Monday, December 31, 2007

Year End Summary



Training:
678 miles running (181 hours), compared to 653 in 1996
2235 miles cycling (184 hours), compared to 2305 in 1996
132 hours swimming, compared to 172 in 1996

Racing:
Green Valley Road Race 10 miles in about 2:16
Library 5K in 34:16
Sons and Daughters of Dear Old Clemson 10K in 1:17
Clemson Sprint Triathlon in 1:49, 4/4 age group
Death Valley Open Water Swim Meet: 3K in 1:53, 4/4 age group
Festival of Flowers International in 3:59, 3/3 age group
Tri-America Anderson (approx. 3/8 ironman) in 6:14, 1/1 age group
South Carolina Half Ironman in 8:15, 3/3 age group
Ride for the Raptors Century in 8:48 riding time
Cruisin' in the Country Century in 6:40 riding time

Goals for next year:
Have fun!
Do White Lake Half and South Carolina Half
I'm tempted by Beach to Battleship but don't think I will be ready

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Jamaica



The picture above strikes me as capturing the odd artificiality of the place we stayed in Jamaica. I don't think we will go to an all-inclusive resort again, but we made the most of it for this year. It was a good year to do it, as it was warm and low stress, which is what my daughter most needed after her first semester in school in Massachusetts.

Our first evening there I asked about where I could run. They said around the resort, as the main road was dangerous. The place was big, but particularly as there wasn't a path that circled the resort that was going to be a lot of back and forth. So the next morning I went out to look at the main road and discovered it had an eight foot paved shoulder. And in less than a mile I got to a small town and there was a sidewalk the rest of the three miles I ran. They really didn't want anyone to leave the resort, except on bus tours. We wouldn't have known there was a town in easy walking distance if I hadn't gone that way running.

Two days later I ran in the other direction, and discovered the Green Grotto Cave we wanted to visit was less than two miles away. So I wasn't happy when I was told at the taxi stand in the hotel that it would cost $10 each way to get there. We ended up taking a taxi there and then walking back to the resort.

We snorkeled several times off the beach and enjoyed it--a good variety of non-mobile creatures and small but pretty fish. I went out sailing on a Hobie Cat three times with my kids or my husband, but it required a long wait to get a turn. I enjoyed the swimming--there was space to swim fairly far along a buoy line.

Windsurfing was less successful. The problem was that windsurfers they had were small, lightweight boards (much less stable than the windsurfers I learned to said in the late 1970s) and I had trouble balancing. I was able to sail out from the sheltered area looking like I knew what I was doing, but then when I got out in the waves I couldn't keep my balance. And then I couldn't get up again, partly because I was struggling with drifting into the buoy line but mostly because I was losing the ability to balance on the board, much less pull up the sail out of the water at the same time. A man in a kayak offered to help me and I let him tow me in.

The food was a good buffet with a very large variety of items. Some items were disappointing, some better than expected. I particularly enjoyed the smoked salmon at breakfast and the caramel bread pudding that was often available for dessert.

I had hoped to go to a local Anglican church for a Christmas day service, but when I inquired on Christmas eve about church services I was told I was the first one who had asked. The person at the desk knew an employee who was going to a 5 am service Christmas day, but I wasn't able to confirm that and didn't want to risk it. Instead we had our own family service at sunset, reading from the Bible. We went out on the breakwater in the picture below.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

holiday


We are off tomorrow for five days at a resort in Jamaica. I liked being away for Christmas last year, but this is less my style. I hope it is relaxing, and my daughter who had been struggling with her first New England winter is very glad to be going someplace warm. I'm going to try to treat it as a real vacation, not even take a computer.

I've been struck recently by how much we all need what we have to give to be valued. So what I want to pay attention to this Christmas is appreciating what my husband and kids have to give.

Monday, December 17, 2007

vacation


Grades are in, and I think I've even responded to all the students who have looked at their gades and complained. I'm fairly far along with Christmas presents. My daughter is taking exams for the first time and has been studying hard. I arranged for flowers to be delivered to her today and she was very touched.

I've suddenly gotten into music. My new car has outlets for an Ipod or MP3 player, and so I bought a cheap MP3 player (a refurb from Woot) and learned how to transfer CDs to it. I set it to shuffle, and so in effect I have a radio station of music I like. And I've been very much enjoying listening to it. I probably haven't listened to anything in the car for 20 years. I thought it was that I like silence; I didn't realize how much it is that there wasn't anything on the radio I liked.

I've been buying some music--it didn't take my long to fill up my 1 gig player. New favorites:

David M. Bailey, Hope: The Anthology
The Collector's Paul Robeson
Madalyn Barbero Jordan: Presence

Saturday, December 08, 2007

one hour timed swim


It has been a strange week. I've had a bad cold--two days of not being able to breathe through my nose (decongestants make me horribly jittery). My friend Ruth and a present-day friend who is struggling with a painful situation have been much on my mind. So much pain. I went to my Centering Prayer group Wednesday and there I was able to experience clearly giving the pain over to God. In addition, it was the last week of classes. After three days of no exercise I got back in the pool today and swam a one hour timed swim, not pushing very hard. I swam 2000 yards in the hour, which I'm quite happy with.