10 000 Friends to run Great Wall Marathon

So i was talking to a potential advertisor and friend for the new magazine we publishing, Triathlon Plus SA and we were argueing about the power of Viral Marketing like Blogs, Twitter, Facebook etc.

I said its a great way to go to grow brand awareness etc and he said he didnt think it worked.

Then he gave me a challenge and this is how it is going to work.

Rule # 1 : I can only Use Blogs, Twitter , Facebook to complete the Challenge

Rule # 2 : I have to end up with 10 000 Friends either on Twitter or on Facebook to win the Challenge

Rule # 3 : I only have the my Birthday month to do it, So from 1st March till 31st March

If i get this right he will pay for me to go and run the Great Wall of China Marathon which i really want to do.

So here is how you can help me :

• Click Here to add me as a friend on Facebook : Collin Bradley Allin
• Click Here to follow me on twitter : Collin Bradley Allin

Then get your friends to come to my site and do they same or post it up as your status, or twitter it. Lets show him that the underground in alive and well.

Lucky i already have a head start, so only 8900 odd to go.

Have a great Weekend

Torbjorn Sindballe retires

He was one of my favourite athletes because he was a tech head and loved to hammer the bike like i do. Below is his press release :

A press release states that Danish pro triathlete Torbjørn Sindballe has retired from triathlon, effective immediately.

During Wildflower Triathlon in early May the Danish powerhouse ended his race hyperventilating in T2 after a very uncharacteristic bike ride, during which he faded down the field with a drastically dropping heart rate and heavy fatigue. The Dane has known about an abnormal heart valve since 2005 and has had regular checkups to ensure he was safe to race. After the incident in California, he has gone through extensive testing and evaluation with Danish experts. After considering their advice, Torbjørn Sindballe has decided to stop his career immediately.

“The past months have been an emotional rollercoaster for my family and I,” Sindballe said. “Going from world-class competition in the toughest sport in the world to fearing a heart surgery in the near future at the same time as your second child is born is an extreme experience. My wife, family, friends and sponsors have been a tremendous support in this process and the doctors have been outstanding in their evaluations. Based on the situation, I feel good about the decision and can look back on an amazing career in an amazing sport.

“I am going to miss the lifestyle and the intense excitement of training and racing,” he adds. “Of course I’m sad that I will not get to see the impact of the big changes in my training we have made this year and that I will not be able to compete for the crown in Kona. On the other hand I am very proud of what I have achieved. Two ITU Long distance World Champs and a podium in Kona, where I am really not suited to race, is something I will carry with me forever. I have learnt so much and feel very privileged.

Sindballe continues: “There are so many people who have devoted their expertise, insight and inspiration to me and to them I will be forever thankful. I have met countless truly amazing people in this sport and will never forget the time I have had with them. So many people have inspired me in my career and I hope I can give back in the coming years, helping people realize their dreams in sport, family and worklife.”

Torbjørn is sponsored by ECCO, Argon 18, Craft, Zipp, Sram, Oakley, Bell, HighFive and Xterra wetsuits.

Torbjorn Sindballe a.k.a. Thunderbear

How bad do you want it ?

This sentence comes up a lot with me in different fields of my life. How bad do you want it ? How much are you prepared to give up or sacrifice for it ? How far are you willing to push to get it ?

I think that the athlete who wants it the most on the day gets it, he might not be the most talented, the fastest or the most experienced but the hungry athlete often walks away with a win.

This i think is true in life as well, we are all out there trying to find the bigger picture and some of us have endured a lot in order to try and get there, we have sacrificed and worked hard and although some of us may never get to the end of the rainbow its the journey in trying that will enrich our lives.

So here is to you, the warrior, the person who wont give up, wont surrender.

This picture sums up what i am trying to say, these guys came down to the line, the guy on the right had a 7min lead off the bike and lost the race by 2sec , after 4hrs of racing to the man on the left who is the Current world Champion.

So keep up the good fight and remember, never give up, the next corner could be the finish line.

British Airways with cool programme

I think maybe our local guys should do something like this :

British Airways Great Britons programme has launched a £500,000 fund offering up to 180 free flights a year until 2012. It is open to anyone aged over 16 years old who need support to develop their talent in any field.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to help young people achieve their goals,” said British Airways global sponsorship manager Luisa Fernandez. “We know how important it is to connect people to places and with our extensive network, we can do this better than anyone.”

Nearly 1,500 athletes from 28 Olympic and 20 Paralympic sports will also benefit from the partnership, which offers up to 20 percent off flights for them and their families, as well as support with baggage and equipment.

While judges of the 180 free flights per year include Denise Lewis, film director Jeremy Gilley and British Airways representatives, the final vote will go to the public. Applications can be made at www.greatbritons.ba.com.

This came from www.cyclingnews.com and shows just how first world countries get behinde their athletes and not sit around and cry when we they only win 1 medal

What would you be doing if you could do anything ?

I had the chance to go and experience some truly breathe taking nature this weekend. On Saturday afternoon i was having a jog alongside a cliff, the drop off to my left was about 1km down, we were running past zebra’s, buck and other game.

I was then hit by this thought : Realistically, what would i want to be doing with my life right now ? now i say realistically as i didn’t want to have be the president as a answer, i meant things that if i applied my mind too or time and money to could achieve. The 2nd part of the question was that if that was what i wanted to be doing then was i taking the correct steps in getting that ?

Think about it for a bit ?? Because if you are not doing that, then what are you actually doing ?

Are you just going along the path that presents itself to you at the time or is there a big picture and plan to what you are doing..

I think we should all take a breather and look at what we are doing instead of just putting our heads down and trucking along a path that might not come out where we want it too ??

Things that ROCK about the USA

I have had sometime to think about what ROCKS and what SUCKS about the USA and thought i would get it down for you. Firstly i am amazed at how advanced SA is, there was hardly anything there that we did not have here at home. Anyway here are the things that ROCK :

• Mailboxes, every house has these cool mailboxes on the streets and there is no big fences or walls.

• Sweets, if you like sweets, there is different kind,flavour out there
• Post Office, works like a dream, i asked for a tracking number when i sent something and the guy laughed at me and said they don’t need them
• Transport, you can go where, anytime and quick and most of the time cheap too
• Cars, they have the biggest, most powerful cars you have ever seen. Plus you pay 0% on car finance, making every car cheap to own, Hummer retail for $ 22 000 ( R 235 000 ) off show room floor.

• Diversity, you can be anything and do anything you want
• Population, they are so big that you only need 5% of the population to buy into something and you are a multi millionaire.

Home again and Smiling

So i woke up at 3.06am this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. So i am collecting my thoughts together from my trip and soon will be posting some of them down, I am also going to be posting 2 lists. The things that ROCK about USA and the things that SUCK about USA.

Also glad its warm as here is a picture of me on the last day in NY with 20% chance of snow.

26 weeks to world champs INFO

OK, so i have had a huge year for a lot of reasons, i have moved cities, moved house twice in my new city, JHB. As well as having to put a lot of time and energy into my own company. Which also meant a lot of travelling.

Knowing all of this i decided to just accept this as the year in which i will race for fun and not be too serious and try out a few different things. The 2 things i did was GYM in winter with specific focus on smaller muscle groups like hip flexors, glutes, hamstrings etc as well as general strength. I also did some plyometric training with my dancing friend, Tanya Futter which i want to do some more of and tried to do core as often as possible, also want to do more of this.

The other thing i did was spinning twice a week, 1 power class and 1 speed class, this was easy to do as i teach it and can control it. The other thing i did was change bike sponsors, i moved across to Specialized and got a few other nice toys. I don’t want to have any excuses on race day when it comes to equipment.

I just went through my race diary and here is the info. The period is from 1st May 2008, i raced IM SA on the 13th April and moved the week after, so didn’t count those 2 weeks and not much happened.

The period ends on the 5th November which is 3 days before 70.3 World Champs in Clearwater.

The period is 26 weeks in total and here are my totals : Remember this incl racing as well as part of totals.

SWIMMING : 94km’s in total giving me 3.6km’s per week

CYCLING : 2750km in total giving me 106km’s per week

RUNNING : 361km in total giving me 13.88km per peek

TOTAL HOURS : 197 hrs giving me 7.35hrs per week

This is actual data, the other things included in time is GYM and RACING.

Here is my race splits from yesterday, i think that all my race experience and muscle memory help me get through this tough day at the office :

SWIM: 29.38min

BIKE : 2.24hrs

Run: 1.49hrs

TOTAL: 4.49.59min

I finished in 622 out of 1252 athletes and in a PB as well, this is a very fast course and i think if in better shape i could of been about 20min faster.

Next year if all goes according to plan i would like to take racing a bit more seriously and get back to being in the mix

A view to wake up to

How can you not be in a good mood when you wake up to this. This is the view from my bed this morning and i must say, I’ve got a good vibe feeling in my heart. Hope your weekend rocks.

Knysna for the weekend

I’m a truly blessed to be able to travel a lot, i know that i moan about it sometimes and yes it does get very tiring and its very disruptive on your personal life. But every now and then you get blessed with a perfect day in a perfect place.

Today is one of those days, i am writing this from here :

I am in Knysna for a friend’s wedding, a little bit of work and a little bit of play. Although it’s not HOT, its really sunny and being at the water is very peaceful. I am waiting for my new ORCA RS1 to arrive and then i am just going to jump off and go for a swim to test it out and then have a lazy sun downer on the deck.

Here is the house we are staying in and Here is to all of you out there working in a crappy office today…CHERRS….