macbrownracing.comCool pic from Kansas 70.3
June 30th, 2009Huge thanks to Eric Wynn for taking this pic for me at Kansas 70.3. The guy has talent . . . check out his website at www.EricWynn.org
Quick Update
June 23rd, 2009Training since Kansas 70.3 has been going according to plan. However, I did hit one speed bump last Friday after swimming open water with the group in Del Mar early Friday morning. I went out for a nice easy spin and hit a pine cone in the road and went down. My left side is pretty banged up. Road rash is not fun and has kept me from swimming a bit, but I am starting to get better now. I am still planning on racing SD International on Sunday so we shall see how the wetsuit feels on the skin! Not looking forward to putting it on or taking it off!
Hit the RESET button
June 16th, 2009Remember when you would play Madden or any other video game when you were growing up and things went south very quickly? Well I do and I would immediately hit the reset button and start all over again. So easy. This is how I view this coming season for me.
The first major race of the season has come and gone for me and I am on track for where I need to be this Fall/Winter. I raced Kansas 70.3 this past weekend and while I did not race well by any means, it was right where Roch and I thought my fitness was going to be after missing a year of training. I came to Kansas with 5 weeks of training under my belt and definitely a few more lbs on me than I usually have at this point of the season. That being said, I left the race feeling like I could have kept on going.
A quick breakdown of the race:
Swim - Everything went according to plan and I was swimming well (for me at least) until I made a wrong turn too early and headed the wrong way. The swim course was set up the morning of the swim so I could not see where they put the buoys the day before. They added a buoy race morning and I took a left and headed back to the swim finish too early. There was not a 2nd chase pack so I was swimming solo behind the the lead group with no one to sight off of and no feet to sit on. This was no one’s fault but my own and it will not happen again.
Bike - This was the first race I have ever raced with power and I loved it. I definitely rode a bit conservatively, but finished strong. I just need some more miles in my legs and need to see where my FTP is for my next race.
Run - I came off the bike with a bit of cramping (do not think I took enough salt), but they went away after the first couple of miles. I ran steady, but could not kick it in to another gear. I was happy with a 1:22 with limited training and some extra lbs.
Overall, I am nowhere near where I will be in a couple of months, but it is a start. I have to be patient and optomistic. After all I have been through, it is just really nice being 100% healthy. I have not been able to say that for nearly a year.
I have decided to race Placid for various reasons, but just need to realize I have to limit my expectations. It is only going to get better from here on out.
Multisports camp - Lake Placid
June 8th, 2009The Multisports crew gave me an opportunity to work their annual Lake Placid camp this past weekend and I decided to take them up on their offer. Meredith dropped us all off bright and early Wednesday morning (thank you gorgeous wife) and we began our journey to Placid with only one hiccup in Philadelphia waiting for lightning storms to pass through the area. After an hour delay we got in to Albany and Roch drove the souped-up Mini Van straight to Placid. We stayed at the Golden Arrow and my room opened right up to Mirror Lake.
View from my room. Mirror Lake is not too shabby.
I was able to have all day Thursday to get some good training in and scouted the bike course as much as I could. The weather was amazing and it was as if I was on a completely different ride then when I competed here last year. The sights you see when you train are completely different than racing with tunnel vision (and pouring down rain). After a nice dip in the Lake to cool my legs (60 degrees), we had dinner at the local sports bar and shortly afterwards, hit the hay early in preparation for camper arrival Friday morning.
Friday came and went before I knew it! With multiple workouts and lectures on the docket, the campers and counselors were all bushed and ready for the long ride on the course Saturday morning.
We had about 22 campers so we broke up the ride by ability level, with Matt Hoffman and I taking the lead group for a bit under two laps of the course. Matt pretty much pulled all day while I sat in the back and held down the fort. It was really beneficial for me and the campers to ride so much of the course. Prior knowledge of the course really takes one less element of nerves/stress out of the equation come race morning. I am a huge believer in pre-riding courses before racing. I would say we all benefited from scoping out the IM course. After a quick transition run we all hit up the buffet HARD and even rallied to get a dusk swim in on Mirror Lake. The water was chilly, but in the end we were all happy we did it. I even got to do some stand up paddling with Matt before dinner!
Sunday was the last day of camp and we scouted the run course for the better part of two hours. By the end of the run, we were all beat from a great weekend of training/learning and parted our separate ways. Matt, Roch, Heather and I were very fortunate to have a 4 hour flight delay in Chicago last night and did not get in until 3:30am this morning.
Ugh. Roch and Matt love flight delays.
Fortunately, my amazing wife was there to pick us all up with Roch’s house on wheels and we finally all got back to North County right before the sun came up!
I am off to Kansas 70.3 this weekend to race and have still not made up my mind on whether I am going to race Placid or IM Canada. This weekend will be a good gauge of my long course fitness.
OC Duathlon
June 1st, 2009Last Saturday marked the first time I had raced in over 9 months. As I have alluded to several times at the beginning of this season, PATIENCE is going to play a key role in my season this year. Long story short, my run is nowhere near the level it need to be right now. I ran the 2 slowest 5ks I have run in nearly 3 years. The bike was right where I expected it to be, but the run needs some major attention right now.
I finished 3rd overall after getting the smack down from Luke, but between him and Grady they put things into perspective for me. I am not going to show up at a race with 1 month of training under my belt (after coming off surgery and 8 months of very light training) and just rip off a great result. The sport does not work that way. If this race did anything, it motivated me to get back to a level where I know I can be. Roch and I know that my best races will be coming this Fall. I just need to remind myself of this and be PATIENT!
Next stops, Kansas 70.3 and SD International.
Utah - The Sunshine State
May 22nd, 2009I am very sorry for the lack of posts recently, but I was away for 12 days in Utah and had VERY limited internet/cell phone coverage (still have to return some phone calls!). I was offered an opportunity to head to Cedar City, Utah and stay at the newly built home of Paul/Paula. I had never trained at altitude before and it had always been something I had wanted to try and see how my body handled. Roch suggested that I stay no longer than 2 weeks so we could really see how my body adapted to the lack of oxygen (the house was at 7,900ft). Some people adapt quickly and some do not. Fortunately, after about 4 days of some aerobic training my body adapted and I was able to put in some great training over the next 8 days.
Let me tell you about the training in Utah. It is a triathlete’s playground! There are mountains to climb on the road/TT bike, you can climb dirt trails on a cross bike/mtn bike and you can run on countless dirt trails at either 6,000ft or all the way up to 10,000ft. Whatever you can imagine, Utah has it (except open water swimming - but there is a nice pool at Southern Utah University). Cedar City in untouched and I think I counted 3 cyclists on the road the entire 2 weeks I was there.
My fitness gains were amazing and I am 100% healthy. I am nowhere near where I want to be fitness-wise, but this trip helped me get one step closer to my goal of qualifying for Kona at IM Lake Placid. A HUGE thanks to Paul and Paula for letting me go up there!
I have attached some pics below I snapped while riding in and around Cedar City.
I managed to climb both these mtns one day (tons of climbing out there).
If you get sick of riding high, you can ride in the flats for miles on end at 6,000ft with little to no traffic at all.
Roch’s cyclocross bike was a necessity and I loved riding off-road.
The house I holed up in for 2 weeks . . . not too shabby!
Was fortunate to have Meredith come visit me for a weekend. She loved hiking Bryce Canyon and a lot of the Zion Nat’l Park with her friend Melanie.
My first race will be next Sat at the OC Duathlon so I can see where the fitness is right now. Not expecting any miracles, just need to get out there and get some experience.
UCSD Grove Run 5k
May 7th, 2009Just a quick note to spread the word about the upcoming 5k run at UCSD Memorial Day weekend. We are hoping to become the first “green triathlon team” in America and this is our first step in achieving our goal. Please check out the link listed below. The student athletes on the team have been working very hard on this and we hope to see you all out there tearing up the trails!
Triton Pride
April 21st, 2009I have not updated the blog for a while so I figure a post is due. Rehab is going well and I am hoping to be 100% and cleared for training next Monday (it will have been 6 weeks on Friday). I am getting a bit of training in here and there, but nothing consistent. However, this down time has allowed me to focus more on the UCSD triathlon team and my privately coached athletes as well.
Last weekend I headed over to Lubbock, TX to coach the UCSD team during the National Collegiate Championship. We arrived Thursday night after a delay due to thunderstorms in the area, but all of our baggage made it and ALL the bikes! Huge! However, our luck would run out once we got the the hotel and discovered it was a complete dump. The rooms smelled like smoke and one of the rooms was flooded from the rain coming out of the ceiling. Add on top of that hail coming down, followed by torrential rain and a tornado warning all in a span of 1 hour! No way the squad was staying there (they put way too much work in to the prep for this race) so we moved across the street to a much better hotel. We finally ate dinner at about 10pm and we all crashed hard thanks to a long day of travel.
Race day was here before we knew it and we were at transition no later than 5:45am! The temp was 40 degrees, but the team suffered through it until the first wave went off at 8:30am. We scouted the swim set up before the gun went off and were able to find a clear line to the second buoy that most teams were unaware of that morning. It pays to do your research! The first wave went off about 10min later than planned, but we were underway nonetheless.
The swim was uneventful, but when the athletes headed out onto the bike, the wind picked up a bit. Texas is thought to be pretty flat, but after researching the course profile, there were some significant hills. Combined with the wind the course was definitely challenging.
I decided to walk a bit down the road on the run course to encourage the team for a couple of reasons. First of all, I am extremely loud and do not want to be around anybody else during races. Secondly, I was about a quarter mile from the finish and felt I could provide the team with one last kick to the line that would possibly help us in the standings. As each athlete came by I literally yelled at them and fired them up as much as I possibly could. They probably thought I was crazy, but they all were happy I was there. It is always nice to see a familiar face when you are hurting so bad. The team gave it everything they could and I could not have been any happier.
After the race, we had no idea how we did (they were not announcing the results until the awards ceremony that night at 6pm) so there was the obvious calculating on my part. As many of my friends and family know, math is definitely not my strongest subject. We finally packed the bikes in to the van after everybody relaxed for a bit and headed back to the hotel. All I could think about was how we finished and what the squad did all season to lead up to this point. I was going to be content no matter what the results were.
The awards ceremony was an experience I will never forget. There were athletes from all over the country dressed up, or dressed down - however you viewed it. It was very festive atmosphere to say the least and all I wanted to know was how we did. The announcer finally got to the awards and we ended up repeating as the female Collegiate National Champions and the 5th overall team in the country. So stoked for them. I honestly do not think I have ever been more proud of any other team I have ever been associated with. All I asked these student athletes last Fall was to give me everything they had during practice and racing and I would be happy. They did exactly that.
After the awards ceremony I really began to reflect on the season. I really thought about why we succeeded and what the team meant to me. The results we achieved racing were amazing, but it is how we achieved our goals and the sacrifice these kids went through that really amazed me. Let me throw out some info on the team and see what you think . . .
Our Team President is 19yrs old and is studying Cognitive Science with a focus on Neuroscience and probably sleeps 5 hrs a night
Our team Vice President is pursuing a PhD in Computer Science
Our top female and team treasurer (and POST GRAD FEMALE NATIONAL CHAMPION - you are awesome Darlene) is pursuing a PhD in Bioengineering
Our sponsorship coordinator is pursuing a PhD in Biophysics
Another one of our female Nationals athletes is studying Biochemistry and was studying for the MCATs all weekend
Our top male and 2nd overall post grad male in the country is getting his PhD in Oceanography and was overseas on a research vessel in Antartica studying alternative energy resources on a grant from BP for two weeks before Nationals!
I could go on and on. I love bragging about my athletes, ask my wife! Oh, and by the way - our team GPA is 3.7. Find any other elite level athletic team in the country with that resume . . . Needless to say, I am one happy coach!
Now that the Collegiate season is almost over, most other teams are winding down and relaxing. The UCSD team is doing the exact opposite. The team is hosting a 5k on campus May 23rd which we hope will be the first GREEN event in Southern California. I will post more info as it unfolds, but I encourage EVERYONE who is in town Memorial Day weekend to come out for the 5k!
Thanks for reading!
Bike/Cleat fit analysis
April 10th, 2009Since I have some down time from training at the moment, I headed up to Orange county on Monday afternoon to get a proper bike fit/cleat analysis from my good friend Grady Funk. Grady had been to the FIST certification camp in Xantusia a couple weeks ago, put on by Dan Empfield, and learned a great deal about proper bike fit. He also was taught how to execute a proper bike cleat alignment from Paul Swift, which was a process I had never heard of but ended up benefiting me tremendously.
We were planning on the process taking a couple of hours, but once we turned on the lasers to see which way my knees were tracking it became evident that more time was going to be needed. I was not allowed to look down while I pedaled and naturally thought I had pretty efficient form. However, once Grady turned on the TV (after he recorded me riding) it was obvious that my knees were tracking to the inside. The lasers do not lie! So the solution was a shim under my left cleat and two shims under my right cleat (plus a wedge in my shoe) to offset my knees tracking to the inside. After the front tracking issues were resolved, Grady looked at my cleat position from a side angle with the lasers and decided that my cleats needed to be shifted so I could get the ball of my foot directly over the pedal. Grady and Mike Chalmers were pretty confident both these adjustments would allow me to produce more power. Very happy these guys took care of me.
Grady and Mike also set me up on the EXIT FIT bike and really tweaked my position. I switched over to Cannondale last year (after riding Cervelo) and was not nearly riding as aggressively as I was on my P3. They brought me forward, kept the same hip angle and dropped me about 4 cms more as well. I feel much more powerful now and am definitely in more of an “aggressive TT position.”
Here are the before and after pictures:
As you can see I have a slight hump in my back and am riding a in a traditional road position (75%).
With my new position, I am further forward (used a 120 stem), have a flatter back and the front end was dropped considerably (more aerodynamic) after the picture was taken.
Very excited to get back out there on the road!
A different perspective
April 5th, 2009On Saturday I had the opportunity to work with IM live doing the bike/run spotting for the pro field. I could not race due to my surgery so Roch assigned me to Murphy Reinschreiber to help spot throughout the race on the bike and run. I was a bit apprehensive when I was given my volunteer duty because I knew it was going to be hard to watch everybody race (selfish, I know).
I ended up doing the spotting for IM and even had Sergio to help me in the car. It is pretty cool to see how fast the pro field really rides. We were driving at about 45mph for much of the race and trying to get splits every 5 miles of the top 10 pro males. It was nearly impossible to catch up to them every checkpoint. The wind on the bike course was nonexistent and the temperature was a perfect 60 degrees. A great day to ride fast! It was very cool to see Bjorn pull away, but even cooler to see how Ronnie rode patiently and picked it up at the end to close the gap to Bjorn. He ended up posting the fastest bike split of the day and ran his way in to 3rd place overall. He raced very smart.
The run was where all the action was. I was stationed right at the Oceanside Pier and saw the men’s race really open up when Matt Reed went for it right from the gun. He put about a minute gap on a chase pack comprised of Cunningham, Potts, Bell and Ronnie, but this pack stayed shoulder to shoulder on the first lap and did not give much time up to Reed. It was hard to tell how fast they were running, but I knew Reed was setting a good clip. When he finished and Mike Reilly announced he had broken the course record and set the run course record by running a 1:11, I was speechless. NO ONE in this sport would have beaten Reed on Saturday, no one.
Other than the race, it was great to help set up the Zoot booth on Wednesday with Eli and Chris. I saw what went on behind the scenes this weekend at a major triathlon. Athletes complain all the time about different aspects of the race, but there is so much more going on behind the scenes that is A LOT more time consuming/mentally draining than racing. I would much rather race as an athlete than be a race director or set up merchandise.
One thing is for certain though . . . Matt Reed’s performance really fired me up to get healthy and start racing again. So I need to thank Reed for making me realize that my competitive desires are still very much there. I can not wait to get healthy and get back to racing!
Here are some pics of me on my way to spot the Pro run:
Also, a thank you to Finishline Multisport for running an interview with me on their website. You can read it here.