My new Ironman Hawaii ride- Part I

OK- so on Thursday we decided to go on a bit of a biking adventure. I wanted to do something completely different to the usual. I wanted to go exploring. When I am here for the Ironman in October I am totally focused on the race and rarely do I venture off the actual race course. But this was my time to play and I wanted to see what the island of Kona had to offer- I can tell you now that I was not disappointed.
We decided to begin when Lava Java opened its doors- it was going to be a long day in the saddle so we wanted to make sure we were properly hydrated for a day in the sun-(make mine a triple shot please).
We then made our way out along the Queen K and basically followed the Ironman race course all the way to Hawi- we were happy to discover that the winds were not blowing on our way from Kawaihae to Hawi, in fact it was close to perfect conditions.

Before we knew it we had made it Hawi and this is where the fun would begin. I had to take this pic of 'Luke's Place'- seeing as Luke was with us- he has promised to shout us dinner here before we leave.

I have really only ridden along the Queen K and so I have no idea what type of riding is actually out there. Justin, on the other hand, has done plenty of riding and has discovered some amazing roads and has gone on some great adventures. Luke has also done loads of training on Kona and has ventured off the beaten track many times- he was aptly given the title of 'ride captain' for the day.

When we left Hawi we took a right turn up the Kohala Mountain Rd. Luke had warned me not to go too hard too early as it was a long way up to the summit- he was not kidding!!!

We just kept going up and up and up some more. But the view all the way up was worth all of the pain my legs were encountering and then some.

This was my first really long ride on my new bike- the Ceepo Venom. It felt great and I honestly could not have been happier with the way it was feeling or handling (except I was hoping it would climb just a little faster so that Luke and Justin were not able to drop me up Kohala Mt. Rd). But not to worry as it descended beautifully and I was back on their behinds before they even realised they had dropped me :)