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