Soigneurs rule 26: Passion VS Purpose.

I love mountainbiking. I am very privileged to make a living from it and enjoy every second of being involved with it. Whether making a sale, sharing some advice or discovering a new place to ride, it gives me a sense of joy and a freedom that not too many other activities other than when my heart skips a beat when I see my wife walking into the room or hearing the little footsteps of my kids running down the hallway. These are things that I feel passionate about.

In the last while I have discovered that there is a different aspect to my life that I have not given enough attention to. This is my purpose. What would I like to achieve in life, what motivates me to keep going? I have done some serious searching in these areas of my life, and have come to the conclusion that the difference between my passions and my purpose hinders on the following basic rule. No position nor possession can deter me from my purpose, whereas my passion relies on it. To be a better father, husband and ultimately person should not depend on what I have, but who I chose to become. I have a clear vision of my calling, please come and ask me about it if you see me around…

With the biggest race of our team season starting tomorrow, I am confident that we are ready to serve our purpose, to align our passion with this and ultimately to represent mountainbiking for what it is. Freedom, adventure and a shared vision.

Soigneurs rule 25: Every race/race day should have its own merit.

South Africans have this curious habit of using races to train for other races. It is a strange occurrence, but might have something to do with that race we all love in March. I totally agree that you should create race mileage, test equipment and all at the same time asses your general conditioning for race-ready status as part of a periodized training plan or blocks of training load to prepare for a race or season of racing. But you would be mistaken to take the results of that “preparation race” as an absolute in context of your training plan and a reflection of your possible performance in future races.

We use training blocks to stimulate the body in a certain way, whether it is to create a strong base to platform other training systems from, or to increase strength or speed, the best way to test the outcome is in race day performance. It is imperative to keep this goal in mind when you test the outcome though. Your performance on this day should indicate improvement in the sections you were training for, and should not reflect too much on future races. Too often I have seen riders change specific training into panic mode, driving extreme distances and intensities to ‘catch up’ for time lost or sessions missed. You should trust your plan, give every race day its merits and start fresh tomorrow. Today is hard enough without stressing about what challenges tomorrow might bring. Take every day as it comes and trust that you have done enough homework to pass the test.