The image this week pertains to Double Century, a 212km slog around the Route 62 area. Perhaps 3000m of vertical in there, but the key is that its a 12-man time trial. The road surface is rough, the winds have a habit of coming up and there is about 1200m of vertical in the last 50km. It’s a social race for most, but this year, somehow, I have assembled perhaps the most competitive group of human beings on the planet. We have put together a team for Pure Planet Racing as our final race for the year before we kick off 2012 with a bang.

So sure, there is a hint of fear in there for me as I have been training very very little in the last few weeks. It’s the time of the year for me to chill before the next big push through to Ironman SA in April.

The fear is a good thing. It`ll make me happy to hurt a bit more, as it’s the kind of hurt I like. That deep pain that isn’t sharp, but it’s draining, soul-destroying and you can keep moving well with it there. Sick, I know.

But we have a joint sense of purpose and the batch of guys I am riding with are some of the finest men I know. They love this stuff. One of them said to me the other day that he loved the last 50km, because it was quiet and everyone shared the same sense of being wrecked, but absolutely committed to the cause at the same time. Class bunch of hardmen.

Will the fear be enough? How deep will the rabbit hole go this weekend? Only time will tell. There is no avoiding it and the only option is to embrace the beauty in the discomfort, the knowing that somewhere, a lesser version of yourself would have taken the easy option. Would have avoided the what-ifs and the shy’d away from the fear.

But no, this is the better version of yourself. The one that makes commitments and stick to them, even if they hurt. As Chris McCormack says… “Embrace the Suck”.

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Intro

Ironman 70.3 in Buffalo City is unlike any other half ironman in the world. The conditions are unique, the course is unique and therefor it requires some specific preparation.

The best gear to race in is whatever you are comfortable in. I prefer a 2 piece triathlon specific outfit. Have a look at www.fluidlines.co.za for more information.

In terms of training before the race here are a few things you can insert into your riding.

Hill repeats – there are many hills in this race on the bike, and 2 big ones on the run too. Make sure you are comfortable and know how to pace the hills.

Open water swims – make sure you get used to swimming in open water. It’s an adaptation from the pool and can leave some people a little panicked. Get comfortable.

Bad weather riding – if it’s raining, head out there to know what it feels like to ride in the rain. On race day, you may have no other option.

Swim

The Swim is a 1 lap swim. It’s farking cold, so a wetsuit is mandatory. Not wearing a wetsuit places you in the “HIGH5MEINTHEFACE” category. Last year, it was 11 degrees.

Use Body Glide under the arms and around your neck to avoid chafe.

When choosing to warm-up or not, consider that you may have to stand there on the beach after your warm-up cold. If it’s raining, spend the time on the beach warming up with a decent routine of arm swings, stretching and mental psyching up. Find your power animal.

Start towards the right if you are a weaker swimmer to avoid the bunching up around the first buoy. Don’t get involved in kicking and punching, as karma is a patient animal and will bite you back.

Near the end of the swim kick a little more, warming up the legs a little more for the run.

It’s a long run to T1 so prepare yourself for a little slog. Don’t sprint up the beach. There is a nasty little hill to T1.

Transition 1

Take. Your.Time.

Be friendly with the volunteers and have them help you. Keep it to the basics when it comes to keeping stuff in your bag.

The following should be ON your bike: Gels, Bars, Energy Drinks, Shoes (if you`re speedy and put them on once riding)

In your bag: Shoes (if you`re not comfortable putting your feet into shoes while the bike is moving), Helmet, Sunglasses.

If it’s hot, ask the volunteers to sunscreen you to bits. Smile and say thank you.

Bike

Your first thought will be “Whoooooaaaa I`m on the bike already”. Soon, it will become “WTF was I thinking entering this race”. The first 45km at East London are tough. 815m vertical gain on the way out, often in the rain, always in the wind.

Take your time and ride steady, varying between sitting and standing. Focus on being light and riding strong, but not hard.

Have fun on the way back. It’s a fast trip back to T2. In the last 5km, spin the legs at a high cadence to ready them for the higher turnover on the run.

Transition 2

In the bag: Shoes, socks, visor, a cup of HTFU.

You`ll be feeling it, but you can still run well, I promise. Focus on running light along the peer and ready yourself for the longish hill on each of the 2 laps. Take water, coke, gels off the route. Focus on the finish, you CAN deal with the pain – it`ll be gone sooner than later and faster if you run faster.

Have fun. High 5 some volunteers. Your mind is your greatest weapon at this point. Use it.

Finishline

Walk. Slowly. Soak it up.

Zip up your top, wash your face at the last aid station. Nobody likes a finish photo with snot across their faces and coke all over their shoulders.

After

Eat smart, be merry and dance on the tables. Official Urban Ninja instructions.

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If you have any more queries, there are still pre-built programs available for the race and I will offer all the advice and help you need in them.

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Last night I walked into a simple diagnosis I knew was there. I had admitted that there were problems a few weeks before and was taking the necessary steps.

When you KNOW something isn’t right, you just know. As an athlete, my instinct is to ignore and push on. That is not the correct option. I knew the niggles, the lack of an old function that used to be there, but now missing and the feeling that is just wasn’t right meant that I needed help. First off, admitting there was an issue is for me, the toughest.

The diagnosis was not great. Some scoliosis, tilted hips, imbalances and really, work to be done.

And so the journey towards IMSA begins with a walk rather than a jog.

Back to basics and strength work, easy miles and a long term focus. 2 seasons of racing without a break taking their toll in the long run and where I left cracks, they have opened.

But this is not admitting defeat. Instead, it`s the start of a new journey. I have some radical, specific goals for next year. The journey towards those has already begun. I am admitting to needing to be more thorough, to apply less haste and more speed and admitting that indeed, cracks are showing.

I true blogger form, I am going to share every step of this journey. How the consultation worked, the concerns, how we are working on those and where we are aiming to get to. But as with all these programs, first I needed to share that indeed, cracks are showing, work needs to be done to mend the body looking at it from a long term view (I want to be healthy at 70, not only at 35) and I need to look at an overall approach whereas this year I have merely gone race to race.

Excited to share as I am sure many of you are going through similar things or have gone through similar things in your athletic careers.

Have a great weekend…

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Endurance performance is mentally tough; the best athletes can push themselves to sustain physical fatigue and remain psychologically positive over long distances and duration. This doesn’t happen by chance; endurance athletes can train the mind to develop emotional control.

Emotional control is a skill needed to cope with the stress of competition but the good news is that you can work to improve it. Focusing on emotional control can and will lead to improved performance. And while it can’t transform the proverbial carthorse into a racehorse, it can make both go quicker. I found some great info on this for you, broken down into 4 tasks. Let’s run through that.

Developing emotional control

Task 1: learning to recognise your emotional profile associated with success

We all have experienced intense emotions before important events. Some athletes can channel these feelings to enhance performance; some can regulate these feelings and reduce anxiety, while others become debilitated by anxiety.

Using an example of three athletes, the first feeling excited and calm, the second anxious and excited, and the third anxious and downhearted, athletes 1 and 2 should perform successfully whereas athlete 3 will probably perform poorly.

• Athlete 1 is an emotional profile typified by feeling vigorous, lively and alert, and in control. This athlete has regulated negative and unpleasant emotions. It is a profile often associated with supreme self-confidence and the perception that all challenges can be attained.
• Athlete 2 shows a different emotional profile associated with success. In contrast to athlete 1, athlete 2 has a profile depicted by feeling vigorous, tense and angry. Athlete 2 will use feelings of tension and anger to aid motivation. For athlete 2, feeling tense can be like a warning signal – ‘I am about to try to achieve an important goal, and unless I work really hard, I will not achieve my goal’.
• Athlete 3 is a different story. This athlete feels anxious, angry, downhearted and depressed. These emotions are likely to interfere with performance. Feeling tense might make you want to try harder but when it is combined with feeling depressed, it can make you feel like giving up. Our research has found that feeling downhearted and depressed is possibly the most damaging emotion to experience before and during competition. When athletes feel depressed, angry and fatigued at the same time they tend to turn anger inwards to self-blame and implode; poor performance is likely.

Task 2: assessing your emotional profile

I ask athletes to complete self-report scales before training sessions and before competition. I also ask them to rate whether they achieved their goals. Emotional responses occur in all of these situations and knowing how emotions change can be extremely useful in understanding how behaviour can change. You should assess your emotional profile before a number of different performances; something that can be done by completing an emotion scale shortly before competition or a training session(4). After competing, you should rate whether you performed to expectation or underperformed.

Performance should be rated in relation to your own expectations and your own goals. You will need around five successful and five unsuccessful performances before you can gather trends. Obviously, this is not always possible to do as you might be having a run of good form where most sessions/races are successful.

One way to get started is to think back to some of your recent performances and rate how you felt before a few races where you performed well (in relation to your own expectations) and a few races where you performed poorly (again in relation to your own expectations). Once you have a profile associated with successful and unsuccessful performance, a psychological skills programme can be tailored for your specific needs.

Assessment questionnaire

We assess emotions using self-report methods, typically a questionnaire. Of course, there are limitations with such an approach, as accuracy requires honesty. However, I would argue that there is not a better method available. A valid assessment of emotion necessarily requires access into thoughts and feelings.

It’s true that we can make hormonal measurements (eg adrenaline) to infer emotions, and also that these hormones are detectable in emotions such as anxiety, anger and excitement. However, a limitation with this approach is that the physiology of emotional states such as vigour or excitement is similar to other high activation states such as anxiety and anger.

The only way to validate a physiological measure of anxiety or vigour is to compare it against a self-report measure; that is, to ask someone whether they were angry, anxious or excited.

It’s important to know your emotional states associated with success and failure. Once you’ve identified the factors linked with poor performance, you can begin to develop a strategy to combat these factors.

Task 3: visualising success

One strategy for developing emotional control is to use imagery. Imagery is effective because it can be used to replay situations. The emotions experienced during those situations can be changed from dysfunctional to functional. Imagery is a good way to do this as the situation can be replayed and aspects of it can be changed.

A good way of starting to learn imagery is to find a quiet place on your own. Sit down in a chair and make yourself comfortable, close your eyes, breathe deeply and evenly until you feel calm and relaxed. Picture yourself standing in your competitive environment and look around you taking care to notice as many details as possible. What can you hear? What does your competitive environment smell like? How are you feeling? Immerse yourself in your competitive environment using all of your senses. Using 30-second blocks, you should relive the experience through your own eyes in real time. We encourage athletes to visualise in the first person and recall the emotional experiences before and during performance.

We also use imagery to help athletes cope with difficult situations. You should try to anticipate a difficult situation and see yourself coping with it successfully. An important part of this process is to imagine successfully tackling a number of the factors that make the task difficult; never underestimate the difficulty of the task as this can create a false sense of self-confidence.

For example, imagine yourself coping through the toughest part of the race, when your body feels exhausted. Imagine yourself coping successfully with this fatigue, feeling anger and depression starting to build up as you sense your physical fitness not being able to match the standard of performance you have set as a goal.
During imagery sessions you should rehearse the psyche-up strategies that would be used to raise vigour. For ultra-endurance events such as the Marathon des Sables, you should imagine how you will feel at the start of a difficult stage. This could be three days into a multi-day event when you have residual fatigue. Imagine how you talk yourself into feeling ready, downplaying feelings of soreness. Imagine yourself as a runner of the course; focus on each step, on the small details, and go through how attainable each part is when broken down in to simple steps. What this can do is to develop effective coping strategies for successfully dealing with unpleasant emotions experienced in competition.

Task 4: use self-talk

Controlling emotions during an event is also about controlling that inner voice in your head. When you are feeling tired, this inner voice can be very negative. It can question what you are doing, talk you out of keeping going, and become a general nuisance. Positive self-talk is needed when feeling tired.

Endurance running involves coping with fatigue, which can be learned; you can turn the voice off and you can turn from negative to positive. First, think back to those runs when you felt tired. Think of what you said to yourself. Write it down. The next step is to change the negative self-statements into positive self-statements.

For example, consider the negative self-statement, ‘My legs have gone. I will have to stop’. This relationship between feeling tired and what to do about these feelings is clearly terminal for performance. We need to change both parts of this self-statement. Rather than saying ‘my legs have gone’ we need to change this to a transient statement such as ‘my legs are tired’. This is more likely to be true in any case. Tiredness tends to come in waves during endurance running and intense feelings of physical tiredness can pass.

It is also important to change the strategy for dealing with fatigue. I suggest that runners should focus on their technique when feeling tired. Focusing on technique is a good strategy as it is largely under the control of the athlete. If the runner focuses all of their attention on technique, this can detract attention from sensations of fatigue. The outcome is a much more positive self-statement: ‘My legs are feeling tired, so I will concentrate on my technique to make it more efficient.’

A good way of using self-talk is to try to anticipate difficult moments in competition or in training. Develop self-talk scripts to change negative scenarios to positive ones. Use a combination of imagery and self-talk to create situations in which you experience unpleasant emotions, and see yourself deal successfully with these situations, using positive self-talk to control the inner voice in your head that can be negative.

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Awesome. It’s time to take this information into every day training for me, because I believe this to be one of the critical elements between a good, great and winning performance.

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A while ago some athletes approached me to do a general program for them, based around the principles I have found to work for the endurance game. I did a pre-built program for Challenge Cape Town as well and there has been a call to do a 12 week pre-built program for 70.3 in January. I have created a pre-built program specific to the course in East London, with a full run down on skills, drills, nutrition, etc. Here are the major headings:

Introduction

Unique Elements to Buffalo City

Terminology
AeT:
GR:
Strides:
Descending Intervals:

FAQ
If I miss a session, then what?
What if I am too tired to do a session?
Why is there so little swimming?
This low cadence work seems dumb. Why should I stick with it?
Why is there is no mileage on the bike rides and runs?
What are the essential tools I need to complete my training and race day?
What are the different colored weeks?

The Program:

The program highlights swim, bike, run and gym workouts. It’s sent in a PDF as well as Excel document for you to log your time and efforts. The program does not include:

- One-on-One attention from myself.
- Daily email contact.
- Personal training.

This is, essentially, an easy way to get as fit as possible, following the simple principles of economy, recovery, nutrition and injury prevention, in 12 weeks.

If you are interested in a program, they run at R900 for the 12 weeks (R75 per week) in full, payment up front. For more information, drop me an email in the contact page on Urban Ninja.

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We all want to run faster. Running fast is awesome. Not 1 hotdog awesome, but 1 000 000 hotdogs awesome. The feeling leaves us smiling and beaming.

Yet running fast leaves us tired, sore and unable to be awesome.

This is why I love what I call “Strides” so much. Strides are in every program I write. And they should be too, if you click the following 3 links you`ll understand:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

They are a legit way to include speed work (and more importantly, form work) into your week without compromising your ability to recover session-to-session. I prefer to run 15seconds hard (not flat out, maintaining form), with a 45second walk. 15-20 reps with a 15min warm-up and 15min cool-down.

As a proud triathlete with a real job, one of the primary concerns in my life is making it session to session without too much accumulated fatigue. Moving well when tired is essential for triathlon, especially Ironman races where the slow puncture effect of fatigue comes into play with the force of a Bakkies Botha tackle around 28km into the run. Strides reinforce moving well when tired. They build positive form routine and routine / repetition is king in the game of IM.

Add 1 session of strides to your week, every week and watch your running speed increase over the weeks.

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We are a sport filled with these guys. Peaceful warriors. The Dan Hugo’s, the Raelerts, the Crowie’s. Peaceful Warriors.

On the day, in the race, absolute animals. Ready to rip the skin off their competitors, in the nicest way. Pure, easy competitiveness. Nothing like it. Makes me smile as I sit here and write that. Pure, easy competitiveness.

The absolute best of friends before the gun goes off and with respect we aim with one goal towards the finish… to win. It’s such pure motive, such easy explanation and as Macca wrote a book about, I am happy to admit that “I am here to win.” Nothing wrong with admitting why you arrived bearing a disc wheel, a pointy helmet and a body devoid of anything resembling hair. So what if you came 269th – you possibly came to beat your arch rival, who finished 278th. Got him. Owned his ass on the bike.

I love these rivalries and they keep us going. There are a few guys out there who I have had extended rivalries with. We share beers and climb tent poles together after the race, chanting in unison. During the race, we will find ways to get every inch out of our bodies to beat said rivals to the ground and embrace them as they cross the line after us, knowing they would do the same at the next race where they could possibly be the victor.

As peaceful warriors we go into the world, taking these lessons with us. They make us better people.

The video was fun, don’t you think? Same as the header image. Total fun.

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Whooooaaa! What a fun clip.

What a great weekend. While my significant other ways away I went all in on the weekend. I had every reason to chill out after a very long few weeks but instead opted to pack in as much as possible into those 48 hours. That included far too many Jack Black’s, 2 awesomesauce single track sessions, a ride with the Songo guys, a Mexican party where I went as Nacho Libre, sampling grain fed pork & Chorizo burgers at Steenberg, catching up with James Cunnama and shooting some bike fitting, tire choice, Pure Planet Racing & a few other random videos with the team from GoPro.

I am full of energy today and as I look back over the weekend there is a smile that crawls over my face. Sometimes we can achieve so little when we are demotivated. After the cancelling of Challenge, it took me a few days to get back into stride, I won’t lie. Adapting training, arranging travel and adjusting goals on short notice doesn’t always fit well when you had been putting together form and specific movement (read: I was ready to go steady for 9 hours, I am now prepping to go fast for 5).

But so it is. We go all in on the next few weeks, culminating in 2 great events. At Wines2Wales we are riding for Pure Planet Racing and as part of the commitment from the team, are planting up R10 000 worth of plants shortly afterward along the cycling paths of Cape Town. For Double Century, we are taking a Pure Planet Racing team with considerable strength and we are going to aim at finishing as a unit, all 12 riders, as fast as possible. It takes a special effort to keep all 12 together and quite a bit more teamwork than you can imagine.

That after a Olympic Distance Tri this weekend (haven’t done one of those in roughly 18 months) and then Triple Challenge the week after. All. In.

Hope to see you out there at the races. Let the fun find you…

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First off, congrats to Ray Tissink with his 7th after there being rumors of a non-start a week before. Proud of the man.

It was The Big Show over the weekend. What a show indeed. In the last few years, the men have upped the game, with no clear favorite going into any Kona for the last few years. If you had a rough patch, you were out and only a perfect performance brought you the win. So how does the man called Crowie do it, so often, so well?

For me, he is the calm in the storm, the eye of the moving machine that is Ironman. Always quiet, always calm, always professional. If you look at his week before the race, switching 2 key sponsors, you have to know that it must have been a long few weeks leading into the race with those negotiations.

Add the pressure of winning 70.3 Worlds, just a few weeks before.

Don’t forget that he had a puncture in Vegas and raced having just come off anti-biotics, after a 4 months struggle with a virus.

Somehow, his preparation was perfect and his race was perfect. I would imagine him to be a delegator of epic proportions. He clearly has a team around him who he trusts who handle the pressure for him.

I would imagine he gave 50 interviews in the week before the race.

I imagine that he knew he had to cover every move and suss out which one would stick, then it was time to show everyone he COULD ride at the front. For me, it had nothing to do with the bike. His slowest marathon in a few years, despite running a 1:11 in Vegas tells you that he bikes his freaking heart out, hoping the poker face would not crack.

But he kept calm, managing energy on the run as Raelert & Jacobs chased, but for me, he won the race by riding almost too hard, running along the edge of a sword with his desire to be Champion, again. Hunger is beautiful thing to watch as it gets let out. Throw in a bit of anger, a dash of regret and a handful of calm and what you are left with is an incredible mix which gives that quiet power, that awesome-to-watch-goosebumps-power when the guy/girl passes you on the run, fluid, easy and looking like a Sunday stroll when you really know they are going FULL TILT.

Look at Chrissie – look at her patience, her resilience and her attitude. Man, I wish I had just some of that. When the moment obsessed media and minds went “she’s out of it, too far back”, I bet she was thinking “Be smart, ride your own ride, you have the run”. Inside, raging like a wounded buffalo, she picked off her competitors until simply, there were none left and the history book will show her as the victor, unbeaten at the distance, Champion of the World, again.

Watching the race unfold and reading some reports today made me realise that I need more calm, which in turn, means more confidence in my form. I know it comes from putting in the work and this weekend, I covered 350km on my bicycle and tapped out 15km of running at the end of a big week of exercise, so I am getting there. I found some quiet, powerful moments out there. Perhaps the Ellipsis is the Calm of a Champion. The pause to believe in yourself entirely, to back yourself when the chips are seemingly down but when you know that there are still miles to be covered, competitors to smash.

Either way, this weekend’s race was so full of lessons. We witnessed 2 races being raced for 226km, over 8 or 9 hours flat out. That is incredible. In the end, we saw the Calm of 2 great Champions triumph over the best in the world.

Great inspiration for the week.

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Before we get into details, let’s have a quick overview on Pose Running.

Pose is not new. Here are some current world class guys who you will recognize, who all run partly or full Pose…

And you may recognise this hip drive…

Recently, there has been a drive towards Functional Movement as the best way to improve strength, avoid injuries and get really really fast. Ideally, by changing your current routine (not adding) to include movement orientated exercises as well as strength, we improve our economy and thereby, our times.

Why is body positioning so important? Need proof? Consider break dancing and how body positioning affects every move they make. Now consider improper body position in running, cycling and swimming and think of how repetitive those sports are. By having bad body positioning and in essence, moving badly, you are reinforcing that habit 180 steps per minute in running, 100 pedal strokes per minute on the bike and 80 times per minute in the pool. It takes a lot of practice to break those habits.

I am currently attempting to move more effectively in my running and I can tell you, it’s a slow process. My calves are not enjoying the adaptation but the speeds are improving, slowly. More importantly for me, I have more energy in the 2nd and 3rd hour of running, a critical success factor to any ultra endurance event.

For most of us, start slow. I am doing short bursts of perfect Pose running twice a week, limiting plodding along with the wrong form. Additionally I have added, instead of 1 hour of gym per week, 3 x 20min sessions of functional strength and core work. Sure, it hurts. Sure, it looks funny.

Specific to Triathlon, there are a few more Pose elements to consider across all our sports. Here are the introductions to some of those, have a read if they catch your eye…

• BREATHING IN TRIATHLON SWIMMING
  Breathing in triathlon swimming is different from any other type of swimming for two major reasons – 1. nowhere else will you go head to head with hundreds of other athletes and 2. do that in an open water. How hectic can a swim start get? Let’s put it that way. A stronger swimmer that happens to be behind you will swim right over you if he has to. You might and most likely will get hit by someone’s hands flying through the air. You might get a bruise or two, ingest some seawater and get pushed around a bit…. [Continue reading...]
• OPEN WATER SWIM IN TRIATHLON – READ THIS TO SUCCEED
  This article is written primarily for complete newbies and beginners, but it could also be helpful to experienced and competitive Triathletes. The open water swim is considered by many as the hardest and worst part of Triathlon. Some are completely put off by it – hence the invention of a sport called Duathlon where swimming is eliminated altogether. But since you’re reading this article, we bet you’re looking for ways to make the mayhem of the swim a better experience for yourself. Below are a few suggestions that will help you succeed. Technique, technique, technique. As with other sports, you… [Continue reading...]
• THE NECESSITY OF TRIATHLON TECHNIQUES (Chapter 1)
  “Necessity is the theme and the inventress, the eternal curb and law of nature.” Leonardo da Vinci Endurance. Conditioning. Fortitude. Perseverance. Willpower. When the word ‘triathlon’ is mentioned in polite conversation, the above qualities are most likely to be associated with the sport. With images of epic struggles on the lava fields of Hawaii seared into the collective subconscious, the popular view of the sport is that it is one prolonged exercise in prevailing against the odds and enduring massive suffering until the finish line is reached. This is understandable since, with the exception of the avowed non–swimmers among us,… [Continue reading...]
• RUNNING AFTER BIKE IN TRIATHLON
  Several questions about this topic came up on our forum. How to perform a transition run and how to continue efficient running after the bike leg in triathlon? Certainly these are very important questions from the aspect of skill development and should be discussed as a special matter. As we know, running in triathlon is convoluted by a swim and bike leg, both of which contribute in increasing fatigue, reduced muscle freshness, loss in coordination, mental focus, etc. So when we get to the run, we have to be ready to face all the complications mentioned above and know how… [Continue reading...]

When you`re out training today and tomorrow, think about how your body is moving instead of just thinking that it is moving. Focus on how your joints and muscles feel. Then make small adaptations which feel better, which leave less pressure on the joints, perhaps lower your heart rate or up your speed a the same heart rate.

Think about these things. They are so powerful.

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