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Published by Urban Ninja on Oct 29th, 2009, No Comments
Are you a hyperplanner?
Very recently I have come to some amazing conclusion. I realize I have been pushing planning quite a bit over the last 18 months, but there has been a shift in writing of late, more towards the “work” side of life. Life is rushing by faster and faster, and I have recently found that I could spend hours planning and getting so involved in the planning, that I may actually miss the entire day.
Recently I seemed to hit a nice niche with the HTFU & Get It Done vibe. I noticed very similar approaches being taken on Endurance Corner as well as Chuckie V talking about it. In Ironman, people are so obsessed with planning that it can ruin their entire lives.
You can have the best laid plan in the world, but if you can’t get more than 3/4 of it done consistently, you are wasting time planning, when you should be spending that time doing.
Get it done. I reiterate – your success will not be achieved through hyperplanning, but through getting the work done. You will never know how much is too much until you have actually been there, swimming in the mucus of too much, the place where you are stuck in molasses when everyone is moving in parrafin.
How can you plan properly without knowing those limits?
This applies to life, to sport, to love, to everything. I worked in an office a few years ago where we spent more time planning actual sales than we did out in the field. In my relationships I have been guilty of planning for everything to go perfect but in the end there is always change and I may have lost some amazing moments by being too planned.
A hyperplanner will take success as achieving their goals. Who wants to achieve what their minds have tricked them into believing is their “ceiling” of achievement.
I remember being in a warehouse after a long, long nights partying years ago. It was dark, who knew how long we had been in there, moving in a mass of house music, vodka/redbull and white boy dance moves. Someone launched a bottle through the roof and one single ray of sunlight came through and almost burnt a hole in the dancefloor. Nobody knew it was light outside.
It was like they/we believed the dark was our limit.
Huge doors screeched into action and the light came pouring in, the party turned from dark to light, the entire vibe changed into a far more positive one, and we blew the perceptions out the water that morning.
What is your warehouse?
Are you going to throw that first bottle to look at whats outside?
Whats your excuse?
Make it work, get it done. Life will pass you by if you don’t get it done.
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Published by Urban Ninja on Oct 27th, 2009, No Comments
Are you ready?
Do you have a plan for 2010 to find ways to achieve more by putting in less?
Are you going to blow your ego out the water and destroy your old school conventional mindset?
When are you going to scare yourself again?
All relevant questions.
All important if you want the most out of life.
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Published by Urban Ninja on Oct 26th, 2009, 1 Comment
Fatigue Management
I am particularly tired lately. I know… I keep telling you this. I just feel that fatigue management is the number one mismanaged tool endurance athletes possess. We are very good at getting super tired, then taking 2-3 days to recover. My particular feeling is that we should manage fatigue in a way that gives us 1 day a week off. Right on cue, Alan Couzens has an article on the fatigue curve today. Nice on, AC! Have a good read here…
A big part of understanding the training process comes down to understanding all there is to know about being tired. After all, in order to ‘supercompensate’ to a level of fitness above the ‘norm’ requires the athlete to take on more work and become more fatigued than they would ordinarily submit themselves to.
However, fatigue in and of itself isn’t enough. If the athlete doesn’t allow sufficient time to supercompensate from a given training session, in other words, if the athlete decides to ‘kick himself while he’s down’, all he or she will do is get more tired rather than more fit.
To complicate matters, there are all kinds of ways of getting both tired and fit and to train effectively, the coach or athlete needs to have some rudimentary understanding of them all. For example, no serious athlete can afford to wait for full structural recovery (repair of muscle fibers and functionally disturbed mitochondria) between sessions. To do so would mean that the athlete would be reduced to performing about a session a month. Even the fast responder must concede that it takes more than 6 miles of running a month to achieve anything in endurance sport!! And so the athlete is left to only allow partial recovery between most sessions. This brings us to the concepts of ‘residual tiredness’ & the ‘fatigue curve’( click here ).
We can ostensibly divide the recovery from fatigue into 4 key periods.
Phase 0: High-Energy Recovery:
Refers to recovery within the session, i.e. the recovery of muscle ATP and Creatine Phosphate stores, resaturation of muscle myoglobin stores with O2 and general repayment of the classic ‘O2 debt’ that comes with vigorous exercise and enables us to repeat this vigorous exercise with relatively short rest. This is the basis of interval training.
Phase 1: Metabolic Recovery
However, even allowing for recompensation of the body’s O2 needs, if sufficient steady-state training or a sufficient number of intervals is completed, eventually the athlete will begin to run low on glycogen. This phase of fatigue (phase 1) requires longer to recover from – 24-96hrs depending on the level of fatigue, the muscle fibers involved and the content of the athlete’s diet. This is the basis of ‘hard-easy’ training within the microcycle or week.
Phase 2: Structural RecoveryYet, even applying an intelligent approach to structuring your weekly training isn’t sufficient when it comes to recovery. With every one of these tough sessions, a residual muscular damage is carried over from session to session. In other words, the 48-72hrs between hard sessions, while sufficient for supercompensation of the body’s glycogen stores is insufficient for repair and supercompensation of the muscle fibers and intramuscular components which represent a large part of the long term performance improvement in endurance sport. It is both desirable and necessary to do structural damage that will eventually compromise performance within the mesocycle or loading block. This is providing these ‘beat down’ cycles are accompanied by a ‘worthwhile break’ at the completion of the cycle. This period may be 7 days, 10 days or 14 days or more depending on the recovery needs of the athlete. The important thing is that the athlete recovers their performance potential once each cycle. You may notice that this aspect of fatigue comprises about 50% of the fatigue curve. Therefore this aspect of recovery is the key component in the training response.
Phase 3: Neuro-Endocrine Recovery
And, still, even the use of appropriate recovery between sessions and between cycles is not enough to prevent an eventual performance plateau in long term training. In addition to the issue of residual damage, the athlete must also deal with the habituation to stress that comes with long term load cycles. In the interests of protection from stress, in an organism who is perpetually involved in the stress response, the body will eventually habituate itself to higher stress levels so that it literally doesn’t wear itself out. Eventually the body will ‘run out’ of stress hormones or the body’s stress receptors will become less receptive to these hormones (Lehman et al. 1993). This represents the poorly understood fatigue of the neuro-endocrine system. Therefore the response to training is blunted. When performance begins to plateau, the smart athlete rests. This represents the final phase of the fatigue curve. Periodically, a multi-month recovery period will be needed to avoid carrying this small amount of habitual fatigue from one training year to the next.
If we accept Gordo’s saying that, when it comes to training, getting tired is the point then surely a big part of being an intelligent coach and athlete is about understanding what it really means to be tired. Hopefully, in addition to helping to better elucidate the concepts of periodization, in the same way that Eskimos have 100words to describe snow, this article has added to your vocabulary of being able to define your own tiredness :-)
Train Smart. AC
Naaaice. Hope you enjoyed all the fancy words in there. I know I had my dictionary out. But I DID learn alot in there. Being tired, or more importantly, being the correct TYPE of tired, is what makes us go fast.
and on that bombshell…. ciao.
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Published by Urban Ninja on Oct 23rd, 2009, No Comments
Ironman SA heating up already. Some basics.
Its roughly 183 days to go till IMSA2010 and I can tell you that people are already far more serious than last year, and that there are a load of new people who are doing the race…
I know this because my inbox is full of people looking for help. They have varied degrees of problems, from minor to catastrophic, and their expectations are filling the same criteria.
I thought to put down a few basics that you should be doing this time of the year (In my humble opinion) in order to maximize your experience, come 25th April, 2010.
1. Base miles. You should be doing loads of it. All you training should fall in the zone of 60-75% of your max HR for now. Its boring I know. It sucks when your mates ride away up the hill, I know. Your life will, however, not end when they do. Your ego might suffer a bit, but that’s it. Load your miles to the extent that you can recover session to session doing proper base miles.
2. Nutrition. You should be getting your diet in check this time of the year. I would go with the blood type diet (personally working well for me), and check the article I wrote this article about the basics. You should read, and apply the principles.
3. Cut the clutter. Now is a good time of the year to streamline. Get rid of things which are nagging behind – get your car registrations done, your taxes in order, your admin in check. These things seem 10 times worse in February when you are going to be super tired.
4. Clear your mind. Sort out the things which have been bothering you. Apologise where you need to, clear the air with personal relationships. Make sure you are 100% with people before going into the period 1 Jan 2010 – 25 April 2010. You will be absent then more than you are now, and personal relationships and mental stress are the biggest handbrakes in IM prep.
5. Equipment check. Want some new equipment before the race? Check on pricing NOW, and start saving accordingly. For me, most important things are a proper fitting wetsuit, a professional fit assessment for your bike, correct running shoes, and PERFECT nutrition practise. Nutrition practise is expensive as long rides can involve 6 gels, 2 bars, 4 bottles and a coffee halfway, which is roughly R200 per long ride. Start saving.
6. No time goals now. Your primary aim should be to get fit at the moment, not worry about what time you will go on raceday. You should be training according to your current aerobic ability, not projected in April. That will lead to loads of unhappiness. Be realistic about your current fitness and how to go about improving it in the smartest way possible.
7. Sort the swim, early. Playing catch-up in the pool in March suuuuucks, trust me. Make sure you have a swim coach NOW who is sorting out your stroke so that you don’t have to worry about it close to the time. The aerobic profit you will get from swim squad carries across to all 3 sports.
Those are the 7 deadly sins most people are making at the moment. Make sure you are avoiding them.
Have a great weekend. mad love…
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Published by Urban Ninja on Oct 22nd, 2009, 1 Comment
Your projected self.
Good mate Andy had this up on his blog this week, and it got me thinking. For the recap here are the actual words…
I wrote a few days ago about the witness. In that instance it referred to someone seeing an act that someone else performed. You are running down the road and a friend sees you. They witnessed the act of you running. So what? We are all familiar with this concept. Are you familiar with yourself as the witness to your own experience? Not your mind telling you, “I am running down the road” but your consciousness experiencing you running down the road. The later takes place in a space of No Mind. The moment you start thinking it is lost. It is not the experience of loosing time because you drifted off thinking about running in the energy lab in Kona. You come back and you have run a long way with no recollection of how you got there. Not that. That is just more of the same mind dominated insanity. The mental chatter has not stopped. What I am writing about is the height of presence without the mental noise. It may not sound like a big deal but it is. It is the gateway to knowing. The witness is the real you below the layers of ego and self delusion. If you experience this state of being through meditation (running can be that) you likely realize three things.
* the mind is constantly active like an excited puppy jumping all over the place
* there are moments of stillness
* there is something else there, a witnessThe third point can be the start of awakening. If something else is there are there now two of me? Only one can be real so one must be a delusion. Here is a hint. The one that must have the latest pair of cool shoes, or car or gets angry, hurt and resentful, that one is not real. You made him / her up. The other one is the real you. The witness that you do not control or make up stories about. That is your real SELF. Endless compassion, love and understanding. Sure sounds better then that imposteur you keep introducing to other people.
In the Matrix movie, Morpheus mentioned when they were back in the matrix, that they look different because this was their projected self vision of what they should look like. It was totally different to what they looked like in the real world.
I think Andy was touching on this, about the stories we spin to please others. Cape Town is not quite as bad, depending on where you hang out, but I actually have some mates who I have no idea of what they do 9-5, even if I speak to them in those times. Its not that important to me.
I had the terrible habit of telling people all sorts of whack crazy ideas of what I did for a living if it came up upon meeting them, and even had the habit of walking away from people if it was the first question they asked. Bit short sighted as I wasn’t responsible for their behaviour, but I was still at the beginning stages of really accepting people as they are.
Often I was a professional jukskei athlete or a Disposable Lighter Refuelman, or even, on occasion, I would say that I do nothing, and didn’t care to be doing anything anytime soon.
The idea of a projected self i.e. the image you put out in the world, vs the one you see when only you look at yourself in the mirror, can be two totally different people, as Andy mentioned in his post. The goal for me is to be just that one guy, the same, simple guy who feels like he is weightless from time to time, floating along in absolute awe of the amazing spaces I roam in. The guy who gives without asking anything in return because he does it out of pure love, without consequence or expectation.
Its always interesting to see how people slave after material things. After reading Andy’s post yesterday, I put some pictures of a BMW Prototype up on my Posterous account, and got huge response out of it, from this material thing, that all these people were foaming at the mouth over.
I decided to take my tummy bug out for a run a little later, and as I was floating around the new golf course at the new stadium here for our 2010 World Cup, I had totally forgotten such a car even existed. I was purely in awe that although physically I was hurting a little, I was able to have my best run of the year so far, and it went by in a flash, 90min of it. I slept like a baby and today woke to the most amazing day in Cape Town.
I am going to hug a few strangers today….
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Published by Urban Ninja on Oct 21st, 2009, 1 Comment
Gym & Endurance Sports
Those of you who have been unlucky enough to be coached by me know the value I put on my once a week gym session for you. Whilst not a full body session, its far more of a “core” workout. I place alot of value on lunges, squats, core work and quite alot of stability stuff i.e. one leg at a time.
The reason for this is simple – we do not hop when we bike, or run. Pretty much always (barring extreeeeeeeme desperation) we go ahead, one leg at a time. We also have to learn to keep our core strength statically strong for extended periods of time.
Wobble on your bike? time to do some plank exercises…
There is a pretty good workout here and a great explanation for why we do strength work is simply that, as we get a little older, we tend to get a little weaker, and to stay fresh with the whipper snappers, and able to be in the mix, you need some strength in there too.
A fantastic reason to be in the gym is also to avoid injury. I was fairly injury prone a few years ago, until I started regular work in the gym. Every single one of my disciplines got faster, and I have since, never been injured.
Also, as Crowder says. “A little rippedness never hurt nobody.”
Here is a new one I found today, which after a quick mail to the Muse, has gotten approval for insertion into the program. Hip Flexors, Hammies, Quads, Stability, all in there…
Unfortunately, for the mirror athletes, there are no bicep curls, and no calf raises.
But why only once a week? Ask my athletes about GR/ME/Big Gear Intervals. They are gym, ON the bike. They are included in almost every work-out we do. They DO hurt, but they ARE worth it. I have yet to come across another form of specificity towards ME (Muscular Endurance) that works as well as GR (Gear restriction) intervals…
Want to know more? Drop me a line… raoul [at] urban-ninja.co.za
ciao ciao
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Published by Urban Ninja on Oct 19th, 2009, 1 Comment
HTFU & get it done…
I am so often surrounded by people lately who complain, about tough times, about everything that could be complained about. It’s like people are looking for things to complain about, and therefor, they seem to attract themselves to things that can make them complain.
Law of attraction, whatever you want to call it. The more you complain, the more “complainable” things will be attracted to you. Just life my bru, nothing but life.
Let’s not beat around the bush. Lately, I am tired. In the last 12 weeks I have taken my training from 9 hours a week to 18 hours a week. This week will see me go over 20 hours for the first time. It will be part of a consistent change. My biggest planned week is around 35 hours, in training camp format, in December.
Oh wait, I lie. Epic week will be about 45 hours, of cycling, in 8 days. the 35 hours is across 3 sports, yoga and strength training. How on earth do I plan to recover, session to session? I am not 100% sure yet.
Back to the point of the story. Today the headline reads that you should just get it done.
Yes, there is less cash flowing around. Far less “free debt” as well. Yes, people have been retrenched. People close to me are suffering because they got retrenched. Some, with an hours notice and no pay at the end of the working month.
My problem lies with those who then spend the 16 hours a day they are awake (24 hours less the 8 you should be sleeping) with about 1 hour of productive working. The problem is the culture we had for so many years, with presenteeism being instituted on us from all angles within organizations. Hard workers were told to work less, work smarter.
I say you should be hustling for 16 hours a day. If you are not hustling for time, money, love, freedom, rest, etc then you are wasting time. I am not saying work 16 hours a day, flat out, 7 days a week. That is not conducive to anything good. I don’t know anyone who could work 16 hours straight. I would say I work about 6-8 solid hours a day. This includes:
1. Research
2. Studies
3. Actual WorkI then have to train around 3 hours a day, I eat 5 meals a day, and need about an hours downtime before bed to ensure quality sleep. So I have a few hours to play with, which leaves time for personal relationships, family, and pet projects.
In the modern South Africa, as a white male (no racism here, just facts), I have to be open to the idea of being a real entrepreneur. I have to pursue everything, and assume nothing, as stated in the headline of this site. Those are also just facts. I cannot assume that what I am doing now, will be viable in 18 months time. There may be better options available to my clients, and I need to be prepared for that. So I diversify my time into different industries that will hopefully someday create a form of annuity income for me, and my family.
I have one company up and running, one coaching program about to launch officially, and another pet project I am working on. This takes a lot of time if you are a world class procrastinator, which I could easily become. Its a fine line between presenteeism and pro-activism. Typically, I have to ask myself a few questions with every task:
1. Will what I am doing now change my business?
2. Will this meeting result in an outcome, and action, or just another meeting?
3. Will this new account steal a proportionate amount of time from my day?The last one is quite important, because I work on a monthly consultant fee, which is the same for all accounts.
If one client takes 6 hours a week, and the others all take 2-3 hours, then I am cutting myself short on the 6 hours per week account. How many of your clients take most of your time? Does the 80/20 rule apply to your business, and if so, are you focusing on those 20% of clients who bring in 80% of your profit, or spending your time on the 80% of clients?
In the end though, you just need to get done what needs to be done, in order for you to make sure you have, for me, an optimal situation where you are focusing on those 20% of clients.
My dream is to have 4 businesses up and running, each their own unit, that operate only with those 20% of clients. Each business (unit/model/division – take your pick) is profitable with those 20% of clients, so that at 80% capacity, there is scope for employment, annuity income, and early retirement. Each day will be split into 4, and I will dedicate time to delegate effectively in each unit. We ALL work 4 days week, so that we also have 20% of the week to ourselves.
How do I get there?
2 cups of HTFU and get it done. Hustle hustle. Work long hours, train hard, take all opportunities, explore all avenues. Tired? HELL YES. Inspired? HELL YES. Nobody said chasing your dreams would be easy…
Get err done..
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Published by Urban Ninja on Oct 16th, 2009, 1 Comment
Puma loves African Football
After a nice 3 hour bike ride this afternoon, I came back to check last emails before heading out to the Robertson Wine on the Water Festival.
In my inbox was an email from Cecily, my favorite PR girl, who does alot of work with me, for Puma. I was amazed at how ahead of the game Puma were with regards to kit, which is already ready for the 2010 world cup. Kudos to Puma for coming up with what is, in my opinion, kit that has application far beyond Football. I personally, am going to be running in these tops next year, they looks the SHIZ (no relation to the Shiv). This, from Cecily…
PUMA has unveiled the 2010 African team kits to be worn by their 11 sponsored teams: Ghana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Togo, Senegal, Angola and Namibia. See pics and press release attached.
The kits will be worn at January’s African Cup of Nations in Angola, and the World Cup in South Africa (Ghana and Ivory Coast have already qualified for the World Cup, while Tunisia, Cameroon and Egypt are on the brink of qualifying).
The jerseys are contoured to deliver a snug body fit that accentuates the players’ musculature. A Kinte pattern, inspired by traditional African fabrics, was applied to this back panel. Additionally, a unique brush-stroke effect, mimicking fans’ body paint, creates the decorative stripes on most of the away jerseys and the players’ names and numbers on the back. Official team crests are positioned on the upper right quadrant of the shirt, while select teams showcase the iconic symbol that represents their team country on the left hand side close to the heart.
PUMA has produced licensed replica kits and fan wear, available to consumers as of October 10, 2009 at select wholesale partners.
Further cementing their number one spot in Africa, PUMA has announced a partnership with the Algerian Football Federation to be the official supplier of home and away kits, beginning January 1, 2010.
PUMA has also been named the Official Fan Shop and Fan Supplier for African Cup of Nations 2010, with exclusive licensing and retail rights for products bearing the tournament symbol.
I have attached relevant releases and photos, but all of the news and imagery you need is contained on the following digital press kit http://www.pumafootballpresskit.com/
This hyperlink takes you to a Flash-enabled, interactive site that houses the following info:
–Press release on the African news announcements
–PUMA Team facts and stats
–PUMA Player biographies and photos
–Imagery and product descriptions for the 11 African Team Kits
–New v.10 Collection Performance Products, fact sheets and images
–Fun facts about the 11 African nations where PUMA has sponsored teams
–Preview of the Love = Football advertising campaign
–Links to tech and viral PUMA football videosThis site is designed to be your toolkit for all news related to PUMA’s African Football offerings.
So I clicked across and got the most amazing shots, for download, as desktop wallpapers. Go check it out…
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Published by Urban Ninja on Oct 15th, 2009, 1 Comment
Jack Parow featured on Taxijam.co.za
You know about Taxijam, right?
Where SA artists jam in a taxi, riiiight? Where have you been? Or as Jack Parow, from the Belville Massif would say…
Jy’s ou nuus!
Please enjoy my lad here. He has just left the corporate world to go full time into Afrikaans Rapchoonz. Two finger clap…
Taxijam presents Jack Parow from Taxijam on Vimeo.
Taxijam is the smallest gig around.
We provide a selection of some of South Africa’s finest creative talent performing in an intimate 5 minute taxi ride.
All clips are recorded and shot in exactly the same style, in one take and uploaded in their unedited format to our website.
Each and every performance is entirely democratic, there are no expensive stages or creative lighting, which makes it possible for viewers watch multiple musicians in exactly the same context.
We are not selective about what genre we shoot – We will shoot artists, musicians, poets, performers and basically anyone who blows us away….
This is a labour of love, and we will continue to shoot bands that we think are rad, but at the same time we like to link back to artists themselves, this is as much a showcase for them as it is for taxijam.
Whether you are famous or infamous, signed or unsigned, rock or pop, acoustic or metal or simply someone with a story to tell – anyone can hop on board…
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Published by Urban Ninja on Oct 15th, 2009, No Comments
The Flutebox
Oh my…. 18min I hear you say.
Yes yes friends, today is video time, and back to some amazing skills. Click the Play button, then click it again, so that it loads up. Go make yourself a cup of coffee as it loads. Yes, it takes bandwidth.
No, your boss will NOT thank you.
Yes, its worth it…
Now do it…
thanks JEFF
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