Doug MacLean, Pro Triathlete

Several months ago, I sent out a simple, 10-question survey to several USAT Elite Triathlon license holders.  In the US, “Elite” and “Pro” are used interchangeably, although they are not exactly the same thing in my mind (more on that later).  This wasn’t meant to be a super-scientific study, just a quick glimpse into our finances.  Here are the results of the survey:

. How long have you held a USAT Elite License?
	answered question		30
	skipped question		0
		Response Percent	Response Count
Less than 1 year		36.7%	11
1-3 years		26.7%	8
3-5 years		16.7%	5
>5 years		20.0%	6

2. What is your primary race format focus?
	answered question		30
	skipped question		0
		Response Percent	Response Count
Half Iron Distance		23.3%	7
Iron Distance		46.7%	14
Non-Drafting Olympic Distance		16.7%	5
ITU		13.3%	4

3. What is your primary source of income?
	answered question		30
	skipped question		0
		Response Percent	Response Count
Job “in the industry” (sales, coaching, etc…)		16.7%	5
Full-time job, not “in the industry”		46.7%	14
Part-time job, not “in the industry”		6.7%	2
Racing/Sponsorships		23.3%	7
Mom and Dad		0.0%	0
Spouse/Partner		3.3%	1
Savings from a Prior Job		3.3%	1

4. What percentage of your total income can be directly attributed to race performance? (prize purses & sponsor bonuses)
	answered question		30
	skipped question		0
		Response Percent	Response Count
0-10%		60.0%	18
10-25%		6.7%	2
25-50%		13.3%	4
50-75%		6.7%	2
75-100%		13.3%	4

5. Regardless of income from other sources, do you make enough money directly from racing (prize purses and sponsor bonuses) to live on? “Live on” means you can pay for your own rent, groceries, health insurance, car insurance, phone bill, etc…
	answered question		30
	skipped question		0
		Response Percent	Response Count
Yes		13.3%	4
No		86.7%	26

6. What is your annual income, from all sources?
	answered question		30
	skipped question		0
		Response Percent	Response Count
<$15,000		16.7%	5
$15,000-$25,000		16.7%	5
$25,000-$35,000		3.3%	1
$35,000-$55,000		20.0%	6
$55,000-$75,000		6.7%	2
>$75,000		36.7%	11

7. What is the most you’ve ever made in a single year, directly as a result of racing (prize money and sponsorships)?
	answered question		30
	skipped question		0
		Response Percent	Response Count
<$500		13.3%	4
$500-$2000		26.7%	8
$2000-$5000		16.7%	5
$5000-$10,000		3.3%	1
$10,000-$25,000		26.7%	8
$25,000-$40,000		6.7%	2
>$40,000		6.7%	2

8. What has been triathlon’s “net effect” on your net worth? (i.e. the total you’ve made directly from triathlon minus the total you’ve spent on triathlon)
	answered question		30
	skipped question		0
		Response Percent	Response Count
Net loss of >$10,000		33.3%	10
Net loss of $1 – $10,000		33.3%	10
Roughly broken even		13.3%	4
Net gain of $1 – $10,000		10.0%	3
Net gain of >$10,000		10.0%	3

9. Are you trying to make a living off racing, or is it just something you’re doing purely for fun/satisfaction?
	answered question		30
	skipped question		0
		Response Percent	Response Count
Trying to make a living		50.0%	15
Fun/Satisfaction		50.0%	15

10. Are you male or female?
	answered question		30
	skipped question		0
		Response Percent	Response Count
Male		60.0%	18
Female		40.0%	12

Here are some of the quick “takeaways” that I have from the survey:

***Most pro triathletes aren’t truly Pro Triathletes.  They are professional in something else, and just happen to be fast enough to race in the “Elite/Pro Category.”  Only 4 out of the 30 respondents actually make enough money from racing to support themselves.  The other 26?  Gotta get money from somewhere else to make the ends meet (unless they’re willing to live like hobos).

Sorry, fast age-groupers who think “pros” have a huge edge on you because of unlimited time for training:  most of us need to work other jobs, just like you.  I know several other Elite/Pros who are attorneys, physical therapists, teachers, shop owners, etc…  For me, personally, only about 10-15% of my income comes from racing.  The rest is from triathlon coaching.

***There are two distinct type of Elite License holders.  1) Those who have “regular” jobs, and are racing in the pro category to have fun and challenge themselves.  These folks actually make good money…  from a different job.

2) Those who have decided to throw everything else away and dedicate themselves 100% to triathlon.  They tend to be fairly poor, at least at the start.  Those who can make good money stay in the sport.  Those who can’t make good money from racing, either get a better paying job, or leave the sport (or accept living like hobos into their late 30′s and early 40′s… which is fine, it’s their life and they live it however they want).

***Being a Elite triathlete is not about making money off triathlon.  That certainly is part of it, and we all want to make money through triathlon, but if someone truly wants to be rich, there are more profitable paths to follow.  It’s about being the best you can be, and testing yourself against the best, in a sport that you love.  This is evidenced by the fact that most of us have experienced a net financial loss by being in triathlon.  I think most Elite License holders would be perfectly thrilled to make $35k per year from racing, and have a guaranteed job when they quit the sport.

Personally, I do it for the challenge.  Objectively, I have a strong resume full of challenging accomplishments.  However, racing as an Elite/Pro triathlete is by far the most challenging thing I’ve ever done, both mentally and physically.  There are a lot of talented athletes fighting for a relatively small pot of money, so it’s extremely competitive.  But because it’s so challenging and competitive, any successes I’ve had as a Elite/Pro triathlete are also the most satisfying successes I’ve ever known.

(addendum, a day later)

Summary:  There seems to be an underlying public assumption that “pro triathletes” are organized into a union/league/etc…, are receiving set salaries/gifts/ subsidies, etc..  That could not be further from the truth.  The term “pro triathlete” is very ambiguous.  In reality, here is the situation:

“Elite License Holder” is merely an arbitrary category made up by USA Triathlon, and having an Elite License does not automatically make one a “pro triathlete.” (I’m defining a true “pro” as someone who can make a living off the sport).  All an Elite License truly means is that USAT has deemed that a person is fast enough to race in the Elite wave.  Only a minority of Elite License holders are actually able to earn a decent living purely from racing.

It may be more realistic to view everyone trying to make a living through racing as an “independent contractor.”  We go after prize purses at races, and try to demonstrate our value to potential sponsors (in exchange for product and/or cash).  Every race winning & sponsor contract, is an individual, independent, entity.  We are employees of no one.  And the very best win enough so that they never need to be employees…

There is money out there to be won, and so we go after it.  It’s pure capitalism.  The money is out there.  Who gets it?  You? Me?  Let’s go and find out who wants it the most…

Until next time… keep training hard, and resting harder,

Doug MacLean

 Swimming… for some triathletes it’s natural and easy (i.e., those with a competitive swimming background). For the rest of us, it can be a huge challenge to learn the skills required for fast swimming, as adults. We end up learning as a hodgepodge of master’s sessions, advice from friends, advice from our coaches, and self-teaching. Self-teaching is the most effective method of learning (because even when a coach tells you something, you’re the one who has to master it, alone, during solo drill sessions). To make this easier, it’s a good idea to take advantage of tools that can help the process.

Balance is obviously the most important aspect of swimming to learn, as it forms the dividing line between “drowning” and “not-drowning.” But if you want to go fast, you also need to develop an effective and efficient pull phase. This is where the Finis PT Paddles come in. I’ve long been intrigued by these interesting, potato-shaped, paddles, so I ordered a pair from Aquagear Swim Shop.

The basic idea of PT Paddles is that they eliminate your hand from the swimming stroke. Swimming with PT Paddles feels similar to swimming with a closed fist, but it’s more effective than a closed fist at “eliminating your hand” for a couple of reasons: 1) It’s easy to “cheat” during fist swimming by opening your hand a little bit too much. 2) PT Paddles slip through the water easier than a fist, so they do an even better job of eliminating your hand than a closed fist does. Why is it good to eliminate your hands? Well… you can use PT Paddles to your advantage in a couple of ways….

1. During normal swimming (i.e. without PT Paddles), an early vertical forearm is a crucial component of the catch, and is vital to going fast. PT Paddles are a great tool for teaching the early vertical forearm. Here’s why… When your hands are eliminated, you need to find other anchoring surfaces to hold the water as you propel your body through the pool. Without hands, the most obvious surfaces are your forearms. But, the only way your forearms work as anchor points is if they’re vertical (perpendicular to your direction of motion). The PT Paddles encourage you to get an early vertical forearm, because you won’t go anywhere if you don’t get a vertical forearm with PT Paddles on. Using PT Paddles on both hands, while doing an otherwise regular swim stroke, is a great way to learn the movement patterns necessary for an early vertical forearm.

2. Another, less obvious use, is teaching yourself a finish. You can do one-arm swimming to work on your finish, and that’s good as basic drill work, but it’s lacking because it doesn’t simulate a natural swim stroke. Fortunately, the PT Paddles allow you to do one-arm swimming within the flow of a normal swim stroke. How? Put a PT Paddle on one hand, and a “regular” paddle on your other hand. All of a sudden, you’ve got one arm giving you a ton of propulsion (with the regular paddle), and one arm giving you almost no propulsion (with the PT Paddle). You learn very quickly to pull all the way through to the finish with your “regular” paddle hand. This is a drill I’ve been doing a TON lately, after video analysis showed that the finish on my pull is almost non-existent.

PT Paddles are a great tool, and I highly recommend including them in your swim gear bag. There are more drills you can do with these paddles, I just listed the two that I use most frequently. I have almost all of my athletes doing extensive PT Paddle drill sets at least 2-3 times per month. You wouldn’t necessarily use them for any “all out” sets, but they are extremely useful during warm-ups, and during “technical focus” workouts. But remember to check your ego at the door when you’re using PT Paddles, because when they’re on, expect to move through the water slowwwwwwwwwwly… haha! (although, that’s kind of the point, right?)

Until next time… keep training hard, and resting harder!

Hey… so this is a couple of very short race reports, and a short retrospective on 2012.  I raced Ironman Lake Placid on July 22.  It went well, so I tried to throw together a pretty tough double, Rev3 Cedar Point on Sep 9 and the Leadman Epic 250 on Sep 22.  This proved to be a poor decision, as I found out I was just too fatigued to race well at 3 ultra-distance races in such a short time period.

Race #1 – Rev3 Cedar Point.  It was a choppy, non-wetsuit swim, which is never a good sign for me.  I had a huge deficit coming out of the water, and I was a bit deflated at the beginning of the bike.  Jeff Paul caught me at mile 30, and that snapped me out of my funk.  I actually rode pretty well the rest of the way, setting a 112 mile PR of 4:47:xx (23.4 mph), and I got myself back into the middle of the pack.  Out on the run, things were going decently.  Around mile 14, I realized there was no way I’d get into the top-10 (prize money went 10 deep), so I shut things down and just jogged it home for the last 12 miles, in an attempt to save my legs for Leadman.  The end result was a miserable 3:14 marathon, and a 14th place finish (9:15:xx total time).

Race #2 – Leadman Epic 250, Bend, OR.  Holy moly… this race was epic.  Lifetime Fitness absolutely hit it out of the park.  Amazing venue, creative distances, very well produced… I could go on and on about how great of a job they do.  It was a 5 km swim, 223 km bike, and 22 km run.  Here’s the swim venue, and bike course .  Crazy nice!

Things started out well, as I made it to a swim group, and got out of the water about 8-9 minutes behind the leaders.  I was right where I wanted to be… until I wasn’t.  Instead of going out and riding with the pack, I insisted on being conservative and riding strictly by heart rate.  This was a mistake, as I was quickly riding by myself, and “the race” was several miles up the road.  At mile 50, I got a case of really bad speed wobbles, and I was weaving uncontrollably back-and-forth across the road at 45 mph.  I’m still surprised that I didn’t crash, and it scared me so much that it all but took me out of the race from a mental perspective (on a semi-related note… I’m looking to get a new wheelset this winter…).  I got myself back together on the run, but it was far too little, far too late.  I ended up crossing the line in 9:09:53, good for 10th pro.

Thoughts 0n 2012

2012, by and large, was a disappointment.  I had one good effort (IM Lake Placid), and everything else was sub-par.  I won’t sit here and list several paragraphs of excuses.  I’m just going to say that I pushed things too much in training, I didn’t have the discipline to stop myself, and it turned into a giant negative feedback loop, affecting me both mentally and physically. I know what went wrong, and my coaches (Jesse Kropelnicki, and Tim Snow) know what went wrong.  It’s not going to happen again in 2013.  I refuse to let it happen again, and that’s that.   I know what I need to do to be fast in 2013.  Expect a big leap in my performance, because I have lofty goals, and I’m not going to let anything get in my way.

A couple of weeks ago, I raced Ironman Lake Placid.  I came across the line in 9:33:25, which was good enough to make me the 5th place professional.  Going into the race, I didn’t care about my time, all I cared about was my place.  Looking at the field, I knew it would be a good day for me to get in the top-5, so my goal was to finish 5th.  Success! Haha!

Swim – 2.4 miles, 1:00:05 (10th place coming out of the water)

I love the swim in Mirror Lake.  Perfect temperature, perfectly flat water, and a convenient underwater cable line, so that we barely even have to sight.  Just follow the cable!  Easy as cake!

After the cannon fired, we had a mess for about 300 meters, but things settled down pretty quickly.   I was in a group of 5-6 guys, but they dropped me at the turn at 900 meters.  I then swam the rest of the way with Ryan Grant, and we did a pretty good job of working together.  It was a swim PR for me, so I was happy when I got out of the water.

Bike – 112 miles, 5:18:48, (8th place at the end of the bike)

I took out the bike a bit harder than planned, but things felt good, so I just went with it. At the first turnaround (roughly 35 miles into the race), I saw that I was in 9th place, but only about 3-4 minutes down from 5th.  Perfect!  Exactly where I was hoping to be.  At the second turnaround (about 10 miles later), I had maintained my gaps to the other riders, so things were on track.  Knowing where I was in the field, and knowing that I had gone a bit too hard on the first 56 miles, I backed off considerably on the second half of the bike, in an attempt to save my legs for the run.  I knew I would give up a couple more minutes to the guys I was chasing, but it seemed that on the hot, windy day we were dealing with, being slightly conservative was the right approach.

Run – 26.2 miles, 3:08:48 (5th place at the finish)

Getting off the bike, my legs felt pretty trashed, still hurting from over-biking on the first  56 miles of the bike.  Con sarnit!!  I usually go out pretty hard during Ironman runs, but given how my legs felt, I was fairly confident that going out hard would end up in disaster.  So again, just like on the 2nd loop of the bike, I held myself back.  I wasn’t going easy, but I certainly wasn’t going very hard, either.  The plan was to just coast along until my legs “came back to me.”  Along the way, I managed to work my way into 7th place, which was nice.  Then, at about the 8 mile mark, my legs returned, and at that point, I decided I had to make a move at the halfway point.  So, I continued my relaxed cruising until mile 13, but then when I hit mile 13, it was time to attack.  It hurt like a son of a gun, but it paid off, as I took over 5th place at the 17 mile mark.  The last 9 miles were just survival, and I had to do everything I could to hold off Brad Seng, Tim Tapply, and Logan Franks.  They were coming at me hard, and I had to go pretty deep in the well to hold them off.  Below is a graph of my HR profile during the run.  Based on the graph, it looks like I nailed the pacing, but that lift at the end?  Oh my!  That hurt like nothing I’ve experienced in recent memory…  My hamstrings then thanked me by simultaneously cramping right as I crossed the finish line.  Good timing by them I guess, right? Ha!

Thoughts -

My finishing time wasn’t particularly inspiring, but this was the best “race” I’ve ever been involved in during my triathlon career.  I say that because many Iron-distance events are essentially glorified individual time trials.  But this was no time trial – it was Logan, Brad, Tim, and I racing tactically, and fighting it out for 5th place.  I have a lot of respect for those guys, so I was very happy about coming out on top.

Of course, I’d like to thank some people and companies for believing in me, it means more than you might imagine.  My coaches – Tim Snow and Jesse Kropelnicki, of QT2 Systems, have put up with some really insane questions from me.  Mike Orton and Ryan Vanderloop of blueseventy have been awesome about making sure I have the best swim gear possible.  Jeff Clarkson of Schwalbe Tires gets me on the fastest tires in cycling.  Tom Keen at Cliff Keen has gone above and beyond the call of duty to get me in a super comfortable (and stylish!) custom-designed racing kit.  Eric Walle and George Thoma at Clif Bar keep me fueled with the healthiest & tastiest gels, bloks, bars, and drinks in sports nutrition.  Anders Porter for getting me some Core Power, which tastes like melted ice cream… but is somehow an incredibly healthy protein supplement (amazing!).  Chris Lupo of Rudy Project has protected my noggin with some awesome sunglasses and bike helmets.  And of course… the “Marty McFly look-a-like” himself, Sean Walter of QF Media, for having my back and always looking for new ways of helping me to advance my career as an athlete.

Special shout out section for all of QT2, especially Mary Eggers (and her Egg-A-Phone!), Tim Snow, Cait Snow, Charlie Abrahams, Pat Wheeler, and Jesse Kropelnicki.  Their support during the race was the best I’ve ever experienced, and it played a huge role in getting me to the finish line.  I felt like we had “home field advantage” at Lake Placid, and they were the biggest contributors to that advantage.

Now, it’s time to put Lake Placid in the rearview mirror, and get ready for Rev3 Cedar Point and the Leadman 250!!

I’ll keep this short…

It’s race week for Ironman Lake Placid.  Less than 7 days to go now…  I’ve given up a lot for this race – including “sabotaging” the first half of my racing season.  What I mean by “sabotaging” is that is up until April, I wasn’t really doing “triathlon specific” training, I was just working on fixing some limiters (swim durability, bike strength).  Tim and Jesse decided that I needed about 3 months of “race specific triathlon training” to get ready for an Ironman, so I started running again in April, and I’ve been building up the mileage ever since.  I’ve had some relatively slow performances thus far in 2012, largely as a result of the way I’ve prepared for, and solely focused on, Lake Placid.  I didn’t really care how I did at Leadman or Quassy, they were just workouts to help my Placid preparation.  This took a lot more discipline than you might think – I went into these races knowing I would get beat, by a lot.  But I was willing to accept those beatings, because I knew it was all a part of chasing after a bigger goal.

Well, Ironman Lake Placid is here, and it’s Go Time in about 156 hours.  Time to unveil what I’ve been obsessively working on for the last 9 months.  I’m not really sure what my time will be, or what place I’ll finish in.  I just know it’ll be a lot better than anything I’ve ever done before.

On March 31, I raced at the Lifetime Fitness Leadman 125, in Boulder City, NV.  Between the course, and the wind conditions, it was a very tough day out on the course… just the way triathlon should be!  On to the report…

Swim (2.5 km)

After a pre-race swim on Thursday, I was pretty nervous about how cold the water would be on race day.  I didn’t see a thermometer, but I’d guess the water on race day was about 60 deg, so it ended up being fine.  The real challenge of this swim was the choppy water.  High winds really kicked up the waves, and with my low swimming cadence, I was getting pushed back a lot by the waves.  Essentially, the waves served to widen the gap between the fast swimmers and the “slow” swimmers.  Unfortunately, I’m one of the “slow” swimmers.  Matt Russell and I swam together, and exited the water in 43 minutes, which was a few minutes back from the main group.

Bike (110 km)

I stole this image from Thomas Gerlach, and it should tell you everything you need to know about the conditions on the bike course:

It was WINDY.  The bike was more a battle of attrition and survival, than of speed.  I’ve never been so terrified in a race – the wind there made Hawi look like child’s play, and there were some real “white knuckle” descents.  Luckily, my recent bike focus paid off, and I had a decent ride.  My power was a lowly 252 watts, which was 30 watts lower than I did in a 3 hour race simulation 4 weeks earlier.  I’m not too surprised by that, because with the extreme wind and all of the descending, there were a lot of sections where I had to soft-pedal, or not pedal at all, and those intervals killed my average power numbers.  But everyone had to deal with the same conditions, so it all evened out in the end.

Run (13 km)

My garmin file should tell you a lot about what this run felt like… 

Yes, it was point-to-point, and entirely uphill.  Throw on top of that the fact that we had a headwind for about 75% of it, and you can see why the run times were so slow.  For purposes of comparison, I usually run about 6:55-7:05 pace in an Ironman, which is over triple the distance of the Leadman 125.  There’s no other way to describe it, this run was brutal.  It didn’t help that I was dehydrated coming off the bike, so I spent the first 2 miles just slamming as many fluids as I could.  I finally felt “normal” again around mile 5, and then just cruised home, making sure to go fast enough to hold my position.

Results (5th Male Pro)

My performance was very “meh”.  I don’t mean “meh” in a negative way, just that I didn’t do anything spectacular, but nothing went horribly wrong, either.  And I ended up winning some money, so I really have nothing to complain about.  I went as hard as I could go for 5+ hours on that day, and gained some valuable experience.  It was a tough day, but I got through it, and it’s time to start building up for the rest of the year.  Here’s a photo at the awards ceremony, with Dan Ford (who was an awesome host for the weekend):

I’d like to thank Keith Hughes, Daniel Brienza, Mary Beth Kunz for putting on a fantastic event.  I hope to race with them again, at the Leadman 250 in Bend, OR, on Sep 22.  Also, I could not have gotten here without my sponsors, so I’d like to thank them as well:  Cliff Keen Triathlon, QT2 Systems, Rudy Project, blueseventy, Schwalbe Tires, and Clif Bar.

Moving Forward

     Leadman marked the end of my “preseason”.  I haven’t run more than 17 miles in a week since November, as I’ve just been working on swimming and biking.  Now that Leadman is over, I’m going to shift my training to have a more typical balance between swim/bike/run, as I start my build towards Ironman Lake Placid.

I recently received a pair of Inov-8 Road-X Lite 155 running shoes.  I was very excited. Forrest Gump excited. “The best gift anyone could ever get in the wide world.  New Shoes!” And when you get a new pair of shoes, there’s only one thing to do!  Get runnin’!!!

(before I get to my thoughts on the 155′s, here’s a page with all the technical info).

Some background – what I’m looking for in a shoe is something lightweight, with neutral support.  Simpler is better – I don’t want a lot of rubber between my foot and the road, because I believe that the human foot is a far better shock absorber than  anything a shoe company can manufacture.  I want a shoe that has enough rubber to protect my feet from rocks/glass/etc.., but not so much rubber that it interferes with my foot’s ability to function naturally.  Last year, I ran in the Puma Faas 250′s.  They were good, but I knew there had to be something even better and lighter out there.  I came across the Inov-8 Road X-Lite 155, and it looked like it met all of my requirements.  Light? Is 5.5 oz light enough for you? Check. Thin sole? 6 mm. Check. Neutral support? Check. Minimal heel/forefoot differential? 3mm. Check. Just looking at it, I knew it had the potential to be a very fast shoe.

I took them out for a few sessions, and just as I suspected, they were exactly what I was looking for.  The greatest compliment you can pay to a running shoe is that you forget that you’re even wearing shoes, and that’s how I felt in the 155′s.  They’re fairly narrow, so they hugged my foot well (i.e. no slipping around, kind of like spandex around your feet).  The thin sole and low heel allowed for very natural mid-foot striking, and I was able to just… run!  The only thing I wasn’t used to was the style of the sole, which is essentially just a flat piece of rubber (i.e. no deep “waffle type” grid).  I like this because it’s really annoying when rocks get stuck in typical “waffle” soles.  The only downside of no “waffle” sole is that you feel every rock when you step on it.  So I wouldn’t take these out on rocky trails.  But, they’re specifically called the “Road X-Lite 155″, implying they’re intended for the roads, so… stay on roads, tracks, and and well-groomed trails!

The next question, of course, is, “who should be running in the Road X-Lite 155?” We all know that there’s not one shoe for everyone, so I’ll just say…. most people?  I really mean that, but with a BIG qualifier.  I recommend the 155 for athletes who have spent enough time developing foot strength to run in a thin, neutral shoe without injuring themselves.  I developed plantar fasciitis in 2007, when running in thick, “stabilizer type” shoes.  I got rid of the pain relatively quickly, but I also decided that I never wanted it again.  So I made a commitment to strengthening my feet and running in less supportive shoes, and I haven’t had plantar fascia issues since. (and yes, I will be racing Iron-distance events in these shoes, they are more than enough to keep you good for 26.2 miles… it drives me crazy when people think they need a thick, bulky shoe for longer races)

I believe that almost everyone can develop the foot strength to run in a minimal shoe, it’s just a matter of time.  Some runners have the ability to run in the 155 now, and some may require strengthening and a program of running in progressively less supportive shoes before being ready for something like the 155.  But in the end, going through the process is worth it, because running in the 155 is a joy.