IN THE SADDLE: Things to think about on the open road

At CN&CO everything boils down to relationships. When good people interact with other good people, magic happens. This blog is a great example of the nature of relationships – how everyone knows someone who knows someone who provides free surfing lessons every Saturday or runs a national insurance association or just got back from Bhutan or battles to say Merry Christmas without blushing.

And we know Joshua Nuttall, who is part of the marketing team at Purple Group and a champion cyclist. One of Josh’s sponsors is carelnolte.com, which is an affiliate company of CN&CO. Josh’s dad Tim, with whom he rides a lot, is the rector of St Stithians, where Carel is the chairman of the governing council. Josh also rides for PinkDrive, which is one of our favourite charities. Josh is also a keen runner and runs for Born2RunAC – which is also the home club of a couple of CN&CO team mates and sponsored by Purple Group – which is where we started in the first place!

Josh spent some time on his bike during December thinking about diversity and shares his thoughts in this blog:

BY JOSHUA NUTTALL, PURPLE GROUP MARKETEER

There is an awesome power that sport has to connect different peeps from all around the world and there are many lessons that can be learnt from various sporting disciplines. A key one for me is how I get time to think deep thoughts while out doing long rides on my bike.

A rather philosophical way to enter the new year, but the base miles (long rides to prepare for the upcoming cycling season) that cyclists in South Africa have embarked on over the December period have resulted in a lot of self-reflection time. Out there it’s just you, your thoughts, and the open road. The picture above was taken on a ride that I did in Clarens over the festive season, a real stunner! In this part of our country you can ride without feeling like you’re too close to civilisation. It’s a great place to spend a few days, even if you’re not a cyclist.

Josh Nuttall (right) with his dad Tim in their cycling kit. (You’ll notice some fluff on Josh’s upper lip. That was Shongi, now departed, his Movember stache. It’s not part of the cycling uniform.)

For many South Africans, December offers the chance to take a bit of a holiday, where we can switch off from work and have a bit of time to ourselves. How we use this time is a matter of personal preference. Some people might enjoy having a couple of nights out on the town with their mates, others might like to travel, others might like a round of golf or clocking up some miles on the bicycle… you get the picture? We all choose to spend our holiday time differently.

A holiday allows us the opportunity to rest and recuperate … a bit of R&R, as some people call it. I want to break the two Rs down a bit:

Rest

What does “rest” actually mean? A break from office hours, a chance to sleep late, indulging in the finer things in life (wine, champagne, coffee, chocolate)? I am sure it is safe to say that everyone has their own version of what “rest” means. Everyone is an individual after all.

Recuperation

When you look “recuperation” up in a dictionary (or on Google, which is where we find most things nowadays), the definition goes something along the lines of recharging the batteries. Again this can mean a variety of things for different people and I will let you determine what your recuperation is and how you recharge you batteries every once in a while.

R&R is a must. It allows us to refocus and recharge our batteries. The time that we need to recharge is also different from person to person. Why is this? Why isn’t there a script? Well, we are all individuals; different people are motivated by different things, spaces, opportunities and activities. If we were all exactly the same, the world would be a very dull and boring place!

Embrace difference, accept it, work with it not against it 🙂

Although I didn’t take any time off work during December, I did have the opportunity to get some miles under the belt for the 2016 cycling season. The foundation is important for fitness levels in the season. As I mentioned earlier, on those long rides there is plenty of time for reflection. I chose to reflect about individuality/difference in this piece, because it is something that I feel we all need to open our eyes to and embrace rather than blocking it out and acting like it doesn’t exist.

Be yourself and learn a thing or two from the many different individuals you will encounter through the year of 2016. I look forward to what the year has in store and I wish you all the best!

Ciao till next time.

Joshua