Come here, I`ll tell it to you calmly, quietly, without prejudice. I`m happy to sit and listen to you tell me why I am mad to be trying to balance a full work day with my crazy sports obsession. I`ll sit and listen, without judgement. I realize you can’t fathom the compromise, the level of effort it takes to live the life I choose to live, every single day. I realize all you see is the training and the work and the limited time. I see that you see I am tired, that I look “ill” to you, too skinny by societies terms and conditions.

What you don’t see is the real effort. The packing of 2 bags a day, the effort it takes to shower 3 times a day depending if I am squeezing in a lunch session too. The compromise it takes when I want to go out partying with mates, because I LOVE the dancing, singing and laughing and bromance that they offer, but when I am simply too tired to be a part of whats going on there. The compromise it takes to stay true to a dream, a goal. I know you don’t see me when I`m sitting, 140km into a 180km ride, tired and weary, with 40km of hills and block headwind to get home. You cannot see the doubt in my mind right then, the fight in my head and body to keep going, despite the surrounding circumstance. All you see is “crazy boy spent the day on his bike again”.

You really can’t see that I`m training my mind as much as my body? Really? Interesting…

I full realize that you and most of the people I am surrounded by look at me with caution because they don’t understand my motivations. I know those of you who watch these videos and get goosebumps, wanting to be out there, on that course, that you share that burning desire. I salute you. In fact I am standing on the highest perch with a banner and a microphone for you, protesting the limits of society for you, with you, through you. I know you don’t expect everybody to understand you, but that you feel like an island some days. That the island gets lonely.

I get that. Just remember that life is NOT about finding yourself out there, in the open road. It’s about CREATING yourself out there, in the open road. That you are building the foundations for making amazingly good decisions by pushing the limits. The limits are beautiful. Just when you smash through one, it goes just a bit further again. The limits will challenge you forever. That is their essential beauty and truth.

Still not understanding what I am saying? Have a watch at this, tell me it doesn’t grip you in the heart and wake something in you. For me, I get so emotional when I watch this that I am ready to run out the door and onto the mountain, disappearing for a few hours where I set the trail and there is no route. Where all bets are off on whether I hit a limit out there or not.

It makes me want to go find that beautiful moment where I have to stop and ask myself serious questions about WTF I am doing out here in this state with so far left to go. Give me those moments. They make me laugh at myself. Yes, I am mad.

What am I doing?

This is my language. I know you might not understand it. I realize the crazyness of it all. I know it’s a little obsessive. I am fully aware of how intense it is. I am 100% coherent on the fact that I do it 100% for myself, however. I really can’t complain, all is Kosher around these parts. Thank goodness it`s far from over. Really there are too many great roads, trails and open stretches of water left to explore, too much great food to experience and far too many amazing wines I have never sampled.

I may not always be so driven to obsess about sport. I may switch it to exploration at some point, but I guarantee you I will explore by bike, foot and human power. I`ll be climbing the mountain, not catching the cable car to the top. I am too addicted to the way the body feels when it moves. How good it feels to walk, run, ride, climb, dance, jump, boogie, bounce, paddle and in the middle of all that, with all the senses going bazongkers, standing perfectly still with my eyes closed, arms wide spread, being amazed at how everything tingles with absolute excitement at doing what it’s supposed to do, when the mind and body are 100% stimulated through a full body sensory experience.

Don’t tell me I am mad.

I am well aware of the fact.

In a world which preaches HTFU around every corner I am a guy who likes to preach STFD (come on you`re smart, work it out) for most athletes. Just this week I have started working with a new athlete who dismally wrote me an email to say he had to walk some of the flat pieces of his run to keep his heart rate in the right zone. This happens a lot when I start working with new athletes, especially on the run.

They are also very irritated with me for the first few weeks of working together. Why do I have to walk the uphills? Why do I have to go so slow on the uphills on the bike? Why so many short runs?

Management of intensity and workload is something that you accumulate over time. The volume of work I can deal with now compared to even a year ago is different. You have to start small to create consistency. 2 years ago I could manage a few weeks of 12-14 hours a week of training. Now I am able to easily cope with 20+ hours a week if I had the time. Its taken me ages (lots of walking to start, lots of slow hill riding) to get this going but really the effects now are plain to see and for all the funny looks I got in the middle, it was totally worth it.

Athletes have large variability in their tolerance for both workload and relative intensity. Over the years I have had this explained to me as:

Constitution – some athletes have superior constitutions… they can just handle it.

Experience – athletes have been racing fast, or training strong, since they were young kids… they can just handle it.

Mental Strength – the athletes that can’t handle it are mentally weak. They could do it if they would harden up. You need to buckle down, toughen up and just handle it.

Part of the reason why I dislike HTFU is the philosophy points many athletes in COMPLETELY the wrong direction. STFD is more appropriate for the majority of people that I coach, perhaps Steady … … Up (STFU).

All of the above make intuitive sense but may fall apart when we take into account Survivor Bias.

Survivor Bias is when the result is skewed by the fact that many participants died, or quit, or went bankrupt… along the way. The results are skewed because you are only left with survivors to analyze. The victors get to write history.

As a new athlete, you aren’t (yet) a survivor. So basing your approach to what works for the survivors could end up being anywhere from great to disastrous. If it is a disaster then you’ll probably fade out of the sport and we’ll never hear from you again. If it is great then you’ll reaffirm the bias that is already built into the data.

How many of you have used these excuses?

…I’ve always had a high heart rate
…I can handle a high heart rate
…it’s just the way I am
…I barely move when I train at a low heart rate

Something Mark Allen taught us all is that heart rate could be a more accurate measure of stress, than work. Mark’s program is as much about capping stress as it is about building bottom-end endurance. Many athletes are stress-limited in their athletic lives (under recovery being a lot more common than over training).

Something I learned from swimming is that smaller (especially female) athletes can handle a lot more stress than larger (especially male) athletes. We saw it this year in the Cape Epic where the smaller guys do far better on consecutive days, whereas the “bigger” pro’s can smash out the watts for one or two days but tend to fade towards the end of the race faster than the 60kg whippets.

When I cap my athletes (and my own) heart rates around AeT they cannot understand it. They feel cheated, like they are not working hard enough. Which is great in the first hour. When they are HUUUUUUURTING to hold that same heart rate 4 hours into their 5 hour ride, they get a better grasp of where we are headed with the mileage and the intensities.

Many of them get it wrong in that they believe they are paying me make them swim, bike and run. I believe they pay me to optimise recovery and correct intensities. That is why I don’t ask for training logs and I dont babysit my guys and girls. They are responsible for themselves and what I do for them is teach their bodies to recover, session to session, more progressively over time, so that they too can deal better with cumulative body and mind stress over extended periods of time.

So that when everybody else is fading, 8 hours into the day at Ironman, they are just rock solid and just keep ticking along like the little train that could…

I believe I am going to be talking to my legs many a moment in the next few weeks as I absolutely do my best to obliterate them into being the strongest, leanest most economically endurance sports orientated pins in the world. Well, my world at least. The aim is to build a bit more strength for the purposes of going up the volcano in Maui on the mountain bike, but for me the greatest gain I wish to make is more economy at slightly faster speeds.

In true style, I am even going to tell you how I plan on doing it. Then you will sit back and watch and if it works, follow the rules, but if I crash and burn, laugh and point… right? You with me sunshine?

Swim:

I am going back to squad as of 1 August 2010. 8 weeks with squad should sort me out 1 shot in terms of open water swimming (by open water I mean in the sea with the turtles in Kona) for the Ironman swim. No wetsuits allowed, even if I will have an Orca RS1 Swimskin to help me along.

Last Kona I neglected my swim a little and I missed a key pack early on. 8 weeks of hopefully chasing the White Rabbit in the pool will make me a better man.

Bike:

So apart from having what will be the most tricked out Ceepo Katana in Kona, as well as the most tricked out Morewood Zula for Maui, I actually need to work on the bike, as I will have to do for the next 5-60 years of my life. Work on the bike never stops, contrary to popular belief.

Some of the key components to building a faster bike (Maui):

a. Threshold training (AT)
b. Weight Loss
c. Mental coaching (the pain means its good, right?)
d. Bike skills (learn to bomb down a volcano in the big ring like a Caveman or a Gollywog (when he doesn’t shave for 2 days))
e. More ME work (endurance power)

They key components for the Kona bike are different to the one in PE, by virtue that the course has about triple the climbing in. So here are my focus points:

a. ME work (sustained power) for the rollers, of which there are MANY in Kona.
b. Aero climbing, so staying aero over the rollers by teaching the body to remain aero and get the extra power to be as economical as possible.
c. Pack riding. I will more than likely be in a group of 40 guys in Kona, not on my own like PE, so I have to practise a bit of pace variance as the advantage of the pack is huge.
d. Economy. The run in Kona is freaking brutal. I need to bike as easy as possible, but want to ride under 5 hours again. This means I have to be stronger than in PE, but also that it has to be sustainable for 3 hours after the ride.

Run:

I have enrolled in a testing program at the Sport Science Institute here to learn a little more about my running. I outran best hopes in PE by 5 minutes, and almost outran it by 15minutes if I had just known a little more about my running. I am hoping the lactate testing, VO2max etc will give me a better insight into how I need to be training to achieve what I want to on the run in Kona. I will continue to use all the things which have taken me from 3:52 to 3:15 on the marathon at PE but I wanted to try something new, so according to the smartest people around, we are going to work on my ability to run more economically, not necessarily faster. The speed will come as a byproduct. More than anything, I want to be able to run stronger over the last 10km than I did in PE. Not by much, all I am looking for is a 10% extra at the end of the race. I faltered in PE due to a bloated stomach (too much sugar) and ill preparation (Sani2c and Cape Epic limited running in the last 8 weeks before Ironman) and this time around there are no excuses to NOT have that 10%.

Maui – realistically, I am going to be hanging on for dear life at that point, running a super tough 11km beach/rock/road/mud run 2 weeks after Kona, but I am going to try and remain calm and rip the legs off it.

In the middle, during this big block of training, however, my legs will come and go. Today, for instance, it hurts when I sit still (mean new gym set on Monday being the major culprit). I have hurt them this week already, but now need to manage the recovery process to the weekend where 10 hours of training await the poor pins. There is planned massage and floatation planned, so I should be ok. If I do blow up, you will be first to know, saying “I told you so”.

If I don’t push the limits out, I will never know how good I could possibly be. I am willing to risk the occasional blow out to know how far the rabbit hole goes, if you know what I mean?

I met Liezel at varsity. She may have had pigtails and may have worn tie-die. I can’t confirm these details entirely for the fear of my car tires. Her fans are crazy about her. Transformed into a superstar TV personality, Idols Presenter and all around most-positive-person-on-the-box girl. She is also incredibly friendly and perhaps her best trait is that she is not scared to ask questions.

When I heard Liezel was entered for Ironman SA I was stunned. I thought to myself that this was a new dimension to her. She was BALLSY. I had never known her to run a step, never mind 42 200 meters after a 180 000 meter cycle and a 3800 meter swim. I knew about the limits of economy she would face. I imagined her time schedule to be crazy already, so throwing in 15+ hours of training a week would be a near impossibility.

I watched from the outside and picked up on the rumors. People, amazingly, were a little begrudged with her. They were blind to the PR and the exposure she was giving our niche sport in the mainstream media. I know that the editor of our biggest cycling publication told her she should stick to TV. I wanted to kick him in the nads when I heard this. Thankfully, Liezel processed it all as motivation to keep going.

When she didn’t make the bike cut-off at 70.3 in January I read stupid blog posts and heard stupid comments. I knew they would all just motivate her. I had full faith she was going to make it at Ironman and that she did. In doing it she gave more PR to the race than I reckon every athlete combined. She did it selflessly without asking for anything in return. She was just another athlete, talking about how amazing the experience was. I hope she can inspire you just a touch of what she has given me as inspiration this year.

I looked for her everywhere on the bike but I missed her somewhere. Sorry about that girl!

Here is her interview:

1. Why ironman?

I wanted to set a huge goal for myself in 2010 and what is bigger than Ironman?

2. What was the biggest obstacle?

My biggest obstacle on race day was the run, I thought with long legs like mine that I would be a natural runner but that has never been the case, and I was so worried that I wouldn’t manage the run distance at Ironman.

3. How do you manage your time? You’re a busy girl.

Finding the time to train was a challenge; I made big sacrifices with my family and my work, I wanted to complete this and I knew that with great sacrifice, victory will be so much more sweeter.

4. After the 70.3 setback how did you go about getting into shape for the big day?

After missing my bike cut off at 70.3, I started training with a coach, and we worked very very hard on improving my cycling.

5. Best piece of equipment you own?

My pink Oakley Radars

6. Any thank you’s you want to put out there?

So many Thank Yous! My family; my coach (Mike Moriaty from M.A.D Multisport); The team from Idols/Mnet for giving me time off to take part in the Ironman even though we were filming the new season of Idols. My partner who put up with me and encouraged me even though I couldn’t run and cycle when I started this journey to becoming an Ironman. I dedicated this Ironman to my mom and dad who never once stopped believing in me (and my biggest dream was to have them walk me across the finish line at the Ironman)

7. What’s next?

Next goal is the Knysna Marathon in July, I wanted to set myself a goal to work towards and improve my running. And of course, I want to do 70.3 in January 2011.

8. When the going got really tough, what kept you going?

When it got tough, I just thought of my setback at 70.3 and I motivated myself to just keep going. I also had many people telling me that I shouldn’t waste my time trying to do The Ironman after not making it at 70.3; and this kept me going and made me laugh through out the race because I knew I was going to finish!!! There wasn’t one moment on the day where I wanted to give up. I was loving every moment.

9. How has the challenge changed your mindset, your health and your life in general?

I have always lived a healthy life style, so this just added a more active part to my life. I have seen that I managed to train wise and work wisely. This challenge made me realise that I have the determination and courage to tackle anything I set my mind on

10. As a woman, any women specific tips for the female readers?

When I told my dad that I am going to do The Ironman, he never laughed and said I cant do it, he went out and bought a book called “Triathlon for Women: Triathlon: A Mind-Body-Spirit Approach for Female Athletes” by Lisa Lynam. This book was full of all the advise and tips I needed; I am sure allot of readers will find this useful

Thanks for the inspiration. See you at other events. To all those who didn’t believe she could do it. I hope you like the taste of your feet. Like the mantra says. Assume nothing, pursue everything, experience now….

A while ago I hinted that there was a new frame on the way. If you follow me on twitter, you would also have seen my utter frustration when it was incorrectly sent to Germany where it got stuck under this…

I think they were lying about it being stuck there though. That frame is so pretty I think it was conceived in that eruption. That Japanese Rising Sun combined with the name Katana, which any Kill Bill fans would know is an ancient Japanese Sword. Really now….

I am retiring my old bike for a slightly faster model, especially as I am now on my way to Kona for World Champs. That course is brutal and the extra bit of help goes a long way. People are going to ask why I didn’t go top of the range with the Viper, and my reasoning is simple. Its called a triathlon… specifically, an Ironman. I look for something more compliant out on the road that’s a little stiffer and hence, a little more comfortable. It may sound like nothing, but the Katana is my choice for 180km time trial over the Viper because of the run.

I am so looking forward to having him here with me. Why a boys name? Generally boys give their bikes girls names. Must be a nostalgic thing, or maybe a missed opportunity somewhere in their lives.

This bike will be called Kratos. KRATOS (or Cratus) was the god or daimon of strength, might, power and sovereign rule in Greek mythology. I think the style or racing at Ironman deserves a Kratos. It’s about mental strength, might and sovereign rule over your mind and your body for an entire day. Fitting.

Thank you Ceepo for their mighty effort in getting the frame here. There was a suggestion to send a racing donkey through Africa to get it here whilst that Volcano spewed anger and ash. They are still very new to South Africa but I suggest you check them out online here for all the models.

I am a big fan of niche design and Ceepo are into triathlon, and Ironman specifically. They don’t care about the UCI and their rules. A triathlon specific geometry is very different to a cycling one when it comes to OPTIMAL comfort out there. I am excited to be a part of this craftmanship, this passion for our sport.

Full built up pictures soon, I promise.

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…