Brent McMahon has been a part of triathlon in Canada for almost twenty years. An ITU World Cup winner, Silver and Bronze Pan-Am Games Medalist, 2X Olympian, and 2x Xterra World Championship Bronze Medalist….his list of achievements goes on. Having recently come off another big result, winning 70.3 St. George, we caught up with Brent while on his way to race the challenging 5150 Columbia Olympic Distance race this weekend in Maryland.
Great to have you here on Trimes for a chat, we follow your random blog photo updates so it is nice to get a few words out of you here. First off, congratulations on a stellar performance this past weekend in St. George at the US 70.3 Championships.
We will get into the race in a bit but let’s first begin with your winter; how was it, what did you and Lance address moving forward from London and where did you get in the work?
Hi, it is great to have a chat with you.
After the long and intense London qualification and racing I took some really solid time off this past winter. I needed to recharge my batteries and let my body get ready to go again. We started slow in January in Victoria and built up a good base before heading to Maui for five weeks of training at the end of February. We used the camp to build up a solid base and some quality to get ready for the first races of the season. I headed straight from the camp to my first race in Oceanside.
You are quite a detailed racer paying particular attention to equipment details. Tell us about your bike sponsor switch from Blue to Swift (www.swiftcarbon.com) for this season. We see they make a pretty sick looking mtb bike as well, the Detritorvore, no doubt you’ll test that out along the way to Maui.
After a number of great years with Blue and helping build the brand they unfortunately decided not to bring me back on for 2013. This allowed me to seek out my new sponsor Swift Carbon who is stepping strongly into the US market after success in Europe and Asia. They make leading edge bikes in all avenues of cycling and as a result are a great fit for me. I know I will have a great TT, road and 29er mountain bike to race on no matter the format of triathlon I choose.
Many athletes pick a running shoe with very little knowledge of what their really need. Often the decision is based on aesthetics, gimmicks, and trends. You however, have some discrete criteria you demand out of a shoe for training and racing. Tell our readers about this and how you decide upon the right shoe.
I tend to be fairly discerning when I come to running shoes. I ultimately look for a shoe that is strong and stable and provides a good platform to run from. This means a shoe that has a stable predictable mid-foot without too many gimmicks. A well built shoe that holds my orthotic well are the main characteristics I look for.
Transitioning from ITU draft-legal to 70.3 distance is not new to you yet having solely focused on draft-legal for the past two years how have you and Lance altered your program to suit?
After our big push and commitment to the Olympic qualifying and competition we needed to bring the intensity down and focus on strength. We kept up similar swim training with my swim coach Ron Jacks but increase mileage and strength based workouts on the bike. Getting lots of time on the TT bike has been key as well as a lot of at pace running off of the bike.
Ok, enough chit chat, let’s get into last weekend. In familiar fashion you prepped for this race in a very logical, meticulous way that resulted in great dividends. Tell us how you went about the prep for this specific race, how it unfolded for you, and then highlight some of the details that made the difference in you taking the win.
Heading into St George we knew it was going to be the most competitive 70.3 outside of Vegas World Champs. As such, we needed to prepare accordingly and this meant learning the course. So I went down to St George ten days before the race to acclimate and learn all the nuances of the course. It was a challenging course so I wanted to know where the tough parts were and be prepared for them. We also trained specifically for the course at home in Victoria finding similar hills on the bike and run.
I had a solid swim but still down 30sec on the leaders so I tried to close it out of the water but couldn’t get in touch. I focused on riding smooth and strong and keeping the leaders in touch. They earned another 30sec or so the rest of the ride so I made up 10-15 through a quick transition. Once on the run I focused on solid pacing and rhythm over the opening, hilly 6.5 km. I wasn’t charging hard but the front three came back much quicker than expected. I got to the lead by the top of the hill at 6.5km. I then stayed focused and controlled and held my pace to the line. I felt so smooth that I knew no one was going to catch. The hills were my strength and my cadence/turnover on the down hills was the nail in the coffin.
Will you seek out 70.3 events similar to St. George, hilly/technical courses, throughout the season? The European 70.3 Champs in Weisbaden offers another Championship course and field that would suit you eh?
I believe I have the skill set to compete on most courses. So I will seek out competitive races and ones that look entertaining
How and when will X-terra fit into your race schedule? Do you feel the strength component of both 70.3 and X-terra complement each other?
I will do the odd Xterra concluding with the World Champs in Maui as I have done most years in the past. My main focus this year and the next is the 70.3 circuit, aiming to win World Championships
In two years’ time where do you see yourself in triathlon? A Run for Rio? 70.3 / X-terra specialist? Kona?
I will wait to see how the next couple of seasons go before I decide to make a bid for Rio or retire from ITU and head to Kona.
Well, it has been great to have you here at Trimes, we wish you all the best in continuing to represent Canada at the highest level of our sport.
