ice bath

Yes, those are ice cubes floating in a bathtub of freezing cold water, and yes, that is my sweet fella sitting in there like a crazy man for 15 minutes, no more, no less. And no, his naughty bits didn't make it into the picture, so quit looking so closely, you pervs.

The ice bath became a regular thing during this build for the Busselton Half Ironman, near Perth, Australia. Paul says the ice baths made the difference between doing a crazy six hour bike ride with repeats up and down to the lookout on Cypress Mountain, and being able to train the next day or not. I've always said he was cute, I've never EVER said he was sane.

Term 2 (Jan - May) is normally a rough term for us a couple, with me seriously feeling the burnout from the work/school combo, and Paul working on his PhD project equally hard, T.A.ing an extra course, and of course, building up to the start of his race season. The result is usually two very tired, very cranky, and very snappy people who are apt to take out their stress on the closest person - namely each other. I'm happy to report that this year term 2 followed more along the lines of the open-communication-giving-each-other-space-to-be-cranky-and-being-supportive-where-we-can-all-the-while-recognizing-this-is-simply-stress-and-not-taking-it-personally turn our relationship has taken over the last six months or so. It only took us 3 1/2 years to get to this point. I feel like we should get a certificate of achievement or something.

So Paul is off to the land down under on Friday evening, where he will compete in this third triathlon of the race season, and this the first really prestigious one. After he races he'll meander to the other side of the country for a conference on paper physics on the Gold Coast. Lucky boy presents on the first day, so will be able to relax and enjoy being in Oz after that. When the engineering physics geeks wrap up their gig, he heads north to the Great Barrier Reef for some r&r, before returning home, hopefully in one piece (although this I have my doubts about since he JUST found out the drive on the other side of the road . . .) and hopefully with Tim Tam's and red wine a-plenty.

I will be staying home, holding down the fort, bringing home the bacon, and starting my summer semester in which I will tackle the last calculus class I'll ever be required to take. Hopefully. Famous last words.