Enduroman – Look mom, I’m an Endurance Athlete now.

There were some words said between myself and Enduroman that I regret, and now looking back and scrolling through the photos I would like to apologise to Franschoek and it’s beauty.

It was a long day, I wasn’t thinking straight and I just wanted to go home, back to my little comfort zone.

Here’s how it all went down.

Some time mid January 2014, a few days after Totalsports Challenge, I stumbled across an advert for this new event called Enduroman. 2.5km Swim, 92Km Mountain Bike and a 21Km Trail Run. Upon reading a few more details, I made this ridiculous decision to enter it. I’m not quite sure what was going through my head and why on earth I decided that this could be a good idea? The furthest distance I had taken my mountain bike was about 40km. And if I recall correctly I gave myself a week off after that ride.

But things had changed a little bit, especially after Totalsports Challenge. After what was almost a successful day, until the MTB leg, I think the bug for Multi-sport adventure and pushing myself had finally taken a nice big bite. Having learned from a few mistakes I made that day, I knew I had to call in for some reinforcements.
I set out to find myself coach, and so my season of becoming an Endurance Athlete begun.

I threw myself straight into the deep end. It’s the only way you really learn, plus I needed to make sure I commit properly. I went onto GoMulti’s race calendar and picked a few more “fun” races to do before the big day.
This was my final list:

• Xterra Grabouw.
• First Ascent Mast Challenge – King of the Mountain.
• Helderberg Mountain Challenge. (Had to pull out in the morning, too sick)
• Knysna Oyster Festival Big 5 Challenge.
• ENDUROMAN.

Not going into any more details of the above races, you can click on their links to read more about them if you haven’t yet.
Lets just say though, it’s been an interesting season, with lots of massive lessons learned, and massive check in at the door for my ego.

Back to Enduroman. After a solid training block, 8 weeks of rehab for both Achilles tendons, a good 8 days of doing less due to Man-Flu. (I learned my lesson, when it comes to pushing training when Injured or Sick, so wasn’t going to make that mistake again) I felt like I was ready to take on my toughest race to date.

Ok I’m lying I didn’t feel ready at all, I knew that I was ready, well as ready as I could have been, but all the little things before hand, sick boy, busted ankles, worn tyres etc. Didn’t make for too much relaxing the week before race day.

With the help of a few awesome people though I went to bed friday night feeling confident and stoked. My super awesome mate Ryan Jones hooked me up with a new set of Rubena tyres for race day. Rubena Kratos in the Front and Scylla in the back. Such an awesome combo. I had been riding Rubena Scylla both back and front all year, and was perfectly happy with that. But having done one of the recce rides and seeing the loose rocky terrain, I knew a slightly more grippy tyre in the front would make for a more comfortable ride. But keeping the Scylla at the back meant I would still have a good racing “Engine.” What a legend, thanks Ryan.

The awesome peeps at Trail and Tar made a few last minute adjustments to my bike, put on my new tyres and hooked me up with a few accessories that would make for a slightly more confident day going out on the bike leg. Helps to make friends and spending time hanging out at your local bike shop. Thanks guys.

My sister, who I currently live with, was also super awesome at taking dinner requests every night and making sure I was being looked after nutrition wise.
Because I was sick boy and wasn’t able to taper properly, I sacrificed my good looks and hard work of trying get that 6 pack going for the week, by rather having a decent amount of delicious carbs to be sure to have a nice little “Energy Pack” to get me through the day.

Swim start was at 8am. And I like to take my time and have all my stuff ready with at least 30min to spare before the start whistle. So an early start for me and my super awesome seconds, Adam and Nicola Bothma. With a good hour and a bit drive from Fish Hoek to Franschoek I forced them out of bed at 5am. By then I had already been awake for an hour, I can never sleep before an event, too much excitement.

  

It was way colder than expected when we got to Franschoek. I overheard one of the organisers say, when measuring the water temperature, that it was 14.5 Degrees and when they took the thermometer out of the water the air temperature dropped right down to 10 degrees. There was also some light rain fall, so had to pack my Kit in T1 strategically.

      

‘N BOER MAAK ‘N PLAN: Ads and Nix Braving the cold and Rain for the Swim Start – BEST SECONDS EVER. Follow Adams Twitter @AdamBothma

The swim, 2.5Km, went down exactly as planned. It’s not my weakest, but it’s my slowest of the 3 disciplines. My stroke is absolutely rubbish. I even had some random old guy stop me half way through one of my swim sets at gym one day, asked me if I was training for Iron Man, told him, “Kinda, ja.” Then he responded with, “well best you start learning to swim.” Didn’t give me any great tips though, just told me my stroke needs some work. Thanks for the encouragement buddy.

Lap 1 I felt a bit funny, and I was wondering how wise it was for me to race having still spent half the previous day in bed trying to shake off the Man-Flu. But then when I looked up to my right on every alternate stroke and saw that beautiful rainbow, I took it as a thumbs up sign from the Big Man upstairs to keep on going.

48min later I finally exited the water. The swim was awesome, 2 laps of 1250m. Apart from the first 300m or so of feeling a bit funky I really enjoyed the rest of the swim, and felt the hours in the pool pay off. Maybe not pace wise, but definitely still felt pretty strong getting on the bike.

     

The bike leg. Hmmm. I have mixed feeling about this bike leg. Mostly I loved it, but there were times where I had my doubts. I exited T1 and just my luck, already a flat in my back tyre. This was kinda my own fault. Got new tyres 2 days before, and never bothered to test ride bike until exiting T1. Hoping that it was just the sealant not taking properly, I bombed my wheel and kept going.

Immediately out of the water you get greeted by a sneaky little loose rock climb, giving the legs no chance for a warm up. This slso quickly gets your head in the right space for what will be lying ahead for the rest of the day.

Unfortunately my theory seemed to be incorrect, tyre was slowly deflating again. When I felt the rocks hit my rims I knew I needed to pull over. Still not willing to give in yet, I bombed it again and hoped for a better outcome.

I made it down the hill but then finally gave in. Pulled out my spare tube and did a not so quick conversion. Hands were still cold from swim plus I had unnecessary nerves, so kept dropping leavers etc. Eventually got tube in, begged for a bomb, mine were finished, and then got going.

Reached the first water point slightly annoyed. Ad’s and Nix gave some rad encouragement though, a quick bottle change, and some words of advice. Adam told me, “keep to your own pace bro, still got 60km’s to go, you’ll catch them later.” Stubborn me though, those words fell on deaf ears. I put head down and started trying to play catch up. Why? I was never gonna win this race, not even top spots. I guess it’s the future racing snake in me coming out.

The next 40km’s were interesting. There were 1 or 2 interesting compulsory portages, couple of super muddy patches and a few sneaky climbs. Chain suck started getting a bit bad, but nothing a quick squirt of water and some spare squirt lube couldn’t sort out.

The course was filled with these muddy patches. Pic Stolen from http://oakpics.co.za/ They did a great Job capturing the event.

All was fun until about the 50km mark. I thought my legs were going great, until we started this climb, then at the top of that hill, kept climbing, around the corner, still climbing. Finally the top. No…wait…tricked you. Still climbing. Ok now we’re at the top…just kidding, still going buddy. Eventually, after what seemed like a lifetime, and 5 Mast climbs later, I was at the top of the mountain. Ok, sweet. All downhill from here. Nope! Somehow, at the top of the mountain, where there is no more mountain left, they managed to find a last little kicker?

I’m probably blowing it completely out of proportion, it was actually only about 2.8km’s long, but after an already tough ride, I’m claiming Everest. Riding like a chop, trying to play catch didn’t help the cause either. I was so out of it on the downhill, I nearly ate dirt a few times. I did hit one vertical drop where my front wheel stopped dead in the mud, and failure to clip out, left me committing to a rather embarassing slow motion dive into the bush. Luckily a widely spread field meant only about 2 witnesses.

I couldn’t remember if water point 3 was at 60, 62 or 65km. I opted for a 65km mind set. That way I’d get at least some sort of bonus if I’m wrong. My game worked out good for me, WP3 was at 62Km. A couple of R-rated words left my mouth when explaining Loop 2 to my support team. But thanks to their sarcasm and entertaining words of encouragement I was off for the last leg of the MTB loop with a new found hope.

  

Loop 3 was a small piece of Heaven for my legs. Not many exciting dirty trails. Mostly flat and 2 easy downhill tar roads. A small breather before the 21Km trail run.

Into T2, Adam managed to sneak in a coke next to my shoes. Again, if there’s coke in Heaven, this is exactly what it will taste like.

Although a ridiculously tough Mountain bike leg, the toughest I’ve ever ridden. I felt way better than I did after Knysna 80Km MTB race. The training was definitely paying off. I was feeling very ready for this run.

Trail Run Leg, 21km, 3x 7Km Loop.

I kicked off my run with a pace of 5:10 per km. I was happy with this pace. Much better than I expected.
I didn’t get too ahead of myself, as I had done this loop on the Recce ride, so I knew there was a mountain ahead. It was inevitable that this section was gonna be walked. It was just short of 1Km Long and about 100m of elevation.

Once I conquered round 1 of the beast. I set out to get back to my 5min10sec Per Km pace. My legs just started laughing at me. “What? You want us to run? Pffft…good luck buddy.” Eventually they agreed, and we started making our way down the long and windy hill. Then at the bottom a up and down wind through the vineyards back to the check point, to pick up Elastic Band number 1.

The physio put some felt in my shoes to help with a slight roll, to protect the achilles. Silly me, never bothered to get used to it though. Hello blisters.

Lap 2. Oh Lap 2. hmmm…Legs are finished, tank is empty, feet are hurting. And there’s that stupid mountain. How did I already forget about this stupid mountain. “This is stupid, why did I even enter this stupid race.” Apparently my face said it all, Adam & Nix, now joined by my sister as well, didn’t risk any sarcastic chirps. Only a few attempts at encouragement, which they quickly realised weren’t gonna help either.

That’s my hurting face. Blisters killing the flat feet.

I questioned a lot of things on this lap. My faith? “Who do I think I am entering races like this? I should go back to being Junkfood Jimmy. I’m selling my bike next week. Take up surfing again. But only when the waves are really good. Maybe I can spend more time on improving my guitar playing, join the worship team at church…I’m gonna delete my stupid blog. Who even cares? This is all so pointless. It’s expensive. And these damn organisers, I paid 1500 ZARinis for this race and I didn’t even get a stupid shirt. It’s fine, I don’t need a shirt. And what the hell man, this loop is longer than 7km’s. But wait, it’s shorter to the finish line…no wait, it’s not. Stuff that, I’m stopping at 21km’s. They can bring the finish line to me! Oh great, now it’s raining again, I should have taken my jacket. Oh well, I’ll just get sick again.”

So as you can see, it was a long Lap. I was in a dark dark place. That’s only about a 5th of what went through my mind. A whole blog post on it’s own.

This lap consisted of walking and slouching.

Lap 3. I saw a little ray of sunshine. Got my 2nd rubber band. One more lap then Steers here I come. I dug a little bit and found a hint of some fight in me for this final lap. My sense of humour had returned and I managed to retaliate to Adams, “Bru, no pressure, but you should try run this time round” at the bottom of Mt Kilimanjaro with a, “What is this? A hill for ants? It needs to be at least 3 times bigger.” Little did they know, from their view, it was at least 3 times bigger than what they thought.

  

All thoughts of selling bike had left, the blisters were hurting, but pain had become the norm and I just put head down and trotted on. 3 and a bit hours later and the longest, slowest run of my life later. I made it. Never in my life had I ever been so happy to receive a rubber band, ever. I think I may even like that little rubber band more than my finishers medal.

 

  

This was hands down the toughest race I have done so far. Not only are the distances far, but the terrain was super tough and very technical. Especially on the bike. Leaving no time for just putting the head down and spinning. Definitely not an easy day out, especially if you haven’t done the miles. But definitely an Activity worth giving a go if you consider yourself an Endurance junkie. High 5 to the peeps at Enduroman Cape for putting up an awesome event. Well marked bike course, nicely stocked up water points, and just a kickass race. Oh, and I got my T-Shirt at the finish line.

You guys can definitely expect me back next year. This time with a little more fight in me.

And there you have it, a nice long read for a nice long day out.

Am I an endurance Athlete now?

 

Next blog post on how to chill out hard before training commences for 70.3 and IronMan South Africa will be up shortly. Some exiting new things coming up. Expect a sexy little .com make over soon as well.

Big 5 Challenge – From a Weekend Warriors Perspective

This blog post, in true Cape Town style, is rather late. I have no excuses. I’ve been working hard, training hard and recovering hard. And in between all of that, moving house, catching up with friends, turning down job interviews, celebrating my moms birthday, taxi driving my brother around while he visited Cape Town, going to church leadership meetings and planning a potential side business and NGO. But like I said, I don’t really have an excuse, so here it is. My Knysna Oyster Festival and Big 5 Challenge experience.

So this trip almost got cancelled. As you can see from my last post, I got a little bit sick. I got hit hard with the man flu a few days after the Mast Challenge. Then just as I thought I was getting better, I got ahead of myself and wrote “Back In Action.” Only to find the Man Flu come back and hit me harder. Quite a few doctor visits, lotsa drugs (the safe ones, that the doctors prescribe.) a few painful injections in the bum, my daily dose of vitamins, a super healthy diet and lots of sleep, finally, with just 3 weeks to go, some improvements started being noticed in my health. On top of the sickness admin, accommodation plans started falling through as well as mates to mission up with. All signs pointed to saving my leave and rather just getting back into training here in CT.

But then as I started getting better, the ampdness started coming back as well. So I decided, stuff that, I’ve paid for my entry. Go up and make it a rad adventure and meet some cool new peeps. Aint nobody got time for excuses.

So I managed to sneak in 2 weeks of training and warming up the body. Reminding it of what was kind of capable of about a month or so ago. Then a easy week of “tapering” and friday lunch time I was off to Knysna. Not that I was ever racing for podium positions, but I did email coach and tell him, due to lack of training this will be a training week, not gonna push too hard. But then again, you always say that until you on the line.

DAY 1 – MTB Race 80km.

This will officially be the furthest I have travelled on my mountain bike. Up until this race I was slowly building up the miles back home, and had some long rides planned the 2 months prior to Big 5. But then that whole sick vibe sort of messed those plans up a bit. Had my race all planned out though, packed just enough nutrition and said to myself just find a comfortable pace and soldier through. Right off the start I realised sticking to personal plans wasn’t going to happen. The okes were quick off the line, think they were trying to catch the Elite bunch that started 5min earlier. And so I just followed suit. Thank goodness a fellow MTD athlete I had met on the start line came riding up next to me on Simola Hill and told me to hold back, we’re only 5km’s in, you’ll catch these guys a bit later on, not the elite guys that is.
Next plan to fail me was my nutrition. As I was heading down the first bumpy hill, out popped my bottle of 32gi endurance drink. I was kinda banking on that. Water stops now had to now be added to the cards.
Once you reach the top of Simola hill it’s a pretty steady jeep track most of the way, find a good rhythm and a good bunch and you can definitely set your self up for a pretty fast MTB time. I got stuck behind some cautious decenders on the only long single track the course had to offer, was quite frustrating and felt like a waste. But only had myself to blame. Should ride faster if you don’t want those guys in front of you.

Right up until 65km’s I was feeling amazing and surprised at how good my ride was going. Clearly I never lost too much fitness. Those thoughts left my mind as soon as they popped in, and with 15km’s to go the tank was running on reserves. The thought of running 21km’s after 80km’s of this at Enduroman in September felt quite intimidating in that moment.
It was a muddy a day out with a pretty darn cold start. But apart from that and a slightly tired me, it was a super fun ride and great way to to kick off the next week of activities.

DAY 2 – ROAD BIKE Race 109km.

For day 2 there were 3 options. 100km Road Bike, 2km Lagoon Swim or 20km Paddle. Why I opted for the road bike instead of the paddle  I still don’t quite know. I had this big idea that I wanted to try get a good time in the bag to maybe use for Argus seeding. And I figured it be a great workout for the legs? All I know is next year I’m definitely doing the paddle, also next year I plan on getting a bit closer to that podium. Not too close, but hey there’s no harm in going big. But I will definitely be using my paddling strength to my advantage next year. Big 5 is all about tactics and playing to your strength. Anyways, enough of that, back to the race.
It was yet another freezing start. I was rocking all the layers, base layer, long tights, bib shorts, top, wind breaker, buff, full finger gloves, the works. I was tempted to remove my tights when I saw a bunch of guys rocking their shorts. Luckily Lindsay, my mate I missioned to the start with in the morning, advised me otherwise.

Once again we were off to a fast start, this time however I had every intention of trying to stick with the front bunch. After 10km’s my hands and feet were freezing and had gone pretty much numb. This is a first in my riding history. And I’m no shy guy when it comes to fowl weather. CT just doesn’t get that cold. I lost my bunch a bit after the first climb out of Knysna. Legs were still taking a while to warm up. But I quickly caught them again on the flats and decent. By the 2nd climb I was doing a much better job holding on. I had found a good bunch and we were cruising down the N2. With 4 or 5 us doing most of the hard work up front. Could definitely feel all my Big Ring riding work in my favour here on the flats, felt almost effortless in the middle of the peloton. Everything was going great until we hit our first BIG climb of the day, I felt myself slow down and drop off the bunch very quick, way too quick? That’s when I looked down at my back wheel, fortunately to realise that it wasn’t my legs failing me, unfortunately a flat tyre was. Put my new tube in as quick as possible, hit it with a bomb, only to have my bomb adapter pull out the valve of the new tube.
So there I was begging fellow riders for a new tube. Eventually a kind young lady told her friend to give me a tube, thanks Megan? Was a full 20min before I got going again. I quickly discarded any hope of catching my bunch and was left to fend for myself the rest of the ride. It was a painful sight watching them come past me after the first loop, I was slightly tempted to just turn and join them. But I soldiered on and relived my argus. Just me, my bike and whole bunch of crazy thoughts to get me to the end. Day 2 done.

Legs still feeling surprisingly good.

DAY 3 – FEATHERBED TRAIL RUN 15km

This has to be one of the highlight events of the week. There are 3 time slots for this run, a morning, lunch time and night run. I opted for the early morning run. Once again it was a fresh start to the day, but weather predictions said it’d be warming up quite early on already, so I just braved out the cold for the start. Rookie error on my behalf, I didn’t know that I could leave my warm clothes in a bag on the ferry to collect afterwards. Next year I’ll remember that one. It’s a chilly boat trip.

The morning starts off with an awesome trip on the ferry across the lagoon over to the western head of Knysna. Apparently they reckon the Big 5 competitors are more hardcore and we get thrown onto the open cold ferry. Once we got to the other side we had a few minutes to warm up the legs while waiting for the other 2 ferry’s to arrive. Race kicked off with a steep climb straight away, which looped back around to the start, just to spread out the start field a bit and get somewhat of a natural seeding going. We then made our way around the head and started a steep ascent for about 7km’s. If you start off too slow you’ll find yourself stuck behind a bunch of people walking up the hill. But if the fitness aint all there, this is a great excuse as to why you were walking for a big first part of the race. Once at the top you get hit with the most insane view of the ocean and lagoon while getting your breath back and taken away at the same time. Then the fun starts, lots of soft windy single track all the way till the bridge across the lagoon. Personally I never found the bridge as intimidating as they made it out to be, but I can see why they make a point of warning all the runners. On a wet day it can make for a way more interesting slippery run.

After a great morning out on the trails, your race entry included a buffet breakfast. This went down well with a couple of war stories shared of the morning and week so far.

Legs were now starting to feel it a bit. I’d been good with my recovery steps in between events. But I definitely picked up a bit of a limp after this one.

I’d been staying out in Plett, so had been spending most of the evenings on that side. But that Tuesday evening I decided to head back to Knysna to join some mates for the Knysna Wine Fest. Lets just say the evening got a whole lot more festive than planned. There were just way too many delicious wines to “taste!” And on top of that, my world cup team, Germany, gave Brazil an embarrassing hiding, which just called for more celebration. Early on in the evening my mate Mark had already made the call that I will not be driving back to Plett, so thanks to them I had a place to crash for the night. It’s not a proper Oyster Festival if you don’t take part in the festivities.

DAY 4 – XTERRA DUATHLON Run 3km, Bike 22km, Run 7km.

That limp I wasn’t thinking to much about after Tuesdays Featherbed Trail run had now turned into a bigger concern than I realised. My right achilles tendon was shouting at me with every step I took. Clearly the lack of training and strength work prior to Big 5 had finally caught up to me. Should have taken it easier down the windy single tracks. Too late now. Luckily Xterra was only set to start at 12:30, so I found a physio in Plett. Basically just wanted to get a thumbs up for being stupid and pushing through the pain. She said chances of snapping it was small, but it was there. And just to take it easy on the run and pull out if the pain became to sharp.

I started the race off nice and easy on the first run. Once again a great excuse for not having to push too hard up the first hill. Dammit, this is where all those hill rep sessions with MTD would have paid off. Not missing them next year.

I wanted to make up for my slow run on the ride, so I pushed that one hard right from the get go. I was warned before hand that the course was very technical. I was expecting a lot of crazy single track. Unfortnately the only single track was right at the beginning of the ride, after that came a solid few km’s of climbing. My Old Wagon trail and Mast Climb rides were paying off well here, did a lot of my catching up and passing here. The course may not have included a lot of single track. But it was one big mud fest from beginning to end. So sliding all over the show was the order of the day. I managed to do pretty well through all the mud patches until one long one had me diving face first into the mud.

Run leg number 2 was a frustrating one for me. I had the energy to go, but my leg was just too sore to push. I managed to pull it off without any walking, but the downhills were a frustratingly slow pace for me. Not that I’m crazy fast or anything. Left leg unfortunately also started taking strain now as I was over compensating for the right leg.

Apart from the whole sore leg situation, it was yet another fun day out in the mud. Followed by a well deserved free massage. Can’t wait to give this race a proper go next year. Stillwater Sports needs to get a massive high 5 for always putting together such awesome events and kickass goodie bags.

Day 5 – FINAL DAY, FOREST HALF MARATHON 21km.

You again have 2 options of either doing the Full or Half Marathon. The Half is a super fast run with a much bigger field, so if you have the endurance and pace for the full, finding points there is apparently a tiny bit easier.

Spent all of friday in front of the TV in my recovery tights, ice on legs and anti-inflammatories. Watching chick flicks and Le Tour de France. Saw the physio again in the morning, couldn’t even stand on my tip toes. She doubted that I’d be able to run the half. At that time I had to agree with her, I didn’t see it happening for me. But I wanted my finishers medal and bragging rights. So the above steps were taken to see if I could make a small recovery before the morning.

In true stubborn style, my ego got the best of me and early Saturday morning I set off back to Knysna to finish what I started. Leg was definitely feeling better, not great, but better. When I left Cape Town, I set a realistic goal of 1:45 for my half. With minimal training and 4 days competing behind me this seemed like a reasonable goal. After all it would be a PB after my gun run half of 1:50 last year. With a bit more running this year compared to last year, or my life for that matter, I had yet to see what sort of times I could run a half in. Unfortunately now my mind had changed from a sub 1:45 to a “just finish.”

After winding my way through some of the crowds in the start I bumped into a mate who was going for a sub 1:40. We stuck together for about 13km’s. And I was feeling very good actually. After 13km’s though I let him go, slowed down my pace a bit to ease up on the leg. All was great until Simola downhill got the best of me. My carves worked super hard, I went way too fast and by the end my achilles had gone back to shouting at me. I managed to push through till just 600m before the end. Sitting on a 1:43 finish, I was broken. Once again, the fitness was there, but the legs just weren’t playing along. Now with both left and right achilles tendons taking strain, I had to finish off on a jog/walk effort. Some one piped up “Come on, you’re right at the end.” In my head I replied, “I know dammit, I’m shouting the same thing to my legs.” Watching my garmin slowly tick away, I just managed to sneak over the line on 1:45 (According to my Garmin). YES PLEASE! With busted leg and all I got my PB and goal set for Knysna.

What a great week. The Oyster Festival organisers really put together a great event. I will be back next year, and after scouting out the vibe I have recruited a whole bunch more mates to join. We’re already looking out for accommodation and designing our race kit. The Race Is On!

Next up, Enduroman. Achilles still bust, and under strict intructions from physio to lay off the leg. The pro is that coach has added a few extra swim sets to the program, so hopefully by September I’ll be swimming a half decent time so that I don’t have to play too much catch up on the MTB leg. The cons though are that I’ve been missing out on some awesome trail runs and MTB rides and instead have been forced to stare at the floor for 3hrs on the Watt bike in the gym. Oh well, gotta do what I gotta do. I’ve set some big goals and I plan on exceeding my own expectations. So far I’ve proved my body is cabable of way more than I ever thought, and I’ve got zero intention of slowing down any time soon. ACTIVITIES!!! 

First Ascent Mast Challenge.

Making my way down the mountain – http://www.photosport.co.za

Jacket on, lock car, take 5 steps away, change my mind. Back to car, jacket off. Take 5 steps, no wait, maybe jacket on? This process went on for about 10min or so. I always do these random things pre-race where my mind just can’t make decisions. Eventually I heard someone in the distance shout, “Runners! You can make your way to the start!”
Ok, jacket off, it’s not raining, it’s freezing, dark and misty, but it’s not raining. So, lets leave unnecessary baggage behind. Exit the gate towards the start, and whoop, there it is, rain. Pause for a moment…No, it’s too late, you’ll warm up on the run, you’ve committed.

I guess these are the little decisions I’ll slowly start to make more confidently with experience. There’s still so much I need to learn. That’s part of the excitement. Every race is a new experience. I’ve learned how to dress for the ocean in all seasons. But I’m still learning what’s too hot or too cold for running and cycling in this new multi-sport adventure of mine.

This past weekend, Saturday 10 May, saw me attempting the First Ascent King of the Mountain Mast Challenge. The Mast Challenge is an uphill race, run or ride, to the mast, cross the finish line at the top and you’re done. Then you make your way down on your own sweet time. Unless of course you decide to try and be hardcore with the King/Queen of the Mountain challenge, in which case you need to get your ass back down in time so as not to miss your 9:30am bike start.

Still not quite sure why I decided on the Kings challenge rather than just settling for the ride or run? It’s a bad pattern I’m noticing with myself, but I love it. Go big! Why not?

So at 6:30am all the runners started their slow warm up jog from tokai picnic area towards the race start at the arboretum gate. It’s dark, cold, and now it’s raining as well. “I knew I should’ve worn my jacket, dammit.” I stood around for a little while just randomly staring into the distance up the first little hill. Listening to everyones conversations on what goals they have. Some Sub 45min, some sub 1hr’s, some contemplating the exact same thought I had, “Why the hell am I here? Flip I just wanna finish.” Then I turned around and bumped into my buddy Chad. We start having the same conversation as everyone else. That’s when I decided, ok, Sub 1hr, lets do this.

Ideally I wanted to set an even faster goal, but I did minimal training in April. Literally went away every single weekend either for a bachelors or a wedding. So minimal sleep and training was had. And the bit of running I did get in was all flat runs on the promenade. Fast flat running does not prepare you for a 10km run with 900m of elevation.

Anyways, back to the race. 7am, and we’re off. I felt pretty good on the run. Started off a bit fast, but soon reminded myself that I still had to run back down. And then ride back up. So eased off a little to a slightly more maintainable pace. I hit the half way mark just in time, was still good to make that recent goal of a sub 1hr run. Unfortunately, just because the jeep track turns into tar road half way up the mountain, does not mean it becomes any easier.

Pic by Govan – totalkaos.co.za

The climb got a little steeper, the mist a little bit thicker, the weather quite a bit colder, and my pace, gradually slower. Even though this kinda weather is usually me in my element, the adrenalin just wasn’t enough to get me to the top in set time. And I had to settle for a 1:07.

Took a quick 2min break and a sip of coke. Was difficult resisting the delicious smell of hot chocolate they were brewing up at the top for all the crazy athletes. But I knew my stomach wouldn’t agree, so I had to turn it down.
I wasn’t all that familiar with the Elephants Eye route down that I saw a few of the Kings take down while I was still making my way up the last bend, so I opted for the same route back down. My heavy, size 12, flat feet meant for a pretty speedy descent. Once the pull of gravity gets my feet into motion downhill, there’s no stopping them.
Now that I think about it, I definitely had the exact opposite effect on the way up.

Pic by Govan – totalkaos.co.za

I threw in a few fun single tracks right near the bottom. Fast, quick on your feet, bouncy single track is definitely one of the best parts of trail running for me. When I found myself finally back in car park getting my bike ready and changing into dry kit, I was feeling surprisingly fresh.

My awesome friends Lyle and Heather, HIGH 5 to them, came to give a bit of half time moral support. And they brought bananas. A request I made the night before, cause all mine were still green even after a week. You just can’t find ripe bananas anywhere at the moment. My mother dearest also popped in for a surprise visit.

   
  

A little too much fun and laughing almost had me forgetting that I was supposed to be getting ready for round two up the mountain. Did my last few bike checks, a quick little spin around the car park, and then made my way back to the start line. A few more jokes about what a silly idea this was were thrown around while waiting to start. And then start whistle number two went off. My fresh feeling lasted pretty much until the first hint of elevation hit. All of a sudden, what had become a routine quick fun little weekly climb to the mast, was now feeling like a not so fun rather slow climb to the mast.

En route up the mountain – http://www.totalkaos.co.za/

I had once again set a goal of sub 1hr. But slowly saw that goal fade as the energy in my legs began to fade. A few riders started passing me and my energy was just gone. But I pushed through and refused to do any of that walking business. I had just spent 2 hours on my feet, I wasn’t prepared to spend even more back on them. Finally I made it to the half way mark, had a few sips of berry juice on a semi flat section and then back onto that tar road, climbing. I had a random burst of energy kick in here, and found myself slowly upping the pace and passing 4 riders on the way up. I felt good. Right up until the last bend, I picked up my final sprint just too soon, and the last 2 riders I passed, which I thought I had, snuck past me just metres from the finish line. Final time on bike, 1:06.

Dammit. Oh well.

Like I said right in the beginning, I was actually just happy to finish. It was yet another fun adventure to add to the list of fun activities this year. And it’s been really cool to see what my body is capable of when pushing it.
Two years ago I was talking to a few of my mates about the mast challenge. They were telling me about the one guy they knew who did the King of the Mountain challenge. I laughed and said, “What an idiot! That’s just madness, why would anyone in their right mind ever want to do that?”
Fast forward two years later and I’ve become one of those idiots. Who would’ve thought? And I’m loving every second of these silly adventures I keep committing to.

Next weekend, Sunday 18th of May, I take on the Helderberg Mountain Challenge Lite. With Knysna Oyster Festival Big 5 Challenge just around the corner my coach suggested I try run a few races before hand just to get into the hang of things. So I went onto the internet and just committed to the first race that caught my eye. Almost entered the full, but was told it had some epic climbing and I would take too long to recover afterwards. Which would kinda mess up training a bit. The lite doesn’t seem all that gentle either. Looks like I have Mast Challenge round 2 coming up, with some slightly more epic terrain. I can’t wait.

Thanks to Energy Events and First Ascent for putting up an awesome event. The Mast Challenge will definitely become a regular feature on my yearly race calendar.

Pic by Chris Hitchcock – http://www.photosport.co.za

Xterra – Grabouw

Swim – 1,5km
MTB – 27km
Trail Run – 11km (lies, it was 12km, 1km is a lot when you don’t plan for it.)

This was supposed to be my first official big-ish race of the year. I was just short of a month into my new training program, and with a decent 2013 of just keeping general fitness behind me, I was feeling good.
I was focussing hard on my swimming, this was by far my slowest of the 3 disciplines. Because of Lifesaving and Paddling I’ve always been quite a strong swimmer, speed however was never my strong point, it’s just one of those things that unless I’m constantly training it, I just loose my technique and pace so quickly.

In grade 10 and 11 I joined a proper swimming squad for training. My coach had to do a lot of work to get a whole lotta bad habits and ugly technique out of me, and by the end of grade 11 I wasn’t swimming half bad. But as soon as I stopped and now a good 10 years later, I lost any good input I gained in those 2 years completely.

So anyways, come the week before the race and I’m feeling strong and crazy excited. My brand new mountain bike had finally arrived. I had zero cash to afford a new bike, but someone very close to me saw the dream I was starting to dream and decided that He would help me out in getting this year started with the right equipment. Finally I joined my fellow mountain biking mates and their gang of Carbon Hard Tails with my new Rocky Mountain Vertex 950RSL. Thanks to the guys at Trail and Tar for giving me a great deal and setting my bike up perfectly.

Thursday I went to pick up my race number and goodie bag, a pretty kickass goodie bag at that, lotsa cool treats. They really do make it worth the amount you have to cough up for these races.
The excitement was just building up more and more. I had managed to convince 3 of my mates to enter the race as a 3 man team, so there was a bit of friendly rivalry going between us as well.

Then out of nowhere, I woke up friday morning as sick as a dog and with the worst stomach bug as well?
Saturday morning, I woke up feeling even worse and had to start making peace with the fact that I’ll probably have to pull out on Sunday.

I missioned through to grabouw on the Saturday to support a friend taking part in the Xterra Lite, bad idea. As kak as I was feeling, just being in that awesome race atmosphere I couldn’t help but get excited to race, I’d been training hard and just bought a new bike, how can I not race. That Saturday night I went and slept over at my “3 man team” mates house as we decided to do team mission through to Grabouw on Sunday. I tried to get an early night and would make a call in the morning on whether I’ll be racing or just supporting once again.

Sunday morning I woke up feeling even worse than Saturday, not ideal at all. I decided that I would drive through to the race and just watch, packed all my stuff just incase though…So as you can guess, when I got there I obviously couldn’t resist, so I said to myself “fine, you can do the race, but no actual racing, keep the heart low and just have fun, come back next year with something to prove.”

The swim forced me to do just that, with so much flem in my throat I could hardly breathe and I swam a good 8min slower than planned and compared to the training swim I had done the weekend before. I also swam 1.68km instead of 1.5km, woulda been even further if I never realised the pack I was swimming with was going way off course.

Going into the bike leg I was helluva excited to just have fun. My new bikes first official ride and a big Personal Challenge for me out on the bike course. Prior to getting my new bike I’d been a little bit hesitant with some bigger drops and downhills etc. But I always blamed my old bike, so now with new bike and new mind set I had no excuse but to wear a bigger pair and just commit. And I did exactly that, and never have I had so much fun on a bike before. The rock garden, that I would normally hit with such caution, was so much fun and I just felt so relaxed and comfortable on my new Mountain Climbing Machine. I did have a nice big superman fly over my handlebars when hitting a patch of dry sand way too quick. But luckily it was a big enough patch that would also make my landing much softer.

 

Finally going into the last leg, I was warned by a mate that after about 2km’s of running you cross a river and hit a mountain, then you start climbing for daaays. And then when you think you’re at the top, you climb some more, and this little process continued for quite some kilometres. With this bit of knowledge I paced myself from the get go, and even though I wasn’t really racing, our ego’s always get the best of us, so it felt really good as I slowly started passing all those runners who came sprinting past me in the start and had now fallen victim to these crazy hills of death.

 

Apart from feeling like absolute crap on the day, it was actually still a super fun day out in the mountains, doing what I love and exploring new adventures was enough to distract me for a few hours before having the adrenaline wear out and the reality of Sick Boy hitting me again.
What would have probably only been a weekend of sick boy and chilling in bed, had I decided to take it easy and not race or go through at all, had unfortunately now turned into almost 2 weeks of no training and taking it easy. Yeah I learned my lesson, but I still don’t regret doing the race, it was too much fun, and at least now I know what to expect for next year.

Can’t wait to come back in 2015 and really see what I’m capable of when pushing hard.

For now it was chill time, had Cape Argus Cycle tour coming up in 2 weeks time.

a new journey begins.

 

 

 

Lifesaving and Paddling have always been my main sports, but for some reason last year (I know the reason) I found myself doing a whole lot less paddling than I had set out to do and a whole lot more running, way more than I thought I’d ever like to do, chasing PB’s and all that outrageous running nonsense? And I was actually enjoying it? On top of that I got onto my mountain bike quite a few times as well and found myself swimming at gym quite a lot. Come around September I got my first hint of a triathlon at Clanwilliam fitness festival. I kinda liked it, quite a bit actually, but definitely felt like a bit more excitement could be added to it.

Now come close to the end of 2013 and somewhat of an unsuspecting break up I got into what I would like to call “break-up fitness” it was a little bit silly really, but hey I needed to distract myself. I put my head down and just road my mountain bike as hard as could, ran as fast as I could and gymmed and swam as big as I could, kinda to the point of burnout.

All to prove a point, not sure what point, but I had to prove it. But the point I did end up proving was to myself, basically stating “Phil, you’re an idiot!”

With that realisation and actually quite a bit of fitness in the bag I changed my perspective. With a new found keenness on Multi-sport, cause I just can never make up my mind, too many activities, I put on my positive pants and started setting out some fun goals and exploring this new venture of sport.

First two races I decided to enter was Totalsports Challenge (Pairs Team) and Xterra Grabouw. A couple of my mates have often taken part in Totalsports Challenge and I always had FOMO but never FOMO’d hard enough to do anything about it. And Xterra just looked flipin awesome, a Triathlon but with the Dirt thrown in, making it way more exciting and challenging in a different way.

TOTALSPORTS CHALLENGE 2014

Totalsports Challenge is a 7 discipline race that can be done either Solo Man, Pairs, Triplets or Seven Man team. The several disciplines are:
Surfski – 12km
Swim – 1,5km
Road Bike – 50km
Road Run – 13km
Canoe Paddle – 13km
Mountain Bike – 25km
Beach Run – 9km

Our Totalsports Challenge started awesome, my team mate Brandon Kilbride started with a great surf ski paddle followed by a big swim, coming out the water second for pairs. On the bike I caught our friendly rival team’s rider Lyle, who had about 3min on me, I should mention though that he did just come out of the swim. We had a good ride together, taking turns out front, getting just slightly demotivated when Dan Hugo, who was doing Solo Man Challenge, came flying past. I had the urge to keep pulling away from Lyle as I was clearly the stronger rider on the day, but then had to keep reminding myself that I had the run coming up.

I went on to do the road run, dropping from 1st Pairs team back to 5th position. After that Brandon had another awesome paddle getting us up to either 2nd or 3rd place, I can’t remember? He paddled a whole lot faster than I thought he would, I hadn’t even pulled up my bib shorts yet and was busy rubbing myself up with some sunscreen, a quick rush to get ready and super excited to be back in podium position, but by the time I got onto the mountain bike the excitement died and I quickly came to the realisation that my fuel tank was feeling damn empty. Had quite a few peeps pass me on the mtb ride and slowly watched podium slip away, not that we thought we had a chance, but we got excited.
The beach run we had to finish together, my legs were toast, Brandon, having only had to use his arms so far, was nice and fresh so he had to carry enough motivation for both of us, and put up with a lot of my walking and moaning and words that I really shouldn’t be saying. 9km’s is further than you think on the beach, especially after your legs have done 88km already, big ups to peeps who’ve done IRONMAN.

After a good effort and a lot of patience from my team mate we ended up in 11th place in Pairs. Next year we’ll definitely be standing on that podium.

Oh and one more thing, a few days before the race I kicked my foot on some dry kelp that ended up getting very swollen and infected, not ideal for the race, but hey, had to man up…
A few weeks after the race, after visiting the doctor twice and still no improvement, I gave up on the doc, did some self surgery and found a piece of kelp the size of my thumbnail stuck in my foot. Within 3 days after that, foot was back to normal.

Anyways, I saw a hint of potential and spark of new found excitement after that race and realised this is definitely something I could get in to, but also realised quickly that I needed to change tactics if I actually want to try go somewhere with this. So I started doing some research, all of sudden I saw a bunch of awesome races catching my eyes, had to stop myself from getting too carried away, and then I came up with a great plan. I WILL ENTER EVERY DAMN RACE I SEE. This plan changed very quickly when I saw the damage I’d be doing too my bank account, and for the fact that half of the races would all fall under the same damn month and I really just aint that fit or fast. Plan B, enter some of the races, maybe start small and work your way up and choose one or two big races for each year. A bit more logical. Also, I decided I need a proper training program, so after hearing only positive things about them and having a lot of mates showing awesome results since training with them I signed up with the My Training Day peeps, and now have one of their coaches, Matt Trautman, drawing up solid monthly punishment program for me.

So pretty much since February 2014 I’ve started training pretty damn hard, and I think at the moment I may just be the fittest I’ve ever been. I’ve always been able to maintain a decent fitness level, and compete at a semi competitive level, and generally found myself training with some of the best athletes in the world when it comes to Lifesaving and Paddling. But there’s been those few years since varsity started where I let myself go quite a bit and the only thing that I was really competitive in was my drinking at events such as 6×7’s or the amount of Jugs I can consume and still make it to tiger afterwards at Thursday night jug nights, Springboks. Which did absolutely no wonders for my body or fitness.

At the moment I weigh 86kg in October 2012 I weighed 106kg, the cause of lotsa binge drinking and junk food, a big mindset change, which I will save for another blog post, got me to loose 20kg’s between November 2012 and February 2013.
Right now I feel good, every day I get a little bit fitter and a little bit faster. I’d say I’m pretty much exactly where I want to be right now, which is one step closer to where I’m heading.

Keep coming back as I slowly start sharing more stories of things that get me excited.