3 Days of Beautiful Oceans and Mountains!

This past weekend, we had a long weekend - Monday was memorial day for Korea! Whooo! Which meant, time for me to come up with something fun to do. So I decided to gather a few people and set off on a 3 day ride from the city of Busan up the East coast to a city called Uljin. The distance covered was about 180miles (300km). The ride was filled with hills... many many hills. Mostly just rolling hills. The biggest climb was about 550ft. The downhills were very rewarding. I took some fabulous photos! We rode about 80 miles on day 1, 80 miles on day 2, and 20 miles on day 3. 




The trip included beautiful beaches, awesome mountains, lots of crabs, the East sea, a sunrise on a Buddha! Some of the photos are below, click the link for all the photos!!!  http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100216092680452.2596306.12104592&l=533911f1a2  

My BIRTHDAY!

Well Tuesday was the day.... my birthday!!! I'm now 27, wow! Sometimes, I feel like I just graduated form university. I've done so much since graduation, sometimes it's hard to believe I'm only 27. Although, here, when I tell someone I'm 27 they are shocked and think I look like I'm about 21 or 22. :) No complaints there!! I had a fabulous birthday! My day started with an excellent 25k cycle. After my morning class at school, one of the boys gave me a candy bar. The teachers all sung me happy birthday and we all had cake for breakfast. My co-teacher gave me a really nice house plant! One of my co-workers gave me a mini-cake! Also, I was lucky enough to not have to teach any of my regular classes for the day! In the evening, I met with a few of my friends in Anseong, we had wine and real cheese!!! Cheese here is either rather fake, or imported and very expensive! My friends are awesome and were kind enough to give me some cards and gifts! It was a great birthday!!! :)


On the weekend before my birthday, I did something I never really thought I would do - or would enjoy doing... I took part in a 12hour bike race!!! The race was up in Seoul and all along the Han river. The race began at 9pm and went through till 9am. The goal was to complete as many KM as possible during the 12 hours. I had a riding partner, and about an hour in, we added 1 more to our group. We had picked a good pace and decided to stop every hour, on the hour, for a short rest to have a snack and drink/refill water/Gatorade. At about 3am, we had already completed 75 miles. The 3 of us stuck together till about 4:30am, where myself and Dan slowed down a bit and Michael speed up! I hit the 'century' point at about 6:30am! I had to stop and take a photo of my Garmin because I was so excited. At that point I had a goal in mind and about 4 hours to get it.... so I began my chase... took a bit of it alone while Dan rested... then he joined me for about the last hour. I hit my personal goal, of 140 miles, at 8:45am. I choose 140 because it's the distance of an Ironman race. Our original goal was 150 miles, but the last few hours I was quite tired and had lost my pace. I was very proud to only miss our team goal by 10 miles and to hit my personal goal. I was really surprised what I could do - a 12 hour race thought the night! I did a total of 224km in 12 hours, which put me in about 6th place! Micheal who sped ahead only beat me by 20k. All of the races were between 200k - 243k! I wasn't far behind the leader, and wasn't last! :) Quite pleased with it! 


This coming weekend, I've got another big challenge! Myself and 2 others are taking the bus down to Busan on Friday night, and Saturday morning we begin our cycle journey to Seoul! :) Not sure if we will make it, we only have 3 days, but it will be one fun, beautiful, and challenging ride!!! 


At this point I have 31 days till my Ironman70.3 and I'm feeling very confidant in my abitilty to reach my goals. My goals are: To finish, To finish with a smile on my face, and To have FUN! :)

HOLIDAY!

I've been a little slow in updating my blog! I've been quite busy with training for my Ironman70.3, I have less then 6 weeks till the big race! I'm very excited and nervous. I have been making a ton of improvements with cycling and am really enjoying it more then I did back in the states. My running has suffered a bit, I'm not as fast as I used to be, so I need some more work in this area. Swimming is good, I could use some more pool time, but it's tough here. My local pool has closed, so I have to travel about 45min via bus to a pool. The good news is, the pool is a 50meter! Plus the swim hours are not limited. 


The whole month of May is an easy one for teaching. We had Children's day, May 5th, off work, as well as May 9-10th off for Buddha's Birthday. My students had their school trip on My 18-20th, so I was off those days as well. :) This week is my first full week teaching since Late April. I'm trying to get ahead with my lesson planning and am currently stress free about it. **I hope this continues**


With my day's off I did some exploring! I took some time to get to know some other athletes and made it out to run and swim with some new people! I went out to dinner a few times, had some Mexican and Indian food... the Indian was great, not so sure about the mexican though. Eating out at a foreign restaurant here is a bit pricey, cost about $20 each time, not including drinks. 


The most exciting thing I did was this past week, I took a trip down to Busan. Busan is on the SE coast of Korea. It has many beaches and was beautiful! The weather was great the 1st two days, and rained the 2nd two days. I took my bike with me on my trip. That was interesting, and easier then I expected. The bike fit well in the back of a cab, so I could get it to the bus station, then it fits in the storage compartment under the bus. The trip took 6hrs to get there, only so long since I had to take the bus to Seoul then another bus to Busan, and then it was an hour on the subway to Haeundae beach. 


While I was in Busan I saw 6 different beaches, took a long bike ride from Busan to Ulsan and back (71miles total), saw the Aquarium, had some great food, did some shopping, went to the fish market and had fresh caught sushi, and saw many of the tourist things Busan had to offer. My favorite thing, of course, was the beach!!! Here is the link to my photos, I took so many! I hope you enjoy them :)  http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100190911039662.2590746.12104592&l=02ceea9183


My dad is sending me some spices this week, I'm excited to add some new flavors to my cooking!! :) 

Happy Easter *best Easter gift ever*

It's been a few weeks since I've updated... this past Sunday was Easter Sunday. It was a great day! I went up to Seoul in the morning to check out the finish of the Tour de Korea (http://www.tourdekorea.or.kr/) which is similar to the Tour de France in the since that its a stage race. It was 10 days long and went throughout the country. They had both a profession and amateur race going on. I was lucky enough to know a few people in the amateur race. I enjoyed seeing all the nice bikes, makes me want to go out and buy another, ha ;) After the race finish and a bit of socializing I was off for an hour long run. My legs were shattered from the ride and swim on Saturday, so the pace was quite slow. Once I finished, I met my friends over at the bus station and we made our way down to Pyeongteak (a town next to Anseong) where a friend of ours was hosting Easter Dinner! It was a fabulous spread of food... ham, turkey, lasagna, mac and cheese, artichoke dip, veggies, potatoes, cheese and sausage, hummus, salad, etc... it was nice to see a bit of 'home' here in Korea for the holiday!! I enjoyed carb-loading on the lasagna and mac and cheese!! Very tasty!! 


On Friday, I provided myself with the best Easter gift ever!!! ** I signed up for my first Ironman70.3, the Ironman Korea!** This means I now have just under 10 weeks to prep myself for race day. A grueling 70.3 mile race made up of 1.9km(1.2mi) swim, 90km(56mi) cycle, and 22km (13.1mi) run!!! To get ready for this I'm following a training schedule that has me doing 11 workouts per week, 9 cardio (swim, bike, or run) and 2 weight training sessions. =) 


This week is a short week at school, the children have mid-term exams, so I am not teaching this week at all. I'm here, desk-warming, on Monday and Tuesday. Then Wed - Fri I'm off to teacher orientation. I hope its not incredibly boring or a waste of time. I know it will be good to meet some new people and make new friends. I am quite concerned with how much training I'll get in while I'm out of town. I am planning on a morning workout Wed and evening on Fri, that leaves me Thur to try and get some running in at least. 


I started to teach the teachers at my school last week. This has been fun, I am getting to know them all better which is great! A lot of them are too shy to speak English with others around. My teachers classes are small, only 3-4 per class. I found out the music teacher, shes only 1 year older then me, and she studied at MSU for a semester! Small world! :) 

Photo's!!!

Run Club Shirt

View of the lake near the Temple (4/2/11)

Temple at Bottom of Mt. Seounsan (hike and bike 4/2/11) 

Pic of the different trails up Mt Seounsan (4/2/11)

The Mt Top (4/2/11)

The TOP of the Mt. (4/2/11)

Some of the 1/2marathon Race course - we ran towards the mountain in the distance (4/10/11)

My race swag and medal (4/10/11)

Korean Baseball Game Heros Vs Giants (4/9/11)

Korean Baseball!

Sunday, April 10th, I completed my first 1/2 marathon of 2011. Actually, it was only the second half marathon race I've ever completed. I did my first half last year, I guess after competing 2 full marathons, it was time to try the half distance. Saturday's race was great! It was called the MBC Adidas Marathon. It was a very big event. Maybe 10,000 runners showed up! They offered a full, half, 10k, and 5k. The biggest event I've been to so far in Korea. The race swag was great - an Adidas technical shirt and a backpack. The weather was almost perfect for the race. A bit chilly in the morning, and warmed up as the day went on, topping out at about 17c. I think we could have had a bit more sun, but that's only because I am ready to start on my tan! The course was challenging. It was very hilly and pretty! We did a bit of running along the Han River, some running through a park, and of course, some along the streets of Seoul. I would do this course again! I actually got a PR for the race, however, I set off with a plan - nice and easy! I stuck to my plan through the whole race and finished feeling great with a big smile on my face. In my training, I'm only up to 10 miles, so pushing it to 13 risk's injury, and with the Ironman70.3 on the horizon, injury is not an option! 

After the race was complete, I joined the rest of the Seoul Flyers (my run club) for a little picnic! They had all sorts of fruit, homemade muffins, chocolates, granola bars (all Western food!!!). Some of the things I haven't had in months, so I enjoyed all they had to offer! Considering I had done 50 miles in 2 days, I figured it was ok ;)

Yes, that's right - 50miles in 2 days. I'm ramping up and getting ready for the 70.3, so Saturday called for a 2:30hr cycle. I set off for just under 3 hours and managed 37 miles. Many of which were up and down hills. I am growing to love the challenge of the hill!! Since prior to this, most all my riding had been done in Houston, I pretty much didn't know what a hill was. There was a ride or two done in Austin, TX that had some hills, but they are nothing compared to the hills here. 

I do enjoy seeing Korea via cycling. I am able to travel off the beaten path and see small towns and back country roads. I usually bring my camera just in case I see something that is deserving of a quick photo break. 

Outside of training, on Saturday, I made it to a Korean baseball game. It was similar to a game in the States. The stadium was filled with families and rowdy drunks. The teams played 9 innings and seemed to have the same rules as US baseball. However, they had cheerleaders, a person who stood on the dugout the whole game doing crowd interaction, getting everyone to cheer throughout the whole game. Also, the game moved really slow. I saw a lot of errors, missed catches, things you wouldn't see at a US baseball game. Maybe baseball isn't Korea's best sport. Still a fun evening out!! :)

This coming weekend I have another 2:30hr ride planned, only a 11 mile run on Sunday, and 2500meters in the pool. This weekend is also the Cherry Blossom Festival in Seoul, I'll be sure to head up there to see it! Should be beautiful. 

Ready, Set, Work-out!

This past weekend was exciting... for me! I'm sure others won't see the excitement in my weekend, but I sure did! 

I kept my Friday very low key, and watched a great movie - Without Limits (movie about the great runner, Steve Prefontain). Saturday morning, I was off for a 9 mile run! Took it slow and easy, longest run I've done all year. Shortly after the run was a rest and some food... the I set out running to the gym for a 1 hour weight session. I ran to and from the gym in my nifty "5 finger" shoes by Vibram. I do enjoy the barefoot running experience. I can feel a difference in my stride and feel the effect on my muscles. Great shoes! I followed my weight session with a rest and food then was off to the pool for a 1000m swim. (20 laps). All in all good day, however this was my "easy" day for the weekend. 

Sunday morning, I got up for a little 3 mile run. Then fueled up for a big ride and hike! I cycled out to this mountain, took the longer way there 11.5 miles. Anseong is about 50ft above sea level, the ride took me to 500ft above sea level. This was a little ways up the base of the mountain I was about to hike. The hike took me up a "hard" path to 1,749 ft above sea level. I say it was a "hard" path since it was mostly straight up, lots of trees, not very many people, the grade of the climb was about 55%. I believe a treadmill can provide you with a max grade of 10%. The hike was awesome! At the top, I took some great photos, and had a chat with a few Koreans who just took a different path to the top. They were from Seoul. The gentleman, Peter, and his wife were down in Anseong to buy a kitty cat from a college student who couldn't keep him. :) cute. They were a very friendly couple who fed me some of their massive pear they had. Peter gave me his business card and said to call when I come up to Seoul and they will arrange for me to come over and meet their daughter who's my age, and they will cook for me:) Korean's are very friendly people! I made it down the mountain in 1/2 the time it took me to get up. Then I was back to the bike for a very easy, mostly downhill, 10.5 mile ride back home! I will defiantly do this workout again! Next time I'll challenge myself to go faster or ride a little further before going for the climb. The bottom of the Mountain has an 800 year old Buddhist temple, which I was able to check out and get some photos of. Very cool! 

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and preping for this week. Since I've been bringing my lunch to school everyday, I'm forced to cook something...every night. I am coming to enjoy the cooking. Please message me any healthy recipes if you have any! I am still pretty new to this whole cooking thing :) 

This week at school has been very busy! Thank goodness it's wednesday! I begin teaching 2 new classes next week. One is an afterschool class for children who want to improve their English, the other is of teachers who want to learn more English. It will be nice to have 2 classes of people who are motivated to learn! :) I will up date on how they go... till then I have many many new lessons to plan!