Race pictures to follow, but wanted to get a report out quickly before I head off for the 3 day trip it takes to get home from here. Yesterday was Xterra in Maui, the World Championships. I was hunting for a good day, a bit of a miracle, as my legs were pretty shattered from Kona, just 14 days prior. I had never trained straight after an Ironman and it proved to be hard and I felt the fatigue all week.

I had a bit of a nightmare the day before, as I replaced my chain as a precaution and once I did that, it turned out that other problems existed. I had to replace the cassette as well as the chainrings. Not a major issue on its own, but it turned out there were no chainrings on the entire Island. Crap!

In the end, I had to buy a new chainset at last minute, being the last guy to get his bike out of the shop. 6pm. Bit of a stress and quite a bit of walking around, which was not great.

Race morning arrived and I was excited to give it everything I had. I had heard great things about the race and was keen to give it a big go. I was still in the hunt for the overall Double title, if the two guys I was racing had a bad day or a mechanical, after the mishaps of Kona.

We had Hawaiian Warriors send us off with a traditional dance and before I knew it the gun went off and we were in the water, a mad thrashing of arms, legs and really, all bodyparts. Far rougher than the Ironman swim, I got punched in the head and kicked in the nose before the first buoy and decided to chill off the back of the pack as I saw I was quite near the front and knew the day was a long one. I survived the swim as best as I could and was out the water in a respectable time.

Loved the fact that my Forerunner was able to include swim, bike, run & transitions into the equation smoothly. Out onto the bike and man, the course was brutal. I was going well for the first 5km or so, the intensity was great and I felt great. The slow puncture (in my hip flexors) was next to arrive and was debilitating and I had really expected to feel flat at times, but this was totally not what I expected. My heart rate dropped by 8 beats and my hip flexors were super tight, without the power I have become accustomed to on the bike. The thing I had spent all year working on was now my biggest enemy. I was super on the flat parts, but everytime the road went up I went backwards. I was unstable out the saddle, something which made me laugh. My Fretten will tell you I love powering over the little hills, but yesterday I was hopeless, looking for a smaller gear and unable to get out the saddle at times, my hips were so tired.

The ride was super technical and the Morewood Zula was amazing on the technical stuff. I was loving the downhill stuff, slippery as all hell. The new tires were superb and the bike handled so well. Made up some places on the downhill but the Double title was gone, Thomas came by with a smile and I salute him for the effort he made yesterday.

Onto the run with the new Puma Haraka cross country flats, nursing toenails on the verge of falling out and wondering how I was going to lift my feet with them tired hips. True to form, the first km was flat and I was motoring. Then it went uphill for about 4km and I died, having to walk the steep stuff a few times with a soft chuckle to myself. When it was flat I could motor, but the hills were abysmal and the effort to lift my feet was excruciating, the hip flexors crying for relief. I caught 3 guys in my age group but it was in the end, not enough.

The beach was fun and the spooky forest was amazing. I cheered and jumped across the finish line with a big smile, happy that it was over. 4th and 80 odd seconds short of the podium on a day when I was really not myself is a big achievement for me and I was super happy with that awful tinge of “what could have been” but really, super happy to also have finished 2nd amateur in the world for the Double to Tommy, who has won it before and had raced 22 Ironmans and 6 Xterra Maui races.

Congrats to Conrad for winning his 4th title and to Mikey Keith for domination of the 15-19 category. He passed me on the bike like I was having a picnic at the lowest of my times, but his form picked me up and gave me a bit of vooma for the rest of the ride. The kid has a bright future indeed.

To all who dominated to the afterparty with myself and the joyous South Africans, thank you. Those who came along for the mass skinny dip, fantastic. I am awaiting the photo from Dan on the Koi I caught with my bare hands to share with you and hope nobody is sharing photos from the large gathering in the hot tubs on any social network. It was such a laugh, ALL night long, until the sun came out this morning.

Will get the pictures and the Garmin info up ASAP when I am back on my pc and have the pictures from official race photographers.

Until then, I wish you an amazing week ahead. Go out there and find something that gives you the joy a child experiences when he falls head over heels madly in love with his newest toy. Divulge in its amazepeguinballerness and squeeze every millimeter of joy out of it.

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This weekend I was lucky enough to have a bike ride with a real pro again. Now that I have a bit more power on the bike, I took it upon myself to take the Rural Rasta out for a ride with Dan Hugo, all round great guy and full time Xterra Pro.

Riding with a pro is a special experience not for how fast they go (we were able to hang on most of the way) but with how much ease they do it. I think you will find some answers to the cause in my posts on 10 000 hours of work.

It’s no different to a great graphic designer, who belts out the most amazing design with what seems like zero effort.

Dan is the same. Watching him tick out a pedaling action so smooth it’s comparable to water flowing over marble makes you remember why he is pro, and you are amateur. He is just SO good at riding a bike, the other two of us can merely ride along and marvel at the effort that has gone into achieving this.

It was the same when I had the chance to train with Team CSC back in the day. The guys were in off season, and they were so smooth (the Schleck brothers in particular) all we did was ride and watch them, and try to emulate them.

Now apply this to your work life. Have you tried to follow someone who puts together deals daily with such an amazing ease that it makes you sick? You think it was always this easy for them? You have to practice to be great. You can’t just sell. I bet people who can sell at a relatively young age hustled on the playground when they were 4 years old. I bet they hustled their parents for food when they were 2.

Economy is the secret here. Pro’s in sport, business, relationships all have it. But it takes practice. It takes effort, it takes time. It means you need to HTFU and get out there and be prepared to make an ass out of yourself from time to time in the name of all things economy!

I don’t need to go into the photo, it’s courtesy of Dan’s web page and from a training camp they held for one of their sponsors recently. In the photo, you can just tell these two guys are flying along, at no effort (seemingly). The other kwagga in the photo is none other than Conrad Stoltz.

But they do make effort. In all spheres of life. In business, in relationships, in friendships, it’s about the effort, even if it looks easy. Value the effort that’s gone into making it look that easy, and don’t judge others for making it look easy. I guarantee you that it’s still quite a bit of effort for them, as much as for you, they just go faster/sell easier/manage better but its still requires their total effort.

If you have economy at something, I applaud you.

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1. Conrad Stoltz shows us his wound. Not for the faint hearted.

2. WTF Wednesday is a bit of a weird set of photos, but its quite, well, WTF? I know today is thursday, but the post was originally placed yesterday.

3. Weburbanist Shows you some awesome Laptop Bags

4. Zenhabits gives us a doozy today. 20 of their posts you may not have seen! Carr you fee e aweshommnehh?

5. Baglett always has me laughing. Always.

thats it for today. Click the “share this” button below this, and put it on your Facebook profile for me…

pretty please…

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So, if you haven’t surfaced this side of the Sydney Olympics, we have a triple world champion in Xterra . He is possibly the most humble, nicest, awesome-est guy I have met through triathlon and I can admit that I do find his presence “inspiring”.

If you dont visit Conrad Stoltz ‘s blog already, you should. Case in point today…

How`s this picture right here?

Yes, that is a Sheryl Crow Speedo . I can’t explain it either. Most of us would be at the Virgin Active, in our “normal” cozzies, with other people in the pool. But if you`re Caveman, you`re on a farm, in a single lap home made pool readying yourself for an Epic summer of Xterra racing.

With a big cheer, can we please stand up and applaud Conrad for his views on life, his simple way of getting things right, and his magic sense of reality. We can all learn alot from him.

Cheers!

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