Ethan Brown: Professional Triathlete

I’m 3 hours away from racing HyVee, a bit nervous but nice and cool in my hotel room. Terrible race last week – 28th in DC and I’m looking for redemption. Will be a tough 64 man race with a one million dollar prize purse. Triathlon needs more of these. Wish me luck

Hi all, sorry for not posting this sooner – here is the link to my latest race report from the ITU Austin Continental Cup. The race  did not go my way, and I came away with a 6th place finish after being ranked 3rd going into the event. It could’ve been much worse though – there was a nasty bike pileup right next to me with a few K to go that took out a few of my good friends and former teammates. I expended too much energy on the bike and found that my legs were zapped by the time I got onto the run. I went into damage control mode as I shuffled along trying to salvage ITU points and hold off a few athletes who were closing in on me. Like I said, it could’ve been worse, so I can’t be too disappointed. Last year at this time I hadn’t even finished an ITU race because of mechanical problems in Mazatlan and then getting hypothermia at Worlds.

I’m now back home in Lowell, MA and have begun an intense training block leading up to the Washington DC and HyVee ITU races. This will probably be my toughest block of training in the whole year. After this I’ll be racing quite frequently, traveling to Europe for most of July, and most likely preparing to race at the ITU Grand Final in Gold Coast, Australia. I’m sure the next 3 months will be an adventurous blur as I travel and race all over the world!

Sooo I’m happy to report that my foot is almost completely better and I’ve been able to log consistent, pain-free miles outside for 2 weeks now. However, because I’ve lost so much ground being injured, I do not think that my running is where it needs to be in order to be competitive in the Ishigaki World Cup and Tongyeong WCS race – two races with very stiff competition.  Becuase of this, I’ve withdrawn my name from those start lists. I think this is the best choice because I can spend those two weeks 1) not wasting energy traveling in Asia 2) continuing to develop my running and 3) racing closer to home. So that’s what I’ve decided to do. I’m going to race St Anthony’s on April 26th instead. This will be a very competitive race, but since my swimming and biking are far better than my runing at the moment, a non-draft race seems like my best opportunity to maximize success. I haven’t ruled out doing the continental cup race in Mazatlan, but I’m leaning strongly towards St. Anthony’s. It’s one of those classic races that I feel every triathlete should do at some point. So that’s that. No Japan for now

The Olympic Training Center is strapped for cash at the moment and coming up with all these energy/$$ saving measures. Their latest experiment, however, is not a popular one among the athletes. The maintenance crew installed these low-flow shower heads on all my building’s showers, and to say that they’re less than satisfactory is an understatement. We originally thought that someone was playing a joke on us, but when we asked about it at the front desk we were told it was permenant. We can no longer say “I’m taking a shower”, instead, it’s “I’m taking a mist”, because that’s what the water pressure feels like. The MOST unsatisfying showers ever! The water always feels like it’s cold because it’s more of a fine spray than anything. We’ve been complaining non-stop about it (triathletes are good at that), and our complaints have been noted… but disregarded…

On the training front things have been going quite well. I’ve been averaging about 25k/wk in the pool and 10 hours/wk on the bike with lots of intensity. Swimming and biking are feeling stronger than they’ve ever been, just hope the running comes around as I continue to build. The other day I had a 3 hour ride with 3×20 min hill climbs up Honey Springs. After my first one I began descending back down to the bottom when I noticed my back wheel fishtailing – a flat. I stopped, began to change it, got out my spare tube, and realized that it had a broken valve – I was stranded! I called my lifeline (Sexton), and luckily he answered. He agreed to come out and rescue me in his Audi. A few minutes later anothe rider came by and asked if everything was ok. I explained the situation, and he offered me a spare tube. I was back in business! I finished the workout with only about a 10 minute delay and notified Sexton that he didn’t have to come get me. That’s the first time I’ve flatted out here (and hopefully the last).