Has or Have and Was or Were, not always sure!

One of my friends mentioned to me that he enjoy my posts but as he calls it, he can see I'm a "Dutchman" due to my Grammar that is not good. "Dutchman" being the word use in South Africa to describe "Afrikaans" people.

Let me first say why I post in English if Afrikaans is my home language and then I'll give you some back ground on why my English is not the best there is.

Obviously when writing in English it is possible for many people to enjoy my blog entries. If I write all my stories in Afrikaans it will only be my mother and a handful of people that will be able to understand what I write. I would also not have met all these people that became my friends by blogging. I have become friends with really awesome people and reading there blogs and getting feedback from them is amazing.

As I said in the past, meeting someone like Bryan Payne, who has become a really good friend and feeling connected to him wouldn't have been possible.

Then there is also people like Dana Rucker and Nina Jack, with whom we stayed in LA that wouldn't have happened if I wasn't using English on Twitter.

And I always strive to improve in whatever I do. By writing in English I believe my English will improve over the years to come.

Now why is my English and particular my grammar not the best there is?

You see I grew up in a town called Pietersburg which is in the northern part of South Africa and is also a very conservative part of the country mainly farming community. Most of the residents back then if not all were speaking Afrikaans.

As we would refer to English back then as "the Enemies language" it was only spoken in school during the once a day English class. Even the Asian and Indian people who owned shops in Pietersburg quickly learned to speak Afrikaans if they wanted their business to survive.

We saw English as a subject in school and not as a language we were busy learning. There was no difference between English and Science. You did your homework, spoke it in class and that was it until tomorrows class.

Even the schools in Pietersburg was overwhelming Afrikaans schools. There were six Afrikaans Primary schools versus one English school and four Afrikaans High schools versus one English High school.

I can remember when we were children my parents had to translate some parts of the odd English program we were watching as we didn't understand all the words. 99% of the TV programs we watched were Afrikaans.

It was only when I went to Pretoria to study further that I had to use English more often in class and when I started working I had to use English to sell cars to English customers. I can remember some English people looking at me funny when I explained some vehicle stuff to them, but I became a good salesman even selling in English.

Two mishaps I'll never forget was once telling a customer which lever is his "flicker", actually it was the indicator but in Afrikaans we call it a "Flikker". And to another I said your car is on it's way from the "Fabric" actually it was suppose to be the "Factory" but in Afrikaans it is called a "Fabriek".

But never the less I made it through my studies and became a successful businessmen even when I'm not the best English speaking person there is.

Luckily one learn from your mistakes and I do whatever I can to help DJ, my daughter, while she is young to be better at English than her father. She has English friends, watch a lot of English programs on TV and listen to a lot of English music and reading English books. She will often joke with me and say "My Father have been speaking English deliciously since he was twice" and would crack herself for her joke about her Dad

Well there you have it, so forgive me if my grammar is not of the best but at least you can be part of my life and understand it.

DJ's Birthday Bash with a Bang

Dejone was so excited to finally have her birthday party today after a whole week of planning and organizing. She invited eight of her friends and when they heard it's gonna be an Ice Skating party everyone accepted the invite.
Kim spoke to all the parents during the week and assured them that we will be extra careful and my sister and mother are going with so there will be enough supervision. One can understand how parents feel especially with us driving 100 odd kilometers to Pretoria where the Ice Rink is.

Very early this morning DJ were out and put some balloons on our front gate if someone can't find the house. I was just laughing as she prepared everything together with Kim. There was a snack pack for the road trip for every child and they made a whole bunch of Hot Dogs for the road trip. Not to mention all the chips and cool drinks that were packed.

We stopped at a Petrol Port halfway to Pretoria for a comfort break and enjoying some snacks.

When we arrived at the Mall the energy levels and excitement were awesome. The children's eyes were just glittering and the could not contain themselves. We met the guy who booked the party and he gave us all the tickets for the skating. Must say it was easier than I thought sorting out the children with skates and it was not long before everybody was ready to start with the fun.

Below is me helping DJ getting her skates ready.

Of the nine children only two have ever been on ice before. Living in a country which doesn't have snow during the winter and in a city which doesn't have an ice rink it is understandable.

One thing that I noticed immediately is that now matter if you're a child or adult, you will always get people that wants to take on a challenge and then there are those who give up so easily. One or two just gave up immediately and quit when they couldn't get it right. Others just kept on going and falling until they could maneuvered themselves around the rink.

Gerhard, my sister and mother keeping a close eye on the children.
Kim was watching from the side and I was "helping" and keeping a close eye on the children while being on the rink. Kim said to me it is not necessary to be on the ice I can watch from the side but I guess I just wanted an excuse to be a kid for the day and play on the ice. These words from Kim would bite me later the day. It was when I was on the rink watching the children that the ice got the better of me. But what do expect if you haven't been on ice in thirty years, but more on that later.

The host from the Restaurant who organized everything was super and everything was 100%. The children enjoyed themselves so much and at one stage I was looking at the family sitting behind them and I felt sorry for them. You could see the guy just wanted to have a relaxing time with his wife and two children but our group weren't making it easy for him. They did not misbehave, they were just enjoying themselves and were a bit loud.

I just decided to leave then and let them have fun, why not is a party.

When we were done at the Mall we continued the party at our house. They were playing so rough in the pool that my mother said it felt like she was living under a waterfall with her flat being a level below the swimming pool. During the week I cranked the pools heater up to 32c, and as one child said while they were swimming "this feels like bathtub water".

I wanted to get the Jacuzzi ready during the week but decided against it, as it would have just spelled trouble with nine, 11 year old playing in a hot tub and I was scared how some children would react to very hot water. Don't want parents phoning me with complaints about sick children.

Dejone really had fun and you could see that it was one of those days that she was just relaxing and enjoying herself.
Now for the part which wasn't so much fun. As I was skating or trying to and moving around the rink to see if all the children are OK, I was building up the confidence and was improving a lot. Later on I was skating really fast and my confidence was at a very high level. I was just about to give the current figure world champion, Kim Yu-Na a call to see if she is not looking for a new partner when I was brought back to reality and brought back fast. Before I knew it I was down and almost out. A youngster came to help me and he said he was skating past me when he just suddenly heard this bang. Funny how you instinctively feel where it hurts and then I saw my whole hand was just covered in blood.

He helped me upright and took me to the medical room at the rink. Luckily they have one. The girl put a bandage on and said she thinks I need some stitches.

I didn't want to spoil DJ's party and let them continue, although I didn't go on the ice again. As soon as I felt better and could walk without looking like a guy who's been in a bar fight I walked to the pharmacy and ask the assistant to give me some antiseptic stuff and a bigger bandage.

Kim helped me in the restaurants restroom and we continued the party. I must say I was taking strain and it was really difficult to put up a smile and pretend that everything was fine.

When we arrived home I just helped getting the things ready for the kids to continue and I headed off to the Emergency section of the Hospital. Luckily I decided not to drink any alcohol as I was driving other kids around. I could see the medical staff was quite blunt when I arrived.

Probably thought I was this drunk guy who's been in a fight. I could see the doctor that saw me was not really convinced about my story. Only after talking to him for a while explaining what I do and telling him about me doing Ironman racing I could see that he was believing me and realized that I am not your average guy coming for stitches every now and again.

The doctor could not believe it when I told him that this is the first ever stitches I am getting in my life apart from my knee operation. I also gained new respect for boxers, I only had I cut and a bruise, man it must hurt if you look at those guys with there whole face full of cuts and bruises.

Must say after the Hospital staff saw that I was not your average bad guy all the staff at the Hospital were very good, from the receptionist, nurses to the doctor. The nurses and Doctor kept telling me what they are doing or what they are about to do. They also took some X-rays to see if there wasn't any other damage.

Luckily I am still in my off season for a week and don't think the cut will affect my training that much. Just thankful that it wasn't more serious. Apart from the headache and Kim giving me the "I told you so" speeches I am fine.

Happy and Sad

Today's is Dejone's birthday and it is a happy and a sad day. I guess it is going to be like this for the rest of my life and unfortunately there is nothing DJ can do about it. Dejone and my father shares there birthdays and up to 2005 it was awesome but since my father died in 2006 it is with mixed emotions that we face 25 November. On the one side we can't spoil DJ day and we owe it to her and want to give her a birthday to remember but in the back of my mind I wonder how it would have been with my father still around before Alzheimer disease ripped him away from us.


Dejone gave us special instructions yesterday of how she wants the day to begin. Listening to her yesterday I could see her great grandmothers German blood coming through. She wanted to be woken up at 5h45 as this would give her 15 minutes to enjoy her birthday before her normal 6am rise and shine.


She also wanted her breakfast cereal and a cup of tea. She gave us all these precise instructions. I picked two flowers from the garden to decorate the tray with her breakfast on just to make it a little lady like. When we woke her up I could see that she was already awake but she acted if she was still sleeping. Tonight she admitted to me that when we approached her room she heard us and woke up but didn't want to spoil it for us.


The whole family greeted her, my mother, sister, sisters fiance, brother in law and me and Kim. I can see that she is changing from a little girl to a little lady just by looking at her gifts. Gone are the dolls and toys, she wanted lady stuff. She got a hair dryer, manicure and pedicure set and all these beauty treatment things.


My sister, who is an art teacher, and needless to say always comes up with very creative gifts made DJ a family tree with all the family pictures from her great grand parents to all her cousins with the history on the back of the piece. Kim was so impressed with it she convinced DJ to hang it at the entrance to our living room and not in her room.
With DJ having her birthday party on Saturday we decided to take her to a local restaurant and just have a quick birthday celebration dinner without any big fancy arrangements. We are taking DJ and 8 of her friends to Pretoria ( about 100km's from Witbank) where she will have her birthday party at a shopping mall where there is an ice rink. The Ice rink have this package whereby the kids can enjoy themselves on the ice and have a birthday party at a restaurant afterwards.
She is really looking forward to it and I think we are in for a real fun day as most of the kids, including Dejone haven't been on Ice before.

On another happy note my brother in law, who's been retrenched by the security company he works for and was suppose to finish end November, was re employed by the new security company that is taking the contract over. The business where he is working is so happy with him that they asked the security company, that is taking over, to employ him so that they can keep him at the business. We are all so happy for him.

Planter Fasciitis is back

As a rule I don't complain about my injuries as I see it as part of the job. There is a saying that says "whatever sport you do, every sport has its injuries". I also don't like to complain about a injury as I've seen so many times in the past that people suddenly develop an injury if they don't perform well or didn't prepare well enough and want to blame it on an injury and jump on the empathy wagon.

Well I am not wanting any sympathy but my injury is back and what I don't understand is that it is in my "off season". I had Planter Fasciitis in my left foot at the beginning of the year and it was treated by Dr Philda de Jager who is based at the University of Pretoria's High performance institute. She also helped me with my ITB injury and assisted the specialist with the operation.

During the week leading up to Kona I suddenly had this pain at the bottom of my foot when I wake up in the morning and I knew it was Planter Fasciitis. I immediately took the corrective actions which I was told to do by Dr during the previous injury. It bothered me the whole week but I managed to complete the race.

The funny thing about it is that it will be so tender and sore when you wake up but as soon as you start moving and after cycling for five hours I won't feel it on the run.

Well since Kona it is becoming worse and at this stage I struggle to run and when I do, my whole running style is crooked and I can barely walk afterwards. I am scared of getting another injury as I am now running on the side of my foot not to land on my heel. Here is a link to exactly what is the cause and all the symptoms. http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/front/foot/plantarfaciitis.htm

I decided today to phone Dr. Philda and let her have a look. I should have done this long ago but I thought by strapping it, taking anti inflammatory pills and keeping the foot straight while you sleep ( yup sleeping with a shoe) will sort it out but I was wrong. She can only see me next week Tuesday but I will rather wait a week than to go and see another Doctor. She specialize in sport injuries and work with athletes everyday.

For the mean time I will continue with the home treatment and concentrate on swimming and cycling. Maybe it's a good time to work on my swim technique. I can kick myself that I didn't go earlier as my training for IMSA starts 7 December and it is really bad to start your training block with an injury, just so demotivating.

On a positive but surprising note I got a phone call today when I was driving back home after work from the community radio station of the east rand. That is the eastern part of Johannesburg. It is called East Rand Radio. They have a sport show every afternoon and wanted to interview me on radio about my Kona experience. Think they are running out of people to interview if they want to chat to me.

I was so surprised and didn't know what to say, so I told the interviewer I am busy at the moment but he can call me tomorrow. He said no problem he will chat to me tomorrow about Ironman and my world championship experience. After I put the phone down I thought about it and really can't think of anything to say about the sport that has now become my life style. Hopefully I can think of some logical things to say that makes sense.

Dejone is also getting so excited about her birthday on Wednesday. She keeps asking me what is she getting as a present. I keep telling her that Hawaii was her present. I can see that she doesn't know if I am serious or just pulling her leg. We are taking her and some of her friends to Pretoria on Saturday for her Birthday party. There is an Ice rink and it is something she really wants to do. They have a package where you eat at a local restaurant in the mall and then have some fun on the ice. Think they will enjoy it.

Muddy Mountain Bike Race Report

After a boring week this week all changed today with my first ever mountain bike race. To say it was muddy is an understatement. I am not sure if the conditions for all mountain bike races are like this one but with the weeks constant rain it was one big mud hole.

The route was shortened to 26km due to the river being impossible to cross with a bike, think it would have been impossible to cross it without a bike. I must take my hat of to the local bike club who organized the race. They had to change the route three times during the week because of the rain and they even had to build a bridge of over ten meters to make it possible to cross the river at one point. The route was also very clearly marked without any hick ups finding your way.

Well I must say I haven't had so much fun in a long time. Being in my off season and not training everyday I just went out to have fun and didn't have the pressure of doing an Ironman on me. There were 92 competitors for the 26km race and 32 for the double loop 52km race. I am so glad I didn't do the 52km race, as my back wouldn't have made it. Funny my legs didn't feel any strain but not being used to a mountain bike my back was really hurting in the last 5km.

We started about ten minutes after the long distance race and for the first kilometer or two we were three guys riding in the front. I stuck to the back of the two and just rode along. Going over the first hill, we encountered one of many downhill sections. Luckily I rode this part of the course last week and knew what to expect. I passed the two guys and stayed in front for the next ten kilometers. One of the guys dropped back but the other was staying about 100 meters behind me all the time.

That's when my off season lack of fitness kicked in and the guy passed me after the ten kilometer mark. I tried staying with him but my heart rate was touching the 180's and I had to remind myself that this is a fun race, I don't need to be so competitive. From then on I raced hard but stuck to my own rhythm and enjoyed the race.

I stayed in second position for the rest of the race with three guys chasing me but they could not catch me. When we were hitting the technical sections they will close the cap but when we hit the hills or the long downhills I will pull away.

The photo at the top was taken before the race, clean and dry. Luckily I didn't take the camera along as I don't think it would have worked after the race, everything was just wet and full of mud.

Doing so well in my first mountain bike race was really a surprise to me and I even received R200 for my second place at prize giving. The prize giving was great and with the Highveld Mall, the local shopping centre sponsoring the race there was a lot of prizes and lucky draws. It is really great having so many prizes for a local bike race.

Must say mountain biking is just the opposite to sitting in the aero position on my TT bike doing an Ironman. With an Ironman you find your rhythm and you then just stick to your heart rate and power wattage limits. With mountain biking there is no rhythm and you change speed, position and gears all the time. Another thing I also learned today is never to wear my lucky Thumb ring when doing a mountain bike race. When I race an Ironman I am in the aero position all of the time. My thumb didn't appreciate me hanging onto the handle bars and with all the bumps I have a nice blister on the inside of my thumb at the joint.

Well done to Jacques (@trijackal) son, @weaselattack who won the under 14 category and he is only 11. Well done Wessel.

Results will be available tomorrow at: http://www.spectrumsport.co.za/Highveld_Mall_MTB_20091122.pdf

Ps: And luckily I didn't fall today, but had some close moments

Race Detail:
Distance: 26km
Time:1h18
Heart rate: 165 bpm ave
Calories: 1682 kCal
Speed: 20.3km/h ave

Rain and some more Rain

Today I received a parcel and as I am waiting for three parcels I was really excited to see which one it was. I was hoping it was the prize I won on Twitter from Polar, for the person who sends a pictures of their Polar watch displaying the most calories.

Luckily for me I don't think a lot of people saw the tweet and I won with 837 000 calories on my S625x. At first I did send a picture of my RS800CX but having it only for a year I wasn't one of the leaders. Then I remembered about my S625X that I used before and I took the lead and the person getting the closest was at 600 000 sometime calories. I still don't know what I've won and although I could have ask them what the prize is, I purposely didn't ask, creating this surprise element.

Instead it was my Mark Allen Online Tri Top in the right colours that arrived. When I received my top to participate in Kona, a communication error occurred between me, MAO and Kiwami the Tri top suppliers and mine was Black, Yellow and Red instead of the customary Blue and White colours.

In Kona I did mention it to Andre, owner of Kiwami at the MAO breakfast meeting and he apologised for it and said he will send me the right top. I forgot about this and only remembered about it three week ago. I was really surprised when it arrived today. There was even a hand written note from Andre apologizing for the miscommunication and congratulating me on my race in Kona.

It is little things like this that make me believe in a product and sticking to it.

Now I can race Ironman70.3 South Africa in January in my new race top.

Apart from the excitement of the race top arriving it was a boring week with not much happening. The only thing that was very constant and persistent this week was the rain. It has been four days now of non stop raining. The weather bureau says it will start clearing up on Sunday. Hope they are right as I am doing my first ever Mountain Bike race on Sunday.

Everybody is talking about the funny weather we're having in the middle of summer. It feels like winter is back and temperatures were in single digits for most of the mornings. It was wet and windy most of the week. Luckily I am in my off season as it would have been a real challenge to bike 6 hours or run 3 hours in this weather during the weekend.

I think it is going to be a real mud bath with all the rain. Luckily I am just doing it for fun and only entered the 35km race. According to the route map there are two river crossing but I hear that they might change the route as it will be impossible to cross the river after the weeks rain.

Hopefully I can survive the race without breaking any bones. Will post a "race report" on Sunday.

Two more Lessons

Not long ago I posted 10 Lessons from Kona on things I'll do differently or change somewhat. Not long after the post I realized that I missed 1 very important lesson.

Lesson 11

What ever nutrition you use and train with, make sure you have them available on race day. During the bike part of an Ironman race I trained to use Mars bars as part of my nutrition to fuel me. I didn't know that Mars bars was not something you get in the US and therefor I didn't take a lot of them with me. Only in Kona I realized that I will need to make another plan as I could not find any.

Luckily Bryan Payne helped me and notified me that Milky Way is the "Mars Bar" of the US. Although it didn't taste the same it did the job on race day.

So remember to never assume and take ALL your nutrition with you if you race in a foreign country.

Lesson 12

Well this is not really a lesson in general and will probably not be applicable to you all, only to someone who Blog, Tweet and Phone his family a lot while he is in a foreign country and is on Roaming rates.

I did mention when I was in Kona that my cell phone company phoned me and gave me a wake up call on my international roaming bill that was climbing at the speed of light.

Well NOTHING prepared me for the bill I received yesterday. Apart from my normal mobile phone expense, which is high due to the nature of my business, there is an additional R9726 ($1300) for roaming. I knew it was going to be high but never thought it will be that high.

Three weeks abroad and what do you expect. I don't even want to think about what I could have done with the money but that's the price you pay for keeping in contact with your friends when you are not in your home country.

So lesson number 12, decide before you travel abroad if you want to stay connected and pay the price or be "off the air" for the entire trip and maybe buy $1300 worth of Tri gear.

Apart from the Mobile shock this week, I am slowly getting back into the groove and are now really itching to get back into "full time" training. So far I've only been keeping myself busy but I feel that I need to and want to start training again twice a day.

At first there was no intention to train, then the mind wanted to train but the body said no way. Now the mind is really getting irritated and anxious to get going and the body says OK lets go.

I guess this is a sign that I've recovered and are ready. My official training for Ironman South Africa starts on the 7th of December and I think I will slowly start increasing the training to be ready and motivated to go 100% comes 7 December.

Today's training:

Run: 35 min, 7.2km, 142 bpm, 559kcal

Bike 1h15, 40km, 130 bpm, 1046kcal

So proud of my Girl

This past week was one hectic week with a lot of meetings and functions. We had functions on three nights and I stopped counting all the meetings during the day. It seems that everybody wants to be finished with their meetings and year end functions before mid November.


Last night we attended the Revue group year end concert and Dejone performed four items. She is really a good dancer and so many people complimented her after the concert. It seems that when she goes on stage she transforms from this little girl into this super focused dancer. I particular like the Latin dance she did (photo above). The group dance routine (photo below) achieved 95% at the city school competition earlier this year and it is the first time in the schools history that a dance group receives a Diploma.


She must have her mothers talent as I can't dance to safe my life. Give me a few beers and I think I am the best dancer on the floor but dancing competition, no way. She also must have her mothers brains as she received Academic honorary colours when we attended the Schools Gala event on Thursday. This is the event where I, as chairperson of the school governing body deliver my year end speech.

During Thursday night we had a big thunder storm and Murphy's law, just before I had to deliver my speech there was a power failure. Luckily I've learned over the years when giving talks I memories bullet points and then I talk from the heart about these points. I delivered my speech in a pitch black hall only with some candles burning as decor. And as it turned out the power was restored minutes after I finished.


I am getting slowly back into my training routine and I love every minute of it. I can't believe I am saying it but it is so nice getting up at 4am again going to swim, bike or run. The new gym is really amazing and it is so nice swimming just after 4 and you don't freeze when you get into the pool. My swimming is going well and I thought that I will be struggling to get back into it but is has been good so far. I even thought of measuring the new pool as my times are equal or faster than before Kona, maybe it's the rest and recover.



I tried some Piyo ( a combination of Pilates and Yoga) at the gym today. This was the first time ever I have tried any form of Pilates or Yoga and I am definitely planning on doing more Pilates, Yoga and Piyo in future. Don't know how I have managed 4 Ironmans so far with this super stiff body.


I realized today why I am Ironman athlete and not a mountain biker, because you don't fall that often on your TT bike than on a MTB. Next weekend the local cycling club is having a mountain bike race and I decided to take my mountain out for a ride just to get into the groove. I don't know why I have a mountain bike as I only have done 1 off road Triathlon. Guess I am a Triathlon roadie as all my training is done on my TT bike.


It's amazing I have done more than 14 000 km on my TT bikes since I have my Power Tap and have never fallen. Actually I have never had a fall with a bike apart from the beginners lessons where you forget to take your foot out of the pedal when you stop. Well today I have done 30km on the mountain bike and yes I took a tumble. I was slowing down as I was going over some rocks and when I wanted to take my foot out of the pedal it was to late and down I went. Luckily it was at slow speed and one thing I learned from Judo which I did for a long time is you learn how to fall. Never stick out an arm and use your body to roll. I only have some minor rash on the side a fell on.


A BIG shout out to Bryan http://www.trainingpayne.blogspot.com/ who is busy doing Ironman70.3 Worlds as I am writing this post. Bryan commented earlier this week that we are in parallel universes as we experience a lot of the same "things" at the same time. It's funny and something I can't describe but I really feel connected to Bryan and we have never met. I just have this feeling since Friday that things are going to be good. Up to Friday I had this terrible time during the week but I feel super confident that he will just go out and have a super time.


A big shout out to Warren http://www.pastorwarrengraham.blogspot.com/ who is doing the Momentum 94.7 cycle race tomorrow. This race is the second biggest in South Africa and attract almost 20 000 cyclist. Warren has really worked hard having a little set back earlier this year and I am confident that he will just do great.


Robby http://www.robbyricc.blogspot.com/ is also doing the 94.7 and he is raising money for charity. Well done Robby I am looking up to you for your commitment and dedication in helping others.

Thanks for the Lift, Robby

For the past week and in particular today I am having some issues to deal with and going through a bit of a ruff time. What is also not helping is the fact that my formal Ironman Training for Ironman South Africa only starts on the 7th of December and I am not very good at just keeping myself busy. I need to have a target race to train for or else my training feels as if it is without purpose.

It is also not easy and very stressful to change careers after working for the same corporate company for 16 years. Working for an independent dealer and having shares in a company is nice but very stressful, especially if it is a motor dealer. The motor industry is taking a big strain currently.

Then we also got the news yesterday day my Brother-in-Law, who is living with us, is being retrenched at the end of the month. He is a security officer and the company he works for lost there contract at the company where he is on duty. They said to him that they will try and accommodate him at another location but they can't promise anything.

As I was busy dealing with all these issues I received a message from Robby Ricc http://www.robbyricc.blogspot.com/today to say he posted something about me on his blog.

It is amazing how things work and while I was reading the post it gave me this lift that I can describe. I am so humbled about all the kind words that Robby posted. Personally I think I am just another Ironman athlete who try to balance my work, family, training and personal life to the best of my ability but I am happy to be an inspiration to others.

What is amazing is that if you read Robby's blog you will see that he himself is a very special person being involved in a lot of things, one thereof is raising money for different charity organizations.

Thank you Robby for the post, you don't know how much it means to me and thank you for giving me a moral boost today.

What a Difference

We joined the new gym yesterday and used the facilities today. For those who haven't read my previous posts here's just a short background.

Witbank only had one Gym for I don't know how long and lately the quality of the gym has really gone backwards. Even the "heated " swimming pool was not heated any more and I had to join another gym in the city where I work just to be able to swim in winter.

We are now well into summer and the swimming pool is still 17c. When I was there on Thursday they didn't even play music and it was dead quite while I did my weight session.

Last month a new gym opened in town and it is part of a nationwide franchise group. At first I thought I will stick with the current gym but it just became unpleasant to swim or train and I believe as soon as you don't enjoy what you do you might just stop doing it. I am definitely not going to stop swimming and therefor I had to join the new gym as the old gym don't seem to be upgrading their facility.

Yesterday after work we went down to the gym and asked for a tour to see what it looks like. I convinced Kim to come along and see if she wants to join. She is not a training freak like me and do some sort of activity but don't like the whole gym set up with Big guys staring at you while you try getting into shape. The new gym have a separate facility which is a women's only area. The area is totally secluded and no one can look from the outside into this area.

This convinced Kim and she was happy.

I could not think of going back to the old gym after I saw the excellent facilities at the new gym. Everything is world class. They have an indoor running track, which Dejone ran on this morning while I swam. The pool is 28c and there is an alarm that will be activated at head office if the water temperature drop by more than 2c. They have back up generators if they have a power failure and massive back up water tanks if there is a water problem.

Everything was just world class. They even have Pilate's and Yoga classes five times a week, which I will definitely make use of to improve my core strength and my flexibility.

Even the opening hours is something you can't complain about. They are open from 3am until 10:30pm. No more days where I can't swim because the gym is closed. And the best part is it is cheaper at the new gym than what it was costing me at the previous two gyms. They even have a special scheme with the medical aid company I am a member of whereby you get discount if you attend more than 10 times during a month.

It is amazing how a new gym and a pool of which the water is not freezing can give me new motivation. Although I am in my off season and just keeping myself busy until beginning of December when my Ironman training officially starts, it just gives me this sparkle to enjoy training again.

I am also still sticking to my weight loss challenge but it is difficult with all the year end functions where I try to nibble and eat the minimum. Not training 20+ hours a week is also not helping. One only realize in the off season how much one can actually eat when you train that many hours. Up to date I have lost 2.5 kilograms in two weeks and still need to loose just more than seven kilogramsto get into race shape.

The weeks training( or actually just keeping myself busy):
Swim: 1.5km
Bike: 58 km
Run: 19.1 km
Gym: 1 session
Total: 4h30, 78.6 km, 3653 Kcal

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Kona 09 the Tri-Stemmet experience Here's the video of my experience at the Ironman World Championships in Kona. Hopefully I can improve my video making as my Triathlons, being my first video. Enjoy Watch the video and leave a comment!
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2010 Race Schedule

This week I entered Ironman 70.3 South Africa which is on the 17th of January 2010. This will be a "B" race as part of my preparation for Ironman South Africa. I thought I can enter closer to the race date but then I saw the closing date is already the 8th of November, so I had to enter.

I decided to plan my 2010 season as in the past I did whatever race whenever I feel like doing it in my build up towards Ironman SA. I decide to plan next year more carefully if I want to do well at IMSA. Therefor I decided to plot down the races I want to do and plan my training around it.

My first race for 2010 and in my new age group (40-44) will be Ironman70.3 South Africa on 17 January 2010. This is the only official Ironman70.3 in South Africa and attracts a big field even with the bike course being very challenging.

The next race will be the Prestige Half Ironman on the 21st of February 2010. This race has always been my measuring race whereby I measure my readiness for IMSA. In the past this race was one month before IMSA but this year IMSA is three weeks later than last year and the Prestige Half Ironman is almost two weeks earlier making it two months between the two.

Just three days after the Prestige Half Ironman is the Panorama Primary School 10km Night Race. The timing is not perfect but this is the night race my previous employee's been sponsoring for ten years now. This is a really challenging route with a lot of hills as it runs through our neighbourhood. I have been involved (planning, sponsoring and racing) in this race since it's started.

My last race before IMSA will be the South African Triathlon Championship on the 21st of March. This is an Olympic distance race. I decided to do this race because of the big cap between the Prestige Half Ironman and IMSA. Being an Olympic Distance event (1.5 km swim, 40 km bike, 10 km run) this will bump up my fitness just before IMSA.

Ironman South Africa is on the 25th of April this year. This will be my last race for the first half of 2010 and it all depends on how I perform on the day. Whatever happen at IMSA I will then plan the rest of 2010 after the race. If I qualify for Kona I will then work towards Kona but if I don't qualify I will take a break and switch to the Duathlon season which is during our winter.

This year I didn't participate in any Duathlon races as I prepared for Kona.

It's been now one week since I started with my challenge to loose weight. I only lost 1.5kg but I think I will start losing more weight this week as I get a bit more active. I have only done 30km of running and the one swim session this week. I will get on the bike this week and also start with some gym session.

I went for a swim at the local gym on Friday afternoon and did 1km in just under 19 minutes. It was better than I expected with me not swimming for three weeks. The only problem was the water was 18c. This is the gym I avoided during the winter as the heater didn't work properly and the water was 13c at one stage. We are now well into summer and they still struggle to get the water to an acceptable temperature.

With the new gym in town that opened last week I am thinking of joining it this week. The only problem I see if I join the new gym is that according to their website they only open at 5am. The sales rep could not tell me for certain if this is going to be the official opening time as they are open 24 hours during the first month to get a feel of what time suits the people best as a lot of people work shifts in Witbank ( Mining community)

I can swim at the gym in the city I work in but I don't like driving 100 kilometers back home after I am done with swimming. If I am finish with swimming or for that matter with any training I want to relax not spending another hour driving home.

I struggled yesterday the whole afternoon to make a video about my race in Kona. I did get the photos with the song I want to use on one CD but I could not get the photos in the order I want them and the program re-size the photos making the quality bad. I also could not get the slide show to end when the song ends never mind fitting a script to the video. I think I am going to take Bryan Payne (www.trainingpayne.blogspot.com) up on his offer to help me produce the video.