Taylor Swift Nailed It

A lot of people have been asking how Ironman training is going.  I'm in week 10 of 21 and it is progressing well overall.  The weather is starting to improve as Spring rolls in and I am just starting to think ahead to the actual race on Dec 4 as I can now envision warmth and sunshine again! (Plus, airfare, car, and hotel are all now booked!)

I think my general feelings while training, especially during those long bike rides, can best be captured by the lyrics of TayTay's song, "22:" 

"We're happy, free, confused and lonely at the same time. It's miserable and magical, yeah yeah..."  

Yup, she nailed it. That's exactly how I feel!  The only part she really left out is starving.  I am starving. All. The. Time.  Luckily, I am married to someone familiar with all of this, so he's not entirely surprised when we're chatting over dinner and I say things like, "Hey babe, did you know that at the KFC on North Road you can get 24 chicken nuggets for only $10?" Or when I text him a photo from the freezer section at the grocery store with the words, "OMG, did you know they made these?!"  The latest freezer section photo was of honeycomb and chocolate ice cream sandwiches. (Yes, they were as amazing as they sound and I am going to get more as soon as Isla wakes up from her nap!)

The swimming and the running is very enjoyable to me, actually, and neither really ever lasts that long (all put in perspective of training for a 140 mile race, I guess).  There have been quite a few swims with cold pouring rain on my back and several uncomfortable runs, but what challenges me most is the biking as I'm continually reminded: (1) Everyone else seems to be faster than me out on Beach Road where I train (Seriously, I refer to my Sunday rides as the "Sunday Morning Humble" as I get passed ferociously by far superior cyclists and massive pelotons) and (2) Melbourne Bayside may be the windiest place on earth! It is somewhat frequent that the weather changes quickly and the wind is actually going against you in both directions - I'm not even exaggerating!  I was talking to a local bike shop owner about this phenomenon last week and he told me there was this one time, 5 years ago, that the weather changed and the wind was WITH him in both directions and it was such an amazing day he'll never forget.  Ha!  I guess I haven't lived here long enough to capture one of these rare days!   I will do a 45 mile ride this week and need to work up to the longest ride at 100 miles, which is currently slated for my birthday.  I certainly won't be feeling 22 like my girl, Taylor, but I may act like it afterward with some celebratory eating and drinking!  All joking aside, I'm pretty stoked about doing this again at all and to get to do it in a place like Western Australia is still mind blowing (and slightly terrifying) to me.  As soon as my training ends, Nate's will begin and we'll switch roles for 5 months while he feels miserable and magical at the same time!  

Isla has certainly been learning about working out a lot from this experience.  She knows "the wheels on the bus" song well and applies it to my bike when I ride, yelling that the wheels go "round and round."  She also shocked me as we were getting off a plane a couple weeks ago (went to the Great Barrier Reef which was incredible, but more on that later) as she ran all the way up the jet bridge into the terminal and then immediately stopped for some exuberant stretching which lasted quite a while. I can only hope she is mostly learning these elements of a healthy lifestyle and not so much about downing an entire box of chocolate chip cookies in 5 minutes. The below photo is a pretty regular occurrence at our house. I'm on the bike trainer and Isla has decided to do a few push ups in between dancing behind me. 

On an only slightly related note, while my biking may not be the fastest, apparently our driving is too fast - both Nate and I learned the hard way that there are speed and light cameras everywhere as the tickets with hefty fines started appearing in the mail a month or so ago.  $700 later, Nate learned you can't exceed 63 km/hr on the road just around the corner from our house, and I learned you can't turn left on red. (I know, this sounds bad, but it is like going right on red in the US when no cars are coming!)  I stand by my action and think going left on red is perfectly fine. The only problem is the state of Victoria disagrees, so I won't be doing this anymore.  We don't think there are any more fines coming in, but they are about 2 months delayed so I hold my breath every time I get the mail.

We have continued to figure out these little things along the way, but Aussie slang sometimes still catches me off guard.  I was texting with my hair guy trying to schedule an appointment this week (you text/call your stylist directly here as opposed to calling a salon). Anyway, he texted me that he was sorry for the delay in responding but he "got a bit crook" this week.  Hmm, this didn't sound good so I wanted to be sure to respond with the appropriate amount of sympathy. This is tough when you aren't sure whether someone got robbed or got sick.  I later confirmed with a friend (after googling a bit) that it does indeed mean sick.  No shortage of continuous learning here!