I came across this video yesterday and again today it popped up in my timelines. It tells the story of a simple road trip. Made me think of our Epic Unsupported Trip. That trip is just insane. Plans are brewing for 2012 and what it could possibly be too.

Go into the weekend seeking out some simple adventure. For the post-ironman guys, this is the time to be playing properly. Have that extra beer, the extra chilli popper. The extra dance-off.

I am a big fan of camp. No secrets. I believe that if they are done correctly, and infrequently enough, they offer massive benefit for age groupers. I missed my camp before IMSA this year and without a doubt, felt it on race day. There is a spring that comes in your step if you taper correctly off training camp. At the moment, life is returning to my legs, my heart and my mind. I am considering the next races, places, things and adventures. There are a few in the front of my mind. 3 of them are organised training camps where you are given the absolute luxury to push beyond the physical limits.

The video sets the tone.

Personal, extreme, adventure, beauty.

The simple luxury of being able to focus entirely on athletic performance for a week is a gift to a guy like me. Turn off the distractions, the noise, the email, the commitments, the pressures and the responsibilities for a week. Get on your bike or put on your shoes and see how far you can push it, physically, not for one day, but for a week. It’s the getting through day 3 that kills, when you are so tired you don’t want to eat breakfast but get on your bike and smash out 5-8 hours of riding to finish strong, finish a believer in your own ability.

If you want to believe in yourself, put yourself under pressure.

Nobody has utter belief in the guy who plays it safe and never risks blowing up.

I love camp because it gives us all the opportunity to be heroes.

It’s been a big week I tell you. We have a few huge projects that are due shortly and it’s that interesting time between doing what’s possible and managing what clients want thrown in as extra. We are so used to getting extra things thrown in as the norm nowadays. Upgrades in food sizes, a free 20 Vitamin-C tablets with your Omega-3′s, etc. So why should this not be the norm here, at work. It’s the fine balance between keeping this expectation in check and delivering the perfect product for a paying client. We work together on the final solution and its always a slightly morphed solution compared to the original envisioned one. I truly enjoy this process. Moving from impossible to possible and being the Mr Wolf is something I really enjoy.

Life is like that. It moves, it morphs and we have to go accordingly, no matter how well we try and predict the outcomes. We have to be adaptable, we have to re-work the solutions and we have to move through the molasses at times, but as we learn to work out which fences are electrified, where the grass is slippery and which cows we can safely prod, we get better at making decisions that help is morph along a little smoother.

I was going through a blog Kristian the plucky Aussie wrote and two things struck me today:

If we have 4000 weeks, on average, I have about 8 years to go till I`m half way there. I certainly do not plan on spending the 2nd half of my life working as hard as the first half, so I better hurry the hell up and get my stuff sorted. If we look at the Memento Mori phrase, it’s vital to remember that you should plan to live a long life. Plan accordingly, work accordingly so that you don’t spend the majority of your 4000 weeks (I am planning on 6000 at least) behind your PC grafting your rear off for The Man.

Work and play are taught to us to be separate things, and that many suffer who want to combine their passions. This is often because we have spent our lives equipping ourselves not for our passions, but for prestige. Prestige is dressed up. Its fossilized inspiration. Yet we spend most of our lives gearing up for it. The world needs more people to do what they love. Or maybe it is just South Africa, where were were taught to be doctors, lawyers or accountants to make sure we were ok in life. Ok? Ok?

Give yourself permission to play and to combine work and play. Your gifts are needed. Live now. In a year, you`ll look back and be upset that you didn’t start today.

Hopefully there were some good lessons in there, during the hours training, the hours pondering, cutting out clutter. Hopefully, you`ll be taking those lessons with you as you plot the way forward.

That feeling of “what now?”

Where to? What could I have done differently? What was wasted? Where could I improve? Why did I do this and that? This is the time to think about these things, take the lessons and work at being more economical going forward.

I love this process. Sure, there are doubts, a lack of endorphins won’t be helping the process but with a bit of planning, execution can be an amazing experience. I would start by checking priorities. Head back to this post of mine: PERSONAL PLANNING

Get through that list and you`ll have a clearer picture of the way forward. Plot it. Plan it. Obsess over it for a while.

Then action it.

Now is not the time to stop taking risks. The world demands that you make good choices with relative risk. Mediocre is just not going to cut it any more. That’s a part of the reason you undertook this challenge in the first place.

Walk tall warrior, let your actions speak volumes and let your words be few.

This is you time. Time for reflection. Time for action. Time for you to shine.

As access to toys has become more readily available to the guy on the street, that side of being PRO has diminished. Rock up at IMSA and you`ll see more pimped out bikes in the age group section than among the PRO guys. I was unable to spot anything truly custom among the pro bikes. All stock, all pimped, but stock. I, on the other hand, arrived with a custom-painted helmet and wheels. Sure, I am not rolling top of the range equipment (SRAM Force, 3T Team kit, etc) but I was one of few with what would have traditionally been called PRO gear.

Roll up to the Cape Epic and the guys for 400th have the same bikes as the guys coming top of the pile. They wear the same compression gear, use the same recovery fuel and get a massage from the same person.

So what is PRO?

I have always stated that being PRO is having the freedom to being paid to rest. Between sessions, when you and I are at work, solving problems, creating others and managing stress levels of all those around us, PRO athletes are home napping like champions. They are feet up, resting, etc. PRO comes with much more pressure on race day. I race because I love it, not because I need the paycheck to pay my bills.

I believe the single-mindedness of PRO athletes being able to focus solely on being as fast as possible is where their economy comes from. Sure, in my sport they train double what we do (30 hours per week versus my 15-16) but I believe that single-tasking their way to the top of the world is their freedom. We`ll never understand that and what that takes. Obsessing over the details, the worry when niggles turn to injuries and the frustrations that come with not being able to train.

Another key difference is that they look PRO all the time. Sure, we can try emulate a little here and there, but being PRO requires you to look PRO all the time. Think of the commitments to sponsors, to teams, etc. If you are a PRO cyclist, you are likely to get enough team gear to never ever appear anywhere without the full ensemble. This is one of the key differences.

Then we can talk about the aura. Proper pro guys have that aura. Unapproachable, fast every moment, winning always. That confidence, the casual confidence that leaves them slightly dangerous all the time. People walk up to me in transition, 30min before IMSA, asking for tips for the run course that I may have missed in a blog post. Clearly, I have yet to pick up that steely confidence. In the interim, please don’t stop asking questions. To the guy who asked me about swim technique with 8min to go on the beach and referred to an article I wrote earlier in the year – you blew me away. Never scared to learn. Love it.

But on some level, we are all PRO nowadays. We roll the same gear, the same course, the same conditions. We aspire to look or be on top of the pile of athletes at the finish. We emulate. We straight off the top copy their words, their body language, their training schedules where possible. We are all PRO at some level.

…and I think that is pretty awesome.