Training to Live

this morning started off very early (for a day that i didn’t have to go into work, that is) – i took a bus to the subway station, then the subway all the way downtown, then a shuttle to the ferry and then a short ferry ride to the toronto island airport to catch my flight to this windy city. i was flying a newish airline that i’d never flown before but had heard awesome things about. every single one was true! the waiting lounge was lovely (free drinks – cappucinos, lattes, tazo tea, all kinds of juice bottles/pop, etc, and lots of snacks plus free wifi and comfy chairs), the staff were all extremely pleasant and everything just went really smoothly. plus all their branding/marketing is extremely sharp, and i’m kind of a sucker for gorgeous design! i’d fly with porter again in a second, even though actually getting to the airport is a little bit more complicated that going to the main toronto airport.

we flew into midway airport in chicago, and that was a breeze as well. i found anne almost immediately and she, rebecca and i headed onto the orange line to make our way to the hotel. i found my awesome roommate hanging out in the lobby. the hotel let us check in early, which was awesome because after an hour out in the super chicago humidity, i really needed a freshen up and a shoe change! then we met sarah and meg in the lobby to head to a lunch place that several friends had recommended to me called Lula’s. it was fabulous – very healthy food blogger worthy and interesting. i got a “taneka” sandwich. i don’t even know what that is, exactly, but it was yummy!

i love a sandwich that is packed with interesting stuff, and as you can see, this one is loaded!

then we decided to make our way back downtown to go on an architecture boat tour on the river, which also came pretty highly recommended to me by friends from around here. it was a bit cooler on the water (just a few degrees!), but mostly it was nice to just sit down and hang out somewhere after a busy morning of running around. chicago has some amazing architecture. i took a whole ton of pictures, but of course now i hardly remember anything about any of the buildings. i’m just going to leave you with a nice little selection to enjoy.

you can already see, just looking down the river, that chicago’s skyline is interesting.

lots of lift and draw bridges!! very cool (although slightly less cool when you’re in a car, stopped because the bridge is up. apparently in chicago, only on wednesdays and saturdays in the summer do the bridges move, so i guess that’s not too bad)

there’s a famous chicago architect who was super into triangles, so there are many buildings designed around that shape. i like triangles too!

trains and bridges! two of my favourite things.

i thought this wavy building in the middle was pretty wacky!

this is navy pier. we didn’t really *go* to it, but it was on my list of things to see. i haven’t decided if this counts or not! luckily i have a lot of time on sunday and most of monday to work on exploring the city a bit more.

after we took a quick cab back to the hotel (we were far too hot, sticky and exhausted to ride the train at rush hour), we checked in and grabbed our swag bags (holy! good thing i packed extra luggage inside my luggage) and came upstairs for a rest before the opensky cocktail party.

getting to the party took us a while, as apparently we walked RIGHT PAST harrison station, but we did eventually make it. it was lots of fun to meet so many people. the food was tasty and we each got a free drink ticket (which is more than enough drinks for this one! i also had many glasses of ice water because i was soooooo thirsty!). the photobooth was cool – mary and jennifer and i squeezed in just before it closed at 9! i don’t have any pictures from the event (besides the open sky prints!) because i accidentally left my camera battery charging in the hotel room. good one!

i met andrea (also from TO), stampy lisa, krista, kristina, callie (callieflower kitchen, who goes to the same university i did my undergrad in! even in the same program i started off in too), sabrina, jennifer, morgan, emily, susan, erin and many many other people i’m forgetting. it was nice to see a few familiar faces (from last year, other meetups, etc): caitlin, nienke, allie. i loved putting together faces and names with twitter handles!

at around 10, after la salle power co turned into a club (and the music started to get a little too loud), mary and i called it a night. there was a bit of a failed froyo mission with krista and kristina (and a few other people whose names slipped through my very seive-like brain). it was raining, but not hard enough to make things miserable. we took the L back to the hotel, and pretty much hopped right into bed! lots of chatting and late night blogging happened in our room before the lights eventually went out.

i am now up ridiculously early (the clock definitely said 4:xx when i woke up) and think i’m going for a little run before the morning begins. i should probably take it easy though, since it’s going to be a super super long day and i will need all the energy i can get later on! ) i really sound like a grandmother some days….:-P

sunday was spent having brunch with a few lovely ladies at a vegetarian restaurant in the fashion district (not kensington market, sadly i was mistaken) at a great meetup that angela organized. the restaurant (fressen) was only just so-so – the food was a little meh, pretty expensive for what it was, and the service was just ok. i’m not sure i’d go back, though i’m not really their target demographic, being carnivorous and all. the company was far more enjoyable than the food, and i really loved getting to chat with people that i already knew i had things in common with.

(picture from Angela’s camera – I failed to take actual photographs at the event)

Kristin, Kristen, Christina, Steph, Kelly, Nienke, Morgan, Alex, Julie, Karly, Jaclyn, Noelle – thanks for a great sunday morning!

After brunch, I headed off to MEC for a bit of shopping. (Clearly i am not fashionable or trendy enough for the Queen West district, but I do appreciate a good cycling jersey, some new running tanks and a season’s supply of sharkies!). Passed this condo-to-be on the way

so ridiculous!!

The work week was not super eventful. My manager did announce that she is going away for a year to do a different job for a while which is surprising, exciting (for her) and sad (for us, as she is an amazing manager). I also discovered that someone that I have been dealing with over the phone and through emails for the last year and a half, under the very clear impression that the person was male is actually female! How embarrassing! Luckily I never sent her any letters addressed to a Mr! (At least I hope I didn’t…. I kind of don’t want to go back to check, just in case)

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I finally ordered my vibram sprints! Ashley and Kelsey have been raving about them for months and I’ve been waffling on if I could pull them off. I finally gave in and put in my order. I wasn’t able to try them on first (MEC had none in stock), so hopefully the size is right. I should have them in a few weeks.

squeeeee. I also ordered a couple pairs of injinji socks in case it is still chilly when they arrive. i couldn’t decide between the colour above and the bright blue/grey like ashley’s, but they were out of stock in the blue/grey, so i thought it must be fate and got the aboves!

i am recommitting to this blogging thing. again. promise.

here’s what happened in february:

-i went to an awesome book event for one of my newest favourite books, that i have talked about here already: the happiness project. a conversation with the author, the amazing gretchen rubin, and heather from indigo.

i had just gotten to almost the end of my library copy by the time the book event happened, and i knew i wanted to buy my own copy. luckily this was the perfect time because i could have a chat with gretchen and get my copy signed! excuse the terrible pictures! it wasn’t me.

i am taking part in the 2010 happiness challenge, which comes with a monthly theme and weekly things to do (described in 2 minute videos by gretchen, every monday). so far we’ve done things like tackle nagging tasks, fight right, stop expecting praise and appreciation (the hardest), hug more, kiss more, touch more (my favourite). i can feel myself becoming a more pleasant person.

-i started seriously training for around the bay (which is in 21 days!!!) 30k race i am doing at the end of this month.

i’ve gone on 2+ hour training runs, i have done strength training a couple times each week, i’ve started interval training (yasso 800s!) and i have gone swimming once a week, every week since i last posted that i was going to try and get back into swimming.

our winter has been mild – perfect for outdoor runs but not so perfect for snowshoeing. we only have gotten out once so far (i fear this will be our only snowshoe adventure of 2010), but it was epic. 2.5 hours on the mountain biking trails of waterloo. my muscles ached the following two days!

today i’m up to a 21-25k run. i’ve got one more distance week left, and then i cut back in preparation of my taper before the race. edited to add- i ended up being out for 3 hours this morning. brutal. my knees hurt. happily i probably won’t have to do any more ridiculously long runs this year because this 30k race is the longest i am signing up for. everything else is half marathon and below.

soon i will start spending a bit more time on my bike, as the following race is the cyclocross st george to ancaster, where i will ride 35k through mud, rail trails, roads, single track and farm land.

-i went to a wake for a 16 year old who lost a battle with cancer. it was decidedly one of the most sad things i have done. my heart broke for his parents; no one should ever have to go through that.

-i got to interview and help select our summer intern for work. this was particularly exciting, as we went back to my alma mater for the interviews AND i was that summer intern myself, not too many years ago. we didn’t get our first pick, but i am pretty happy with the person who will be showing up in may. it definitely was an experience that made me feel old though!

-i went to a custom bike shop with jon to get his new bike spec-ed out, measured and designed. it was sooo cool! i wanted to share some pictures, but when we arrived, i discovered that my battery was completely out of juice maybe i’ll go back when we pick up the finished product and get some good shots. custom bikes are sweet, but i am definitely not enough of a for real biker to justify getting one, nor would i fully appreciate all the features. i would love a custom paint job though!

-last night, for the first time ever, i drove jon’s standard car home (about 12km) all by myself with no supervision – my maiden voyage. it was a little harrowing at times, since i’m a pretty new driver to begin with, and i’m still learning how to operate the standard vehicle. i stalled only once, drove in the wrong gear once or twice, but, all in all, it wasn’t too bad and i did not crash or die! someday soon i will get more comfortable doing this.

-i proofread jon’s mechanical engineering master’s thesis on deep drawing of warm formed aluminum. “what?” you say. yeah, that’s what i said too. after going through the 100+ pages a few times, combing carefully for missing commas and misplaced subordinating conjunctions, i still don’t really know what deep drawing is all about. that’s ok with me.

-i’m working on my mighty life list, inspired by maggie and karen. i’ll post it when i’m done. so far everything on the list (i’m up to #28 so far) is kind of epic. i think i need a few things that i can get started on right now. ideas?

-i pulled the ice cream maker out of hibernation for a batch of homemade cookies and cream (david lebovitz’s philidelphia vanilla with crushed oreos swirled in at the end). let me tell you, i have missssed ice cream. since we stopped buying it at the store, when i removed the freezer bowl from our freezer, our connection to the creamy cold treat was severed. i’m happy to have it back in my life.

-tomorrow i’m going to my first ever blog meetup (aside from the healthy living summit, which i guess was sort of blog meetup like) that angela is organizing in kensington market, a super cute area of toronto. i’m excited to meet new people, make some new friends (hopefully) and spend some time exploring the city. the weather is supposed to be gorge!

whew. that was long.

we woke up early this morning to drive downtown for a fun, unique event: the toronto royal agricultural winter fair. i’ve never been to an agricultural fair, and the toronto winter one is the biggest in the country. holy cow, it was cool. there were tons of animals, lots of interesting farm innovations/initiatives, crazy vegetables and lots and lots of people.

the reason for going was to see jon’s cousin amy participate in the 4H junior beef hereford heifer show. although we did get to see her in the parade of 4Hers, we did not catch her showing. the rest of the family is going to be there to see her tomorrow, so hopefully we’ll have more pictures.

we also had to stop by to see our friend jasmin at her energrow booth with the soybean press that energrow designs and sells. the oil can power diesel engines and the meal that comes out of the other end of the press can be used as a feed supplement to increase farm animals’ protein intake. i’ve seen jasmin take her company from a small idea that started on one of her coop terms when she decided she wanted her own business to this big, very real thing. it’s pretty awesome.

this is a bunch of different beans/seeds that they ran through the press to produce different oils: canola, sunflower, soybean, mustard and flax

these vegetables made me rethink the hugeness of my squash from yesterday! holy wow. 1236 lbs of squash?? this makes 10 lbs look teensy weensy

cutest thing ever. boy lying down for a rest with his cow. you don’t see things like this in the city.

cute animals

two of the coolest things ever: bacon biodiesel (from the cigi biodiesel trailer) and an ipod powered by poop! (cow poop, that is. the only one of its kind!)

there was a bull that reminded me of a wild thing (from the movie)

we had a great day. i got to see some rodeo events – real cowgirls riding their horses super fast around poles and barrels and bull riding, which is just insane.

being a farmer is cool. and. farmers feed cities! don’t forget that.