Laura Land

Hmm... Really, honestly, not much these days.

This past weekend we were in b-ville for my dad's 60th birthday. A good time was had by all. On Sunday we were at my sister's and did the Terry Fox run.

Other than that, my nights have been taken up by packing. Most of my apartment is now packed up and in a week tomorrow I'll be moving. I'm going to miss my tiny apartment :(

My Sisters Tummy

I'll post more later, but this picture is for Burger :)

Wasaga Beach SPRINT DUATHLON

So, the title says it all. Saturday was the day, that after 5 years of triathlons and a full season of training (including rides of up to 63 km, runs up to 12 km and bricks up to 40 km/5km) I was going to do my first every olympic triathlon (1500m swim, 40 km bike, 10 km run). Turns out the weather gods thought differently.

We arrived at the race site ready to go at 7:20 or so saturday morning. At our hotel there had been absolutely no wind and the pavement was dry. I was actually super excited for my race and the better than predicted weather. Not so much at the race site. The race is on the very bottom of Georgian bay. Strong winds from the north meant swells of 3-4 feet which were crashing for about the 200m closest to the shore. They announced as I was picking up my kit that the swim was cancelled and that they were changing the race to a duathlon. Every duathlon I've ever seen goes short run, bike, long run. Not so here, they had long run bike short run. So 10k run, 40 km bike, 5 km run. Joy.

I freaked out. I've never run before biking before (except running the mile to the gym to do a spinning workout, but I haven't even done that in a while). Secondly running 10K right now isn't easy so biking 40 km after running 10 km was very very daunting (not to mention having to run again) - Note: I've never done a duathlon before today. So I opted out of the olympic/international distance race and switched over to the sprint triathlon instead hoping for the water to calm down in the next few hours.

2 hours later, sure enough the swim got cancelled for the sprint as well, turning it into a duathlon as well, this one seemed a lot less daunting 5 km run, 20 km bike, and a 2.5 km run.

Run 1: My goal for the first run was to take it pretty easy and to finish in about 30 minutes (not easy long run pace, but not race pace either, my 5K best time is < 25 minutes but I doubt I could run that right now). The first 300m or so were in the sand (ick) so I started off super slowly and was definitely one of the last in my wave to get onto the pavement. The rest of the run was spent passing a few people in front of me that took off too fast and getting passed by a lot of people in the wave behind me. This put me onto a position in the bike that I've never been in before - at the end of the pack for my wave. I'm a good swimmer and am usually at the front of my wave. Finished in 28 something so faster than my plan

Bike: Yippee! fun course, there were about 3 km or so that were gradual uphill that were into the wind that were not so fun, but it made for a fast return with speeds getting up to 55.5 km/h :) I like hammering down hills. The benefit of starting the bike near the end of the wave is getting to pick people off I passed about a dozen people over the 20 km but only one or 2 were in my age group, the rest were 20-24 F. (with the odd guy thrown in). Man, if I were only a year younger that would have been a great ego boost Only one gal passed me the entire ride and she was the winner of 30-35 and in the top 5 over all. She started the race 2 waves behind me, but didn't pass until the final kms of the bike. My only problem on the bike course is that all summer I was focusing on going further and not faster so my calves were cramping a bit in protest. finished in 42 something, but my speed from my bike computer and the speed from the mats don't match so either the course was long or something wonky happened with timing in there.

Run 2: My calves knotted up in transition and I thought the run would be horrible but it worked itself out quickly. I didn't have a lot of oomph left, but the 2.5 km went super quickly and before I knew it, I was at the finish line with a bit of a look of confusion on my face. second run 12:5x (go me!)

Other thoughts - the run courses and the run in transitions were on beach and were like a death march. I hate running in sand.
- I don't understand why they had the long run at the beginning but meh.
-I didn't get to do my olympic triathlon but I did get to do something else new, a duathlon, so the day wasn't a complete waste.

I got 3rd place athena woman (ie. heavier than average), but still don't know my official times on any of it (other than the final finish time was 1:29:04 - I think I had a nap in T1 - my time was over 3 minutes! ack!)

After thoughts - I was disappointed that I didn't get to do my race that I have been training for all summer. For a bit I was upset and thought they should do the swim anyways since anyone doing an olympic race should be able to swim in that surf, but then I realized that it really is for the safety of the athletes that they cancelled it. I may be able to swim in that surf, but I'm a strong swimmer, and I know other people would be incredibly intimidated by it. I think I'll be mulling over it for a few days before I decide what to do. Next summer I want to do a Half Ironman, but I would have wanted to do an olympic race before I commit to the training. Now I don't have the experiance and being in the frigid north that is Canada, won't have another opportunity this season. I'll have to be thinking that one over.

Time for a real update

Well, not much is going on in Laura Land right now. I'm a little sick as I had a horrible cold last week. Feeling a lot better now, though I'm nervous that I ended up missing my peak training week for my tri since I was knocked on my ass all last week. I did get in a long ride and run on the weekend though when I was feeling better.

My long weekend was a day longer than planned since AF had Thursday and Friday off for a software migration at work. I took Friday off and we went to the saug for another meeting with the people he had his interview with a couple of weeks ago. He has been given a verbal offer, but has to still wait to hear the details of it (salary etc). We went to visit with his mum and aunt on friday afternoon and had a good visit with them (his mum even made my chicken soup for my cold :)). I haven't mentioned this before since I didn't know if AF would want everyone knowing, but his Aunt has applied for refuge status and it looks like she'll be here until at least January. She is fleeing an abusive (in all senses of the word - physically, emotionally, and sexually) marriage back in Iran and has next to no rights back in that country. Her biggest obstacle right now is that her mother and children do not support her decision (the children will be able to come over if her refuge application gets approved and it should since her life is in danger if she goes back home).

Saturday morning I got up early and left AF sleeping to get in my long ride. I got back when he had been up for about half an hour, so it was good timing. We picked up my dad's 60th birthday present in the afternoon and went for dinner at Red Lobster - He had never had lobster or crab before so we shared the ultimate feast platter and I think he enjoyed both the lobster and the crab and is eager to go back again.

Sunday morning I was up early again to get my run in. I felt like crap on it, but still managed to run 12 km on the hilly roads near AFs apartment. In the afternoon we took a road trip to guelph and went climbing at the gym there. I'm getting a bit better, but overall, I'm still very amateur! We are going to try to continue going on a semi-regular basis since I just bought climbing shoes the other week at MEC (they were majorly on sale and the right size!)

Monday was the laziest day on earth. We woke up late and watched a movie. started moving some of my stuff over to his apartment (ont even one car load) and then watched another movie at his place.

Today it is back to work and I'm not sure how productive the week will be. For the last hour I'll I've heard is crazy chanting and cheering outside with no end in site - ah, frosh week in Engineering (Who are we?!?!) Fun times for them, but not so good for me. Right now very loud cheering "We love EDCOM, We love EDCOM". God, can't you come up with an original cheer?

Okay, that is all I have to say for now. Enjoy your short week people!

Not suitable for my photoblog

But I like it anyways. Another Fun picture from Burgers wedding :)

A Burgerific Wedding

Just a quick post since I'm heading off to bed soon, but I just wanted to post quickly with some pictures from burgers big day. She'll have to tell the complete story since I just know the face value stuff.

The wedding was beautiful, and the butterflies were super cool. They would land on people, and I got a cool picture on one in burgers grandma's hair. A couple of minutes later she actually had two in her hair! The wedding went off without a hitch (as an observer, I'm sure burger might argue on that one) and the dinner was delish. The speaches were awesome with burgers mum and burger boy's brother (surprisingly) steeling the show. Very funny speeches. I'll post some of the wedding type photo's here, but I also have some cool non-wedding ones that I'll post this week on my photoblog.

one bad thing about my camera... takes too long to focus. As soon as she came into shot I pressed the button but the focus got confused I think.


Gen doing her reading...


At the end of the Ceremony, May I intoduce Burger and Burger boy!


Burger and Friends (AF was supposed to tell me if I was showing too much skin, but he was obviously slacking off on this job last night since I think he enjoyed looking at the skin while other people probably not so much.

Zzzzzzz...

For some reason I'm particularily tired these days. Perhaps I should be back on iron. who knows.

So this past week, what did I do? Good question :)

Friday - Went over to AFs apartment at night and we watched a movie. Hmm... trying to remember which movie it was. Right Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Weird movie, not entirely sure I liked it, but I do have to say that Johnny Depp was amazing in it like usual :)

Saturday - We did a bit of shopping, I finished buying Burger and Burger Boy's Wedding present and went picked up t a couple of CDs (New Sam Roberts and a Bob Marley Compilation thing). We later went to the Camera Store and I bought my new baby. The one, I posted last week - Nikon D70. It was expensive, but I love it :)

Sunday - we went for a longish bike ride together, I on my road bike and AF on his mountain bike. I'd ride ahead for a bit and cycle back to him. It was super windy and took a lot of effort, I did around 47 km on hills and in wind. We then headed over to AFs for the night

Monday - We took off the day sinc AF had an interview with for a job in Missisauga so we were there yesterday morning and then headed into Toronto for the afternoon. We went to MEC, wandered around, and went to the ROM. They have a LOT of stuff closed right now for renovations, but I think that we had both seen enough by the time we were done. Then it was back to the Loo last night and I seriously passed out for a good solid 9 hours. I feel like I could easily fall back asleep now, but I'm back at school today and must be productive.

So things to Note:
1) my Photoblog has one picture from this weekend posted right now, from playing around with my new camera. I'll have more posts this week with other stuff from this weekend so you can check out how my knew camera looks. It is AWESOME! I love it :)
2) AFs Job interview in missisauga. Yep, that is causing a lot of problems right with logistical crap. a) I'm moving into his apartment in Kitchener at the end of September and have already gotten rid of my apartment, b) Arash doesn't have his drivers licence, c) there is no easy way to commute on transit to Missisauga from waterloo, d) if Arash gets the job, he has to give 2 months notice to his current apartment building to move out. Man, this is just a messy situation. I don't want to even think about it right now. (Anyone know someone who commutes to the Saug everyday from KW that can give my Boy a ride???)

Another week another post

So what is going on in Laura Land? Not much to be honest. What was that the Nej was saying about nothing exciting in singledom. Well, nothing exciting in coupledom for me these days ;)

So last week...
Friday - Went for my usual Friday ride with PS, shorter than normal though since it was a "cutback week". In the evening I went over to AFs apartment and we got ready for his mum's visit to town. We went grocery shopping, had dinner, and I started preparing food for the weekend while AF finished cleaning his apartment. I must say, by the time we were done, the place was spotless.

Saturday - We picked up his mum and aunt at the bus station had a nice long lunch. In the afternoon we went out to st. jacobs to stroll around and had a quick tour of the campus (for his Aunt's sake, AF's mum worked on campus for about a year when they were still pretty new in Canada). We went to the maharaja for dinner (yummers!) and went out to the flying dog for about an hour at night to give his aunt the full Canadian experiance. I hope she wasn't too shocked by anything she saw, all in all people were pretty tame. We left by 12:15 though, so it could have gotten worse later at night.

Sunday - We all had breakfast together and I went out shopping for a bit with his mum and aunt while AF slept some more (he sleeps a lot, damn lazy boy, and I do realize you might be reading this ;)). We had lunch and it was time to head back to the bus station. Not too much exciting for the weekend, but it was nice anyways.

Monday - I worked from home after getting my car fixed. It had a leaky exhaust pipe and the shop was able to cut out the bad peice and weld in a new bit for $202 including taxes. I was putting it off for a long time since the dealership said $1300 and I was afraid of the cost, now that just seems silly to me :)

Tuesday - hmmm... not much yesterday. I was at school late so by the time I got home it was just regular type stuff.

Wednesday - today. Hmm... nothing so far. My legs are sore though, like muscle sore. It actually feels like it did a day or two after my marathon, well, my quads anways, not the rest of my legs, I can't for the life of me figure out why they hurt this way. Last week consisted of 2 runs (short, 6 km) one easy shmeasy swim where I did mostly pull and a shorter than normal bike ride but monday after my bike ride my legs were just killing me (did around 40 minutes total on my trainer since I kept getting interrupted). I can't figure out what is going on :(.

And that is it. Oh, and I decided that I'm going to get this :)

Mid August already?!?

Where the heck did the summer go?

Okay, so I guess it has been over a week since I last updated sorry gals? I just don't have the need to update when nothing too exciting is going on in my life. First a quick recap of my week.

Last Wednesday - Nothing? can't remember what I didn
Thruday - Ditto
Friday - AF and I went to a party for one of his friends taht was finishing her PhD. It was pretty goodtimes.
Saturday - we went for a mountain bike and then headed into TO to his mums place
Sunday - we went to the beach with his aunt and mum. It's amazing how quickly his aunt adjusted to Canada and had no problem walking around all day in her bikini. Note: in Iran, the womens beaches are blocked off with dividers from the main beach and the dividers actually go like 100-200 m into the water to keep the men and women separate. At night we drove back to Waterloo
Monday - Ultimate lazy day we slept in, watched a movie and talked. REally, nothing exciting.

This week has been more of nothing, back at school and what not. The only exciting thing to report is that I have been in contact with the person I know at dillon and she says that my resume is impressive and is giving me hints on what to change and helping me with my cover letter. Good stuff :)

Other stuff - So for some reason I'm starting to think about marathons again. I think I might do another one next fall. Originally I thought I'd wait at least 5 years before doing another one, but in hindsight I really truly enjoyed my long runs last fall. Crazy, I know! I guess I'll wait and see how the next few months go. Anyone up to doing a marathon with me? Please?

Damn it's hot!

Wow, yesterday we reached the highest humidex I ever remember seeing. It topped out around 44.7C. Yuck. Today, the air temperature is supposed to get up to 36C which will be the highest temperature ever recored in Southern Ontario. Yikes! Wouldn't be surprised if there humidex approached 50. Ugh. (Last night I drove in my car for about 15 minutes, when I got out of the car, my glasses fogged up, that is the first time this has ever happened to me in the summer. Wierd.

Okay, now onto the regularly scheduled post.

Friday I palnned to work from home, but if I'm honest, I'd let you know that I didn't do too much. I did a long workout and got ready to go out for the weekend. AF and I went camping on Friday night with one of his friends and we rock climed outside Friday evening. We were supposed to climb again on Saturday morning/afternoon but his friend was too hungover. instead we just took our time and packed up our stuff to head to Toronto for the rest of the weekend.

AFs other aunt is here right now from Tehran, so we visited and did a couple of errand type things and generally had a relaxing weekend. Sunday night we headed back to the loo and that was that.

Yesterday I worked from home for the day and got some progress made I'm now running my model again (well, doing the column calibration) and it is going a little slowly. Oh well, I guess that happens. Stay Cool Dudes and Dudettes!