Tri-Stemmet

So much for a Race Schedule

2011-12-19T20:03:00.005+02:00

Should have known, as soon as I "plan" my race schedule for 2012 I get an email informing me that our company's annual management conference is the same weekend as the Prestige Ultra in February, so much for planning your races three months ahead.

Above is the Garmin Connect download of my run on Thursday, one of those runs where it just felt great and the longer into the run the more comfortable I felt.

Even thou I'm right in the middle of the Holiday season I am enjoying my training and to be honest it's been a while since I've been this committed to training. Think I found some Mojo going into the new season building towards IMSA 2012.

One of the reasons may be that I am taking two weeks leave during the first two weeks of January. We are going down to KZN to our holiday flat, just as all the holiday people return to the inland.

Spoke to my coach and we are going to bump up the training intensity and have a mini Training Camp just before IM70.3 during my two week holiday down at the coast. Running and Biking is sorted, just need a swim coach to help me with my technique. Really looking forward to some serious training and where I don't have to start at 4am to be done before going to work.

Training from last week looked something like this, no high volume but heavy interval/intensity stuff:
Monday: Run-1h00, Swim 2000m
Tuesday: Bike 1h30
Wednesday: Swim 2000m
Thursday: Run 1h30
Friday: Bike 1h30
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Brick 4hr (3hr Bike, 1hr Run) Swim: 1 hour

Good training day for a Monday

2011-12-12T20:22:00.004+02:00

Had a good training day today for a Monday which is always hard after the weekends training. It started with an early morning swim session to "recover" after the weekends training. It was 3x300m, 3x200m, 3x100m, 3x50m, swimming each interval faster than the previous one during each set.

This evening it was an one hour endurance run and I am really happy with my run form lately. could maintain a 4:35min/km pace without pushing too hard and keeping the heart rate in the zone.

One thing I am happy about is having a coach who is not one that sent you generic programs but analyse your Power/Pace Data and schedule training accordingly and also change your schedule should things not go according to plan.

Been with CTS coaching now for just over 18 months and I am so happy with my coach. After my below par performance on the bike at 5i50 in August me and my coach discussed it and decided to focus on the bike especially when it is a hilly course. I can really see a big improvement on my bike these last few weeks without neglecting my run.

I also did a Retul bike fit about a month ago, something I should have done a long time ago. Almost the case of trying to get the perfect fit and then you start all these little tweaks only to move further away from the perfect fit.

Reminds me of the comic where the guy thinks his table is too high and decide to saw of a few inches of each leg but then ends up with an uneven table. In the end he ends up with a table without any legs, almost something like the picture below.

Finalized my race schedule (if there is such a thing as finalizing a schedule for an age grouper) for the first few months of 2012 but can still throw in some smaller races.

Look something like this:
22 January: IM70.3 South Africa
28 January: Xterra Buffelspoort( moving over to the dirty part of Triathlon)
19 February: Prestige Ultra( Half Ironman)
25 February: Xterra Grabouw
11 March: Buffelspoort Ultra ( Half Ironman)
22 April IM South Africa

The picture at the top was Kim's birthday cake last week. As a surprise and joke I asked my mother the morning of her birthday to quickly bake her a cake with a TV and the satellite TV remote for the evenings get together.

Kim quite enjoy watching TV and I don't think there is too many people who's memory of the decoder are full from all the programs recorded and as she delete a program she watched she records a new one.

Good to be Back

2011-12-11T17:41:00.000+02:00

When family and friends start asking why you don't blog anymore and you're excuse is "I'm too busy" you know you need to get back at it. Especially if you're the one telling everybody who say they don't have time to train, that you need to make time.

Well I need to make time to blog again. The last few months were just hectic and what I thought would be a "normal" racing season turned out to be just insane.

Apart from work that kept me busy we decided to move to Trichardt, the town I work in and put the house on the market in Witbank. Traveling everyday more than 100km's one way to work is not easy and "wasting" more than 2 hours a day on the road is not very productive. Having the house up for sale has put some extra strain on me.

Well things didn't work out as we planned and after two serious buyers pulled out and we reached the end of 2011, we are not moving anymore.

Don't want to rent property and get someone to rent ours. We've done that some time ago with one of our properties and it was a disaster. We also don't want DJ to be worrying what will happen.

The whole idea of moving at year end was to give DJ a smooth transition from primary to high school. Instead we have now enrolled her at Curro Private school in Witbank to begin her high school career. While I'm talking about DJ, just need to share this with you.

At the Merit awards evening of her school beginning of November, DJ made us so proud. She was named best Academic learner, Most versatile learner and most promising Hockey player of the year and also received the subject prizes in eight of the nine subject for the learner with the highest grade mark. she also received the prize for best Revue learner.

Below is a picture of her with all her trophies just as we got home after the awards. Her average for the year in all of her nine subjects was 90% with her best subject being Social Science with an average of 98% and her lowest grade was 84% for EBW.

Therefor I am biting the bullet and will still travel next year, the house is still in the market but we will wait patiently and what happens happen. I've done my 20 hours plus training in the past and was traveling then so it is just a case of getting back into the routine and focus again.

On the Triathlon front it is going OK. After the 5i50 race in August I did the Afriman long distance duathlon in October and finished on the podium in 3rd place in my category and 11th overall. Then it was time for the 11Global race at Sun City. It was an Olympic distance race and I missed the podium by 20sec and finished 4th in my age group.

What was encouraging is I had the best run split by almost 3minutes in my age group and my biking was on par.

My next race is Ironman70.3 South Africa on the 22 of January in East London. Didn't do the race this year due to my knee opp but looking forward to having a go at the very challenging race course.

Well enough for today, another post tomorrow about my racing schedule and plans for 2012 and also about the advantages of working with a coach.

Open Season

2011-08-14T19:51:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was my first Triathlon race after Winter and it went OK. Before going into details here's the result.

It was the first race in SA under the 5150 banner and for those wondering why 5150. It's a 1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km run, adding them all up gets you to 51.50.

The 40-44 age group had 69 entrants and I finished in 5th place and was also 25th overall.

Time: 2h19:13

Swim: 23:12 (new PB)

T1: 1:17

Bike: 1h14:22 (disappointing)
T2: 00:46

Run: 39:34 (happy with sub 4min/km pace)

Achieving a top 10 in my age group also meant that I qualified for the 2012 Hy-Vee Triathlon in Des Moines, US.

The long version about the race:

Overall I am happy, especially with my swim time, although it is still slow (15th in age group and 109th overall) but considering the amount of time spend in the pool this Winter I can only improve. Only disappointing thing at race venue was that swim was held in the resorts cable ski dam with the bottom not very deep. A lot of athletes just stood up if they got tired and walk for a bit before starting to swim. Happened a few times that I swam into someone standing in the middle of the dam, taking a breather.

The Bike leg was disappointing as I usually use this to catch people after the swim. Don't know what it was but I just couldn't find my legs for the first 30km and only in the last 10km could I up the pace and reel people in.

My average watts was a disappointing 223 for 1h14's work and if you compare that to the 245w I maintained at IM for 5 hours it was disappointing. My 1 hour average should have been in the 300 range if it was a "normal" day but could still manage the 7th fastest AG time and but only 29th fastest time overall

The bike course was a two lap affair with a constant 10km climb on the out lap and then cruising back home to do the second lap. In my view the course was not great and not very safe. It was a single carriage way whereby the placed cones less that two meters on either side with public cars making use of the middle section.

First of all the space was not enough to pass someone and if you went on the outside of the cones the Marshall's would yell at you to stay within the cones, making it very difficult to pass someone if they didn't keep to the extreme side of the road.

On the return leg coming downhill it was also dangerous. Not great if you are going at 60+ km/h and need to pass someone within the cone section and cars using the middle section.

The run was good and I am happy with my pace even on the flat course. Manage 2nd fastest split on run in Age Group and 14th fastest overall

After the race we had a nice BBQ and relaxing at the Chalet and this morning we first spend some time at the heated pool before coming home after a great for the weekend.

Below are just some pictures of our trip last weekend down to KZN where DJ danced and some other pictures of the past month.
Another BBQ
Someone getting baptised in the sea as me and DJ went for a early morning walk.
Bought myself some wheel covers for my Zipp808. According to their website the 808 with wheel covers have less drag and are faster than a sub 9 disc (will see). Didn't use them this weekend but must say on my training ride last week they felt good (had a Zipp disc and a 1080 and they do feel good and I can still use my Powertap)

Also got myself a 12-27 rear cassette to start training with it and get use to the hills waiting at IM70.3 PhuketMy new Oakley's with prescription lenses, must say they are awesome and just great, especially on the bike.

My Sister's new dog, another addition to the 4 dogs, 4 cats and 2 chameleons we already have

Another challenging trip to work, thought the mist would be gone by now but still some morning with heavy mist.
Now you don't see anything and then within seconds, BAM, a car just in front of you.

P4 Mountain Bike

2011-07-11T18:03:00.002+02:00

Finally decided this past weekend that I just can't ride the Zaaihoek loop with my bike anymore unless I want to end up in Hospital or dead very soon.

The Zaaihoek road is ideal for intervals as it's 10km out before it becomes a gravel road, making it an ideal 20km loop. There are also no major hills with just some rolling hills, making it perfect. The only problem is a coal mine opened some time ago on this road just before the tar section ends which made it a bit dangerous. But lately another two mines opened on this road and it is now just not safe anymore.

During Saturday's ride I almost got taken out twice by truck drivers. The second time was so close as one truck driver overtook the other one and luckily I looked back just in time to see what's heading my way and had to go off road losing all my water bottles, all gadgets on my bike and almost had a nasty fall. Going at full speed on the tar in the aero position and then suddenly going off road on a TT bike is not a pleasant experience.

The wind was also hectic and add to that a truck driver flying past you, it just spell disaster. The problem with this piece of road and frankly with most roads in and around Witbank is that there is no yellow line section.

Otherwise training is going really well and last week was not a big mileage week but shorter sessions with a lot of speed and power work.
The only issue I have is the swimming pool heater pump is broken again. Same as last year so I guess it is going to be wetsuit swimming until summer as I can't see them fixing the pump soon if I go by last year's experience. Last year it took them almost a month to fix it.

Picture at the top is the new book by Macca, everyone is talking about. So far it is not a bad read and I quite enjoy it.

Bombs Away

2011-06-26T17:36:00.005+02:00

Did a 4 hour brick session earlier today, biking 3 hours and a 1 hour run afterwards. It was so cold and windy out there but I just couldn't imagine doing the bike session indoors on the trainer.

Doing too much indoor bike sessions during the week, so I decided to siu and go outside with 5 layers of cycling gear. The weatherman wasn't wrong when he said 1c and with the wind chill factor it will feel like -5c. Luckily it got better later on.

Just after my turnaround at the 90 minute mark I could feel that I must have or are busy getting a flat. I stopped and the front tire was almost flat. Instead of changing tyres I decided to use a "bomb" to inflate it. It was just to cold to change the tire.

I rode about 15km and had to stop again to use another bomb. Why I didn't just change the tyre, I don't know. Got to the house without changing the tyre but used all of the three bombs I had in my bag.

This was my first ride on my TT bike in I don't know how long. Lately I have only used the road bike and the Mountain bike. Need to use it more often before my race in August for the muscles to get use to the TT position.

Picture at the top is what saved my on my run the other day. I always carry three things with me when I bike or run. Obviously my house keys (with my Gym tag attached), some money and my small pepper spray canaster.

Runners will know the feeling but as I ran minding my own business I suddenly got this funny feeling and semi cramp and knew this is it. Time to pay a little visit to the toilet and this can't wait another hour, it is now or never. Lucky me, my gym tag is attached to my house keys and I was about 2km from the gym. What was an endurance run became a sprint session.

Got to the gym just in time, funny look from the receptionist but job done and I could carry on with my run at endurance pace.

Coach made me do a different kind of brick session on Tuesday and when I looked at it first I didn't know it will be that hard. Maybe something you can try. Was a 2h30 brick session with a 1h30 bike and a hour run. It was done as follows:

Bike: 30 minutes at endurance pace, 30 minutes Time Trail pace, 30 minutes endurance pace

Run: 15minutes at marathon pace, 30 minutes at 10km race pace, 15 minutes at marathon pace

Is much harder than what it looks like on paper

Finally here is a pic of me at DJ's Golf day where I played for the 1st time again in 20 years with the Clubs I bought at a Pawn shop twenty years ago. Who needs a bag full of Clubs when you can play with 5 Clubs.

10 to 5150

2011-06-11T12:28:00.007+02:00

The first week of Ten to get ready for the 5150 race on the 13th of August went pretty well. It is the 1st race in South Africa under the 5150 series banner and although the entry fee was ridiculous(but what do you expect from WTC) I decided to do it.

Some triathletes can race week in and week out and others aim for one big race during the season and train for that. I am one of those that choose one race and really put everything into it. My "A" race is only beginning of December (IM70.3 Phuket) and I will go insane if I just train for the rest of the year without aiming for something before the year end. I prefer IM distance racing but missing IM this year and with no other one soon in SA, I am going to give an Olympic distance race a go as my "B" race.

Olympic distance is a bit too fast for me but I'll give it a go and I think 10 weeks will be enough time to get ready.

On the home front we had a terrible week with the passing away of Niel on Wednesday morning. We will really miss him so much. The Memorial service is next week Tuesday. The rest of the week was really emotional as it was Kim's late mother's birthday on Thursday and the 5th anniversary of my Fathers death on Friday. Now that's a different kind of Hat-trick, having three days like that in a row.

The photo above is of the rainbow I took on the morning of Niel's death on my way to work. I took the picture at about 7am and he past away at 6:45. Coincidence??

The picture below is one DJ created while fooling around on the Ipad, just the motivation I need!

Training wise my 1st week of 10 towards 5150 was good. Coach gave me an easy week and we are slowly getting back into it.

Week's Training:
Monday: 30min easy run, 5.3km

Tuesday: Bike: 10x1min all out at 110+ rpm on 1min recovery. Surprised to be able to maintain close to 400 watts per interval with the lack of bike work lately. Managed a couple at 400+ but last two intervals a struggle and only getting to 368w & 358w

Wednesday: Run, 5x2min fartleks on 3 min recovery- could manage 3:36, 3:30, 3:35, 3:40, 3:49min/km, dropping of quite a bit at the end

Thursday: Swim: 2500m

Friday:rest day

Maybe Next Year

2011-06-05T17:46:00.002+02:00

Late Friday morning we got a call to say that Niel (Kim's brother) is not doing well and he's been admitted to Hospital again. He's been diagnosed with Kidney cancer and his condition suddenly deteriorated.

We were about to leave for the Kremetart bicycle challenge some 400km's north but instead all our plans changed and we headed 100km south.

Kim said I must go on my own to the bike race and she will go to the Hospital but that just wasn't on.

Seeing him in a lot of pain is not nice. Luckily this morning he looked much better, still in a lot of pain but better.

To come back to the race, this is the third year I've entered the race without getting to the start line. One year I couldn't do it due to work and the next because I was sick. This year it was Family, maybe next year will be the year when I race the Kremetart.

The picture at the top was taken at the VW annual awards some two weeks ago.

My next race will be the South Africa 5150 series on the 13th of August, the first in a series of 5150 events in SA. This will give me some ten weeks to prepare and hopefully I can get to the start line without any hassles and in better shape that I'm currently in. Something to look forward to.

As I did a quick one hour run this morning before we headed to the hospital I just realized again. Running is the best medicine ever for body and soul, period!

Run: 1h00, 12.3km

Unusual way to Celebrate

2011-05-30T19:56:00.007+02:00

This past Saturday was our 17th wedding anniversary and we drove more than 500km to celebrate.

DJ had a dance competition and we drove to Bloemfontein for her to participate. Not your typical wedding anniversary celebration but hey, what you'll do for your child.

She did great and got a 1st place in Freestyle and a 6th in Slow dance. We finished later than expected on Saturday and instead of driving back to Witbank we changed our travel plans and stayed an extra night.

This gave us the opportunity to celebrate our anniversary and also DJ's dance results.

On the training front it is going better by the day and I am slowly getting back into things after my two week lay off due to flu.

This weekend is going to be a real challenge and one I probably regret come Monday.

I am doing a 175km road race on Saturday and a 40km Mountain bike race on Sunday.

The thing is I've entered this event some time ago and was doing OK training wise to do a reasonable time but getting flu didn't help at all. The race is in Kim's hometown and we decided to make it a weekend, when I entered some time ago.

Too late to change the family plans now, just need to SIU.

Another Curve Ball

2011-05-23T18:27:00.002+02:00

We recently received some bad news about Kim's brother, Niel.

Niel has been diagnosed with Kidney Cancer and that at the age of 41!

We got the news before my sister's wedding but didn't want to upset and spoil the wedding, so we kept it to ourselves. He did undergo surgery to remove some of the cancer that has spread and they even had to break two ribs do get to the infected area and to remove it. He is now better after the surgery and has recovered in such a way that they could start with radiation to see if it will help.

If it doesn't help they are going to remove one of the kidney's. On the positive side the cancer has only affected the one kidney and the other one is still clean.

We are visiting him as often as we can as he now lives with his fiance and not with us anymore. They stay in Boksburg, about 100km's from us.

Get better soon Niel and we are praying for you.

I've been struggling with Flu the past couple of weeks but I said to Kim if you think about Niel and his set back you don't even wanna complain about having Flu. The only downside is I haven't been able to train for the past few days but hey it's Winter and maybe the downtime will do me good.

Picture is of Kim, her brother Niel and sister Marle at Marle's birthday on the 20th of February

Back to Normal, sort of

2011-05-15T18:45:00.007+02:00

Last weekend was my sister's wedding and after months of planning the day was gone in a flash.

Luckily everything went well and we had a lot of fun. Apart from Heloise being late more than an hour but I must add that it wasn't her fault. Let's just say there was some miscommunication with the hairdressers and let's leave it there.

I knew that Gerhard had a lot of patience but waiting more than an hour just confirmed it. A very big thank you to my friend Warren who let the ceremony, it was great. Not that often that you get a lot of compliments for the ceremony and message from the Pastor. Thanks W!

It was a very emotional day for me as had to stand in for my Dad who passed away five years ago. Bringing Heloise into the Church and also saying something about the Bride's parents wasn't easy but it was a big honour and I know my Dad's would have approved.

We are still waiting for the official wedding photos while the two are on their honeymoon in Mauritius but Yolandi, a friend of Gerhard, Heloise and also the daughter of Debbie, who is Kim's friend took some lovely pictures. I've posted it on my Face book page

We had a great Mother's day breakfast the morning after the wedding and then it was back to normal getting all the things back to Witbank. Gerhard and my Mom surprised Heloise with an Ice cream wedding cake and it this big three layer cake. The guests could only finish one layer, so we are having ice cream for the next, I don't know how many months.

The company that made the cake supplied us with a freezer to transport the cake and when I picked it up Friday afternoon the owner asked me how far is the venue. I said between 1.5 and 2 hours. His words: Try making it in an hour.

Not that easy when you have to face Pretoria and Johannesburg traffic on a Friday afternoon. With DJ as my co-pilot we did the trip in 1h15. Coming back after the wedding with what was left of the cake was a breeze as it was Sunday morning and no pressure of a perfect cake.

Only problem was finding enough space to store that amount of ice cream. I had to use a saw to cut the cake in smaller pieces and Eddy had a blast and a sugar rush from all the ice cream that was waisted and also helping to clean the back of the truck after I finished.

The past weekend DJ had two dance competitions, both on the same day. We are still new to this dance thing but organizing two competition on the same day by the same governing body doesn't make sense to me, maybe someone at SADTA can explain this to me. At the one venue in Pretoria she did her Freestyle and Slow dance competition and then she had to do her small group competition in Centurion about a 30 minute drive.

Another hectic day as we had to wait for her to finish her couples section, then we jumped in the car rush to the other venue for the small group to dance. Then we had to rush back to Pretoria for her to dance again.

The program was so tight and as we arrived back at the venue they were at item #121 and DJ had to dance item #120. She was devastated as it was the slow dance section she missed and also her favourite dance routine.

To see my girl that way just broke my heart. I told her to make the best of the Freestyle item and make up for the section she missed and she did. She danced her heart out and made me so proud.

After all the drama she had a great day finishing 1st in the Couples and the Freestyle items. Well done DJ!

Training wise I had to put it on the back foot due to the wedding and just as I thought I'll get back into full training I'm down with Flu. Not good and so frustrated but what can I do, just need to rest and recover this week. Luckily we are now in the off season so no major races I am missing.

Long Weekend and a lot of Traveling

2011-05-02T17:30:00.010+02:00

This was another long weekend and boy did we do a lot of traveling.
Saturday afternoon after my 3h30 brick session we went to visit Kim's brother in Benoni, about a hundred kilometers from Witbank. We haven't seen him since he moved from Witbank, which was about two months ago. We really miss him since he moved as he was staying with us and it took some getting used to with him not in the house anymore.

Sunday we drove to Polokwane, 300 kilometers from Witbank and visited my sister and also spend some time at my Fathers grave. My sister, Gerhard and my Mother joined us and we had some fun during our journey.

DJ fooling around with the camera

The road was very busy coming back as a lot of people returned from their holiday. A lot of people made it a mini vacation with two long weekends in a row and took the three working days off in between.

Today me and DJ went to the second Trail run in the series of five and it was just as much fun as last week.

When I checked the official results last week, I saw that DJ came first in her age group but during prize giving last week they gave another girl the first prize. I decided to send the organizers an email and they rectified it today, giving DJ her 1st prize from last week.

She had another great day today and finished 2nd in her group. What made me really proud is that she improved her time by more than 5 minutes and completed the 5km trail run in just under 30 minutes. I teased her and said she didn't give her best last week and was just fooling around.

The next event is towards the end of June and she is now super pumped to improve her time and said she is going to train really hard this coming month

I had a great day today as well and finished 2nd in the 40+ group and 6th overall. The route was different from last week with a lot more twist and turns and more sandy jeep track, river beds and short bumps/"hills" making it really challenging to find a rhythm.

My legs had a good workout and on a few occasions I had to play some catch up to prevent the body from running away from the legs.

Before the race I said to myself I want to run a sub 4min/km race but I didn't know that the route would be more difficult but I could still improve my time by one minute from last week.

I finished the 17.2km race in 1h10:43, so close but I am happy and my pace was 4:07min/km.

This week is the final arrangements before my sister's wedding this coming Saturday and as you can imagine a lot of stress in the household. Going to be hectic but I believe everything will turn out OK and if they don't so be it. Just like an IM race, if something goes wrong you re adjust and move on, nothing you can do about it.

Babbas Eco Trail Run Report

2011-04-27T17:38:00.005+02:00

Well my first Trail run race is something of the past and it was so much fun. Can't believe I haven't tried this before and only discovering it now.

From what I gathered from the fellow athletes is that it wasn't that technical but that is just fine for me, it was my first race. One thing I can say is there was a lot of mud and water which we had to run through.

The route was maid up of Jeep track, some single track, some very muddy sections and some river crossings. There was also a small section of tar road to get to the nature reserve and back to the venue.

I'm happy to have finished 3rd in the 40+ age group and 6th overall. The 40+ group had some pretty fast runners and I think also the biggest group of entrants. For my effort I got a 100 buck meal voucher at a restaurant, not bad.

One thing I've noticed from off road running is you can't really get into a rhythm from all the ducking and diving and your hamstrings work much harder from kicking up loose ground. I'm also glad I took my new shoes for a test run and tightened the laces otherwise I would have lost them while running through all the mud.

My finish time was 1h11:44 for the 17.23km doing 4:09min/km, not bad for my first race since my knee opp and still building on those fitness levels.

I've convinced DJ last night to join me and she did great. She did the 5km trail run and finished in 35 minutes. Not bad for someone who's not doing any more running and Triathlon training and just concentrate on dance practise. When I asked her if she'll be back for the next race she said maybe but she's not a big fan of running through water and mud and said she will prefer a road race.DJ enjoying some hot chocolate after the race. The pictures above are from close to the start line, that was only the start and the further we ran the muddier it became.

Saw this plane next to the road not far from the venue and couldn't see a landing strip close by, wonder if someone took the wrong turn or what???
Went to a local clothing store yesterday to find me some sneakers and saw this. Maybe I should have used this today for my run, haha
On our way back home I had to stop in Pretoria to drop off my suit for alterations for the wedding and what I thought was going to me a quick one ended up taking so long. It is Freedom day today in South Africa and a public holiday.

Driving right into thousands of people getting together to celebrate meant only one thing, traffic jams and detours on what was suppose to be a day without traffic.

One last pic from our visit to the wedding venue this past weekend, DJ giving new meaning to the words, "Just keeping your head above the water" as she is standing between the swimming pool and the pond

Where the "Streets" have no names

2011-04-25T17:38:00.004+02:00

Lately I've been taking on the off road challenge and must say I am having so much fun. This Wednesday, which is a public holiday in South Africa, I'll be doing my first ever Trail run race.

I've done a few off road Duathlons and Triathlons but never a Trail run. It is a 17km run and I am looking so forward to it. With no IM or HIM's in sight I might focus on some off road racing during the Winter instead of the usual.

Friday I did what was suppose to be a 1hr run but ended up doing 1h20. I did my run in the veld next to our neighbourhood and went through mud (due to the constant rain lately), some small river streams and some bush.

I also had to get used to my new off road running shoes. Some time ago I bought Salomon shoes but didn't like them and couldn't come right. Last week I bought a pair of Newton Trail shoes and after Friday's run I am so happy with them.

Think I've become to used to them and I must say the off road version is just as awesome as the road shoes I use.

The before and after pics, not that clean anymore

At first I was scared that my knee might start to give me hassles but it was just fine. One thing that surprised me was the hammering my ankles took, didn't know my ankles was that weak.

Some Lessons learned from Friday's run:

Take a camera along, you see so many amazing things and scenery.

Don't worry if your shoes get dirty, running through the next river stream will wash them clean.

Need to tighten my shoes better (left them behind on two occasions while running through the mud)

Don't be scared when you hear all these noises next to your feet while running through the veld where there's no path. Whatever it is may just be as scared and it only makes you run faster.

Sunday I had a two hour brick session and it was raining as I woke up and I just didn't have the power to do another indoor session so instead I took the Mountain bike and did the session off road.

No power meter data but it was so much fun. On more than one occasion I went through places which I never thought was possible if you take into account my mountain biking skills.

SIU Season

2011-04-17T16:55:00.004+02:00

Well, the Suck It Up (SIU) season is fast approaching and no matter what you do everything is so much harder in Winter.

We don't live in the most beautiful part of the country but during Winter it is even worse. The little green we have just die and turns grey, making all the Mine Dumps and factories even more horrible to look at.

With Winter comes the mist and boy did I have a challenging day or two driving the odd 100km to work. It wasn't much better coming home as we had a lot of rain this week.Also not nice if they move mining equipment during the time of the day when most people knock off from work.

Training wise it was also a real challenge this week either running in the rain or biking indoor. May sound funny but I rather run in the rain than do an indoor bike session. Those sessions are more demanding on the mind than on the body.

Well it is just one of those things and one must just SIU, as they say if it doesn't kill you, it will make you stronger.

Yesterday was my sister's kitchen tea and from what I hear it was quite nice. Less than three weeks now to the big day.

Got myself an IPad yesterday and before I could even get it probably set up and running, DJ has taken ownership of it. I can see a lot of arguments and negotiations coming between me and her.Also went to fetch my road bike and mountain bike yesterday morning as they were long overdue for some TLC. DJ decided to join me collecting them at CycleTech, almost a Two hour drive. With the cold weather and rain it wasn't long before I had one very silent passenger.

Training wise I am slowly making progress and even the scale is starting to point in the right direction. Said it in the previous post but going to repeat myself, one thing I am really happy about is my running and the progress I'm making.

Did just short of 40km running this week but what's more encouraging is I can now maintain a sub 5min/km pace much easier.

Funny thing but after my previous knee op, three years ago my running improved afterwards and I see the same thing happening now. Probably all in the mind but it feels definitely if I am running faster. Maybe just the forced break I had to take, giving my body and mind some rest and new motivation to improve.

Wedding's around the corner

2011-04-13T19:33:00.003+02:00

With less than four weeks to go to my sisters wedding things are really hectic around the house. Although I'm not directly involved in all the planning and doing of things, I can feel every bit of action/tension that goes with the wedding.

The wedding invitation was really special and something else. Instead of the normal invitation, they made a DVD inviting everyone and packaged it in a card with the details and some photos of them together.

I am really looking forward to it and it will be a special moment for me, standing in for my late Dad to walk my sister down the isle.

Training wise I am getting stronger by the day. I am so happy that my running is without any hick ups but at the same time I am so scared what might happen during a run session and the injury starts all over again. Guess that will always be in the back of my mind. But with that said I am finally feeling ready to start doing some races.

With Winter approaching fast and Triathlon season almost over it's now time to focus on some Duathlons and some Running and Cycling events. My "A" race for 2011, seeing that I didn't do any racing beginning of the year will be actually at the start of the 2011/2012 season.

Ironman 70.3 Asia-Pacific Championship in Phuket on the 4th of December will be the race I build towards during 2011 and also be the start of my 2012 season. As I said before, the race will be a combination of DJ's birthday on the 25th of November and Kim's birthday on the 5th of December.

No complaints from them going to Phuket for their Birthdays and me doing an IM70.3 in between, everybody happy!

Before then I'll do a lot of short distance racing and throwing in some races just for the fun.

Racing schedule for the next month or two look something like this:

27 April: 17km Trail Run

29 May: Off road Duathlon

4 June: 175km one day stage bike road race

5 June: 40km Mountain bike race

Tuesday Training:

Run: 45min, 9.6km

Bike: 1hr, 32km (Did IM Lake Placid on Computrainer. Can't wait to do the full course on CT or maybe in real life. Feels like a really nice course)

Wednesday Training:

Gym session

Take 2

2011-04-10T17:10:00.013+02:00

Well, almost a month ago I said I'm getting back into blogging but sad to say that never happened

While I'm writing this I am watching IM South Africa online and I am sad and disappointed that I am not participating this year. The way I feel today I'm thinking why did I ever have the knee opp. immediately. Maybe I should have pushed through to have it after IMSA.

Maybe it's just the motivation I needed to watch from the sideline one year, just to appreciate the fact that making it to an IM is such a privilege, no matter what the finish time says.

Well, I think I've got my Mojo back as well as my speed. My last two running sessions felt great and although the heart rate is still very high, the speed is back(my speed).

Wednesday I did 10x2min fartleks and I could maintain a sub 3:30min/km pace on almost all the intervals and today I did 3x15minutes at sub 4:20 pace with 10 minute recoveries at 5min/km.

Glad to say I could keep the pace for all of the intervals but most importantly I didn't have the knee pain after running 1 hour plus.

Family wise it is going great and below are some picture of DJ during last week's dance competition at Sun City. It was a big event with over 1300 dancers competing.

She got a 2nd place in her age group in the couples section and a 3rd in Freestyle and a 5th in slow dance. Unfortunately in the small group section they didn't make the podium but got a 5th place with their African Soccer routine.

It was the first competition that the small group(7) participated in and their next event is on the 15th of May, hopefully after getting to know each other better and with lots of training they can improve on that. Rehearsal time before the main event

We stayed at this lodge and for once having the same name and surname as a famous TV presenter and singer in South Africa brought us some luck. Attached to the online booking printout at the lodge I saw an email from the booking agent saying that they must treat us with special care and look after us as I am a celebrity.

Asked DJ to show me one of those jumps of her at the end of the competition day when we got back to the lodge. Wish I could jump this high and be this flexible

Saw this banner outside the lodge but didn't have time to go and say hallo to Stoffel and Mathilda.Having some fun leaving the lodge

This statue was at the Spa entrance at the lodge, weird!

Sunrise as we drove out.

Now let's see if I can get back to my usual routine of blogging and training, only time will tell.

Been a While

2011-03-13T18:45:00.002+02:00

Well it's been a while since I blogged. I've been so busy at work especially during our financial year end and there was just no time to blog.

I've also recovered sort of from the Flu, only to get it again after I started training again. At least the past couple of weeks been good and I am slowly getting back into IM training.

As you may remember I've tried the Paleo way of eating but could only stick to it for a week and a half. Being used to grains and starch for almost forty years make it a bit difficult to go without it. I must say I did have the same amount of energy as before and didn't go hungry but eating breakfast the non traditional way was the biggest challenge.

I think trying this new way of eating while I was recovering from flu and being so busy at work didn't help. Maybe I'll give it a go in the near future again. On the positive side I lost almost four kg's during the two weeks.

On the training side I've added a new toy to my bike arsenal and must say I just love it. Being somewhat of a bike and a numbers freak I just love the way the numbers talk to me when I bike. With my old PowerTap control unit I had limited info available during my ride but now I can just scroll through all the different info available.

On the racing front I haven't finalized my calender and need to do so as I am getting itchy to do a race soon. One race I did however entered is IM70.3 Asia-Pacific in Phuket. It is on the 4th of December and we are combining the race with a family holiday. DJ's birthday is on the 25th of November and Kim's birthday is on the 5th of December.

Throwing in a race while we're there just make sense, haha.

DJ's is also doing great in her dance competitions lately and all the hard work is paying off. She's also participating in the couples division this year with one of her dancing school friends.

Just had to add a picture of Eddy, for those wondering how he's doing. Still as energetic as always and keeping me busy and here he is enjoying a bone I brought him after me and Kim had a great lunch today.

Well that's all for now but hopefully I can blog from now on as well as the training lately.

Day 2, done and dusted

2011-02-15T20:21:00.004+02:00

Today was my second day back at training after I took a ten day break due to Flu. At first I thought it was just some cold but before I knew it I was on Antibiotics and in no state to train.

Yesterday was an easy 2100m swim session, with the main set 7x300m, just to get back into things. One thing I found when I swim is I can easily feel if the lungs are in good shape or not. Maybe it's the controlled breathing that make you more attend, don't know.

Today I did a 45 minute bike ride, also easy just to get back in the groove. This evening's run session I upped the pace a bit but still kept it short and did 5.3km in 23minutes. Happy that I could maintain round about a 4:35min/km pace, since I haven't done a lot of running lately.

Nothing like running with a new pair of shoes! Bought the Newtons some weeks ago but waited for the green light to run before I pulled them out of the closet.

Today was my final check up at the specialist after the knee surgery and he is very happy with the strength and the flexibility of the knee. He gave me the go ahead to run but reminded me to plan my running sessions carefully as the knee had it's fair share of cartilage removals.

Amazing how strong the mind is. Before I picked up flu I was running at 5+min/km and was scared to go too fast in case something happen to the knee. This evening I run almost at 4:30 pace without any discomfort and not even thinking about the knee-"cause doc said the knee is fine"

One thing about running and don't think anybody can argue is you loose weight went running even if your eating habits aren't that great.

DJ and one of her friends at the Valentines dance this past Friday night

During the past couple of weeks I've gained some weight and although I cycled and swim, the scale just moved in the wrong direction. Hopefully now that I'm back at running the weight will move to the opposite direction.

I've also embarked on a new experiment to improve my weight and eating habits. Don't know how long it will last but I like trying out new things. It's only the second day and today was much better than yesterday.

I've read a lot about the Paleo way of eating and am giving it a try. No grains, dairy products, sugar or any processed foods and refined sugar. The eating plan consist of lean meats, fish, veggies and fruit and that's it!

Amazingly I have more energy than I though I would have if I don't eat any bread, oats and all those things. At this stage I don't think it is something I will do for the rest of my life but they claim that you will have just as much energy as when you eat grains and you will loose weight real quick.

Well after two days I've lost one kilogram, just another seven to go!

Max, Kim's cat getting really old now and all he do is sleep. Think he is 16 years old!

24hr Mountain Bike Charity Ride

2011-02-06T14:57:00.003+02:00

This weekend was our second charity ride and it was time to entertain the mountain bikers as last year's ride was a road event.

We initially thought we will do one event charity event a year and with our last one being October we still had a whole year to plan but after we learned about Cailyn we decided to do a charity ride as soon as possible.

Cailyn was born deaf and can't hear or speak but the good news is she will be able to hear again if she can get a cochlear implant. She's been for all the tests and she is suitable for the implant but she doesn't have any medical aid and her mother is a single parent who is doing everything possible to raise the R300 000($43 000) to do the surgery but really struggles.

With the help of the Highveld Mall and the local cycling club we arranged a 24 hour Mountain bike ride starting at the Mall and going through the veld behind the mall. In total one lap was just over 5km long and you could ride at your own pace. We had a great turnout of just under 60 riders who each paid a R100 entry fee.

The mall provided an area where the bikers could camp and we received some sponsors to supply meat, pap and all the things you need for a BBQ.

The ride started at 12 noon on Saturday and we asked Cailyn to cut the start ribbon and it ended today with prize giving at 1pm. We had some prize money for the first three places in the four different categories. The categories were one, two, three and four man teams.

Most of the riders who received prize money gave it back as a donation towards the fund.

We also had some spot prizes again and two prizes for the raffle. We could rely on Marco from Cycle Tech again who gave us a mountain bike for the raffle and Incredible Connection gave us a Notebook.

At prize giving the biker who won did just over 450km in the 24hours and we had to give a special prize to one cyclist who didn't do the most kilometers but was on his bike for 21 out of the 24hours.

We are still far from reaching the R300k we need for Cailyn to have the surgery and we're waiting for some pledges received but after a quick count it looks like we raised just short of R40k. Cailyn already have R60k in her trust and with our effort the trust is now at R100k, just another two thirds to go.

Ironman Transition Time: 20:11

2011-01-30T18:37:00.009+02:00

Well after thinking long and hard about it and talking to my Family and Coach I am not going to do Ironman South Africa beginning of April this year. So you won't find my name on the entry list this year.

My Knee is good but not 100% and trying to push now and be ready in two months time may just be the wrong thing to do, thinking long term.

Since injuring me knee in November I haven't done any long bike rides or any long runs and currently I can only manage about 1 hour running before my knee feels "tender" and as many Ironman triathletes will tell you, you need to put in the long hours in training to survive on race day.

Obviously I am very disappointed but I think it is the right decision thinking long term. I am going to do to some IM70.3's for now and will take on the Ironman challenge again in 2012.

Today on my bike training saw these three guys playing in the main road with their man made "draadkarre" (cars build from wire), don't see it that often these days. I was doing 4x15min intervals and chose the Zaaihoek road, a not so busy 10km road outside Witbank which ends with a T junction.

Bit boring doing the loop a few times but it's quite good for intervals with no major hills and traffic.

Luckily my intervals were done when I had to stop for the train on my way back home.

Yesterday we went to the venue where by sister is thinking of getting married on the 7th of May. After talking to the venue coordinator and looking at different options she decided on this venue. I must say it is quite nice and they have accommodation available at the venue, so no driving home after the wedding.

Me, my Mother and Sister listening to all the ideas the lady from the venue is proposing.

A Proud Daddy Moment

2011-01-26T18:45:00.004+02:00

To some of you this may be old news as I posted a message on Twitter earlier but we are so happy. DJ's been elected Head Girl at her school for 2011.

She is so happy and can't stop smiling but I told her now the hard work begins and everyone will look at her with hawk eyes to see if she step out of line in any sort of way.

Training wise I am really happy with the running even thou my legs muscles hurt from the running but most importantly the knee is 100%. Amazing how quickly you can loose that muscle strength you get from running even when you do bike training.

Training on the bike's been hard on the mind lately with all of my training being done on the Computrainer with all the rain we're having. Really challenging riding indoors during Summer, just doesn't feel right.

Took these pictures of Eddy and Dolly while I was watching TV and you can just see the different personalities. Guess who's the "busy body, can't get enough" type and who's the calm easy going dreamer.

Saw something very funny on my way to work. This women passed me on the Highway and she started throwing paper out of the window after tearing it up. I kept my distance and could see exactly when she's tearing it up as her car would drift almost off the road and then you'll just see papers flying out of the window. This routine happened about five to six times.

Wonder what she's trying to hide from whom!!!! (Bit difficult but you can see the small paper pieces right in front of me on the highway)

Not even the rain could stop me

2011-01-18T18:57:00.001+02:00

Did my first run Yesterday morning and I'm glad to say the knee felt good. Although it was only a 5km run, I'm happy.

I had a swim and run session planned yesterday and thought let me bum a lift with Kim to the gym and will run back home after the swim workout. On our way to the gym it started raining but only a drizzle.

When I finished my swim and changed into my running gear, the rain started to come down hard but I had no choice but to run. I just had to test the knee and I "waited" seven weeks for this moment and didn't want to miss it. Needless to say when I got back home I was soaking wet but happy.

Tomorrow the running session is 45 minutes and can't wait.

Funny how the ability to run again can changed my mood. One thing about running is it just clear my mind and I just feel better afterwords. Not the same with biking as you constantly need to be on the lookout for cars and people and can't really let your mind go.

Above is the Garmin file of my run session. Not a pretty sight and hard to believe it's of someone who did a 40minute 10km run at his last Triathlon 10 weeks ago. The long and hard road to getting tip top again has just started.

Just be Yourself

2011-01-16T16:54:00.000+02:00

DJ returned from her school camp earlier today and she kept us busy for a good hour telling us about the camp. It was a school camp for all the newly elected leaders of the school for this year to identify the head and deputy boy and girl for this coming year.

I may be wrong but I told her before the camp that leaders are born and you can't pretend to be one. If it's within you to lead, guide and inspire, it comes naturally and it's not a switch that you switch on whenever you need to be one.

She told me that's just what she did, being herself and was amazed at one or two of the children that where totally the opposite at the camp than what they are at school.

With all this we started talking about my school years and after digging out my final school year uniform and showed it to her, I looked at the size and thought, "Hey this might still fit me" after 23 years.

That was one of those "make me feel good" moments as I tried it one and it fitted. Must say it's about one size too small but it fits. Don't think too many people can still fit into their school uniform after so many years.

Coincidence that my high school uniform and DJ's uniform looks almost identical apart from me not being that big on academic awards and only have one award (for being a leader at school) on the blazer compared to all her awards.

Not my fault they didn't recognise Wrestling and Judo as a school sport back then and even being national champion meant nothing to the school. You can play for the school's first rugby or cricket team and get plenty of recognition but not for being the best in your country. Something I still don't understand.

Training wise I can't wait for tomorrow. It will be my first running session in more than seven weeks. It's been six weeks since surgery and I stopped running a week or so before I had surgery. Must say my knee is feeling very good.

I think the gym work the last coupe of weeks and working hard on the bike might have help. It's only a 30 minute easy run but hey it's a run.

One BIG advantage of my mother's house being on our property and baking cakes almost daily for people ordering from her is I can just send through the request and consider it done.

After lunch today I had this urge for something sweet and asked my mother if she can't bake us something small (still need to look at the weight). Before I knew it nine freshly baked Cupcakes arrived, some vanilla and some chocolate.
OK, the picture only have six but we've already started enjoying them.

Just shows you

2011-01-14T19:39:00.013+02:00

Had a conference down in Port Elizabeth (PE), the host city to IMSA this week and picture above for those not knowing is the pier on the swim course.

With VW (franchise) and Kelston's (company I work for) headquarters down in PE, I do visit the IM host city quite often and every time I am down there I just have this amazing feeling and reliving all those special IM moments.

One thing I can say about the new company I work for is that they are just amazing. What a difference attitude make. The things that was promised to me which never materialized after I constantly asked for it the past two and a half years at the previous company happened at the new company within three months without me asking or reminding them once. Just shows you!

Training wise it is going great, Bike performance is improving by the session and swim performance, well I maintain. You can watch how many YouTube videos and yes my fitness is improving but still need a coach to sort out the technique

Well family wise it's going to be a very quite weekend with DJ at a school camp until Sunday.

My sister and Gerhard also finalized their wedding date, which will be the 7th of May. As you can imagine 99% of topics/discussions and arrangements in our house are now about the wedding.

We've also lost an Uncle, on my fathers side and an Aunt, on my mothers side the past two weeks. Not nice no matter what you say.

Back at it

2011-01-11T18:56:00.004+02:00

Well after taking a little break from blogging and twittering I'm back.

The funny season is also over and things start to normalize again at work and training wise. We've spend some time at our Holiday Flat down at the South Coast during the first week of January, with me traveling between work and vacation.

Kim and DJ had some Mother/Daughter bonding time for three and a half days with me going back to work before I joined them again.

I guess the knee surgery and the idea of not being able to run got to me and I did no training whatsoever during the first week of 2011 and probably the reason I haven't blogged lately.

Was also not that pleasant to push the enter button on the PC on the 30th of December, sending an email to Ironman New Zealand race organizers, requesting a refund on my IM entry. It was the day before the deadline to still get some respectable refund on my entry fee.

My mind wanted to do the race but eventually my body convinced my mind that it's not gonna happen. My only reason entering IMNZ was to get a Kona slot and with my running below par I knew it wouldn't happen.

I can only start running towards the end of January and the race is March 5, not possible. Don't wanna spend a fortune traveling halfway round the world, just to finish. Maybe next year!

Well after taking a whole week off I think I've found my Mojo again and let's see if I can be race ready for IM South Africa April 10. Know it's gonna be tight but I'm ready to give it a go.

DJ with the puzzle she and Kim finished during the three rainy days down at the coast.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-27T14:51:00.006+02:00

Merry Christmas to everyone reading my blog. Hope you had a great time. May 2011 also be a great year and may you accomplish all your dreams and goals. Thanks again for all the advice and well wishes on my way to recovery after the surgery, really appreciate it.

We had a quiet Christmas weekend and just relaxed at the house. No driving around or visiting family. My elder sister was suppose to spend the weekend at our place but some last minute change in plans saw them not coming. My younger sister spend Christmas with Gerhard's family on their family farm in the Freestate and Kim's sister and brother also spend their Christmas with their in laws.

That meant it was just me, Kim, DJ and my Mother at our place. It was the first time in years that it was only us and to be honest I quite liked it. No busy schedule and preparing food all the time and entertaining everyone.

We opened our presents on Friday night and just relaxed outside next to the pool. Christmas day was a pleasant sunny day and we had a BBQ and spend most of the day next to the pool. Picture right at the top is DJ with her present, a scooter. One thing about DJ is she is not one for TV games or fancy expensive presents, she like the plain simple things that make her happy. This is her third scooter and she rides it for hours until I can't repair it anymore.

I didn't do any training on Christmas day but did do some biking and swimming the day before Christmas and on boxing day. I am really happy with my progress and my power on the bike is back at the same level it was a month ago but my heart rate is still higher. Coach is also happy with my progress and that I regained my power so quickly after surgery.

Hopefully the fitness level will be back soon. One thing I've seen in the past is that if I really need to up my fitness level I can do it by putting in some extra running, pity I'm not allowed to run for another week.

I am now really itching to put on those running shoes, just hope the knee also feel that way.

DJ playing the piano for us Christmas

Haven't done it in a while but here's some info of the sessions I did over the last couple of days.

Friday:

Bike: 1h10, 41km, (main set 3x15min at 265-275 watts on 5 min recovery), 85rpm ave, 146bpm ave

Sunday:

Swim: 45min, 2.5km. (main set: 1x500m, 5x50m, 1x400m, 4x50m, 1x300m, 3x50m, 1x200m, 2x50m, 1x100m, 1x50m. on 20 sec rest)

Bike: 1hr

Monday:

Bike: 1h20, 45km, (main set: 4x12min at 265-275 watts on 5 min recovery.) 82rpm ave, 149bpm ave

Walk: 30min walk with DJ on her scooter, picture below. No knee pain--> happy

Below is Eddy and Dolly getting a bath before treating them with some food on Christmas.

We had such a laugh at Eddy, looking on and don't wanna miss anything while we bath Dolly.

"Need a Lifestyle Change"

2010-12-16T16:30:00.005+02:00

Well I went for my follow up visit to the Specialist on Tuesday, a week after my knee surgery and I didn't like what he said.

After three operations to the same knee and removing some cartilage at each one there ain't not much left on the inside of my right knee.

According to him if I carry on the way I am, running long distance, I will only be able to continue doing it for another two years max. My initial reaction was OK see you in two years then we remove some more cartilage but maybe that's not the brightest idea.

When I started talking to him about Ironman and when I can start training again he bluntly said: "You need a lifestyle change" I didn't like it but maybe it's that old saying "The truth hurts" He says I have a choice: Continue the way I am and in two years I won't be able to run anymore, never mind the distance.

Or I can switch to shorter distance Triathlon and will have more than two years but also not guaranteed to last forever. His suggestion is to switch to Cycling or find another sport that doesn't involved heavy impact on the knee.

At this stage I am confused, angry and frustrated and need to make a decision but don't want to make one. Maybe I can still do Ironman's but not competitive anymore. Will work hard on my bike and swim and just do short distance running. That way I might hammer the swim and bike at Ironman, run the first 10-15km's of the marathon and then walk the rest.

Another option is to switch to half Ironman distance racing?

At least he gave me the go ahead to get back at Bike and Swim training but no Running for another four weeks. I emailed coach and we adjusted my training, guess it's now time to improve some more on the bike and finally focus on getting my swimming better. I've also asked coach for some feedback on how little running one can get away with to still be competitive at an HIM or IM.

One good sign is my knee doesn't bother me on the bike and my power is down but not as much as I thought. Yesterday's and Today's bike sessions were good. Amazing how some training can lift the spirit.

I've also watched a lot of swim videos on improving technique (or in my case getting technique) and I am now spending a lot of my training session working on technique and not just piling on the miles. Thanks Nina and Russell for the swim video links, appreciate.
My younger sister, Heloise, DJ and my older sister's son,Tiaan

Last weekend my sister and her family from Polokwane (about 300km up north) came to visit and we had a great time. They were on their way to the South Coast for holiday and then we will see them again for Christmas.

Heloise, Mom, Etresia, Kim, me and DJ

DJ was fooling around with the Santa hat and at one stage Eddy got hold of it and what a mission to catch him to get it back, one fast little doggy

Recovery Going Good

2010-12-10T18:23:00.006+02:00

Well it's been three days since my knee surgery and the recovery is going much better than expected. Don't know if I'm wrong but my recovery three years ago took much longer but I must add they also did my ITB back then.

I'm not a doctor but from what I can see the Specialist work from the bottom of the knee this time and it seems that he didn't cut any muscles. With the previous two knee operations the cuts were made top and bottom and there was definitely damaged to the muscles.

Yesterday the knee was a bit swollen but after talking to the physio I realized I overdid the exercises they gave me to do. I've taken it a little bit easier since then and the swelling is almost gone.

Since this morning I can even climb stairs without helping myself with my arms or only doing it with the one leg.

I even did some one leg bike pedaling today, don't think you can call it training as it was only ten minutes but I had to get on the bike and get the heart rate going. I gained renewed and huge respect for athletes doing an Ironman or even a sprint triathlon with a missing limb.

I've done a lot of one leg intervals but then you switch between the legs and it's not as hard as going longer just with one leg.

Hopefully I can start swimming on Tuesday when they remove the stitches even if it's only with a pull buoy at first.

One thing I've heard on many occasions and have seen now when I was in Hospital is that you recover much faster when you are fit and not overweight.

When I came out of theater it wasn't long before I started reading my book and had lunch without feeling nausea's. By late afternoon I was walking around and the sisters couldn't believe how flexible my leg was. They said they couldn't believe I had an operation that morning and didn't even take anything for pain.

Next to me was a guy, very friendly and we chatted a lot but he was overweight and by his looks not as fit as what I am. In his case it was just the opposite, and we had the exact same surgery.

He had a lot of pain and during the first night and at one stage they told him that they can't give him anything more for pain as he had more that what's actually allowed. He slept the whole afternoon after surgery and it took him a while to get out of the "deep sleep" It was also only the next morning that he could get out of bed and had to use a crutch to get along.

When the physio visited us the next morning he couldn't do half the exercises she gave us as his leg was too sore and stiff.

After seeing him suffer I said to myself, this will be my motivation to never loose my fitness or become a couch potato. Never know when you need to have surgery again (haha)

Little buggers causing me some knee pain

One last thing that was quite funny was the nursing staff being confused with my low heart rate. Usually my resting heart rate is between 40 and 45 bpm. Going into surgery it was 50 bpm.

When they took my blood pressure and pulse later that afternoon it was back at 40 bpm. The nurse had a look at it, then switched the machine off and on again and then it was 39. Then she started fiddling with the device that connects to my finger and wanted to switch it off again, I told her not to worry as this is normal.

When the night shift nurse came later that night the same thing happen and my heart rate was 42bpm. I didn't say anything and liked the way she scratched her head. I asked her what's wrong and she said my pulse is not right and she's going to call the head nurse. I then helped her and said not to worry it's normal, don't want them giving me something to get the heart pumping faster.

O sorry one last thing about my Hospital visit and you probably have seen the Tweets but the food was just so little it was insane. Picture above is of breakfast, suppose to be the biggest meal of the day. At one stage I thought this is a weight loss clinic. One is suppose to recover after surgery but how do your body recover if you get children portions. Luckily I was only in hospital for two days otherwise I would have starved.

When I arrived back home Eddy was all over me and didn't let me out of his sight for the rest of the day.

Treasure Hunt

2010-12-06T20:03:00.004+02:00

Just an update about the knee. Went to see the Specialist today and I am going ahead with surgery tomorrow. Picture above is close up of the loose piece inside knee (little white dot above knee bone)

As I said in the previous post, tomorrow is his last day of surgery for 2010 or else I must wait until mid January 2011. He also agreed that I will eventually need to remove the loose piece.

One thing I like about this Specialist is he give you the various options and is not like some Doctor who take out the knife and then ask you what's wrong, just to make an extra buck ( and I talk out of experience).

I remember the same when I did see him four years ago, he gives you all the options with surgery as the last.

At first I thought that the surgery would be "easier" and my recovery time will be quicker with the piece being separated but after he explained it to me I am a little worried.

If it was a torn Meniscus he knows exactly where to go, although your recovery time is longer. In my case where the piece has separated, it is like a Treasure Hunt. He can find the piece immediately without "digging" too deep, remove it and recovery will be quick .

But the downside is because the piece is loose and moving around he may not be able to find it immediately and will have to look for it, which can cause more "damage" to the knee.

He also did warn me that it may also be possible that he can't find the loose piece which in reality mean I will have an operation, be out for six weeks and will still have the loose piece inside the knee.

This worries me a lot but I guess I have to take the chance. Rather take the chance than carry on training with an injury causing more damage. Just hope the piece is somewhere to be seen tomorrow and is not going into hiding.

Yesterday we went through to Pretoria for the Christening of one of our nieces (I think, don't know what you call it in English but it's Kim's, Sister's, Daughter's, Son). Above is DJ with Monja, Jonathan and Nathan after the service. We didn't stay too long as me, Kim and DJ came back to Witbank and had Lunch at a Restaurant to celebrate Kim's birthday. Below is a little rocking horse we bought for Nathan. Kim ordered it from a friends Dad who still build them and it is quite solid. You don't see these type of toys a lot these days.

Just had to post this picture (below), sorry a bit skew from taking it while driving but I was just amazed. It is a wall that the Government had to build on the middle section of the Freeway just outside Witbank. The Freeway goes past an informal settlement either side of the Freeway and they had a lot of pedestrian killing of people crossing the Freeway, illegally.

Well I guess it didn't help much and if you don't wanna walk 200 meters to use the pedestrian bridge across the Freeway, which was build before the wall and can't get over a 12 foot wall, you just go through the Wall- AMAZING!!!!.

A Rock in my Shoe

2010-12-04T18:15:00.006+02:00

Before I continue I want to thank everyone who left a comment on the blog, twitter or by email/sms regarding my knee injury. Thank you for all the encouragement.

Well finally after almost waiting two weeks to see the doctor I was there on Friday afternoon. One advantage of having one Doctor dealing with all my sport injuries is there is no "Playing Twenty Questions with me" and she knows my history and what sport I do and at what intensity.

She confirmed what my coach thought it is, a torn meniscus with a small piece separated from the meniscus.

I explained to her that my knee's been sore for two weeks and my running is uncomfortable and sore but funny enough on Friday I had no pain when I went out for a run.

The danger of having a piece "floating" around is, one moment it can be in a spot which won't bother you but the next moment it can move to a part of the knee that can make running impossible.

After a long discussion and explaining to her my race schedule and goals for the new season, we came to an agreement to remove the loose piece as soon as possible. If I wasn't a Triathlete with running making up a big part of the sport I may have come away without an operation.

If you are not that active and doing a sport you can live with the little discomfort but the three main reasons why I am having the piece removed is number one I can't train at 100% intensity.

My running sessions are average and I can't do any speed work.

The second reason is the loose piece can move into an area that may make running impossible. With my luck this will happen during my pre-race run the day before Ironman or even during Ironman.

Finally the longer I wait the more damage the loose piece is causing, moving around in my knee and grinding and rubbing against other internal knee parts.

And as Doc says, "If you have a little rock in your shoe you stop take it out and walk on"

One thing I can say is my Doctor is very thorough. She did a sonar scan and x-rays (they even give you a CD these days).

[I haven't had X-rays taken in a very long time but it's quite cool these days with the CD. I played around with it and the CD program allows you to measure and highlight different parts on the x-rays. I just had a little panic attack when I couldn't find the function to delete all the measurements and drawings I made on the x-rays.

Was already thinking of what the specialist will think of all these drawings on the x-rays. Luckily I managed to erase it all].

She then phoned the specialist who did my previous knee operation and managed to squeeze me in to see him on Monday and arranged to provisionally put me on the theater list for Tuesday.

If the specialist agree with her findings I am going for the operation on Tuesday.

Must say if she wasn't assisting the specialist during his operations and work so close with him I would have had no choice but to wait until next year to have the operation as Tuesday is the last day of 2010 that he is doing operations.

That would have frustrated the, you know what out, of me and might have given my 2011 season a major drawback.

Recovery time depends as every patient reacts differently but being healthy and fit and with the piece being loose inside the knee and no need to work the meniscus to remove it, she reckons three weeks.

As I said she can't be 100% sure but she think I will be able to run again in three weeks and will be able to swim and bike before that. Now it is just another wait until Monday for the final decision from the specialist.

Forgot to post this picture with the previous post of DJ playing with Aiden, quite a nice pic. Oh and tomorrow is Kim's birthday. Me and DJ spend most of the day shopping for presents, having something to eat and some father, daughter time.

Happy birthday Kim, love U

Tussen die Boom en die Bas

2010-11-27T15:06:00.005+02:00

Directly translated it means "Between the Tree and the Bark" but the more appropriate translation in English for this Afrikaans saying is "Between a rock and a hard place"

Struggling with my knee for the past two weeks has made me irritated and demotivated. It feels if I have lost my Mojo as Simon would say.

I can't do any running and when I bike it is not painful but I notice the discomfort. Coach has changed my program and I am doing a lot of swimming (which I hate) and some biking.

After describing to coach the symptoms, she suspect a torn Meniscus. I've also read up on the Internet (which can make you even more negative) and I am afraid she may be right.

The problem is I can only get to my "sport" doctor next Friday as she is fully booked and with the holiday season upon us, she is closing early December.

Apparently the only way to treat a torn meniscus is by way of operation as the piece that got separated can't heal by itself. Coach is waiting for a report from the doctor, as she is one herself to determine how bad it is, if it is a torn meniscus. The "ball" I was talking about in my previous post is the piece that got separated and is now "floating" around in and around my knee.

If the piece is on the inside I am fine but as soon as it is on the outside or at the top of my knee I can't run and walk with a limp.

We will then decide if I can carry on this way up to March/April next year for Ironman or do we do the operation now and hope for a speedy recovery.

DJ had her birthday Thursday and she turned 12. It will be a birthday she won't forget as she cut her finger open and instead of spending the afternoon with Kim shopping and visiting coffee shops and having some mother/daughter time, they spend the afternoon at the doctors emergency room and she got sticthes to her finger.

As she walked out of the classroom at school she cut her finger open as she moved passed the teacher's table which has a glass top on top of the wooden top. If the teacher wasn't my sister, I would have made a big thing but hey family need to stick together.

I guess DJ took one for the family, but I did tell Heloise to have a look at her table and make it safe in case it happen to someone else.

Back to the birthday DJ didn't want to go to a restaurant for dinner( a first for this family) and wanted to spend the afternoon with family. My mother baked some snacks and a birthday cake for DJ. She didn't want anything fancy, just her name with some candles.

On another happy note, Eddy is himself again after the Owls moved. They had a little owl on our neighbours porch and the local newspaper even came and took some pictures. After the little one learned to fly it wasn't long before they moved along. Will see if I can still find the newspaper article and scan it and put it on the blog.

Oh and we are baby sitting again this weekend. Kim's sister is attending a wedding and asked us if we can babysit Aiden. So tonight I will enjoy my sleep and Kim will have the "pleasure" again of how it feels to me a mother again, awake most of the night.

The Injury Ghost

2010-11-20T20:36:00.003+02:00

Have you ever had that feeling where you know what's wrong and you know what to do to fix it but you don't wanna do it. Sound silly but that's me.

Last week Sunday morning as we prepared to go to Church my knee gave in under me and I had this pain. I didn't make anything of it and still did my long run without any hassles later that day.

But Monday morning I couldn't put pressure on my right leg and my knee was hurting. This was so bad that I did my swim session but couldn't do my run on Tuesday or my Bike and Gym sessions on Wednesday. It feels if there is a small ball just under my skin which is pretty sore when I put pressure on it.

Don't know if it's the same ball but sometimes it's on the outside and sometimes on the inside of my knee.

It is the same knee that had two operations done on it and I am too scared to go back to the doctor.

My last operation was in 2006 and the Doctor's words popped up in my head as soon as my knee started giving me trouble. Being a competitive wrestler for so long in my younger days, my knees took a bit of a hammering and when I had my operation to remove some loose cartilages and cut my ITB the doctor said my right knee is in pretty bad shape and with the little bit of cartilage left I won't be able to run forever.

He said he can't tell but I can run for one year or maybe for twenty and advised me not to do ultra running events as this may shorten my running career. I am too scared to go back to be told that it's time to hang up the running shoes.

My knee's been better since Thursday and I could bike and run but as soon as that ball (I think) move into the wrong place my knee suddenly give in under me.

Luckily there's been some great surprises this week.

First surprise was I received a postcard form Bryan Payne this week. One he sent from Kona, during Ironman Worlds with a special message for me. Thanks B

Later in the week I received a package from Nina with whom we stayed during our Kona trip last year. I received a book and Ironman DVD from Newton and used their address to ship as they didn't want to sent it to SA.

Nina was so nice to forward me the parcel with a card from her and Dana as well as a copy of the pictures they took while we were there. Thanks Nina

55:4:3

2010-11-13T19:02:00.007+02:00

Can you spot my weakest discipline? Yes it is the Swim part of a Triathlon. During last Sunday's race I had the 55th "fastest" swim in my age group.

My bike time was 4th fastest in the 40+ division, even thou I paced myself on the bike. I am an Ironman athlete and I am used to pacing myself for the 42.2km run waiting at the end of the bike.

But feedback from coach after Sunday's race is we don't pace on Olympic distance racing.

The email from my coach almost sounded like the Windhoek lager advert, South Africans will know but it's this guy instructing the other dude: "We don't drink pink drinks". Well when you do an Olympic Distance triathlon: "We don't pace our self"

And then on the run I had the 3rd fastest time in the 40+ division, something I am very happy with, a 41:41 run on the 10km.

Above is the Garmin file of my bike and run. Only after reading @bigbradbrown blog did I go and check and yes the bike course was more than 2km's longer than the 40km they said it will be.

Official results here

This weeks training was shorter sessions but at higher intensity level. Can't wait for those long hours on the bike and run waiting for me this December and January. Luckily this week was a "easy" week, hours wise as I attended two school functions and made a quick visit, or so I thought to the new company's HQ on Friday.

On Tuesday we attended the Christian Society's evening at DJ's school and I was happy for her to be elected as a leader. Then on Thursday it was the Merit awards evening and highlight of the School year.

DJ was so surprised to be named the Hockey player of the year and was also elected as one of the leaders for the new year. She also received Academic honour colours, definitely Kim's child, not mine.

Friday I flew down to Port Elizabeth (a 1h25 flight) and had an early 3am start. I flew back at 7pm and thought I will have an early night compare to the previous one.

Well not quite, I had my first "break down" in a VW in 18 years. Somehow the car's key lost it's coding and although I could open the car it didn't want to start.

VW assist was quick to respond and help me but they had to take the car to a dealership as they couldn't code the key on the spot. That was quick but getting the car out of OR Tambo airport's parking almost took me forever.

Never knew you had to complete so many forms to tow a car out of the airports parking. Well five hours later I was in bed just to be up and running in 4 hours to DJ's National championships dance competition.

She did great and reached the quarter final in the Freestyle division and the semi final in the Slow dance division. She almost made the final in the slow dance division. They called back 4 girls after the semi final to dance for a spot in the final, think their scores were tide. Unfortunately she didn't make it but for her first year dancing, I am proud of her and she did great doing so well at the National Championships.

This sign is on my way to work, maybe some advice, what do I need to do. Stop or keep going.

Here are some more of Windhoek (my favourite beer) ads

11Global Triathlon Race Report

2010-11-08T19:15:00.005+02:00

After struggling with a slight cold for the past two week I didn't expect much from this weekends Triathlon. Friday before the race I even considered not doing it as I am not that sick but just sick enough not to go full out.

DJ had her year end dance school concert on Friday and Saturday evening and we as parents were asked to help. Both nights were late nights and leaving Sunday morning at 3:45am on a 2h30 trip to Sun City didn't do my body any good.

And I don't know if I missed the info or if the race organizers didn't tell but we weren't allowed to park close to the race venue and had to park right at the resorts entrance. Then everybody was shuttled up to the race event with buses, meaning long queues. Then I had to face another long queue at race registration to get my chip, swim cap and T-shirt before racking my bike.

They only had medium T-shirts left and Kim now has a Triathlon shirt to wear. I had to rush getting everything sorted in transition and luckily they announced that they are postponing race start with 15 minutes to accommodate everyone.

Not being critical but compared to previous years the event was not up to standard and the organising of it wasn't good considering the entry fee.

But I am glad I did the race. No PB or placing but I am happy with my performance and the way I felt on the bike and run leg. No cramping or any major hick ups apart from the swim.

I started well during the swim but after about 200 meters I suddenly struggled to breath. My chest felt tight and I was coughing, or trying to. I struggled to make my way out of the masses and was looking for a life guard and wanted to quit. My mind was set that it was the flu symptoms. Lucky for me I couldn't find a life guard close by and they were way to far to get their attention.

I continue with breast stroke for a while and the started swimming freestyle again at a very slow pace. After about 5 minutes I increased the pace a little bit and continued to complete the swim.

Transition from the swim to bike was the longest I've ever done and was about 400meters. Then after I got my bike it was another 200 odd meters to the bike mount line.

They bike course was nice with one nasty hill and I enjoyed it and made up a lot of places on the bike. My average watts were 270 and although I felt that I could push harder I knew the run course had a nasty hill and didn't want to push it too hard.

As I was passing a lot of people I just maintained the pace and also kept my heart rate in the mid 150's.

The run was good and I started of slowly and after climbing the hill I increased the pace. My legs were feeling great and for the last 5km of the 10km run leg I could maintain a sub 4min/km pace.

I usually pass a lot of people on the bike leg and only one or two on the run leg but this was the first time I passed so many people on the run leg.

I am happy with the result and how I felt during the race especially since I am not really good at shorter events and prefer Half Ironman to Ironman distance racing. Amazed that I could increase the pace the further I went without feeling any flu symptons, maybe just want I needed.

On the home front the two owls sleeping on our roof has given Eddy a freight and now he's scared to go out during the night and do his thing as one of them tried to catch him one night.

When I took him out last week one of the owls came right at him and tried to grab him. I couldn't believe it and said to Kim people won't believe me if I tell them the story. Kim spoke to our neighbour and she told Kim without knowing about our experience that she's concerned about these owls as they tried to catch her poodle.

Now Eddy is scared at night and don't wanna go outside if I don't go with him. These are one of Owl feathers we picked up on the lawn.

11Global Triathlon: 1.5km/40km/10km

Swim: 30:53

T1: 3:42

Bike: 1h13

T2: 47sec

Run: 41:41

Total: 2h30:14

7/99 in 40+ age group

38/407 Overall

Sho't Left

2010-11-01T19:23:00.007+02:00

Before I continue below is the explanation to the words "Sho't Left" as most of the international readers won't know the meaning.

Sho't Left" is derived from everyday South African "taxi lingo". A commuter wanting a ride to a destination close by will say "Sho't left, driva" - meaning, I want to jump off just around the corner.

Well this past Friday I shouted "Sho't Left" at work.

I think this is my first post about work and I will try to make it the last as this blog is about my Ironman Lifestyle and everything that goes with it but my work do influence my Ironman journey.

My whole working career I've been involved in the motor trade and in particular with Volkswagen. In 2008 and after 16 years at a big Corporate Motor Group I was offered an opportunity to join a privately owned Company with the understanding that I will become a Director and Shareholder as stated in my contract with them.

I did become a Director but the shareholding never materialized. This outstanding shareholding issue continued for more than two years and finally I had enough.

This whole issue had a bad and negative influence on a lot of thing, including my Family, Ironman training/racing, my health and my mental state.

Lucky for me out of the blue I was approached by another Volkswagen Motor Group last month and they offered me a position as a Director of the group and also structured something together where I will become a shareholder of the group.

I started today at the new Dealership where I will be based and will still be driving a hour to work as in the past but just in a different direction. This group has a total of Seven dealerships whereby the previous one had two.

I am super excited about this new opportunity and is looking forward to continue doing what I've been doing for the past twenty years. My whole family is happy about this move and support me, which I am so grateful for.

So yes on Friday I walked into one of the shareholders office and resigned and decided to call it a day right there and then and shout "Sho't Left". Not a long career with them but I had to jump off at the next corner. Not something I would do under normal circumstances but hey I waited long enough.

Hopefully this move will also help me put the focus, enthusiasm and fun back into my Ironman journey.

Back to Triathlon, I am doing my first Triathlon of the new season (an Olympic distance) this weekend. Not my preferred distance but my coach feel that it will be good for testing the fitness level. Since last Saturday just before the Charity ride I had a runny nose but nothing serious but after the long ride on Sunday and the extra stress this past week I struggle to get better.

I missed last weeks training session on Wednesday and Thursday and was feeling better on Friday. I did my run and swim session on Friday only to feel terrible again on Saturday.

I decided to skip training on Saturday, Sunday and also rest on Monday. I am feeling much better and will get back into things tomorrow. Hope I am ready on Sunday for the race.

If I Only

2010-10-26T20:05:00.008+02:00

Without planning to, someone cross your life path that changes your life or perspective on life in such a way that you can't stop thinking about that person.

That someone crossed my path this weekend. I didn't know the person, didn't plan on meeting him or didn't even know he exists until our charity ride project.

One resident of House Betsie Louw made such a huge impact on me that I need to, or let me rephrase, want to tell you more about him.

His name is Pieter and although he is mentally handicapped, or as they say these days mentally challenged he is just one awesome person.

I didn't post any pictures of Pieter on purpose apart from the one with Donnalee as I wanted to save it for this post.

When I first saw him Saturday morning when our fund raiser started, I didn't take much notice but he just blew my mind away.

He helped us the whole Saturday and Sunday without complaining once. In fact I never even saw him take a break to eat something, he just kept going. If it wasn't for him convincing hundreds of people to do the Computrainer challenge or take a raffle ticket to win the bike, I know we wouldn't have raised such an awesome amount.

We even had this Chuck Norris joke: "Chuck Norris was at the Mall and didn't want to buy a raffle ticket but Pieter made him buy one"

We always look for Icons or Heroes to look up to. If the advice is not coming from a film star or a successful sportsman we don't even bother listening.

We read books on how to behave, what to do, when to do it and what will happen when you don't do it.

Well let me give you some advice, you don't need to look that far, just find the Pieter in your community.

If I only had the patience Pieter has

If I only had the confidence....

If I only had the enthusiasm....

If I only had the sense of humor...

If I only had the believe...

If I only had the courage...

If I only had the energy...

If I only had the knowledge not to judge people.

Thank you Pieter, for giving me the opportunity to meet you, it was a real honour.

I salute you!

Having Fun, That's all

2010-10-25T20:47:00.006+02:00

Some more photos about Sunday's charity ride. There are so many pics and if I have to upload them all, my next twenty posts will be just photos.

I suppose you had enough about the charity ride and here are the final photos of the 200+ my sister took. Thank you Heloise for playing photographer for the day, on very short notice and to my Mother and Gerhard for manning the table the entire day.

Appreciate it.

I will do one last post tomorrow about someone that really touched my heart during this weekend and then it's back to the Ironman training blogging stuff.

Donnalee Roberts, who play the character of Annalie in the TV series 7de Laan, was at the Mall and came to say hello. That must have been the highlight of the weekend if not of their life's for the residents of HBL

Pieter helping Donnalee getting her donation in the container.

One thing I can say is that we had fun. Look at the pictures and all you see is smiling faces. That's what it is all about, having fun, no matter what you do even if some curve balls are coming your way (and we had a few)

With 15 laps done the wind also decided that it is taking our Gazebo down and the rest of the afternoon was spend raising funds in the sun with no shade. My mother don't have a new hairstyle, that's the wind blowing that bad.

Just to summarize, a total of 24 laps(245km) were done. Most guys did between 170km and 200km.

We had to make a tough decision 10 hours into the challenge. It started raining, becoming very dark with some thunder. With us doing 3km on the freeway, it was just too dangerous to continue with visibility not great.

We decided to call it a day and we didn't want to spoil 10 hours of cycling and fun during a great weekend with some incident during the final 2 hours. In the end I know we made the right decision.

We are so thankful that the whole weekend was a success without any serious incidents.

Getting a hug from DJ in between laps.

DJ drooling over the bike, she even bough a ticket herself but it wasn't her lucky day

Doing the draw for the bike.

Sandra getting the name from the list after a number was drawn.

Johann phoning the lucky winner of the mountain bike.

Thank you to everyone who donated, supported us and for helping to make this weekend a great success

Words can't describe.........

2010-10-24T19:27:00.007+02:00

Words can't describe how I feel and what we achieved with our 12 hour Charity Ride for House Betsie Louw this weekend.

With this being me and Johan de Klerk's first taste of being organizers of a fundraiser and doing something that's never been done in Witbank before we didn't know what to expect and gave our self a modest but uncertain target of raising R12000, a R1000 per hour.

I am glad to report back that through the Blog, Company sponsors, donations and our two day charity drive we raised more than double of what our target was.

R26 546($3850) was raised, Thank you so much friends. You don't know and won't imagine how we appreciate it.

House Betsie are going to use these funds to convert the garage into an "arts and craft" centre. I spoke to the chairman of HBL, Albert Schimdling and he told me that currently they have people coming to the house three times a week to teach the residents some skills.

At this stage they use their dining room for this but need to clear everything whenever they need to have lunch or dinner and this create quite a problem.

By converting the garage to accommodate their classes this problem will be solved. So good when you know that the money you raised is going to a specific project.

Saturday we set up the Computrainer in the Mall and it was a huge success. People could pay R10 to take a shot at a 3km flat TT Route.

We had spot prizes for the five fastest male and female times and people were queuing to give it a go.

The mountain bike that CycleTech donated was also a huge success. For R10 you could buy a ticket to win the bike. After the two days we sold 335 tickets, but what was amazing was that people would give R10, R20, R50 or R100 and said no problem just give me one ticket or even just donated without taking at ticket.

Amazing that the man that won the bike is going on pension end of the year and he said that he told his wife, when he goes on pension he is buying himself a mountain bike to keep himself busy. Amazing!

And then on Sunday we had the 12 hour ride and taking donations and selling raffle tickets.

But that's now enough words, here's the pics.

Johann de Klerk testing out the Computrainer Saturday morning before we start

6am Sunday morning and we're ready to go

Set up at Mall entranceSandra, the manager at Highveld Mall and her Husband, Francois. Ready to ride. We had a mountain bike team doing the route a few times during the day. Sandra helped us a lot and we are so thankfull for that. Wouldn't be possible without her assistance.The "boys" ready for some fundraising.People donating Even Cyclists donating100km's done, still a long way to go.

More pictures little bit later.

House Betsie Louw 12hour Charity Ride

2010-10-17T19:21:00.000+02:00

A crazy idea between some friends, to see how far we can cycle in 12 hours, saw the House Betsie Louw 12 hour Charity Ride being born.

It is taking place next Sunday, the 24th of October 2010.

We initially asked the question, if runners get 12 hours to run 89.9km during the Comrades Marathon, what would a cyclist be able to do on a bike in 12 hours. We then decided to give it a try and while we're at it, let's see if a charity organization can benefit from it.

House Betsie Louw was chosen and below is more about the house, which is situated in my hometown Witbank.

WHAT IS HUIS BETSIE LOUW :
A private, non-profit welfare organisation with its own constitution and bank account that is controlled by a voluntary Management committee which meets twice a month and is elected every two years.

The house is under the control of the Matron, Chairman, House Committee, Care Giver and Assistant Care Giver.

AIM OF ORGANISATION:
The aim is to provide boarding to physical and mentally handicapped persons. The Management attempt to create a homely atmosphere by allocating different household duties to the residents, like cleaning their own rooms and washing the dishes. The boys can help in the garden and cut the lawn to promote a feeling of pride in their home.

BACKGROUND :
Huis Betsie Louw was officially opened on the 25 November 1987 with 5 handicapped occupants in a rented house with a Matron and an Assistant. With the increase in rentals and the lack of housing for the handicapped in the community, the committee decided to purchase their own home. The acquisition of a derelict house in Jackaroo Park was achieved in May 2001.

After different fundraising projects the mortgage was paid and after very hard work and perseverance House Betsie Louw exists today with 13 bedrooms, 4 showers, 6 toilets, 3 bathrooms, living room, dining-room, kitchen and pantry, laundry and an apartment plus a double garage. At the moment a total of 28 persons of whom 25 are handicapped, 2 Care Givers and a Matron are being housed.

The day will start at 6am on Sunday 24 October at the Highveld Mall shopping centre. The route take us through some neighbourhoods before we hit the Freeway and then arrive back at the Mall, a 10.2 kilometer loop in total.

We will then aim to see how many laps we can do until 6pm that night.

We struggled to get approval from the National Road agency to use a 3km stretch of the National Freeway but eventually they approved with the condition that a maximum of ten cyclist are allowed on the Freeway, making the fundraising a little bit more demanding.

Our aim is to raise R12000($1600) for the event, 12 Hours = R12k.

A big thank you to Marco from CycleTech bike shop, my LBS. He donated a Mountain Bike, which will be raffled on the day.

Sandra, manager at the Highveld Mall, also helped a lot and helped us getting spot prizes from all the local shops in the Mall which we will hand out during the day to people who donate.

The local running club( Coaldust) also helped us with Banners and a Timing Clock and Cones to place on the Freeway (another condition to be able to use the Freeway)

My blog is not a charity blog but if you feel you can spare some loose cents, I'll appreciate it so much. The residents from House Betsie will appreciate it even more.

Let's be thankful for being able to swim, BIKE and run and think about those that can't do it due to their Mental or Physical condition.

Please Click on the "Donate" button right at the top of the blog to donate or you can do a bank transfer into House Betsie's account with reference "Charity Ride".

The banking details:
Bank: Nedbank
Branch Code: 146805
Account Nr: 1468036963

House Betsie is a registered welfare organization and their registration number is: 025-134-NPO . For those who donate and need a Receipt to claim back the tax, just let me know and House Betsie will provide you with a receipt.

THANK YOU

Got to Make a Living

2010-10-12T20:52:00.005+02:00

Maybe I am wrong but it seems that during the past three odd months or so, more and more informal businesses are popping up everywhere.

In South Africa we are use to the street vendors but lately I've seem more businesses being set up right next to the road.

I don't blame these people, it may not look very neat and they may not pay the taxes they should be but at least they are trying and are not going the route which a lot of people's gone lately, begging for money at the traffic lights with a sign telling you how many children he's got and can't afford food.

The picture right at the top is a guy who's having his own restaurant next to the road. Below is the same guy expanding his business a few days later. He has now put up a stand with some fruit and vegetables if you don't feel like eating at his place. He just saw the cap in the market.

Here is a guy running a bicycle shop, don't know if I will take Roxy to him for a service. Think I will keep supporting CycleTech.

This guy is selling brooms and truck tyres converted into children swings on top of a bridge at an intersection leading to the Freeway.

A mini mall selling furniture, decorations for your garden or house and lawn if you need to sort out that empty patch in your yard.

Another restaurantAn open air restaurant with a take out facility.The local Barber shop.

Some other random news is we've got new neighbours. Little bit shy but I'll think we will get on pretty well. DJ is just scared that they will steal Dolly but I said to her I don't think they are capable of doing it although they keep a close eye on Dolly at night when she goes outside for a pee.

Don't think they have any children.

Not a good picture but you can see the two owls on the roof.

Jokes aside these two owls have made our roof their home during the night since last week and what an awesome sight and that amazing sound when they fly over your head.

Tuesday's training was short but hard. I did a power interval bike session in the morning with 10x2 minute intervals all out and a fartlek running session in the afternoon, doing 30 seconds intervals.

Monday was a gym and swim session with 15x100 sprints as the main set. Just didn't have the speed and energy after Sunday's session but could still manage to finish the session.

Also took my bike to Cervelo. Amazing service from these guys. I did sent them an email last week complaining that the seat post on the new bike is also slipping just like the old one.

They did say that the 2011 models have an improved seat post clamp on the P4's. Monday they sent me an email to ask when can I bring my bike, as they managed to get one of the 2011 clamps and want to fit it to my bike. Thank you Cervelo

So much to Celebrate

2010-10-10T19:28:00.000+02:00

Let me first congratulate all the Kona finishers, it was amazing reliving the race and I could feel during today's training session that I had only two hours sleep, but hey it's the Big Dance. Don't wanna miss that!

I also got a reminder this morning from the company hosting my Internet connection that I've used 50% of my monthly web "allowance". That usually only happened round about the 20th of the month but watching Ironman Worlds online for 10 odd hours does that to your Internet usage

A special shout out to Bryan, who finished in 11h24 and made us all proud. Well done Bryan.
This picture of a little Lizard in my office reminded me of Bryan in the build up to race day. I kept chasing him out of my office but he enjoyed the heat of the power supply too much. Maybe he is also training for the Kona heat.

After Last weeks disappointing race according to my high standards, I was sending mails the same day to my coach.

Coach replied and assured me, we have a plan. With my previous training plan for Ironman I did a lot of endurance from the word go but not a lot of intervals and speed work. We are building towards Ironman2011 and this is the plan, no need to have lot of stamina 6 months before the event.

September (which is gone), October and November is an Endurance block with some threshold and above threshold work to maximise the training effects. December and January is the threshold phase with lots of Tri specific training that includes long bike and run sessions and to practise fueling and pacing.
Then the month of February will be my taper month.

So maybe I am too hard on myself and need to be more patient if I wanna do well at Ironman next year.

Yesterday DJ had another competition (two to go before year end break) and did just amazing. It was the first time she finished first and what make it even more special she finished first in the Freestyle and in the Slow dance divisions.

When I saw her dance I just knew that today will be her day. It was one of those days where everything comes together and just click. I said to her afterwards, from my experience when I was doing Wrestling/Judo and from Triathlons, those days don't happen that often and she must savor the moment.

Well done DJ, you brought a big smile and a tear to me and your Mothers face.

Kim also got the news last week that she got a promotion at work. She will stay in the same job category but have moved into a higher job level. She also received an email to confirm that she has passed her 1st year of a three year Diploma course in Training and Development, she is studying for.

I have so much respect for her as I don't have the power to do a diploma at the age of 40.

Training wise I had a good solid week and even with today's temperatures going way over 30c I enjoyed it and had a great session but needed a few hours to recover from the heat and intensity.

It was a Brick session with a 3 hour bike and a 30 minute run.
The wind was just wicked and two of the three hours I had to bike right into a head wind.

The main session of the ride was 4x15minutes at 280-290 watts. The run also went great and I could manage a 4:50min/km pace.

A big thank you again to my Ironman Sherpa, Kim. On today's bike session I was hoping that she would drive in front of me and not at the back, to shield me from the wind but I had no such luck.

Not having to look over your shoulder every two minutes to see if a car or truck want to take me out, make my training so productive to concentrate 100% on the session. Thanks Babe.

The other advantage of having a Sherpa in a car behind me is I can put the bike in the car after the bike session and do my run session immediately afterwards. I've renamed the Steel factory where I do my runs lately to Witbank's Energy Lab.

Running 20km out of town next to a steel factory with no one around you apart from Kim, nothing to protect you from the wind and sun as there's no trees remind me so much of the Energy Lab in Kona

Past week's Training
Monday
Swim: 3100m, 1h04

Tuesday
Run: 45min, 9..5km
Bike: 60min, 33km

Wednesday
Gym: 55 minutes
Swim: 2700m, 57min

Thursday
Rest day

Friday
Run: 1h05, 14km, including 3x8min at 3:45min/km pace

Saturday
Run: 1 hour, 12.5km

Sunday
Brick:
Bike 3h00, 89km, including 4x15min at 280-290watts
Run 30 min, 6.2km

Big Shout Out

2010-10-07T19:49:00.007+02:00

Just a short post and a BIG shout out to the following friends who will be giving their all at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii this weekend.

You can follow the race live at Ironman.com, something I will be doing. Last year my Mom followed the race live online for the whole 11 odd hours it took me. With South Africa being exactly 12hours ahead of Hawaii it meant she watched from 7pm to 6am. Now that is Mother Love.

The first shout out goes to Bryan Payne, bib nr 759, my friend who I met on the blog. We've never met face to face but chat as if we've been friends for years. If you want something more exciting than your morning newspaper, do what I did. Cancel your Newspaper and start reading his daily blog updates.

Second Shout out to Raoul de Jongh, bib nr 1601, a super fit and awesome South African Triathlete. If I only had half the energy and positive vibe the Urban-Ninja has I'll be unstoppable.

Then to Chad Holderbaum, bib nr 1654, another super fit athlete, who has set his mind at qualifying for Kona again and has done so again in 2010

Lastly to Chris Schauble, bib nr 163, a news anchor on NBC4 in Los Angeles and a big inspiration to me and a lot of fellow Triathletes, who I also met on the blog and was suppose to come to South Africa to do IMSA but couldn't make it at the last minute. Hope we can meet one day.

Well there are so many athletes racing this weekend and I wish them all the best of luck, may your dreams come true. To race in Kona is not about time or position for many but to live your dream and to reward yourself with all the long hours and sacrifices you've made to be there.

Have Fun and Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!

Afriman Race Report

2010-10-03T18:50:00.009+02:00

Think I must keep it short and sweet, just the opposite of my experience today. It was a long and brutal day.

The Weatherman was right for once in his life and the forecast of 34c with no wind was 100% correct.

The race was a duathlon starting with a 10km run, followed by a 70km bike and then a 5km run again. The run section was not on tar but on gravel road with about half a kilometer on tar and another half a kilometer of single track trail running.
I could manage to move to the front part of the field when the siren went off and could manage a respectable pace. The first leg was two 5km laps which made it easy to check my position as the athletes had their age groups marked on their calves. After the run leg I was in 9th position overall and 2nd in the 40-49 age group and finished the run in 40:43 minutes.

The transition area was about 200 meters from the tar road and I was a bit worried riding my bike on the gravel road towards the bike course. Luckily I had no punctures or damage to the bike.

The bike leg was a 3 x 23.3km loops with no major hills but long sections with a steady climb. I managed a 37.5km/h average on the first leg but that's was the end of a pleasant day for me.

On the second lap I could not maintain the power and speed and my average wattage drop by more than 20 watts and on the third lap it dropped by another 20 odd watts.

In the end I averaged 35km/h on the bike and somehow by passing guys and other guys passing me I could maintain my 9th place overall but dropped to 3rd in my age group. I also ran out of fluids on the bike and during the last 10km I had nothing to drink. Not nice when there is no wind to cool you down and it is 34c

I wasn't happy when I got off the bike and could feel that the 5km that was waiting would be very hard and I've also learned after the run leg it would be my slowest 5km run in many, many years.

My pace dropped to around 5min/km but then at 3.5km I had the most brutal cramp in my left leg I've EVER experienced. My Quadriceps, hamstring, calve and Gluteus muscles just seized up and it was the first time I cried as a result of cramping. I could not move my body never mind my leg.

I just stood their and didn't know what to do apart from swearing and crying. Eventually massaging my leg and started moving slowly helped a bit but as soon as I wanted to walk at a brisk pace the cramping was back.

Don't know how long it took me but eventually I could shuffle home and people were flying past me. Eventually I finished the 5km run in 30:28 min and got passed by 8 athletes of which 3 was in the 40-49 age group.

Going from 9th to 17th overall (including 1 team) and from 3rd to 6th in my age group in less than 5km.

Overall time for the race 3h10:37

Official Race results here

Well no need to sulk about the race as it was the first one of the season, just hope the season gets better and this is not the beginning of some bad racing.

Know how hard core this race is, even the TV commentator wear compression socks!

Lesson learned today: The distance and heat got the better of me today and I need to drop the 5 kilogram I gained during Winter ASAP.

The big mileage and long hours only starts November, no need to be a hero during the first race of season. Rather save that for end of season.

Thank you for reading my Afriman race report.

Risk a Little

2010-10-01T22:00:00.002+02:00

There are many terrible things that could happen today. They
may even happen, but probably won’t.

Even though, the worry about all the bad things that could happen, but that probably won’t happen,
serve as a way to stop us from doing all the good things that could
happen. Ironically because of all of this, occurs the worst thing that
could happen, absolutely nothing.

Even existing risks at every moment, the positive possibilities are
almost always more likely in our favor.
For every difficulty that surges, exist at least a dozen opportunities
that are just waiting for us to take advantage of them.

Risk a little today, tomorrow- every day.
Live intensively the miracle of life, of which you have been blessed.
There are many joyful things that happen when you have the courage
and the faith to participate.

Breath deeply. There is a whole world of marvelous things
waiting to be explored. Be part of it. Maintain focus on the good things
that could happen and feel the intense pleasure of transforming them
in reality.

Ralph Marston

Yes and for those who have the honour of doing IRONMAN WORLDS, Risk a Little, you never know when you will have the privilege to do it again.

Sunday is the "official" opening of my new season with my first race. It is a Duathlon and although the fitness level and the race weight is not what it's suppose to be I am really looking forward to the race.

"And There are many joyful things that happen when you have the courage
and the faith to participate"

I WIIL Risk a Little and maybe I may DNF but I am going to do things differently than before, Maybe it will work maybe it won't but I will take the risk.

Will you Risk a Little?

We're here to Share

2010-09-27T16:52:00.012+02:00

A lot of people can't believe it when I tell them that Kim join me on my long bike sessions but not on the bike but driving behind me.

After my experience Saturday and seeing the newspaper headline this morning about another cyclist that got killed over the weekend I am so glad and thankful for having a wife that's prepared to do it.

I guess this debate or rage between motorist and cyclist sharing the road will never end and even if you do whatever possible and obey the rules there will always be someone ignoring the rules.

During Saturday's ride I decided to train on a road I never used before, the road between the towns of Ogies and Witbank as they resurfaced the road recently and I thought it will be OK to train on.

How wrong was I, first of all the road surface was left rough and they didn't finish the tar to be smooth. My bike was shaking so badly that the one "bomb" rattled out of the holder on the rear of the bike and Secondly the drivers was just reckless, especially the truck drivers.

Even with Kim driving behind me they showed no respect and that was with her driving in the yellow lane section and with two wheels off the tar. One disadvantage of living in a city surrounded my coal mines, lot of trucks on the road.

This picture is one of the few truck that gave us some space but when another truck pushed Kim of the road, we called it a day. I didn't know this at that moment but it was weired when the truck drove by so close to me as Kim was driving behind me as this could not have been possible.

I decided to stop and the first words that came from Kim mouth was: "I am really scared, this is a sh!t road" and that's when we decided to load the bike in the car and we drove to another section I am familiar with, where I finished my bike session.

My brick run session was then done as I finished my bike session close to the Steel factory. I must say running at 1pm while being out there with just the Steel factory in the distance it reminded me of running at the Energy Lab in Kona, hot and lonely!

Apart from the truck incidents I had a great session, averaging 35.9km/h on the bike and 4:21min/km on the run.

Sunday I had an 1 hour run and this also went great averaging 4:42min/km.

Today was a rest day before I have another three days of hard training and then it will be an easy Friday and Saturday before Sunday's race.

Below is some pictures of us having a BBQ on Friday as it was a public holiday, Heritage Day but also know as BBQ day to welcome Summer.

DJ is also attending a week long Dance training camp during this week long school holiday which started last week Friday on the public holiday. Her knees are blue from all the dancing but she's enjoying it and don't mention the word "stop" to her.

Some Motivation

2010-09-22T12:14:00.010+02:00

Bryan made the remark on his blog yesterday that he would enjoy some motivational video to watch in his lead up to Kona. Well this is not much of a motivational video but it is my video of my Kona experience last year.

Sharing the experience with Kim and DJ and that feeling of having an Ironman World Championship medal around your neck is just priceless and something that will stay with me forever and something I'll never forget.

Definitely the highlight of my Ironman career.

Enjoy the video B and stay focused to get that medal on the 9th of October. Staying motivated and focused is hard, especially during the final two weeks leading up to the race

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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!

What is this? Animoto makes killer videos from your photos. It's free for 30 seconds. Make your own.

Below is also a piece, titled "The Real Secret of Success" that was written by Walter P Chrysler. It is all about enthusiasm and something I live by daily. I have made a small card with these words on it and carry it in my wallet.

If you aren't enthusiastic about something anymore, stop doing it as you are busy wasting your time.

"The real secret of success is enthusiasm.

You can do anything if you have enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hope rise to the stars.

Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eye, it is the swing in your gait, the grip of your hand,
the irresistible surge of your will, and your energy to execute your ideas.

Enthusiasts are fighters.

They have fortitude, they have staying qualities.

Enthusiasm is behind all progress.

With it there is accomplishment.

Without it there are only alibis!"

-Walter P Chrysler

My Baby is Back

2010-09-20T19:15:00.006+02:00

Everything is back to normal again after DJ returned from her camp. She arrived just after 2pm yesterday and you can imagine how happy I am. So glad she is safe, enjoyed it and with no incidents. Picture above the morning before the camp before Kim went to drop her off.

I can see that she enjoyed it as she was talking not stop the whole afternoon. The picture is their school group but I believe they were four schools in total at the camp.

Not that the house was quiet as Kim volunteered to look after her sisters 5 week old baby to give her sister a little break just to relax after the birth of her child.

If we ever thought of getting DJ a brother or sister, I can tell you that it is definitely not gonna happen after our guest this weekend. Boy I forgot how hard work a baby is.

DJ's dog, Dolly was also sad the whole weekend and wasn't in the mood for playing and just ignored us all.

With no training on my schedule yesterday I decided to have a Fish BBQ. I invited my mother and sister but warned them beforehand that I can BBQ meat to perfection but not fish. I think I can count the times I had fish on the grill on one hand.

We love fish but that is Kim's department in the kitchen. At the end of the day I think it turned out pretty well and everyone enjoyed it. Kim's sister and her husband also joined us when they came to pick up their child.

This week it is running interval time as it was interval time on the bike last week. Intervals are not easy but add some biking, swimming and gym sessions and it can become really hard.

I am really looking forward to my race next weekend. Not that it is a "A" race and with me only doing a semi taper I think it is really going to be hard. I think the main reason is that it will be my first proper race in more than five months, can't wait!

Speed Week

2010-09-16T21:05:00.006+02:00

This week is definitely a week where I've done the most intervals in a week in all of my Ironman training . One thing I can say about CTS is that the training program is never boring and it's something different every week.

With my previous program I knew which workout on what day, months ahead and it was just the time or distance that differ. Now I can't wait to see what my next block of training looks like, which is usually three weeks in advance but can change daily depending on what the coach see in my training data which I upload.

Beyond that I have no idea what to expect but is trusting my coach 101% to guide me towards Kona 2011.

I can't say this will continue or if it is just the beginning of a lot of intervals but being used to going slow for very long times this week's intervals is just so much harder even thou the training time is shorter than what I'm used to.

But before I tell you more about the training, the picture above is also about speed but in a totally different way.

Driving 105km to work and 105km back home everyday on the same Highway for the past two years, one get to know the road very well. One thing you also get very familiar with is the law enforcement officers doing their job by catching people, speeding.

Everyday there's between two and three "speed traps" on the road catching people and they are always at the same spots. I make sure to be within the speed limit when I approach these spots.

On Tuesday I saw something that I've only heard of before. As I approached one of the "hot spots" I slowed down to make sure I was within the limit and this guy just flew past me.

Needless to say less than a kilometer down the road the traffic officer jumped up to stop him. He didn't even slowed down and just kept going. If the officer didn't jump out of the way it could have been a nasty accident.

Obviously this guy was in a big rush, had something to hide or was drunk. Doing that with your car registration number on camera can't be wise.

To get back to a different kind of speed here's what I've been up to so far this week.

Monday was a run session with 30 seconds all out intervals. Tuesday was a Gym session and a Swim session which included 15x100m sprints.

Wednesday was my hardest day of the week with a bike session in the morning with the main set being 10x2min all out power intervals and a run session in the evening which included 4x2min all out sprints as part of the main set.

Today it was a gym session and a swim session with 3x500m at race pace. Tomorrow it is another bike session with 3x10min at "Steady State" pace.

On Saturday it is a brick session which include a 2h30 bike session with 4x10min intervals at Tempo and "SS" pace followed by an 1 hour run session with 30 minutes at 10 kilometer race pace during the middle stint.

As you can see a lot of intervals and at a very high pace but luckily I have Sunday off before I start again next week with the focus on running.

Family wise Kim ( and I think me more than her) is really worried as DJ is going on a Church camp and is leaving tomorrow afternoon and is only returning Sunday evening.

The camp is more than 200 kilometers from home and they are camping out. DJ is looking really forward to this and will try out her new sleeping bag and all the camping stuff.

One thing I know is we won't sleep that well this weekend with DJ not at home.

Weekend Full of Ups and a Down

2010-09-12T17:51:00.000+02:00

One thing I've learned from Triathlons and enjoy doing is getting there the day before a competition. It makes the morning before the event less stressful in a big way and I'm glad I've adopted this strategy to DJ's dance competitions.

wish I was this flexible

DJ did great and as I said in the past, dancing in her first year of competition she is doing awesome. In both the Freestyle and Slow dance divisions she reached the semi-finals in her age group and the competition was again one where everyone danced together, no matter what experience level.

can you spot nr152

Dancing against girls who's been dancing for years and still doing that well is just awesome. What I liked about the competition poster is, it said: "The best dancers of South Africa will be competing". If you look at the poster the guy on it, is DJ's coach.

Wouldn't it be awesome if a Triathlon or Ironman flyer's says: "The best Triathletes of the country will be competing". I am sure that will give a lot of athletes a boost.
With her doing so well it was quite a rush getting to the Parlotones concert after the dance competition. The concert started at 8pm and we arrived 30 minutes late but luckily it was still the supporting bands playing and we didn't miss out on the main act, which was just amazing

With the concert finishing at 11h30pm and with us still to drive back home, which is a two hour drive, we arrived back home in the early hours of this morning.

Amazing how many cars are on the road that time of night. I said to Kim I think more than half the people on the road at that time of night must be drunk as they were just flying past me and I am not a slow driver. Where do they need to be in such a rush after 12 at night?

This morning I enjoyed my maiden ride on my new bike and it was actually scary at first. Amazing what three weeks on a road bike can do and then suddenly riding in the aero position with cars passing by. It took me a good hour before I was comfortable again on the TT bike.

But I'm glad to report back that Roxy did just great with no hick ups and everything worked 100%. One thing about those Zipp R2C shifters, they are just awesome.

The training session was a 3 hour ride with 4x20 minutes intervals. Two at Tempo pace and the next two at Steady State pace. With my new power zones and with me getting somewhat confused last week about the zones, I decided to give myself a visual reminder.
One thing of having a coach and something I am so thankful for, is that coach pick up on things I don't. She picked up that I was pedalling at a lower cadence with each session.

I didn't notice it but I used to pedal at 90+ rpm but lately as I am pushing it to maintain my power output, my cadence has dropped. You don't realize it but you go from 90+ to high 80's, Then as time goes on you drop to the mid 80's and before you know it you are pedalling at high 70's to maintain the power.

The bad thing about pedalling at a low cadence is it will bite you big time during the run after the bike.

So the instruction from coach for my next block of training is to maintain 90+ rpm no matter what, even if I have to loose some of the power.
I am glad to say, I could manage my power range and my cadence is back up for the intervals today, just focus.

The only sad thing about this weekend as everything else was so great was Kim losing her ring at the dance competition. It's a very expensive ring I bought her for her 40th birthday and needless to say she is very sad about it.

To cut a long story short, how did she loose it: stupidity, and that's her words not mine.

Bike session:
3hrs, 95.8km, 89rpm, 32.3kph, 139bpm, 246 watts

Meet Matilda's Sister

2010-09-10T13:44:00.008+02:00

Well here she is, Matilda's younger sister. Wednesday morning I went through to Cycle Tech and picked up my new/replacement bike. To me the 2010 model with the red inserts make it not as dull as the 09 model that was black and silver. The wording on the bike is also white instead of silver.

It's just looking a bit brighter. Since the rear derailleur got damaged on the previous bike and after reading up on the Internet I decided to go for the SRAM Force derailleur instead of the Red.

The Force is not the top of the range but is more durable and as I am using the bike for training and racing and not only for racing I think it's a better call.

All the rest of the components are the same and was just moved from the previous bike to this one.

I've also asked them not to cut the fork as I will do it after I am 100% sure of my position on the bike. With Matilda, we've cut the fork based on the P3's position and it was just right but if I had to adjust the handle bar upwards it wouldn't have been possible.

Don't feel like buying a new fork soon.

Since they had to fit new cables I decided to fit this "Bento box" or as I call it my mobile food station. I bought it last year in Kona and wanted to put it on Matilda but kept postponing it as it's one hell of a job re cabling this bike. I've made little hole at the bottom where the cables run through.

I've also decided to replace the SRAM shifters with Zipp R2C shifters. For those who are not familiar with it, what it basically mean, is the shifters work on a ratchet system and keep pointing forward and doesn't change position.

As you shift gears the shifter returns to it's position.

And then I had to add "Skillie" (Turtle) to the bike. I just can't see myself biking without my "trademark" on the bike. Can't wait for Sunday's 3hr bike session on my soon to have a name bike, haha.

Training wise I am having an easier week than usual as my next training block starts Monday. With my first race approaching fast the following two weeks is high volume before a semi taper week. Can't believe it's only three weeks and then the racing starts, new season new goals!

Talking of races after emailing and discussing it with my coach we've decided on the races I'll do up to the end of the year. I was thinking of doing all the races in the Energade Sprint series but coach feel it will be better to concentrate on training insteadof doing Sprint Tri's.

As my goal is Ironman it will be better putting in high volume over the weekends than doing Sprint distance racing.

The races I'll be doing are:

Afriman Duathlon October 3

Huis Betsie 12 hour bike challenge October 24 ( more of a fund raiser than race but will still be hard)

Sun City Olympic Tri, November 7

Double Century Bike Race November 27

Prestige Half Ironman, December 16

Well that's it, family is waiting for me. DJ has another dance competition tomorrow and we are leaving today and are sleeping over, close to the venue. Luckily I'm packed as I took the day off work and could also fit in my training for the day before we leave.

Week's Training:

Monday: Swim 2500m, 53 min

Tuesday: Run, 45min (at endurance pace), 9.4km

Wednesday: Bike, (10x2min Power intervals) 57min, 27.4km

Thursday: Rest day

Friday: Swim 1600m, 36min. Run, 45min (endurance pace) 9.8km.

One Year Ago

2010-09-05T17:03:00.003+02:00

Yesterday One year ago this little fellow was born and boy did he changed our life's. We are animal lovers and have our fair share of dogs and cats but he just takes the cake.

When my favourite dog of all time, Juba the Bullterrier died after a long battle with skin cancer, I didn't want to have a replacement dog immediately. When the Vet call you by your name and give you preferential treatment, you know that you've spend lots of money at his practise.

I got Eddy the day we arrived back in South Africa after Kona and that night I wasn't that impressed with him. Not nice having a puppy besides your bed when you just finished traveling 20+ hours and have serious jet lag.

Well it's now one year later he is the centre of attention in the house and he knows that. There is not one night when I arrive back from work that he is not waiting for me in the bedroom and as soon as I take my socks off he grabs them and them run around and I must catch him or try and catch him. He will let you get close but as I want to grab the socks he runs away.

His reward for his birthday was this bone from the Eisbein I had today at lunch. Me, Kim and DJ went to a restaurant we haven't been to in months and they didn't disappoint, the food was excellent.

DJ got this funny ritual whereby she takes a slice of lemon and suck on it as we wait for our food whenever we go to a restaurant. Usually she gets the slice from one of our starter meals or if not she will ask for one. Can imagine the funny looks she get from the waiters asking for some lemon.

Yesterday as I got back from my bike ride I saw this guy on our neighbours roof. He is doing maintenance to the thatch roof and I got sweaty palms just looking at him. I don't like heights and seeing this guy work without any safety equipment was just too scary.

He must be doing it for some time I guess and when I came back from my brick run he was still busy and it really didn't seem to bother him.

Yesterday's brick session was great. I had to do it on the road bike as my P4 is not finished yet. They've build the bike but they still need to do some adjustment to the cabling.

I didn't want to rush them and would rather wait until Monday than have a bike with cables not working 100%.

The bike session was a 2 hour ride which included 2 x 15 minutes at Tempo pace and 2 x 15 minutes at Steady State pace. For the tempo session I maintained 270 watts and for the SS intervals 290 watts. This was my new power ranges and I was surprised to maintain it and still keep my heart rate in my aerobic zone. I was further away from home than expected and ended up doing 2h15.

After the bike I did a 30 minute run with the middle 20 minutes at 4min/km pace. I could manage the middle stint but had to really push hard and my heart rate was higher than expected.

This week is an easier week for me with a lot of recovery and endurance sessions with only one or two speed sessions.

Yesterday's Training:

Bike: 2h15, 67.9km, 30.3km/h, 133bpm ave, 225 watts ave, 260 watts(NP) ave, 1806 kcal

Run: 30min, 6.6km, 157bpm ave, 4:24min/km 418kcal,

Friday's Training:

Swim: 40min, 2100m( 7x300m on 30sec rest)

1 of 206 Million

2010-09-02T19:47:00.003+02:00

Since my last post I had a lot of comments regarding my tongue. Just to clarify it, the picture of the tongue is not mine, just a picture I googled. My tongue is much "prettier"

For those still shocked by it, it is officially called a "geographical tongue" and an estimated 3% of the world population do have such tongues. That is roughly 206 Million people out of the 6.8 Billion people living on earth.

So it is not that unusual, I guess. O, by the way my elder sister also have a geographical tongue but my father, mother and younger sister have "normal" tongues.

We've been without power since Tuesday and what a pleasure to have a Generator. Don't think the neighbours are that pleased with the noise coming from our house but, that's life.

There was an explosion at the sub station on Tuesday that supply our neighbourhood with power and just as they fixed it one of the power boxes down our street exploded. That's the picture at the top.

They've installed a replacement box and we had power for about 3 hours tonight before it bombed out again. The bad thing about the whole situation is that most of our meat in the Freezer, especially the fish have gone off.

I start the generator up in the morning as we wake up and then shut it down as we leave for work. I then start it up again when I get home and shut it down at about 9pm. The time is just not sufficient to keep the meat frozen.

Some good news is I received my new Cervelo P4 frame after the mishap with the previous one. With Marco from the bike shop at Eurobike in Germany and the guy from Cervelo being overseas, I volunteered to go and pick up the new frame from Cervelo and take it to CycleTech as they were short of people and vehicles.

I must say the P4 in the new colours looks pretty good. When I dropped the new frame off, Liam from CycleTech promised me that he will build it and have it ready fro me by tomorrow afternoon.

The service from Cervelo was just mind blowing and beyond excellence. From the time I logged the claim to the new frame arriving in South Africa and in my hand from Canada, it took just more than 7 days. Now that is service!

Can't wait to go and do my long bike session on Saturday on my new bike. I've asked him to fit some new parts seeing that he need to build the whole bike over again, but more on that later.

On my way to the bike shop I saw this lady selling Fruits and Food next to the road. Amazing that she is doing it right next to the "No Hawkers" sign.

My Mother surprised me tonight with a set of Espresso Cups. Since I've got my Coffee machine I've made the Espresso's in normal cups but now I can use Proper Espresso Cups. Thanks Mom!

Training wise I am doing just great and one thing I can tell you is that my FTP (maximum power you can sustain per hour) on the bike has increased more than what I've expected.

One thing I've learned after my brave effort last Saturday on the bike is to stick to my training program. Did receive an email from Coach congratulating me on my effort and performance but in the same email increased my training zones.

Little did I know that I performed an unscheduled field test while I was out cycling at maximum power. With the power file available, she saw more into it than me and now my training zones (levels) are higher than before.

Daddy & DJ Day

2010-08-29T17:50:00.001+02:00

Today was a nice relaxing day and it was some Daddy and Daughter time. It was a rest day for me training wise and I took full advantage.

Kim went to work early this morning as the Strikers don't strike on Sunday's and she managed to get a lot of work done and helped to process a lot of unemployment claims and also Death and Disability claims.

The people that strike and who prevent others to get to work don't know how they influence other peoples life's. People that have been without a job for some time and those who lost someone due to death who is desperately waiting for their claim to be processed by the Department of Labour to get some or maybe the only money they'll have for some time. These peoples life's are being disrupted so badly.

Good thing there is some people like Kim who are willing to scarifies their Sunday and Family time to go to work on a Sunday to try and catch up on some work that's been lacking due to the strike.

With Kim at work, me and DJ decided to make it a Father/Daughter day. After Church we went to the shopping mall and played some Tenpin bowling and some Putt Putt before we had a great lunch.

I even dared DJ to take a small sample of these Chillies that I had with my steak.

The Hockey trials that were cancelled due to the strike was back on at short notice yesterday and DJ really enjoyed it apart from the sunburn she got. She applied lotion to her legs, arms, face and neck but forgot the back of her arms. Ouch!

She also tried her sleeping bag I got her for their School Camp mid September. We are not the camping type and if it wasn't for the guy in the store giving me some great advise on sleeping bags and camping equipment I would have been lost.

On Friday the estate agent, that sold me the empty stand in an enclosed small holding security complex some time ago contacted me and asked me if I want to swop!! There's another guy who has this house and he wants to swop it for my stand.

It's a difficult decision and I will take my time to decide as the empty stand is in an "better" area and is much bigger (almost 2 Hectare) whereby this house is a cluster unit. The only advantage is I can rent the house out and get some income from it . Currently the stand is just an empty piece of land with no direct income.

Training wise I had a good solid day with no hick ups yesterday. The session was a brick session with a 2hr bike and 30 minute run session. I couldn't believe the difference between the road bike and my TT bike. It's been almost two years since I've been on a road bike and the handling is much more direct.

And going up a hill is so much easier on a road bike. The bike session was 2hrs at endurance pace but I couldn't help myself hammering the bike on some sections. Don't know it it was frustration due to me not having a TT bike or just the happy feeling that Summer is truly here. I manage to maintain 278 watts for the 2hour session without going in the red zone

Even my 30 minute run after the bike was good and I could manage a 4:45min/km pace without any difficulty.

I keep forgetting to tell this story but I finally remembered. For those with a sensitive stomach don't look at the picture below. It is not my Tongue but I have a tongue similar to this one.

I've been "blessed" with a geographical tongue and what it mean is my tongue is not smooth but has these "craters" on it.

Now why do I show you this? For those who wonder when Summer will be here or if the Season's changed, I've got news.

The season changed two and a half weeks ago. Twice a year something strange happen to me which indicates that the season is changing. When Winter turn to Summer and the opposite my tongue becomes VERY sensitive and it becomes almost impossible for me to eat and drink normally.

I don't get sores on it and it doesn't become septic and looks "normal" but it just become very sensitive and it will remain like that for almost a week.

When this happen I know that the season has changed.

Well the easy week of training is over and now for a new week with some hard sessions according to my training plan, but who cares Summer's here!

Thank You, Cervelo!

2010-08-26T19:08:00.004+02:00

Thank You , Cervelo for excellent service. It really surpassed my expectation.

To be honest, after the mishap on Sunday I was really concerned about sorting out my problem with Cervelo. People that follow my blog for more than a year will know about the posts of my experiences and frustrations last year when I couldn't get the bike I've ordered.

To refresh your memory, after putting down a deposit on the P4 when I ordered it, I had to wait more than a year to get the bike and after plenty emails enquiring about the bike.

But I must say I am really impressed with their service this time and also at how quickly they've resolved it. It took them only 3 days to give me an answer and also one I am pleased with.

I received an email today from Emotion Cycling to confirm that my claim has been approved and they will replace my faulty frame.

When they asked me to submit an email yesterday explaining what happened, I did mention in the email that I am still experiencing problems with the seat post slipping while riding and that the seat post clamp is not working 100%. I have complained about this previously and they did supply me with another seat post but the problem was still there.

Well in today's email they confirmed that they are replacing my frame due to the faulty seat post clamp and not due to the derailleur that broke. They said that to proof that the derailleur broke due to a defect would be a very lengthy process which can take months.

The other good news is that they are replacing my 2009 model with a 2010 model. Apparently on the 2010 models they've sorted the seat post clamp issue out.

Now it is just a waiting game as the frame is coming from Canada. They did say in the email that they will give me an estimate delivery date tomorrow. In the mean time I still have the Look bike I can use.

On that note I just need clarify something. I am very grateful for the bike Marco loaned me and am in no way looking down at the bike. It is one awesome and very light bike with top of the range components. This will be my first time on a road bike since October 2008 when I sold mine as I do all my training on my TT bike.

Why the explanation? Kim don't read my blog often. To be honest if she reads it once a month I think that would be a lot but due to the current strike we have she has plenty of time on hand as the striking workers prevent her from gaining access to her work place.

With all these free time she's having, she's been on my blog this week and tonight she told me that my wording and the way I wrote last nights post, it sounded that I am looking down on the Look Bike and are being disrespectful towards the loan bike situation.

That's why I just need to clarify it, I am very grateful and appreciate the loan bike a lot.

Today was a rest day training wise.

Picture at the top is of Matilda after I got her last year, R.I.P. Matilda.

Two Wheels and some Pedals

2010-08-25T19:48:00.004+02:00

Just an update on my bike situation. I took my P4 to Cycle Tech, my not local but only bike shop I deal with on Monday morning first thing.

I bought it new from them and they handle all my bike related issues. The agent for Cervelo in South Africa, Emotion Cycling came and fetch the bike on Tuesday and took some pictures and submitted a report to Cervelo HQ.

This morning Marco, the owner of CycleTech phone me and asked me to submit an email to Emotion Cycling as to exactly what happened. I did so immediately and later today I received an email back from Emotion Cycling to report back that they did submit some extra pictures and my email to Cervelo HQ.

I guess it's now a waiting game to see what will happen next but it is now in the hands of Cervelo HQ in Canada. Really hope those Canadians don't disappoint.

Luckily Marco helped me out with a loan bike in the meantime so my training can continue without any major disruptions. He initially said he will give me an Argon18 TT bike to use but then he gave me this Look road bike (picture above). Well as my friend Rob said yesterday to me: As long as it got two wheels and some pedals you can continue with your training.

I am glad he could help me out with a bike and I fitted my saddle and Zipp Wheel with the PowerTap to it so my bike training with power can continue. Thanks Marco

Yesterday's Training:

Run: 45min, 9.7km, 4:39min/km(endurance pace)

Today's Training:

Gym: 1hr

Swim: 59min, 2.7km

You Never Know

2010-08-22T15:12:00.007+02:00

Well, today's been a real bummer. I was looking so forward to today's ride only to experience a real sh!tty day. My schedule called for a 3h30 bike ride with a 1hr run after the bike.

Last night I prepped the bike and everything was ready and as soon as we got back from Church I jumped on the bike and was ready to roll. It was such an awesome day and being out on the road for the first time since Winter just gave me that extra motivation.

My schedule called for the entire brick session to be done at IM race pace and although I knew it was going to be hard I was looking forward to it.

But then disaster struck, I was nicely biking along and was maintaining the 250+ watts average the session called for. At that moment I was 1h15 into the session and about 40km's away from home.

I was really pushing it when I went up this hill( picture below) and then suddenly I just heard this snap sound and I had to be quick to get my foot out of the pedal as I was standing still. At first I thought the chain came of the ring but I haven't changed gears and then the bike came to a complete stop as the rear derailleur got tangled between the rear wheels spokes.

As I got off the bike I had a look and couldn't believe my eyes, the derailleur just broke out of the frame. If it was the derailleur it would have been bad but not as bad as a cracked frame.

I will take the bike to the bike shop tomorrow to see if they can claim from Cervelo as the bike is less than a year old otherwise I will be looking at someone who can weld aluminium, or a complete new frame very soon. Although the bike is carbon I saw that the part that's broken is aluminium and maybe it can be fixed as a last resort. At least the view from almost the top of the hill was great, as I waited 45 minutes for Kim to come and fetch me, thanks Kim.

As we got home I wasn't in the mood to do the 1hr run and it was suppose to be a Brick session. I just didn't feel like running an hour after I stopped cycling.

I also emailed my coach and asked her to reschedule my bike training this coming week or at least for the next two days as I don't know how long I'll be without a bike. I do have the mountain bike and will use that in the mean time, but no powertap workouts soon.

On a positive note I received my contact lenses from my new Optometrist and they are just great, Yesterday I had to double check/feel a few times as I couldn't even feel them in my eyes. Thanks Russell, amazing what a pleasure it is to have contacts when you have someone knowing what they do, helping you.

For those who can remember Russell is my friend who me and DJ delivered the VW Bus to in Upington about two months ago. He's an optometrist by trade and also an excellent Ironman athlete.

The best part for me is that he is more than a 1000km away from us but looking at the measurements they took of my eyes, he immediately noticed that the calculations were wrong when the previous optometrist ordered my lenses.

I will wear these lenses for a week or so and if they still feel as great as this weekend I will get him to order me some more.

Can't Wait

2010-08-21T14:53:00.008+02:00

Earlier today I replaced the indoor trainer tyre on my bike with a normal road tyre before I head out on the open road tomorrow. This will be my first outdoor bike session after Winter. All of my training since IM in April was done on the Computrainer.

I am so excited about it and am really looking forward to it no matter what the conditions might be.

While I was busy prepping my bike for tomorrow Kim and DJ went to the Gym for some training and DJ spend some time on the bike.

Today was a rest day for me, training wise and it was really awesome spending time with Kim and DJ after my hectic week. We spend some time at a Fabric shop where they had a look at some new material for DJ for a dance costume. She is dancing in a really big competition mid September and it is sort of the grand finale of this year.

She wants a new costume for this one as she feels her current costume is not shiny enough. After that we spend some time at the Mall and finished our day with a nice lunch.

This afternoon my sister invited us to come and watch the rugby test between South Africa and New Zealand at their place. Luckily it's only a 30 seconds walk to their place, haha.

Yesterday I did my run session before I left Sun City after the conference and I could feel all the overindulging of this past week and especially the last two days when I ran. The training included 3 x 1.5km intervals. I could only manage a 4:01min/km, a 3:55min/km and a 3:57min/km pace for the three intervals but at least I pushed through.

If it wasn't for the awesome scenery I'm sure I would have quit after the first interval. I ran around the Gary Player Golf Course. They have this great running route going around the course.

Below are some pictures Kim took this past week at her work during the national strike. Most of the Government employees are striking for higher salaries. They started to become violent and threw this canopy against the entrance and smashed the windows.

They even blocked the road the next day and Kim and some other lady employees had to move the big dustbin to clear the entrance to go home. On Friday it was just too dangerous and she left at about 10am. It is amazing how most of these people are striking for a 1% difference in salary increase between what they were offered and their demand but they've lost more pay due to the "no work, no pay" policy.

This coming week the teachers are going on strike and they declared the school closed for the week. DJ's so upset about this as they had to cancel their Revue performance which was suppose to be this coming week and also the provincial hockey trials where she's been invited to for trials.

Below is the route I ran at Sun City. If you click on the Satelite icon you get a good idea of what the golf course look like.

From East to West

2010-08-19T17:41:00.004+02:00

As I said on Sunday this week's going to be hectic and I was spot on. Flew down to Kwazulu Natal's South Coast which is actually the east side of South Africa on Monday for a dealer meeting and were back home at 9pm on Tuesday night.

I just love going to KZN and spending time at the South Coast, I just get that relaxed feeling when I'm down there. Know a lot of people don't like the south coast but I would live their any day. The picture above was from the balcony overlooking the Port Shepstone sea

Wednesday morning I was back at work and left the dealership at 1pm driving to the west part of the country to Sun City for an Audi conference. It's the same venue where me and Kim attended the VW Vivo launch beginning of the year.

This picture was as I was about 10km from the venue and just before the sun set. Today it was the conference and tomorrow morning I am driving back to the dealership to catch up on everything that happened during the week.

One thing about conferences is the food, one of my weaknesses. I just can't say no to all these lovely different food and I can almost feel the weight gaining by the minute.

Tomorrow morning's "Interval" Run session couldn't have come at a "better" time. I guess PR's won't be on the cards tomorrow morning.

My bike training yesterday was one of those tough ones. It was 7x3 minutes all out with 3 minutes recovery between sets. I guess I am slowly making progress and something my coach like. Got an email today from my coach about the session. It read: ".....watts! These are awesome Johan"

I like those emails, just give me that extra lift and motivation. Better than the one I got about two weeks ago where coach asked why I dropped almost 20 watts between my first and last set of another bike session. Obviously a 20 watts drop meant much more to my coach than to me.

One thing I can say about joining CTS and having a coach giving me constant feedback and pushing me is that I can feel I am getting stronger by the week. I am still getting out of Winter and haven't put on the big miles but my performance is definitely improving, especially my bike, and that I like.

I am so excited about it and can't wait for my first longer distance race, beginning of October. Although it is not long distance it is closer to IM distance than the sprint distance racing I did during the winter. The Afriman Duathlon distance was released last week and I was disappointed. It will be a 10km run, 77km bike and 5km run.

It is not as long as 5 years ago when I did my first one which were 18km run, 90km bike and 10km run.

Every year the distance decreased, last year it was 12/80/6 and the year before that it was 14/80/7. Hope it won't be a sprints distance soon.

Just had to add this picture. As I arrived home Tuesday night I was having a beer and chatting to Kim while watching TV(in bed) and Eddy was just harassing me to grab the beer from me. Eventually when I finished the beer I gave the bottle to him and he was having a ball. My kind of dog.

OK, that's it, off to dinner and some more food and drinks. haha

A New Life

2010-08-15T18:40:00.007+02:00

Yesterday Kim, DJ, Heloise and my Mother attended a Mother and Daughter day at DJ's school during the morning and Kim and DJ went to visit Kim's sister during the afternoon as she had a baby boy (Aiden) last Monday. They stay in Middelburg, about a 30 minute drive and Kim and DJ enjoyed it so much they only arrived back home at about 7pm and it was already dark.

Congratulations Renier and Marle with the birth of Aiden

I was a bit worried as I don't like it when Kim drives at night, nothing wrong with her driving skills but I'm worried about our fellow Witbank residents.

Kim with her nieces son who also visited

While they were visiting her sister I fitted the gate motor that was repaired and also did my run session. I couldn't get the remotes coded and had to postpone it to today. I always struggle with those damn things.

The school hall looking great at the Mother/Daughter day

Today after church I tried again after reading on the web how to code the remotes. Luckily I got it right and our gate is not in "manual" mode anymore. I did post a tweet about the type of people I dealt with when I looked for people to fix it.

First of I had the lazy guy, he looked at the motor and said he can't repair it, I must buy a new one. The second guy was the greedy one, he gave me a quote of R2000 to repair it, almost the price of a new one. Lucky for me I met the honest guy, he repaired it for R750 and reconditioned the whole motor even giving me a new outside cover.

I guess it's no surprise that you get honest, lazy and greedy people no matter what the situation is in Life

After I coded the remotes it was time for my brick session, I was tempted to do it outside as it was such a lovely sunny day but that would have meant biking in the dark. I had no option but the Computrainer.

Next weekends ride will definitely be outside, if the weather stay this way.

My brick session consisted of a 3h15 bike ride and a 1 hour run session. The 3h15 bike session didn't scare me but what was "inside" that 3h15 scared me a lot.

I had 4x30 minutes intervals, two of which were to be done at Ironman race pace and the other two at slightly above Ironman race pace with recovery intervals in between. During the last two sessions I was hanging on for dear life.

The run session that followed was even worse and I realized very quickly how far I am away from Ironman race fitness but just coming out of Winter, one can understand. All I know there is a lot of hard work waiting. I only did about 30 minutes running as it felt like someone was driving nails into my legs and I didn't want to injure myself just as Summer is approaching.

This coming week is another hectic one but coach did adjust my program for me to get to training while away. I have a meeting down at the coast at another Dealership on Tuesday and is flying down on Monday night.

Then I will be home on Tuesday night before leaving for an Audi conference at Sun City from Wednesday to Friday. All my training will be running or swimming with my bike sessions being arranged for Wednesday morning and another Brick session on Sunday.

Today's Training:

Brick:

Bike: 3h15, 107.8km, 140bpm ave, 3057kcal, 32.8km/h

Run: 28:40min, 5.5km, 143bpm, 461kcal, 5:15min/km

Still no Feeling

2010-08-14T19:00:00.002+02:00

This past weekend when we were down at the coast for DJ's dance competition I walked past this Ice Rink at the shopping centre. As I walked past I got some flash backs of my little mishap last November on the Ice Rink when we had DJ's birthday party. (Scroll down to the bottom of the post to read about the mishap)

I teased Kim and said I am going skating after lunch but the remarks and looks I got wasn't funny and I understand why.

It's been more than 8 months since my mishap and I still have no feeling to part of my face. During my visit to the ER that day the doctor did explain to me, after I asked him about the side of my face being numb, that it's the nerves that got damaged and it will take up to 6 months for the feeling to come back.

The feeling to most of the left side of my face did come back but a small part of my lip is still numb and if I touch it my nose starts to itch. I guess I must go and see a doctor but I already know the answer. "The feeling might come back after some months or it might never come back".

It's not really bothering me apart from the odd occasion when I touch my lip and my nose start itching.

Training's been good so far this week apart from my left hamstring cramping during Thursday's bike session. It was another Steady State interval session but this time it was 3x20 minutes instead of 3x15 minutes. The first two was spot on but during the last one I cramped and tried easy pedalling before going again but with no luck.

I had no choice but to abandon the session. Good thing it happened during last interval as I could still manage a good 1h14 session covering 42.5km. Luckily during today's run the hamstring was fine but the real test will be tomorrow during my brick session which will include another 2x20minute SS intervals.

Today's Training:
Run: 1h10, 15.2km including 2x5km tempo run during main interval.

Mini Vacation

2010-08-10T20:17:00.005+02:00

DJ was participating in a dance competition over the long weekend and with us leaving one day earlier and making it a four day weekend it felt like a mini vacation.

We left on Thursday afternoon on our 7 hour (including stop overs for fuel and food) drive and arrived down at the coast just before midnight. We couldn't fly down as Kim had some furniture and stuff she wanted to take down to the apartment and that just meant some extra work for me.

Luckily I had no training on my schedule for Friday and we explored the new Shopping Centre/Mall that opened recently and is just ten minutes down the road from our apartment.

I knew I was in trouble when Kim said, "I love this Mall and it is so close to our apartment" and said that we don't have to drive to the other two big shopping mall that's close to Durban (which is more than a 30 minute drive) as this one has everything.

Me and DJ having fun at the game arcade in the Mall

We spent most of the day at the Mall and just had enough time explore the beach before we took DJ down to the dance registration which opened at 5pm.

I even gave DJ some Golf lessons and I can't even play Golf. Some Friends were also down for the competition and seeing that we drove down and they flew down we offered to take the Husband's Golf clubs down in the car. While we waited for them to come and fetch the clubs me and DJ made full use of it. Kim wasn't happy but we loved it.

Don't think they read my blog but if they do, Sorry, I know people don't like it when other use their clubs but we couldn't resist.

Saturday and Sunday it was just dance from the morning to the evening and DJ did very well. She's a bit disappointed but I am happy. I must say I think she set herself very high standards even at her age.

This is her first year participating in competitions and on Saturday she reached the semi-final in both the slow dance and freestyle section. On Sunday they combined the divisions and she then made it to the quarter final in the slow dance section.

With her falling out earlier on Sunday we were able to get to the beach one more time before we had to drive back on Monday morning. For once the family didn't have to fall in with my training schedule but I arranged my training according to DJ's dance and Kim's shopping schedule.

Luckily my training wasn't that hectic and I only had 3 run sessions planned for the weekend as I didn't took my bike along and my coach rearranged my training plan accordingly.

I must say that this break is just what I needed and I relaxed and enjoyed it 100%. I think I also caught up on sleep, before I knew it I was gone at 9pm in the evenings and only woke up at 7am the next morning.

The weekend wasn't without drama and this idiot tried to push start his car and pushed it right into the back of the Bus. The best of it all was he and his friend were pushing the car with no one inside.

Lucky for me I was outside in the parking area when it happened otherwise I think they would have just left without saying anything.

When I asked him why do you try and push start the car without anybody in the car, he said they first wanted to get momentum before getting behind the wheel, Idiot.

As I saw it happened, I just knew it when I looked at the car, they had no insurance and also had no money to pay for the damages. Even the license on the car has expired.

Kim said afterwards that she is proud of me for not losing my temper as I was upset but kept my calm. I used to be a guy who would first hit and then asked questions but I wasn't going to let this hick up spoil our weekend.

Today reality struck as I had two meeting which kept me busy all day and it didn't get any easier with a 1h15 bike session after work which included 3x15min at my SS(steady state) pace

Training:
Saturday

Run: 42:45min, 8.5km(fartleks 5x2min with my best 2 minutes average at 3:00/km)

Sunday

Run: 1h27, 17.9km

Monday

Run: 1h00, 12.7km

Tuesday

Bike: 1h15, 44.2km( main set 3 x15minutes at SS pace)

15 Minutes of Torture

2010-08-03T21:25:00.005+02:00

Tonight's bike session was one of my shorter sessions of the week but probably one of the hardest. Unlike DJ (above) and Eddy (below), who were fast asleep while I was suffering big time, sleep was the last thing on my mind. Death was the more appropriate thought that crossed my mind. Funny thing is I do this session every week but it just don't feel any easier, instead I feel closer to death the more I do it.The session look something like this and most of you will know it as speed intervals.

Warm up for 20 minutes, no hard pedalling just warm up the system. Now do 10 x 1 minute all out intervals with 30 seconds recovery between each 1 minute interval. And remember you must go all out.

You probably think that is not too bad, well add the following just for good measure. You need to stay in your Aero/Time Trail position for the duration of the 15 minutes and your cadence must be above 110rpm during the 1 minute interval.

I'll tell you 30 seconds have never gone by so fast and on the flip side 1 minute never felt so long.

Then after this main session do another 20 minutes cool down after the Torture.

Now go and try it and let me know what you think.

Good news on the contact lenses side, I found an excellent Optometrist and will soon have the right lenses but that's a whole blog post on it's own but the bottom line is, if I stayed with the current Optometrist, contact lenses wouldn't have worked for me, ever!

Today's training:

Bike: 55min, 30 km, 146bpm ave, 171bpm max,

Happy and Frustrated

2010-08-02T18:28:00.004+02:00

Guess Monday won't be Monday if there's not some sort of hick up during the day. It was a great day until I arrived at the Optometrist for my 4pm appointment. When I walked in and told the receptionist that I am here for my appointment to sort out my contact lenses and she had this look on her face I could see trouble.

She had a look in the book (think it was just to play for time or think of how she will break the news to me) and said my appointment was cancelled by the optometrist as she had something else to attend too and they should have notified me. Only problem is nobody notified me!

I think if it was the first visit or even the second one, I would have said OK but I've been visiting them too often to sort out the lenses and I said I will find another Optometrist and ask them to just get my prescriptions from them.

Not being able to sort out the lenses made me decide to just call it a day. I wasn't rude and spoke calmly without getting excited but she could see that I had enough.

The first pair of lenses had perfect vision but was irritating my eyes. She then ordered another pair and they were just wrong. If I wanted to hamper my vision, they were the ones. I couldn't even see straight or read with them in my eyes.

Hope I can sort out these contacts before I give up and revert back to my glasses.

On a much happier note my new running shoes arrived today. I just could not run any further with the K-Swiss shoes as they were giving me blisters all over, especially when I do speed work. I guess they work for a lot of people but they ain't working for me.

I decided to go back to Newton shoes but the problem is there is no stock of the Racers in South Africa and I am not paying more to get the shoes from the US than what the actual shoe cost. In the Newton range I only had one choice and that was the Sir Isaac Guidance trainer. Not what I wanted but I'll take a chance with them.

The racers will be available in South Africa September or early October and by that time this pair will be almost done.

Another positive from today was due to the cancelled appointment I could do my swim training earlier at the gym before the rush hour after everybody finished work.

Training for the day:

Swim: 28:30min, 1.5km

And the Celebrations continue

2010-08-01T17:49:00.015+02:00

This weekend the celebrations continue after my birthday on Wednesday.

My sister, which I did mention, who I haven't seen this year came to visit us. The timing was perfect and they arrived just as I got back from the dealership on Saturday. We started the BBQ in the afternoon and it carried on late into the night. My sister even gave me a "Big 40" badge together with my present and I wore it all night, haha

The ladies: Kim, DJ, Heloise, Mom, Etresia, Shaune

Shaun, my brother in law, who can really make good food made me some Chicken Gizzards as a starter before the BBQ. He showed me how to make it his way if I want to do it myself next time. One thing I miss and I know it sounds bad, is he stopped drinking end of last year.

Shaun, me and Gerhard

Not that we are alcoholics but he was good fun when he still had a drink or two and it is not like the old times, having a few beers together. But I am glad for him.

After dinner I got this bright idea to "pop" in our Wedding video of sixteen years ago. Don't know how it started but I think it was when we talked about my younger sister's wedding plans and I wanted to show DJ our wedding.
Eddy, part of the party

Funny but we've never showed her our wedding video. Well it was one funny video, had a real good laugh, especially DJ, at all the people and especially at all the hair styles and I also realized how old I'm getting when I see children running around in the video and now they are married with children.

With Shaun being back into road running after a long "down time" I promised that we will visit them soon and we can do a road race together. At least that way it won't take seven months to see my sister again.

This morning my sister and Shaun left at about 12pm after we had a late breakfast and then it was time for my brick session. Something I wasn't looking forward too, especially on a Sunday afternoon but I had to do it.

It was one of those weekends where I just didn't want it to end and I wouldn't have mind to have them for another day or two but time just flew by and before I realized they had to drive back the Polokwane, about a 3 hour drive. See you soon Sis!!!

Officially a Veteran now

2010-07-29T19:55:00.006+02:00

Well, I am now officially a Veteran when it comes to racing. Yesterday was my 40th birthday and it was awesome.

When it comes to racing the rules differ for each sport discipline and although I've been participating in the 40-44 age group at Ironman I was technically not 40 yet but the rule state that the age you are at 31 December of that year is the age you participate in.

But when it comes to running they apply the rule whereby you race in the age group of your actual age on race day. So when it comes to Road running I was still in the Open division up to yesterday.

I said to Kim that I am actually looking at doing a road race as soon as possible just to tick that Veteran box on the entry form.

Some people have an issue with their age but I don't care about getting old and believe that you are just as young or old as you think you are. Maybe that's why Club Music is still my favourite kind of music and I still see myself as a twenty something year old guy although I can feel the difference in age when I wake up after a hard day of racing or training.

Yesterday after work our whole family had a get together and had some lovely snacks and cakes my mother bake. Having had a Home Industry shop and still baking for clients from home, no one bakes like my mother.

She, DJ and my Sister even baked me an Ironman cake in the spur of the moment just before I got home.

At the end of the night I was a little bit high after a few beers, some red wine and lots of Coffee. I think I had a caffeine overdose. The reason being I got a coffee machine for my birthday, with a coffee grinder, something I've wanted for some time. The machine also have a timer so that I can now wake up to the smell of coffee.

I was experimenting the whole night and was making coffee, espresso and cappuccino and the family was the Guinea pigs. I am now just searching for the perfect Coffee bean but I think between Russell Nugent and Urban Ninja, I will be guided to THE one, as both of them know their coffee very well.

The family also gave me some very nice red wine glasses as I also love my red wine.

Well needless to say I did no training on my birthday but I didn't miss any session as coach was kind enough to give me the day of. But today I was back at it full swing even with a stuffy beer, wine and caffeine head this morning and did a Tempo run session and Swim session for the day.

This weekend my sister from Polokwane is coming to visit and we will have a family BBQ to celebrate my birthday again, but I don't mind. Looking forward to it as I haven't seen my sister in 2010 yet.

Summer's here, well Almost

2010-07-25T18:50:00.001+02:00

Summer is here or at least that's how it felt this weekend. During the day it is quite pleasant and warm but one can feel at night and early in the morning that it's still a bit nippy. Well Winter is almost gone and to be honest I can't wait.

Funny how one's perspective change about the seasons.

Not long ago when I was still a FG(Fat Guy) I loved the Winters, I can dress up warm, do nothing and eat a lot. In summer I still did nothing, eat a lot but was sweating like a pig with the big fat layer around me.

Now that I'm a PFG(Previous Fat Guy) I love the Summer and "hate" the Winter. It is so cold with less layers of fat around me.

Today I did my long run at 1pm and it was as you can see from the picture, between 23 and 31 with an average of 26c. Not bad for Winter. I also had a great run and just perform better in the heat than in the cold. I did a 1h30 endurance run and decided to run the hilly route instead of the less hilly route and could still manage 18.5km.

That's the problem or advantage of living in a city/neighbourhood that only have up and downhills, no flat sections. It is just the difference in grades of the hills that determine if it's a hilly or not so hilly route.

Well as you can sense from my post I am really excited now that Winter is disappearing.

Thursday afternoon I had some business to take care of in Witbank and had a follow up appointment at the Optometrist to see if I can come right with contact lenses. It was the ideal day to leave work early as DJ had here first hockey game of the season.

She's the one, right in the middle at the far sight bending forward and ready for action.

She's been chosen to represent the 1st team of the school although she is only in grade 6 and usually the open team consist of players that's in grade 7. I am so proud of her. Luckily they drew 0-0 and didn't loose the first game of the season.

She was all over the field and one can see from this red face that she did her fair share of running.

The mini hockey practise was also on and I enjoyed this little guy(nr4) so much, the stick is almost bigger than him but he is all over the field.

I also took Dolly to the Vet today so that he can "fix" her up. It is just impossible to have good hygiene in the house with a dog that is one heat and with Eddy becoming a "man" it is just crazy. We've decided to rather fix her up and that way Eddy can also start eating again. Wish I can drop weight like he did the last week.

Power Intervals, just what the Doctor ordered

2010-07-20T21:13:00.003+02:00

Today's training schedule called for power intervals and as I arrived home after work it was the last thing on my mind. I just wanted to relax in front of the TV and call it a day.

The last few days at work's been hectic and hard as we just finished financial year end and now it's all the planning and budget preparation going into the new year, o and salary increases and you can't please everybody. Always someone who wants to resign because they didn't get want the wanted!

I decided to just go ahead and do the session before I change my mind and boy am I glad I did.
The interval looked something like this. It's a 45 minute session, and if you think 45 minutes can't be that hard, think again when it's power intervals.

The session started with a 20 minute warm up in the beginning and a 20 minute cool down period and in between is a main set of 8x30 seconds all out with 30 seconds recovery, if you can call it recovery. It is just 30 seconds to prevent you from puking.

Yes it adds up to 48 minutes but I did a 20 minute warm up and cool down instead of 18 minutes.

During the 8x30seconds I was really suffering and if you are not suffering you are not doing it right but after my training session I felt so good and got rid of all the work related stress that's been hampering me the past two days.

Tomorrow I am back in the gym after a two week break and can't wait for the pain on Thursday morning when I wake up.

My next race is only in October and I am really looking forward to three months of just hard training without thinking or tapering for some race.

Ain't no Bike Mechanic

2010-07-18T17:57:00.005+02:00

I ain't no bike mechanic but I need to become one pretty soon or else I am gonna regret it again like I did this weekend.

Yesterday as I prepped my Mountain Bike for today's off road duathlon I heard this terrible noise coming from the crank/front part and I had no idea what it was. Last time I used my mountain bike was on the 20th of June during the last off road duathlon.

After the race I parked the bike, as I do all my training on my TT bike, and pulled it up again for today's race. As I probably know by now I should have checked the bike earlier. Checking your bike on a Saturday afternoon when all the shops are closed is not a good idea. My way of fixing a bike problem is some lubricant(Q20) and some grease but this time it didn't work.

Don't know if you've ever seen people standing next to the road looking under their cars bonnet but have no idea what to do, well that was me. After fiddling around and drowning the front chain ring/BB in lubricant it was quieter but when I took it for a test drive I couldn't get it onto the small chain ring.

I phoned my Bike shop owner/ mechanic and he explained which screw to turn which way to adjust the derailleur but the more I adjusted it the more I screwed it up.

Eventually I was fed up, full of grease and very irritated and still with a bike with a noisy front part that can't go into the small chain ring. I decided to cancel the duathlon as I didn't want to drive 2 hours to do a race and need to do the bike part in the bike chain, especially going up a mountain or have a DNF due to the bike.

Lesson learned this weekend: I am gonna buy a book to learn more about bike parts or attend a bike mechanic course.

I am not bad at mechanical stuff and as soon as I apply my mind to something I can master it. I did manage to learn most of the skills about the building industry and build our house by myself without any contractors help.

It is just that I have never had to do bike fixing before. With my TT bike, I take it to the bike shop, they service it and I bike. Never had any bike issues with it, but Mountain biking is a little bit different it seems.

Well at least I am done with racing for a while and my next race will only be October and then it is back to long distance road racing again.

Being a Single Dad is Hard Work

2010-07-16T19:26:00.006+02:00

Being a Single Dad even thou it was only for a week is hard work. Kim was away on a work trip and me and DJ was all alone this week. Kim still have another week long work trip but that is only somewhere in October, so for now we're fine again.

I really don't know how it would be possible to do Ironman, managing a full time job and looking after DJ if I did it all by myself. I've said it in a previous blog post but it is during weeks like the past one that I appreciate Kim even more.

There was no time for Blogging, surfing the web or just watching TV and if it wasn't for my Blackberry I would only be able to read my emails tonight. Tonight is actually the first time I am working on the PC this whole week.

One thing I did manage was training but only because it was a semi taper week for me with the off road duathlon on Sunday. If it was a full Ironman training week I'm sure some sessions would have been missed.

Lucky for me my Mom helped and picked DJ up after school and made sure all the homework was done when I arrived home from work.

This Sunday is the last short distance race before I swing my focus to the longer distance racing and my next race, a long distance Duathlon will only be in October.

I left work early today and went back to the optometrist to pick up my contact lenses. It was the first time I've tried it after wearing glasses for I guess about 10 years. They weren't that bad and I think I will come right.

The two photos I've posted tonight is just some special Dad/Daughter moments some time ago. We had a lot of those moment this week but taking pictures this week didn't even cross my mind.

Split Second Decision

2010-07-08T19:27:00.004+02:00

I think all decisions we make in life are split second decisions, we just don't realize it because our life is not in danger. So when making a sudden decision when you are out of your comfort zone you tend to think of it as a split second decision because it could change your life forever.

Tuesday night was one of those moments for me. The picture above is of the N12 Highway (Freeway) I travel on everyday of my life. As you might know I life in one city (Witbank) but work in another city (Springs) which is just over 100km apart.

Therefore I travel everyday 100km+ to work and 100km+ back home after work. During Winter it is the worst as there's a lot of Fog in the morning and part of the morning and the whole evening trip is done in the dark.

The Highway is one long stretch of highway with no bumper to bumper traffic, so speed can be a problem.

On Tuesday night as I was coming home with about 30km to go an Idiot (no other way to describe the person) in an 30+ year old car (no surprise) made a U-turn right in front of me on the highway as I was approaching.

I had little time to react and slam on the brakes and swerved to me left only to swerve back again as the idiot immediately changed lanes after he made the U-turn. I braked so hard that the hazards switch on my car came on (a safety precaution on the VW Touareg, whereby the hazards come on if you brake too hard) and this has never happened before.

It was the closest I came to Road Rage and just wanted to pull the person over and sort him out but decided to just keep on driving. When I got home I was still shaking.

Lesson learned from the night: drive slower, be careful, be thankful, think for others, greet your family morning and night as if you will never see them again and remember every decision is a split second decision.

On a lighter note, DJ suddenly has this urge, passion and determination to learn how to drive a car. There is an open piece of veld less than a kilometer from our house and for time being that is her training ground.

She turns 12 this year and can only get her learner license at age 17 but she says why wait till then to learn if she can start now. Than reminded me of the 10 000 hour rule but more on than later.

It is amazing to see the passion and excitement on her face when she drives. My car is an Auto which make it so much easier for her as she just need to control accelerator and brake while driving. No need to worry about gear changes, but as long as she develops the feel for driving that is fine with me.

I am amazed at how quickly she learns. In just two "lessons" I am actually not feeling nervous when she drives.

On the Triathlon front, which is what the blog is actually about it is going good considering it's Winter. The Calorie counting is on target and I've lost 1kg so far this week just by recording what I eat and by making sure I end the day with a 500kcal "negative split".

Training is also spot on so far this week and I have a brick session this Saturday with some hard intervals within the session, going to be a real challenge. Next week is another easier week as I prepare for another leg in the Multiman Duathlon series next Sunday and will aim to improve on that 5th Overall place.

Calorie Counting

2010-07-04T18:35:00.005+02:00

It's been just over two months since Ironman South Africa and you can see from pictures that I haven't done any Calorie Counting lately. Add to that the Winter, which is luckily on it's way out, I've gained more weight than what I wanted. I am still training but no matter how little or hard you train it's all about the calorie in, calorie out rule.

During Winter I give myself some leeway and eat a little bit more but this year I've exceeded all expectations. I think last year Kona was some sort of rescue "device" as I started training soon after IM South Africa and trained throughout the Winter.

This year there is no Kona so the free wheeling/eating has been going on much longer.

From tomorrow I am back at not necessary eating healthier as I do in general but just eating less, to balance out the calories consumed vs calories burned.

After Wednesday's Power session on the bike which weren't the best I've ever done I am glad that my bike session on Saturday was spot on target again. It's almost if you feel you loose fitness if you do a session and you're not performing according to the training plan.

On Saturday after my bike ride we went to a Wedding Venue together with my sister, Gerhard and my Mother. My Sister and Gerhard are planning their wedding either April next year or if they can't find the right venue they will have it September next year. As my Father used to say: "Getting Married is like having Diarrhoea, you know it's coming and you can't do anything about it"

As I said in my last post most, if not all the family discussions nowadays start, end or have Wedding talks in it.

Although I liked the venue my sister wasn't happy and the search continue..................

Today just the three of us (me, Kim, DJ) went for lunch and it was really great. After lunch DJ asked me if I can take her for another "driving" lesson. That's the advantage of having a big veld close to our house and having a SUV with Auto transmission.

It's so easy for her to get her eye, hand, foot coordination right and just get the feel of it to accelerate and brake while turning.

Well let the Calorie Counting begin.

Sunday on my Mind

2010-07-01T21:00:00.006+02:00

First of all I need to apologies for two things.

Number One: To all my friends and followers who support England, I am sorry, I am really Flippen sorry. But my German team showed you how to play soccer on Sunday.

Secondly I must apologies for the lack of Triathlon and Ironman related posts. Lately I've just been so busy with other work related stuff and being right in the middle of Winter is not helping at all.

One thing I can't believe is that this time last year I was doing 20 hours plus a week, to prepare for Ironman Worlds during the Winter. I don't know how I did it but training this Winter is a real challenge and I don't even put in the hours.

I guess it's about setting yourself a target and work towards it. Or at least I am that way, I can't just train for the sake of training, I must work towards a race. Talking about that, I am busy reading a very interesting book which Urban-Ninja suggested.

Although I am only half way through the book, Chapter 2 has hit the cord and that changed my mind about training, working towards a goal and life in general. But more about the book later.

Finally, to get back to Sunday, it was such a lovely day. We decided to have a mid Winter BBQ and although the wind was a bit hectic during the morning the day turned out real nice. It was awesome having the family together and enjoying the day. Thinking of it our Winters aren't that bad, just a bit chilly early in the morning.

We had a good time and lately almost every discussion turns out to be about my sister and Gerhard's wedding early next year or that's the plan anyway.

After the BBQ we watched the game between Germany and England together as a family and what a game. The day couldn't end better and me and DJ woke the neighbors up on Sunday evening with our Vuvuzelas after the game.

Me and my Buddy, Eddy and below DJ helping me with the BBQ.

Training wise, yesterday's bike session was really hard. It was a power interval session and the main session was 10 x 2min all out efforts maintaining a high RPM on 2 min recovery. I just could not find any rhythm and my legs were dead, just could not spin them around at maximum watts.

I did speak to my coach and I think it can be the 9 hour road trip on Monday together with all the Financial year end related issues at work that caused some fatigue. Hopefully during this weekends long run I will be back at it.

Best 9 hours of the week

2010-06-29T19:42:00.010+02:00

My week started with a 9 hour trip down to Upington to deliver a Caravelle bus to Russell Nugent, a super fast Ironman athlete who's also been to Kona before.

Lucky for me DJ joined me on the trip and it was just great as we had so much time to just talk and have fun. At times she would plug in her Ipod but not for long before she sees something next to the road and will ask me or tell me something about it.

She also took the video camera along and I still need to see if any of the odd 25 video clips is blog material.

It was the first time for me and obviously for her that we visited Upington and also drove through that part of our Country and she was just amazed by all the small town she didn't even know exists. DJ really enjoyed the town name, Sannieshof. When she first saw the sign she thought it was a joke and was laughing her but off.

We also had a great laugh at one of the road works stop and go areas. We were the last car and the worker handed me a flag and asked me to just hand it to the worker on the other side a few kilometers further. He will then know the last car has past. DJ had all the joke about the flag, from keeping it and just drive on to playing and waving it.

Some pictures of our road trip:

The initial plan for me was that I would drive down on my own, until Sunday afternoon. After the soccer world cup match we were talking about the week ahead and my trip to Upington on Monday.

Without even thinking DJ said she wants to come along. I explained to her how far it is but apparently the 900 kilometers didn't bother her. We had such a great laugh when she made the following remark: "It's not everyday that one can visit Upington you know"

I said to her if her mother say yes, she can come. Kim agreed and within 10 minutes I booked her a ticket to fly back with me after we delivered the Bus and it was done.

Monday was an early start for us at 3am, and we were on the road at 4am to be in Upington at 1pm.

We arrived 30 minutes later than planned but I was happy as we had a lot of road works to deal with, which slowed us down.

We met Russel and his family and had lunch with them before me and Russell went to his Business (his an optometrist) to do some business while DJ was entertained my Russell's three daughters.

That evening we flew back at 5:30 and was back in Johannesburg at 6:30. The dealership brought me a car to the airport and we only had another hour to drive back to Witbank.

I was really surprised that DJ was awake the entire day but about half an hour before we reached home she just became very silent and when I looked again she was gone.

She was so excited about the whole trip and even told me in the plane when we flew back that she thinks we must move to Upington. I think having three friends to play with the whole afternoon influenced her decision a bit and with school holidays being extra long this year due to the World Cup I think she also misses her school friends.

When we flew back we realized we took all these pictures but forgot to take one of Upington, ah well next time.

Training wise I couldn't train Monday but the rest of the week I am back to normal and the hours are slowly building up again to Ironman level, currently I only manage between 6 and 8 hours a week but all of them are very specific and qualty hours.

A week of Late Nights, a Spaceship and a Robbery

2010-06-26T18:25:00.008+02:00

This week was a bit of a hectic week as it's Financial year end for our business at the end of June and getting everything done and still trying to trade as usual can be a challenge.

On Monday I heard on the radio that some spaceship will be visible to South Africans between 6:25 and 6:29 during the evening. I arrived back from work just after six and told Kim about it. We stood outside and was looking up in the sky like two people that's not all right up there.

I think the neighbors thought we have taken some narcotics, or maybe they thought we need to look down if we are searching for something, not up in the sky.

Lucky for us it is winter and it was already dark outside. Then just out of nowhere this bright star appeared from the sky and was moving very fast across the sky over our house. It didn't rise from the horizon or disappeared over the horizon. It just appeared out of nowhere and after three or so minutes it just disappeared in front of our eyes.

It was such an amazing thing to see.

Added later: Maybe my description in English wasn't exactly how I wanted to say it. It was actually the International Space Station (ISS) that passed over and not a Spaceship. After reading my post and the comment by Bryan I realized Spaceship sounds a bit ET like.

With all the World Cup soccer I am really losing out on sleep. The games during the evening starts at 8:30pm and finish at about 10:15. That is way past my bed time and I either fall asleep during the post match interviews or I miss a minute or two during the second half.

But it is just so amazing to watch all these games especially now that we are entering the last 16 stage. It is almost time tonight for USA vs Ghana. I am supporting Germany during the world cup but tonight I will support the USA.

I am even wearing my USA triathlon track suit which I swopped during World Duathlon Championship in 2007 when it was held in Hungary with some guy after the event at the post race party. I can't remember the guys name but he left his airline boarding ticket inside one of the pockets. I did put the ticket somewhere, must just have a look.

On Thursday one of my sales guys went to the bank to withdraw some money from his account and it was a big amount. As he came out of the bank some lady distracted him by asking him for the time and before he knew it they shoved him in a car and drove off, just like movies.

The bank is in the same street not far from out dealership. They were three and drove with him to an abandoned area and robbed him of his money and all his personal stuff, even his glasses. After the whole incident he got some help and the people brought him back to the dealership.

I was really shocked at this whole incident as the man is in his 60's and the way they treated and threatened him was really shocking. They threatened him all the time to slit his throat while they were busy robbing him.

I was really shocked and the whole Thursday night I was just thinking about this whole episode. Even during my training I could only think about it.

Friday during the day I went with him and a police inspector to the scene and I must say I would have either collapsed or pissed myself if it was me. The area where they took him was next to a railway track and they walked with him into the veld for more than 200 meters before they tied his hands and feet together and forced him down on the ground before they robbed him.

He also admit that when they forced him so deep into the veld he thought they were going to kill him. After we finished with the inspector at the scene we stopped by the lady at the shop which helped him get back to the dealership and gave her a big bunch of flowers. She is one of our clients and was just as upset as it happened less than a kilometer from her shop.

Training wise I had a recovery week after last weekends race with Friday and Tomorrow being rest days. Since Sunday's race my left Achilles muscle was a bit tight but I have expected some different muscles being sore as I am not used to off road racing, luckily I recovered well during the week.

Today was the first day where I did a longer training session with a 1h30 run. Most of this weeks training was less than a hour per session. Next week it is back to normal with some heavy training sessions waiting for me.

Thursday''s Training:

Bike: 1h20, 46km, 144bpm. (power intervals)

Today's Training:

Run: 1h30, 18.5km, (endurance session)

Bike: 45 minutes, 24km, 124bpm (recovery session)

Fathers Day, my way

2010-06-20T18:32:00.007+02:00

Today was Fathers Day and everybody celebrate it differently. Some have family gatherings, others go out for Lunch or Dinner, well I celebrated it by going out and doing an Off Road Duathlon.

When the alarm went off this morning at 5am I was questioning my decision. Waking up so early on one of the few days I can sleep late wasn't nice. The event was just under two hours drive and we got going just before 7am. Before we left home DJ gave me a Fathers Day present, picture above. It was a box of chocolate Nutties, a scrap booking thing of me and her and a card with some touching words inside.

Funny that the card she chose was of a Chimpanzee on the cover and the medal I received today had a Baboon on it. I do get the message, haha

DJ and Kim came along which was, I guess their Fathers Day present to me. Showing me what they will do for me, getting up on a Sunday morning at 5am, Thanks Girls.

This was only going to be my second off road Duathlon and the first one in more than four years. I am not big on Mountain Biking and thus Off Road Duathlon/Triathlon races. The reason is I don't like falling and the odds are much bigger on a Mountain Bike than on my TT bike.

The running wasn't my concern but the Mountain Biking got me a little nervous. It was a 5km run a 20km Mountain bike and then a 2.5km run again.

For this time of the year/season the distance was just perfect, just enough to get you tired but not long enough to kill you.

The run started of well and I managed to do the first 5km run in just over 19 minutes. I was happy when I saw the time, seeing that it was off road and I was running with my normal road running shoes. I was slipping a lot especially on the loose gravel

I still wanted to buy me some Trial running shoes but never got to it and when I woke up to do it Wednesday during the public holiday I knew it was too late. Running your first race in brand new shoes, off road- not a good idea.

I managed to end the first run leg in second place overall but knew that I won't be able to maintain that position on the bike.

Within the first 5km the first guy passed me and by the 10km mark I was in 5th place. I could maintain my distance to the 4th place guy. It was a YoYo effect, as I would catch him on the dirt roads but as soon as we hit the technical part of the course he will pull away.

Eventually we came in side by side into T2 as the last 2km of the bike was a very fast dirt road without any hills or turns and I could reel him inn.

Transition times in off road racing is much slower than in road Tri's. I eventually got going on the second run and could feel immediately that I won't maintain a sub 4min/km pace on this run.

I did manage to do the second 2.5km run in just over 11 minutes.

Overall I'm happy with my result and with the day but I won't change Ironman racing for Off Road racing soon. Not my type of thing. I finished first in my age group and fifth overall, I even received R400 prize money for my 1st place.

When we arrived home, the day training/racing wise wasn't over. I still had a 1h30 recovery ride to do. It was a low heart rate, low watts ride on the Computrainer just to get rid of the Lactic Acid in my legs. All part of my new program with CTS.

Was the first time ever I did a recovery ride after a race, usually my recovery after a race is some Food and Beer.

Mini Man Off Road Duathlon result

5km run: 19:05

20km bike: 48:22

2.5km run: 11:16

Total: 1h19

1st in age group 40-49

4th overall Individual

5th Overall, including teams

Tri-Stemmet

So much for a Race Schedule

Good training day for a Monday

Good to be Back

Open Season

P4 Mountain Bike

Bombs Away

10 to 5150

Maybe Next Year

Unusual way to Celebrate

Another Curve Ball

Back to Normal, sort of

Long Weekend and a lot of Traveling

Babbas Eco Trail Run Report

Where the "Streets" have no names

SIU Season

Wedding's around the corner

Take 2

Been a While

Day 2, done and dusted

24hr Mountain Bike Charity Ride

Ironman Transition Time: 20:11

A Proud Daddy Moment

Not even the rain could stop me

Just be Yourself

Just shows you

Back at it

Merry Christmas

"Need a Lifestyle Change"

Recovery Going Good

Treasure Hunt

A Rock in my Shoe

Tussen die Boom en die Bas

The Injury Ghost

55:4:3

11Global Triathlon Race Report

Sho't Left

If I Only

Having Fun, That's all

Words can't describe.........

House Betsie Louw 12hour Charity Ride

Got to Make a Living

So much to Celebrate

Big Shout Out

Afriman Race Report

Risk a Little

We're here to Share

Some Motivation

Kona 09 the Tri-Stemmet experience

My Baby is Back

Speed Week

Weekend Full of Ups and a Down

Meet Matilda's Sister

One Year Ago

1 of 206 Million

Daddy & DJ Day

Thank You, Cervelo!

Two Wheels and some Pedals

You Never Know

Can't Wait

From East to West

A New Life

Still no Feeling

Mini Vacation

15 Minutes of Torture

Happy and Frustrated

And the Celebrations continue

Officially a Veteran now

Summer's here, well Almost

Power Intervals, just what the Doctor ordered

Ain't no Bike Mechanic

Being a Single Dad is Hard Work

Split Second Decision

Calorie Counting

Sunday on my Mind

Best 9 hours of the week

A week of Late Nights, a Spaceship and a Robbery

Fathers Day, my way