Breakfast - think Goodness Superfoods

I am a bit of a health nut at the moment with me coming back from injury. I have had to keep my weight as close to race weight as possible so when I start racing I am ready to go! During this time Goodness Superfoods cereals has been a big part of my diet and maintaining my race weight.

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Check out there range next time you're at the supermarket!!!!!

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2011

2011 has well and truly begun … a new year and a new decade! A lot has happened to me in late 2010/ early 2011. An ITB (Iliotibial band) injury late in 2010 cut short my season and has also delayed the start of my 2011 campaign. Unfortunately, I had to go under the knife and it has been 9 weeks since my ITB release surgery. My recovery has been progressing slowly and I have been working closely with physiotherapist Alex Price (spent more time with him then I have training or at home – lucky he’s a good bloke and great physio too). We have implemented a good strength and conditioning program to aid my recovery and to prevent the injury from re-occurring in the future.

Frustrating is a word that can be used for this period because of the length and ‘roller coaster’ type ride that I have been on. Although it has been tough mentally and physically, I have had some great support from family, friends and all of my support team and my training load will start soon be increased gradually. I am more excited than ever to get stuck in!

My training has involved swimming 4-5 times, running (short distance and slow) 2-3 times, and riding once per week. There was still some pain around my knee however I saw Dr Donald Kuah (NSWIS sports Doctor specialist) last week and things have been getting better after the visit. He said there was a possible ganglion cyst around the wound site that was causing the pain and tenderness so he advised me to have a second cortisone injection to disperse the fluid. Dr Kuah was very optimistic that this will be the last of the pain so I can start to build my training up soon. It is still up in the air as to when my first race will be however there is no rush at the moment; my focus this year will be on the World Championships in Beijing, China in September and other races in Europe.

Shane

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


.

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.