Anything & Everything (Except the Kitchen Sink)

*GATOR DOMINATION! - Last night the University of Florida Men's Basketball team defended their 2006 National Championship by beating Ohio State 84-75. Don't get this confused with the other spanking we gave Ohio State earlier this year (41-14 on the football field). It kinda makes you feel bad for the Buckeyes athletic association...but not really:)
*SARA THE JOURNALIST - My latest press release/elite correspondence from the New Zealand triathlon last weekend is posted on USAT.org.
*THAT THING CALLED TRAINING - I've been getting back to work in the pool, on the bike, and on the road after a few recovery days. Sunday was full of traveling and unpacking...Monday was still light with a massage and lots of napping. But Tuesday morning it was time to go!! I was up at 5am for breakfast before heading out to meet the local group ride at the Noosa bike store. The Tuesday ride is VERY hilly and because I was rested, I was able to hang on the boy's wheels for almost the whole 'hard' part! Later in the afternoon, I joined the other American and Canadian athletes that are still training in Noosa for a intense swim practice...I seriously haven't swam 5000 meters in over a month and my body was definitely telling me that around the 4300 meter mark when we were still in the middle of the main set!
*LACK OF TRANSPORTATION - The coaches and USAT staff have all returned home...so we've got no vehicles or scooters...just our little legs and bike power! Grocery shopping is always a challenging experience when you have to think about the weight and size of things that will fit in your backpack for the up-hill ride. So, in the past couple of days I've gotten into the habit of visiting the produce market every day to just pick up what I need for dinner. Some carrots on this day, a bag of mushrooms on another, fresh grapes EVERY day (delicious!)...just whatever I used up on the previous day.
*SWIMMING ON TV - I couldn't have picked a better time to be living in Australia...the same time as the Swimming World Champs were being held in Melbourne. I was born in the wrong country to be a swimmer...this is the place to be...FULL and LIVE coverage of EVERY event on every night of the swim meet. Can you imagine ABC spending 3 hours of prime-time each night for a whole week showing JUST swimming?!? Well, that's what the Aussie TV station WIN did...and we are talking about UNinterrupted coverage...I saw every lap of the men's 1500 meter freestyle without any commercial breaks or cuts to interviews. And last night was the Duel in the Pool in the Sydney Olympic pool...how I envied the USA athletes being treated like royalty!
*NAP TIME - It's that time of day again, when my body revolts and won't do anything I tell it to unless I conk out for an hour and give it some time to re-boot! I just finished lunch and the whole 'food coma' thing probably isn't helping right now. This morning I also dominated the treadmill for my main workout of the day. Remember the note about 'transportation' above? Well, I rode my bike to the gym (good warm up) and then did an intense race-pace set of intervals before hopping back on my bike for a nice cool-down spin around town. When I passed by the produce stand, I picked up some fresh fruit and just devoured it in the shade right outside the store...that was probably the only reason that I managed to make it up the windy hill back to the Sunseeker apartments:)