We all know I am sponsored by Rockets Compression and that in the past, I have used a compression sock for Ironman runs. There is a bit of a story to how I got there. I blistered horribly in my first Ironman. I was told to find a set of double layered socks. I found a set, they were amazing and they were compression, knee high socks too. So despite feeling like a tool, I used them in races. Since then, I have found even better socks from X-Bionic and will be going back to running without them. I am completely behind the idea of compression for recovery, but as of yet not convinced they make a difference in the race beyond the looking like a tool part.

I am also not huge on the idea of seeing people walk around in compression socks and shorts all week before the race. As much as I love triathletes, they have some funny fashion habits. Compression everywhere on race week is a highlight and I have yet to see the difference.

Last night I came across what Terenzo Bozzone has dubbed the official rules of Compression Socks. Quite entertaining and quite right, methinks.

Here follows the progression of the self conversation. Enjoy…

A pearl of wisdom. Race with one sock yo, so we know you have a weakness and can lean on it…

Sneaky triathletes, don’t use this excuse.

There we go. If you have to, don the Speedo and crocs and compression sokkies and enjoy.

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So it happened. Thanks to you. I bow and thank you. Urban Ninja made it back into the top 10 sports blogs in South Africa. Suprisingly, as I never nominated the blog for an online marketing category, I appear in there too. Assume nothing, pursue everything is the motto, so go after it we will.

If the process wasn’t drawn out enough, I now need you to click the button again and vote again. Until the 17th it seems you can vote every 24 hours, so come back to this page and click the button every day and make a vote count for me, please. I know its lame to ask you to vote every 24 hours, but the reality is that its the rules and states it on their website and if someone with 500 votes gets those votes each day, then if I get 10 000 individual votes, I still wont win. Seems a weird system to me, but hey, these are the rules. Also, if you have more than 1 email address, then register each address. That’s allowed too. I wonder if someone is going to register 1000 email addresses and vote for themselves each day. Oh, wait. I have a normal job and train silly hours and this is just a blog. Back to reality.

Thank you for the continued support. Now set a reminder in your Outlook or Gmail to daily go and vote for the Urban Ninja. I, in turn, promise to keep going above and beyond for content. Raoul

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One for the boys. That is all for now.

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“Hey, I can smell you from here.”

Hahahaha. I know you wanted something meaningful but this was too good to pass up.

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Red Bull Minidrome from Radar Films on Vimeo.

Red Bull Minidrome…

Too cool…

Hope that’s Jack Black Beer.

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Excuse some of the language in the clip, but the point is right there. You have an audience. They care. Be patient. Great virtues by Gary Vaynerchuck.

Preflection is something I am only getting to grips with in the last few weeks. We are taught to visualize all the time, to imagine how strong and powerful we are going to be on the sports field before it happens, to imagine winning that big contract at work. That’s all great but that’s merely focusing on the goal. How about looking beyond the goal and how we could reflect on achieving that goal.

How would reaching the goal make you feel, not at the moment of achieving it, but a week after achieving it. So often we are lost to the big success but often the success is merely a moment of success that leads to a passage of time where work is doubled, commitments tripled and we are left tired and beaten down. I am coining is preflection because I have no other way to call it out loud.

Looking forward to the moment where you can visualize looking back a little sounds like a load of mumbo jumbo, even to me, but I am trying to see the value in it. I think it could be a powerful way to analyze what is actually important post goal achievement.

Coming back to the video. I clearly have an audience. You are here, reading this. YOU, are my audience.

I care about you immensely. I love writing these articles and sharing other peoples articles because you MATTER to me, beyond having product associations because of how many of you come here to read. In the end, you all come here to read, to learn something. Some, to be entertained. We love you too.

I was brought acutely aware of audience this past weekend with some people’s behavior and how that may affect my personal relationships with others. I am someone who doesn’t take things personally but I realize that in the manic depressive world we live in, protection of your personal brand, especially online, can be vital. I imagined not the various ways to deal with the problem, but the scenarios that the ways to deal with that problem would leave me in. In the end, manic depressive society won and I know in just a few days everyone will have other rubbish to fill their minds with.

“Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.” ~Eckhart Tolle (via The Mindfulist)

This came about today as well. Had me considering a few things.

The way I used to be years ago, as a person, and the effects that it has years on. Sometimes we don’t get treated for how we treat people today, but for how we used to treat them a long time ago. I recently had the absolute pleasure of meeting someone people had amazingly bad reviews on. Turned out it was all based on a person he/she was in the past.

Concerning the quote, we have to accept that people may treat us based on the decisions we made a long time ago. This is always uncomfortable for me, as I truly believe I have come a long way in just a few short years, even if its not always evident to those who knew me then, and might still treat me as they did then.

“When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.”
~Lao Tzu

Its been a fun few days since Ironman and essentially, my season, have been over. Ice cream for breakfast, pizza at 4am after parties and general bad eating, late nights, etc. This also popped up unexpectedly..

Go out and buy it for me, won’t you. Hide it for 10 years and then we can laugh about it when we are old and wrinkled. Nice job from the “photoshop” experts there. The photo was taken in September last year already, amazing that it came out now, perfect timing. C’est la vie!

Enjoy your afternoons. I am back. Expect more…

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So I am going to stick my neck out there. I wanted to do something cool, and I guess I don’t care if there are 2 or 200 of us, but I want to create a special bus for the Two Oceans Half Marathon. Bus = group of people running together at a determined pace.

Puma are the headline sponsor for the event, and one of my sponsors too. Their focus this year is to run with JOY, to make running a total JOY, so I am going to put together the Bolt JOY bus. I am swopping my sleek aero outfit and heart rate zones for a day to be a part of the masses who finish around 2 hours for the race. We (possibly just me at this point) will depart en masse from the start, with music, lights and vibes. I will be donning the Bolt arms in the picture here:

We’ll have a dedicated photographer (also probably myself but I promise to work on it), a dedicated refreshment stand at the top of the big hill of the day and some great laughs guaranteed on the day.

Joining the Runners World 2 hour bus, we`ll create what the Two Oceans & Puma’s vibe is all about – that the JOY of running is whats important, not the overall time. Yes, some among us want to race for 2 hours, but we may as well have a laugh along the way, listen to some music, pose with the Bolt Arms (will do my best to get a few more sets organised – mail me if you want to wear them) a few times and cheer on the crowds as we go. 2 hours seems an arb number but its a milestone for a lot of runners.

If you are at all keen on this, please drop me a mail on the contact page HERE to let me know you want to be a part of this.

Now copy the page address from this, and send it out on an email, tweet it, put it in your facebook profiles, and lets get the ball rolling on this.

Let’s experience the JOY of running, have some fun and just generally rock out!

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I think the fact that Lance arrived in a skin suit, averaged 56km/h and only rode 15 odd seconds into an Ironman guy shows the strength and power Chris Lieto has in him. Well done Chris for keeping us Ironman guys in the loop with arguably the best cyclist of all time.

I loved the comment from Lance that they will have another showdown, in a few years, in October…..

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That is Die Antwoord, the latest version of Watkin Tudor Jones and his amazing persona shifting. You may remember him as Max Normal. He used to look like this;

and he used to sound like this:

No video, just a very much chilled version. Even then he was considered different and shocking. Die Antwoord live in the block of apartments where my Cape Epic partner resides, and the progression to a harder, more shocking version coincides with shock media I guess. No longer does anything positive make the news, it’s always shocking.

Like a list of Die Son coverstories, Die Antwoord is a very well thought out project and I have to give it to them, they are fully into it. Tattoos et al and how and where they find all that 80′s clothing is amazing. You`ll notice some vintage Puma gear in there, its a connection that’s been there for a while.

I have to wonder though, as amazing as I find this project, if this is really where we are going. How do you stand out, and make a name for yourself, in a world where Die Antwoord are the latest, greatest thing on the Interwebs, gaining approval from mass audiences literally around the world.

Watkin Tudor Jones is a genius, so don’t mistake me on that. An artist in the truest sense, totally committed to his passion, and that gets translated in it as well. People can feel and feed off his energy for success. He is a chameleon and a fantastic one at that.

Change is inevitable, and in current society that means a harder change for most people. More ruthless at work. Shock media to get your name out there. Visual imagery that stands out is tough to achieve in a society where we are bombarded with thousands of brand messages a day.

How are you going to change to stand out?

What would you change to stand out?

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So you know about Puma’s Love = Football Campaign…

Not? Seen these around town?

naughty naughty.

In support of PUMA’s Love = Football campaign and Valentine’s Day, a video e-card has been created with football “hooligan” fans singing a love song.

You can customize the e-card with a message and email them to your sweetheart for Valentine’s Day. You can also post the e-card to your loved one’s wall on Facebook.

The e-card is available on www.pumahardchorus.com.

Here is the intro screenshot…

This leads you to a group of English men singing “Truly Madly Deeply” to you. It’s very groovy. Some would say revolutionary, but in the end, it all relates to Puma’s Love = Football campaign. Like it? Send it via email or Facebook to a loved one, on one easy screen, which looks like this:

Easy peasy. Now go out there and spread the love…

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