Injury Update

Update on the ITB injury (Iliotibial band syndrome)... I had a appointment with the NSWIS sports specialist this week and after numerous test and a ultrasound on my ITB, Dr Donald Kuah recommended me have an ITB release. So I will be having day surgery in 2 weeks to get this done by Dr David Wood. Recovery wise will be around 6-8weeks for running but I will be swimming and riding before that. Excited to finally get this over with and get back to training for 2011 soon!

I would like to thank NSWIS and Dr Donald Kuah for all the help and expertise!

Latest

So it has been a while since my last update… I have been a little busy in this time but most of the occasions were away from racing and training. That’s the disappointing part, for me anyway. About month ago I had my brothers wedding and I was best man. I was stoked to see my brother so happy on this special day and to be apart of it… unreal! It was fabulous to see all my family and I had goose bumps just watching…

Almost 3 months have gone since I returned home from Europe because of injury. There has been a lot of time spent at the physio, seeing doctors, a little bit of training and my knee has flared up a couple of times disrupting my recovery. Last week my knee flared up again so all the team helping out (including me) are scratching our heads!

Future training and races depends on how long my knee takes to recover. There is a NSW Institute of Sport camp down at Falls Creek, Victoria to do some altitude training in late November but I don’t think ill be ready for that, which is disappointing. However, there are numerous races I am looking at in South America early next year so Ill keep you updated!

Not knowing exactly what the injury is and trying to recover from it, is extremely hard. This period has been difficult to say the least but with all the great support and well wishes it makes it that little bit easier!

Photos of my French Grand Prix team - Besancon

Smith Optics

I am excited to announce that I will be wearing Smith Optics sunglasses while racing and training. The new Pivlock sunglasses will be available in Australia soon so check them out. Smith Optics





Shane


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Update

So it has been a while since my last post so I will give a quick run down on what has been happening. I have had six races in five countries. They include African cup in Morocco (8th), French grand prix in Beauvais (25th), Basque sprint championships in Lekeitio (5th), premium European cup in Belgium (24th), World cup in Netherlands (53rd) and last weekend another French grand prix in Paris (33rd).

There have certainly been a lot of ups and downs in the period with mixed results – also had some tough times with motivation in training too. Now it is time to get back into training before my next race in Switzerland in 3 weeks.

I am currently in Italy in Busto Arzisio, however I will be returning to my coach’s location in Vitoria, Spain tomorrow and leaving the Triathlon Australia’s Young Guns tour due to unexpected circumstances.

I will leave you with some photos from Paris from the weekend.





Shane

Arrived in Europe

So I arrived in Europe last week (Wednesday) and have pretty much not stopped traveling since. The 38hr trip from Australia wasn't too bad and slept pretty well throughout the flights. Stopped off for an hour in Bangkok then 8hrs in Heathrow (which was made easier with being the guest of my coach in the British Airways lounge). After the long stop in Heathrow-London we ventured on to Lyon, France where Jono Hall was waiting to pick Jamie (my coach), Sam Appleton and myself up for the drive to Aix-Les-Bains (AIS triathlon European Base).

I was only in Aix for a day, so not much training was done before I traveled to my French team (Besancon) on the Friday. Again with more (6hrs) travel to get there via train. The team manager was there to pick me up from the train station. I then went to meet the team, all of which were very nice. Had dinner with a french family (presidents son's house) that were super nice and its an experience - that i loved - to eat different food and see their culture. Tried to get some sleep to try and get ready for the 8hr drive to Dunkerque for the first French Grand Prix race - left at 6am! It was nice to break to travel up when we stopped off in Lille for lunch with the team, which was an unreal experience. Arrived in Dunkerque at 3.30pm. Put all the bikes together to ride the course before the race the next day. It was a very flat and technical course that was going to be challenging.



Race day. Besancon was ranked 14 out of 16 teams so we had third last pick on the pontoon which doesn't put you in the best position. It was 200m to the first buoy with 90 starters. This equals carnage around the first buoy! Wow! It was absolutely crazy! I got pretty smashed around the buoy but once we turned it was pretty much straight the rest of the swim where I tried to work my way up. I didn't feel good in the water from the start and only managed 30th out of the water. Decent transition to the bike but once I jumped on my bike I knew it was going to be a long day...I pretty much went backwards on the bike and stopped about 15km into the bike. I felt pretty bad for the team for not getting a result. But with the other boys going good we managed to finish 11th. Everyone was pretty happy with that result!

Long travel after the race again back to Besancon then onto Aix-Les-Bains the next day.

Starting to get some training done in Aix. Still not feeling the best but improving each day so that's a good thing I hope. Hopefully I'll be right for the weekends race in Morocco. Its the first ITU triathlon in the country which is very exciting.

I took some photos of La Revard today, which has great views! Pretty stoked I was able to go up there (1556m). But a little disappointed I couldn't see Mt Blonc, it needed to be a clearer day!





Shane

ITU World Cup - Mooloolaba

This was my second World Cup start and my first in Australia, so I was very excited about racing in Mooloolaba. This course is arguably the hardest course on the world cup circuit due to the technical bike course and challenging hills, so I knew you had to be smart throughout the three legs.

It was a beach start so I was confident of getting out in front without any hassles. This was the case and by the first buoy (300m) I was sitting comfortably in 4th position. I stayed in this position the entire way until the final meters where I exited the water in third.

In past years, this course (2 hills per lap, 7 laps) has offered opportunities for a break away and his race was no different. A small group of 5 including myself formed a break for the first lap. I conserved my energy in the group and tried to be patient until the run leg. A small group swallowed us up on the second lap but two athletes continued on and formed a leading break. They held this lead coming into T2 with a 1min 50sec gap. Several groups were able to catch the pack I was in and there was a large group of riders heading in to T2.

On to the run and my legs felt heavy during the first kilometer but I thought I could run my way into the race (4 laps, 2 hills per lap). This wasn’t the case as I continued to fade each lap and struggled for the latter half of the run.

I finished 30th and was disappointed with this result but if I look at where I was 12 months ago to this race just gone, there has been massive improvements! I’m now looking forward to training hard before heading to Europe.

French Team - Besancon

Hi,

This year I will be racing in a French team for the French Grand Prix Series.I will be doing all five races for the team. My team is Besancon and they were promoted from Division 2 into the top division this year. I am very excited about this as I will be racing the best in the world over a sprint distance (750m/20km/5km) in preparation for my Olympic distance triathlons.

A link is below to the other athletes in my team including training partner and Aussie Ben Allen. Click on Team D1 2010 'Overview' on the right hand side.


Besancon athletes

Shane

Oceania Championships - 3rd!

Windy Wellington lived up to its name with the conditions being exactly that. The night before the race we witnessed cyclonic conditions with howling winds, torrential rain and cold temperatures so race day was not looking good. However, the weather settled overnight and only the wind remained for the race

The swim leg proved to be quite different than my past experiences as it was the first time (since my switch to triathlon) that it was rough and slow. Holding your position was challenging with a lot of people swimming on top of each other and I did not get into a rhythm until the second half of the 1500m. This did not bother me as I grew up in Surf Life Saving and was a regular occurrence in a surf swim race. It actually brought back some memories! I still manage to exit the water in 2^nd position but after a terrible transition jumped onto my bike in 10^th.

As the swim was slow everyone was bunched up and all the main ‘players’ were in the front bunch so it was a matter of patience for the 40km bike. Staying out of the wind was crucial and with a challenging hill put in each lap (5 laps), positioning for this was important. I felt as though I did this successfully and stayed near the front of the bunch. Coming into transition for the run was like a Tour de France sprint finish, with everyone wanting to get a good position at the front. I had a much better transition and was out onto the run in the top 10. I wanted to have a fast run!

In the week leading up to the race I had a big confidence booster with a fast 5km running time on the track so I wanted to be in the race and be a contender for a top ten finish. Frenchman Laurent Vidal and Kiwi Kris Gemmell were a class above the pack and established an early lead with a group of seven closely behind including myself. I stayed with the group up until the 7.5km mark where I gradually lost them, and started running on my own for the last few kilometers. I managed to pass one athlete from the group in front and finished 3^rd U/23 athlete, 8^th overall at the Oceania Championships.

To get a bronze at the Oceania Championships is great, but I am still looking forward to running faster and improving again. This is definitely achievable in the near future! I have one last race in Australia in Mooloolaba before heading to Europe, so I want to have another good race.

Upcoming race schedule

Upcoming Calender / Results

• Illawarra Aquathon 26 January
• National Sprint Series (Caloundra) 7h February
• NSW Pro Tour Triathlon (Huskisson) 21st February
• National Sprint Series (Raby Bay) 28th February
• ITU Oceania Championships (Wellington) 14th March
• ITU World Cup Mooloolaba 28h March 2010
• French Grand Prix Race 1 (Dunkurkque) 23rd May
• French GP Race 2 (Beauvais) 13th June
• ITU European Cup (Belgium) 27th June
• ITU World Cup (Holten) 11th July
• French GP Race 3 (Paris) 18th July
• ITU World Cup (Tiszaujvaros) 8th August
• ITU World Championship Series (Kitzbuhel) 15th August
• French GP #4 (Tours) 29th August
• ITU U23 World Championships (Budapest) 12th September
• French GP (La Baule) 19th September
• ITU Pan American Cup (USA) 26th September

*subject to change


Shane

New Sponsor!

I am happy to announce that PoweBar will be my sports nutrition sponsor for the year (and hopefully for a long time in the future). To have the best nutrition company supporting you is very exciting when you have to race the worlds best. I'm sure it will give me that extra advantage!

2010!

2010 has begun and I hope the festive season for you was a safe and happy one. I enjoyed a small amount of down‐time having a few cold ones with family and friends. Also, with the presents I received from Santa, I definitely must have been a good boy!

December started with a two‐week camp in South Golden Beach (approximately 20km north of Byron Bay) with hot and humid conditions. It was really good to catch up with the other
interstate athletes and punch out some good aerobic training as a massive bunch, and to have
some laughs along the way. Riding was the main focus for the camp, to which there was plenty of! The area is a constant undulation, so we rode plenty of hills to achieve strength and endurance over the two weeks. In regards to my running, I started to do more kilometres with my shins slowly getting better each week so the progress is falling into place. Once returning from camp, I had numerous testing to do for all three sports at both NSWIS HQ (Sydney) and Wollongong. I haven’t got the data back however I should receive them very shortly. To have testing in the early part of the season is helpful for training and seeing progression during the season.

I arrived at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra on January 2nd, and will be here until the 22nd January with Triathlon Australia’s high performance team. We are participating in a study through the University of Canberra and the AIS to see if different types of altitude training can improve running performance for triathlon athletes. The group is split into two groups ‐ one living in the altitude house (approx 3000m) and the other breathing through a machine for one hour each day (approx 5000m) with run testing at the start and finish of the camp. I have never been involved with any sort of altitude training so I’m excited to see the end results and the effects of it.

Again, I hope you had a merry Christmas and I wish you only the best for the year ahead!