Recycle. You will feel great about yourself and the environment you are saving. Make the small change. If you are going to do just 1 thing, make a habit out of recycling to make the change.

You can get the full size image here.

’cause that’s how she rolls.

I was reviewing a slightly reshuffled race schedule for the remainder of 2011 this week where I have decided to add 8 days of racing to the schedule. This involves quite a bit more organisation and sacrifice and setting more time apart from friends and family and loved ones. It had me asking questions about these commitments to races rather than people and why I am putting to much into this “game” of sports.

I then read this article today on stress and the mind and realised how much I love being outside again. I also realised what a social person I am this week and how I have a natural tendency to hermatize myself and get into a routine of staying out of the light. I made the choice and arranged to see some people I have neglected for a while, made some tough calls and reset some things. It cleared my mind more than I expected and was a welcome relief to a problem I didn’t really know existed.

Being aware of The Golden Rule is something I do struggle to track when it comes to maintaining relationships that often I may feel are okay without management. The ethic of reciprocity is something I neglect partially because I am someone who works hard at keeping himself happy as a first point rather than keeping others happy as a rule. I find it impossible to keep everyone happy and if that is my focus, I am never happy. One of the biggest lessons I ever learned as a total people pleaser, earlier in my life.

I have learned that we make each other happy once we are individually happy. That is the war against what you may know as happiness. You will always have to find it in yourself first, where its lasting. Finding your joy in others is short lived. When you go to war, you take yourself. You look after yourself primarily and then you can look after those around you who are important to you.

It might not be as evident as something we consider conventional war, but man, at times I am fighting internal wars that the world cannot see that have a much more profound effect on me and those around me. And it’s the same with every person you see out there. We are all facing our demons, fighting our wars on a continued basis. It’s a large part of why I started Urban Ninja. We all go through these things and I wanted to get a community of people together who support themselves first and can then support each other in their fights. Sure, we are mostly all endurance athlete freaks, but hey, I like them that way.

You are an essential part to someone’s life, I assure you that. It’s a gift, treat it as a particularly beautiful gift.

Let’s stand together…

So if you haven’t registered for Ironman South Africa 2011 by now, best to skip it. By now, you should have laid down a foundation for the last sprint towards what will be the longest training day of the year, really. By now, your hopes and dreams are set and you have committed to doing whatever is possible to making it to the finish line in the best condition possible, in the shortest time possible.

If you are racing, here are my tips, from nothing more than personal experience, about how these last 10 weeks go down…

1. Really, you have 7 weeks till peak and taper. Make them count.
2. Get to bed 30min earlier every night.
3. Prepare food for work and make sure you eat a world class lunch every day, in prep for your afternoon session.
4. Make sure you practice race nutrition on long runs and long rides.
5. Go DEEP on fatigue. You will be surprised how much you can handle.
6. Make sure you NAIL your long ride(s) and run every week. Skip the rest and prioritize around these 2 key workouts.
7. Take your significant other out on a date, a proper date, at least once every 10 days. Spoil them.
8. Eat dumbass. Losing 500g is not going to win the race. You need energy to make it through 12 sessions a week.
9. Train for your session coming in 48 hours. Session to session recovery is number 1.
10. Make sure your equipment is 100% with 3 weeks to go.
11. Practice changing a tire, fixing a chain, etc. It may happen to you.
12. Remember that it’s just a race and that it should be fun, but that suffering through the fatigue is an essential part to this “fun”.

I lost you at point 7 right? Make that call, arrange that date…

In the coming weeks you will become more irritable, less awesome and far more appealing as a single person. Check yourself before you wreck yourself…

Push yourself to your absolute limits, but be aware where you are pushing others beyond theirs.

After a few days over xmas in paradise (Kleinhoekkloof) with short rides and hard runs, it was time to head off to Wellington to Mischa Wines where Gary and his family would be waiting with open arms and much red meat. Plaas mense are the best people.

We had a Garmin map and knew the road would be pretty smooth, pretty flat and hot on the day all the way to Bains Kloof Pass where the road would tilt upwards before we plunged into the Wellington valley.

The day started cloudy but it was ominous that the sun would eventually win and we would roast at some point. We were 2 men short and knew the workload would be shared among the two Ironman guys (James and myself), with our Xterra dude (Hansel/Redman/TheKid) going to get a working on the rolling flattish roads out there. This was our territory and we wanted to get what would be easily the longest day of our trip out the way as soon as possible.

The combination worked perfectly – James and myself would make sure Ryan stayed in the middle and in the group and one of us would set a big tempo up front. By now all our legs were full swing into this and we made fantastic headway on the combination of tar and open dirt roads to Dan Hugo’s farm in Worcester. We were, in fact, an hour and fourty five minutes ahead of schedule when we got there, totally missing his presence and went into Worcester itself for a big meal of KFC to fuel the fat for the rest of the ride. With over 100km still to go we headed off on the tar road and would remain on it all the way. It rolled smoothly and we were motoring along, riding in the biggest gear we had most of the way, stopping only for water to make more carb drink.

70km went by in a flash and we hit the bottom of the Bains Kloof Pass and the two Ironman guys had a hit at the pass while Redman went into survival. I rode James’ wheel for as long as possible whilst making sure to remain as aerobic as possible.

Tough call when chasing someone so strong. Eventually I let him go and made sure to stay motivated and keep the pedals turning smoothly. It was big blade all the way up the pass after a long day riding tempo for the lads and I was super impressed with my form coming along so nicely.

We regrouped at the top and hit a great photo opportunity (picture at top) looking over the Wellington area. We hopped off the road and onto the single track of Welvanpas which was quite a shock to the system after a day of smooth riding. Both Redman and myself made tactical errors in our roadie state and came short, his worse than mine. James held his own on the single track and was now completely at home on my Zula.

After some getting lost, Gary came to find us and lead us back to Mischa where we had a swim, a big lunch and a tour of the farm. Mischa is very impressive and the guys work hard at making it one of the best farms in South Africa.

We had completed 170km in literally 5h40, averaging 30km/h on the mountain bikes. Suitably, we ate till we popped and then ate some more on the day.

We woke the next morning, 100km left, excited to get home. Redman was having some issues with his elbow from the fall the day before, so I carefully rerouted us without them knowing to include as much tar as possible.

We were in Durbanville for a breki quite early and opted to take the loop through Contermanskloof before we hit the headwind all the way home, to add some fun single track to the day.

To say the last 30km home was just a long slog, really just to get home and ride in the door. After so many miles out on the road, in the quiet, we could feel the buzz of the city as we approached into the headwind, almost telling us to stay out of there. The noise was unbelievable once we hit the Sea Point area and people were everywhere, which was quite a bit to deal with. Shouting, screaming, walking in the middle of the road, the chaos was maddening and made us want to go back to where things were simple, quiet and easy.

However, the privilege of riding into the door of your house after a trip like this was as expected, anti climatic and over so suddenly. We realized that the journey is just not over, its never over. This was merely another day in these amazing lives we lead, as adventurers. We were quiet and calm and still, talking smack.

A big thank you to my brothers who joined on the ride… Collin, Guy, James & Ryan, you were true troopers and when the going got tough, we all just shut up and got the work done. I would take you to war. Until the next one….

Is it just me or is the year running away now with really, only 2 types of people left in all office spaces:

1. PROcrastinators
2. Crammers

Personally I am cramming everything into the last few days. So much to do and really, not enough time to get it done. As such we are rushing and at times, missing small details here. Frustrating but really hoping for some quiet time over the weekend to regroup and get some work done while the world sleeps.

Last week I went for a stroll with the team from RedEspresso. They have a beautiful post up about it HERE with some great photos. It was wonderful to take the guys up there and share a truly special place in Cape Town. You can also find more detail on the ledge on WeLove.net and remember to keep the people signing up and voting for you – there is so much content being uploaded you are going to have to be on top of your game there.

It’s been a big week personally as well, what with a major loss to our family, viewing an amazing movie on Wednesday and then the WeLoveRealBeer function last night. Tonight I am off to the farm of one Dan Hugo to do an invitational race organized by his parents every year. Feeling privileged to be there. Also started working with a new coach this week, in a week where I started hardly being able to walk after a fall in Tokai on the weekend. I twisted my ankle pretty badly and only, finally, managed to run 15min on it with relative pain last night.

I also won a year’s worth of free coffee from Vida e Caffe and plan on giving most of it away next year in the hope of connecting and buying some amazing people a coffee every day. More on this once it’s all finalized and you can share in it.

There has been a lot of planning and logistics going on with Epic Unsupported Tour 2: The Return to Hell. Quite a cool crew going this year, with a new route and quite a bit more logistics. TheHousemate has been running up his phonebill like Lindsay Lohan runs up rehab bills trying to sort accommodation, food & peace of mind. The nutrition logistics this year are proving toughest as we are going to go around 3 days without seeing society or a shop, so making sure there is breakfast and dinner at stays requires at times, people to give us dry dinner to log for 100km through the Karoo for a day before cooking it when we get to our next stop. Add all the energy drinks, bars & gels needed for 3 days out there and it’s amazing what you can plan to leave out of your pack. Minimalism in best form, this trip.

Have a new bike arriving Monday, pretty stoked. More details when its built.

Found this in a link this morning. Just beautiful. Random share, I know, but it’s worth the click.

Having been in the office since 7am this morning, I am putting this up early and yes, it’s a bit all over the place but I have yet to have a second coffee and have some cramming to get done today. Thank goodness for lists. Without them, I would be a sight for sore eyes right now. Have a great weekend and see you out there.