From East to West

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!!!