Things I Learned While Training on Geoje Island

(Monday, August 24, 1:35p. Arrived at Mongdol Beach Hotel on Geoje Island, South Korea.)

Monday:

*"Easy running" in Geoje does not exist.
*(Nor biking (I assume), for that matter.)
*Don't leave things in a plastic bag on the beach, or they will be picked up and mistaken for trash. Luckily my budding Korean skills and cute smile got me out of that mess (just kidding about the cute smile... :D )
*It never hurts to try the buttons on the wall (in your hotel room). One might be the light for the bathroom so you don't have to shower in the dark (again).
*I love FT Island. And Korean Music TV. I'm such a teenaged girl.

Tuesday:

*Confirming yesterday's inference, easy biking does not exist in Geoje.
*10% grades aren't so bad in the easiest gear.
*I wish my speedometer worked as I was bombing down the hills! I get such a childish delight as I see the numbers hit the next ten spot.
*I really hope that I get paid tonight...If not I can't spend another 1,000won! (At least I have my credit cards...)
*Aqua jogging is great exercise - and frankly, kind of hard.
*I NEED TO GET INTO SHAPE!
*Riding on a 'raft', being towed by a motor boat, looks like way more fun than water skiing.
*Check phone charger before going on a trip! Now I have limited funds as well as limited contactability. I really should go home before I get into trouble, but I think the next few days will give me a crapload of life experience...

Wednesday:

*Hills seem more steep when going downhill and knowing that you have to climb back up them later (compared to when you are climbing them back up later).
*While I think now I can climb most hills in my smallest gear, I no longer hold that all 10% grades are easy in the smallest gear. Long 10%-grade hills can be a bitch.
*2.5k. 11 minutes. Minimum (noticed) speed: 6kph. Grade = unknown, but must have been a mo-fo-er. 7 switchbacks. (That's right - 7. One hill. If you don't believe me, go count yourself.) SO HARD. But unparallel mental training.
*My Coach and my hotel are ridiculously nice (comment made concerning them plotting to find me a phone charger.)
*Frustration is setting in from no money and from not getting paid.
*Apparently a butterfly can't move 1 meter in the time it takes me to travel about 20 meters going 44kph to get out of the way of full-body-smackage.
* If you spend too much time in the ocean, which in Geoje is easy due to its enticing...everything... you will get eaten by sea bugs.
*Toothpaste is the best anti-fogger I have yet encountered.
*Being in the ocean for 2+ hours warrants washing my mouth out with soap.
*1 minute of egg-beaters after 60 minutes of aqua jogging is hard.
*Geoje Island is the most beautiful place (or one of them) to aquajog in the world.
*I really need to start taking pictures...
*I want to learn how to surf.

Thursday:

*Running up 바람의 언덕 (Windy Hill) is great mental training...omG.
*Employing techniques of super-slow running with occasional running in place was necessary to get up a 3+ km-hill without stopping (grade between 9-10%).
*7+ minutes, 1km, downhill. Translates to 5.3mph, about 9:40s per mile. Whatever gets you through the run, I guess. (Well, not you - because I bet many of you could have whipped me on this run).
*Hoping your camera battery is charged does not yield the same results as actually charging it...man - I would have gotten some pretty sweet pictures too...
*Jellyfish scare me.
*Moving up a steep incline on a rock beach with no shoes on is no easy task, and in my case can only be described as a clumbsy monkey-walk. Next time maybe I should make a monkey noise. At least that would make it more fun.
*Despite what you might think, 5 blisters on the balls of my feet (from excellent decision-making last Sunday) do not make walking on rock beaches feel better.
*If majority rules, then fish would rule the world.
*If it were possible to build a house safe from hurricanes and the like as an island such that I would have to swim to land everyday in order to work and to get food, I would do it in a heartbeat.
*18g-of-protein-worth of beef jerky is more than 6x the price of a can of soda, but just as delicious and nutritious as the jerky I've eaten in the States.
*I miss Korean food. When will my salary some so I can go to a restaurant and eat some real food?!?
*I love how 'switchbacks' (or just 'winding' in general) are called 꼬불꼬불 in Korean, which sounds like 'gobble gobble'. :D

Friday:

*Slippery roads, fog, and Geoje hills do not go well together. Luckily my hotel was situated near on of the only flats on the island (all 1km or so of flat), so I got to ride back and forth for 2.3 hours (with a partial-hill added into the repeats as the sun came out).
*Brown jellyfish really scare me. As the scariness-level of jellyfish go, they take the cake (unless I were confronted with a black one - then I might **** my bathing suit.)
*Walking stairs for 30 minutes counts as running in my training log.
*In my opinion, 16.5 hours of exercise in 4.5 days constitutes a pretty sweet workout trip for coming off of a decently-dehabilitating injury.
*Killing 8 mosquitos in the morning before exercising makes me feel powerful.
*There is much wisdom to be learned from 'boring' interval repeats if you really tune into what your body is saying.


That's about all I learned on my trip. Unfortunately, since I waited until Thursday to charge my camera and Friday was foggy, I took zero pictures. Go me. I'll just have to wait until the next time I go to Geoje for pictures...(smacking self on the head).