Day 2 in Paradise!

Before I move on to today’s report, I have to point out the two highlights from yesterday. Highlight number one happened when I was enjoying my first ocean swim of the trip. There weren’t too many folks out there, as I had gone out a bit later in the morning. It was just about 10:00AM, and most of the crowds tend to show up around 7:00 or so. I was not too far out, in fact, I was just about to turn around, when I picked up my head just in time to see a dolphin flipping out of the water. I plunged my head back under to look for the rest of the group. Sure enough, just off to the left, there were about six or eight more dolphins, in two little groups. In the fist small group, there was a tiny one swimming very close to the others. It was definitely the cutest little baby dolphin I’ve ever seen. I watched them for as long as I could see them, then turned back. What a cool sight!

Highlight number two was picking up Amanda at the airport. Ever since our first trip here back in 1999, I have enjoyed surprising her at the airport in various rental cars. We do occasionally travel together, but it seems there have been many more times when we arrive separately. That first time, I showed up in my friend Doug’s Cadillac. This time around, I rolled up in my super cool convertible. But the true highlight is that I now have Amanda here with me!

Today started early, as I got up just in time to drop Amanda off at the pool for the Kona Aquatics Masters swim. She needs to keep her swim workouts going, so we planned on her joining the group a few times. I headed off to the ocean, as I am trying to get as many swims as possible out there. I really found that it helped me last year, so I’m staying away from the pool.

Once the swimming was done for both of us, we packed up the car and headed out to Hawi. Amanda was going to do a hill run out there, as sometimes it’s nice to get a break from running up and down Alii Drive. I was going to do a longer ride, back to town. Every year we head out there to do some sort of Hawi ride. It’s a great part of the island, as it’s very lush and green. Plus, it’s typically the part of the bike ride where the cross winds can be the most brutal.

Normally we’ll do an out-and-back, incorporating both the climb to Hawi and the descent. But this time around, I decided to try something a bit different: a point-to-point. I had never done this before, and I must say that it was quite enjoyable. I did get blown around quite a bit on the first 12 miles or so from Hawi. It was one of those days up there! It’s been a few years since we really got knocked around at Ironman Hawaii, and I have a feeling this is going to be one of those rough years.

After finishing up the ride, I did a quick transition run from the condo. By this time it was about one o’clock, so the temps were warming right up. It’s always nice to do a few runs right smack in the middle of the day, just like on race day. I felt incredible out there running, and I did my best to just cruise along, saving it all for next weekend.

That’s it for now; thanks for checking in!