training and preparing for Hawaii. I have race reports for IM Coeur d'Alene and the 10 mile race that I'll post in the next couple of days.

Plans for 2010

2010 is a transition year for me. It will be my last year of Ironman racing for a long time, if not forever. I love the sport but want to do some new things. Specifically, I want to race the Leadville 100 trail run. That's the goal in 2011. That being said, I can't wait for this years races. The goal is to qualify for Ironman World Championships again. I'll make my attempt in early summer. Along the way, I'll be doing some road races and shorter triathlons. The only events I know I'm doing are:

Winter Series-races 3 (10 miles) and 4 (20k)  Feb13th and 27th
BolderBoulder 10k on Memorial Day-50,000 people do it. Great event.

Other than that, I'll just play it by ear. I want to find some longer events to really test my long distance endurance early in the season. I'm racing the 10 mile Winter Series event here in the Colorado Springs area on Saturday. Normally, I wouldn't think anything of it. This is different because it will be the first time I've raced since Hawaii in early October 2009. It's the longest I've gone without racing in 10+ years so I'm a little unsure of what to expect. I'm just hoping it will be business as usual but I can honestly say, I'm a little intimidated. I shouldn't be with my experience but I just respect the distance and effort it takes to succeed. After my Ironman qualifying attempt this summer, I'll have a better idea of what the second half of the year will look like.

Back to Business

I'm back in the groove. Consistent training has again entered my life. After racing in Hawaii last October, I tried to carry over some of that fitness for a bit. I wanted to race the Rock Canyon 1/2 Marathon in Pueblo, Colorado in early December and race it well. Well, my body had other plans and I got sick the week prior. Major bummer as I had held off on taking a proper off season in preparation for this race. That kind of forced me into my off season. I didn't like it initially. The routine of early wake ups was hard to let go of. Eventually, I got used to the extra sleep. Unfortunately, I got used to the lack of discipline with my eating. Let's just say, I wasn't real picky with what I put in my body for those 6 weeks. Between the strength workouts and reduced workout time, I fully planned to put on some weight. I now sit about 10 pounds heavier than my race weight in Kona. The wait gain was by design but not quite that much! The good thing is that it will be easy to get rid of now that I have some consistency back in my workout life.  Even though I was enjoying some down time, I made sure to get at least one 3 hour workout in each week. This was intended to help me to ease into higher volumes down the road. These 3 hours were aerobic in nature but extremely beneficial. I got on the bike for 4 hours this morning. Even thought the weather is the warmest we've seen in months, I was forced to to hit the trainer as I had to get into work. The workout was fantastic. I felt better than expected and I pushed the upper end of my aerobic threshold. Very encouraging.  I'm looking forward to a better season than 2009. I'll touch on my 2010 plans in a future post.