IRONMAN JAPAN HOKKAIDO 2014 RACE REPORT
TRAINING:
The lead up of Ironman Japan was one of my strongest. I had trained very hard for the Boston Marathon from January to April and ran a good race considering flying half way around the world to run. I focused on a solid 20 week build with heavy emphasis on climbing on the bike, along with higher than normal mileage weeks for the run. Training in Okinawa during the summer months made long bike to run bricks nearly impossible to complete due to the insane heat and humidity. Thus, I would ride long outside and get my run in on the treadie.
I have begun to really enjoy indoor training. The Sufferfest videos have made for brutal indoor turbo sessions that seem to be making improvements in both speed and endurance. The new Sufferfest run videos are also a ton of fun, but are focused more on speed work than long steady state. Nonetheless, brutal workouts that are a lot of fun. Overall, I felt well prepared for Ironman Japan.
PRE-RACE:
My wife, Justine and I made the trip up to Hokkaido from Okinawa the Wednesday before the race to settle in and enjoy a little extra time away from work…and to get out of the heat…. My family and Justine’s mother also joined us in Niseko for the week as well. It was very nice to have such a great support crew. The Niseko village is an amazing winter ski resort that Justine and I visit frequently in the winter months….check out this year’s Warren Miller film for an adequate visual of how amazing the snow is there…however, it was about an hour drive to Lake Toya. Being that far from the race site was a little difficult, but the restaurants are great and we know the area well. If the hotel options in Toya had been either easier to manage or slightly cheaper it would have been better to stay there. Overall, the drive to and from the race site wasn’t bad.
Friday morning we all made the trip to Lake Toya to take care of registration, the mandatory race brief, and visit the expo. The race expo is something I usually get very excited for, however there was next to nothing presented and very little merchandise. It reminded me a lot of Ironman Cozumel….an amazing venue, but little pomp and circumstance that comes with some of the larger North American or European races. The Toya resort area is breathtaking….the lake was formed over 150,000 years ago after a volcanic eruption blasted out the caldera and subsequently filled in with water. This lake was PRISTINE! Absolutely beautiful! We had some time to kill, so we took a ferry out to the center islands of the lake….another stunning location.
The Athlete’s banquet was Friday night as well. I was very curious to see how it would all come together with our very limited understanding of the Japanese language, but they put on a very nice show. The presenter was very engaging and spoke English and Japanese very well. The venue was small, so they set up tents outdoors to accommodate the 1300 athletes and families. We got lucky and got a table in the main room and had the opportunity to see the presentations in person rather than on the large screens set up in the tents. Overall, it was entertaining and well done. The food however, was not so great.
Saturday I made the trip back to Toya alone to check in my bags and get Roo all tucked in. Transition was on a grass field/park next to the lake that had turned into a mud pit due to the foot traffic and abundance of rain…not fun. The bikes were full of mud and shoes destroyed…. I carried Roo in and had a bike cover to protect her from the elements overnight….good purchase!
Bike ready, bags check, practice swim check! The water was amazing; great temperature at 22 degrees. The lake has a maximum depth of 270 meters according to some sources, so the drop off was abrupt. It was trippy, the water was crystal clear, but had a blue hue to it that is difficult to explain…you could feel the depth.
RACE DAY:
The race had a 6am start which seemed a bit early to me, and resulted in a 3am drive from Niseko to Toya. I ate my breakfast in the car during the drive, which actually turned out to be just fine. I felt more awake in transition than I usually do that early in the morning.
Transition opened up at 4:30, easy access, but terribly muddy. Inflated wheels, nutrition, all ready to go. I found my family and we made our way to the swim start. The weather was looking good, a beautiful sunrise for a great day ahead.
SWIM: Wave starts per the new WTC, let us make this friendly to everyone, movement…I like the giant mass starts….rough, but its Ironman! Anyway, I was the first wave after the pros, so at least there was no waiting around. Floating start in chest deep water. Boom! And we were off, the course was a double triangle, a bit confusing and very poorly marked. I was glad I had done the practice swim and knew my sighting points. The water felt great and I found some feet to chase. I like to go hard for the first 500 to catch a faster pack and get dragged through the course rather than staying back and swimming on my own. This always results in a much rougher swim for me, as I’m a bit out of my league on the front of the start line. Nonetheless, my goal was 1:10:00….I swam a 1:11:00…..I need some work on my stroke getting down to 1:05:00 would be great…that will be the goal for Melbourne. The swim was uneventful, after 2200m you got out of the water to complete the second small triangle of the course, I was apprehensive about this at first, but I heard my family and Justine cheering on the exit…it made the swim a bit more fun.
Transition was set up well, easy access to the bags, a very small changing tent, but no issues. My friend and local Okinawa rival, Paul Smith, was in just exiting T1 as I was coming in. He is a fantastic swimmer, so I was happy to be in his company onto the bike. The bike rack area was a disaster, just a mud pit. I found Roo and cyclocrossed my way out to the road. I saw my family again, which was awesome….112 miles of volcanoes, mountains, and breathtaking scenery……
BIKE: I expected the bike to be challenging, but this ride was brutal. The course was absolutely gorgeous….I can honestly say it was the most beautiful ride I have ever been on. The first 15 miles were fast and flat along the shoreline of lake toya…I went with the HED 90’s and 11/28 cassette. I was hitting 23mph with a slight tailwind and HR in the low 130’s. In my previous 5 Ironman races, I have overcooked my bike and had horrible runs….I was not going to make that mistake again! I felt like I was holding back well for the first 40k and onto the initial climbs…low HR 130 to 145. Up and down, up and down…the course was very well marked with great volunteers…it was technical, with a lot of 90 degree turns at the bottom of most of the long, fast descents which tended to result in an ascent afterword….making shifting very important…as well as starting every climb with very little momentum. I was very aggressive on the downhill and flat portions of the course, and just spun the climbs…..in training I tend to attack the climbs, standing…I spun up sitting during the race…which would come back to haunt me. My calves and hamstrings took a beating during these seated climbs... I caught up to Adam Leggio around mile 60 and we played cat and mouse for the remainder of the ride. He and I are pretty fairly matched and have had some great races in Okinawa…I ended up coming into T2 just ahead of him. The friendly rivalries amongst triathletes are awesome….Paul and Adam are amazing athletes and helped to create more of a “race” to this Ironman…I think secretly we all wanted to be the Ironman King of Okinawa!
The ride back into Toya was nice, flat, a bit windy, but I felt great. I had some minor calve tightness, but nothing like the cramps I had at Mont-Tremblant last year. I came into T2 riding a 5:57:00. I wanted to break 6 hours on this course without putting myself in the grave. Things were going very well.
RUN:
A fast transition, nutrition check, and out onto the run course for 26.2. The course was two loops on the lake shore of Toya…..It was gorgeous! Perfect temperature, flat, and looking like it was going to be a fast day. My goal was to break 4 hours and set a new Ironman PR for myself on the most difficult course I have ever competed on. I started out running very well, holding back my pace to 8:15’s for the first 10k…I saw my family twice, with big smiles I told them I was feeling great and this day was going to be it! At mile 7 I started to feel a twinge in my calves…took some salt and was still doing well with my nutrition plan. At mile 10 I had slowed to 9:10 pace and by mile 13 I my calves locked up. I stopped for a moment and completely seized and fell down…. I wasn’t sure if I could finish or even walk at this point. A little stretching, and they released and I could walk. I walked two miles at 15:00 pace…pissed off, but determined to finish. At mile 15, after some salt and soup broth I was feeling better. Adam passed me moving pretty well. I looked at my garmin and saw if I could manage 11 minute miles for the last 11 miles I could still break the 12 hour mark. I have never gone over 12, and wasn’t going to start….. I began my Ironman interval run….I sprint for 60 seconds, seize up with cramps…walk it off and sprint again…for 11 miles. I was determined! No F’ing way I’m going over 12. I knew I had it with 2 miles to go…I crossed the line in 11:58:44. My slowest finish yet and second slowest marathon after Ironman Madison in 2010.
REFLECTION:
Ironman #6! and the most challenging course yet (even more difficult than St. George 2012) Half way to a legacy spot at Kona, unless I can figure out how to run a good Ironman marathon. My open marathon has gotten immensely better in the last few years, with a BQ at the DC marathon in 2013. I just can not figure out how to run well in a full distance Ironman. I’ve run sub 1:30 in 70.3 races, but have yet to break 4 hours in 140.6. I finished 21st in AG 30-34 which was surprising given such a slow overall time. The quest continues….1 week off, a half Iron here in Okinawa in October, and then another big build for Ironman Melbourne in March 2015!!!
-------------------------------
Dr. MJP
3rd Dental Bt
Okinawa, Japan
"Embrace the Suck"
TRAINING:
The lead up of Ironman Japan was one of my strongest. I had trained very hard for the Boston Marathon from January to April and ran a good race considering flying half way around the world to run. I focused on a solid 20 week build with heavy emphasis on climbing on the bike, along with higher than normal mileage weeks for the run. Training in Okinawa during the summer months made long bike to run bricks nearly impossible to complete due to the insane heat and humidity. Thus, I would ride long outside and get my run in on the treadie.
I have begun to really enjoy indoor training. The Sufferfest videos have made for brutal indoor turbo sessions that seem to be making improvements in both speed and endurance. The new Sufferfest run videos are also a ton of fun, but are focused more on speed work than long steady state. Nonetheless, brutal workouts that are a lot of fun. Overall, I felt well prepared for Ironman Japan.
PRE-RACE:
My wife, Justine and I made the trip up to Hokkaido from Okinawa the Wednesday before the race to settle in and enjoy a little extra time away from work…and to get out of the heat…. My family and Justine’s mother also joined us in Niseko for the week as well. It was very nice to have such a great support crew. The Niseko village is an amazing winter ski resort that Justine and I visit frequently in the winter months….check out this year’s Warren Miller film for an adequate visual of how amazing the snow is there…however, it was about an hour drive to Lake Toya. Being that far from the race site was a little difficult, but the restaurants are great and we know the area well. If the hotel options in Toya had been either easier to manage or slightly cheaper it would have been better to stay there. Overall, the drive to and from the race site wasn’t bad.
Friday morning we all made the trip to Lake Toya to take care of registration, the mandatory race brief, and visit the expo. The race expo is something I usually get very excited for, however there was next to nothing presented and very little merchandise. It reminded me a lot of Ironman Cozumel….an amazing venue, but little pomp and circumstance that comes with some of the larger North American or European races. The Toya resort area is breathtaking….the lake was formed over 150,000 years ago after a volcanic eruption blasted out the caldera and subsequently filled in with water. This lake was PRISTINE! Absolutely beautiful! We had some time to kill, so we took a ferry out to the center islands of the lake….another stunning location.
The Athlete’s banquet was Friday night as well. I was very curious to see how it would all come together with our very limited understanding of the Japanese language, but they put on a very nice show. The presenter was very engaging and spoke English and Japanese very well. The venue was small, so they set up tents outdoors to accommodate the 1300 athletes and families. We got lucky and got a table in the main room and had the opportunity to see the presentations in person rather than on the large screens set up in the tents. Overall, it was entertaining and well done. The food however, was not so great.
Saturday I made the trip back to Toya alone to check in my bags and get Roo all tucked in. Transition was on a grass field/park next to the lake that had turned into a mud pit due to the foot traffic and abundance of rain…not fun. The bikes were full of mud and shoes destroyed…. I carried Roo in and had a bike cover to protect her from the elements overnight….good purchase!
Bike ready, bags check, practice swim check! The water was amazing; great temperature at 22 degrees. The lake has a maximum depth of 270 meters according to some sources, so the drop off was abrupt. It was trippy, the water was crystal clear, but had a blue hue to it that is difficult to explain…you could feel the depth.
RACE DAY:
The race had a 6am start which seemed a bit early to me, and resulted in a 3am drive from Niseko to Toya. I ate my breakfast in the car during the drive, which actually turned out to be just fine. I felt more awake in transition than I usually do that early in the morning.
Transition opened up at 4:30, easy access, but terribly muddy. Inflated wheels, nutrition, all ready to go. I found my family and we made our way to the swim start. The weather was looking good, a beautiful sunrise for a great day ahead.
SWIM: Wave starts per the new WTC, let us make this friendly to everyone, movement…I like the giant mass starts….rough, but its Ironman! Anyway, I was the first wave after the pros, so at least there was no waiting around. Floating start in chest deep water. Boom! And we were off, the course was a double triangle, a bit confusing and very poorly marked. I was glad I had done the practice swim and knew my sighting points. The water felt great and I found some feet to chase. I like to go hard for the first 500 to catch a faster pack and get dragged through the course rather than staying back and swimming on my own. This always results in a much rougher swim for me, as I’m a bit out of my league on the front of the start line. Nonetheless, my goal was 1:10:00….I swam a 1:11:00…..I need some work on my stroke getting down to 1:05:00 would be great…that will be the goal for Melbourne. The swim was uneventful, after 2200m you got out of the water to complete the second small triangle of the course, I was apprehensive about this at first, but I heard my family and Justine cheering on the exit…it made the swim a bit more fun.
Transition was set up well, easy access to the bags, a very small changing tent, but no issues. My friend and local Okinawa rival, Paul Smith, was in just exiting T1 as I was coming in. He is a fantastic swimmer, so I was happy to be in his company onto the bike. The bike rack area was a disaster, just a mud pit. I found Roo and cyclocrossed my way out to the road. I saw my family again, which was awesome….112 miles of volcanoes, mountains, and breathtaking scenery……
BIKE: I expected the bike to be challenging, but this ride was brutal. The course was absolutely gorgeous….I can honestly say it was the most beautiful ride I have ever been on. The first 15 miles were fast and flat along the shoreline of lake toya…I went with the HED 90’s and 11/28 cassette. I was hitting 23mph with a slight tailwind and HR in the low 130’s. In my previous 5 Ironman races, I have overcooked my bike and had horrible runs….I was not going to make that mistake again! I felt like I was holding back well for the first 40k and onto the initial climbs…low HR 130 to 145. Up and down, up and down…the course was very well marked with great volunteers…it was technical, with a lot of 90 degree turns at the bottom of most of the long, fast descents which tended to result in an ascent afterword….making shifting very important…as well as starting every climb with very little momentum. I was very aggressive on the downhill and flat portions of the course, and just spun the climbs…..in training I tend to attack the climbs, standing…I spun up sitting during the race…which would come back to haunt me. My calves and hamstrings took a beating during these seated climbs... I caught up to Adam Leggio around mile 60 and we played cat and mouse for the remainder of the ride. He and I are pretty fairly matched and have had some great races in Okinawa…I ended up coming into T2 just ahead of him. The friendly rivalries amongst triathletes are awesome….Paul and Adam are amazing athletes and helped to create more of a “race” to this Ironman…I think secretly we all wanted to be the Ironman King of Okinawa!
The ride back into Toya was nice, flat, a bit windy, but I felt great. I had some minor calve tightness, but nothing like the cramps I had at Mont-Tremblant last year. I came into T2 riding a 5:57:00. I wanted to break 6 hours on this course without putting myself in the grave. Things were going very well.
RUN:
A fast transition, nutrition check, and out onto the run course for 26.2. The course was two loops on the lake shore of Toya…..It was gorgeous! Perfect temperature, flat, and looking like it was going to be a fast day. My goal was to break 4 hours and set a new Ironman PR for myself on the most difficult course I have ever competed on. I started out running very well, holding back my pace to 8:15’s for the first 10k…I saw my family twice, with big smiles I told them I was feeling great and this day was going to be it! At mile 7 I started to feel a twinge in my calves…took some salt and was still doing well with my nutrition plan. At mile 10 I had slowed to 9:10 pace and by mile 13 I my calves locked up. I stopped for a moment and completely seized and fell down…. I wasn’t sure if I could finish or even walk at this point. A little stretching, and they released and I could walk. I walked two miles at 15:00 pace…pissed off, but determined to finish. At mile 15, after some salt and soup broth I was feeling better. Adam passed me moving pretty well. I looked at my garmin and saw if I could manage 11 minute miles for the last 11 miles I could still break the 12 hour mark. I have never gone over 12, and wasn’t going to start….. I began my Ironman interval run….I sprint for 60 seconds, seize up with cramps…walk it off and sprint again…for 11 miles. I was determined! No F’ing way I’m going over 12. I knew I had it with 2 miles to go…I crossed the line in 11:58:44. My slowest finish yet and second slowest marathon after Ironman Madison in 2010.
REFLECTION:
Ironman #6! and the most challenging course yet (even more difficult than St. George 2012) Half way to a legacy spot at Kona, unless I can figure out how to run a good Ironman marathon. My open marathon has gotten immensely better in the last few years, with a BQ at the DC marathon in 2013. I just can not figure out how to run well in a full distance Ironman. I’ve run sub 1:30 in 70.3 races, but have yet to break 4 hours in 140.6. I finished 21st in AG 30-34 which was surprising given such a slow overall time. The quest continues….1 week off, a half Iron here in Okinawa in October, and then another big build for Ironman Melbourne in March 2015!!!
-------------------------------
Dr. MJP
3rd Dental Bt
Okinawa, Japan
"Embrace the Suck"