Last night I got thinking about the familiar emotions and feelings I had as I sat, shattered, attempting to pay attention to my lovely mrs.

Over the next 8 weeks or so, those of us hoping to go well at Ironman South Africa will be displaying the following symptoms. If you come into contact with any of us, please be patient, understanding and kind.

Your hopeful Ironman will be:

- Displaying what is known as the 1000 yard stare. Especially if its a weekend afternoon.
- Wearing compression socks under his/her jeans (hopefully not with shorts)
- Speaking strangely. When you ask “How are you?” – they may answer “Ironman fine thank you very much”
- Attempting to engage you in conversation about watts, aerodynamic benefits of dimples on lycra and how best to consume calories while running.
- Eating non-stop, while talking about food all the time, despite the fact that they look hungry.
- Stressed about the race. Even though its February. I know, it’s stupid.

Expect to encounter combinations of the above, like talking about lycra while eating a protein bar, having a protein shake at the same time, whilst wearing compression socks with shorts, in the middle of a restaurant, whilst staring straight through you.

These are big days for a lot of people. Their undertaking monstrous and their minds simply not able to compute just yet that they will be perfectly OK if they get the mileage in and arrive without an injury.

Be kind…

There is a lot of talk around the 1% and if you are reading this, you are a part of the 1%. That makes you 100% more likely to have a few things on this list that you take for granted, which puts you in the 1%.

- I am grateful for my car. It’s a reliable source of transport.
- I am grateful for my career. I work in a great office with great people with great prospects.
- I am grateful for my health. I have been on anti-biotics once in the last 5 years.
- I am grateful for my equipment. I lack nothing when it comes to having access to the best stuff.
- I am grateful for the choices my parents afforded me growing up. They are rockstars.
- I am grateful for my friends. They are loyal, trustworthy and mindful.
- I am grateful for this space. Having a platform to produce and be creative puts me in the 0.001%. Thank you for reading.

As is tradition here, I keep it to 7 things to that I can remember all of them. What are your 7 things?

Have an amazing weekend out there.

I wanted to share some info I recently discovered around running with Heart Rates that was exciting for me for Ironman this year. I have always tried to run with a steady HR at Ironman and perhaps this was not the best route to take. It seems I need to be starting a little slower and increasing the heart rate as I go. In Kona in 2010, I opted to not run with a HR monitor as I wanted to hold a pace, rather than a heart rate – seems I was on the right track then, had I not lost my special needs back and completely destroyed every toilet on the Queen K on the way home due to a stomach that had simply stopped processing calories.

I make my athletes start their runs slow and finish them strong and this is a great habit to learn.

Although some of the information is a bit technical, understanding these factors will allow you to use your heart rate monitor more effectively to optimize your training.

Heart rates tend to be lower in the morning. The difference in heart rate between running in the morning and afternoon is typically about 5 to 6 beats per minute, but can be as great as 10 beats per minute. Your maximal heart rate is also several beats per minute lower in the morning. This means that if you set your heart rate zones based on your morning heart rates, and train in the afternoon, then you will train a bit less intensely than planned. Similarly, if you use afternoon or evening heart rates to determine your training zones, and then train in the morning, you will train somewhat harder than planned.

Heart rate increases at high temperatures. Your heart rate is higher when running on a hot day. As the temperature increases from 15 degrees to 24 degrees, a runner’s heart rate at a given speed increases by about 2 to 4 beats per minute. When the temperature increases from 24 degrees to 33 degrees, you can expect your heart rate running at a given speed to increase by approximately 10 beats per minute. High humidity magnifies the effect of high temperatures on heart rate.

To gain the same benefits as on a cool day, you should increase your heart rate zones by 2 to 4 beats per minute when the temperature is in the 20’s and the humidity is low. On a high humidity day in the 20’s or a low humidity day in the high 20’s, you should increase your zones by approximately 5 to 8 beats per minute to correct for the heat factor. In more extreme conditions, such as a high humidity day over 30 degrees, you cannot accurately adjust your heart rate zones for the conditions. On the most brutal summer days, it is wise to adjust your training schedule to avoid high intensity training.

Dehydration causes an increase in heart rate. When you become dehydrated, your blood volume decreases and less blood is pumped with each heartbeat. Your heart rate at a given running speed, therefore, increases. A 1992 study by S. J. Montain and Ed Coyle, PhD, found that heart rate increases approximately 7 beats per minute for each 1% loss in bodyweight due to dehydration. For example, if you weigh 75 pounds, when you lose 800g due to dehydration your heart rate at a given running speed would increase by about 7 beats per minute. Water loss of this magnitude occurs after an hour of running on a mildly warm day. On a hot day, runners typically lose over 1kg of water per hour. If you set heart rate training zones when properly hydrated and then become dehydrated during training, your pace will decrease as you become progressively more dehydrated.

Heart rate during running varies by a few beats from day-to-day. Several studies have found that heart rate during running at a given pace varies by a few beats per minute from day-to-day. It is not clear why this occurs, but most physiological variables exhibit similar amounts of day-to-day variation. This means that if you monitor your heart rate religiously, you will find that some days it appears you are getting slightly fitter and other days it appears you are getting out of shape, when in fact, your fitness level may not be changing. You should be cautious, therefore, in interpreting the results of any one session of heart rate monitoring. Do not put too much emphasis on small changes of 2 to 3 beats per minute in heart rate found during one run. When you find a systematic reduction in heart rate at a given pace, however, you can be confident that your fitness has improved. Similarly, if you find that your heart rate is consistently higher than expected, you can confidently conclude that something is wrong; i.e. you may be losing fitness or (more likely for most runners) over trained.

Training heart rate does not predict racing heart rate. During competition, your heart rate does not increase logically with your running speed. So many other factors affect your heart rate while racing, that it is not a good indication of how fast/hard you are running. If you measure your heart rate at your desired race pace during training, and use that heart rate to determine how fast to run during a race, then you will run quite a bit slower than planned, because with the excitement of the race, your heart rate will be elevated. You could account for the increase and still use your heart rate to accurately select your race pace if the increase in heart rate due to racing was consistent. Unfortunately, how much higher heart rates are at a given pace during racing compared to training has been found to vary greatly from person to person and from race to race.

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Thank you.

I was aware of the pain all week and was pretty sure I would be able to run so it was worth the risk of taking a flight and the drive to race in Buffelspoort, where Rehidrat Sports is a huge part of the puzzle for Stillwater Sports and Xterra. Representing the brand on a national level gives me immense pride as the word on the street/trail/pool is out that Rehidrat Sport is the real deal when it comes to simple, reliable sports nutrition.

I would take the race completely on feel. If the calf was out of control, I would have to pull the pin. I had a decent swim at altitude, exiting the water with Dan & Conrad. A year ago I was 30sec down. For the first time in ages, I truly felt the control in the water. When I was swimming full time, I took it for granted and now, it’s like an ellipsis I am hunting for in the pool every time I swim, that pause where there is control, timing and feel in the water.

Onto the ride and I felt great on the flats, but the legs were, without a doubt, undone by the effort at 70.3 every time the road went up. My concentration was not quite there on the technical things either and the bike felt strange underneath me as I had not ridden the mountain bike since EUT11, something I promised to correct before Grabouw. I got off the ride in 7th, struggled with badly laced elastic laces in T2 and was out onto the run, finding my pace, feeling good, but not great.

The calf twitched and tightened to the point of walking on the very first downhill I ran. In previous years, I would undoubtedly have pushed on. Had I raced badly the week before, I cannot say that I would have made the same choice, but the choice was easy to pull out at that point, knowing I had the 70.3 result in the bag.

As a lightie, I would have been hell bent on finishing. Now, as a slightly wiser early 30′s guy, who has a long term athletic vision, I have learned that sometimes, it’s ok to ease up. Every result doesn’t count and I will be back for more soon. As I walked back to the transition area, I was smiling, knowing that growing up sure isn’t easy and that is surely does not come with a manual. Only through experience have I learned to say No. Only through burning my fingers have I learned where the limits are.

See you in Grabouw. I will be ready, rolling faster and with more focus.

Click HERE to read that and if you have any comments, leave them on the site or below the article here. I am passionate believer in Health being a large part of my Wealth. I intend being healthy far longer than I intend being fit and fast, so its an essential part of my daily life.

Hope you enjoyed the article.

Someone commented on the weekend that without compression socks and headsweats visors, Ironman would be dead. It made me smile.

And last, but not least…