Secondly, let me tell you how tired these kids are... 9 pm, I went on Facebook and no one was there. 9 pm!!! It probably never happened back home, and it was not like that earlier this week. Monday to Wednesday their afternoon nap was about 1 hour, today they took 3 hours! Anyway... training for today. Just when everyone had wished the intensity would go easier, today's workout overtook yesterday's and became the hardest so far. A main set of targeting heart rate with 24 x 100 FR (12 on 1:40 with heart rate 175/min; 8 on 1:50 with HR 185/min; and 4 @2' with HR 195/min, no break in between each set) really hit their bodies and mind hard. My observation was that almost everyone had a break-down moment somewhere within the set, but they were able to hold through with great results. No complain whatsoever and a smile at the end... I have to re-emphasize my point that I wish you could have been here to see each of them in every single practice because they are just amazing, and I bet you are as proud as I am, when reading this, of what they accomplish every day. After the practice, they could still chat with smiles, dance (tends to be never ending) and walk away with the readiness to come back tomorrow morning at 4:45 am. So I started to wonder where the limit is for these tough kids while knowing for sure that this trip has been hitting our purpose and it is absolutely raising their confidence. I am sure they will be so ready to go home next Monday.
Well, there are so many things to write about these fantastic kids and how much I have been enjoying this trip. Tomorrow morning we are back in the gym with a big session, and then two huge workouts in the pool. I didn't tell the kids the main sets for tomorrow morning and afternoon because I really wanted them to sleep well tonight. So shhh... what is told here stays here (I don't think any of the kids check it out anyway because to them FB is THE one). Tomorrow morning's main set is 400 IM + 2 x 200 NFR + 400 IM + 2 x 200 NFR + 400 IM + 2 x 200 NFR and tomorrow afternoon... you ready??? 60 x 25 Fly on 30 sec interval (tomorrow night we will swim 25-M short course because Swimming Queensland is hosting a SCM meet on this Sunday). Not to mention that this Fly set is only part of the main set for tomorrow night. I am very curious to see how these kids handle this set and I guess this might probably be their "highlight" of the week when they tell you all the stories they have about this trip.
We will take the kids out again tomorrow morning after practice for a hearty breakfast (always Sunny's treat to reward their great effort) and then we will plan the activity based on the weather. Might be surfing (can you believe that the boys still have energy to hit the waves?) or movie or whatever we can do. Then we will give them a big nap before the afternoon practice. Saturday is another morning practice and then each one of them is off to spend the day with their host families. Sunday morning, Chris and I will pick them up and they will all move into Chris' big house for the BBQ dinner (this is when the kangaroo meat comes in) and sleep over together. Sunday is also our play day at the Australia Zoo (where Steve Erwin used to work at). Everyone wants to take photos holding koala bears and the boys want a python on their neck (absolutely not for Michaela and myself). Apparently, the zoo also has crocodile wresting shows on Sundays (which they stopped for a while after Steve Erwin had died because it used to be his show), and I hope we have a chance to meet Steve Erwin's wife Terry and his kids (who often come to the zoo while they are not on filming tours). Monday if the sun is out again, we should be able to take the kids out to the beach one more time before we head to the airport.
Funny little story here... background is that Aussies are pretty "lazy" about names and likes to add "O" at the end of most men's names. So Chris "assigned" our kids Aussie names to make his life a lot easier when writing on the board --- Zack is "Zac" because one less letter is better, and he could be called "Zaco" as to the Aussie way; Michaela is Mick because her name is way too long and takes too much space on the board; Albert is AL and can be called Alberto; Kenji is Ken and we all vetoed the "Kenjio" thing; Jarrell became Tery because Chris kept forgetting the "J" up in the front. ^0^
I realized today that I haven't taken any picture of the facility surroundings, so here are few. A separate note that I spotted another snake earlier today on the road and a kangaroo jumped in front of our car tonight while we were driving out of the recreation center. Gee, why am I the only one to keep spotting snakes? They are no where near to be my favorite and I never plan to let them be. Anyway, I am sending greetings on behalf of all the kids (and myself for sure) because I know they miss their Moms, Dads, siblings, friends and teammates... Big hug and will continue our update tomorrow. Oh, only can think one Aussie word today---Motorway means highway. The kids had a good laugh yesterday on the word "thong" because it means slippers in Aussie English (but you know what it means in the US). Jarrell "luckily" had his slippers at the time so everyone giggled for a good joke. Signing off now and I am ready to get up in 5.5 hours. Bye ya all...
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| Entrance of the recreation center |
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| Outside the indoor pool |
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| Its little water park and tennis/beach volleyball field in the far back. I was told that those fields are where usually people see the big and scary spiders |
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| Kenji is checking his HR |
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