I have the privilege of working with some amazingly smart people. I have to listen as much as I talk, hopefully a little more in the future, and I want to share some of the best tips for quick improvements in your day with you today. I believe if you can do just a few of these things, that your overall day will improve in a huge way, and that life will appear to be better.

Just not as bad as that Kellogg’s advert on the radio at the moment where the girl greets the trees, the birds, and the postman, because she is now “regular”.

Thats quite the vibe there Kellogg’s. Anyway. Here are some simple tips you might not have thought about…

1. Always eat a healthy breakfast. Coffee & other stimulants do not count. A healthy breakfast would consist of a cup of real food like Muesli or Oats, with limited sugar, and a cup of black Rooibos tea with a bit of apple juice to sweeten it up.

2. Pack your bags for the day, the night before, so you don’t have to rush in the morning.

3. If you work at a desk, get up and walk around once an hour, for 5 minutes. Flex your toes and stretch yourself out a bit. Blood flow is your friend.

4. Eat 5 meals a day. Snacking at 11am and 3pm means smaller main meals, but a steadier metabolism.

5. Get regular sleep. Nothing beats consistency when it comes to sleep i.e. Getting to bed at the same time every day as far as possible.

6. Get some sunshine! During your lunch break, make sure you sit in the sun for 10min. It will brighten up your day.

7. Skip the late night sugar. I used to have pudding 5 nights a week until about 8 weeks ago. I can’t explain to you how much better you sleep when you cut out that sugar rush before bedtime.

8. A glass of wine will sooth the day. But make sure its with dinner, and that it’s a bottle worth opening, every single time. Good wine, good coffee, and good chocolate are all substitutes worth having in your life.

9. Speaking of coffee, I am a big fan of the stuff, but in moderation. Great coffee requires no sugar, and hardly any milk. Its not bitter at all, but costs a little more. Its worth the investment.

10. Take 2 cups of HTFU and chill the hell out. Stop fretting the little things, they are going to kill you.

Now go out there, and be great.

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I have started my base training for my crazy challenge next year and in effect, am 4 weeks into it at this stage. It involves training twice a day, watching what I eat, sleeping well, etc. All basic stuff to achieve the 4 pillars of endurance sport:

Aerobic capacity
Nutrition
Flexibility
Recovery

If I can get those 4 things right, all else seems to just fall into place.

But man, you get tired. I have been a Whasp ambassador since before there was Whasp (read: when there had to be guinea pigs to test gels, I was one) and have continued a loving relationship with the brand. I recommend it to everyone I know as it works. There is not 1 gel on the earth which tastes great after the 10th one, and at Ironman, I chomp around 20 of these bad boys during the 9 odd hours it takes me to complete the race. I go for what digest properly, and what works. Whaspgel does both.

I took a side step from the official Whasp team around a year ago to pursue this Urban Ninja vibe, and in so, had to cut my Whasp “allowance” per month. I felt the effects on my training (read: not hitting the sessions quite like I was when I was on the magenta 50mg gels) and may have mentioned this to The Owner of Whasp. I may have even complained.

a little.

I may have been tired ok!

To my UTTER surprise there was a knock on my door last week, and there was a man with a box.

“Delivery for Mr de Jongh”.

Over the moon, I thought it may be something from Puma, but indeed, it was way better. It was a fresh stack of Whaspgel. I was about the close the door when Delivery Boy chirped “Want to help me carry the other boxes?”

There was a note on the first box, which I had missed earlier. It read: “For Brett & Raoul – now you can Roco on every session till the end of the year. Mad love. Whaspgel”

4 boxes later and we have enough product to keep us going till the end of the year. It involves a monthly “Basic Pack” as Whasp calls it, of the following;

One bottle for training over 60min sessions.

One bottle for recovery of sessions over 90min or meal replacement after morning swims.

My favorite pink gels. 50mg caffeine per gel. I use them on bikes over 2 hours, and runs over 1 hour. On my focussed long rides, its 1 every hour. Then the grand daddy product:

On the long rides and runs, I make sure to carry at least 2 of these for the last 2 gels of my session. The bit of protein towards the end is a huge help for me towards the end, and seems to put a bit of spark in my step. Barring that, a Green Mumba 100mg caffeine gel always lifts “the vibe”.

Want to know whats in the gels… I have a handy table format comparison chart for you…

#BOOM! now that’s music to my ears.

thanks Whasp, for the 4 x month packs. They will be done before the end of the year, I assure you. Just this morning, I cracked a gel at 70min into a 90min indoor session, polished a bottle of Naartjie AminoCarb, and smashed a serving of ProAmino Strawberry, with some Recoup in, for good measure, in the shower.

That’s how we roll around these parts.

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As the people in my close circle noticed in the last week, I have a new phone I am stuggling to put down. Nokia SA are getting involved with bloggers on a more regular basis, and I am hoping they will see value in the site and the way we are doing things for the Urban Ninja ROKThis Project and that we could add them to the roster for 2010.

So after a unsuccessful first review of another phone I had almost lost hope, but then the wonderful Olga suggested I try the new N97. I was hesitant, to say the least.

I was wrong.

This phone has been amazing. With the Nokia PC Suite, I was able to upload my contacts in 1 click, from an Excel file. With 4 clicks, my email was up and running. I have a few accounts, and they all work well on the phone. The internet is fast (3.5 HSPDA), and the best part is the desktop, which very much like the CMS which runs this website, works with Widgets. I have a twitter, facebook, email, weather widget on the desktop, so its all 1 touch access.

Oh, and its got a bigger hard drive than my first laptop 32 gigs, so I can store all my music, and use my killer Sennheiser earphones with them, so that while on the bike I can handle calls, and listen to background music, to keep the legs going.

Nokia Maps worked first time to get me to a location to drop some Kleinhoekkloof Wines to a lucky client, and all in all, its great. Battery life is about 2 days, which is great for the amount of time I use the phone, and the 5MP camera takes amazing pictures, like this one.

I`ll give it 2 more weeks and then give a full review, but if you are in the market for a phone right now, I am not saying get this one, but at least consider it.

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Considering my days are largely based around branding, triathlon and my new philanthropic venture, I thought to include a bumper edition of 5 Clicks for the day today, and leave you with 10…

1. Have you ever got stuck in a situation where a freak thunderstorm kinda ruined your vibe, mid ride? You need to have one of these. It’ll fit right into your back pocket, next to your iPod, keys and tools.

2. History is here in the 1987 Team Time trial at the Tour de France. Times have changed…

3. Sitepoint Talks about how business ethics could change your life.

4. Wikipedia lays the definition of Philanthropy out there. ROK This is going to turn the entire population of the world into small time philanthropists, acting on behalf of those who have no choices, and giving on behalf of those who do. Stay tuned…

5. Every one of you is at some sort of desk right now. Here are some innovative desk designs for you.

6. Own a business? using social media? Read this and if you need to step out of the curtain, contact Rok Media for more help at Twitter or mail info [at] rok.co.za

7. Building House? How about a house made entirely of the friendly weed? Rasta’s must be all over this idea. Especially Rural Rastas…

8. The Attention Surplus by Seth Godin

9. Vital tips for effective Logo design.

10. Remember…

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There is at least one thing Bolt and I have in common other than being proud Puma Ambassadors.

Here is me…

and this is Bolt…

Only difference is that he holds numerous world records, olympic medals and had a range of personalised clothing from Puma named after him.

But I guess he’s no Ironman. thanks Puma for keeping my head firmly on my shoulders.

Maybe when he’s in SA they`ll let me open the set before he trashes the decks. maybe…

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its been a while since I had a personal update for you guys in what I am involved in and where I am going with my life. I guess as someone who benchmarks alot, and someone who shares all this information about how I believe you should live your life, I should show that proof is in the pudding at points.

So lets have a look see (honestly) at how I`m going along…

This site had grown from 50 people its first month to 57 000 last month thanks to a wonderful sports blog who sent me 40 000 odd visitors, but the average is around 10 000 per month. Thats up from 50 visitors a month to around 400 a day. UNIQUE visitors. Its amazing to me that this keeps growing, but the proof is in the pudding I guess. Thank you for coming back all the time. Its a very humbling experience.

I wish I had more time to market, spend time writing and doing more effort for this site, but life has me real busy at the moment with the following things:

1. I started a collabo effort to create ROK, a online brand agency, which does Urban Ninja for other people – create content, update, integrate and more than anything, tell the right story for your brand. This is going very well.

2. I am coaching, and involved with more HP style athletes as we go, and my coaching platform is in the phase of expansion, to be able to offer daily emails, weekly mails, nutrition tracking, programs, etc etc… all off a custom Training Peaks metrics system.

3. I am in the process of creating a foundation called ROK This, which aims to give 5000 weeks off food, 5000 warm items of clothing and R400 000 to sustainable projects by April 25th, 2010, which is the date of Ironman SA, and also, the birthday of my amazing girl.

4. KHK Wines (our family farm) continues to show record breaking growth, and we are planning a cellar this year, as well as planting olive trees for a future range of boutique premium olive oils. We are extremely excited about this years harvest, as it was our best yet, and we look forward to the product doing really well on the market.

5. My sponsors are incredible to me. Thank you Puma, Whasp, Suunto, Rockets, Jack Black Beer, Orca and a few more who I cant talk about just yet as I am still to sign agreements with guys, but the level of involvement from people is incredible. Thank you.

6. My life is gorgeous, and I am always amazed at how blessed I am. I live in an incredible place surrounded by amazing people and I am involved in fantastic projects all around me. I have incredible friends (who I have neglected somewhat recently working 8am till 10pm) and a wonderful support structure and peer group.

let’s all raise a glass to the future. its looking bright indeed….

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click the map for a biiiiiiig view.

20/07/2009

Suunto is a proud partner of the Red Bull X-Alps 2009, which is the non-stop hiking and paragliding race. The race kicked off this past Sunday, July 19, from Salzburg and will go on day and night until the first participant reaches the Mediterranean Sea in Monte Carlo. See the route on map.

The intensity, the danger, the competition all add up to make this one of the most unique and inspiring adventures yet seen.

Pierre Carter is South Africa’s sole entrant, and seconded by James Braid is currently lying 18th out of 30 teams. Let’s give him some support and drop a line or two on his Guestbook on the site. Details below

Follow the race on www.redbullxalps.com as well as check out the Live Tracking and RSS feeds from the Red Bull X-Alps on the Outdoor World.

If you want to know more about Red Bull X-Alps, go to www.suunto.com/xalps and watch the Red Bull X-Alps trailer on Suunto TV.

Go saffa!

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hello guys and girls. another cracking weekend in Cape Town saw the first From Monday workshop go down, as well as my first weekend of structured training.

why structured training I hear?

well, I have accepted a major challenge, and its for the greater good as well as for a bit of mental extremity. In an effort to grow and accept and take what comes, I have gained entry to some incredible races early next year, and aim to race 4 extreme races in the space of 4 months. they are:

1. Totalsports Challenge

2. sani2c

3. Cape Epic

4. Ironman South Africa

Just the entry for Epic is amazing, as the worlds toughest stage race, and a waiting queue of about 1000 people to get in, the fact that I got an entry is amazing.

BUT, there is more. In order to raise R100 000 for street girls…. YES, you heard me right. I want to raise R100 000 for a wonderful home in Cape Town called Ons Plek, which takes girls off the street, rehabs them, returns them to a life of meaning, and does this process over and over again.

I can only do this by racing all these races, as I am going in with a “sponsor 1km of my journey” campaign launching in about 8 weeks. I have entries, but here is where you come in.

I need sponsors to help cover the expenses to do the 4 races. The expenses are considerable. I believe not only does this website offer a worthy channel to advertise on, which all sponsors will receive, but I believe that with my partner for the MTB challenges, Brett Chilcott, that we can get some good TV time, and break the R100 000 barrier in funds.

Would you sponsor me? Do you know of anyone who wants to be involved with over 8000 people on a regular basis. This month, I have had over 52 000 unique visitors to this website. That is more than Runners World, Bicycling, Triathlete Magazine, Go-Multi and MSM magazine together.

I am asking for very little in real terms, if you look at those numbers. I am not asking you to support someone random. You read this blog, you get value from it, and you know that I offer a service of integrity, honesty, and a real return.

Dont believe me? Look at the list of people in my sidebar who already believe in this concept.

my proposal is attached ons-plek_urban-ninja-2009-2010-proposal here to have a look through at who is already involved, and to see what I am offering.

Any help will be hugely appreciated.

This blog has gone from zero to 2nd best Sports blog in South Africa. 3rd best Original Writing blog in South Africa, in the space of 12 months. Zero to 52 000 readers in 12 months.

This is the next phase in this incredible journey.

Can you help me?

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The Goddaughters father called today. A special beast that boy. He has entered us into a bowling tournament, all in the name of charity. Heart warming. Really.

But this ain’t no ordinary tournament… some of you may have heard of the term Movember. For a quick recap to the uninformed – Click HERE (more…)

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What do you mean whats From The Couch ? You haven’t been there? click HERE people and wake up!

From The Couch is the brainchild of two of the most enthusiastic people I know. They are the brothers Couch, or Marc and David Perel to the rest of us. In their own words…

“We own a Web company based in Cape Town, South Africa and have great passion and opinions for the things we love most… The Web, Motorsport and Cycling. This is our personal Video blog.

On this blog we will chat about any topics that come to our mind (although the above mentioned will be our main focus). We won’t always be right and I bet the majority of the time you won’t agree but that is the awesomeness of this site. We hope you get involved and interact with us on a daily basis.

Expect a video at least once a week with bonus snippets along the way. We also plan to have focussed weekends when there are F1 and Cycling events.”

Right on. (more…)

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