Defeat is looming…

Today I am trying not to lose hope.

Fundraising has been going well and the support from everyday people is amazing, but due to the huge expense of the running leg it looks like I may have to pull out of the World Championships this year in London.

I have 3 years of training to get ready for the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro. I need to allocate what funds I have to what will make the biggest difference in my race time. The two most important pieces of equipment I require to get there are the “Running Leg” and a “Time trial Bike”.

So with this in mind I’m going to save my pennies and get the most important thing first, my running leg.

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Yes it is disappointing, but I have to think about the bigger picture which is Rio and what is going to give me the greatest advantage in getting there. I will have plenty of other opportunities to complete internationally in the coming years leading up to the Paralympics.

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London Training Starts to heat up (Well kinda it was in the rain though)!

You have helped me raise over $2000 in just 3 days!!! You guys are amazing, thank you so much for donating your hard earned money.

I forced myself to go for a 6.8km run in the rain tonight to show my appreciation! Also if you want to ask me any questions at all I started a Reddit post: http://redd.it/1dj6ug

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First Radio Interview with Howard Sattler

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I had my first radio interview with Howard Sattler from 6PR yesterday. I was extremely nervous to start with, but as the interview progressed I managed to calm down.

Let me know what you think? Have a listen below:

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My First Triathlon – “Because One Sport isn’t Hard Enough!”

It’s 4am and the total of 15 minutes sleep I’ve had is probably I sign that I may be a little nervous for my first triathlon. I don’t need to be up till 5 because I packed everything the night before, but at this point I’ve given up on the possibility of sleep.

Pursuit CourseI decide to watch the Ironman I recorded on TV the night before for a few tips and tricks. It doesn’t take long before I’m excited and motivated to give this triathlon everything I have. After all, the event I’m doing is classed as a “Sprint” Triathlon which consists of 750m Swim 20km Ride and 5km Run. Unlike an Ironman which is 3.8km Swim 180km Ride and 42km run. Might have to try one of those next ;) .

I met Andy Gibb at 6am in Hillarys, Andy is a 62 year old through knee amputee who damaged his leg in a motorcycle accident. After many years living with his injured leg that never recovered, he decided to have his leg amputated and has not looked back. Andy was my mentor for the event as he has done many shorter triathlons before this one, but this was both our first full length sprint triathlon. I spent the next hour bombarding him with questions.

The Swim, standing at the edge of the beach nervous and freezing in my little speedos waiting for the official to start our wave of athletes.

Tri Swim“Go!” I jump into the water and start swimming. Straight away I encounter my first Rookie Mistake #1. Because I’m not wearing a triathlon top, my heart rate monitor slips down to my waist and I’m thinking it’s gone, but somehow it manages to stay holding around my waist and I focus on the swim again. I’m pacing myself on the swim because I know next I have a ride and then a run.

Conditions for the swim were close to perfect. I did pop my head out of the water all the time to make sure I was still swimming towards the next buoy. Feeling pretty comfortable and in rhythm I circle around the last buoy ready for the home stretch back to the beach.

This is where the race got a little more difficult, my goggles had started to fog and the the sun was rising directly in front of the swim finish flags. Not being able to see a thing! I continue swimming in what I believe to be a straight line(I was told afterwards looked more like a zigzag).

Popping my head up to see where I am, I decide to remove my goggles so a can see the last 50 meters of the swim. Finally finding my way to the shore, my wife Nat runs over with the crutches and  passes them to me as quickly as possible.

Crutching to the transition area for the ride was hard work, I had to go a 100 meters through sand on an incline. Sand and crutches are not friends.

Transistion 1

Rookie Mistake #2 packing a ultra light weight towel to save space… why? Well turns out this towel didn’t work well at getting me dry fast so I could get my leg on and not worry about it falling off. With me still partially wet which is a great way of attracting dirt to the end of my stump before putting the silicon liner on. Not recommended!

The ride felt slow… I didn’t feel tired during the swim, but I was tired now and I hadn’t finished the 1st lap of 3. As I tried to find a rhythm with the ride, I noticed just before the end of each lap the head wind was getting stronger. Slowing me to a crawl almost.

Rookie Mistake #3 not enough water.

Transistion 1bAs I finished the second lap of the rides I was surprised how hilly this course was and also disappointed to discover that I was out of water.

Knowing I had another water back at the transition area, I focus all my remaining energy of finishing the ride and rewarding myself with a drink of water before I died.

The Run - This was easily the hardest part of the event. Running with one leg is hard, but running without a running leg is even harder again. The reason being that with an everyday leg, you don’t get any force or spring from the foot it’s like running on a stilt. Speaking of stilts, Andy does the 5km run on crutches! No idea how his arms and shoulders manage to survive this ordeal.

Trasistion 2It didn’t help that when I put my leg on for the ride, because I was is such a rush it wasn’t on straight. Which caused my knee to lock when running. So I moved off the side of the track and removed my leg to straighten it up.

Rookie Mistake #4 - Running to close to the edge of the path, this was a little embarrassing when I fell off the side of the foot path. luckily not to many people saw this happen. During the run was where the metal challenge of the triathlon started, my mind wanted my body to stop, it ached everywhere. I soon realised that I wasn’t conditioned enough to sustain that level of effort for over an hour.

Rookie Mistake #5 - Forgetting to turn on the GPS on my heartrate monitor. This meant I had no clue how far I had ran and to me, it felt like I had ran much further than 5km, but I hadn’t even reached the halfway turn around point yet :( .

Fellow athletes at the event were amazing! The atmosphere was fantastic, just about every second person that ran past yelled out words of encouragement. The fact that I was on the verge of death made it hard to respond, but I managed to get some type of grunt out to say thanks.

I took advantage of every water stand I can passed, but never really managed to get much of the water in my mouth. Passing the half way point I now had an Idea of how far I had left to finish the race and recover. I managed to maintain a slow jog and with the finished in sight gave the race every last single bit of energy I had left.

A sense of euphoria(looks more like near death in the photo) came over me, I had completed my first triathlon! I completed the race in 1:44:15. Finger crossed this qualifies me for the World Championships in London later this year.

Finish First Triathlon

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Completing CrossFit Open 2013 in the Top 17% of Australia

It’s Saturday morning and I’m focusing on the goals which I set myself for the workout which was announced on Thursday.

WORKOUT 13.5 - MEN – includes Masters Men up to 54 years old, looked like this:

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 4 minutes of:
45kg/100 pound Thruster, 15 reps
15 Chest to bar Pull-ups

If 90 reps (3 rounds) are completed in under 4 minutes, time extends to 8 minutes.
If 180 reps (6 rounds) are completed in under 8 minutes, time extends to 12 minutes.
If 270 reps (9 rounds) are completed in under 12 minutes, time extends to 16 minutes.
Etc.

My goal is to complete a set of 15 Thrusters and 15 Chest-to-bars for this WOD. After watching my training buddy Kieran do the workout, I knew I wouldn’t have to worry about doing more than a 4 minute workout. I wasn’t going to complete more than 90 reps. Which meant I could push myself hard! As the pain was only going to be around for a short time.

The first few reps of thrusters are interesting, I start feeling a burning sensation on my hip which made me drop the bar to the ground. I swung the bar back up and pushed out a few more reps and the burning came back. Forcing me to drop the bar again.

I rearrange my shorts and was good to go. The Front Squat section of the Thruster was difficult, because I can’t yet go as low as technically correct, which is the hip crease must go below the knee. As always I gave it my best shot and went as low as possible without falling over and having the weight land on my face.

After finishing the 15 thruster I had a sense of relief as I’m passed the half way mark I had set to achieve.  Moving on to the Chest-to-bar which is an advanced pull up where you have to lift yourself so that your chest makes contact with the bar. I smash these out as quickly as I can in hopes that I’ll be able to sneak in a few extra Thrusters.

Finishing the 15 Chest-to-bar I jog back over to the 45kg weighted bar and throw it back on to my shoulders. I managed to push out another slow 6 thrusters on shaky legs before the clock runs down finishing up with a total of 36 reps.

I completed the open ranked 3265th out of 19269 which is in the top 17% of Australian men.

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“I Dream of Rio”: Amputee Sets Sights on 2016 Paralympics

Big news today: I’ve registered to compete in my first ever triathlon – the Pursuit Course, Hillary’s #2 of the Telstra Triathlon Series.  It’s this Sunday, April 7, 2013.

Bigger still, I’ve also decided I want to compete in the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.  For the first time in history, triathlons are being adding to these Games.  So, in keeping with my company Equipe Industries‘ mission, I’m “dreaming big.”

This Sunday’s triathlon will definitely be a huge challenge and learning experience for me; it’s comprised of a 750 metre ocean swim followed by a 21 km bike ride and lastly, a 5 km run.

Running, I’d say, is my kryptonite, as is the case for most amputees.  But I’ve been doing training runs three times a week for the past two weeks.  And I’ve definitely noticed an improvement.

New Race Day Shoes

New Race Day Shoes

For this triathlon, I’ll be running on my everyday artificial leg, which unfortunately is far from ideal because it wastes a lot of energy.  However, I’m hoping that if I do well at this event and fundraise, I can buy a running leg with a flex foot (blade foot), which retails between $5,000 – $10,000.

The biking segment of the race is one I feel a bit more confident around.  As I’ve mentioned in past blogs, I only started riding a bike with both legs about four weeks ago. But I’ve been training every day by riding 32 km to work and home. Last weekend, I pushed my limits even further by finishing the 67 km RAC Bike Hike for Asthma.  And though I had issues with my artificial leg sliding off at the 1.5 hour mark, I was able to persevere through the pain and complete the course without stopping.

Swimming is most certainly my strength as I have competed professionally as a swimmer in past.  So during this triathlon, I hope to use it to get an early head start.  In the interim, I’ve slotted swimming it into my current training regime, three mornings a week before I cycle to work.

The part of the triathlon that I feel most nervous about are the transitions.  Lots of time can be lost with bad transitions, and with this being my first triathlon, I don’t know what to expect/not expect. I have no idea how I’m going to get from the beach to my bike — will I use my leg or not?  Should I use crutches and then put my leg on?  Another challenge may arise around getting my fake foot’s cleat to lock into my bike pedal.  Sometimes, it simply doesn’t cooperate and I get sorely frustrated, which in turn, only slows things down even more.

Despite the challenges and huge learning curve that lay ahead of me, I’ve set a tough goal for myself with this triathlon; that is, to complete it under 1.5 hours.  But if I’m going to make it to Rio in 2016, I need to start paving the road there NOW.

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Brant Vs Workout 13.4 of the Crossfit Games

When Workout 13.4 of the Crossfit Games “Open” was announced this past Thursday, I immediately laid out some lofty goals for myself for the competition.

The Workout for men, including Masters Men up to 54 years old, looked like this:

7 minute AMRAP of:
3 Clean and jerk
3 Toes-to-bar
6 Clean and jerk
6 Toes-to-bar
9 Clean and jerk
9 Toes-to-bar
12 Clean and jerk
12 Toes-to-bar
15 Clean and jerk
15 Toes-to-bar
18 Clean and jerk
18 Toes-to-bar…
This is a timed workout. If you complete the round of 18, go on to 21. If you complete 21, go on to 24, etc.

So what were my goals?  To finish 9 reps of the 61 kg Clean and jerk and 9 reps of Toes-to-bar.  Pretty steep, considering that I’d failed miserably in my attempts to do the 61 kg Snatch during Workout 1.

3…2…1…The timer went off.  I walked up to the bar and gripped it tightly, focused on nothing but this second.  I squatted down and lifted the 61 kg above my knee and yup, it felt heavy.  With a big shrug, I pulled and got my elbows under the bar; I couldn’t help but sigh with relief.  Summoning all of my strength, I then squeezed everything tight and pushed the bar over my head, elbows locked.

Dropping the bar to the ground, I heard the judge call out “One rep!”  For a split second I was thrilled — I did it! – but two more reps currently demanded my attention.  I focused…and I conquered them.

I quickly ran over to the chin-up bar  and smashed out 3 reps of Toes-to-bar.  Time for the Clean and jerk again – but this time, I was to do six.

Without a doubt, the 61 kg was getting harder to lift as I fatigued.  But strangely, in another way it felt easier as I technically improved at the movement.  I did a few no-reps in this round because I didn’t get my elbows under the bar fast enough. But finally, I heard the judge call out “Six reps!”, after which I quickly banged out six Toes-to-bar, nice and clean.

The final set of nine reps still before me, I picked up the bar thinking, How in the hell am I going to do this!?!   I tuned in: It was me versus the bar.  Giving it everything I had, I used every part of my body to pull the bar up, even squeezing my one real calf muscle for a little extra momentum. After what seemed an eternity, I finally heard the judge call out “Eight reps!”  I couldn’t believe I only had one more to go.

Facing off with the bar one last time, I pulled it with every last ounce of energy in me, barely managing to get my elbows underneath.  I was halfway there, I just needed to get it from my shoulders over my head.  I pushed hard, going for it, but I couldn’t lock my elbows and the weight fell back onto my shoulders.

Forty seconds left: I needed to get this rep out NOW.  Breathing in strong, I pushed with everything in me and somehow, yes!, I got my elbows to lock.  I dropped the bar to the ground to the sound of “Nine reps!”  Thirty seconds remained on the clock and I was back at the chin-up bar for Toes-to-bar, which now, weren’t so easy…

With mere seconds remaining, I finished the 9th Toe-to-bar rep.  I laid down in a heap, basking in the feelings of exhaustion, adrenaline and sheer jubilation.

I am now currently ranked 3,688 out of 16,279 people competing in Australia.

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Amputee Embarks on The Biggest Ride of His Life (So Far)

Today I awoke at 4 a.m., knowing that the biggest bike ride thus far in my life — 67 km to be exact – lay ahead of me.

I, a congenital amputee who only recently began riding a bike with two legs, was to participate in the RAC Bike Hike for Asthma, WA’s largest cycling event that raises awareness and funds for the Asthma Foundation WA.

My plan this morning was to bike to the train station with my wife Natalie, where we would take the train to the race start location in Mandurah.  But wouldn’t you know it, I was just about to jump on my bike when I realized I had a flat tire.   Uggh – not the kind of mental preparation I was aiming for!

Nat Enjoying the Ride

I decided to chuck our bikes in the back of my car and drive to the train station; I’d deal with the tire once we’d arrived in Mandurah.  With only a few minutes to spare, we made it the station, and squeezed ourselves and our bikes onto a packed 5:16 a.m. train – and I mean PACKED. There were cyclists and bicycles jammed in to the max.

 

 

 

 

Turned out, we were lucky to get on the train when we did: we passed five more stations on our way to Mandurah without picking up passengers. I  later found out that more than 10,000 people had registered for this event.

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Shortly after 6 a.m. we arrived and I got to work changing my tire while Natalie set out to find us some athlete fuel of coffee and muffins. We then met up with the rest of our bike gang — my mate Pat and his work colleague Chris – and the four of us, ”Team Equipe Industries”, joined the organized chaos at the starting line.

The “race” started very slowly as there were people and bikes every where.  But soon enough, the crowds thinned out and we were cycling at a steady pace.

I really enjoyed the first half of the ride.  Because we were cycling on the smooth freeway, it was easier for me to maintain higher speeds; I found myself sitting on about 34 kph.  I had to grin at the number of people I saw jumping off their bikes and running into the bushes early into the ride — rule #1, always use the toilet before you begin a race!  But I also witnessed numerous crashes.  And every kilometre or so, there seemed to be someone laying on the ground covered with cuts and scratches.

As time wore on, I couldn’t help but notice that I was struggling to keep up with my gang – especially when my wife nonchalantly started texting on her mobile (thanks Nat, haha). By the 1.5 hour mark, I really started running into trouble: my fake leg began sliding off — not all the way, but enough to squeeze the bone of my stump which throbbed and only got progressively worse. Talking to my wife or friends was now out of the question due to the pain.  Every train than passed I dreamed of being on…

Thirty minutes out from the finish line, Natalie reassured me that it didn’t matter if  I needed to stop and take a break.  But in my mind, I wanted to finish the race unbroken.  I told myself I could recover once the race was over, and pushed through the pain for the last little bit.

We finished the race in 2:26:43. I felt dead and Nat looked like she could do the race again.  Smile.  A fabulous milestone day nonetheless.