i haven't changed my mind. i'm still committed to this thing. my star count is growing. the runs are starting to feel more natural and the treadmill has helped me find a steady rhythm on the roads. last night i got kicked off the highway by the cops. when i say the cops, i mean one member of guelph's police department. i know i'm not allowed to run up highway 6 but i couldn't help myself. the side of the highway is so soft and i tend to run further if i don't have the option of turning around. time just flies between distant off ramps. but the cop meant business so i hung my head and waddled back to college ave.
this week had only a few events that weren't conducive to fast running. but in my defense, the beer was free. and i'd be silly to turn down free beer. as they say in my hometown of brisbane, "crikey! granny just rolled over in her grave!" granny doesn't like to turn down free beer and she doesn't approve when others do so.
and when i say the beer was free, i mean that i paid full price for it. but i paid for it with work tips which basically means i was free rolling off the generous customers we serve. huzzah!
i ran 5 times this week. that was something. week was going swimmingly until the calves got a little tight today and i had to settle for 7k. but that's still sufficient to stick one more star up on my board! one for every run over 20 minutes! so far i have 7 little stars. some of the stars have cool little sunglasses and others are just super smiley. every time i get to stick one on the board it means that i'm a little more fit. and that makes a man feel good.
was hoping that a week of consistent running might help get rid of some of the winter layer that has been slowly accumulating. but all the running has made me hungrier. after 11 miles last night i went home and devoured a bunch of food. i didn't stop. snacks at the corner store, day old chicken wrap from work, a beer, another chicken wrap, another beer, then over to the girls' place where we made several bowls of popcorn and then ordered a couple pizzas when the bagels i had stashed in their cupboard ran out. call up deanna and she tells me where the last piece of cake is hiding in her freezer. add it all up and i've actually put on a couple pounds this week. guess i'll have to throw in some cross-training to compensate because i'm not about to stop eating burgers and any brussels sprouts i eat will be doused in butter.
i made a long distance call last night to catch up with an old friend. by catch up i mean pretend to be a guy named dexter, the owner of a bike shop that has a pair of wheels ready for pick up. my friend had caller id so my prank didn't work BUT she seemed in high spirits and i think this bodes well for the upcoming season. the contrast in magazine covers between 2010 and 2011 should also give us confidence that paula is ready to rock this year!
"true blood" paula. intimidating and dangerous.
"i'm flippin' excited!" paula. ms. findlay's most lethal demeanor as it tends to give her competition a false sense of security.
and this is the issue of psychology today that santa brought me for christmas. i haven't read it yet but the cover should eventually make my bedroom wall. great reminder to always smile!
sorry for all the words in advance. i don't like reading either.
in november, cross country season came to an end. most runners took a week off, regrouped, and got back out on to the trails to prep for indoors. the triathletes that dabbled in xc did something similar with down time followed by training that wasn't so running focused. what did i do?
neither.
i opted out of competing in triathlon this year because i had a 2011 season not worthy of government funding for 2012. i could no longer afford to keep going in the sport. it costs upwards of $8,000 a year to train and compete depending on how much you want to travel for races and camps. i don't have this money and that's the reality. this was a tough decision because it's not as if i can pick it up again on a rainy saturday. triathlon is a lifestyle and requires a complete commitment. long story short, here i am in january, face a little rounder, routine non-existent, and with no real goals beyond getting out of bed in time to poor beer for psych professors. i haven't been this out of shape since the cough epidemic of '09 or that summer in high school when i stopped swimming and worked at mcdonald's instead. as my training partners will tell you, my ass was huge that summer. the whole reason i came to guelph was because i wanted to train with the best and get a degree on the side. now i'm left with the degree on the horizon but have very little interest in it's real world application and consequently have lacked any real world motivation.
so what next?
well i want to run cross country again. my varsity experience this year was a lot like an experience at a few parties in tenth grade. i've been talking a lot with a certain girl, i find out she'll be at the same place on piccadilly on saturday, we go upstairs after i've downed my second beer taken from my parents fridge, make out a bit, and then BAM! busted by a bunch of kids looking for some sort of perverted thrill of finding their friends half naked in a walk-in closet. so in this metaphor the girl was 'running well' and my 'friends' were an injury. really got blue balled this season and i want my saturday back.
but xc is so far away! so i decided that exercise was optional, not a priority, and i've sat on my arse instead of staying in shape. then, at dinner at symposium last week, alexander decides that i should run a marathon. he says it will give me some structure, a goal, a fitness boost and as a side benefit he can take wagers on whether or not i break 2:40. this idea sounds exciting. so the two of us convince craig and voila! im running the ottawa marathon in may to give myself some structure before i build up for an xc season in the summer! fun times! i've run two days in a row and i feel like a new man.
backtracking to that whole 'not at all interested in school thing', i know i'm not the only person to ever dislike class. but i figured that if i was still sitting in a lab diluting acids at the age of 21, it would at least be something i was planning on doing after university. it's not, i've wanted to be in media since the tenth grade. so connor clerke and i are going to host a radio show on the campus station! getting back into the media scene will be refreshing and might help with the funk. funk is only good when played you're at the albion, not when it pertains to a lack of drive. so i'll let you guys know when it's on and i encourage you to listen because i promise you that if it sucks we'll stop doing it!
thanks for reading! here's a deep 'bop it' run with some of the nation's best multiplayer athletes. plenty of talent.
and here is the black and white of life with a CCR soundtrack!
have you ever flown porter? porter is great. it takes all the fun parts of flying, bundles them up into a little ball, and throws it right at the nut-sack of all the bad parts of flying.
sorry, i just read watson's blog. his style is contagious.
nevertheless, i do believe porter is a swell way to travel. first part of the trip was just a quick greyhound to t.o., free shuttle to the harbour front, and then a 37 second ferry ride to the runway. no fuss, no muss. i was so early that they threw me on an earlier flight. no line-up at security. a surprise of the pleasant variety. when i started taking off my belt i was asked whether stripping was something i did for fun or if he was going to have to tip for the entertainment.
then, the best part: the lounge. i got my own comfy chair with a reading lamp. the reading lamp was unnecessary as the room was well lit by natural light that shone through the wall length windows. but i liked the reading light. it made it homey. i pull out my mac for a standard wi-fi sesh. low battery! darn. lucky there is an outlet right. under. my. butt. but now im hungry and still tired from the accidental all nighter the night prior. what's that? shortbread cookies? no, not shortbread cookies. shortbread cookies with chocolate chips in them. they were very small so i went back for a few rounds to stock up on the goodness and get refills of starbucks coffee in my dime sized tea cup.
then the flight. to be expected at this point, it was quick and painless like a doctor's appointment without the probing. arrived in ottawa to the opening scene of love actually with a nice relaxing holiday on the horizon. a short christmas list for me this year.
recently i went to waterloo for the night with my boy dj malta aka matty mac aka young flex to visit his sister for her 19th birthday. his sister has a sweet flat. the building is new this year and every little apartment is straight out of elle decor magazine.
you caught me. i just did a google search to make reference to a legitimate interior design magazine.
so we're hanging out in leah's suave apartment and 'look at me now' comes on. if you haven't heard it, busta rhymes spits a verse in there at light speed. probably the fastest rap of the year if you look at the billboard charts for hip hop. maybe one of you indie kids knows of something faster. i'd love to hear about it. anyways, one of leah's friends starts rapping along with it and i go bananas because i'm legitimately impressed with his ability to rap with busta in this particular verse. i tweet about it, forget about it the next day, and move on with my life.
then this weekend, while sitting around in a similar situation (drinks, apartment, people), the song comes on again. when busta's verse comes up, more than half of the dozen people sitting around get in on the rap, and their deliveries were almost spot on. i became the minority because i could NOT rap with busta. needless to say i was, again, impressed, and this time quite shocked. rapping fast is cool, and apparently a hobby among 20 year old yorku students.
the next morning i had pancakes and they were served to me with maple syrup out of an old bottle of patron. so when i saw the video below, i figured i had to share that story. embrace exams, there's egg nog on the other side my friends.
leaving guelph on thursday and roaming around a big city all weekend is starting to feel like a routine. rolled into toronto this weekend for a bronze med/bronze cross/first aid/CPR crash course at a pool downtown. decided i'd stay at a hostel nearby instead of going home every night at the end of the long days. it will probably cost me about the same amount, lessen the chances of me getting lost for the 6th time since noon, and hopefully i'll get to meet some rad people while i'm here! i'm rooming with a german dude and a couple IT guys that are here for work. i don't know how to pronounce their names but they seem nice. my course goes till ten every night but i'm going to try and duck out early to make it to one of the evening events they have planned here. wine and cheese with hippies sounds a little better than simulating mouth to mouth on 14 year olds.
went to a wicked concert last night. my second time seeing hey rosetta and they did not disappoint. i was actually pretty lucky to get in in the first place. i had no ticket and was forced to scalp outside the phoenix concert theatre. tyler and his buddy keith were there to help me. just when it seemed that all hope was lost, a guy came up to the three of us and said he had a free pass for himself and three others. he said he didn't want any money for it. tyler and keith's faces light up but i decide to blurt out, "thanks but my friends already have tickets. we only need one. but those three guys over there need some help!" the guys overhear this and come scrambling over to meet their new best friend, free pass guy.
ten seconds later i've realized what i've just done. "really ian? you need a ticket, a guy offers us three, and you decide to open your mouth! we could've all gotten in for free and sold our two tickets for beer money!" i lowered my head and sat down on the curb. lucky for me keith spots a guy selling a ticket to a scalper and hops in. keith was on the ball last night. he tells the guy that we're actually fans and starts belting out a tune. the guy tells the scalper to get lost and i get in for a fair price! hopefully karma will help me in the future after that momentary lapse in judgement. i just don't know if karma will help me if karma secretly knows that i wouldn't do it again if something like that were to happen. don't know if karma keeps track of motives behind behaviour. i'll have to wait and see.
happy weekend! rip it up at nats this weekend, friends! you especially scott.
"dave is the musician. he drops in and lays down the genius shit."
"kurtis does the dubstep... BOWWOW puttaputtaputtaputta.."
"sam is the factory. he mashes it all together."
a moment in mtl...
they dropped this track a couple hours later. they explain that while avicii has been done, this is very different from the 'levels' mashups you've heard before.
here's what the lads caught this weekend when we went out to watch the gryphs take home two team CIS titles for the 6th year in a row. the bulk of the non-race, behind the scenes footage is stuck on tyler's fancy schmancy hi-def camera... for now. probably for the best. nothing worse than looking stupid on the internet when you're applying to work at a summer camp.
enjoy this version! i'm off to montreal to try this GoPro out some more.
