Tuesday, April 09, 2002

Another letter to Fraser Valentine in Ottawa:

Hey Fraser,

I'm just heading out of the office for another week....just thought I'd drop you a quick "hi" and see how things are going.

Not too much new here. The weather is still sucking shit - really putting a damper on getting some miles on the bike before competition season. The first race of the season is on the 20th...only two weeks away. I doubt the snow will all be gone by then, but hopefully the route will be clear enough.

I've been in physiotherapy for my knees for the past month. Nothing too major, apparently muscle imbalance in my legs from concentrating on too few sports has tightened up my IT band and weakened my gluteus medius muscles enough to pull my knees off center when I run, causing some nagging pain. The massage and acupuncture therapy has been doing a lot of good, and I've been doing a lot of Pilates, yoga and stretching along with muscle training in an attempt to swing things around. I went for a test run on Tuesday night - 16km, everything seems to be working okay, which is a good thing, since I'm running two half marathons back-to-back on April 28 and May 4.

The rest of the summer is full of competitions, either triathlons or road/track races almost every weekend. I am still taking the August long weekend to come to Montreal for Pride. I would really like to take a few days to check out what Ottawa has to offer too, still no definite plans. You and Matthew should come to Montreal for the Pride weekend. Should be a lot of fun!!!

Sept. Labor day long weekend is the Vancouver International Triathlon taking place in Stanley Park. I'm definitely considering that one as well. I'm planning on taking the week off after that to do some riding on the Pacific side of Vancouver Island and some scuba diving off of Nanaimo, Victoria and the Lower Mainland coast.

Some friends are also considering heading to Toronto for Pride in June as well. One of our good friends is moving there this weekend, and so we'll have a place to stay. So many plans, so few confirmations......

I guess I'm considering so many trips because I have a pile of Aeroplan miles and Airmiles I can use up for some free trips, and instead of putting myself further in debt this year, I've thought it would be a good idea to use them up to still complete the trips I've intended on doing, while still keeping my spending under control. It all sounds good in theory, at least.

Most of my spare time right now is spent in the gym or in the pool. I've had one cold after another this season, which has really been dogging things as well.

I haven't bought any new gear lately either. I think I told Matthew that I won an auction on Ebay a few months ago for a longsleeve 2000 season Mercury-Viatel skinsuit. It's a beautiful piece, I've been wearing it on the windtrainer, but I'm anxious to test it out on a few time trials this season.

Other than that, not too much is new. Work is going better after the budget fiasco that occurred here at the beginning of the year. I got picked up by another project team at the beginning of February, and things have been pretty hectic since then - just the way l like it! Joe (the bf) has 24 days until his last exam is over, and then he's officially an alumni, barring any technicalities like failing a course. He's so excited to be done (he's been in school seven years sans break as well) - so am I - maybe we can start building a normal life together with normal hours. Who knows? Maybe spending more time together is exactly what we need. Maybe it's not. I guess we'll have to wait and find out. I'm still having issues with commitment specifically because of this vagueness in our lives right now - time will tell whether the fog clears somewhat.

Speaking of school, isn't your dissertation due at the end of this term too, or maybe it was at the end of the fall session??? I can't remember anymore (something tells me I'm three months behind things). At any rate, you're close to being done too, thank god. It's so nice not having all of that studying to do on top of everything else, like classes, jobs, working out, maintaining your health and diet, and boyfriends for starters.

Well, I've been at this desk enough hours today. I'll drop another line soon. We should be firming up our Montreal dates within the next month or so. I think the plan is to leave Calgary on the evening of July 28th (after the big triathlon of the season - Elbow Springs- on the morning of the 28th) or the morning of the 29th. We are planning the return flight from Montreal on August 5th, but I am still thinking of using a few more AV days to get to Ottawa after the 5th. Maybe I should fly into Montreal, and return from Ottawa. That will sort of depend on what Westjet is planning for its flight expansions this year.

Enough about details! I hope everything is well at your end. Drop me a line or two to prove you're still alive.

Talk soon,
Reid