Soon his car pulls up with two bikes on the top. I'm pumped. He drives up, and S (the one I ran with at the track the other day) and another girl are in the car. The girl's name is Keri - she is an English teacher at a University in Busan (I forget which one...), and has been training with them for a bit (I'm not sure how long...maybe a few months, maybe a year or so..) I found out later that day that she met them because she was on a ride one day and Seungyeon came up to her on his bike and said hello, and from then and there she started riding with them. :) Anyway, Kerri is very very nice, and it just felt so great to be out with these three awesome people about to do some triathloning.
We drove down to Songjeong beach, which is close to Haeundae, the most popular beach in Busan (Songjeong beach is below - although this is not a picure I took - I forgot to bring my camera, so I stole this from the web.
Although Coach definitely took some pictures which hopefully he will send me soon and I can post those later :) ). Once we got there, we took the bikes out, took a few pictures (Coach takes lots of pictures - it is so awesome :) ), and were off. The bike - it was awesome. At one point we were on the highway...I don't think I would do that myself but I was following them and they ride here all the time so I didn't question it at all - plus highway time was insignificant compared to the rest.
Anyone who knows me in a triathlon sense will know that I never draft - I will not go on group rides sometimes because I feel like drafting is cheating, and will not help me become a better triathlete (I started to abandon this method of thinking a few months ago, however, when Pan started to tell me about drafting and how it can make you a better triathlete when done occassionally - but that is besides the point - the point is that I haven't yet gone on a ride where we have done paceline or drafting most of the way). However, today I broke all the rules. I love how I needed to come to South Korea to learn how to draft. Although, to be fair, I would have been dropped and would have gotten lost perhaps forever if I didn't draft - they are fast! Kerri is an extremely good rider, and so are the other two. I think we averaged around 19pmh - which isn't super fast, but we did 60km (about 37 miles) in about 2 hours, with a decent wind. And I hadn't ridden my bike for 2.5 weeks. Seriously. Because it has been in my box since I left for Korea since I was moving around so much and couldn't put it back together. So it was definitely a challenge for me. But it was amazing. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it (make it at that pace at least - I know they wouldn't drop me - but I don't want to have to drop pace obviously), but I did. And it was great.
Towards the end Kerri broke off because she had somewhere to be, so Coach and S and I went back to the car, put our bikes away, went for a little walk, got some pomtiki (spelling could be horrendously wrong), which are like American rice cakes, but better, and just chillaxed for a bit. Then we drove to Haeundae and got some lunch - 1,500 won for a bowl of delicious noodle soup with LOTS of noodles - the thin, long kind. 1,500 won. Like $1.50. Delicious.
Coach had told us yesterday that we were biking and swimming today, so I'm all excited to swim. After lunch, Seungyeon went to get some coffee for us (the flavored kind, kind of like starbucks cold sugary drinks in the bottles), and I'm thinking that we are going swimming almost immediately, so I drink it in the car. Yea...bad move. Apparently we were going to a ridiculously beautiful part of Haeundae, where there is a boardwalk type-thing that takes you around the rocky, hilly, beautiful coast (this is not a beach area, more like hills and bridges and walkways overlooking water with a rocky coast). Once we get there they break out the coffee. I'm already done. Oops (it was no big deal though, thankfully). We spent probably an hour and a half or more walking around this place. It is very close to Coach's place, and he tells us that he takes his son here very often to walk and sometimes run. It is soo beautiful! Hopefully I can find my way back there sometime and take some pictures to post - so pretty! There was this awesome thing there called "Cave Experience" which was basically a small hole in a rock that you could go in - they were telling me to go in so of course I did - Coach was laughing - I mean, I was laughing too because it was really dark and he seemed to be a little scared even though it was me going in there - his laugh is so infectious, it's like a prolonged giggle - he is like a little kid, so full of life, and really enjoys himself. It is so refreshing.
Now it is about 4pm, and I have no idea what is going on for time, but I really couldn't care less, because I am having such a great day. Apparently the next stop of our adventure was Coach's apartment, where I met his wife and his son. What an amazing family - they are all so incredibly nice, genuine people. His son introduced himself to me when I got there (in English). This is what he said: "Hi! My name is (Coach's son - trying not to use names for privacy). I am 11 years old. I want to be a triathlon athlete." !!!!! My heart melted. He is sooo adorable!
His wife makes us some delicious nutrition drink made with jujubes, which is a Chinese fruit that looks like a hard, walnut-sized dried cherry. It was awesome. She also put out some health cookies/cakes, and about 20-30 minutes later she made us some more drinks, this time it was a yogurt-shake type of thing. I couldn't believe what was going on. This is like too good to be true.
So after about an hour, we leave for swimming - me, S, Coach, and his son. We have practice at the Haeundae Grand Hotel Swimming Pool - which is decently expensive to get in, but it was definitely worth it. I go in, change, meet them in the hot tub. Soon, the rest of the team shows up (or other teammates - not all of them) - mostly athletes from his youth team (there was one other athlete who was more towards our age who showed up later). So it is Coach and S2, the other man I met the first night who studies with Coach at the University, are out of the water, purely coaching. (Note: although the pool was very very busy, Coach had a designated lane at 6p so we kicked everyone out of that lane and it was probably the 20 of us in the 50m lane) S and I are in the lane with the other kids, and soon the other triathlete our age, H, comes in. Apparently he and S are also coaches for the youth team - oh man it is such a great atmosphere - they are so great with the kids and the kids love them and Coach and they are just great, everyone.
We all do a warm up - me and S did 600m, I'm not sure what the kids did - and then we did a few drills. After that was the main set: 10 x 50 meter sprints. This is my first speed workout ever (two triathlon-training firsts today! First the drafting, now swim speed workouts!), but since we do 50m sprint and then get out of the pool and walk back to get our heart rate down, I'm thinking it won't be too bad. Wrong. It was hard...! My triceps started to give out around number 5. S was feeling it too, so I didn't feel so bad. Haha. He made a comment, holding his arms: "these - they are not mine" - I thought that was great - haha - that is such a better way to say it than "my arms are sore" - sometimes language barriers can be amazing. The other athlete our age joined us at the 3rd or 4th 50m and finished out the workout with us. At the end, we stretched, and Coach introduced me to the youth team. It was great.
After swimming (I am exhausted by this point, especially since I had so little sleep the night before), Coach asked me if I would have dinner with his family. So San d I went back to his apartment and Coach's wife made me the best meal I have had yet in Korea, one of the best meals I have ever had. It was Samgyeopsal - pig - cooked on a grill with sides of garlic, kimchi (of course, but she actually grilled it too which I haven't had yet), sweet potatoes, although they were white, lots of other vegetables...so she is cooking this on the grill (portable grill - by the way we are all sitting on the floor - their table is very low to the ground and you just sit Indian style - this is somewhat common in Korea at restaurants, but I think it depends on what type restaurant you go to, because a lot of restaurants here have chairs - but I think most meat-focused restaurants, like ones where you cook pig and other meat at the table with a grill built in - I think those are always sit-on-the-floor restaurants). Anyway, she is cooking on the grill, and we have rice and lemon Cass (Korean beer - tastes like Corona actually, it's really good) and a huge bowl of greens on the table. The greens are lettuce...and another type of leaf that looks like lettuce but tastes...a bit...I can't put my finger on it...maybe I'll describe it later. But you are supposed to take a leaf (or two, or three apparently..), put some meat in it, take whatever sides you want, maybe some rice, put it all in the leaves, and roll it up and stick it in your mouth. It is SO GOOD. Oh man. So good. I literally had twice as much as S. Granted I was very hungry...haha they made comments like "you are so strong" because I ate so much...but still, it was just plain amazing.
After dinner, S and I head for the subway so we can get some rest for the next day's workout (he is so cool - I love hanging out with him. I can't believe how lucky I am! This is all kind of surreal). I left my bike there so Coach wouldn't have to drive me home so late. I got home, ate some chocolate...pretty much a perfect day. Not even a perfect I could have predicted, because it just had so much more amazingness than I thought there could even be.
Next morning! I'm tired. Only 8 hours of sleep, didn't get to catch up on the night before's dearth, but I had some more coffee so it was cool. I jumped on the bus to the subway and made my way to the Yachting Club where I was to meet Coach and the team. (Crap - I think this entry is too long - I'm getting an error - so I will just publish this now and continue onto another post).
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