It is that time of the year again when the nerves are up for Ironman 70.3 Buffalo City. In the last week I have come across 15-20 people who are doing the race in some way or another and I am left wondering how many of them are going to truly enjoy the experience.

Those whose first race it is will typically tell you, without provocation, that they are not ready. They may even tell you that they are not even ready to suffer and they will definitely tell you about the work they have not done for the race. I wish they would tell me about the goals they already conquered, the miles they already endured and the changes they have already experienced.

A few 2nd timers have told me that they know what to expect and what it takes to finish, so they are just going out to race with a smile and finish. I love their attitudes.

The few top guys I have spoken to are just as amazing as I remember them. Here’s a typical interaction between someone I am racing and myself, someone who is up for an age group podium/win.

Me – “Hey”

Me – “Hey. Looking ripped bro, racing 70.3?” (All said whilst carefully analyzing body composition, movement and looking for the racers eyes).

Top Guy – “Jaaa, racing but who knows, been a while since I hit it out, Christmas was overindulgent, but yes, I am going out to give it everything”.

Top Guy – “You?”

Me – “About the same really, should be a great race. Excited you are there.”

Both – “Kiff, let’s hit a coffee ride soon, otherwise see you in Slummies”.

We both leave knowing that it’s going to be a cracker of a race, looking at what the competition looks like. In East London, there are 5-7 guys in my age group alone, who could take the win. I reckon we`ll be no less than 3 minutes apart at the end of the day. I am just happy to be a part of that caliber of racing, mostly coming out of the Western Cape, where a few of us have really pushed the Privateer racing class over the last 5-6 seasons.

I love laying it all out on the table and seeing who comes out tops. It doesn’t affect our friendship – all it does it reinforce the immense respect I have for these guys. The Greg Goodalls, Jean v Wyks, Marcel Roos’, etc. They are my peer group, the guys who love to race, love to train and embody the lifestyle I choose to be a part of.

Are we having fun yet gentleman?

Absolutely.

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If it’s your first race at 70.3, I want you to make a checklist of the number of ceilings you`ve smashed in the last 6 months…

1. Furthest swim, bike and run 6 months ago versus now in training?
2. Body composition 6 months ago versus now?
3. Toys owned, 6 months ago versus now? (cheeky, but I love toys).

There is much to celebrate even before you hit the start line and you should be doing just that.

The video of Jan Frodeno has done the rounds but I thought to include it today as its pertinent. It shows that the work done merely moves as you get better. It shows that to be the best, you have to go beyond what you can currently even believe possible because for someone, its the norm.

What will your norm become? I am asked all the time why I train so much, why I choose to push the limits so far, why do these stupid things? Why? Why? Why?

This is why…

This is not a math test. I do it because all bets are off. Because when the race is on, I am loving the idea that someone is going to flip the script and take us all beyond our norm…

This is why…

There is only this moment. Afterward, we all get to celebrate. If the moment is yours and I am there to witness you rip it away and take it for yourself, I am happy to have seen it. I am just plain stoked to have been a part of it.

But I will chase you…

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There are some crazy places out there. Some athletes who just blow me away with what they are able to do.

Sometimes, we come across a section of athletes who compete for pure love, no medals, just to push the limits. The video above highlights those sorts of athletes out there. For about 2 years in my life I didn’t race. I trained purely to train, just to be out there. It was a good time and brought my love of racing back. The races are great but they are not the end of the road. I have said it many times… there is no white line in the road or a sign above my head that will signify that I have arrived.

There is no 1 ride that will be big enough. It’s the progression that’s so exciting, stretching my belief of “possible”.

This may not only be how far I can go, but may relate to an interval set, a specific set of numbers on the power meter, mastering a hill I walked my entire life by running it slowly the entire way.

My possible is something that keeps stretching, keeps being shaped, keeps growing. My possible is defined only by the limits I set myself.

What is your possible?

What are the limitations you set for yourself, where your fears kick in?

Release that fear and someday you`ll look back at it with a wry smile. You know the smile.

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Having just gotten in from 90min spent dodging traffic and attempting to not throw myself into the darkness that is road rage, I remembered this post that was sent to me this morning. When I read it this morning, it took me back to my prep for Kona `08. I was very focused on finding quiet power, something I had read about and wanted to discover. I went deep into solitude and found it there and man oh man, it`s a beautiful experience. I had quite a bit more of it last time around in Kona, while training. Effortless quiet, my mind at rest, my body humming along like a diesel engine. This brought back a need to find that again… soon…

The Quiet Theory of Influence

Most online marketing people will teach you how to use social media to reach a larger audience, how to use email lists and the scarcity principle and social proof, how to create authority, how to effectively convert pageviews into sales.

Most marketers, online or off, are full of it.

Converting visitors into buyers is a soul-less use of your creative energy. Reject it, out of hand.

I find more value in creating something of value. I find influence a better metric than sales or traffic or reader numbers.

And I’ve learned something that the screaming marketers will never tell you: instead of screaming, prefer quiet.

When everyone yells “Look at me!”, become quiet.

When others seek attention, turn your attention inward.

When everyone wants pageviews and sales, be valuable.

When others try to pull visitors to their sites, let people find you themselves.

When most blogs have popups and drop-downs urging readers to subscribe to their newsletters, get out of your readers’ way.

When others brag of their success, let others laud you instead.

When others cling greedily to copyrights, give your work away.

When others use goals to drive themselves to change the world, learn to be content, and people will ask to learn your secrets.

I’ve found all of the above to be true. When you’ve created something of real value, you don’t need to do any marketing, spend any money on advertising, or push people to subscribe.

People will find you, and they’ll think you’re so great they want to tell their friends about it. Your readers will become your marketers. Your value will become your advertising budget.

Imagine owning a muffin shop. If the muffins are commonplace, you’ll have to advertise and do some “guerilla marketing” to get customers. But if your muffins make people roll their eyes in ecstasy, they will tell the world of your deliciousness, and the world will pound on your muffin-scented door.

Become quiet, find contentedness, become valuable. These trump marketing every time, and as you learn to listen to your inner music, you can now ignore the marketers hawking their oils of snakedness.

Original post to be found here.

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Rapha Continental USA Pro Cycling Challenge Stage 1 from RAPHA on Vimeo.

Another beauty from Rapha. Applause…

Indeed, a day for a broad and dextrous waffle from the host of the blog. A day where he can let his mind wander and let you be the recipient of it all. Where all and nothing may make sense as he returns from a week in a antibiotic hum where everything had that horrible taste in there, somewhere. As I am returning to health, so my mind is returning to creativity. I am exercising lightly again and life beyond the tarmac is just easier again.

This morning I read a FASCINATING article about being your best. It perked me up about the tough choices I have to make daily to be my best. That dreaming is just that and that getting there is much harder. It requires a lot more. Dreaming is no good if you actually want it badly enough. If you are happy enough to just dream it – well then you don’t want it badly enough, do you?

As we are planning Epic Unsupported Tour 2011, I am little obsessed with details at the moment. On a trip where a lack of details means possibly sleeping next to the side of the road being the big spoon to an Epic Unsupported Aussie First Timer as he wonders if he`ll make it back to his wife, I need to go the extra step. Considering the route I have in my mind, which is now plotted 99% of the way on the Garmin Edge 705, I am going deep. The trip is 3 days shorter and only 50km shorter, but this year will be a lot more fun. There is a hike-a-bike section on the last day, which I need to go scout to see if I will have rocks thrown at me by this guy for being overly ambitious about what constitutes “adventure”.

Although this trip will never be open to the public (currently the application includes a set of mixed random tasks involving tactical application of your ability to emulate an Alpaca doing Pavarotti on LSD), this year we will be doing live tracking with THIS awesome little toy. Family, friends and yes, stalking blog readers unite, because you will get random SMS at random times telling you where we are (should there be signal). Taking stalking to a new level, you can also track live, at any time, if the device is charged and in reception areas.

Now stop and read this.

While you`re at it, also read this. See – you`re smarter already.

Let’s celebrate some South African’s doing it in style this weekend: Greg Minnaar for yet another win at the World Cup. Ray Tissink for his 2nd at Boulder Peak 70.3. It’s awesome to see the guys flying the flags on the world stage. If I missed someone – please let me know.

Talking of races, here are two galleries you should look at today:

1. London ITU where collectively, the rest of the field must have slept badly knowing how far behind they are. Ali Brownlee is the best triathlete in the game at the moment.

2. Norseman is on my list to race someday. Along with Embrunman. Yes…you think I am stupid, and yes, you are very, very wrong.

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Simply beautiful those 2 images and the galleries they link to. Opposite ends of the experience – one very solo, one very much thriving with chaos, but both utterly beautiful in terms of the talent and rockstar performances that came from them.

Me, I am currently searching for the solo moments. Not that this is a new thing. I prefer the quiet to the chaos. I prefer to suffer mildly for extended periods of time, rather than suffer harder for shorter periods. I find this to be true in my work, my sport and in my relationships as well. So much we can learn from the sports we choose, or sometimes, the sports that choose us, seemingly.

Tomorrow is a public holiday. I am doing a full day of training in prep for O till O. Long, slow mileage across 3 sports. Should. Be. Fun.

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Being properly hydrated is not optional and that news is not new news. Indeed, when we are dehydrated in a serious manner, performance goes out the window. The trick is to learn to race hydrated or slightly dehydrated towards the middle and end of the race. How do we do this? It takes practise and pushing the limits in training from time to time to determine what your body feels like and works like when you are consuming specific types or fluids.

Here are some basics I like to follow:

1. Any run over 10km, make sure you have a glass (250ml) of sports drink (you know my choice) before you head out the door.
2. Any run over 15km, make sure you can get some water in along the route somewhere.
3. Any run over 20km, it’s essential to take fluids along and be able to nurse yourself with constant drink along the way.
4. Don’t do a long run with a hangover. Ever. Starting that dehydrated is just bad for your body.
5. Drink to thirst.
6. Don’t down a whole bottle of drink in one go. Sloshy tummies are for dummies.
7. Re-hydrate slowly after races, not downing bottles of sugar water straight over the line.

What do they say about learning in 7`s? I`ll leave you with those 7 simple tips to training optimally hydrated. If we train better, we race better and this is an often overlooked part of your daily training. I know too many people to drink coffee all day and end up bailing from planned workouts in the afternoon because they are dehydrated to start their afternoon sessions.

Have a great week out there and remember…assume nothing. This article was brought to you by Rehidrat Sport, my personal choice in sports drink.

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Courtesy of Smashred

Because the most beautiful places in the world are out there for us to ride.

Because of the challenge.

Because it’s there and I have to ride over it, to push the limits.

What do you mean you don’t understand?

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Man I really enjoyed this video. Especially after a few nights in hotels working with BoE Private Clients to raise the bar in awareness for Pure Planet Racing with some of their top clients in Johannesburg and Durban. I slept very well the first night and the body felt great on a long run the next morning. So much so that I felt I could and should get out for a second run yesterday afternoon. The opportunity to run 2 cities in 1 day was just too much fun for my geeky sports orientated brain to avoid.

Last night, however, I slept particularly badly. A combination of having a few glasses of particularly good Sauvignon Blanc and a 4:15am wake up call had me tossing and turning. Because of the way I feel today, there is no way I could go out and train. I have to skip a session I had planned this afternoon because it would be a waste and my weekend would go out the window. I would be compromising a week of good training rather than getting in a session where I would be faffing and just getting it done.

When in doubt, leave it out, as Andrew Maclean likes to say.

I have made an enquiry with Zeo to see if their sleep coach device is available here in South Africa.

But back to “feel”. I am a numbers junkie at the best of times and at other times, I really don’t want to see the numbers at all. Some days I will analyze the entire ride on the Powertap vs Heart Rate vs Altitude gains, etc. Other days, I leave the Garmin at home for a forest run where the point really is to get purposefully lost and lie under a tree for a while, mid run.

For me, even when riding with the Garmin, I am always trying to be aware of what certain intensities feel like, what 350watts on a 10minute climb feels like in the legs, the lungs, in the mind especially, the emotions that happen around minute 4 when it seems like it will never end. I believe “feel” is one of the major things lost on the amateur guys. They are so obsessed with the numbers that they forget what the number/goal/interval/intensity feels like. When their devices fail (and they do fail from time to time) they are left in the dark and cannot get the combination right and bomb out badly.

As the weekend is approaching, I would like to urge you to give “feel” a go this weekend. Tape up a part of your device and go on feel, referencing it only once or twice in your workout. Work with the body, talk to it (ok, yes, I am mad) and listen to what it’s telling you about how it feels when you push it in a certain way.

Right now though, I am going to feel my way through a cup of coffee and the war on admin continues…

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I am in a phase of writing about cycling, I realise. I am finding something quite pure about riding my bike in the last while. The simplicity and the lessons in there. Perhaps it is the lessons. Just today, I sat with a long lost friend, discussing life and the immense challenge he faced a year or five ago, thrown in the deep end in a position he knew very little about.

It was tough. Monstrously tough. He drew back on the long rides, the long runs, the short runs when they sucked, and the lessons learned in all his time spent committed to his cause, to perfecting the journey. He applied the lessons to the tasks at hand and proclaimed to me that indeed, sport is the rulebook for life. It’s all interlaced.

Team Sky – 2010 Paris-Roubaix Recon from Josh Caffrey on Vimeo.

Still want to ride cobbles?

So back to the last few articles, about riding, about the work done, about the lessons learned and taking the lessons forward to make good decisions in a compound manner.

Back to the ways in which we learn to fight for a better life, so that we can move with more agility, with more grace, with power versus force, with less haste and more speed. Few races draw the attention of the world as much as Roubaix. There are many reasons for it and I won’t delve into those today. Few riders that the world has ever seen display all the things I have been talking about quite like our Spartacus. Please enjoy his grace, his power, his speed.

Fabian Cancellara wins Paris-Roubaix [HD] from markus|neuert ★ cyclefilm|com on Vimeo.

If you are looking for someone to copy, look no further.

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This past weekend I opted to pack the car with 4 bikes, a case of Jack Black, running shoes, girlfriend, duvets and a load of high expectation and made a beeline (ok, we got lost) for the Westcoast National Park out on the R27, less than an hour from Cape Town. The Garmin Westcoast Warmwater Weekend (here-forth now called the GWWW) was happening for the 2nd time and last year I missed out, prepping for Cape Epic.

I heard about the gees, the vibe and the food. I was more interested in giving the legs a go all weekend and eating as much as I pleased, to be dead honest. The chance to mellow out and not take it too seriously, however, was a big draw card for everyone who arrived. The field may have been limited due to the park being, essentially, a museum for natural beauty, but it lacked nothing in quality. Dan Hugo, Lieuwe Boonstra, Richard Murray, etc.

Our first dinner was lovely, quiet and it was a dead heat between the beef and the ice cream for awesomeness points. These things happen. We all made our way to The Stables (not some fancy shmancy name for a resort with horses, but actual horse stables) where we rested our excited heads for a nights rest before the triathlon in the morning.

Now it’s fair to say Cape Town is beautiful. But to wake up and drive to the race with the views we had was very special. The “transition” was nicely informal and the bay was calm with a mild wind coming up slowly. In what was to become the weekend standard, a standard “Ingpen Mile” is roughly 1.2 miles. The race start came all too soon and we were in the water, swimming in knee deep azure mind blowing circumstances and I had to remind myself that this was actually a race as I drifted off the front 3 sets of feet at the end of lap 1. I lost contact with the guys there and let them go, content to save something for a bit later. I know Paul likes his courses tough.

I was about 1:30 down at the end of the swim and in 5th place out of transition, knowing I had to work hard on the bike, but content that the work I have been doing this year has been great. A greatly reduced training load (12 hours max a week this year, more or less vs around 20 a year ago, due to various commitments) meant that I would be relatively fresh. The ride route is fantastic because it’s open, there is nowhere to hide, you have to turn a big gear from start to end and really, it rewards those who want to do the work.

At halfway I was already 5min down on Dan, he was showing the work he has done on his time trial bike in the last year has not been without purpose, 3min down on Lieuwe and I was about 2min up on Nic Muhl who was riding out of his shoes at this point. It hurt on the way back, never quite sure where the wind was coming from. I had to work hard all the time and ticked off the kilometers with a beep on the Garmin.

It must be noted I have been playing with nutrition lately and have found a way to hyperload my bottles with enough calories without the drink being mega sweet, eliminating the need for gels. More on that in a few weeks once all the testing is done.

Onto the run and I was told I was 2:30 down on Lieuwe Boonstra, clawing back some seconds on the way back. Nic was nowhere to be seen so I set off on the 11km run which included sand, surf, sand, road, sand, eland and more sand. At times, the sand was roughly calves depth and I was cursing Paul in language that is reserved for the worst of the worst. I was, however, catching Lieuwe and had him at 8km. This was a new experience for me. I had never caught him in ANY race in my life. Aware of the caliber athlete I was dealing with, I tried to get rid of him ASAP as I knew he was much faster in any form of sprint than I could ever hope to be.

I, however, was burning at around 10.5 out of 10 at this point. As we got off the beach sand, I went as hard as I could up the hill to get rid of him. By that, I mean I was running flat out with little surges for about 1km up a pretty steep hill at around 3:30 per km. That was what I had. I was breathing so hard I couldn’t hear my feet on the tar. He held to the top of the hill. Then, as we hit the peak, Lieuwe attacked. I tried as hard as I could to go with him. I checked the Garmin and I was going 3min per km and losing ground. Sneaky freaking russian had me. When we hit Preekstoel I had made peace with 3rd and took off my shoes for the trot in the water. Jogging in with a smile on my dial, I finished well and in a week where there was no rest, a great result. Dan was in a class of his own I tell you.

The afternoon was spent napping and eating before more eating and sleeping in lieu of the 14km (actually 17km) trail run in the morning and the 24km (actually 36km) mountain bike ride just afterward.

For the Sunday, all I can say is that I cruised both “races” as most of us did, enjoying the scenery and making friends along the way. The chance to cruise with mates in one of the most beautiful places you will ever go was apt reward for the previous days work.

If you missed out on this weekend, I highly suggest you get entries in early next year. It’s simply an incredible experience from passionate organisers filled with lovely people and moments that take your breath away. A special thanks to Electric Ink, Gamin and Oakley for putting on the event. We`ll be back…

Here are the files…

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It’s right there, you can taste it after the long road filled with mega sacrifice, filled with moments of your significant other giving you “the look” and feeling like the personification of this video. Finally, there is it. You have earned this, you have demanded that it come throughout the day, willed yourself through thick and thin and truly gone above and beyond just to get here. Now give it to me! You want to be filled over the brim and explode into a happiness that lasts for years.

And then it’s over and you`re left with this sinking feeling that you have been cheated out of something. The line, it wasn’t big enough. It didn’t “fill” you. It left you feeling like you did it all for nothing, that what’s left of your life makes no sense at all. You walk like a man beaten by a thousand bamboo rods, your mind cannot focus on anything but this sinking sensation that LIFE has given you lemons when you asked for pork belly.

I have been there. I have seen the ugly inside of the pit of your stomach which is raging like an itchy scab on your elbow. I stepped back from racing for a very long time before I discovered that indeed there were much bigger moments out there within this beautiful journey that we undertake. Moments where I never feel short changed. There are no lines in the road and no plan set out in these moments. I have no expectation that I will feel fulfilled in these moments. All I have is the expectancy of being filled to the brim with life, leaving me hungry for more. It’s the best hunger in the world, one I never tire of and one that its best served on a road in the middle of nowhere with the sun in my neck and my gearing in the big ring. It looks something like this…

It’s where the joy lives, it’s where it breathes and manifests the positive attributes of what we do into every piece of the puzzle that puts together the perfect picture of the life you are struggling for. It’s where you will find the answers that elude you in your manic life. It’s where you will discover the truest, rawest version of yourself. It’s where there is no grey, only colors so radiant that they fill your eyes to the brim with tears of love for the amazing gift you were given at birth to be able to move in the direction you choose. That by the simple action of moving your body forward, you are paying homage to the most special ability of all, the choice to affect. To choose your direction, to make the decision to move your entire being in the direction which you want to. It’s where it all starts.

Choices. Thanks dad. Thanks for telling me over and over and over again that it’s all about choices. Sometimes, it’s the simplest choice that affects so much. So move with economy and make your choices count. Don’t count on a line in the road. Instead, count on yourself.

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