Following a fantastic podium at IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside in California at the weekend, Gustav Iden spoke on the Norwegian Method podcast (video at the bottom of the page) about his performance and looked ahead to IRONMAN Texas at the end of April.
A three-time world champion, once over the full-distance and twice over the half-Ironman, Iden is one of the star names in world triathlon along with his compatriot Kristian Blummenfelt.
After winning in Kona in 2022, Iden has suffered a series of injury issues and personal tragedy over the past 24 months, and missed the entirety of the 2023 season minus a DNF at the PTO Asian Open. However, he returned to some form at Oceanside last weekend producing solid bike and run splits to challenge at the top of the field.
However, late race fatigue set in an he was by-passed by the Canadian stalwart Lionel Sanders who claimed a fourth Oceanside crown.
Surprising result for Iden
Iden expected to pay second fiddle to teammate Blummenfelt in California, but the latter’s race was curtailed by a flat tyre on the bike. The 28-year-old admitted that he was surprised by his performance and aiming for a much smaller goal than a podium finish.
“I thought that a win would be very surprising and I think I said top eight was my ambition. In IRONMAN they have the top eight on stage so I thought that’s what I would go with.
“I’m satisfied, of course its a tough day, even though it was just a half-Ironman it’s a long day with long training sessions. I did fade towards the end, but I am still very pleased with my performance.
“I had a lot of support out there, and I ran a little bit with Rudy Von Berg – he’s the home hope, he’s American – and people were just cheering for me – ‘let’s go Gustav’ – and I was like you have an American here running with me so you might want to support him.
“But I’m taking everything I can, and the atmosphere in Oceanside was electric – it was good fun being back.”
Under-fuelling and over-biking
Iden then went into further detail about his performance across swim, bike and run, dropping an interesting tidbit that the race was almost shortened due to the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean.
“We swam in the ocean the day before the race and it was cold – Norwegian cold – eleven point something degrees in the water. We had a meeting that day that said the swim might be cancelled or shortened because it was so cold.
“On race morning it heated up a little bit and I felt decently in control in the water. It was a good swim, not amazing. I felt in control for most of it. I came out of the water just behind Kristian and felt relaxed when I saw him.
“We were 60-70 seconds back, I thought it was going to be a bit closer in seconds maybe, and there wasn’t many people in between. I could have swam a bit harder, but I felt pretty comfortable where I was just behind Kristian.
“I didn’t have one set scenario on the bike, and most scenarios in my head had me coming out of the water a bit behind and chasing. We pushed hard in the start, Kristian was on the move and aggressive as always, but I was pretty comfortable following his wheel and I didn’t have any issues bridging up there. It was fun racing and overtaking people.”
Then disaster struck for his compatriot with the flat tyre, although Iden expected his fellow Norwegian to receive a quick helping hand.
“I thought there was a motorbike quite close to us, so I thought he’d get a new wheel quite quickly. I thought I’d just go to the front and be a substitute Kristian for a while.
“After he went to the side of the road I passed and took the front and I wouldn’t say I pushed very hard but I did commit to leading the pack for a little bit and it was fun being in the lead.”
Fading away
Coming off the bike, Iden said he felt in good condition, and used his fellow competitors as pacemakers due to his lack of recent race experience.
“For the first km I was running with Sam Appleton and I asked him what is pace was going to be because I didn’t exactly know where I would finish either and I wanted to kind of pace myself around someone who had an idea of where they wanted to finish and he said a 1:12.
“I was like, that’ll be nice, I’m going to run with him because that’s where I thought I was kind of at. Then I got a bit eager and was running a little bit faster and faster and I felt amazing – the first 6km was so easy.
“Then I think the over-biking plus under-fuelling caught up to me and when I first picked up the leaders – Rudy [Von Berg], Seth (Rider) and those guys – I led for like 1km before I started to fade again.
“It was worth it kind of taking a chance, and I didn’t feel in the moment that I was taking a chance even though on my watch I was running too fast. I was fading and struggling in the group before Lionel came up, but when he passed us it was definitely over.”
Texas on the horizon
With a podium now on his resumé for the 2025 season, attention quickly turns to IRONMAN Texas, with the Norwegian group of Iden, Blummentfelt and Stones acclimatising ahead of the race.
However, Iden seems concerned about the quick turnaround, admitting he may not have enough training time to showcase a performance over the 140.6-mile distance.
“I am slightly worried about IRONMAN Texas because of how things went downhill towards the end at Oceanside. It was not only underfuelling and overbiking, I would say my muscles were not ready to run hard for 21km – so I am, I wouldn’t say worried, but I am really aware there is a lot of work for me to do and there is only 18 days until the race.
“It’s limited how many sessions I have before the race and how my recovery time would be for my longer runs. I definitely do not feel recovered from Oceanside (on the Tuesday after the race). I’m super sore and basically it’s all running related muscles. I’m aware of the work that has to be done, but unsure if there is enough time and energy to make all the sessions happen.”
