Slower Start in St. Croix 70.3

It's been 12 days since the 70.3 in St. Croix. Predictably, the elapsed time between then and the tardy publication of this blog simply means that things didn't go my way. So without dwelling on any negatives I'll fire up the narrative.

The Course in St. Croix is amazing.

A crystal clear harbor swim to start the day

RELENTLESS 90km cycle. Kind of multi-loop, but not entirely (which I didn't finish)

And a challenging gravel, grass & asphalt mixed run (which I never started)

Typically, the roads in St. Croix are good.

I'm sure a large percentage of the Island's small GDP is spent on laying hot mix, largely with the triathlon in mind. The triathlon is big tourism for the island, so I would imagine having goods roads is important to them.

Unfortunately though, when I say 'typically', it does not mean entirely. And the conditions of the 'other' roads looks like this

...which ultimately left me feeling something like this

About three days before the race, the road sweepers looped the course and made a good job of clearing debris, restoring the portions of road above to an acceptable racing surface. Though as Murphy's Law suggests, everything that can go wrong will, and the island had heavy rains & storms the night before the event.

We were now doing a partial cyclocross race, on TT bikes.

70.3's for me are still a fun event, something I don't take all too serious. I'm still leaning how to race them, and I've still only done three 70.3's so far. Consequently, I don't put too much pressure on myself when I race them, and I tend to be overly relaxed before the start. Even with the roads in such bad shape I was still calm. I guess everyone had to race over the same course so it was fair game.

The swim was pretty uneventful. I didn't get the greatest start and wasn't really that motivated the use too much gas early on in the race. The bike was the deal maker (or breaker in my case). I swam comfortably & was happy to let most of the main players sit on my feet. I led out and just tried to keep my heartrate as low as possible through transition. (this is the only race picture I have)

Once on the bike, Ben Collins took the lead immediately, and I knew it was my ticket to stay with him as long as possible. He was jamming hard, and every five minutes or so I would look behind to see fewer athletes holding on, and by 20minutes into the race it was just him and I.

They say the race doesn't start in St. Croix until you hit 'The Beast'. The Beast is a significant climb, .9miles in length with an average gradient of 15%. It even hits 26% for some meters. Ben & I got to The Beast in 47minutes, having already gained 1,300ft in elevation with an average power of 293w. We climbed The Beast side by side,  matching breath for pedal stroke. It was one of the most surreal feelings I've ever had in racing. Out of the saddle the whole time, looking around the corners, longing for the top; every second of the climb was garnished in pain. A few words of consternation were sworn by Ben, I think because he actually hadn't seen the climb before he started the race. This made me feel relaxed and composed, like I was in control. I knew if I stayed with Ben for the climb, I could stay with him the whole race. We ascended The Beast in exactly 6minutes, with 500ft of gain and an average power of 363w. That's a 5.65w/kg effort in the middle of a 70.3.

We started descending The Beast, and this is where my effort stopped with a flat tyre. I felt all like

...but had plenty of time to compose my thoughts as I waited 10minutes for some spares to arrive. The spares truck didn't have any tyre levers, so there went another 5minutes to change & pump up the tyre. After I stopped with the flat, it was a good 5minutes until the next competitors rode past. It was at this point I realised that two main players in Dirk Bockel & Tim O'Donnell had also dropped out from flats.

So I got back on my Felt, struggling somewhat for motivation to get myself back in the race. I was always going to finish, but just with a little less effort than I would have given racing for the win up the road with Ben Collins. Ben went on to ride a 2.14 90km. This was two minutes faster than what Lance Armstrong rode the course in last year. An absolute phenomenal effort, one which obviously cost him the race. He passed out later on in the run, making it Deja Vu for the second time this year (see San Juan 70.3). He wrote on his blog that he rode conservatively; maybe a little meat missing between the ears there Ben.

Anyhow, about 10minutes after flat change, I started catching athletes until my gear lever failed and I was stuck in the 11 on the back, which was dire on this course to say the least. It was at this point I was all like

...and decided to retire from the race. Without coincidence, this is a picture of Dirk after his flat earlier on.

So this narrative still leaves me without a result for the first half of 2013. Expect to see me start in Boise 70.3 in three weeks time looking to make amends.

Thanks Amigos, take care

Slow Start in St. Anthony's - Prelude to St. Croix

10 weeks after my stress fracture & 28 days after my first run, I threw myself into one of the most competitive non-drafts of the season, the St. Anthony's 5150. I'd by lying if I didn't say I wasn't disappointed with my dismal 21st place, but I'm happy that I've now got an honest measure of my race fitness, and it gives me confidence that I can build my results into the season. Full results are here (skip across to the 'professional' tab).

I was 4th in the race last year, so I was hoping for an equal or better performance. Considering the training I've done & fitness I've experienced this year, I thought this result was possible. But when I put some context in place, it brings me down to earth a little. There was no way I was ever going to be able to run close to some of the best names in the sport from ITU only four weeks past a fracture & on my first outing of a season. The other point of context is that I literally didn't sleep for the five days leading into the race, the Australia-East Coast USA travel really bought out in the inner insomniac. So, moving along to the race...

(this is my first race report of the year & it's pretty boring, give me a few goes to ease into some more entertaining prose)

Winds kicked up a nice swell in the Tampa Bay which made the swim conditions pretty tough. There was $1,000 up as a swim preme, and I knew the conditions would play into my hands to get the much needed bonus. The start was the standard affair of creeping forward before the gun, but I managed to get in front pretty quickly even though I wasn't one of the dicks sculling forward (there really need to be some sort of control over this). I think I was only touched once on the feet before I managed to swim off the front so I was really happy with this. A trouble free swim is always a good way to start the race!

I exited the water with a gap & took the prime. I got to my bike quickly and was really excited to see what kind of bike shape I was in. I felt fantastic at the start of the bike and led the race for a good 10min before Cam Dye (the Spartacus of trithletes) rode up next to me. With the stagger rule the way it is in the States, I had to ride side by side with him if I wanted a chance to ride with him the whole way; there's no 10m rules to freshen the legs here. He hurt me pretty quickly, and I was shelved after a few minutes. After this everything slowed down and I was caught by the chase pack after about 25minutes. I sat up the front of the chase pack with some heavy legs until T2. There was a good 50-80 watt difference in effort between the start of the ride and the time I hit transition. 

As expected the run was a bit of a struggle, with my split sitting just under 36minutes. I felt as limp as a wet flannel the first few KM's on the run, but I was happy to finish stronger than what I started. I could have started the run with fresher legs had I sat further back in the stagger pack on the bike, but there was little point to this in the first race back when I was looking as much for fitness than a good result. I'm assuming this race has probably given me more fitness than other single session this year. Playing this fitness card is also what has bought me to St. Croix for the 70.3 this weekend.

St. Croix is down in the Caribbean, and is one of the oldest races on the circuit. It thoughtfully doubles as perhaps the hardest race on the circuit as well! This island is literally a steaming hot wok of pain. It's hot, humid, windy and mountainous. On a course like this, it's almost like you race yourself to the finish, not your competition. So if the 10km off the bike on the weekend was hard, of course a 21.1km run is going to hurt. But while I'm here to win, I'm here to really consolidate some race fitness and actually feel like my training has had some purpose. So I'm going to leave it at that, and hopefully check back with some good news after the race.

Here's some shots of the island!

The view from the homestay

Swim course with Burgs, Will Clarke & Clark Ellice 

This is part of the course, aptly named 'The Beast'. The climb is .7miles long & at 14-26% gradient

Unfortunately, this is the local style

Local swim pool

Feeble Fibula Fracture Gone but not Forgotten!

So it seems I have become unfamiliar with this blogging interface & the prose of the English language, so excuse me while I reacquaint myself after a long absence! It's been that long that I have actually written this blog 100 times in my head, and also forgotten it 100 times over. So without further delay, let's get to the nitty gritty!

The skinny on my injury was that I was diagnosed with a minor stress fracture in my proximal fibula (just below the knee) on week 6 of a 6 week training block. At the end of the week, I was supposed to fly to San Francisco to compete in my season opener at Escape From Alcatraz (won by Spanish amigo Javier Gomez). I was also going to press on to Puerto Rico two weeks later to race the San Juan 70.3. The injury was a big blow for me. I was training & recovering very well, so when the fracture happened literally overnight it was a huge shock. It was going to be amazing to test myself & my form against Javier, and I had organised to meet a couple of my new sponsors over there. In short, a great opportunity missed but I had to focus on getting my season back on track.

When the fracture was diagnosed exactly 10 days before the race in Alcatraz, opinion amongst the medical staff was that there was a chance I could still race, but that I had to avoid running up until the event. The nature of the fibula bone such that it is relatively unaffected by weight bearing compared to the tibia, & that it's function is geared towards anchoring supporting muscles & neural structures (I'm not Pro as this stuff so please forgive me if you're slapping your face right now). So ultimately it was theorised that it was a low grade fracture in a non-weight bearing bone, allowing me to have a minimum of two weeks off, that I could race if I chose to, and that it would be a maximum lay off time of four weeks. I could do normal swimming & cycling around this.

With the advice given to me, I chose not to race Alcatraz & San Juan. It was very early season (& still is), and if I didn't let it heal properly I was worried that it could plague me all year. I opted to take the maximum healing time of four weeks off so I could give myself the best chance for the season. The first week off was tough on the mind. I had planned this as a recovery week anyway so it suited, & I really didn't do much at all. The next weeks were okay, I got plenty of cycling in & I was riding up to 24hours a week. I thought that I may as well keep consolidating my base training! Eventually, the end of week four rolled around & I was pretty eager to get out for a run.

I started out very slow & very short. My first run back was only 5 minutes long. I waited two days and then ran again for seven minutes. Both of these runs were pain free, but the day following my second run the pain returned. I was freaking out & could see my season disappearing before me. I assumed the worse, that I had reopened the fracture. I was even thinking about places to disappear on a solitary holiday too... it was a very bleak feeling! I restarted the process of consultations & I saw an entire new team of therapists. Experience in the past tells me that if any advice from professionals doesn't work the first time, it's not going to work the second time. My prescribed four weeks of 'just rest' wasn't going to heal my injury!

I went and saw Ashley Mahoney (super podiatrist), who actually fixed my previous injury to my achilles two years earlier. Basically we've both concluded that if I get injured again I'll just go straight back to him. This guy is simply amazing. Over an hour long consultation (in a park at Burleigh Heads, how cool) he diagnosed the cause of the injury and mapped out a plan for recovery. Essentially, my peroneal nerve and surrounding soft tissue was brutal tight and my fibula head was locked up in the knee capsule. This was all new to me, none of my previous therapists had thought to check this out. So while I had done the rest, and the bone had healed in this rest period, the root cause of the fracture remained. Ultimately, all I had to do was work out this tightness, release the capsule & I would be sweet. After hearing this is was simple,

Within two weeks of seeing Ashley I had run a 20km week. The next week I ran 32km, and the following week (last week) I ran 50km. There has been no hints of pain and I'm well and truly on my way back to race capacity & full training volume! :) :) :)

So this all brings me to my next event & new season opener, the St. Anthony's 5150 in St. Petersburg FL this weekend. I left Australia a couple of days ago and will now be in the US & Europe until later September. I'll be backing up next weekend with St. Croix 70.3 too.

I'll write another blog in the coming days with my feeling about the race, and my path for the months ahead. Thanks a lot for reading!!!

Cheers, Josh

I have since had a hair cut

Delay's contempt, but still looking forward.

It is with a heavy heart that I report I cannot start the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon this week and the San Juan 70.3 two weeks following. Within the last week I've come down with a stress fracture in my proximal fibula and have to put my season openers on ice. For the cognitively advanced among us, the nature of my injury is of;

localised bone marrow oedema within the medullary cavity of the proximal left fibula with undisplaced transverse microtrabecular fractures consistent with stress fractures. No cortical fracture or displaced injury. There is minor oedema extrending into the surrounding soft tissues in the peroneal compartment and the lateral aspect of the lateral head of the gastrocnemius. The adjacent tibia is intact with no focal bone marrow oedema or stress response. 

I have been in such great shape, and the fracture happened very very suddenly within 24 hours of feeling the fragments of pain in/around my fibula. I was in my last week of training of a heavy six week block, a consecutive amount of training I'd never attempted before without intermittent recovery. It's sad that it's happened, but I can already draw positives, knowing I've know got an understanding of my training limitations for the future. Obviously I can't test my racing form yet, but I still have a lot of time to heal and consolidate my base training before attempting my scheduled races in late Spring.

I'm really gutted I can't race Escape & San Juan, 'Alcatraz' has been a race I've always wanted to do and I know I could have shown some early season dominance in San Juan. But as the blog title suggests, I'm very much looking forward. I'm in this game for the long haul and I'm lucky that fibula stress fractures aren't the worst injuries in the world. This crazy triathlon train ride stops & starts, and an express train to the top is rare. I understand there are highs & lows along the way, and must use all the knowledge I attain to stack myself up towards to the top.

In the meantime, this pony was ready to race but now unfortunately must be stabled.

And here's some more hardware shots of some of my new kit (all have been posted on Twitter prior to this)

Thanks for reading, hopefully I'll have some positive injury updates int he coming weeks.
Cheers
Burgs

New Partners & Base Miles (cont.)

Salutations endurance enthusiasts and Tri minions everywhere, thanks for tuning in.

Another exciting sponsor announcement happened this week with my inclusion in the fantastic team over at TYR.

TYR is the gold standard in everything waterborne (excluding Giardia and the like). Wetsuits, swimsuits, swimskins, trisuits, goggles, even down to the triathletes pool tool of choice, the hand paddle. I'm really excited to be a part of the brand, and I'll be joining top lads and chicks like Crowie, Pete Jacobs, Andy Potts, Sarah Haskins & Rinny Carfrae. Stop #1 in my dirty fast (©Tim Don) Freak of Nature wetsuit is the cold water swim in San Francisco for the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon on March 3.

Please excuse the overly intense grimace and zeal of me putting on my new suit

In terms of training, I've never been fitter and more capable of a big workload than I presently have been in 2013. I'm backing up lots of miles week after week and recovery time has been very quick. I've skipped a lot of early season Oceania & Australian racing to focus on consolidating a good base block, and I'm really pleased with the outcomes in my training thus far. I'd also like to think that my dilligent and concerted effort towards training and racing last year has meant I'm still building on the new level of fitness I found last year. Here's a weekly session I've been doing, to give an idea of what I've been up to!


Each Thursday I head out of 200km (124.3mi) of solo cycling, with a 60-90min TT wedged in (duration depending on how I feel). I prefer to do sessions like this by myself because the demands of such a long session is quite great, and I'd rather my session not get corrupted by another athletes stengths or weaknessess. In a race I can only rely on myself for motivation & performance, and I think it's important to do a great deal of key sessions forcing this mentality on myself.


This session is done on a Thursday to finish off my training week, which is a 7 day cycle consisting of 6 days on and 1 day off. When I ride long like this, I'll always like to do a lot of climbing. This particular ride included 3,157m (10,358ft) of altitude gain, but I will only ever start the TT once all the big climbs out of the way. On this particular loop I started the 60min TT at 110km, after 3hours 50mins of riding time. The 60minute TT saw me complete 41.6km into head & crosswinds. This was done in zone 3, around 155bpm heart rate for the whole hour. Total ride time was 6h29m, and it was topped off with a 30minute run off the bike!


The loop I did started at my home in Brisbane north, and I was going to go up Mt. Glorious, down the backside, past Sommerset Dam into Kilcoy, then back up Mt. Mee, through Dayboro and Samford before finishing up. However I got up to Mt. Glorious & found out the road was closed from landslides from the recent floods (Mt. Glorious is always going down, check out this post from two years ago). I quickly had to re-route and head in another direction. The link to my training file is below (this week I'll have my Quarq!!!).



200km w/60min TT by hey_burgs at Garmin Connect - Details

2013, New Partners & Base Miles

Happy new year to all triathlon minions everywhere. For me, 2013 is off to a good start.

Firstly, it's my pleasure to welcome the support of Felt, Sram, Zipp and Quarq for 2013 and beyond. As I continue to cement my footing in this wonderful sport of ours, it is very warming to know that there's companies out there watching what I'm doing, and I'm immensely proud to be apart of each brand. Please see the press releases over at the Felt blog & Trizone, links below

Felt

Sram, Zipp & Quarq

I saw in the new year with my family in New Zealand. Both my parents were born over in Christchurch, so we have spent much time going back and forth throughout the years. While I love my family, I bought along my push bike, running shoes and pool gear to escape the tyrannies of spending every waking moment with them! So I got stuck into a ton of training which marked the beginning of my 2013 base miles. It's such a beautiful part of the world, and it was fantastic to spend a lot of time on the roads. Here's some shots of the holiday, and some files below of some of my sessions over the past weeks. PS- A holiday to New Zealand is never complete without a 134m bungy jump at Nevis in Queenstown!

Embarrassing family holiday moment #1- 
 My sister did a better bungy dive than me ...

 

 And managed to get hoisted up the right way!

To keep the adventure going, we got stuck into some white water rafting (I'm front right)

We also had fresh snow in Wanaka (keep in mind it's Summer in NZ), and I managed to cycle up to the snow on one of the passes.

... so the training I was talking about.

I caught up with Kiwi stalwart Bryan Rhodes for a 200km ride, and a good fish & chips stop halfway

Here's the loop (if someone knows how to get the old Garmin Connect embedded image/link thing, please share!)

CHCH - Akaroa - CHCH by hey_burgs at Garmin Connect - Details

And some other loops in NZ

Queenstown to Lindis Pass by hey_burgs at Garmin Connect - Details

Wanaka To Queenstown Via Cromwell w/ Crown Range by hey_burgs at Garmin Connect - Details

And some other loops from home

Bunya-Samford Run Loop by hey_burgs at Garmin Connect - Details

Robina-Wooyung Loop by hey_burgs at Garmin Connect - Details

And there's a whole lot more work to come! I hope to be blogging a lot more in 2013, so please come back often if inclined!

Cheers & all the best for the year.

Josh

Noosa, Hamilton Island, Off-Season & Retroactive Blogging

My blog has been neither here nor there the last couple of months, so a tip of the hat goes to those still checking back for updates!

Winding the clock back, I had three consecutive events in November that I wanted to hit hard so I could  finish off the fantastic year. They were going to be the Noosa Tri, Hamilton Island Tri and the Endeavour 500km Road Relay for a bit of camaraderie and fun. The short version is that neither of these three really worked out. Let's begin with Noosa.

The Noosa Tri is a stalwart on the Aussie calendar, a must do race and a perennial goal of mine. 2012 was the first year I truly felt I was at a  level where I could win it, and my lead up to the race was perfect. My brief return to ITU racing in October for the Auckland World Champs did wonders for my body, & the change in training volume & intensity really lifted my strength & speed. I was doing my local TT circuit in record times each lap, & I was swimming & running just as well. Though as the saying goes, shit happens, and I fell sick about four days out from the race. My condition was so average that on race morning, I was playing with not starting up until about 15minutes before the race. If it were any other race I would have scratched before the start, and only my respect & love for Noosa got me on the start line. My body held up for about 30minutes of racing before things started to slow down & and I decided to call it a day. This photo is all the evidence I have

Sadly, the Hamilton Island Tri was much of the same. My illness continued for another 5 days or so, and my race shape had withered substantially. Hamilton Island is only a sprint distance race, but it's an ultra brutal & demanding course that commands 100% of your stamina and focus, and I didn't have much of these two things left. For a small race and almost no prizemoney on offer,  it had a surprisingly strong field. I ended up coming in 4th, and had a camera on my bike to document the evidence. Check it out below

The final event of the season was to be a 500km road running relay with a bunch of lads for charity. After two bad weekends in a row I decided to withdraw from the event and start my break a week earlier. Though I have a huge love for the relay, so I went along for the three days to help out and give the lads some support. I also documented some playful footage of the event and here's what I came up with!

The final note of the blog are pictures from my camping holiday with Ashleigh on the majestic & beautiful Moreton Island. No roads, no cell signal, no power, few amenities... just one big sand playground. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

So you might have noticed that I've penciled in my first races of the season. Until then, it's all about the miles of trials & the trials of miles. Thanks for reading!

Josh