3 weeks in paradise...

Breakfast at The Coffee Shack!! YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!



I'm sitting right now on our lanai (outside porch) overlooking the ocean. I have my water bottle on one side of me and a Starbucks frappucino (from Costco) on the other. OH MAN, is it ever beautiful here. I tell you, it sure doesn't take that long to get used to nice weather. :) :) :)

The biking I've been able to do here has just been awesome. The weather has been just about perfect. Not scorching hot, but still hot! Today was a 5 hour bike ride followed by a little run, then it was playtime in the ocean. My hair is still damp from the ocean swim -- our pad is right across from the little beach, and Mike tanned, while Jake boogie-boarded, and I swam back and forth in the waves.

Mike is the SUPER SNORKELER. I don't really care for snorkeling -- I know, I know. I'm probably the only person in the world that doesn't go nuts for snorkeling. I mean, I like it, but I'm not as ENRAPTURED as Mike is. And, yes, the capital letters are necessary for that! Hahahahaha!!

Swimming in the ocean has taught me a lot about my stroke too. It's like I have to swim properly in order to move ahead. And the waves! WOW! I thought the piddly little ripples at IMC were "waves." Hahahahahaha -- was I ever wrong!!! Real waves bob you up and down and push you left and right and all around. And they are actually fun!

BIG NEWS on the running front...My coach left a comment telling me that my turkey running style is slowly disappearing. Or as she calls it, "Running like Phoebe." Hahahahaha!! Do you know how aggravating it is to KNOW that you are doing something wrong, can SEE that you are doing it wrong, and can even see when other people are doing it wrong, but you still continue to do it? AAARRRGGHH.



As for biking...

Oooh! There is something to be said for biking with people who are faster/better than you. There are just so many free lessons to be learned that way. For example, on Friday's ride (just over 4 hours), this girl passed me on my return trip. Now, it doesn't matter what my workout was, or what her workout was -- the point is that after she passed me, I found myself keying off her, and actually increasing my cadence and pushing myself a bit more. It's like she woke me up from a comfy slumber-bike ride and helped me get back on track.

And during today's ride, it was pretty windy (I'll come back to the wind here too), and I remembered how that girl had maintained a solid cadence and just went. I didn't doze off during today's ride, and when a guy passed me near the end of my ride, I watched him as well and found a teeny bit more inside to keep my legs going. What lessons! Both times I honestly thought I was pushing myself, but both times I had even more to give. But, because that girl passed me on Friday, I had a much more honest workout today! :) :) :) :)

Okay -- back to the wind. It is just as windy as the Pass. So -- all of you that are worried about the Kona winds, just bunk at my place if you want to train in the wind. The crosswinds are pretty hairy too -- we don't get too many crosswinds in the Pass, because the roads and wind go east to west or vice versa. But, there are a couple of spots where the crosswinds can nail you!

The crosswinds here don't just come out of nowhere -- you can tell when they are coming. There are rocky embankments on the side of the road, and when these end, the highway is fully exposed to wind. The terrain is rolling, with very few trees and just grass -- so the wind just blasts out from land to the water. After countless hours watching my Ironman DVDs and hearing about these famous winds, I was frigging ready. They did buffet me around a bit, but I stayed in aero. I thought to myself, "It's a good core workout this way!" Hahahahahahaha!! And once I did get blown onto the rumble strips, but like I said in an earlier post, the strips here are barely a blip -- let alone a rumble.

And they have wind turbines like in Cowley here too -- so I was right at home! Hahahaha!! I am not kidding, I just about spit up my water when I saw the familiar white turbines off the highway. Hahahahaha -- Yup! Just like home! :) :) :)

As for wildlife -- they have wild goats here, and they have these "Donkey Crossing" signs. I haven't seen a donkey yet, but I did see a dead wild pig on the side of the road today. It was black, bloated, and with that terrible fascination that PULLS you to look at the macabre, I took another glance at the corpse and saw it's tongue was sticking out. ECHH. Wonder if that'll make it to luau tonight? Hahahahah! Poor taste, I know!! LOL!!

Let's see, what else did I want to talk about -- Oh yeah, I LOVE the pool here. I really love swimming there. There is lap swimming from morning 'til night and you are pretty much always guaranteed a lane to yourself. The water is beautiful and deep -- so cool and clean. I relish the beginning of the workout when I get into the pool -- it's like as soon as I get in the pool, I slip into a happy, meditative state. Mike thinks I'm nuts (and to be fair, I am) that I feel like that about a pool and not like that about snorkeling, but to each his own!! :) :)

The change rooms have LOTS of black hair on the floors -- Hahahahahaha -- I never wear sandals, so I just make sure I step between them...Heh-heh-heh!

I found out how coconuts really look. You know when you buy them from the store and they look like a little brown bowling ball with three darkened spots like holes? Well, they are actually wrapped in a husk, sort of like corn on the cob. I asked a local yesterday why the coconuts looked different than at the store, and he illustrated the husking of a coconut with a little help from his dog, Moki. Heh-heh-heh -- the dog tore into that coconut like my dog tears into a teddy bear. :) :)

Here's a pic of us three amigos after exploring a lava tube with flashlights. As we emerged from the black depths, we could smell the sweet smell of pot ahead -- someone had deked into the darkened space and had a puff. We joked that we were going to be high when we got into the light again -- what do you think? Hahahahahaha!!



Jake and I doing what we shouldn't be doing...



Mike doing something he shouldn't be doing...(If you tell him he's not allowed, you are guaranteed him doing it -- is this a man thing? LOL!!!)



Bye for now!! :) :) :)