Hey!

Just a quick update!
Richard has made his way down south, so last week we moved into our new digs and set up there! So far training is going well. I raced a small local race a couple weekends ago and won (last year I was 5th in it!). The running is going well too. Hopefully my biking will come around in the next few weeks too--with all the increased run volume, my legs have been hurting on the bike!

Next weekend is a points race down south on the Gold Coast (March 1) www.usmevents.com.au. It is a full Olympic distance race, so it will be a good test of my fitness right now! Then my coach and few other Lifesport athletes are out for the month of March to train, so it should be fun!! I'm excited to have some more company down here!

Anyway, hope everything is good back home!
Take care!
LM

Aussie Update

This is the view at Sunshine Beach. Don't worry it's not all sunshine everyday, it's been raining plenty here!
Feeding a Lorikeet on the balcony...for those who know how much I hate birds flying near me, this was a huge thing for me to do!! I wouldn't let it stand on my hand, but it ate out of it! They are amazing birds up close, so many different colours. Brad feeding two of them out of his hands....
So far things are going really well here. The weather has been a bit wet but at least it's warm (sure beats those -30 temps!). I've really upped my running mileage and have no pain so far (it was hard for me to even write that down, so knock on all the wood around you after you read that!!). The swimming is going well too, I still get beat by the little kids in the surf swims, but I try to keep up as best I can!

Here are a few things I've learned since I've been here:

• 'showers' means: torrential downpours for 10min every hour or so, very fun on a group bike ride!
• being the first one running in the national park forrest means: you get to clear out all the new spider webs...yuck!
• the spiders here are huge....especially the 'little ones' in the bathroom!
• 'tea' means: dinner, who knew?
• 'flat' ocean means: waves that are actually manageable for me to body surf...normally I get dumped into the sand!
• 'fine' means (referring to the weather): a mainly sunny day
• Goanna's are: apparently harmless giant lizard things...still scare the crap out of me when I see them on the path!

Anyway, I have a small community sprint triathlon (400m/15k/4k) in a place called Caloundra next weekend and then Richard is joining me on Feb 11th! Should be fun! We are staying in a townhouse in Sunshine beach (close to the pool), so I'll be moving places next weekend too! My internet access will be a little limited but I will try to get an update on after the race!

Thanks to the Dalrymples for all the hospitality over the last month!

Later,

LM