I was sitting here thinking what to type today, as its more or less my day off from the world before a monster weekend of training, recovery, friends and a few Jack Black Beers. Being tired is good for me, as it brings out my real character. Behind a wall of fresh facedness, we can all pretty much cope with anything, but add 22 hours of training in a week (record for me in a normal week) and the tiredness creeps into your every-single-moment mood.

I think its why I watched in awe last year as the Obox team cranked out the big hours, and maintained the love for each other, even in the most dire of moments. It’s a pretty special environment there, and an amazing relationship between the lot of them (they keep growing in numbers). Maybe more so than they know.

So being tired = very real aspects of how you deal emotionally with personal problems. Are you calm or ratty when you`re down and out, against the ropes?

Most people rush through this phase, whereas I feel they should take the time to learn to change their base behavior in these moments. What you change when you are ultra fatigued tends to stay with you for life. That’s why I urge my guys and girls to do training camps, detoxes, cut out sugar, wheat and dairy. The effects of these things teach us to cope with our stupid need to be comfortable all the time.

How we get through these moments changes our lives.

Sometimes you have to break down the Lego castle and rebuild it, from scratch, to make it better.

It’s also in these moments that we find out who we really need in our lives. When you are in dire straits, who are you thinking about, who do you really trust to help you, when you are proper down and out?

If you are alone in these moments, I think that is rare. We all have at least one person who we know that when the poop really hits the proverbial, we can rely on them to bail us out (even when its out of jail).

I want you to think of this person, and give them a call right now, to tell them that they are that person to you.

Just because.

Come on, it’s Friday.

Make. Their. Day.

They are your power animal…. hahahaha

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I came across something amazing today, its called the 5S system. yes, there are five words that start with an S in there. I don’t know about you, but within a week of being back, my desk is pretty cluttered already. I find that I have a number of systems in my working day, but the systems always lead to them lying on top of each other at some point, i.e. little piles of stuff to do. What we need is not a quiver full of systems but a culture. A culture of organizing and staying organized. 5S is a Japanese culture marketed as a system. I am told that by introducing it to any environment is a success, and I am going to give it a go this year. Read on, and let me know if you are in, so that I have an accountability partner or two. .

Most of us get bogged down by numerous co-worker derived systems of email and file management. You find yourself facing a clutter at your office desk that may have looked organized to the untrained eye. That till I did a 5S sweep at my desk.

The five steps of 5S are:

* Seiri (Sorting)
* Seiton (Set in Order)
* Seiso (Sweeping/cleaning)
* Seiketsu (Standardizing)
* Shitsuke (Sustaining)

The five steps are accomplished consecutively. It starts with removing clutter and unwanted ’stuff’ (minimalism), keeping necessary ’stuff’ close at hand, standardizing processes of doing all activities (email processing, project management, note taking etc.) and finally sustaining those standards.

I find I can do the first 3 pretty good, but steps 4 and 5 are where my skills are lacking.

So here goes.

Who’s with me?

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Hi Guys & Girls. As you can see, big changes going on here. Please be patient and all will return to normal in the next few days as I change the entire look & feel to better represent the growth the site has seen in the last 18 months.

It’s going to be amazing.

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One of the most important aspects to my daily life is fatigue management.

Simply put, I was a total nonbeliever in massage, or what we could traditionally call Physiotherapy, after some really really really painful sessions that sent me home bruised, battered and in more pain than when I arrived. I heard of Biosport from TheHousemate, and thought to give it a go, after hearing about the women who “presses behind your ears to activate your hamstrings”.

Riiiiight.

This was too good to pass up. I love the idea of different remedy, and found out a bit more about MAT (Muscle Activation Therapy) which was what the crew at Biosport do differently.

You can find that HERE.

So off I went to the mistress of ear pain,Liné Griffiths, to see what this was all about. I was so blown away by what she was able to do to me in a short space of time (60min) that it became a regular part of my regime as I was building through the first big phase of my preparation for this year.

As our official campaign got going we built a relationship of referral for some credits (as any good barter trader will do) and from 2010 we now have a formal relationship with Biosport. Liné is an integral part of my life now, as she is involved with our Fairbairn Private Bank Team, and is providing one of they 4 pillars to my year.

There was a time before massage and a time after. I can honestly say that I have yet to come across someone who is not blown away by her service, her smile and her knowledge. Her list of clients include the Bulls Team who won the Cape Epic last year and the Specialized team (world champion Christoph Sauzer in the picture below getting sorted). So for normal athletes like us to have a chance to get what the pro’s get is something quite special.

Biosport has recently secured premises at the Wembley Square Virgin Active as well as being out beyond the boerewors curtain in Durbanville. This is a service that goes beyond just sports massage and you can only imagine the advantage of being properly aligned for the following:

1. Sleep patterns
2. Concentration
3. Circulation

All these things hugely influence your work arena and that means a better life overall, right?

If you need to speak to The Biosport Team, please call Liné Griffiths on 082 879 9444 to make a direct booking with her.

I am overjoyed that they made the decision to be a part of the 2010 Urban Ninja Experience and hope you will all benefit from the amazing treatment she offers us normal people.

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This song ranks up there with the best of 2009 for me, and will surely carry into 2010 with me as I am having myself a good time, in all that I am doing. Everyone wants to know what I am doing in 2010, what races, when the charity kicks off, and what I am doing work wise.

After 2009, which started out pretty good but ended up a right royal mess at one point, I wanted to make sure I am ready for 2010 and the Unsupported Tour was a great way to get out of my head and into the moment.

Being in the moment is a special place, and being there, as such, single tasking, is a skill that is pretty much the success to experiencing a real sense of completion in your life. Sport is an easy way to do that, because as you are going up an epic mountain pass, in 40 degree heat, there is very little else to think about than just turning the pedal, in the moment. Its a skill that’s tough to learn as we rarely get into situations which have us in the moment in the real sense of the word.

In 2010, I am already doing well, thank you. I am about to go into a 6 week phase of training after a successful race yesterday (more later in the week once I have some pictures for you), before we head into a phase where being in the moment will be personified, racing 5 hours a day every 4th day for 60 days.

crazy times.

This year the consultation business is growing, already with 5 deals on the table that I just need to finish up and get motioned, and it seems imminent that I will be employing some people to help me before we hit Q2. That is just what has to happen now, the natural progression on Rok Media has been unbelievable as I have yet to pitch someone, all business has come from conversations and referrals.

This year is just another year without too much planning to it. Everything is already in motion and the planning kinda all fell into place in 2009, whether I really want to admit to it or not.

Being there is the only option for me this year, a year where my support system is going to be stretched to the maximum they can deal with, but as its a year for me to make a difference on so many levels.

So if I seem dreamy or not here, give me a kick in the ass, won’t you…

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So as of tomorrow, I am racing in a brand new jones. a brand new vibe. a brand new connection.

After the big hunt for a connection to spark the RokThis revolution, something bigger emerged and I am over the moon to be a part of something that focuses on my key skills, and leaves the big results to the whipper snappers. Not that the old racing snake hasn’t got some lead left in the pencil, but this is an amazing balance for me.

In 2009 Fairbairn Private Bank had a cycling team, and this year, with a bigger vision and some amazing new partners (more in future posts), we are going bigger and better. The team has a shared focus of results as well as development of young talent into professional athletes. Nobody on the team is a full time pro, but after a few months of being involved indirectly with the team with mentorship and a bit of vooma, we now have a youngster riding pro in 2010 on another team with a huge budget.

Success!

My involvement comes from the Urban Ninja side and giving the brand some exposure at the crazy schedule we have for RokThis from this weekend through the stage race MTB series, through Ironman, and until the end of the year. As the old guy in the team, I also help with mental preparation and some mentorship for the young guys. They are racing all the mountain bike races around SA and its my job to race triathlons, multisport races and make sure we get into the magazines, blogs, etc

Thank you Fairbairn Private Bank for the vision, and the belief, that we can give you the exposure you want. Fairbairn Private Bank is a private bank based out of the Isle of Man, and a division of Old Mutual.

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You all know how mad I am for Zenhabits, and here are the 30 best posts for 2009, from the site. ties in quite nicely with me being 30 and all….

The 30 Best Posts of 2009
And so, without further ado, here are the best Zen Habits posts of 2009:

1. Breathe. Breathing can transform your life. One of my favorite all-time posts.
2. The Habit Change Cheatsheet: 29 Ways to Successfully Ingrain a Behavior. The best Zen Habits habit change tips all together in one cheatsheet, for those new to the blog and for those who could use the reminders.
3. Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway (or, the Privatization of the English Language). My most controversial post ever — it kicked off a firestorm of comments and posts and debate. Fun stuff.
4. Do Interesting Things. Another of my favorite posts.
5. The Get-Started-Now Guide to Becoming Self-Employed. While being your own boss can be scary and a little risky, it’s not as difficult as people think. You do have to be someone who loves his freedom, likes to be able to set his own schedule, likes to work on things he’s excited about.
6. The Little But Really Useful Guide to Creativity. While there are millions of creativity tips on the Internet, in this post I share the ones I’ve found most useful — the ones that I’ve tried and tested and found to be right.
7. Love Life, Not Stuff. The how and the why.
8. The Simple Fitness Rules. Fortunately, fitness doesn’t have to be that complex.
9. The Lazy Manifesto: Do Less. Then, Do Even Less. “Simple Productivity” has been the motto of Zen Habits from its early days … and in this post I set out the reasons “Do Less” is one of my Four Commandments, and why it’s the ultimate extension of Simple Productivity.
10. The Short but Powerful Guide to Finding Your Passion. Title says it all.
11. The Simple, Ridiculously Useful Guide to Earning a Living from Your Passion. Title says it all.
12. Your Life, Simplified. A 6-step method you can do today to simplify your life, without being overwhelmed.
13. A Guide to Beating the Fears That Are Holding You Back. Having the fear is natural. Letting it stop you from going after your dreams is a tragedy.
14. Ultra-Simple 3-Step Productivity System for Getting Amazing Things Done. I guarantee you — if you follow these three steps, you’ll be productive, and you’ll accomplish great things.
15. Minimalist Gmail: How to Get Rid of the Non-Essentials. Here’s how I’ve made Gmail into a minimalist inbox.
16. The Single Secret to Making 2009 Your Best Year Ever. Still applies to 2010.
17. A Simple Guide to Keeping Your Counters Clutter-free. Keeping counters (and other flat surfaces) clear, clean and clutter-free doesn’t have to be difficult.
18. The 10 Essential Rules for Slowing Down and Enjoying Life More. Slowing down is a conscious choice, and not always an easy one, but it leads to a greater appreciation for life and a greater level of happiness. Here’s how to do it.
19. How to Create a Minimalist Computer Experience. I love a clean desktop, a friction-free interface, and simple tools that help me focus on what I really need to get done: to create, without distractions.
20. The Little Rules of Action. And while I’m no proponent of a whirling buzz of activity, I also believe people get lost in the distractions of the world and lose sight of what’s important, and how to actually accomplish their Something Amazing.
21. 8 Ways Doing Less Can Transform Your Work & Life. Doing less is not about being lazy (though being lazy is a good start) — it’s about focusing on quality rather than quantity. It’s about getting off the hamster wheel of productivity, so that you can create something great rather than just being busy.
22. The Mindfulness Guide for the Super Busy: How to Live Life to the Fullest. It seems contradictory to those who are used to sacrificing living for pursuing their goals … but cultivating mindfulness will help you achieve your goals and enjoy life more.
23. The Minimalist Principle: Omit Needless Things. What’s important is not that you have as little as humanly possible, but that every thing you do have counts.
24. Get Less Done: Stop Being Productive and Enjoy Yourself. People are working longer hours, constantly checking their inboxes, constantly focused on Getting More Done. But to what end?
25. 10 Essential Money Skills for a Bad Economy. The best way to avoid fallout from the national economy is to take control of your personal economy. From guest writer J.D. Roth of Get Rich Slowly.
26. Dead Simple Guide to Beating Procrastination. For those of you who want to beat procrastination, here are 10 simple steps.
27. How to Live a Better Life with Less. The beautiful thing is that you don’t need to earn more money or buy a bigger house or car or have a bigger company in order to have this better life — you need less of all of that. It’s attainable simply by cutting back.
28. The Only Way to Become Amazingly Great at Something. There’s only one way to become good at something.
29. 55 Ways to Get More Energy. You won’t be able to do everything on this list all the time — you’d tire yourself out trying to get more energy — but do try them all to see which ones work for you and your schedule. From guest writer Gregory Go of Wisebread.
30. 20 Key Questions on Motivation and Habits, Answered. It’s that time of year — the end part — when people start thinking about their lives, their goals, their habits, and how to change everything for the better.

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Morewood Zula - Urban Ninja Gear 2010

Morewood have come to the rescue in my quest to race 19 days in the first 4 months of 2010, to raise R250 000 (more on that on Monday) for people without choices.

This is my offroad bike for 2010.

Drool.

Don’t you just want to die…

Much thanks to Andre and the team at Rush Sports.

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The start of day 2 was a pensive one. After a nights rest that can only be described as haphazard to the degree of near insanity, the call was made to not ride up the Swartberg pass, but instead fork out a buffalo each and get dropped at the top, making our way to Ladismith.

On the way up in the car we were asked why didn’t we just take the route through Gamkaskloof, commonly known as De Hel, as it wasn’t that hard, that we would be able to climb Die Leer at the end (an old donkey trail) pretty easily, without getting permission, and that it was only a small way from the top of Die Leer to Seweweekspoort, another lengendary pass.

We made the decision to take the shorter route, about 50km shorter, as Gringo was still a bit man down from Day 1 with his tummy.

The first 15km were amazing, covered quite quickly, until we hit an unexpected pass on the day, the Gamkaskloof Pass, which was gorgeous, stark and didn’t even give a hint of the extreme nature the day would take on a little later.

I did a quick interview on the pass, catch it here.

Over the pass, we headed down the Snake, as its known, which was the most rutted, beautiful piece of road I had ever seen. Simply breathtaking.

The road extended along the green belt, to Die Leer.

We wizzed down the hill into De Hel and opted for an early lunch, consisting of a toasted sarmie, with a coke, on the cash we had left. Its quite tough to find a spot to draw cash in the Klein Karoo, and nobody takes cards, so we put our cash together (not knowing how long the day would get) and went all in. Nom nom.

When we asked which way it was to Die Leer we had news that we needed permission, and that the path would be too difficult to get over with the bikes.

Not great news when you`ve just covered 50km into a valley which only has one road out, so we opted to head to the Cape Nature office, 6km away, and go see what we could organize.

The lady in the office was 100% certain we would not get permission, as the entire family were there, and their pools overlook Die Leer. Linda Zaayman, apparently, is a tough cookie to deal with. Somehow, we struck pot luck and caught her on a good day. We had the combination for the gate, and off we went, in search of the ladder.

People everywhere were warning us, but you know, we`re boooooaaaytjies, and how hard can it possibly be.

By the time we got to the river, we were again toast, and set up an impromptu camp which involved speedos and sitting in the river sharing a packet of chips and pouring water over ourselves constantly.

Gringo’s stomach looked distended and I was seriously concerned about him. We saw a road, and were about to go up it when we saw the farm chief and asked him where this “Ladder” was. He pointed us between 2 trees over the river. A collective “where” erupted from the 3 of us. He pointed at it, and trailed his finger up the vertical mountain in front of us.

There was silence, and I am sure I heard a whimper.

His words were not calming us at all. “No man, its 1000m vertical ascent in 2km. Disassemble your bikes, as its quite narrow. I hope you have other shoes”

O U T S T A N D I N G

I cannot describe the heat, the slope, the loose rocks, the sharp corners, the pain of the bike continuously carving into your back, and flies in your eyes, or the sense that you have bitten off more than you could chew quite well enough. TheHousemate was cruising up the hill with myself following, heels now welting with 2 blisters the size of R5 coins, and Gringo (who tore muscles in his neck 3 weeks earlier) hobbeling up the hill. I could hear him asking himself big questions and was going ahead, then waiting for him, repeating this task until we go to the top, 1 hour 18 minutes later, now with 1 water bottle between the 3 of us, and no idea how far we had to go.

A arty view through one bike, to TheHousemate up ahead.

We re-assembled the bikes, and headed off, Gringo keeping the juice as he was most in need of it. We soon realized it might be a long way, as the GPS was showing very little, and the road looked like it had not been ridden in about 10 years.

Desperate for water, we TheHousemate and myself were considering options as we waited for our compatriot, who was in inexplicable variations of ordeal by this point of the day.

The second animal trough we came across had water in it. There were bugs in the water. Had it not been at least an hour in 35 degree heat since we had a drink, we may have skipped it. We pushed the bugs away and consumed litres of the dodgy water, having a laugh (read: nervous laugh) about the situation we were in.

Our first puncture for the trip came about 10min later, just as we could see the tar road for the first time. It took a while, being dehydrated and slightly delirious at this point, for Gringo to get it fixed.

We stopped at a farm and stood in someones garden, taking on more water. By this point very little would have diverted us from our water missions. We were properly in the red.

Down the forever stretching Seweweekspoort pass and we made the call to find out how far, and more importantly at a T-Junction, which way we had to go. TheHousemate estimated with the GPS we had 5km to go, but after the call we realized it was more like 50km, so we made the call to be picked up in Ladismith, 25km away.

We scoured our backpacks and bought a 500ml coke to share at a spaza shop along the way, but all ended up riding our own pace at this point, each of us in a state of disarray. I found some latent form and got my best rhythm of the trip at this point – something I hope will resurface at Cape Epic in a few months.

There was little talking until dinner was in our tummies and personal hygiene, manners and etiquette were of inconsequential by now.

10 hours out there in a day was rough, our average speed almost half of the day before at points, and Die Leer, De Hel and De Animaltrough were all laughed about before we slept like the dead, all in bed by about 9pm.

A truly Epic day, one that will never be forgotten by anyone.

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Day 1:

Our departure from Lovane Farm about 60km past George was as unceremonious as it comes. No crowds, no cheers, just an envious Louis who wouldn’t be making the trip with us. Our destination was set to be Prince Albert, around 130km away, over the Swartberg Pass. We were carrying only what we needed and would have no support along the way.

We had zero clues on the actual route or what lay ahead.

To most people, that seems a little crazy. We are included in that, but there was an air of excitement, the hint of mystery that all boys crave so much, and the sense that an epic adventure lay ahead. We had no idea of how big an adventure.

The difference between ordeal and adventure lies in the level of suffering. For one of my compatriots, it was an adventure, the other was about to start dealing with a 2 day ordeal that had me concerned beyond a level that I knew how to handle. Watching someone give their long term health a big poke in the eye is never fun for me.

Back to departure and onto the road for about 5km before we were on dirt. It was 9am and we reckoned it was above 30 degrees already. The road was littered with tortoises and thankfully, no Cape Cobras, of whom we had been warned by everyone.

A headwind which would persist for the next 380km came up. #FAIL

The first 60km seemed to scoot scoot by in a jiffy, and the spirits were high. We were laughing at random things and talking boy nonsense to kill time.

Lunch in Oudtshoorn was a foregone conclusion, and we sat under the most beautiful trees and had a killer sarmie each. All could not have been better I tell ya! Oudtshoorn is basically ostrich city and every hotel, guest house and petrol station is named after the creature with the tiny brain.

The road out of Oudt’ies was tar, and through a valley, but we thought we would give it a go, even though it was now PROPER hot. Gringo, of the ordeal, melted like ice cream in a microwave, his head glowing. 30km and we stopped just before Cango Caves to chill under the trees, drink loads of sugary drinks, and get into the shade. It was already ominous.

The Google road said that the Swartberg pass was one of the most beautiful in the world, but it looked straight uphill for 18km to us. The road leading to the dirt pass was hectic enough, and I hung back with Gringo while TheHousemate went bobbing up the road. It was disgustingly hot and Gringo’s stomach infection had him bloated and really uncomfortable. I tried to keep him motivated as we still had about 50km to go. We chatted about girls, Ivan the Tiger, chicken burgers and old memories.

He was proper chopping off when we thought we got to the top, only to find out there was about 4km more to go. Properly into the ordeal now, we reached the summit (again no crowds of ACDC Thunderstruck playing) and couldn’t understand why this was regarded as the most beautiful pass in the world.

Then we hit the descent. Gringo lead us out, breaking virgin territory on what is the most beautiful canyon gorge ravine whatever you want to call it, in the whole freaking world. It was narrow, ploughed into the depths of the valley and we were going at 70km/h at points.

The discs brakes were humming and my front brake semi failed on the downhill at one point, adding mild screams into tight corners. It was pure, it was enthralling in a way only a single tasked moment of survival can be. There was no peripheral noise in our heads and we had forgotten about work, about our made up busy lives totally at this moment. All ordeal was gone and there was only adventure.

There was a section of road leading into Prince Albert which seemed flat, but we had a huge tailwind at this point and we ran out of gears we were going so fast.

Totally spent we got to our cottage (which was wide open) and took off towards town to find a spot to eat, and hopefully, a swimming pool, as our heads were cooked.

Then small town-ness kicked in. A lady we met 2 min before offered her sisters pool to us, and she proceeded to lift us there, climb over her sisters gate to open it from the other side, and bugger off leaving us there to swim, uninterrupted, at her sister’s house.

We may have used the garden pillows to dry our naked asses.

Dinner was wolfed down and the night was hot hot hot, the only thing more concerning were the mossie sized mosquitoes flying around the house, which meant sleeping on the floor on a thin mattress with a giant industrial fan blowing on full blast.

I told you it was an adventure….

That was day 1, and we rose on day 2 a little weary, but ready for it…

Tune back tomorrow for day 2’s report.

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