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.