Training Log Archive: barb

Event: Venice Street O
 

Got email from my friend Rich who's in Venice; he saw the orienteers doing the Venice race today - sigh - I *really* want to do that some year!!! (Preferably a Biennale year.)

OK, no exercise today... I was at the lego robotics tournament most of the day and just vegged out watching Blue Planet and a kid movie afterward.

Here's a link to a video of one of the rounds in the tournament.

The kids did a great job, and over the course of the day honed in on a set of missions they could accomplish fairly readily, plus one tricky one that is not shown in this video.

The ref going over the final scoring for one of the rounds, with Harriet and Amisi:


Fixing the robot's program:


The other teams had matching outfits and other accoutrements; we were just our scruffy Cambridge selves...


The place was packed with 100s of people. This picture doesn't really do justice to the chaos and noise of the day:


And on an unrelated topic, here's our preying mantis, "Waldo", enjoying some freshly killed cricket:

C • Okay 2

Electric Shadows (1)
I *sobbed*.

To work :-)

Tucson. Let's all go to Tucson for the week leading up to the A meet. We can play in the environs.

C • That 3

school, work, home

to school, work, home.

We're going to a tournament on Saturday in Leominster.

Today I asked Dave to drive the car to near school so that when I go to pick up David this afternoon I *have* to run, to get there. (He just sent me the URL to find where he parked it.) And I've arranged to go swimming with Isabel and Amisi after that; I even have prescription goggles and a new swimsuit. So hopefully I'll be so hemmed in by these commitments that I can't help but exercise.

I've been spending a lot of time lately helping (and fighting) David about his homework, and figuring out how he works well and how he doesn't and conspiring with other people about how to get him to some new level of competency and comfort and above all happiness about schoolwork. One strategy is to introduce him to upcoming subjects ahead of time, so that he already has some familiarity with them when they show up in school. This morning we talked about autotrophs and heterotrophs and abiota. And then I read him an introduction to the Patriot Act, which they'll be talking about in school today. He's definitely learning stuff I didn't already know...

David is writing a report on grasshoppers for science. I surfed a bit about grasshoppers at Amazon and ended up buying what promises to be a very nice little read: "Grasshopper Dreaming: Reflections on Killing and Loving" by Jeffrey Lockwood. I read the first few pages to the kids over supper last night; the author describes his first summer observing and videotaping grasshoppers when he was studying at Laramie. He found that most of the time, the grasshoppers were doing - nothing! And in the book this is a profound observation, not a trivial one.

I've noticed that after reading about Peter's recent speedy 5k, I've become curious about how quickly I could run a 5k, and whether I could improve whatever that time is in the next year. Have begun daydreaming about going to the MIT track and checking this out. (Hey, daydreaming is progress!) I assume 3 miles is close enough to 5k; not sure how they mark it on the .25-mile track. My guess is that I am currently able to do 3 miles in 30 minutes. Oh, 5k is 3 miles plus 188 yards.

My neighbor (and one-time rogaine partner!) Brad just ran the NYC marathon. I think it was his first marathon. He says he felt pretty bad by the end, and that maybe if he had run his first miles more slowly he would have felt better in the last few miles. My theory is that I could do a marathon in 5:12:00, and maybe that's another thing to check out at some point.

C • Marathon Time 18

Yay! I went swimming! And joined the Y for a month. I tried out my new prescription goggles and it is SO COOL to see under water! There's a lot of suction on my eyes - maybe I need to loosen the straps. When I took off the goggles a bunch of muscles around my eyes twitched for a few minutes. Which was funny, and hopefully not a bad thing. I suck at the breathing part of swimming - and everything else, but it seems the breathing is something I should figure out first.

Early morning tennis with David.

Work. Kendall Square for lunch at the Black Sheep with Public Library of Science people. Work. Home.

Stretching, jogging

I am lucky and honored to have the opportunity to take a trip to Estonia in September 2008 for the WRC with my most excellent partner.
I want to make sure I'm ready for it. Yesterday was the official start of my training, with a long bike ride. My plan is to start by just getting some exercise every day, and gradually work in the other things, like core strength and food/drink and all that.
Today I went for a long run, that was longer than expected because I realized part way into it that the time had changed and so the store I was heading for would not be open until more than an hour later. So I went all the way to the Science museum bridge.

On the run I thought about the two parts of training: physical and mental. Mental training for me is encapsulated by "Rogaine Mind", which I think of as effectiveness through detachment.

C • Who 6