We all know I am a little obsessive about health and fitness. I get asked more about weight, diet and optimal performance than I do about my happiness and what makes me smile, and I came across some amazing information today. I wanted to share, as I always do.

Human health and physical fitness are important, crucial things to consider, and millions find them fascinating subjects to discuss, analyze, and optimize. I’m one of them. Millions more overanalyze; they make things harder than they need to be, and they generally get poorer results in the long run. Or, they may get objectively good results, but their lives are consumed by the minutiae of calories, miles, reps, and nutrient counting. I’d say there’s got to be an easier way to do things. There has to be a path that utilizes our big brains without them getting in the way. There’s got to be a balanced, rational method to obtain optimal health and fitness that successfully marries our tendency to think with our animal instincts. Getting fit and being healthy should be simplistic, intuitive, and, most importantly, enjoyable.

Does wildlife obsess over calories eaten or reps performed? How do deer maintain their trim figures and impressive athleticism without a dietitian and weekly personal training sessions? Conversely, why does the house cat grow obese and lethargic, while a bobcat with nearly identical genes stays fit? It isn’t just the simplistic calories in/calories out model. It couldn’t be. Wild animals don’t count calories. They don’t worry about eating before bed, or getting enough exercise to burn off that squirrel they had for breakfast. They just are. They simply exist in an ecosystem hundreds of thousands of years in the making. Evolution has made sure, by its impartial, unconscious hand, that the flora and fauna live in harmony with each other and internally. The bobcat thrives on rodents and small birds because its digestive system and metabolism evolved eating these things; the house cat gets fat because its digestive system and metabolism aren’t suited for grain-based kibble. If the balance is upset in a given environment, organisms die out or move on, but things always reset. This is simply how nature works. When thinking about how to optimize our health and physical fitness, perhaps we should consider how animals do it – and how our ancestors did it.

We’re animals – no one disputes that. We are subject to evolution and natural selection – that one’s a bit more controversial, but it’s true nonetheless. If you keep those two facts in mind while noting the lesson of the fit, lean bobcat, a thread begins to emerge. Shouldn’t the same concept hold true for us? Isn’t there an evolutionarily suitable, effortless lifestyle for us humans, too?

There is, and I call it the Primal Blueprint. It eschews complicated workout regimens, tedious calorie counting, and weight loss gimmicks. My Primal laws are based on a rock solid foundation: evolutionary biology and anthropology mixed with modern human ingenuity. I take what worked for tens of thousands of years throughout human prehistory and incorporate contemporary science to confirm its veracity. When you go back and look at the fossil records of our hunter-gatherer, pre-agricultural ancestors, you find that they were healthy, strong, and largely free of degenerative diseases – especially compared to the health of post-agricultural and even modern humans.

The result is an incredibly simple, incredibly effective way to live, move, and eat: eat the things our ancestors ate, get the amount of sleep our ancestors used to get, and make the same movements our ancestors used to make before agriculture.

Take Action

If you take anything from this post remember these two action items:

1. The ideal human diet should consist of only whole, unprocessed foods – meat, fish, fowl, plants, fruits, and nuts. Whatever you can kill, pick, or dig up and eat on the spot. This is what your ancestors ate and what your body is meant to consume.

2. By the same token, the best exercise consists of natural, full-body movements – lifting heavy things, sprinting, walking, swimming, hiking, climbing, crawling. This is how your ancestors moved and how your body is meant to function.

Amazing Results

The results of following these simple rules are numerous and almost immediate:

• The weight melts off, if you have some to lose, or added muscle appears, if you could stand to gain a few pounds.
• You reset your taste buds. Sugar becomes cloying; processed industrial vegetable oil tastes unnatural.
• You realize you don’t need grains, beans, and potatoes to feel full.
• You crave real food, and you realize that real food tastes good – better than anything you could find on a convenience store shelf and more satisfying than anything in a fast food restaurant. Hunger no longer dictates that you eat every few hours.
• You get stronger and faster, sure, but you learn to move again. You regain lost mobility.
• You get sick less often as your immune system begins to function more effectively.
• You take pleasure in real movement and become more confident in your own skin.
• Eating and moving becomes intuitive, easy and fun.
• The world becomes your gym. Can’t make it to the weight room? Pick up a rock, toss it a couple times, pull your own body weight, then go running in the park. As long as you can manipulate your own body weight, you’re strong enough.

Man is an opportunist above anything else. We love the easy way out, but we tend to make fitness and nutrition so incredibly complicated. Just cut out the foods we’ve only been eating for a few hundred generations (and do eat the things we’ve been eating for thousands of generations), drop the ridiculous fitness contraptions to focus on natural movements, and streamline your health. And don’t be afraid to turn off that big brain every once in awhile.

I am currently in over my head with endurance sports, but something I wanted to try for this winter is to do some really PRIMAL things. I want to forgo cooked meat for a while, not cook my veggies, put a lock on my microwave, go rock climbing and climb in trees. I have been going forward on a bicycle or running down the road for so long lately that I may have forgotten how to go sideways, how to climb and most importantly, how to rebuild normal strength after getting all leaned out for what I have embarked on. I am not saying I am going to go all in like this, but I am going to try and get close.

So many people do not know how to get healthy and fit. The gym will never give you what the outdoors can, and Woolies pre-made meals will never help you gain optimal movement or weight. Its just that simple.

Go on… be great. Be primal. Be what you are supposed to be, you animal!

I have had a bit of an arb day. I guess that my weekend of excess (2 races in one day, travel, langarm in Langebaan till 4am) is paying out bad dividends. Only my fault, isn’t it. Not that I have any regrets.

I managed to take roughly 6 minutes off on the same course as we did in the first week of December. Progress where I was hesitant is a great thing. We then took out, for fun, the 3 man teams in the super sprint relay. That just felt good, albeit super painful at the time.

This on 6 hours sleep, after a long week and a nice drive up the west coast. I then topped it off my having a few local brews and dancing till 4am without a wink’s sleep. The Bar-One men on SABC3 can eat their hearts out.

This did take my deep fatigue to a new level though, and I slept quite a bit on Sunday into Monday, but am really paying the price today. Our morning ride was not quite the quality it normally is, and I had to sleep over lunch today, as I am just tired.

Last night I also had sweet cravings. Never a good sign. Always a sign that I am pushing it a little. Eating, sleeping & exercise habits are the first things to do when I am overdoing it (in that order). But least there is quite an easy equation that precedes the bad habits:

It goes something like this.

1. I am responsible for how I feel right now.
2. My decisions are mine and I am in full control of them.
3. When I make bad decisions based on a lax attitude towards being responsible for myself, cravings come.

Being responsible for myself was quite a revelation for me. Everything is so easy in this world. Access to crap is everywhere. Look around you – fast food, credit, wonder make-up to hide bad habits, products to make you thin for a while (but which ruin your body’s internal systems), instant love, etc are all crap.

Gordo always says “There is no easy way” and my synopsis of what he means is that for you to be responsible for your body, your mind, you heart and your soul, the quick, easy decision is not the one which gets you there.

Once you have gone the route to eat “clean” it’s hard to go back to feeling bloated and tired, but you would never have known the difference if you just continued to do it.

When I started ME intervals people laughed at how silly they looked. I was doubting them as they really hurt, and really made me tired. Now, looking back, for roughly 6 months of focussed work, I could have made the change 5 years ago when I first heard of them. I tried it then, but it was too “hard” for me then.

What stimulus do you know about that you are not applying because its too “hard” ?

Everything seems hard right now, but when you look back you are generally quite stoked about it. Some of these for me:

1. Letting go of my ego as much as possible made me a human being instead of a human doing. I became real. I was open to much more real emotion but the world was a more colorful place. The cold hearted machine was gone.

2. Changing my diet to eating real food. I reckon 100% more energy, 8-9kg less body weight. Amazing not only for that but because I picked up smell, taste, I learnt to love to cook and I eat more than I did before.

3. ME intervals on the bike. The sole reason I am able to do what I can now on the bike. It helps that I am 8-9kg lighter as well, but I am far more powerful out there. My run has improved as a result as well.

4. De-cluttering my mind. I used to think ALL the time. I couldn’t switch off. I was chasing money, fame, prowess, popularity. It consumed me. I broke down. I sold just about everything I owned. I started living more of a minimal life. I now sleep within 5 minutes of getting into my bed. I now have space in my mind for me, for friends, for loved ones. For life.

Responsibility is not always easy, and going back from where it takes you is not always a great place, but the choice is yours.

Right here.

Right now.

1. Your long ride is done at Ironman intensity or just below. That is roughly around your AeT.
2. You are willing to learn to eat a bit more in training.

Today I want to talk about energy pacing (and helping general pacing) for Ironman South Africa specifically. Its a specific course and can be broken up nicely into 3 laps. Here is my general guideline for each of the 3 laps in Port Elizabeth.

Lap 1

For the first 20min you should drink or eat NOTHING in PE. Your stomach will be all messed up from the swim, having gone from a horizontal plane to a vertical one. It takes about that long for your stomach to re-adjust to the new squashed position on the TT bike.

At 20min, have your first nutrition. I generally chomp a Whaspgelgel and a sip of juice (Whasp AminoCarb). You should be pedalling easy up the drag towards Mount Pleasant (stupid name) and focussing on getting nutrition in and your pacing right. If you didn’t attend the pro race briefing, this is not the time to be pushing, no matter HOW good you feel. I don’t care.

Gastric problems are a leading cause of poor performances and DNFs (did not finish) in Ironman-distance races. If your stomach “shuts down” during the race then you very likely went out too fast, or did something stupid like change your practised nutrition on raceday. Do NOT eat anything you are allergic, intolerant to or haven’t done long rides with before.

At 40min, I have another gel, and a bit chug of juice.

At 60min, I have another gel, and finish the bottle of juice. You should be near the coast or approaching it by now, and having gotten in the right fuel, at the right pace, will set you up for a successful day.

After 60min I go through a Whaspgel every 30min and a bottle of the AminoCarb every hour. I do this until the end of the ride. At the end of each lap, I chomp a energy bar.

In terms of energy pacing, the laps work as follows:

Lap 1 – hold back and eat eat eat. Fuel up for the day ahead.

Lap 2 – steady on the money. By now you should be settled, and ready to be wise and mindful about your surroundings (could be the caffeine in these awesome Whaspgels). Work the coastal road and stick to the PLAN.

Lap 3 – at roughly 120km, almost everyone heads through a bad patch. Its called overpacing the first lap. If you are feeling good, don’t push, it`ll go away eventually. We all kak at some point during the day. If you have paced well, on Lap 3 you will be catching guys and passing them, feeling steady and eager to run. do NOT forget to eat and drink on lap 3, as it will be warmer by now. Some water over your body at the last aid station will cool you down and clear some of the salt off for the run.

On the coastal road to town, make sure you spin a slightly lighter gear to keep the legs supple for the run. Enjoy the last turn and salute the crowds, you have just cycled 180km with an even pacing and nutrition strategy, so you should be ready for the run, which we`ll discuss in part 3.

Tips:

1. I take a handful of vitamins at 120km into the ride.
2. Write a nutrition schedule and stick it to your toptube. We get dumb on raceday.
3. Don’t try anything new on raceday.
4. Remember to ride easy to start, no matter how good you feel.
5. Douse yourself with water if its hot, don’t drink twice as much.

That’s it for today kids. Happy training.

No that wasn’t it. It was that that… well. That is true though. Anyway.

Ironman raceday is only, and ONLY, about two things. Pacing, and nutrition. The pacing bit we practice and practice and practice beforehand, and the one thing athletes skimp on, due to budget constraints, lack of focus and general dumbassedness is that they don’t practice their nutrition before the actual raceday.

They then shove more calories in their bodies than they need, and WAAAAY more than they practised, on raceday, and expect it to work.

So, in a series that starts today, because if you look at this picture:

You have that many days left, as of today, 2nd September, to practise practise practise before the next likely Ironman you will do.

There are so many theories as to what you should do at Ironman with your nutrition. For me, there are a few golden rules that you should under no circumstance (your mother being held at gunpoint by Paul Wolff demanding you do these things included) even attempt:

1. Never try anything new on race day.
2. In fact, don’t try anything new on race week.
3. Do NOT, like I did at my first race, pile in a 3000 calorie breakfast.
4. Do NOT, like I did in my rookie race, wake up at 2am to eat. That would fall under heading 1 & 2, dumbass.
5. Do NOT sacrifice your training nutrition for the sake of a new set of gear. Better training nutrition far outweighs the advantage of a new race top. Spend your money on making you faster. Recovering better on big training days outweighs that new top, and the difference in cost is the same.

So in an effort to be correct from the start, lets start at the beginning. Your big rides and runs should be fueled according to the Ironman plan, in training. But how many calories should you consume during each hour? What is the plan?

The first rule is to keep your riding constant. Spurts in heart rate takes blood away from the gut, and that means your gut isnt processing your nutrition, its helping the muscles survive. So the first skill you need to learn as a potential Ironman, is to ride steady on the HR. Yes, it means going slow on the hills, but it means going fast on the flats too.

A good, steady Ironman ride (4-5 hours in training) can be worked as follows…

Bike calories can be worked out at a rate of 0.17 calories per minute per kilogram x 60 (minutes) x bodyweight of the athlete. So for me, at 75kg, its 765 calories per hour. This is quite a common theory on many of the sites on the world wide web.

At an Ironman race, I will go through 1 bottle of Whasp AminoCarb (150cals) and 2 gels (260 cals) per hour. I will also eat half a preferred bar of choice to add around 100 cals to make a total of around 500 calories per hour. That’s the max I can get in, and in training, I am generally a bit less, with consumption around 400 cals per hour.

So am I coming up short? I don’t think so. I have yet to have an energy bonk at an Ironman, and haven’t bonked on a ride in years. Sure. I`ve collapsed into what can only be described as a fetal position slumber but on all those days my nutrition was short.

That would mean my critical values are around 0.11 calories per minute per kilogram. i.e. 0.11 x 60 x 75 = 510 calories per hour.

We can’t talk about the run yet, because most of you can’t run like you bike i.e. the pacing thing. There is a fascinating set of articles about this at Endurance Corner but alot of it goes even over my head, so I am taking time to get to know my power outputs again.

So for the bike, lets assume your training values are about 20% below your race values, for now. So at the following weights, you need to be consuming, on the bike, in training, per hour:

55kg = 290 calories per hour
60kg = 317 calories per hour
65kg = 335 calories per hour
70kg = 369 calories per hour
75kg = 396 calories per hour
80kg = 422 calories per hour

20% lower than race intensity allows for enough margin in your non-ability to keep it consistent and at the right intensity in training. It also allows for a bit of weight loss but gives you the margin to not have to eat like a pig after the ride to make sure your weight loss is gradual and real.

So, first we practice on the bike eh… go check your nutrition and check what you are putting in. If you aren’t finishing your rides strong, it could very well be a lack of nutrition.

That’s it for part 1. We will come back in part 2 and discuss your energy pacing strategies for the bike section at Ironman and what you should realistically be aiming to run next year.

In my life, I can do one thing well at a time, and hence, the time allocation part of my day is vital. Everything has its place and if that’s missing everything seems to be a mess, like 10 colors of clay mixed together. My definition of “well” is world-class, and this might not be your goal. Define what “well” means to you. My goal is to be world-class in what I do – marketing, branding, coach, athlete, boyfriend. I may not achieve this with every decision, but this is what my goal is and its what I’m continuously working towards. You will need to make choices if you want to perform relative to others. You are also going to have to make a habit out of doing things that your competition are unwilling to do. Lately I have been a bit lazy with the athletic side of these goals, but that’s all about to change again, as time has been allocated to once again be a world class athlete.
These habits need not be ‘evil’! Moderate exercise, eating well and getting enough sleep are probably the greatest areas for us to outperform in the long run (by not dying early). In the end, am I shooting for a short term performance or a long term wellness goal? Can’t I have a bit of both?

Obligation to think

Hiring a coach does not remove your obligation to think. I am always encouraging my athletes to think for themselves – to remember what certain heart rates “feel” like. To NOT push the first 30min on the bike. I think the majority of nutrition problems at Ironman level come from a lack of good thinking by the athletes.

I see this all the time – changing nutrition plans leading into the race, putting products you may be intolerant to in your race plan, pushing the first 30min on the bike and wondering why your stomach cant process food in hour 10 and onwards. Your decisions ultimately relate to your overall performance, and a coach cant be responsible for all your decisions.

We are all inherently programmed to know right from wrong. Its your obligation to tune into that frequency in all areas of your life.

Schedule your life.

”Your training must be consistent with your life situation and, taught to me by Molina, the time you have to train has no impact on human physiology.” – Gordo Byrn.

Your competition does not care about your schedule. We don’t get to set the rules of engagement. If you can build a program around your life situation, you are already 90% of the way to your potential. Don’t begrudge the guy who has to work 4 hours a day. He has made choices to get there. He surely doesn’t care that you are working 9 hours a day. Work with what you have and make that work for you.

Slower athletes might be smarter than you.

You are going to need a lot of help to achieve ambitious goals. Probably the #1 mistake athletes make (myself included) is ignoring the possibility that a “slow” person might have something to teach them. Triathlon embodies this form of intellectual arrogance — I was a poster boy for it! It was only once I stopped preaching and started listening that I improved beyond my own expectations. I learn as much from the athletes I coach as I do from the books I read. The 13-15 hour athletes carry lessons for us 9 hour guys if we can just let our egos go for a second.

Avoidance tactics.

Keep track of the choices that you make that result in self-sabotage. Here’s a few of mine:

• Sleeping past 6:30am
• Coffee after 3pm
• Getting loaded with undue stress.
• Overeating on starch/sugar
• Switching training sessions around
• Getting to bed after 10:30pm
• Shooters. I have been known to enjoy a Tequila or two, on occasion.

They are small individually but if any of the above becomes a habit then my productivity will plummet and I am a lot less likely to achieve my goals. It might be my personality, but I have an easier time nurturing my good habits than trying to prevent others which may not be so good for me.

That would fall under the “work at your strengths” banner, instead of the “combat your weaknesses” one. I personally find that when my good habits are in order and being reinforced, the bad ones seem to dissipate as there isn’t space for them to manifest into what essentially is a jam packed schedule for life.

I recently read a great book called “The Shack”. The core of this book is about unconditional love and how that shelters the world from fear and evil. It got me thinking about how I might be treating people around me, specifically those who I am particularly fond of. I found after reading the book I was without a doubt, more aware of my words and actions. It was given to me at the best time possible i.e. the week after an Ironman. I was (as you are in those times) reflective and open to many emotions that I might shut out say… in the week leading into a big race.

You often read of people who see the aura’s of others when they have taken hallucinogenic substances. That the colors are extreme and beautiful and you can see the energy of people, often in technicolor rainbows. The book speaks of such a moment when the weight of the perception of the world is taken off someones eyes.

You also often read that when people have a major positive breakthrough in their lives, that the colors of the trees, flowers and sky improve. It makes sense, as the senses are so powerful and that we dont actually “see” with our eyes, but with our brain. In a nutshell, once we open our senses, or make them more positive, our perception of the world improves in a positive fashion.

I can testify that from the yoga I am doing, a deep calm is instilled in me for 2-3 days after a good session of sweat and nerve stimulus. I love the effect that yoga has had on me this year. I am sure that what we see through our eyes, is a “PG-65″ view of the world, as kids seem to see alot more than we do. They are far more aware of the natural forces in the world, before we drill it out of them.

So when it comes to treating people with unconditional love, the problem is that our faith system as humans has been damaged through the process of growing up. I don’t know a single solitary person who hasn’t been hurt by another human. Our inherent nature isn’t to hurt others, but through life, we learn the technique and some of us become very skilled at it. Words can hurt just as much as actions in humans and our parents teach us to watch out, that life isn’t fair, that we will get hurt, we will have our hearts broken, that we will be cheated in the workplace. We are so conditioned to expect bad things to happen. The media doesn’t help either. When last was there good news on the news?

When a child gets kidnapped, its on Sky News for weeks, and if we are lucky enough to get that child back, its a 1 day story that she`s safe. Sky moves on to the next bad story. We don’t hear how the child is happy at home, that her friends welcomed her back and that she lost her first tooth a week later. No – we hear about a highschool gang in Alabama who have shot up their school. Bad news on bad news, with a hint of joy.

Justin Timberlake said it…..

One of the things the Urban Angel and I have instilled in our relationship in the last year is the notion that we ALWAYS have each others’ best interest at heart, in every action we take in each moment in each day. Its taken a while for it to sink in (as most things do with humans) but we are reaping real benefit for these things lately.

If you have a love at the centre of your relationship with people, and an inherent love in you that powers your thought patterns, I guarantee you will see the benefits that get spoken of so often in Philosophy, Psychology, Religion and Spirituality. Some of these, in no particular order, are:

1. A brighter, more colorful world around you. When you love where you are, the colors are always better.
2. Better relationships with family, friends and colleagues.
3. Your food will taste better, and look. I love to cook, and often the lucky recipients of my food ask how I make something so simple look so good. Its simple, I love that food and love to present it. It shows. If it shows, it tastes better.
4. Time will slow down. Ever notice how totally relaxed days in places you love seem to drag out?
5. Your dreams will improve. I havent had a nightmare since I had my breakthroughs.

If you want to open your mind, and let the love flow like the Orange River in flood, here are some ways to improve your thought patterns.

1. Give up. Stop fighting the world. It doesn’t want to fight you.
2. Sit in a empty room with a pen and paper, and write. For a whole day.
3. Clean your diet of stimulants and processed foods. Sugar doesn’t help you make good decisions.
4. Write your friends (all of them) and family (even that mother in law) a letter telling them you love them, and might not have told them in a while.
5. Formulate a life plan that includes time for yourself, time for regular exercise, and time to enjoy the things you love.

QMQP.

PS: If you didnt notice the colors on that jellyfish, please note, this post is specifically for you.