Lactic-Haze

Ok, so this is something that has been bothering me for some time now. I raised the topic with @Woolworths the other day, and she agreed 100% so I thought I’d put my thoughts down, see what others say. Do we as active sports people move at a different speed than most other people (your ordinary office worker as an example).

Here’s an example. I’m driving through the neighbourhood, and get stuck behind someone going 40km/h. Now, I’m not saying go at 120km/h and break the law, but at least drive the speed limit asshole. I might not be in a massive rush, but I’m wasting time because you’re drooling on your steering wheel in your half-dazed coma. I can name several examples, but the point I’m making is that I feel like myself and my exercise nutter friends operate at a different pace to the rest of the world.

Let me explain, my work week usually starts at 5:20am, when the alarm rings in the dawn of a new day, and my fat cat rolls itself off the bed and heads downstairs to be fed (then discovers breakfast will be late, like yesterday and the day before). I get dressed in cycling kit, pack my work clothing etc, head downstairs, make breakfast (feed the now moaning cat…you would think he would realise after months of living with me that there is always food, no need to make a fuss) and head off for my one hour commute around 6:15am. Arrive at the office park around 7:20am, having done 27.5km’s of cycling (having survived the odd taxi and Golden Arrow bus). Shower, get ready for work, have my first cup of coffee at 8am. Not bad for waking up at 5:20am, versus sitting in rush-hour traffic getting your blood pressure up etc.

At 5pm, I head off to the gym again, get dressed, cycle home (another hour), get home around 6:15pm. If the weather and light (difficult in winter) allows, swop straight to running shoes and go for a quick 20min run around the neighbourhood. Shower, make dinner (and feed the cat who seems to be always starving *the light…it’s…fading…*) then relax.

Weekends are the same, take for example the average Sunday. Get up at 6:30am, meet the guys at 7:30am, cycle maybe 80 or 100km’s, get home, have a light lunch, then meet some friends for a run around 4pm, run an hour, get home, think about dinner and before you know it, it’s relax time in front of the 8pm movie on tv. If it’s an event day, we sports people might get up at 5am, pack the shoes, bike, surf-ski, kite-board or whatever you do, drive to the event (usually with a buddy because if you’re up at that hour, someone has to suffer with you *grin*). Participate in the event, appreciate the views and suffering, share war-stories at the finish line, then drive home.  Now if I compare this to some people I know from the office, they only wake up at 10am, make lunch, then sleep the entire afternoon, watch tv, then go to bed.

The question is…do we live at a different pace than these folks, or is it merely our perception due to being active all the time?

Pieter Blaauw Cycling, Running

Yesterday, once again, I discovered exactly how bad booze is. Saturday night, went out with a old school friend for a beer. I was hoping just one or two Windhoek Lights and then I can head to bed and sleep in before doing a planned 3hr ride. Well, that didn’t exactly go to plan and some Jagerbombs were thrown in for good measure. Eventually got to bed Sunday morning at 1am, skipped my alarm, then rolled out of bed around 8am.

Cycled to Camps Bay with the idea of just going up to Llundudno before heading home, feeling like death warmed up. In Camps Bay I ran in to the Daikin guys and after a brief chat decided I would head back home ways with them. At The Paddocks Dave Garrett told me to come to the Tiekiedraai climb with them so not to lose face (oh ego is such a shit thing) I obliged. Up the climb I was ok, until they started putting it in the red and I popped. Turned around at the top, headed home and showered before grabbing some lunch.

Later the afternoon I met up with ChrisH for our usual 1hr run. Right from the start I knew life was not with me and we went out about 45seconds a km slower than last Sunday. I was just feeling like pure death warmed up. As we were running past Blue Peter I tried to pretend I wasn’t dying, but not doing a very good impression. Turned around and felt a little better going back in to the wind, but at the end of the run we looked at the stats and did 9.4km’s at 6m20s a km, vs 5m44s a km last Sunday. To add to my misery, last weekend my running legs were tired from the Duathlon already. At least the view was good

Pieter Blaauw Cycling, Running

Ok, so I have an itch…I hate not doing things the right way. I now want a TT bike. My choice, due to budgets are fairly limited unfortunately..(why oh why did I ever buy a house on a single income! *lol*). I can get a Cervelo P2 TT frame from Urban Ninja, or possibly a PlanetX TT frame / bike…both are in the budget range, but the Cervelo I can build exactly to what I would like, vs the PlanetX. *sigh* decisions decisions.. Also not made easy by my bank screwing me over with the extra cash I had in my bond. Probably better I just wait another month and see what is available then.

Pieter Blaauw Cycling

Saturday I went to do the New Balance Safmarine Duathlon in Grabouw. Man what a fun race. This one was slightly shorter, 5km run, 26km cycle, 2.5km run. It started at a far more civil time of 10am as well! The run went well, I was in the back 3rd of the field, talking to two older gentleman (Tony and Pierre). The route was deceiving though, slightly downhill on the way out, slightly uphill on the way back. I really don’t enjoy running, BUT I made the best of it and fairly quickly it was in to the transition zone. Of course, following something as attractive as the picture does make the pain bearable

Once on my bike, life was good. My heartrate was a bit high (176avg) as I started the cycle, and I knew I had to calm a bit down before starting to get in to the zone and power down. About 6km’s in to the 26km cycle I found my rythm and started passing people. I felt super strong on the bike and the route was not flat, favouring the use of a normal bike vs a TT setup. At the turn-around I was thanking my normal road setup, as the climbing was more than I anticipated and I was thankfull to get in to a normal climbing position, and not have to struggle with a very forward TT setup.

I also got a compliment from one of the organisers who I met at the previous event when he saw me coming in to the transition zone on the bike “very strong cycle leg! you’re looking good!”. Then it was grabbing the shoes again, and running off to finish the last 2.5km run. Oh and then I got caught by two or three people who I passed on the cycle leg. The winner did a time of 1h10mins, I came in at 1h29mins. Respectable considdering I am only doing these events to train for the IM goal next year and for weight loss.

Pieter Blaauw Cycling, Running

The rain is really starting to piss me off. The entire bloody weekend it was raining. Saturday morning, wake up, see the skies aren’t looking great but I head out and meet some of the guys at The Paddocks. It’s drizzling. Decide to chance it. Get to Camps Bay and head up Llundudno, turn at the top, back to Camps Bay, stop at Vida. Have a coffee and muffin before heading out. As we go through Sea Point it starts pouring on us. No other option but to soldier on. Get home absolutely soaked. Pissed as hell.

Sunday was supposed to be a nice long 5hr easy ride. Guess what? It’s raining again. Not a light drizzle, it’s pissing down! Ride is cancelled and I sleep in. Eventually by lunch I’m now itching to do something. I can’t be inside all the time. Make some calls, and Adeline, Chris H and myself head down to Blouberg beach and do a 8km run lasting about 53minutes. I’m not a big fan of running yet, but it did the soul good to be out and at least doing something. Did chat quite a bit to Chris H about his Ironman experience this year, trying to learn as much as I can from others.

Monday morning, skies are clear, birds are chirping, sun is shining. Tomorrow, the 16th of June is a public holiday, and guess fucking what?? A cold front is moving in, with 60% chance of rain tonight and tomorrow, and Wednesday I have to be at the office taking the corporate cockshafting while the weather is clear again. Seriously mother nature..Rain needs to come on Mondays and piss off by at the latest Thursday so I can get a decent weekend of riding in. This shitty idea of raining on a weekend and being sunshine on a Monday morning is a kak idea and not good for my training.

Pieter Blaauw Cycling, Running

Saturday evening I went to see Terminator Salvation with @Woolworths. Must say, I really enjoyed it. It’s not a super happy movie, it’s not a carebear sing along feel good movie. It’s what Terminator should have been all along. Bugger the whole “travelling back in time” shit. This is hard and gritty and the future is screwed up. Loved it.

Special effects were top notch, favourite parts being the motorcycle terminators and the car chase scene. Second favourite being the Skynet prison ship and HK’s. They reminded me of the Machariel battleships in Eve Online (yes I still play Eve and love it.).

The only part I didn’t really like was right at the end. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I won’t spoil it for you. Overall I probably enjoyed it more than Star Trek, and will definately be buying the DVD when it’s released. Now, we wait for Transformers II.

Pieter Blaauw Movies

Saturday Karen had me no a 3hr MTB session with lots of climbing. Went to Jonkershoek with Frank and Rodger and had a blast of a time, unfortunately only managing about 2.5hrs before the rain caught us, but I did a nice solid 8km offroad climb that took the better part of an hour (51mins to be exact).

Sunday did a 100km ride with John and the guys and followed with a 20minute run. I was supposed to do 4hours, but again, the weather didn’t play along. I did manage to get about 3.5hrs in, so not a total loss, and trying to stick to what Karen is prescribing as much as possible.

Pieter Blaauw Cycling, Running

Went to see the new Star Trek movie on Sunday night. Firstly, I was slightly sceptical on how they were going to do this, but was pleasantly surprised. Ok, so what didn’t I like. The opening scene, with the long winded farewell while Kirk is born. Seriously overdone. Then later, the car chase scene and the Nokia advert placement. What did that prove? Also, too many convenient happenings. Spock on the same planet Kirk gets dumped on? What happened to just putting him in the brig?? Anyway, enough complaining.

Ok, what did I like? Eric Bana as Nero, the badass Romulan. Very cool. Facial tattoos make him look like a badass villian should. The Romulan ship, while totally overdone still looked like a warship should. The new characters (Spock, Kirk, Bones) etc all fill their roles pretty well, except maybe the new Kirk. He’s too much of a pretty boy, but I suppose they needed some eye candy for the girls. Personally, Eric Bana is way cooler.

All in all I enjoyed it, but I won’t rave about it. It was a good movie, very good special effects, good story, and a nice new start for the series.

Pieter Blaauw Movies

So, this weekend we had two or three cold fronts moving in. Thursday rain, thunder and rain. Friday, no riding again…more rain. By Saturday I was well miffed, phoned up Frank, and we headed to Tokai. Did just over 2hrs of riding, trying to stay under the forest canopy. We did get rained on for a few minutes but nothing too hectic.

Sunday morning, woke up after a wedding on Saturday evening, got dressed, sat and watched it rain. Around 10am there was a break in the weather and I headed off to Llundudno. Turned at the top, stopped for a coffee and muffin at Vida, then headed back. Just past Paddocks the heavens slowly started opening up again and I had a bit of a L4 workout trying to get home without being drenched. Glad enough I got some riding in, but a little dissapointed that the rain didn’t allow for more riding.

Pieter Blaauw Cycling

I am hooked! Ok, so yesterday was my first proper Duathlon. Since I started running, I have not done any running races, and in all honesty, since recovering from the TFL injury I have not done any cycling races in anger. So why not just go in the deep end and do both! A friend pointed me to the New Balance Duathlon event, and I discussed it with coach Karen since the PPA One Tonner got cancelled and she felt that I could probably manage it. Good, lets do it!

Saturday evening I loaded my gear bag, including running shoes this time, made sure the bike is good to go, had some pasta and headed to bed. Being nervous I didn’t sleep all that well and woke up before my alarm. Ate, loaded the bakkie and headed off to the venue. On arrival I was greeted by some other friendly competitors and eventually entered and made sure all my kit is in order. Andreas (friend who used to ride league) arrived and was very surprised to see me at the event and took me through the procedure and introduced me around. I was very surprised at how laid back everyone was.

Line up for the first run (10km’s), and started off. 176BPM avg heartrate. This is not good. I tapped off the pace and chatted between breaths to a fellow competitor next to me. His name is also Pieter, and he was also born in Namibia. Eventually he went ahead of me towards the end of the first 5km lap, and I ran the second 5km lap on my own, being passed by nearly everyone. When the oldest competitor on the course caught me I hung on to him like shit to a blanket. This was not good! Heart rate was still sky high! We entered the transition and I changed shoes, grabbed my bike, and set off for the 40km cycle.

Once on the bike the body was a lot happier and I quickly started catching people that put time in to me on the first running leg. It was a circular route of 20km’s and the full event did two laps. The course was also a bit hilly so it suited me and I made up time, passing competitor after competitor. Thank heavens for being able to cycle else I would probably have finished dead last!

Back in to the transition zone, and grab running shoes and set off for the final 5km run (two laps of 2.5km). Started running and promptly got my ass kicked by a girl who just ran away from me. I mean this is a mother, her husband was cheering with their kid in a pram, and here she drops me on the run like a sack of potato’s. Luckily one of the fast guys I knew saw me transition and he decided he needed a warm-down lap, so ran with me for a bit encouraging me and generally just being a good bloke. He is a runner and this to him was nothing, unlike my fat carcass that only started running two months ago, and barely doing two runs a week. In the end I finished in 2hours41mins47seconds. Apparently not bad for my first attempt.

I’m hooked! I definately want to do more of these and have already identified one on the 20th of June in Grabouw I want to put on the calender. Needless to say I slept a good portion of yesterday afternoon and am walking with a hint of pain today.

Pieter Blaauw Cycling, Running