Nick Brown

I know it’s been a while since my last post. Here is my attempt at a lame excuse: Graduate school is not undergraduate school. It’s a lot more time consuming then I had expected. I read and write a lot for school. So much that at the end of the day, the last thing I want to do is write some more.

I’ve been busier then I had expected this winter. My training consistency has suffered a little bit. Not terribly, I still got in a lot of big weekends in preparation for this weekend’s race, but I definitely logged more consistent training when I lived in San Diego. I think it may actually be easier to train with a 9 to 5 job then a with a student’s schedule. With the 9 to 5, at the end of the day you are done. Work stays at the office and you can train your butt off. As a student, responsibilities and tasks are always hanging over your head.

I love Oregon. The winter has been wet and cold, but it didn’t hold me back. Believe it or not, bicycles do work in the rain. That is all I’m going to say about that. The mountains and wilderness up here are great.

Since February I have I experimented with cycling road racing and time trials a bit. Since I’m a beginner, I race as a CAT 5. I truly believe that I am one of the strongest cyclists in this field. A typical road race plays out as follows: I ride about three hours before the race starts to get in my volume for the weekend. Once the race starts, I sit in the pack and conserve energy until I get bored. At some point I leap off the front in pursuit of solo domination. About 10 minutes later the pack gobbles me back up. I sit in the pack and conserve energy until I get bored…the process repeats itself several times. Then I get pissed and sit on the front and hammer in a sorry attempt to punish everybody for not letting me get away. About 200 meters from the finish the entire field, including the guy in the primal jersey who bounces with every peddle stroke, ride around me. Road racing is the most frustrating sport in the world.

I have had more success with time trials. As triathletes, we rarely get to empty the tank on the bike. Want to know a secret? Its lung searing, black spot seeing, pain cave dwelling AWESOME. I’ve done two small races and I think I finished second in the 4/5 field each time. For each race my finishing time would have also placed me in the top 10 of the CAT 3 field and in the top half of the 1/2 field. While road racing drives me mad, I’ve developed a passion for TTs.

I’ve done two tri’s thus far in 2010. IM 70.3 Oceanside and USAT Collegiate Nationals. I had a poor swim, solid bike and terrible run at Oceanside. The first six miles of the run were great, and then I was crippled by the same nausea issues that plagued me at IM Louisville and Kona. Two weeks later I did my best to train through USAT Collegiate Nats. Lubbock TX was a mess due to a few days of torrential rains. The swim was shortened due to wind and cold. I have never been in such a violent swim pack. I had a solid bike again but couldn’t get my legs to fire for the run. I am very comfortable with long course racing, but shorter races continue to be a weakness for me.

Enough with the catching up. I’ve been focusing on IM St. George all winter and I’m going to start writing that blog now….

http://media.barometer.orst.edu/media/storage/paper854/news/2009/10/02/News/Osus-Very.Own.ironman-3791462.shtml

The goal today was a two hour run.  90 minutes steady and smooth, 30 minutes at tempo.  I don’t know the area well enough by foot to know any good routes, so I just went exploring.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/11328323

It made for some inconsistent pacing, as I was stopping at lights, turning around, getting lost, etc.  But I am more familiar with the assortment of parks within running distance of my place and more familiar with OSU’s campus.  I’ll call that a success.

The tempo part was harder then I had hoped.  Yesterday, I was running 6:55 off of the bike like it was nothing.  Today, 6:30s seemed awfully difficult after 90 minutes on my feet.  I was attacked by a bush 18 minutes into the effort and I took that as an omen to call it quits.

Ok so maybe “attacked by a bush” is really “ran into the bush because I wasn’t paying attention”.  Regardless, I have to get use to plant life with teeth again.  Not to mention the poisonous varieties that I noticed while taking a piss at the side of the road yesterday.

Yesterday I mentioned that I might be capable of running the marathon at 7:10 pace at IM Louisville.  Today I’m thinking 7:30 is more realistic.  It doesn’t really matter.  I probably won’t make up my mind until I’m running out of T2 on the 30th.

Yesterday I found a tri/bike shop in Corvallis.  “Northwest Multisport” had a surprisingly nice setup and a good selection of bikes and gear for this sleepy town.  I met the owner, Gordo, and he set me up with directions for a 2.5 hour trip.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/11213426

I loved the ride.  Rolling hills and then a flat section through Willimate Valley farmlands.  That’s right.  I live at the end of the Oregon Trail.  You are hard pressed to find light controlled intersections around here, and if it weren’t for the logging trucks, traffic would be non-existent.

Today, my Garmin 705 and www.mapmyride.com was a lifesaver.  I found a bunch of rides starting from Corvallis which random people have stored on line.  I figured out how to download the rides to the Garmin so that I had turn-by-turn directions., making it hard for direction challenged folks like me to get lost.  Score.

I picked the “80 mile” ride that somebody had called “weekend ride”, assuming that only a local staple of a route would deserve that name.  It started on the flat valley floor but started to roll through the first 20 miles.  At mile 22 I entered pine and moss forest and the first of two significant climbs.  2 miles of a 7 to 8 percent grade climbing about 900 feet.  I felt great, was digging the view, forest and switchbacks.  An organized ride was trickling past in the other direction and I had plenty of cyclists to wave and smile at.  Riders seem eager to greet and wave up here.

It took 15 miles to make the descent!  Sweetness!  The road narrowed and turned to one lane, but the pavement was great.  Forest canopy covered over head.  I snapped this pic on a “flatter” portion.

Yea, I’m diggin’ the trees. Corvallis smells like pinesol.

Two hours passed and I ended up in the town of Alsea.  Really its just an intersection and a “merchantile” store.  My bottles were empty so I stopped to buy some Gatorade and water.

I passed on the gizzards.

Any store with a picture of “The Duke” on the wall is alright in my book.

A big cat was guarding the beer.  I don’t need to run into one of these guys on my trail runs.

I left the store and continued on the valley floor.  After a couple miles this ominous view appeared:

It was alright though, I didn’t climb the big hill in the picture.  The road turned left and I got to crawl up a bigger one.  Over six miles I climbed about 1000 feet.  The road was straight and the grade pretty constant and not really very severe.  I could see the peak from a good distance away and I paced my effort up the hill accordingly.  I got the top and started to relax and descend when I noticed my Garmin squaking at me to turn left.  What left?

I doubled back, found the road, and was introduced to Mary’s peak.  This is where the climb really started.  I began the day looking for a steady ride over some moderate rollers, but the Garmin had laid out the challenge and I wasn’t going to back down.  IM or no IM.  The entire climb ended up being 8.6 miles and 1500 feet and included five miles at a 7% grade.  I turned around when the course I had downloaded doubled back on itself but get this….I wasn’t anywhere near the top.  I have found the Corvallis version of Palomar. Mary and I have some business to take care of after Louisville.

The decent?  Wow.  My knuckles haven’t been that white in a while.  Once I was back on the valley floor I kept it steady (I was pretty torched) until I arrived back at my place.  Sweet ride.  I was feeling pretty good about my 70 miles and 5K feet until I got home and saw a tweet from James Walsh claiming 96 miles and 8K+.  Somebody always has to bring it a step further.

Here is the whole ride:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/11270057

Quick run after the ride.  A bit hot for IM pace, but maybe I can hold 7’s or 7:10’s?

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/11273822

I get more and more excited about training out here every day.  If anybody down in San Diego wants to make a 1K mile trip to get some training in a different climate, let me know.  Just try to avoid dysentery on the way up, and don’t let anybody steal your oxen.

Just before memorial day this year I got notice that I would be taking a two week trip through Iraq, departing a mere ten days after I was notified.  The pictures in the blog entry below of my memorial day run through a Pennsylvania forest are from just before I left.

The two week trip in Iraq ended up lasting five.  Of course I was unable to ride and swim in Iraq, so I ran at every opportunity, trying to salvage all of the training I had done this winter and spring for Ironman Louisville on August 30th.  “Every opportunity” was at about 10 PM every night when the temperature cooled to around 100 and again at 0500 in the morning, when the sun was up but the temperatures hovering in the 90s.

Running in Iraq was even harder then I had imagined.  I don’t know if I should attribute it to the awkward training hours, the dry heat, the hassles of life in a “contingency area” (Iraq is no longer a “war zone”), but my perceived effort of the slowest and easiest runs was always way to intense. My efforts to get a decent amount of training “hours” solely by running was probably to much to soon.  What felt like tendinitis in my left Achilles developed and I abandoned running about halfway through my trip. (In hindsight, I probably could have ran through what was more of an irritation then injury, but I was afraid, tired and overworked.  Taking a break just seemed like the right thing to do.)

I returned after two and a half weeks of training goose eggs and five weeks of no cycling or swimming with  eight weeks to prepare for Louisville.  I was busy at work, turning my job over with my relief and preparing for my departure from San Diego to Corvallis Oregon.  Regardless, I put my head down and worked through the initial frustration that came from the illusion of “lost fitness” that came with my first weeks of resumed training.

My last week in San Diego (last week) was one of the biggest training weeks I have ever attempted.  It contained two century rides and a 22 mile run.  I was gambling, overreaching to try to make the best of my limited window to prepare.  The gamble paid off because I felt great all week.  For the first time ever, I successfully hung on to the famous “Swami’s” ride all the way to the church and then continued on to complete a 108 mile ride. On Sunday I had an epic run AROUND Mission Bay and La Jolla.  I stopped four miles away from completing a full marathon and was on pace to run sub 3:25!  The numbers posted and feats accomplished have raised my self confidence to an all time high.

By the time I was leaving San Diego on Tuesday I was ready for a few well deserved easy days of driving.

Which brings me to the present.  The Navy has sent me from San Diego to Oregon State University to pursue a graduate degree in Ocean Engineering.  School starts on the 28th of September and I’ll be here for 18 months.  Until classes start, I’ll be settling in, getting used to the area and continuing to prep for Louisville.  I’m looking forward to racing (its been awhile).  I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t vying for a Kona slot, but I really just want to see that my fitness has increased since my Ironman Debut in AZ last November.

You can probably expect more blog posts over the next few weeks.  This town is just like my old home town, dead quiet until students return in the fall.  What a great opportunity to focus.

Before I disappeared, (more on that later), I made a new investment.  I am now the proud owner of a loaded Lynskey R330.

I purchased my last road bike right when I moved to San Diego two years ago.  The Felt’s purpose at first was to get my rear end back and forth to work (up and down the “strand” from IB to Coronado).  The triathlon bug bit, we raced together, I bought my P2C, the Felt became a nice complement to my training.  The 2nd bike in my quiver of two was used for climbing Palomar, commuting to work or recovery rides.

The more time I spent riding and training, the more I came to appreciate the sport of cycling for what it is.  The more I learned about cycling, the more I learned about bicycles.  There was nothing wrong with my aluminum Felt, but it left me wanting.  It wasn’t a perfect fit to my body.  It wasn’t truly a racing frame.  Now that I had an “intermediate” understanding of cycling, my taste had become more selective (complemented by my inner-engineer-geekness).

I desired a road bike frame that I would be proud to race on, that was bombproof (I want any kids of mine to be fighting over it when I’m on my death bed), and most importantly, that fit.

The Navy, for some reason, decided to keep me around for another few years.  I must really have them fooled because they also paid me to stay!.  “Here - take this money for keeping your job”.  Regardless of how it came about, the cash would make my road frame acquisition possible.

I give you:  Emma Lee…

…so named after Old Sidecar Doobey’s “pretty round-eyed” wife in the novel Once a Runner. “Woman…we fixin’ to do some night ridin’!”

The R330 has the new Dura Ace 7900 groupset, except for the chainrings and crank.  I also invested in a pair of Quarq powermeters (one for the road and one for the TT - I figured I could by two for around the price of an SRM or for a Powertap and costs from rebuilding two or more wheels) and the Quarq dictated FSA chainrings and cranks.  I’m riding Dura-Ace wheels and Hutchinson tubless tires.  The front fork and the cranks are the only carbon, the seatpost and handlebars are aluminum Ritchey WCS.

I can’t begin to tell you how sweet it is to ride this.  I also can’t differentiate what comes from a good fitting or what comes from the components and frame.  All I know is that everything is smooth, I love how the road feels and I want to go  “strafe the golldanged pigeons” when I ride it.

More pics are below.  I love how clean the bike frame looks and the subtle design intricacies Lynskey included like the oval chain stays and twisted seat stays.

I must make Matt Simpson at Rivet Cyclesport for making this possible.  He put up with me and my persistent questions for weeks before I actually shelled out any money.  Thanks to him I feel good about every piece of the bike we selected.  I know why its there and why its what I want.  He can also take credit for the fact that the bike fits me so well that I feel like the bike is an extension of my body when I’m riding.

Memorial Day finds me at home.  Mom’s place, in the hills on the outskirts of State College Pennsylvania.  I’m glad to be home, as I really needed a chance to decompress and reload after hectic begging to Spring.

Its my favorite time of year in Pennsylvania.  The leaves just came out, and the woods are bright green.  Mom is happy to see me, and is doing everything she can to make me fat.

When I grew up out here, I never really appreciated the area for what it is.  I had mountain bikes when I was a kid, and I frequented the state game lands and state forests around my home.  But I never truley understood what I had in my backyard until now.  Excuse me for breaking out the overused california term, but the running here is epic.  Miles and miles and miles of hiking trails, fire roads, gravel roads, dirt roads, single track and ATV paths.  All interwoven around, up and over the rolling hills of Appalachians.  Sure the mountains aren’t as big as out west, but that doesn’t mean there isnt ascent (and descent) to be had.  The land ROLLS out here and the scenery is great.  I’m lucky if I see another human on a 10 mile run out here.

I’ve been home for three days now and I have four runs and a swim under my belt.  Here are some pics I took on my first run.  I was shrugging off fatigue from a red eye into town and just wanted to stretch my legs, so I took the old camera phone, a-la Dave Platfoot.  Be careful San Diegan’s.  There is a lot of green to follow and you may not be used to it.

Leaving the front porch….

Turned right at the logging trucks sign (none were to be seen)

and was greeted by an endless amount of this:

Passed the “Sand Mountain” trail head…made a mental note and ran this the next morning.

Turned left at the creek, but only for a mile…..

Here is the creek….

No Hunting!

The road was blocked just past a bridge over the creek…

…turned around, and ran back to my original road.  Continued out of the State Forest…..

…through more of this…

…and into the local scout camp…

where I was reintroduced to humans (fishing in the left of the image).

Central PA or Easter Island?  I like how the statue and Felipe have the same haircut.

So I ran out of the scout camp and passed some hunting cabin’s down the road.  One had a familiar name, but Quentin wasn’t home.

All good things come to an end, and soon enough I was next to the highway, about a mile and a half from mom’s house.  Note how the sign says the road ends well before that…

This is where directions to my mom’s place instruct you to “turn off the paved road” and the banjos que in…

….home sweet home.

The cycling out here also looks amazing.  If I only would have known when I was younger.  I’d love to have three weeks or so back home with nothing to do but run, ride and swim (which requires a trip to town).  Maybe next spring…