Be Friends with Winners

On one of the flights towards Kona I watched a documentary movie called Big River Man. It's about Martin Strel from Slovenia who swam the whole length of the Amazon river, think they said it was 5500km. Apart from the Amazon he also swam the Mississippi, and the Yangtze river in China which is over 4000km long.

Although I don't agree with everything the man says and does two things struct me. One is he said "That to be a winner, you must be friends with winners". If you see who this guy know and with whom his friends you'll be amazed. He is a real legend in Slovenia, he even has his own security key to some restricted cave in Slovenia that only the government have access too. He goes there to focus.

The second thing that I noticed was his determination. He just doesn't give up and will push through whatever it takes. In a funny and sad sort of way he is a inspiration. His focus will be so strong that he will go into his own world when he swims and nothing will derail him from his goal.

This morning I went for a 40 minute swim and it felt better than expected if you consider I swam a week ago. The underwater scenery is amazing, nothing can describe it. For the whole forty minutes out and back I just saw all this beautiful fish non stop. The swells is something I need to get used to but with a few more swims scheduled I will most probably adapt. Dejone joined me and played in the shallow water while I was swimming, funny to see this child playing in the water between all these triathletes.

The Tri travel group scheduled a swim tomorrow morning with I think they said Luke Bell, a Triathlete Pro. He will show us all the ins and outs of the swim route.

The picture above is from the pier towards our Condo just to the left of the big building which is the Royal Kona Resort.

There is this huge cruise ship that has docked in Kona and I don't know how long it is here for but the whole town is just full of Triathletes and Cruise liner passengers.

Our Condo is really nice and big and it's got a pool and barbecue area. There is more than enough space in the apartment for everything. I even have my own section where I can sit and work on the PC.

I've draped the South African flag in the living room against the window. Keeps me motivated and reminds me of everybody back home. Dejone is very happy as there is more channels on the TV than what you can watch. Like I said to her, same procedure just different location. Whenever she's waiting for us or have some free time she is in front of the TV "surfing" the channels, just like home.

The pool area is big and there's some outdoor games you can play.

Me and DJ playing some table tennis before we had a barbecue this afternoon. I had to do it to remind me of South Africa, barbecue country.

The whole island is just full of all these different beautiful flowers. Even for me who is not a big garden, flower person it is amazing to see all these different shapes and colours of all these Flora.

After the swim I went for a 80km cycle and at first I thought this is not too bad and I was cycling at 40km/h+. I was already thinking of race day and thinking that this course is not as bad as on the Computrainer simulated and as everybody said. Well I was soon helped right when the wind picked up just out of town. It is so true when people say they can't describe it to you, you need to experience it yourself. The wind was blowing so strongly from the side that you physically lean against it not to be blown over.

I was telling Kim when I came back that you cycle next to your bike. These crosswinds are wicked. I now understand why disc wheels are not allowed. I also now understand why a lot of people cycle with normal helmets and not aero helmets. At one stage the wind was blowing so strongly from the side that it lifted my helmet from my head. You need a very strong upper body and neck apart from legs to bike in Kona.

Funny enough it was hot but that was not as bad for me as the winds even with me cycling from 12pm to just after 2pm. I don't think the heat will be as big factor as the winds.

Today's training:

Swim: 40 minutes, just short of 2km I guess.

Bike: 2h42, 81km, 132bpm, 2348kcal, 62 km/h max(scary), 32.1km/h ave, 34c ave, 37c max. 209watts ave.