dreaming over the ocean

so, this morning, there has been the beginnings of a (i am guessing) passionate and long debate in my team's google group. It is centring around an article that Mary posted, which has to do with athlete's favourite thing to talk about. heck it has to do with something that almost *Everyone* loves to talk about, and what society is obsessed about. The article is called "The single most effective way to loose weight." And, i'm not going to lie, i don't think it is a terrible article. Actually I agree with most of it. There are some bits that i don't completely like, but... whatever. However, i did find myself a little frustrated with the article, and i will tell you why, in a bit. Food, and body image (especially for women) is a topic that people become exceptionally passionate about, because it is a sensitive topic. I have had people say to me everything from "Yes, but... do you like what you eat?" and "Mmmm, are you sure you are...

September, in a student's life is never easy, i don't think. As soon as you think it is easy... well, then something else happens. For this (my3rddegree.ugh.) time round, it is Federal/provincial student loans. This is the first degree in my life where I need to have canada student loans. My B.Sc was funded by the lovely WVU athletic department, where i did this: Then, for my M.Sc at UBC, i worked here , and here , and then finally, here . and, i made it through. I am finally at a point, broker than I have ever been in my life, and saying "Show me the money! I don't want to work! i just want to focus on school!" but, that comes with loads and loads of bureaucracy (is that how you spell it!?). and, it comes with long lines, and going from office to office. and, if you remember last year, my loan was 6 weeks late, and I had days where i was afraid of where I was going to be getting my f ood. And, i hate that. This year, I think that it will go better: fi...

so, today, i had a good little laugh. These past few days, I have been the queen of riding inappropriate bikes . --> the bixi bike, last week, for a training ride. and, today, after having picked up my flying machine from the shop, and post real training ride, I went to take the flying machine back via metro. however, it was during "les heures de point." and, for all you anglos out there (heh): "peak hours." meaning no bikes on metro. so, i commuted... on my P3 . picture me, with my chacos, a crappy "messenger bag," a cotton tee-shirt, cruising the bike lanes at a rapid speed of oh, say 15km/hr, and making stops at a coffee shop, and the bank. allowing commuter mc joe to pass when they want, and weaving through the traffic. (now, if this is not a funny story for you, well, you clearly don't know how inappropriate a cervelo P3 is for commuting. believe me. it's funny.) oh, and, i was also priviledged to see, on my commute home, a black ma...

So, it has been a while since I have posted. Not necessarily because I have not wanted, but just cause this past week has flown by. the last few days in edmonton were busy. busier than desired. the beginning of last week consisted of me being a recluse. My exams, on wednesday and thursday, were a large source of stress. I spent sunday-monday-tuesday at a friend's place, and at coffee shops. Filled my time with cramming, and with researching other nursing programs that might take me if I totally flunk out of mcgill. Exams cause you to do strange things, that is for sure. and, after I was done, it was like a big breath of fresh air. all of a sudden, there was going to be 10 days of non-stress, book reading, bike riding, late sleeping. however, that has only somewhat been true. I have been missing my bikes. They were shipped from edmonton, on greyhound, last monday. THey arrived yesterday (yesssss!), but I had to make due with what I had here in Montreal. I have mentioned,...

so, arrived yesterday (early) into this city that will contain me for the next 2 years. well... that is, if i pass my physiology exam on wednesday, and my pathology exam on thursday. The common question of the week has been "why are you writing exams, before the semester starts!?!?" well, if you remember back in April, my Momma fractured her hip. Very thoughtfully, she did that during my final exam period. I had 4 exams. I deferred two of them, knowing that had I written them then, I would do awful; and, if i deferred them to August, I would have a better chance at doing well. who was I to know that i was going to have a great summer job, and a great boy to spend time with?!?! so, the cramming begins continues... I am, truthfully, a bit stressed out. i don't have to do terribly well on these exams: on physiology, i have to get 46/70. on pathology: 41/65. those are the grades, which will keep me in this program. And honestly, i know they don't seem high. ...

In reverse chronology. Thank you to Mr Birch. Captioned by thoughts. Oh good god. it's the finish. i can take these shoes off, my one sock and let this damn blister air out. ugh. i can't believe those girls beat me by 30 seconds. so happy to be done with this race, so I can go home and sulk. "hmmm. it is only water. i need some sort of salt. sugar. not just water. my head hurts. my foot hurts. i need a sock. i am going to steal one from that boy next time i see him" "clearly i can save time in T2 if i take my feet out of my shoes while still on the bike. 'Cause *clearly* i am a pro-star like that. okay, well, not really. i have just seen the pro-stars do that. so, maybe it is worth it." "damn i love this bike." "Dear God. Thank you for not allowing me to drown. or have a DNF. Get me the hell out of this lake."

Ah yes. Olympic distance triathlons. the distance that made me fall in love with this sport. the distance that causes me to suffer a bit, but allows me still to do well, since it is still fairly endurance based... I Went into Lake Chaparral Tri with high expectations. And, maybe I should not have done that. I think it made me flustered. but, more on that, later. I also went into the tri without any taper. It is not a "A" race (yes, i do risk sounding tri-geeky when I say that), and so, we used it as a training race. the week before had no change in schedule, meaning that i was meant to do a 3.5 hour brick on saturday. I did a 3hr ride. then had breakfast, then drove the 3hrs to calgary. So, I wasn't rested, that is for sure. but, I *was* excited. 'cause i love racing. It is so much better than training. anyway, got to the race, especially excited to ride my new flying machine. set up transition, and in my mind, know that i am going to get lost in T1. (yes,...

(I love the RHCP song which this title is based on...) the race, this morning, in calgary, was not bad. but, it was not great. I will write a detailed report tomorrow, when I am a bit more concious, and a little bit more focused, with my results. I got 4th in my age group, 9th OA woman. the course was long (about 10.75km for the run, 41km for the bike) i got blisters on my feet, because i made the stupid decision of not putting my socks on for the run. bike was good. swim was the slowest and hardest that i have had, since my first OLY in July 2008. i almost thought that I was going to have my first DNF. thank god I didn't. despite it possibly raining, it didn't. and, that made me happy. ---------------------------- Today, I had a the beginnings of a conversation that started to get to the very route of my being. a conversation that will continue to go on longer. I have recently been given a gift that is the something which challenges me to be a better person. a gift tha...

This weekend, I am racing a MSC Canada event: the lake Chapparal Olympic, in Calgary. I am pretty sure that it is going to be a strong race for me. I am currently feeling quite strong. I am definitely noticing the increasing in hours for training times throughout the week, and definitely noticing that I am on a building period right now. It is interesting though, because coach and I have (for reasons unbeknownst to either of us) missing eachother on the "being good at connecting on skype." thing. why is this interesting?! well, because i just feel like i am going to be racing this race without overly thinking about it as being a race week. just go into it feeling a little tired. is this good? well, it's not bad. why? well, because we are building for an A race in the fall. i will be racing Syracuse 70.3 on sept 19th. and, that is soon. that is just over a month away. yipes! Anyway, for lake chapparal, the top 3 times for women, last year were: 2:19, 2:28 and 2:29. i am...

yeah, i know. it has been busy. I know it is busy when: emails pile up. i find that I am only getting 6-7 hrs of sleep a night. i drive 12 hours each way to see family, only to stay in the destination for a day and a half. i don't answer my phone when it rings. i bring school work to work work. day schedule looks somewhat like this: wake up. work out 1. study a bit while eating. grab a coffee. work. eat. work. go home. snack. workout 2. go hang out with boy. eat dinner. bed. REPEAT. i realize that it is already the 4th, and I only have 10 days left in this city. i barely have time to squeeze in dinner with my mum. i don't blog much. so. things like that have been going on. a better blog post will follow. but, for now, I leave you with some more photos. remember how I mentioned at one point in a "things i like" post, that I love getting film developed after they have sat in my room for a year, or longer. these photos (and the ones in the tree post) are from a rec...