Will Kelsay and his lovely lady, Shelby, visited South Africa for a few weeks. They spend a few days in Cape Town, then a few days in my house in Stellenbosch before tackling the Garden Route.

I’m busy renovating my house and of course,they got roped into some manual labour:

Will was super excited and went at the double brick wall like a maniac. Go to his blog to learn more about this colourful character.

Shelby can swing a hammer too!

We got to do fun stuff too, like visit Dan Hugos farm for Sunday lunch, and here we went wine tasting at Ernie Els’s wine estate. Yes the golfer Ernie Els

Yes the golfer Ernie Els…

Check out LumaSports for your next custom made sports gear…

More Triathlon Team news (a bit old, but news none the less) is Dan Hugo , also in LUMA gear, won another Total Sports Challenge Multi sport event. But the real news is that pink and green is coming back! Let me go dig through some closets for my 90s kit!

Dan winning TSPC

Yours truly circa 1992

I think I saved for 2 years to buy that pink Zipp trispoke…

Now, I’m waiting for the speedo to make a come back…

I know I’ll get a lot of flack for this one.  (Ga Von Twitt- give me the best you’ve got!) Especially after this blog post about how backward the Caveman really is about training technology.

I used to rely on roughly on Time, Heart rate and Feel. Using my trusty Suunto t6 for swim, bike and run.

Now things have changed radically: From now on, technology will play an integral part in my training. Does that mean my admitted “loafing” and fun days of being “self coached” is over? No, to me, using this amazing new invention (ha ha) is a new challenge to rise up to. For all you techno geeks, stay tuned if you like numbers, watts, repeats, resting heart rate, calories burned, power to weight ratio and all the things the Old School Caveman shunned before.

Here we go:

- Power

Barely 2 weeks after resuming “training,” I was subjected to a lab test by Ian “Numbers” Rodger- my new trainer.

I reached out to Ian via FaceBook in a panic  2 weeks before XTERRA Nationals 09. I somehow conned him into a bad situation of injury and under training, only 6 weeks before XTERRA Worlds. For such a clever guy, you’d think he’d know better.  I met Ian where he lab tested me before the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. I was impressed by his extensive knowledge for Wattage numbers which, very importantly, he combined really well with the non scientific aspects of racing. (pacing strategy etc) Successfully combining the Science of Physiology and Art of Training is a rare gift and I look forward to exploring new frontiers of performance and cleverderness with Ian.

The good photos are by Gary Perkin. The bad ones are by me!

As you can see by the lactate in the graph below, my 3 month long Ice Cream and Beer diet was great for aerobic capacity, and I stayed below 2 mM till 330W, but then the Ice Cream and Beer diet backfired and I went from “OK” to “completely blown” in a few minutes flat. I peaked at 470W and my threshold was between 360 and 415W.  Two weeks before XTERRA Worlds 09 I could hold 50 min (5×10min reps) at 460W- so I have a looong way to go before Ass Kicking Season opens. My best Peak Power (PPO) was 510W* way back, but like I said, I’ve never been much of a lab rat…

Looking at this graph, Ian will have me do a lot of my base training between 290 and 330W. As opposed to my old “Go according to State of Legs, Caffeine level and Loudness of Music” scale.

- Scientific bike set up

Dr Jeroen Swart from Science to Sport in Cape Town fine tuning my bike position using the locally developed Ergofit system. (and his 2 decades’ XC racing experience at National level) Ian and Jeroen were both convinced I shouldnt ride anything shorter than 180mm cranks- quite a rare phenomena- such long cranks.

Notice I have the “hare in the headlights” look. All this mumbo jumbo… “Back in the day, I would just put the saddle on the bike, tighten it down well and pedal the damn thing!”

Even though we were separated by a continent and 2 big oceans, Ian Rodger (R) got my set up amazingly close to what it should be  (fine tuned by Jeroen Swart on the level) via the wonders of video on the World Wide Web. Check out how to do remote bike set up here.

Thanks to Neil from BicyclePower (Powertap) in South Africa for lending me his wireless Power Tap wheel. Without the help of those magic little numbers on the handlebar, I would fall back to the “State of Legs, Caffeine level and Loudness of Music” scale…

* Hereby I distinctly distance myself from all forms of doping, blood siphoning, untraceable Growth thingies and any kind funny business which includes everything up to course cutting. My Wattage numbers are so big because I’m a big guy- if you consider power to weight ratio I’m not as hot as you may like to think.

Breakfast:

Scrambled eggs with onions and Melissa’s Meat Rub, baked potatoes and lightly steamed cabbage.

Eggs: Protein. The yolks are nutrient rich. Eggs are easy to make and goes with anything.

Potatoes: Good, slow carbs, with lots of fiber and potassium. Very filling. Caveman staple food.

Cabbage: Turbo boost on group rides…

Lunch:

Sardines on seed loaf with Irish butter and Chick peas. (Garbanzo beans)

Sardines are packed with the good fats, protein, and of course that yummy spine and intestines…

Being a champion is not for everyone…

Dinner was more baked potatoes, with green beans, carrots and Boerewors with lots of garlic. Oh, yes and a Savanna! The most refreshing drink under the sun.

The light was too bad for a good pic.

If you like this kind of blog post, please leave a comment or let my know by Facebook or Twitter. @conradstoltz

Triathlon Team mate Fraser Cartmell did us all proud and won the South Africa 70.3 this past weekend. I watched him train diligently in Stellenbosch over the past 2 years, but apart from his 70.3 win in the UK, he hasnt really picked the fruit of his hard work and talent yet. This year is yours, Frasier, take by the scruff of the neck and shake it!

Mari Rabie was the revelation of the day. She has been a triathlon prodigy since her early teens and I blogged about her before: Mari Rabie

The past week there has been a buzz in Stellenbosch with the news that Mari won a much vaulted Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University where she will study Msc in Mathematical and Computational Finance and the Msc in Financial Economics. Ok, that sounds much harder and prestigious than anything I’ve ever done. Never the less, Mari has had her innings at the Beijing Olympics and she won bronze at the 2008 u/23 ITU Worlds. But this past weekend at her first 70.3 ever, Mari ran a 1.19 for the half marathon to win the women’s race. Only 2 min slower than Fraser who won the men’s race…

We’re proud of you Mari.

TV interview for www.i-am-specialized.com. Photo by Gary Perkin

Lunch with the Specialized Team at Greengate, Stellenbosch. Gavin Noble, me, Burry Stander, Dylan van der Merwe, Bobby Behan, Christophe Sauser, Todd Wells, Dan Hugo.

The Red Team

Caveman on a road bike. (Specialized Tarmac SL2) by Gary Perkin

Macca urged the Twitter community to join him in his pre season cleansing diet comprising of juices for a week. Matt Lieto just started his Month of Salad…

Now I urge you to join me in my Month Of  Mopane Worm Cleansing Diet! Mopane worms are a delicacy in Southern Africa, and feeds millions of people every year. Usually they are harvested by hitting Mopane worm laden trees with long branches, and then harvesting them off the ground, much like one would harvest strawberries…

On day 1 of my cleansing diet I was lucky- they came marching down the Marula tree next to our house…

Its a cute one…

I hope they are WADA legal. (World Anti Doping Agency)

A Triathlon Team magazine. What a great idea! Nikola is really good at creating new content- the cover was featured on the MagCloud.com cover, next to LIFE magazine Avatar issue…

I’m still trying to buy my issue from South Africa*, but I’m sure it will be interesting- whatever the content!

*Only available in UK, USA and Canada. (Not applicable if  you have a US credit card and mailing address?)

Purchase the Triathlon Team Magazine here.

Visit Triathlon Team blog here and read more about our team members.

to this:

Its great to be back home- spending Christmas with my parents, my moms extended family and my amazing grandma (and biggest fan) who turns 92 today.