macbrownracing.com

Patience

I am not a huge GnR fan, but I believe Axel says it best . . . “gotta have a little patience, yeah yeah.” I will not be donning a red bandanna or growing my hair out, but I will be taking the singer’s advice this Winter. I have finally started to run again and it is not pretty. Had an opportunity to get my gait/form videotaped and I had no idea of my bad habits (A special thanks to all my training partners who never told me). I am basically starting from scratch in both fitness and run form this Winter with help from Gino and Roch. Three months off from running can put a dent in your fitness, but it will come back. I need to be patient.

I have also purchased a SRM for this season. It is amazing . . . as in, it is amazing how inconsistent I used to ride before I had measured watts.  Yes, everybody who reads this can tell me “I told you so moron.” You were all right, should have listened from the beginning, I am clueless, stubborn, etc. . . Mark Van Akkeren has been staying with me and Meredith for the last week and I have had the chance to do some riding with Mark. He is fit and has been kind enough to teach me how to use the SRM properly. Watch out for Mark in a couple weeks at IM Az.

I hope everybody is enjoying some down time right now and getting ready for Turkey Day!

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Movember

Friends and Family,

During Movember (the month formerly known as November) I’m growing a Moustache. That’s right I’m bringing the Mo back because I’m passionate about tackling men’s health issues and being proactive in the fight against prostate cancer. My Father was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer 12 years ago and luckily came out on top. This is a disease that effects many men across the globe.

Some facts about the disease:

Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in America, affecting 1 in 6 men.

In 2008, more than 186,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and more than 28,000 men will die from the disease. One new case occurs every 2.5 minutes and a man dies from prostate cancer every 19 minutes.

 African American men and those with a family history of prostate cancer are twice as likely to develop the disease and should have regular annual testing starting at 45. All other men should commence testing at 50.

It is estimated that there are more than 2 million American men currently living with prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is 90% curable if detected and treated early.

To donate to my Mo you can either:

1. Click this link https://www.movember.com/us/donate/donate-details.php?action=sponsorlink&rego=1781796&country=us and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account, or write a check payable to the ‘Prostate Cancer Foundation’, referencing my Registration Number 1781796 and mailing it to:

Prostate Cancer Foundation

Attn: Movember

1250 Fourth St

Santa Monica, CA, 90401

All donations  are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

The money raised by Movember is donated directly to the Prostate Cancer Foundation which will use the funds for high-impact research to find better treatments and a cure for prostate cancer.

Thanks for your support!

More information is available at www.movember.com

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Good things come in 3s

Updates on my website have taken a backseat to all the great things going on in my life at the moment. I am finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel with my injuries and have been back on my bike for a couple of weeks now. The fitness has gone, but I will get it back in no time. It really surprises me how I can become so unattached to the sport when I do not train, but then I get back to training a bit and realize how much I enjoy the sport. Triathlon will be a part of my life forever.

So the first and MOST IMPORTANT news is that I have become an Uncle again! My sister gave birth to Bella Judith Morland on September 30th in Broome, Western Oz. I have not seen pictures yet, but can not wait to get them. Peggy, my sister, is such a stud . . . she gave birth within 1.5 hours of arriving at the hospital and did it with NO DRUGS whatsoever. I thought I knew how to handle pain, but this is on a whole different level. I am so excited and can not wait to see the whole Morland clan when Meredith and I fly to Australia to get married in mid-December.

I was also approached by some of the UCSD students a couple of weeks back about possibly coaching the UCSD triathlon team for this season. The long time coach, and my first coach, Sergio Borges stepped down at the beginning of the season after doing a great job at the University for so many years. My injury really made me think about my future and what truly made me happy. This forced Meredith to sit me down and do some serious soul searching. What would truly make me happy when I was done competing in the sport? The timing was perfect and I accepted the position at UCSD. I could not be more ecstatic with the team and the opportunity to represent the University. Our women’s team are the defending national champions and Amanda Felder won the overall collegiate title last year. We have a TON of great returning and new athletes on the team this season and we are going to win the National Championship . . . both the men’s and women’s teams. Cal, Berkeley, Stanford, Florida, UC Davis, UCLA, UCI, Boulder, UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara go ahead and print this and put it up in your locker room. You heard it here first, not cocky just confident in my student athletes.

This past weekend Meredith and I were able to head to LA to visit her sister for some karaoke in Hollywood. We celebrated her 30th birthday and I was feeling it. Some U2, Skynard and even threw in some Madonna towards the tail end of 2am. I was worthless the next morning. So sad that I can not even hang for one late night without waking up like an old man. Pathetic. I was able to get some good pics of my passionate singing though . . .

After a nice breakfast sitting next to Meg Ryan and Laura Dern (married to Ben Harper - the musical stud) we headed down to Redondo, but not before seeing Dennis Quaid on the way out of breakfast (gotta love LA). Gotta also love the fact that I just named dropped 3 people in only one run on sentence as well! Anyway, Meredith and I stayed with our good friends in Redondo before Roch and I competed in the paddle board race the next morning. The Backes’ introduced us to Rock Band that night and Mike and I played for hours. Meredith even mentioned to get some pictures in and I do not think Mike or I even knew she was taking them.

At 6am on Sunday Mike and I drove down to Redondo and did the race on a board I borrowed from Craig Richmond. The board’s previous owner was a sponsored big time paddler and, of course, I did not do the board justice. I got my butt handed to me while Roch won the whole race overall. Pictures below . . .

All in all, things have been looking up. I am back on the bike and the UCSD job is keeping me very busy, which is good for me. I get more accomplished during the day when I am on a tight schedule and it forces me not to overtrain. Hopefully, I will be able to run in a month.

I am waiting to see if Roch or Meredith reads this first. Neither one of them care for blogs and I honestly do not think either one of them has ever read anything I have ever written. But I do think my parents read it, so I have that going for me . . .

Thanks for reading.

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Green Light

Last week I decided to have some X rays taken (6 week check up) by Dr. Freeman. My groin and abductor (or adductor - never get this right and Meredith keeps correcting me) muscles have been REALLY tight for the last couple of months so I went in with a bit of apprehension. The technician took the X rays and then posted them on the light thing on the wall (have no idea what the name of it is) and I was pretty happy. I could see where the bone was healing and the crack has started to fade out of view. Slowly, but surely I am getting there. Dr. Freeman even has given me the green light to ride my bike again. However, I have been ordered by multiple people that I need to ease back in to things over the next couple of weeks. Running is still on hold until December. I really need to let this thing heal so I can be 100% for 2009.

In the meantime I have found a new passion. Roch loaned me his paddle board a couple of weeks back and I really have enjoyed paddling a great deal.  There is a great group of guys (NCP) in San Diego that paddle right in front of my new apt in Cardiff early in the morning a couple of times a week. I have learned that a lot of the best paddlers in the world reside in North County and I witnessed this first hand when I decided to race last weekend at the Chainsaw Massacre Paddleboard Race in Coronado. I received a nice beat down by a ton of guys, but they were all extremely friendly when they embarrassed me. I had a such a great time though and am hooked!

I am back in Virginia Beach at the moment to attend a wedding in which my lovely fiance is a bridesmaid. It has been nice catching up with the parents and even got to catch some dinner with my buddies before they had to go to lamas class with their expecting wives (no, I am not kidding). I am going to meet up with some locals bright and early in the morning to go paddle boarding (told you I was hooked) down at Rudee Inlet and trying to get some big yardage in swimming this week as well.

All is well building back in to training and I have really noticed a jump in fitness with my swimming. I really think paddle boarding has increased my “feel” of the water and given me a great deal more endurance as well. I am hoping the wind dies off in VB by the end of the week and we get some waves!

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Everything happens for a reason

Not too much has been going on since I last posted on the training front. I am trying to rest my pelvis as much as possible and getting weekly ART treatment on it by Gino at UCPT. Also, Dr. Martinez at Coastal Sports Medicine has been a huge help the last couple of months and has gone out of his way to help me mentally and physically to get through this injury.

This week I will begin to ease in to some serious swimming yardage. Roch is going to ramp up the swimming since I can not bike or run for quite a while. I will also been doing a decent amount of paddleboarding, which allows me to take advantage of the ocean (best part of San Diego). It has been nice getting in the ocean recently and taking advantage of the warm temps. Meredith and I moved up the coast to Cardiff this week and are finally done with the apartment . . . moving is such a drag.

That is all for now, but I am really going to focus on my swimming for the next three months so I can hang with the big boys next year. Who knows, maybe this injury was just what I needed to really dial in my swimming!

Lastly, here is a quick interview posted on www.gotrimax.com just the other day . . .

Thanks for reading!

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Finally . . . an update

Sorry for the delayed update, but as soon as I arrived home from Lake Placid I headed straight back to the East Coast to spend some time with my family. After visiting Virginia Beach for some time, I headed back home to San Diego and have been consulting with doctors and physicians about the rest of my season.

I went for a short jog after Placid and I finally broke down and got an MRI. I was having pains in my ab and groin for the last 5 months leading up to Placid, but refused to take any time off. I was getting ART, massage and even resorted to a lidocaine injection to mask the pain, but after the race I just could not take training injured anymore. The MRI revealed a 1.5 inch fracture of my right pelvis and I am undergoing some more tests in the next couple of days to determine if I have a hernia as well.

I do not know what the verdict is yet for the rest of the season, but I will be taking a lot of time off right now to let my pelvis heal. Either way, next time I race I will be 100% and will listen to my body.

Keeping my fingers crossed for some good news about the hernia so they do not have to operate!

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Time to reflect

It has been a full week now since IM Lake Placid and I have had some down time to reflect on my race. There were actually many positives I take away from that race:

This was the first time I have ever gone under an hour for the swim.

My transitions were great.

My run was there ( I was running under 7 min miles until my body shut down at mile 11).

When I look at the results, I know I could have run in to the top 5 . My fitness is there and Roch has gotten me right where I want to be. I am still not sure what made me so sick half way through the run, but I am not really going to change my training (if it’s not broken, don’t fix it).

I am back in VB for a family emergency, but once I return to San Diego this week I am going to plan my schedule for the rest of the season. I have too much fitness right now to let it go to waste. I also have cleared my mind and have that itch to race again ASAP.

Thanks to Zoot, Nytro, Zipp, UCPT and Cannondale for supporting me through the season. It is always nice to have people that believe in me.

I have also attached some pictures from Placid . . .

FunkNasty and me dorked out in our aero helmets before the race

The most amazing woman in the world, I know how lucky I am

Pre-swim in the cammo taugs, sharks can’t see me . . .

Meredith, Grady and me swimming

FunkNasty and me dining out!

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I don’t quit

As many of you know I did not have a great race at Lake Placid yesterday. I can not describe in words how down on myself I am today. I trained my butt off for this race, harder than I ever have for any other race. I have had some time to reflect on yesterday and this post will explain to you some tough decisions I made yesterday.

I swam a reasonable time of 59 minutes for the swim. This is the fastest swim I have ever had even though I missed the pack right ahead of me. I really need to work on my swim starts and accelerate hard in the beginning so I can make that pack to draft off feet. I need to be more aggressive. That being said, I exited the water feeling fresh and in a great state of mind. After a quick transition I was off on the bike.

It was pouring down rain right when I got on the bike so I made sure I took the first turns a bit hesitant to find my groove and get my confidence. I felt strong on the first lap of the bike and had ridden in to 12th place off the bike. That bike course is the most brutal course I have ever done in my life.

I started the run feeling very good. I was averaging sub 7 min pace for the first 10 miles of the run and really felt strong. I had moved up to 8th place (pros were dropping out like flies) and was reeling people in. This is when things went south. I had some GI issues and had to hit the can a couple of times. Then things got drastically worse. From about mile 13 - 18 nothing would stay down. I tried everything and it was not staying down. I had violent diarrhea and my body would not hold calories . . . no water, no gels, nothing. At one point I took an entire jug of water and washed my legs and shoes off in the bushes (I was disgusting). Then it progressed to me jumping in to a river to “wash off.” My body then began to totally shut down and I started walking for the first time in my life during a triathlon. I tried to stay as positive as possible and cheered for those I knew that ran by me. After about two miles of walking, the rain and cool temperature caught up to me and I started to shake uncontrollably. This is when I made a conscience decision that I was going to finish no matter what.

I really had a lot to think about for those miles I walked. I thought about Mitch Hall who finished Hawaii 2 years ago when he got the flu the day before. I thought about what Meredith and I were going to tell our children when they got older . . . that Dad never quit no matter what. I also saw a guy running in the opposite direction with one leg and my self- pity went straight out the door.

The last 4 miles of Placid were the hardest thing I have ever done physically in my life, but I finished. Many will read this and think I am an idiot for continuing, but that is who I am and I am too stubborn to give up. Someone told me that everything changes when you are a pro and now “dropping out” would not be that big of a deal. Bullshit. I owe crossing that line to my family, my friends, my sponsors and to myself.

I got an IV in the med tent and had a nice rectal thermometer check for body temp (92 degrees). Ouch! My lips were purple and I was a bit out of it, but came around after about and hour.

Thank you to those who cheered me on out there. It really does help to have supporters. Also a HUGE thanks to my gorgeous fiance who has seen what I have sacrificed to get ready for this race. She is my rock and soulmate.

I will live to fight another day. I promise. This race only made me stronger and I am coming back hard, really hard.

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#3

Meredith and I arrived here in Lake Placid Tuesday morning and are thoroughly enjoying the town and atmosphere of the race. Becky and Tom Czerwinski, our gracious home-stay couple, have really gone out of their way to make us feel welcome. There are 3 other athletes staying with us from all over the world. Aleksandar Sorensen from Copenhagen, John Cornish from Oz and Christian Brader from Germany who I had a chance to meet last year in Kona. All great guys and we have gotten along really well.

The trip over to Placid went well, no delays in airports and no problems with my bike this time! I ran in to my buddy Tim Marr at the airport in Philadelphia (he was on his way back from Rhode Island 70.3) and we had a chance to catch up for a bit before his flight back to Hawaii. Tim is a great guy and athlete who will be racing for the first time this year in Kona . . . he is going to do well over there.

The weather in Placid has been perfect and I have had a chance to swim, bike and run the course as well. This will definitely not be a fast course, but will favor a strong rider which will help me to a certain extent. The run course is also hilly, which will force me to really dial in my pacing, especially for the second loop.

I am race # 3 for Sunday (no, it has nothing to do with seeding - I wish), but it will help many of my supporters to remember such a low number! Everyone can follow the race online at www.ironman.com. This will be my 5th Ironman and my first professional Ironman race! I am really getting excited to race . . . only 3 more days!

I will write some more posts when I have some downtime on Friday and Saturday.

Thanks for reading!

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The Hay is in the Barn

The long training sessions in preparation for IM Lake Placid are now over. I am doing things a bit differently this year with my taper so we will see how my fitness plays out come race day. I have to try new methods to learn what works best for me. This will be my 5th Ironman and I am coming to the start line with some solid fitness. I did the work . . . all of it.  However, I know everyone that lines up on that start line will be fit so it comes down to a matter of execution. I can not wait to race.

Also - our camera is broken so we will be posting pics from Placid once Meredith and I decide which camera to purchase.

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