so the weekend looms just ahead of us now. in merely a few hours time, you will in all likelihood have around 50 hours to what you want, and how you want to do it.

I am running leg 1 in the Houtbay Trail Challenge tomorrow for team Mens Health, hoping to defend a record they set last year. I hope to not let them down and hope to follow some top guys on the first leg. Puma have come to the party with some magic Usain Bolt gear for us too. That’s about 20seconds right there. I am looking forward to powering up the hill at a conservative effort. Thank goodness for a Suunto HRM and a Suunto Footpod to help make the journey that much easier and easier to judge on effort as well. I am so lucky when it comes to sponsors.

Then in the afternoon, I am going to veg out on the couch and watch the tour guys go up this climb…

for Capetonians, relatively speaking, its from the waterfront, to the top of Table Mountain, only twice as HIGH, in 22km.

for the Jozi folks, its Jozi to Midrand, and roughly as high as the clouds. Not the smog, the clouds. Yes, look a little higher. well done.

for Durbanites…. never mind.

If you want to see why the guys go so fast up the climb, apparently they let a rabbit loose up the climb about 30min before they get there. it looks like this (NOTE: This picture is not safe for work, or kids). K – enough of that.

Seriously though, 1700m odd climbing in 22km is a seriaaaaaas effort. there is so much to be decided on there.

After this excitement, where a few Jack Black Beers will undoubtedly flow, we are off to the land of the white loafer for The Housemate’s birthday. Copious amounts of Kleinhoekkloof Wines will be consumed, in honor of him being such a legend.

I do aim to ride on Sunday morning, as the weather will be great, I just know it. Seriously – how power has this weather been in Slaapstad lately? best kept secret of Cape Town is winter. Now that I am training for our Epic Challenge, I need to get the long rides in, sooner than later. Gotta loose some weight, gain some power, and rock the house.

If you haven’t got a challenge in your life right now, get one. Take the leap. Employ yourself and make sure you are reaching beyond what you think you can do, so that you can learn that there are no limits.

and remember to smile, while you are at it.

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this, from Science of Sport…

The 150m dissected – splits and projections

Bolt’s running is anything but lead-footed. He ran the first 100m in 9.90 seconds, which is an extra-ordinary time and a sign of things to come. But even more amazing, the final 100m (from 50m to the finish line) were clocked in an astonishing 8.72 seconds! That is being reported, though it’s so fast I’m almost sceptical. The splits, as recorded during the race, were:

* 50m – 5.64s (this compares to 5.50s in Beijing, by the way)
* 100m – 9.90s (a split of 4.26 s. In Beijing last year, Bolt’s last 50m of his 100m was 4.19s, including the infamous celebrations)
* 150 – 14.35s (split of 4.45 s)

I have tried hard to find the analysis we did on Usain Bolt’s 200m win in Beijing, because I am almost certain we looked at his splits from that race, but unfortunately I can’t seem to find the post in question. However, I’m pretty sure his last 100m was not as quick as 8.72 seconds (it would mean his first 100m took 10.58 seconds, which is much too slow). But the last 100m can be misleading because of the different race distances, and so to me, the first 100m in 9.90 secs is more intriguing, because few others have produced that form so early in the season.

Bolt has said he can take the record down to 9.4 seconds – it’s not exactly unusual for guys (especially sprinters) to make predictions about themselves (every sprinter worth his salt knocks a tenth of his time in order to hype himself up), but Bolt certainly has a lot to live up to, with hype and attention that has rarely been given to a track and field athlete.

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For obvious reasons, all my sports passion gets truely satisfied with the Olympics. I am a big supporter of putting in the effort and coming out with the result. The Olympics are a real testament to the human spirit, and if you are not convinced, I urge you to watch the Paralympics, which is my true favorite.

The father of my godchild and true legend Brett once told me about plants (he has an affinity for them) : “It wants to live” and when it comes to Paralympics its a true testament to being human beings and not human doings. I grew up with a best friend who only had use of his one arm after a nasty car accident and the one thing he taught me was that he was normal and that there was nothing different about him. In fact, until we were 8 years old, he outswam, outbiked, out treeclimbed and outate me on every occasion, with ONE arm. (more…)

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Puma was kind enough to donate me a replacement for my standard laptopbag. A laptopbag says quite alot about a person dont you think? This new one sparks of creativity with classic inserts of wood and just gives you an idea of the style king the owner must be. Now if you believe that, you`ll believe anything.

Ok lets look at this angelic new toy…

(more…)

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