Training Log Archive: barb

Well, it looks like I might fail on my swimming thing. The YMCA is closed to lap swimming this morning, and the Charles is frozen over... Am considering penance like taking swim lessons or having to swim in February or something.

C • heated pool 4

To a hair salon (!)

8 laps

Come to Tucson, OK?

"If you do this swimming thing, then I'll... I'll...
I'll go swimming at least 4 times in January and swim at least 4 laps each time. I know that seems like nothing but I hate swimming and I don't ever swim, so it's a big deal."

Ack

12 laps.

C • Half way there... 2

Dave got me a bread machine for belated Xmas. I was initially nonplussed but we've been making a lot of bread and I like it a lot.

C • Bread machines ROCK 8

Tried out radio orienteering (ARDF) at Hammond Pond. Brought 4 kids, but they veered off onto the frozen surface of the pond and I went on to find the control. They did spend time in the parking lot and on the first part of the trail with the equipment. Anyway, I have a new interest in radio-O because Vadim seems to be really good with it - I am intrigued about running with the equipment, and dealing with the cycling signals... Would be nice to try when it is warmer. Temps were below freezing. Obviously. Still worried about the kids falling through the ice, so that distraction meant I didn't enjoy the orienteering as much as I might otherwise have.

C • ARDF 2

To the Y and back

Last night I watched Isabel swim 136 laps in an hour to raise money for her team. She made it look so easy. And then Brad, our neighbor, who was also there watching his daughter swim, suggested I come with him this morning to swim. I have to swim in January because I told Cristina I would, if she kept swimming over there in Djibouti, so I agreed.

I swam about 12 laps, with no small amount of coughing and spluttering. I can't figure out the breathing thing. Two laps of crawl, and the rest back and side, plus one breast. Took several rests.

C • I remember when I was tryin... 4

OK, people, please note that you are invited to some very tasty orienteering in Tucson Feb 14-15. It will probably be warm but not too warm, and probably sunny, and definitely gorgeous and completely fun. Please come! I'm planning on hiking Fri, Mon, Tue - so perhaps you'll join me???

Currently AP tells me the average distance attendees will be traveling to get to this meet is 1184 miles! Let's get that number a little higher!

More running from car (ack) to school, this time to check out the inauguration concert put on by the 3rd through 6th graders. One song's refrain was "we are the agents of change." In addition to singing, kids did some talking in the introductions to the numbers - they gave background on Langston Hughes (one of his poems set to music was sung) and mentioned Obama - a few kids read from MLK's "I have a dream" speech. More opportunity for weeping on my part. "Is this the crying section?" I asked the other parents as I took my seat. So strange to see all these flag-waving kids in Cambridge.

I sat next to comedian Jimmy Tingle, whose kid has been in the same grade for 7 years now. He never remembers me, which I have been getting a good private laugh about. For example, Tuesday night I went out with him and a half a dozen other adults (mutual friends) and got my Obama hug from them all; my kids were also with me. Here it is Thursday morning and I sit next to him and he's like, "whose parent are you?" Cracks me up.

Running to get to school in time to watch the inauguration with the kids. Parents weren't invited, but we are never NOT invited at that school, so I figured I'd check it out with them. I found David's junior high class - kids of all colors and temperaments but pretty much united in their support of Obama. When the TV said "All rise!" for the swearing-in, they stood up, and for the national anthem they put their hands on their chests, and they clapped during the speech. It was fun. It was good to be with them, because it meant I had to hold back my total emotional breakdown, which meant I was able to actually hear the speech. As I walked toward my car afterwards, I was crying so hard that I was sobbing and wailing. What a relief after the past years, a clearing of the skies. It's not just about having an African American family in the white house -- if it were Condoleezza Rice for example, it wouldn't be the same. It's, well you know what it is, it's the sanity, his easy effectiveness, the competence, the call to service, the reaching out to all, the ethics, the openness, the values, and of course I won't deny it: his grin, the sweetness of his relationship to his wife, and the "angelic" kids... Good people.

C • change 10

To West Cambridge to get David from sleepover.

With David, home. He was tired and hungry from staying up until 2 am and maybe later, and quite angry that I was making him walk home in the snow. By the time we got to Harvard Square he had mellowed out, perhaps thinking that he was going to get back on the computer when he got home (it's been forbidden this week). We got food in the Square, which also helped.

Errands around town.

Dream: on tour bus in maybe an eastern European country. Early in the dream, it appears I'm at a conference and some of my old colleagues are there: Eric Lightcap, Mike Morrissey, ... Eric has recently been part of some film project about the science he does, and I've just come back to work at Millennium. Later I'm in the front seat of the bus (opposite the driver) with Isabel. We enjoy watching the small towns go by, and the driver navigating some tight turns. We end up at a beach beyond a pleasant wooded strip, and tumble off the bus to play. ... It's a beautiful sunny day, deep blue water and blue sky. At some point I look over the beach and clouds are moving in. I get up to where I can look back at the land, back over the villages and toward the big city, and it is very dark there, dark enough that I can see the full moon rising over the horizon. An eclipse? There are huge explosions from near the city, beautiful like fireworks. Soundless. People are watching mesmerized. I go to Isabel, and pick her up and carry her down into some old battlement ruins we had explored earlier to protect her in case it's nuclear... In halting English some guy who works there puts forward the idea that maybe something has gone wrong with energy production or weapons storage systems.

I woke up to a beautiful snowy day, and the snow is still coming down.

sledding and hiking at the Sheepfold in the Fells with Harvey, Gretchen, Gus, Georgia, David and Isabel. A blast.

David agreed to come out with me to run this morning before school. We went by DD first for a treat. Then to Fresh Pond. It was 27F. We started out too fast, and David's throat hurt and so we didn't get too far. Still, it's a start.

sigh

OK, people, it's looking like we're going to have a 2-day local meet in Tucson in February - with 3 events including a Sprint Series sprint. A good place to come to in the winter - maybe we can get some out-of-towners? Maybe some people who had a great time at the A meet last year? Come for the orienteering, stay for the hiking and golf?

C • Tucson 2

Nice portrait of David, taken by Isabel in Erie over the holidays, with her new camera (which she isn't allowed to bring back to Cambridge - it's an Erie-only possession -- at least we get to see the pix!).

The kids brought back these pictures of Lucia and Diego.

6/21 (goal: 2)

Weight has been up around 140. Holidays started off with lots of sugar. Fortunately, the west coast portion of the trip, while quite indulgent in many ways, was also amongst vegetarians.

Dave and I have been talking about where we will go when the kids go off to college (6.5 years from now) - he has been lusting after the Mendocino coast which I think sounds awfully lonely, but somewhere on the west coast seems likely. Provided we are alive, healthy, solvent and not engaged in parent care...

Biked up to Malden/Medford, northeast of Boojum, to visit with Harvey & Gretchen. It was cold (maybe 34) and the streets were lined with some plough cruft that wasn't good to ride in. mid-day Saturday always a tough biking time. Once I got across the Mystic River it was easier.

Listened to the first half of the Bag Boys set at the Burren, then biked back home to go get the kids from the airport.

Speaking of biking, there was some bike porn on display at the Portland airport; I was drooling.


Wooden frame road bike.


Bike with extra phat tires.


Wanna be a kid again.

C • woody 11

I suspect it will be a good year to learn patience and to try to take pleasure from the doing more than from the result.

Clearly there is some reeducation to be done if we are going to beat Balter.

C • Actually I was thinking spe... 3

2/21

Hiking in the hills east of Portland. Deep wet, steep.