You might have seen me tweeting these from time to time and this afternoon I got some fresh ones. I had tears in my eyes when going through them, ENJOY

There is one thing certain at the moment and it is that no matter who you run with or where you run you will get somebody talking about Barefoot or minimalist running. Its something that has been around for decades but its something that has gone quite mainstream at the moment and got the masses running around in superlight shoes and feeling great. The problem is after many years of running in heavier more structured shoes a lot of people are experiencing injuries and cant understand why.

I feel the reason is that most people’s feet and all things associated with the feet like ligaments, tendons etc are lazy and weak because our shoes have been doing all the work for us for years. Another contributing factor is that we have landed on our heels and rolled as we ran for years and now we trying to land on our mid foot and to be honest it hurts.

So do I think that we shouldn’t be running in these shoes ? NO AT ALL, we ALL should be running in these shoes, BUT in moderation. We need to use these shoes as training tools. We need to start off with 15min runs in them or just do 1 faster run a week in them and build up to doing more and more. The rest of the time we must be in a more structured, more cushioned shoes to let our feet and legs recover. It took me about 18 months to learn to run landing on my forefoot and its taken me almost 8 months to get up to a 2hr run in a lightweight shoe. I am lucky from racing triathlons we have been using racing flats for years so i wasn’t going into this type of thing cold.

So I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but in my opinion you are going to need to buy 2 shoes. A light weight racing type shoe and a more structured heavier shoe. There is however another option that might be an answer to a lot of these issues we are talking about. PUMA recently released a first for us, a 1 Piece moulded stability shoe. The first thing you notice about this shoe is the weight, at only 250g for a Stability shoe its a lot lighter than most shoes out there. The technology is genius, there are Lateral Release Grooves which allows for a more gradual transition to mid foot and slows the rate of pronation. And then there is a 20 degree Medial Flare which is steeper than a neutral shoe which is normally around 14 degrees, so it keeps you in a neutral position to roll through onto your toes. This is great as it looks and feels like you part of the new movement but you still in a shoe that offers all of everything you need. The great thing is that if you move into a more forward striking foot stride the rear of the shoe doesn’t come into play and at 250g you still getting lightweight. But as you run longer and longer and start to get more tired and fall back onto the heel , the shoe system comes into play

I will be running my marathons and 2 Oceans 56km in the shoe as I think its the answer to my prayers. Cause lets face it we all need a little support from time to time and its 30% lighter than the shoe I was running in last year when I raced so I am super excited to get onto the road in these bad boys. So there you have it, my 2 cents worth. But again find your own groove and what works for you.

Run Faas and see you out on the road

In December Dave Harrington was telling me all about the new amazing Suunto GPS and man was he right. The Ambit is the newest offering and it looks like it might blow away everything in the market place. First off it looks stylish so you can wear it with anything, instead of looking like a athlete in your work clothes.

Secondly the price incl Heart rate strap looks be around R 4200 ( still waiting for confirmation ) which is competitive with anything else especially due to the fact that its packed with other features that your standard sports GPS doesnt have. The battery life also looks awesome at around 15hrs of recording time.

Here is what they say about it :

Specific Outdoor Functionality
With AMBIT’s full-featured GPS the user can choose waypoints to navigate with and see their location in multiple coordinate systems. The AMBIT boasts a host of other features including temperature, track logging, unique 3D Compass and barometric sensor. All these keep you informed of your location, altitude and weather conditions on your adventures.

Advanced Training Functionality
The AMBIT also offers functions for the serious mountain athlete. The patent pending accelometer fused GPS gives highly responsive speed and pace with Suunto FusedSpeedTM. Heart rate monitoring with Peak Training Effect will keep you within your optimimum training zone and Recovery Time will tell you when you’re fully recovered for your next adventure. And after a hard session in the hills, the GPS will guide you home where you can upload your data for analysis on Movescount.com.

I might be lucky enough to receive a test unit and then I will let you know all the in’s and out’s of this amazing watch.

This is super exciting for us here at Puma. The Faas 800 is the first Stability shoe of its kind, No plastic, no gimmics, just pure, geometry driven stability. This shoe is ideal for over pronators looking to lighten their load. This shoe comes in at only 252g which is around 50% lighter than most traditional Stability shoes. Watch here to have the shoe explained.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEGAPK55uhw

Experience we get with age. I am almost 33 and I would like to think that after so many years out there living life that I have a fair amount of experience. Now that’s not to say that I know everything or that I don’t need to stop to continually learn new things. But what that does mean that come race day I have a lot of other race knowledge to fall back on, some great ones but more importantly the not so great ones.

I managed to get in semi decent training before 70.3 this year, my weight was ok and my head was ok. I had the best equipment out there so I knew that if I got my nutrition right on race day and played smart I could end up with something not too kak.

This brings me to my 2nd point, Balance, it’s the one thing I have always tried to acheive and yet still get it wrong all the time. I think its because its the most difficult thing to do. I mean we have relationships, some of you families with kids ( Don’t even know where you guys get any time for anything ) and work and friends and a small social life if you lucky.

So starting a new job in November was always going to turn things upside down for me,I have gone from being responsible for 1 division to 8. Which has been quite a shock to the system. I was cruising at work and loving having things mostly under control, now I spin all day and seem to get nothing done.

So when 1 thing in your life goes pear shaped, experience told me to back off on other things to allow things to balance, this was very hard as I wanted to have a good race but I knew that if i pushed my training everything would collapse. So i backed off and got in around 7/8hours a week, I would of liked to be doing 15hrs odd but that wasn’t a option at this point.

An important part of balance in my opinion is Sleep and Diet, I cut out coffee as it was making me jumpy, I was drinking 2L of water a day and also trying to sleep at least 7 hrs a night.

I SURVIVED and managed to get to race week feeling good and knowing that the pressure was off to try and perform all I had to do was get to East London in 1 piece and be smart on race day.

I drove there, 1200km odd and will never do that again, your body just doesn’t feel right after that kind of effort and wasn’t a great idea 2 days before a race. With all that aside I woke up on race day feeling good. We were staying right opposite transition, this was a treat as after attending to my bike I got to go back to the hotel and chill and have breakfast and just relax.

Got to the start relaxed and got to shoot the breeze with Raoul de Jongh who was there to try and win, I could see the focus in his eyes and the camlness in his soul and after being to the end of the earth and back with my boy, I knew he was going to do it. With 3000 people on the course it was going to be a draft fest the whole day and I knew a good start to the swim was important. The gun went off and we all rushed into the water, My plan was to swim comfy and not push anything so that I get out of the water feeling refreshed. I had a good swim and didn’t get caught up in anything too bad, exiting the water, my time didn’t seem great but my first goal was achieved i breezed the swim and was looking forward to the bike.

Once onto the bike the Plan was to bike easy for the first 10km and not get excited. Then i noticed something strange, a lot of the people who I would normally swim with when I am fit were cycling passed me, so that made me smile as I didn’t have too bad a swim then.I settled into a steady pace and rode to half way well within my fitness level. I decided to push the next 30km to get a gap on everybody else behind me. I got into town and off the bike with my legs still feeling good. I was happy and looking forward to the run.

I had some Achilles issues leading up the race and was only able to get about 200km running in about 4 months so wasn’t in any kind of shape, but I knew i could suffer if I had too. The only thing that had bugging me all day was a Dull stomach cramp, I had a toilet stop and started to run and legs felt good. I decided that 5min/km was going to be a good run rate and I tried to sit there as much as I could, a 2nd toilet stop produced no result even though i felt like I was going to shit my pants. My run time when i finished was 1.45min which I am very happy with, all things considered. Even though my official Run time was 1.51min.

I ended up with 5.26 which on the day I will take. A great day was had by a lot of the athletes who had put the hard work in and to them I say Bravo. I will be back and will be a different kind of athlete. But if LIFE gets in the way again, I will take the line as I did this race and just be grateful to be able to be out there in the mix with my fellow athletes.

So I guess the thing I would like to leave you with is that we all have crazy lives, families, hard jobs etc. But try and find the balance and make sure that if you sacrificing something that its worth it.

Remember the basics at all times. A huge thanks to my sponsors who make me look good out there and make the job easier, PUMA, Orca, Oakley, Black Spade Racing . God speed to us all.

P.S Remember to smile for photo’s or you could have the real world look of pain on your face like I did in this one…ha haa

So its been talked about as the newest, biggest thing in Bicycles. The new Cervelo P5 TT bike and i found a image of it this morning, or what we believe to be a image. Will have to wait till the official launch to see full pics, but this is apparently the new P5.

Enjoy and feel free to comment.

I love cool new stuff with a taste of old skool. This is the perfect blend of a normal thing a kid would use and then modified and used as a extreme sport. I love it, living on the edge.

So as most of you probably know by now, Kim Jon il is dead. He was in most peoples eyes a monster and a dictator. I have been seeing a lot of things about him lately and most of them are pretty insane. Take this one for example.

Kijŏng-dong is situated in North Korea’s half of the Demilitarized Zone. It is one of only two villages permitted to remain in the  2.5 mile DMZ set up under the 1953 armistice between the UN and the DPRK.

The official position of the North Korean government is that the village contains a 200-family collective farm, childcare center, clinic, and primary and secondary schools. US and South Korean observation has noted that the village is basically empty.

The village was originally built to try to encourage South Korean soldiers to defect. The buildings were wired for electricity which was basically unheard of in the north or south in the 1950′s. Just as many parts of the capital of Pyonyang, Kijŏng-dong is built like a movie set. Most of the buildings are just concrete walls with no interior at all. Some of these buildings even have painted on windows. To keep up the illusion of a city there are workers moving about from time to time doing small tasks such as cleaning sidewalks.

The South Korean government put up a 323 ft. tall flagpole with a South Korean flag in the farming village just across the border called Daeseong-dong. The North Koreans countered shortly thereafter and put up a 525 ft. tall flagpole.

Up until 2004, DPRK had large speakers put on several of the buildings that continuously delivered North Korea propaganda broadcasts directed towards the south. The content originally consisted of promoting the North’s virtues and telling disgruntled soldiers and peasant farmers to walk across the border. As its value in promoting defections proved rather useless, the 20 hour a day content was switched to anti-Western propaganda speeches, Communist operas, and North Korean military songs.

I think the world is a better place without this person in it.

Puma did another cool thing this past week with Toitoy, if you don’t know this cult shop, its in Kloof street in Cape Town and they do the coolest Toys, most of which are collectables and meant to be kept in glass boxes. This colab was with 12 chosen artists, they got a blank Doll and blank Shoes and had to do a matching set. They then were show cased on a special evening where you had the chance to buy the sets which ranged between R 2850 and R 3200

Here are my favourite 3 with no particular order :

PUMA LAUNCHES NEW BULLS RUGBY KIT

Cape Town, South Africa, 13 December 2011 – PUMA^® has unveiled the striking new kit that the Vodacom Bulls rugby team will sport in Super Rugby 2012. The shirt’s “smash” design is inspired by the phrase “bull in a china shop” and expresses the strong and powerful playing style of the Bulls.

The graphic takes the physical characteristics of a bull and translates these into a warrior-like aesthetic suited to the Bulls combative rugby style. The complexity of the design, which combines a chevron-like effect, is designed to distract opposition players.

PUMA has a long-term deal to supply full technical kit to both the Vodacom Blue Bulls and Vodacom Bulls rugby teams, and is the official distributor of the teams’ match replica gear.

PUMA South Africa’s CEO Ronald Rink says: “PUMA is extremely excited about the launch of our first Bulls Super Rugby kit – Bulls management and players love the new design direction and inspiration and we are looking forward to seeing the shirt in action on the pitch early next year. PUMA wishes Pierre, Wynand and the rest of the team and management the very best of luck for the coming season and we look forward to seeing the Bulls fans out in support for the new era of Bulls rugby.”

“PUMA is a brand that is young, dynamic, adventurous and proud. As a Company we constantly strive towards such pillars and so see great synergy between these brands. We look forward to launching our new playing kit within the next few days, a kit that we believe adequately reflects our style of play and rugby ambitions,” said Barend van Graan, CEO of Blue Bulls Company (PTY) Ltd.

Loyal supporters will be pleased to know that the Super Rugby replica shirt will be available from 15 December 2011 and will retail for R599.

So as you know our boat had some bad luck and the boys have managed to find some land to rest on while they wait for the repair stuff to arrive. With less than nothing to do the boys found the world’s most remote golf course with some interesting locals on it.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0amoW2Ess20&feature=player_embedded

So its the month we all get to walk around looking very dodgy and some of us get to be slightly more superior than other due to our overall amount of hair growing skills. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter as long as you growing something and giving a little something to Prostate Cancer.

I am in Phase 2 of mine already and the end goal is to get it to twirl, using a little wax to get the end pointed or twisted up later on for some class…ha haa

Not sure how long its going to take but I am going to be going on after November to achieve it. Hope the Hair Gods are favouring your efforts this month and long live the Hairy lip.

Feel free to show me your MO on twitter, just send pic to @collinallin and I will retweet it to the world and show them your glory.

Global sportlifestyle brand PUMA^® today unveiled the new South African national team football kit at the opening of a month-long exhibition, Interpretations of Africa: Football, Art and Design, at the Design Museum in London.

Star footballers including Bafana Bafana captain Steven Pienaar, Samuel Eto’o of Cameroon, John Mensah of Ghana and Yaya Touré of Ivory Coast attended the launch of the exhibition, where the Bafana Bafana kit is exhibited alongside new kits for PUMA’s other African teams – Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Algeria, Namibia, Senegal, Togo, Gabon and Burkina Faso.

South African artists Hasan and Husain Essop designed the new Bafana Bafana kit. The brothers are among a group of artists from the Creative African Network www.CreativeAfricanNetwork.com commissioned to design kits inspired by their country’s heritage, culture and traditions.

The kit, which Bafana Bafana will sport when they play against the Ivory Coast in the Nelson Mandela Challenge on Saturday 12 November, includes a rainbow graphic inspired by the phrase “Rainbow Nation” coined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

So in true PUMA style we launched another beer this weekend, some of you might remember the UNITY beer we had during the world cup which was a massive success so we decided to do it again for the VOLVO yacht race.

I was lucky enough to get to have 1 or 6 of them on Saturday and I got to say that they are lovely. They do kick a little hard though with a 6.5% alcohol content but they go down smooth. This is what officially what was said about the Colab with BREWERS & UNION :

To celebrate PUMA’s entry into the 2011-2012 Volvo Ocean Race, PUMA and Brewers & Union have collaborated once again to produce a unique Lager, KREECHR.

PUMA’s entry into the race, Mar Mostro – the “Monster of the Sea” – has its own personality. It’s the story of a boat that sailed around the world, and somehow the boat and the oceans became one. With sustainability as a focus for PUMA, it was important to bring respect for the waters and sea life into a central design theme.

“Brewers & Union has produced yet another fine craft beer, this time in support of Mar Mostro’s endeavours in the upcoming Volvo Ocean Race. KREECHR takes its inspiration from the tough sailing conditions that Mar Mostro will face during the race, and is crafted extra strong,” said Brett Bellinger, Marketing Director for PUMA. “We are looking forward to celebrating with skipper Ken Read and the rest of the PUMA Ocean Racing team over a couple of KREECHR’s during the Cape Town stopover, taking place from 25 November to 11 December at the V&A Waterfront.”

Rui Esteves of Brewers & Union says “We created KREECHR in very limited quantities (600 cases) especially for PUMA in celebration of their entry in the 2011-2012 Volvo Ocean Race. This full-bodied and gorgeously malty strong lager packs a punch at 6,5% alcohol and yet is silky smooth with hints of apple and honey on the palate. It pours a clear and deep golden colour with a biscuit aroma and a fruity, floral hop accent.”

Here is the boat we are racing this year, expect to see huge activation for us and the race around the 27th Nov for 3 weeks.

And here is the Beer they call KREECHR… be careful they bite

OK, so I have a carbon sickness, I’ve had it for as long as I can remember. 1 day when I am big I will learn how to work with it and build my own stuff, crazy stuff, some of it just stupid but will be because I can. I came across this guy today and fell in love with what he has done…Just because he can

I am not sure how it would ride or how much it weighs or how aerodynamic it is. Instead I stand up and start a slow clap for the inner child who loves to play, the man who embraces it and does things for no reason other than Because he can.