MDW

If she has a nice backside even better to stay behind ;-)

Feel blessed she rides, i find with most friends and family, when your partner does not understand sport, or the concept of a man wanting to punish his body for a while, then relationship is full of tension, take her out an spoil her, and only ride with her on easy days when u can hang in and enjoy a great conversation you will be the better for it :-)

Really upset to see this, they should do what most banks do, and also overseas, they put pavement pillars in so its impossible to get a car anywhere near the doors, at all, they spike the pavement and put solid pillars around, maybe that would help, anyway hope they catch these bastards, because its just not right.

My worst yet best race was Prestige Ultra a couple of years back, I had a decent swim, and 8km's into the ride, hit a pothole which shattered my front and back Zipp 404 tubbies, I could not ride more than 30km/h I was pedaling against a clack clack clack sound and heavy resistance, I decided the wheels were insured and i was here to finish, not back down, so i rode on, this half powered machine, cyclist could hear me way before I reached them LOL, with about 17km's to go my back wheel burst from a splinter chard of carbon going into it, I carried on riding on the damaged rims, when I turned corners I looked like a speedway racer sliding all the way from one side of the road to the other with no traction, but I was very stubborn that day and just pushed on, had some close calls. I woke the entire spectator crowd as I came in with my noise making machine, but managed to finish the ride in just under 3hrs with a total time of 5h37 for the race. Was a long hard slow day for me, over an hour more than usual, but I was dam happy for finishing. It was a better feeling than my podium moments.

My two cents worth, you cannot compare your cycle race times to a time trial time, cycle races are more tactical, can be slow or fast, it really depends on how the group decides to ride. Time trialing in a non-drafting event is of course about your output, in other words how much effort are you going to put out for the entire amount of time. You will only know this if you have trained like this, if you understand your ability to hold a consistent pace and effort over the entire ride. I have never compared my cycle race times to my TT times, but if i had to look at my times they are actually pretty close to each other, of course route and elevation and weather conditions depending. Hope this helps, remember your effort on the bike needs to be such that it propels you into that run, if you are a weak runner, hold back on the bike and give yourself more energy for the run it will be worth it. Triathlon is not about being a top swimmer, cyclists and runner, you cannot be the best at all 3, but with all 3 combined you can find that right balance and be the best of the combination together. Go out there and have fun :-).

Agreed, regulation is there for a reason, besides there is no better feeling in the world than the fresh water on your skin , you feel alive and at one with nature, to be honest when swimming in my wetsuits I feel stuffed in a rubber bag, claustrophobic and missing out on he true feeling of water. If the temperature is right no wetsuits is needed and actually in most of my ultra distance events which is more than 20 most have actually been without wetsuits then again most of them were not in south Africa. If you have a confidence problem then you need to go out to the dam or river and train in it, there are entry in beautiful SA, try Hennlie if u in JHB, actually maybe all of u can chip in here and make reccommendations on open water swim spots to help out the wetsuit lovers it's the least we can do. And lastly I can actually swim a lot stronger in cooler water, scientific fact, when your body temp is high performance can drop significantly :-), and lastly :-) the only time I really have to use a wetsuite is when my competitors are, I am a strong swimmer and not wearing one when they r gives them a slight edge, it's another reason I don't like them, without them I have an edge which for me is a big help because my bike and run r very strong Later M

Very important thing, I have been harboring an auto-immune virus for 13 years, EBV (Epstein Barr) most adults actually have it, but some unlucky few like myself are susceptible to re-occurring attacks, the key factors to keeping my immune system strong is 1. NUTRITION 2. SLEEP I need to say sleep is so so important you have no idea, its the time of day your body truly recovers and heals. I have had one attack in the last 12 years, i can tell u now, my fitness was at its peak my nutrition was perfect, BUT, work stress and lack of sleep killed me, dont underestimate it, I totally agree with the above.

Interesting discussion guys, I would like to add some value to this ;-). I basically tell my clients, if you don't eat properly then your body does not deserve supplements meaning vitamins and minerals etc, because that's what they actually are, supplements to a healthy diet and not a replacement. So if your nutrition is clean, varied and healthy, supplements are surely welcome in my view. Now as to what supplements a person needs, I need to say this that every single person is unique and an individual, what one person needs another does not. If someone has an iron deficiency, and another a vitamin d deficiency, and maybe another has elevated liver, it would require different nutrition and different supplements. So as a first each person is unique and require unique nutrients. Looking at the supplements on the market, they vary quite considerably and in the end a lot of it boils down to how good is the quality of the actual product is, the extraction process of actual mineral, vitamin or omega is really key and the source of the product they extract from is also quite important. If its a plant extract is that plant organic or is it totally pesticided, if its a salmon extract for Omega's is there a light or boiling process which destroys the nutrients, and so on, lots to consider. The top 3 trusted brands I have to say are Solal, Solgar and Veridian. I will put Veridan right at the top of the 3 though, next Solgar then Solal. The reason Solgar owners actually sold it out to a pharmaceutical company and established Veridian, every single ingredient in Veridian is organic, and the extraction processes are phenomenal, and totally documented as well as verified. I need to say though, its expensive. Solgar and Solal are both excellent, but I find that some of their products have differentiation in ingredient RDA. So my views are personal but conducted over 8 yrs of usage and research of what exactly goes in, the hows and whys, I can say this. Multivitamins - Veridian Sports Multi is the top of the Food Chain, get your hands on this rare baby and you will see exactly what I mean, its a powerhouse for athletes. Only available in health shops and usually by order. Second Solal on the Multivit side, they provide a very strong RDA ensuring not just immune deficiency RDA's, the argument though could be but if its not needed the body will get rid of it. I agree but once in a while to cycle this is not bad at all. Solgar also has 2 very good multi vits, but Omnium is the better of the two for an athlete, and excellent. Vitamin C Its been interesting seeing the Solal mention, I agree the buffered double Vit C is good, BUT, its not for everyone, the buffered can cause stomach discomfort and irritation, and this does happen in a fair amount of people, so if you do use it, be wary of this. The Vitamin C I find to be at the top of my list is the Solgar 1000 esterified, its the strongest Vitamin C on the market and so easy on the digestive system. Not doubt this product works extremely well and I recommend it highly with a recovery shake after hard workout to keep your immunity up in the lowered period after exercise. Local Vitamin C's like Berocca and Cal-C vita are just a waste you cannot absorb that amount they are not processed for maximum absorption and it will mainly go to waste. Next Zinc, have some flu a sore throat, here I have done some research and the one Zinc product I find the best is Foodstate, again expensive, but nice strong dose, and quite an ethical company. Unfortunately Solal, dont make a pure Zinc, they have an anti-ageing product which has a high % of zinc, its great for the skin, but then again zinc on its own which is less expensive is as well ;-). Solgar u can get a zinc only, but not easy to find, u want to look for something that has 15mg or more. What local multivits are good, I cannot discuss those I dont know and I dont want to knock brands that I think are terrible, but I would say StaminoGro is an excellent local multivit for an athlete at a great price, so thumbs up for them as well. Doctors highly recommend it for woman trying to fall pregnant due to its high amino acid and hormone nutrients, so good for the athlete for recovery as well. Some other things I know because I have personal experience with, CLA, there is only one I can trust and use and that is Solal, there r three strains of CLA depending on the type used it will also have an affect on your digestive system as well, I find solal the best. I have tried several others I cannot recommend at all, one other though does not do to bad at the right price and that is Unique. Spirulina, -> Marcus Rohrer, he is well branded and a lot of sugar coating, but in honesty the extraction the no light access to the product etc are important in preserving the nutrients, its an excellent source of protein and other benefits, good for recovery. Glutamine - Wont touch the stuff in store, I get mine from a running coach that imports directly from Austria, nothing better, and works brilliantly, BUT something that should never be used continuously, only under certain conditions and cycled, or you risk organ issues, as glutamine comes naturally in foods. Much more to discuss, but guys, remember get the diet right first, know why if at all you are actually taking a vitamin, dont just take one. go for a complete Blood Test, including CBC, Liver Function, Virology, Blood Glucose, Iron, and the works, have your lifestyle analysed what are the issues you are trying to resolve, and then look at a supplement to healthy diet plan. As for the Vitamin B injections every month, there is no need at all, too much Vit B or taking unnecessarily can lead to issues again. Every time you put something in your body it will impact you in some way, and you want to make sure its a positive way not a negative way. I would recommend a Neurobian (Vit B 1,6,12) once in while, BUT only if you are putting your body under really heavy stress and being symptomatic of illness, but to take when this is not the case is not necessary. I guess we could all write books on this, so will end here, late M

I meant I dont feel cows milk is the best for human consumption, I just really believe its good for calves ;-).

Nutrition is my field of expertise and physiology, i have a masters in clinical nutrition plus a few others, but guys i am not here to argue or fight, there ar emany schools of thought, and you are 1000% correct i dont just buy any soya, i need certification i want the source and the process, i am not knocking milk as recovery, i just in my own opinion from a lot of the research been done feel thats its suitable for human consumption, plants do have a lot of advantages aside from the protein etc, there are many minerals and vitamins which are advantageous. I think the point of this discussion is not to knock one of the other but to maybe open discussion. The common point here is and i agree whether plant, or animal whatever you are consuming the retailers are very difficult to trust.

Friend u obviously dont understand physiology then, estrogen is found in men, just as testosterone is found in women, it might not be the dominant hormone but its present. Phytoestrogens can actually reduce the risk of prostate cancer, of course thats a man thing is it not? there r plenty of papers on the subject. later m

Milkman question then? and not trying to mislead people, just mentioned what I have personal experience with when living abroad. Why is it that cows have naturally high hormone levels and that is a fact, RBST might not be used any more which I did mention earlier, but even chatting to the food technologists at Woolworths they openly admit they cannot state there are no hormones in their milk, only that they have not added any RBST. Are the animals here fed any other form of of non natural substances including antibiotics etc.

No wetsuites at Kona, so start preparing in a speedo :-). Question are you the Rubber version of the Red Haartbees and Table Bay Shark?

Garfield do you go for swimming coaching?

LOL, hey I need to say I dropped out of Midmar 10km's into the run last year, but I have completed 18 halves and 9fulls, so there is always room for dropping out :-)) its not a bad thing rather listen to your body ;-). I dropped out due to a tummy bug actually was thinking of not racing but once i am entered its hard to say no :-) LOL I need to add one thing, most people dropped out way before they ran out of water, a lot of people dropped out early on the run, they overheated in the swim, suffered on the bike and started the run going backwards

Actually I witnessed a cyclist throwing a waterbottle at a taxi once for coming down the wrong side of the road and nearly knocking us all out, I have to admit it was a bloody amazing site :-), sorry it felt good to see, he was fine he will never do it again that's for sure. When I am running though, I am knicknamed the car slapper, if you sms and swerve towards me expect a slap car, or a missing side mirror, its happened many times where even approaching on coming traffic i suddenly see someone swerving towards me because their head is in their laps. Its not just about cyclists, its runners to, pedestrians etc. The last thing I would ever want would be for my children to fall victim to these idiots, I am a driver as well, it seems that people have become very arrogant on the roads these days and even more aggressive.

By the way, there are plenty Ironman events which dont allow wetusites, I have done 3 without because they were not allowed, Kona is another being one of them :-),

mmmmm, interesting topic, firstly 21.8 degrees is a flipping great temperature to swim in, i dont understand r u saying u were disappointed not to wear a wetsuit in that temp? I must tell you the biggest problem I have is when TSA decide to allow wetsuites when the water temp is too high, they did this at Midmar 70.3 last year, I went on a swim the day before the race nice easy 1km out and back, and my watch had an average temp of around 25.2 degrees, so was expecting a non-wetsuite swim. However because of the close proximity to Ironman it seemed to me that people wanted this as a practice run, what a bloody stupid decision to allow wetsuites. 90% of the field overheated on the swim, then landed up dehydrated early on in the cycle leg, only to resort to overhydrating and it was such a hot day that it saw a huge field drop out. It can be far more dangerous to allow a wetsuite in warm temp conditions as it leads to the core body temp overheating and there is no ways with the suite on you are going to cool down. You are far better without one. As tip to beginner triathletes, go for a warm up swim before the event let your body temp adjust to the water you will enjoy the swim so much more, your lungs and breathing will be pre adjusted to a nice comfort zone.

I would have taken one more murderer off the road and made our lives a little safer, one at a time one at a time :-) LOL

I posted below on my FB site, which will go to 12000 people at least, because I am so bloody angry with this stuff, even today i was nearly taken out by an idiot taxi in the south. Another cyclist killed today, condolences to his family, this is very tragic. To all motorists out there, IF - You BBM and drive you are a possible murderer - SMS and drive you are a possible murderer - Speak without a hand free you are a possible murderer - Put makeup on while driving you are a possible murderer there is NOT one EXCUSE in this world to justify the above, if I see you expect a flying water bottle through your windscreen.

Something I thought you all might find very interesting, one of my pro athletes whom I help with nutrition mentioned a product he was taking, I removed the brand of course, but i never knew the actual product intimately to provide a constructive comment so I went to the pharmacy to have a look at the ingredients, well of course he never read the label properly, i looked at the ingredients first and thought ????? then i went further down and saw the nice bold statement in the picture below, wow, the fact that this and many others like this are actually on the shelves is a disgrace, a 2 yr suspension would have visited this athlete with traces in his system, how can this be ethical, how many banned products are you consuming? do you actually know? just because it does not have the bold statement does not mean its safe :-). Later M

Milkman I worked overseas on a farm dairy for 2 yrs, the cows never gave birth ;-) go figure :-),

of course the more natural you eat the better, definitely an impala has far more benefit than beef :-), the less processed, the more natural, the more you have as nature intended it to be, the better off you will be. I think as humans if we look at the food industry in general, we have created our own worst enemy in food, we have brought about terrible diseases, allergies, fatigue, emotional instability, diabetes, heart issues, and obesity, we only have ourselves to blame the food industry is one massive money making machine. In our stressed lives people look to take outs and fast foods, less time is spent in the kitchen and more time is spent on what people call the quick fix, society has lost touch with good wholesome health foods, and those that are trying to stick to it are looked down upon, the comment "u only live once u mind as well enjoy it" is a popular statement, but we are killing ourselves and our children, and I cannot but think that we should be wiser to play the percentages game properly, meaning, keep the higher % of your food choices in the healthy zone, and spoil once in a while, but really look after your engine its all you have thats actually worthwhile, and if you have children look after theirs as well :-).

The question of animal protein vs vegetable protein is actually an interesting topic, the question I think that really needs to be asked is can a vegetable protein actually give you the same benefit as animal protein, surely the animal protein is better. Now don't get me wrong, as I am not a vegetarian, BUT the answer to the question is 1000% YES, and MORE. In general, plant proteins have no cholesterol and fat (saturated fats) as opposed to animal sources. That’s why if you are going to compare a person who is taking his proteins from plants to the one who consumes proteins from animal sources; you would expect the latter to easily have diseases related to the heart and blood pressure. Plant proteins also have more Beta-carotene, dietary fiber, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, folate, Iron, Magnesium and Calcium. Animal proteins only have the upper hand on the number of amino acids present. Animal sources are said to be the best proteins because they have a complete set of amino acids. Although there is one plant protein (soy) that is complete. The next thing to understand is that its fine having a "more complete protein" HOWEVER everyone is overlooking one very important FACT. What is the bioavailability of that protein, in other words how much of it can actually be absorbed and used. Its a fact that soya isolate is 100% digested where as whey is not 100% digested. I found this discussion between soya and whey which is quite interesting perspective , and it explains as well why many whey products have additional additives put into them. Protein Concentrate vs. Protein Isolate Most companies are selling whey protein concentrate (WPC) and saying that their product is whey protein isolate. Ion exchange protein really doesn't mean anything in terms of the quality of the protein powder as a whole! Any high quality, pure protein will be labeled an ISOLATE and this is what you MUST look for. A true ion-exchange process CAN yield a good isolate but it is not the only process available for getting a superior whey protein. An isolate will have very little fat and lactose and will be about 90% protein (the protein fractions are "isolated" from the rest of the material). On the other hand, a WPC made through protein filtration is vastly inferior to an isolate with about 7% fat and lactose and only 75% protein (The actual protein in WPC is usually pretty good, but who wants to deal with all of the fat and lactose?) Interestingly, WPC costs less than half of what an isolate costs. Unfortunately, both products look and taste about the same so it becomes very hard to know what you have--you basically have to trust the manufacturer (supplement company) of the particular product. Here's the picture--the industry through various articles in muscle magazines touts the benefits and characteristics of a whey protein ISOLATE and turns around and uses a CONCENTRATE. Tell me, who's the wiser? The supplement companies, that's who, and they're a whole lot richer to boot! Some manufacturers will put 98% WPC in their product and then put in 1% of a hydrolyzed product (remember this tastes horrible!) and 1% of an isolate. Then, they can legally claim all types of stuff on their label-- di and tri peptides, ion-exchange, blah, blah, blah! What about the other available proteins--egg, casein, and soy? How do these compare? First, let me state that all of the above proteins are decent if processed correctly. Each will provide the body very efficiently with the protein that it "needs". I would definitely stay away from casein and egg white. Casein has been shown to have detrimental effects on a person's cholesterol profile and egg white protein tastes poorly, is expensive, and consists of about 10% carbohydrates. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Before you say it, I know your response--"That's all wonderful, but what is the best protein for me, a bodybuilder/weightlifter?" If you were to use any ONE protein source then I would have to say that it's a toss up between a soy isolate and a whey ISOLATE (you know, the one that no one can buy.) WPC provides a good protein; however the accompanying fat and carbs is something you do not want. If I had a choice, I would pick a soy isolate. A soy isolate is inexpensive, has the highest score on the PCDAAS, is very soluble if instantized, is extremely bland (a good thing), IMPROVES kidney function (unlike any other protein), is anticarcinogenic, is anti-estrogenic, lowers LDL (bad) and raises HDL (good) cholesterol, IMPROVES THYROID FUNCTION, etc, etc--the list goes on and on. But best of all, unlike whey isolate, pure soy isolates exist. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So its a highly debatable subject and one where a protein manufacturer REALLY needs to be TRUSTED, in this country not a chance ;-) The tables below r some interesting pointers on levels u would look for in a recovery drink. Glutamine (per 100g) Soy 10.5g Milk Protein 8.8g Whey 4.9g This is why they add more glutamine into the whey mix its obvious, and of course not in its natural form. Arginine (per 100g) Soy 7.6g Beef 6.3g Egg 5.8g Cassein 3.7g Whey 2.9g Again most whey proteins will have added arginine in it as well, what for if its in a non-natural form?? This debate can really go on for weeks guys, all I am trying to point out is when you buy something off the shelf, please understand VERY carefully what it is you are putting into your body, milk is probably less complicated than the tub on the shelf, but then again it has its own issues. Again health first, nothing is more important :-). later M

Riaan some of these cows never have calves, they pump hormones in to the animal to assist in milk production. Ever wonder why a steroided body builder sometimes develops pronounced nipples and milk ;-). Unfortunately, its a huge money making business, and a lot of the time, the benefits of recovery, performance being able to do your best seems to blindly be put in front of peoples health, and we as consumers need to put our health before perceived benefits. I am not here to argue that milk protein does not assist in recovery, YES it does, but in my mind it is to the detriment of ones overall health.