Four weeks until the big one!

In four weeks time today we will have started the 2011 edition of XPD, which this year doubles as the AR World Championships in Burnie, Tasmania. Since our last race together in June we've all been busy preparing for this race, which is our focus for the year. Recently, Rob and Josh have spent several hours chasing each other around the Upper Murray Challenge multisport race course in north east Victoria finishing 4th and 5th. Damon's been spending his time telling Rob and Josh that they were lucky he wasn't there or they would have been down a place in the results.

To compete in an event like this we all put in many hours of training per week. The more you do pre-race, the less the event is going to hurt. That's how it works for me anyway! I've just spent two weeks exploring the endless hills behind Fairhaven and Airey's Inlet on the Great Ocean Road, plus plenty of hills west of Brisbane. Here's a couple of photos of those areas.

Airey's Inlet, Great Ocean Rd

Northbrook Gorge, Brisbane

Looking after the body is particularly important in maintaining high volume training. We need to thank one of our sponsors for helping keeping us all injury free (MTB crashes don't count - they're 'unfortunate accidents', not injuries!) for 2011 after some specific overuse issues that saw me miss a couple of races last year. With disciplined use of our Trigger Point Therapy tools I've kept the muscles nice and supple which has kept my troublesome achilles at bay. It's like getting daily massages without the cost. Have a look at their website and check out their products. Kristian would be more than happy to help with any queries.

So, with less than three weeks before we leave, our preparations are all going well. We're looking forward to having the opportunity to race a World Championship in our home country without the usual issues of jet-lag and excess luggage expenses!

Something Different....

Last weekend, along with thousands of others, I spent the weekend on the Sunshine Coast to take part in one of the many events that made up the Mooloolaba Triathlon Festival. A hugely impressive production was put on for the elites racing on Saturday and Sunday afternoons as part of the Triathlon World Cup. Due to a late injury, I got the call up from some friends to do the 10km run leg in the more social Corporate Teams Triathlon event on Sunday morning.

This was the first time I'd really tested out my achilles injury since aggravating it about 6 months ago. In those 6 months I have religiously rolled out my calves and soleus' a couple of times a day using my TriggerPoint Therapy massage rollers and gradually increased my running. The result after 10km flat out = 7th in our category and a 12 year 10km PB! Very happy :-)

Thank you to one of our team supporters Kristian from TP Therapy - I highly, highly recommend your products, they got the result that my physio did not!

Team Blackheart welcomes the support from Trigger Point Therapy

Team Blackheart is very happy to be getting some new support from Kristian from Trigger Point Performance Therapy Australia.

As you can imagine competing is adventure races puts a huge toll on the body. I was searching the internet a couple of months ago with the aim of learning about different options to overcome and prevent the inevitable niggles and strains which come from the training and racing demands, when I came across the tptherapy.com.au website. I was really excited to read about the different products and how they could help me and become part of my training and preparation. I'm particularly looking forward to targeting my troublesome achilles with these innovative products which are designed to mirror the feeling of the human hand.

Jump on their Website and have a look around at the products. As stated on their website: "Trigger Point Performance Therapy is a remedy and treatment for common ailments such as plantar fasclitis, achilles tendonitis, IT band pain, general knee pain, foot pain, lower back pain and more".

www.tptherapy.com.au