It is all about the Ironman...

All the mornings start here with a workout. Wherever you go or wherever you look you see people running or swimming or biking… all the hours one can imagine and all the fitness levels one can think of. It is great. It motivates and it sets the mood for upcoming biggest event in the year for triathletes. So all our mornings start with some sort of exercise as well. Either a run or a general conditioning workout. Jane has decided to grow bulky stomach muscles so she makes us all do at least 30 minute general conditioning sets each morning :) My abs and arms are aching for second day in a row :)

This tree blooms here constantly - everywhere you look there are blossoms, seems like every growing plant here blooms

On Saturday, the 5th, there will be an open swim race to go through the whole swim leg of the Ironman - 3.8 kilometers just as on the race day. For this we went to try out the ocean swim on Thursday, 3rd of October. Race start takes place from a tiny bay in the city center, nice sandy pool by the pier. So we hopped in where all the triathletes will be racing for the Ironman event in about one weeks time. Waves are strong here - you can't take even one minute to loose your alert, you will be swiped off the feet immediately :) First the wave hits you towards the shore and then in a little bit of time all the water sucks you back into the ocean. Kinda fun when you are prepared for the tumble :) So you stand there with your knees slightly bent and you look like you will tackle the next wave hitting you, but all you are really doing is trying to keep yourself standing.

If you have seen me trying to get in the water ever you will know of how long it takes. Well, here, getting into the ocean is almost like getting into the bath - it is just warm… and salty. It is wonderful as the salt makes sure you float. Although the warm temperature of the water makes you kinda lazy and at some point you don't feel like moving your arms around anymore :)

Water is very very clear, filled with colorful fish and corals. I guess this is what it is like to swim in an aquarium, in a nice big sized aquarium. It was so interesting to stare at the bottom of the ocean during the swim that occasionally I forgot to take a breath… and quite often I just stopped to study another fish. some of the fish are bright yellow, the other ones have stripes, some are light blue and some are orange. There are batches of them moving around, others just stay at the bottom and suck the corals for food. It is truly a nice view. And then the sharks. Apparently there are some around here. Luckily I did not meet any during this swim. We were joking that when doing the open water swim then one should make sure to stay inside the group so the sharks don't get to you :)

Vacation mood type lunch ;)

And guess what we did in the evening on Thursday :) ?? Yes, we celebrated Indrek's birthday. 3rd night in a row it was celebration time :D True vacation I must say :)