Beautiful Girls

Recently my teacher of "Sport & Physical Activity in Society", showed calendar pictures and advertisement posters with "lightly" dressed female athletes on it and blabbered an entire 2 hours about the "rude" media that exploit female athletes by portraying them as "sex objects". His argument was that those athletes should not be portrait in this way, but in their sports clothes and be credited for their athletic ability not for their curves. I don't know why he has not considered the fact that maybe we don't even mind??
Here is my point of view: We are sexy women; and our curves are worth while showing! We are proud of our bodies and we are not shy to show them! We love to dress into our training gear, get our munition ready to hit the trails, get dirty and sweaty while pushing limits. BUT that's not all we've got -- Nope! We love to throw those dirty "athletic" cloths behind, get the heels out and the jewels on and show how beautiful we are - and we love it!

Flyday

Today was not an Aloha Friday at the pool but Aloha Flyday. My question when glancing at the main set was, "does this workout come with a massage therapist?" I had not done any butterfly since I left the UH swim masters in 2004. It went surprisingly smoothly and it was fun to do. The more I butter-flied the more I liked it. Although I kept "hydrated" along the way; and realized the water got a touch saltier, since I started swimming at Somerville last year. Killing germs with a shot (or 2) with Jaegermeister never hurt. Prost!

Sydney

I am still wrapping my mind around mental toughness - so for now I post the promised entry on my training weekends away from Brissy. First one: SYDNEY
I stood near Bronte, Tamarama. Tamarama surf & life saving club was the first one in Australia. Heath Ledger lived in Tamarama along other celebs. The weather was cool but sunny and the beach path was filled with athletes and fitness warriors. Surfers, runners, kick boxers, boot campers, triathletes on trainers, swimmers. I have been to this area in 2006 as I stood with a friend from the Xterra circuit. Beside a run at Bondi that stay had included a training camp to Jindabyne (vivid memories of that one).
And swimmers are all over the place. If you ever happen to enter a pool in Oz, you will notice one thing: Everybody can swim. I mean really swim. Freestyle. And they are all moving quite well, acutally; and if they don't, they pretend they do. There is always a nice swim climate no matter what time of the day you go to the pool. The city pools get interesting at lunch. Business people show up like bee swarm. They show up in suits, disappear into the changing room, come out transformed into speedo's, swim 30', disappear, come out geschniegelt & gebuegelt (sorry that's german, means "all spruced up") into their suit and disappear with their laptop bag like they just closed a big deal. What is very special in Bondi area are the ocean pools. There is one on each corner. I am not exactly sure why people prefer doing laps over "free-swimming" in the ocean itself. I was happy to be able to go for several ocean swim's and the water temp was ok enough to not wear a wetsuit. The ocean is very different to the one at home. No corals, turtles, fishes, not drowned engines.. but empty. Literally. All you can see is the blue wide water and the sandy bottom. And if you stick your head out you can see the buoys of the shark nets. I did not bring my bike, so my training consisted of swim, run, swim - swim, DWR, swim and stretching. I ran the path from Bronte to Googee. It is stunning. It runs along the cliffs and if you are eager to do so you could do an entire marathon distance on that path going along the coastal line.

Training Update

Oi- To the AUS audience - Aloha to all Hawaiians at heart. And I guess a Gruess Dich to the German crowd.

I apologize to all who follow my blog about the lack of posts recently. It's been soo busy- but in a good way. I am back in Brissy and have been submerged in school, training and working more than ever. I am still spending a lot of time on my swim and I am seeing improvements. I join the RiverCity Swim Squad about 2 times per week and swimming in a group is awesome-ly more fun; not only because of the draft. Felicity Abram joins in once in a while.
Some changes in my training will most likely occur any time in the near future. Soon I will increase my bike and run again and I look forward to that. Regards the swim I will start to focus more on developing strength and increase overall intensity (yep-got it all sorted out (:
I also hope to be back with my coach Mike McMahon soon again. It's just too tough to be your own objective judge about what needs to be done. I am very pleased with my past couple of training blocks. Being in the Human Movements Program is awesome. Everything is soo interesting!! I wish I had more time to dig deeper into the subjects. For example I am currently learning more about Mental Toughness and what differentiates successful athletes from less-successful ones. I will put on a report on my website soon- along with some training reports from Sydney and Noosa- So:: Keep checking back!
Make it Matter.

Studying Hawaiian Style

How much better can it get? I love it!

Unlucky couple of days

The last two days were not really my days.. I broke my big toe 2 days ago because I stumbled over one of those concrete bumpers they put into parking lots to separate one parking spot from the opposite one. Stupid thing. It was dark, and HOW the hell shall I see that? Luckily the MT joint is ok and the pain is in check now. I can tell you that a big blue-green toe is uglier than a big toe already is. Good I got pedicure done not long ago.

Today then I skipped the pool and went for an ocean swim bc winds were slightly less. And got stung by menofwar real bad. It got me on the deltoid and throat and face. I was very far out and panicked and hyperventilated. It was horrible. And weird I don't remember my swim back to shore; the walk to the car seemed endless considering that I had to walk in the sand with my heavy backpack and broken toe. A young lady was walking along me and asked thousands of questions what's wrong with me..[I cut this short..]..and ended up saying, "well if it helps, you have an incredible body!" --HELLLOO? I am half dying (I was crying) and really did care sh&^% about my body, bc it is in insane pain!! I could not believe her comment! Anyways, I drove to safeway in my swimsuit all sandy all over and bought a gallon of vinegar and "showered" in the parking lot. People did not even care. That is what I really like about Hawaii. They don't care. In germany you'd be arrested going into the supermarket in a swimsuit. They knew it was jellyfish though.

Here is what I tried for the pain.. Anybody with experience plz let me know what works. For next time.
I kept swimming in saltwater, which seemed to ease up the pain.
Vinegar did not really do anything.
Meat Tenderizer does NOT help.
Hot showers help more than ice and cold.
Sitting in a hot car felt good.
I took Iboprofen upon my friends suggestion (she's a Doc)
Just don't touch it.

Love for the Ocean

It has been insane windy since I arrived on Oahu. The day I took this picture, I swam to the Moke's and it was the only day so far that it ws not been crazy windy. I swim a lot. I've been swimming in the ocean regardless of the choppiness and winds, and love it. I love the force of nature. Swimming while rain is the best. A friend of mine and surfer once said, "it is like having a real good conversation with the water". It is like that, indeed. Sometimes the water is so choppy and massive on the surface, and I think "oh man, that is going to be a tough one".. But then there is no strong current and turbulence under the surface. It has been like that a couple of times; I felt like a feather, just effortless , totally in the zone - just me and the huge water mass. Other times it feels like being flushed in a toilet boil. Not so fun. Like yesterday. It was so bad that I got dizzy from the ups and downs of the waves. In addition the sand gets whirled around and rocks back and forth. Kind of like a hypnotherapist that holds one of those turning spiral plates in front of your eyes and you are like "oohhwoow, I am falling- where am I"...Anyways. I love the ocean.