Yesterday the league launched. Some questions came in on where to find the best tips, current teams, form of riders, etc, so that you can make the best choices for your team.

Here we go:

The Tour de France Guide, via INRNG.

Some inside info on What the Experts Say, from ITV.

That is a good start and where I will be making my picks later today. Need to get it done!

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The emotion involved when it goes wrong is something you cannot account for. When we put it all on the line and something goes wrong, our emotions may, at times, get the better of us.

But there is really no need to resort to violence, like these two, especially when in cleats.

I realise I owe you all a bit of a breakdown of the week as well as something I want to offer up for a bit more help with the Hawaii Project. So let’s go back a week and look at totals and how it all panned out.

I needed to do a big week. I had to do it WHILE doing a full work week. Contrary to many an opinion, I worked 9am to 4pm every day last week. Some days were less attentive than others, but there was no sleeping all day from home. I apologise in particular for the Wednesday at work, when I was struggling to remember my own name. Day 3 is always the worst. Thankfully, you wake up day 4, fully into the groove.

31 Hours of riding, all below AeT. At times I simply had to drop off the group to maintain the lower intensity if I was riding with others, but for the most part I rode on my own anyway. I rode twice a day on Tuesday through Thursday and rode the mountain bike 4 times during the week as well. I would imagine I could average it out at 30km/h so call it 930km I rode in the week, total, if it had all been on road. Very happy with that. Add to that 5 hours of running, all around 4min-4:20 per kilometer, all around 150HR. I ran every day, in small chunks at lunchtime. On the weekend I upped it a little to run 60min and managed to maintain form, pace and heart rate throughout the week with my running. Total run time was 5 hours, around 70km in total. Swam 3 hours in 4 swims, which equates to about 12km for me.

That was my 39 hours. I had 2 massages and cannot tell you how much I ate, all I can tell you is that it was alot. I dropped 1.5kg it seems, but none of this happened during the actual camp. It has all happened this week. I was 76.5kg going into it and this morning I weighed in at 75kg, which means 1kg left to go before the race, more or less (I don’t get too technical on these things anymore as my body shape is in constant change in the last 18 months and I am just letting it do what it has to do), in order to be where I was in PE in April at 74kg. Any lighter and I may have issues with travel and health and it leaves me with a bit of weight to lose on the day as well, which is allowed.

I wanted to offer a package to someone around my size, shoe size as well (what with extra product lying around) who enjoyed wine and may want to be coached by me for a year. Sounds like a garage sale and it is, of sorts. In total, the entire “lot” is worth R15 000.00 and it includes:

Urban Ninja Bike Kit x 1 (medium bibs + top)
Urban Ninja Tri Kit x 1 (hope you like white – medium)
Kleinhoekkloof Sauvignon Blanc 2009 x 6 – think gooseberries & fresh cut grass over khakibos with a hint of passionfruit
Kleinhoekkloof Merlot Rose 2009 x 6 – turkish delight, cherries and a honey-ish linger on the pallet
Puma Complete Road Racer III size uk 10 (orange baby!)
Puma casual run gear (medium top + shorts)
Rockets Compression Vest size medium
Urban Ninja Cap
Urban Ninja t-shirt
2 tubs of Whasp AminoPro Naartjie
1 bottle of Whasp Gel Blueberry
1 Case of the World’s finest craft beer, Jack Black Beer

Then Jason from Olympic Cycles has come forward to help with an amazing prize, in the form of a full Body Geometry Ergofit worth R800 as well.

Here is an overview:

The full fit manual is available here as well. Thank you Jason.

It’s not all though. I wanted to offer someone my coaching services for an entire year for 2011. This would ideally be for something endurance related, but perhaps the challenge comes for something else. It includes training programs, mental coaching as well as coffee, muffins and the occasional tequila after races. Essentially though, its a slot in the limited slots I have, which are pretty much FULL at the moment, in addition to all that’s offered above.

In total all these items are worth R15 230.00 in total. If I could get R8000.00 – R10 000.00 for all of it, then that would be amazing, which would mean you pay for the coaching and basically the rest is free. I realise this is specific to size 10 shoes and medium kit, but hey, that’s what I have and really its about the Ergofit Fitting, the Coaching and the Booze, right? I am hoping someone will find the value in there and the continued effort that goes into maintaining this platform and come to the party and help me be the fastest age grouper across the double (Ironman Hawaii + Maui Xterra) in 2010.

If you may know someone who would want this sort of package, or who want the cool stuff and you may be a size 10 and medium and they want to give you the gear, then pass along the link on the page.

I really do NOT want this to come across as charity, I believe there is fair value in there and I am not asking for R500.00 for a pasta party or overpriced t-shirts. If you need a breakdown on the value, fill in the contact form on the site and I will mail it to you. If you are interested in buying this package from me, please do the same. I will be most grateful for the contribution to the cause.

Have a superb weekend. I am running the first leg of the Table Mountain Challenge tomorrow for a bit of a lung busting workout the the real 3 week taper starts tomorrow. I am suitably excited and finally starting to feel a bit rested from the 39 hour week. Remember, Assume Nothing, Pursue Everything, Experience Now…

Lastly, Click the SA Blog Awards button, one more time…

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I wanted to do something totally inspirational in terms of an interview after Ironman. For me there was one story that really stood out this year at Ironman. One that I was holding thumbs for 10 times more than others. I want to go back a little though before Ironman and share some of the stories on this amazing woman.

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….

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I write this from Durban, where I am doing some key meetings and having a bit of R&R from Triple Challenge, which happened on Saturday. A while back the Housemate offered some voyager miles as a birthday gift, and I couldn’t resist.

I had no idea what I was in for, and didn’t have a mountain bike at that point. But committed I was.

I have diligently been going about eating right, training smart and after a hectique week I was without much hope of a personal best race performance.

I went twice in the week to see Line Griffiths (more on her later) who applied healing hands on my tired legs after 4 weeks of hammering away at the best block of ME work I had ever done. We flew in on Saturday and saw Max at the race. People were all so grateful that 2 capetonians had made the trip to come race here in KZN.

Race morning started at 3am.

Yes…. 3am.

We were racking bikes by 4:30 and at the start to watch Dan Hugo and the paddlers go off. He smoked his race, by the way, 4th year in a row. The boy is looking lean, mean and certainly proved it again on Sunday where it mattered – out on the course.

Anyhow, back to my race. I took off conservatively and placed a heart rate cap on the first, 20.5km trail run. I didn’t want to be hurting too much later in the day, and wanted to be able to focus in the technical stuff on the bike, this being my 4th mountain bike ride ever.

Some guys took off up the long drag but I stuck to my guns and let them go, keeping my HR in check and actually letting it drop a little before the start of the bike. I handed car keys to my aunt and headed off on the bike after an almighty long transition.

With some cramps. Running trail is something I have not done in a while and my muscles thanked me with some cramps in my calves early in the bike. I was however, flying low. I was onto the bike 6th, and was in 3rd by about 6km. I was in 2nd by about 10km. By 20km I took the lead.

I have to add that I have never ever taken the lead in any race, on the bike. traditionally my weakest link, today it proved to be my weapon. I had to get off twice to stretch the cramps, but maintained the lead.

My skills on the day were being boosted by having a prototype Morewood Zula in my arsenal. The bike was phenomenal. Unreal and kudos to Morewood for helping me out.

My navigation skills, however, were terrible and I misread one of the buntings and went off in the wrong direction, having to ride another big hill and losing 5 minutes in the process. Panic stations and I belted down the hill at around 70km/h jumping over rocks and risking life and limb. I fell twice but got up and kept pedaling as hard as I could.

I got to T2 and was shouting for my aunt, as she had my shoes.

Silence.

She was not there, and neither were my shoes. My tummy dropped. My heart sank. I started asking spectators for shoes to loan. Minutes went by. Finally a guy offered his size 13 shoes to me, and I took them without thinking about it for a second. I took off, mickey mouse feet and all, being a size 10. It hurt and blisters were almost instantly there. I cramped again. Stopped, had to stretch no less than 4 times.

When I came out the bush to see the finish it was a huge relief. I had 2min after all that. It must have been super close, as I saw Bertus about 30sec behind me onto the run.

It was truly an amazing event and I will without a doubt, be back to race, and defend my title, in years to come.

An emotional race, but a very satisfactory result.

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Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Jeffrey Tang of The Art of Great Things.

“Do what you love.”

We’ve all heard this advice before. It’s great advice, though not many people truly take it to heart.

But sometimes doing what you love isn’t enough to keep you going. Inspiration, passion, and motivation are difficult things to hold on to. They always seem to slip away right when you need them most.

You know that feeling. Where you’re that close to finishing a project, or achieving a goal, or crossing a task off your to-do list … but you just can’t muster the energy. You’ve lost interest. You’re exhausted. Drained. And you don’t know why.

That’s burnout. It’s something many of us are all too familiar with. I’d like to share with you a few ways that I fight burnout – or prevent it from catching me in the first place.

1. Achieve in increments. When you only focus on a big goal someday, it’s easy to get burned out by the daily grind. It’s like driving toward a mountain in the distance. You can drive for hours, but the mountain doesn’t seem to get any closer. And spinning your wheels gets real tiring real fast.

The solution is to give yourself a way to measure and record every little step forward you take. Here’s how:

• Get a journal, notebook, or calendar. Writing things down is important.
• Identify milestones on the road towards your goal.If you’re writing a book, you could treat each chapter as one milestone. Or, even better, treat each 500 words or 1000 words as a milestone.
• If milestones aren’t obvious, create them. For example, if you’re training for a marathon, hold yourself to a progression of distance. If you start out running at your maximum distance, you’ll plateau very quickly. Instead, start at a shorter distance – even if it’s very easy for you – then work your way up slowly.
• Track milestones in a simple, visual format. Think of the progress bar on a download. One glance tells you exactly how much progress has been made. The format you choose doesn’t need to be detailed or comprehensive. It just needs to show that you’re moving forward day by day.

Learn to appreciate the little accomplishments. Let yourself enjoy the feeling of getting things done.

2. Train your muse. One of the biggest myths about inspiration that it’s random. One day you’re inspired and motivated, the next day you’re burned out – and there’s no way around it. Or so they say.

In fact, inspiration is just like any other skill. It may start out as unreliable, but it can be trained and developed into something you can rely on.

So how do you train your muse? The best way I’ve found is immersion. Surround yourself with things that inspire you and reflect your goals. Great composers listen to music. Great authors read voraciously. Great marketers attend seminars. Great productivity-ists subscribe to Zen Habits. And so on. Immersion trains your mind to work efficiently in the ways you need it to.

The more that your inspiration becomes a part of your life, the less likely it is to run out when you need it most. With that in mind, be creative. What ways can you connect with your inspiration on a daily basis?

3. Work less. Cut down on the amount of energy and time you spend working. If you have sick days or vacation days left, take advantage of them. Or, if you’re self-employed, force yourself to work fewer hours each day – even if that means turning down new projects.

Working less doesn’t mean you have to slack off or get less done. It does mean that you:

• Eliminate unnecessary tasks.
• Take strategic breaks.
• Stop multi-tasking.
• Seek help from other people.

4. Define success realistically. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having big dreams and big ambitions. But if you’re constantly frustrated by a lack of progress, it might be time to take a step back and examine your goals. Are they achievable? Are you holding yourself to a reasonable timeline?

Here’s a good way to do this. Get a piece of paper and write down your big, ambitious goal. Then write down at least 10 specific, concrete steps that will allow you to achieve that goal. Be as detailed as possible. If you can’t come up with a series of down-to-earth steps to get you from here to your dream, that’s a sign that you need to either redefine your goals or rethink the way you’re pursuing those goals.

5. Get more sleep. You’ve heard this before, I know. So have I. But that didn’t stop me from going against my better judgment and tiring myself out by staying up late to work. Getting enough sleep takes a conscious decision – and, just like any good habit, takes time to develop.

One of the biggest barriers for me in this area is procrastination. I have a tendency to put things off throughout the day, then stay up later as a result. What’s keeping you from getting the rest you need?

6. Take it slow(er). The world tells us to rush things: “Get there faster. Make money quicker. Retire sooner.” And while these things aren’t necessarily bad, they can easily get us in over our heads. If you’re feeling burned out and overwhelmed, it’s time to slow down.

A few ways to take yourself out of 24/7 high gear:

• Spend at least 10 minutes a day in a quiet place, away from distractions. Breathe.
• Put together a playlist of slow, relaxing music. Listen to it whenever you start feeling frazzled.
• Take a butcher knife to your to-do list. Set a limit to the number of tasks you  take on each day and stick to it.
• Extend your deadlines. Do you absolutely, positively have to get this done now? Just remember – this isn’t an excuse to procrastinate.

7. Get a second opinion. It’s hard to spot burnout from the inside. Your close friends and family are likely to identify the signs of burnout long before you do. So listen to what they’re saying. The next time your spouse, parent, or best friend tells you you’re working too hard, take it seriously.

8. Set clear boundaries. Burnout happens when we allow work to overflow its boundaries and interfere with every other part of our lives. So set strong boundaries. The clearer the better. In writing, if possible.

For example, instead of saying: “I’ll spend at three hours every night with my family,” make it clearer: “I won’t work after 8 o’clock. That’s 100% family time.” Clear boundaries are easier to stick to and harder to rationalize away.

Once you’ve set up your boundaries, make them public. Let your family know that you’ve set aside time just for them. They’ll hold you accountable to your promises. Let your clients know that you’ll be unavailable during certain hours. This will reduce the temptation to fudge on your boundaries.

9. When you’re working, focus. I’ve found that concentrating on work is actually less exhausting than allowing yourself to be wishy-washy about it. When you decide that it’s time to work, buckle down, eliminate distractions, and do it wholeheartedly. There’s something amazingly refreshing about pure, sharp focus.

10. Create outlets. If you’re a person of diverse interests (and really, who isn’t?), it’s likely that you have several very different goals and ideas bouncing around in your head at any given time. These ideas need outlets. If you hold them inside, they’ll eventually start interfering with your focus and creating unnecessary frustration, leading to burnout.

In other words, I think it’s okay – healthy, even – to start a few side projects as outlets for creative energy. Just make sure that you keep your priorities straight and your side projects fun. If these side projects become sources of stress, cut them out immediately.

11. Know when to power through it. This is going to sound out of place given what I’ve said above, but it’s powerful – if applied correctly. Sometimes the solution for burnout is just to power through it. Sometimes burnout can be an illusion. In these cases, the best choice is to refuse to use burnout as an excuse, ignore the fact that you feel burned out, and just work through it. It’s like a runner gaining her second wind and coming out stronger on the other side.

However, just as an experienced athlete knows when to push through the pain and when to pull back, you’ll need to be very careful how you take this particular piece of advice. Until you develop a keen awareness of your own tendencies, it’s usually better to err on the side of caution and pull back when you start feeling burned out.

12. Never accept defeat. Burnout is an obstacle like any other. It can hold you back for a while, but it’s not the end of the world – unless you let it defeat you.

If you have a great goal in mind, don’t give up on it, no matter how apathetic, exhausted, or frustrated you might feel. If everything I’ve said up until this point fails, do this: hold on to your dream – even if it doesn’t feel like much of a dream at the moment. Hold on to it anyway. That way, when the storm clears, your dream will still be intact, ready for another try.

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This is going to be a stange week indeed. 3 days, then a holiday, then another day. As I have chosen to take Fridays off, in essence, I need to squeeze 4 days of work in 3, which is better than most people this week. How many of you are going to stretch 1 days worth of work to Thursday.

So what is this holiday on Thursday?

Heritage Day is defined as:

n KwaZulu-Natal, the 24th of September was known as Shaka Day, in commemoration of the Zulu King, Shaka. Shaka was the legendary Zulu King that played an important role in uniting disparate zulu clans into a cohesive nation. Contrary to western discourse Shaka was not a ‘chief‘.

The Public Holidays Bill presented to the Parliament of South Africa at the time did not have the 24th of September included on the list of proposed public holidays. As a result of this exclusion, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), a South African political party with a large Zulu membership, objected to the bill. Parliament and the IFP reached a compromise and the day was given its present title and seen as a day

I wonder how Mr Chuene sleeps at night, after that whole debacle. If you see him on the street, kick him in the shins. Chop.

Ok, so onto something useful, right? Surely I have something useful to show you today.

Fixed Gear Cycling is slowly taking off in South Africa, and for the best local news, you can visit The Daily Fix to catch up on events, etc. But they have a reputation for coming up with some WHACK bikes. Take the following abuse of an amazing Cinelli RAM bar for example:

Cinelli RAM Abuse

Not so cool. Here is something, for me, which is much cooler. it comes from this set of pics, a visit to the Trek area where they customise all the cool sh** but I have always been a fan of raw elements in anything, so this raw carbon frame is the shizzle, for me, personally.

Awesome.

As we near the date for Kona have a click on that link for a revisit of the race I went to last year. Am I sad that I am not going this year? OBVIOUSLY. What an amazing race, and an amazing place, and I had such a vibe on that trip with my family. It changed my life man. Should you spend the next few years trying to get there? OBVIOUSLY. It changes your life, in so many ways! There is something about the place, and getting constant Twitter updates from Luke McKenzie, Terenzo Bozzone et al about their training there is driving me up the wall. Hence my own 8 hour training weekends at the moment.

Big picture, right? You have no idea.

Ok, that’s enough weirdness for one day. Have a great week ahead. Work hard, play hard.

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So hopefully you have read my post on Personal Planning. Not? Find it here. Have a read through and get the process started. For me, its a continuous process and this time of the year, I find its a great time to reflect and check on progress for the year, and make some vital tweaks so that you are able to power through the last 3 months of the year, whilst everyone else is waiting for holiday.

For me, the big picture is essential, and it’s why I love endurance sports so much. I have to say I have learnt more about life through my correct approach for endurance sports, than I ever did at varsity or in any job I have ever done.

I will admit to not training as hard as many other athletes out there. I know of guys who train 25 hours a week to go much slower than I do at Ironman. I often ask those guys/girls how much normal time they put into good habits (all Ironman time to me), like good eating, regular sleep, de-stressing, massage, recovery, etc.

How many athletes are training to eat sugar, or to win races?

How many athletes are training to a commitment of long term health and vitality?

I am the second type, and athletic prowess comes as a benefit from that. I spend quite a bit of time to eat right, sleep right and make the sacrifices to be able to recover session to session. In each session, there is but only so much you can do perfectly, and if I am tired, can’t focus (a result of many things mentioned above) and too hungry, then chances are, I will not get the benefit from the session, and to me, there is no point in just cruising through 25 hours of training per week. I would rather train 16-18 hours, and hit them with purpose and crush the important parts to each work-out.

So how much should you be training if you are training for wellness/vitality?

Gordo spoke about it this week, and reckons that if you can’t train without the sugar rushes in your diet, then you are pushing the limits. He reckons 20 years of training to reward yourself with sugar afterward would result in some long term health regrets?

Agreed. Slow Clap.

Then you have to add the control factor to your life, and endurance training and correct lifestyle choices are the key proponent to my ability to control my emotions, and my body. Essentially I train myself to deal with fatigue, mild hunger, and control the sessions with correct pacing, so that I finish strong (but considering the rest of the day) at every session.

Those principles translate to my diet, where I control my calories in a very systematic way which leaves me with loads of energy, keeps me healthy and fit, which are two different things totally.

This also relates well to my work, where I try to get as much done as possible in 4 days every week, so that I can have Fridays to myself, a very important part to my life (quiet, me-time). Working with control, pace and feeding myself every few hours in the day keeps me focused. I have also learnt when not to work i.e. when to take an hour break.

Ok before this gets too long… the basis of having a biiiig picture is to have a plan, to exercise control to power through the end of your daily, weekly, monthly and yearly plan, and to track your progress (slightly) obsessively, so you can benchmark.

Why?

because if you get it right, your goals will continuously grow, because you have NO idea of what your potential really is. I leant this from FROM Monday, from Gringo, from Ekhart Tolle, from my amazing parents, now that I am old enough to really understand their wisdom and from you, my readers. You are proof of it. I never believed this blog would get any bigger than my small circle of email friends.

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This ad for the WWF brings the message of the tsunami killing many more people than the 9/11 attacks brings the message across so well, that Americans were platzing in their pants, being all sentimental about the event, especially as its anniversary for that, tomorrow.

In your business, are you bringing your point across clearly, in the first 7 points you are making? If not, then chances are your business is not going to be a success.

Being clear and concise up front is vital, especially in tight economies of scale as we are dealing with right now around the world.

I urge you to do the following a little more diligently, before meetings:

1. Prepare – if the meeting is going to take you an hour, prep for at least an hour as well. Imagine questions the parties will ask, and ways they will try to dodge your sales bullets.

2. Visualise – take 5 minutes to yourself before the meeting and visualise yourself as a powerful business person who people trust, and believe in, and who’s product makes a difference to peoples lives.

3. Sit upright – nothing irritates me more than someone trying to sell me something, whilst slouching in their chairs.

4. Keep it short – your listening parties can only mentally process your first 7 points – thats why there are seven digits to telephone numbers. After that – you are gone. Point 8 does not matter. Sell them by point 4, and drive it home by point 6, with a closing point 7. Do it!

5. Celebrate – if you have signed a nice deal – go out and celebrate, blow off the stress you built up doing the pitch. Take a run, dance like nobody is watching, drink that bottle of Moet. Whatever it takes…

have a great day. now, tomorrow, and then… ITS THE WEEKEND BABY!

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This is from Endurance Corner.

Alan Couzens is a super smart guy, and wrote a post about What it Takes a while ago. Get that here.

Today this arrived in my inbox. The Chuckie V article will be posted up a bit later today, around 3pm as well, so click back then for that. In the meantime, trust no ONE..

My post on “What it Takes” from a couple of weeks back generated a good deal of discussion both in my inbox and on some internet forums. I didn’t comment on any of the forum posts because I find it much more interesting studying the psychology from afar than attempting to influence it. It is my experience that the bulk of internet ‘discussion’ is more about a proverbial peeing contest than a true attempt to learn anything so, as a general rule, I stay out of it.

It certainly was interesting, though, to watch it from afar. To watch how some good athletes were hell-bent on proving to themselves and others that they lacked ‘what it took’ to be great. The psychology is still a little puzzling to me. Even more puzzling is how they interpreted my last post to be somehow pessimistic. Let me be frank. If the thought of ‘having’ to put in 10 years in this sport in order to discover your potential is in any way depressing, then find yourself another vocation.

My curiosity turned to anger when the discussion moved to the deterministic implications of genetics. If you want to limit yourself, go ahead, but don’t generalize that others are equally limited. The logic goes, well I’ve done ‘everything I can’ over the past x amount of years to fulfill my potential in this sport and I’m still not world champion. Must be genetics.

I took a look at what the genetic research has to say on the topic of endurance sports in this post. For mine, not all that impressive and certainly not equivocal. Ironically, the same folks who took issue with the sample size of the Baker and Cote 10 year study seem to have little problem with a genetics study that uses a similar sample size trained with a high intensity 12 week training program to infer levels of ‘trainability’ for the Ironman athlete! But my hunch is that the opinions of these ‘dream crushers’ are not based on perusing the genetics research literature and weighing it against long duration physiological studies and theories on deliberate practice. Rather, my hunch is that these folks are throwing out their opinion based on a sample size of n=1.

The central problem with any n=1 opinion in endurance sports is, as the old Edison quote infers, any ‘failure’ is just as attributable to the one training program that you are following than to failure of the principle of training as a whole:

“I have not failed 1,000 times. I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways to NOT make a light bulb.”

Put another way, be very careful when perusing the forums that you don’t mistake the failure of one athlete to come up with a successful method of making their light bulb for the impossibility of light bulb making as a whole.

Additionally, recognize your failures quickly and CHANGE, lest you become ‘one of them’.

The further problem is illustrated in the following story from my swim days:

I have always been a cerebral kind of guy. Always on the look out for ‘the answer’. In my swim days, I was under the impression that ‘the answer’ was technical. I remember one day before practice I was chatting with one of the superstars of our squad. This guy was the most technically beautiful swimmer than I have seen to this day. Every stroke was textbook. I would watch the guy underwater to try and work out the nuances of what he was doing with his stroke that was enabling him to swim 6s or so quicker than me in a 100 sprint. So, anyhow, conversation was slim, so I took the time to ask him, what do you do underwater that gives you such an efficient pull? His answer? I don’t know. Of course, that wasn’t enough. I asked him to demonstrate parts of the pull. When he did, his actions looked nothing like they did underwater. This guy really had no clue how he pulled off swimming as fast as he did. I’m sure never missing a session helped, but that’s the topic for another blog :-)

My point is that the same is true of most elite athletes that I have known and worked with over the years. It takes pretty dramatic consequences to enforce a 100% logbook policy in a swim squad, even an elite one. Most athletes want to do the work, not write about it. As such it is my experience that many of the best athletes have only a very vague idea (based on memory) of how they got to the level that they are at. The very best elite coaches on the other hand, record everything and have notebooks going back to the dark ages on their training programs. Unfortunately, in triathlon, there are so few truly elite coaches that provide accessible knowledge that we tend to believe verbatim the generalities of the athletes that are based on their best recollection of how they trained.

Chuckie V’s most recent blog on “How to become a champion endurance athlete” is a flat-out gem. Through the entire post, the importance of self-belief is highlighted.

Make no mistake, spending time on the forums listening to folks banter on genetics based on their limited recollection of their own n=1 sample is not just harmless web-surfing. It is life altering. With every n=1 reference that you take on, your belief in your own potential is damaged. Fortunately my own ego and pig-headedness makes me pretty immune to what others say, but if you are in any way susceptible to this stuff, keep the following in mind:

• Any ‘failure’ is purely a failure of the one program or protocol that the athlete personally selected.
• Many athletes have a very limited idea of what their selected protocol was !!

So, who do you trust? Well, I’m a pretty good starting point :-) Primarily because I have an obsession with collecting real-world data for all levels of triathlete that borders on OCD!!

But, that doesn’t sit well with the File-O-Phile in me, so in the end, I would tell you to trust RESULTS. Every athlete is an experiment of one and any ‘truths’ about the human training response are typically based on limited samples, limited time frames, along with the limited assumption of human conformity, which I am dead-set against. Every athlete is different. Your best bet for success in this athletics game is to X out the forum window, open your spreadsheet and keep detailed personal records on your personal response to a given training stimulus. In addition, keep that picture of Edison and his light bulb firmly engraved on your screen saver, along with the caption “Persistence conquers all”.

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