Cape Cod

Early this morning, when I first woke up, I heard the feet of a crow land on the roof above my head. The room I was sleeping in looks like this:

There is no attic above, so there isn't much sound insulation between me and the roof. "Caw, caw, caw." A good vacation feeling.

My daughter finished her first year of boarding school yesterday (which meant an awful lot of stuff to carry down from the third floor). She says the school is everything she hoped it would be.

free time!

I've actually got nothing on my calendar this weekend! Even though I'm not teaching, I've had a non-stop schedule the last week (and again next week), between things I still need to do at work (including trying to hire someone), my husband's doctor's appointments, getting ready to go away, and my own stuff (mostly spiritual things I do with other people plus my running, biking, and swimming).

After being so scheduled, I don't quite know what to do with my free time. Definitely a bike ride, but when and where? Is it worth driving to the farmers market this early in the season? Maybe I will go out on my bike this morning without a plan and take random roads. But I'm not feeling very energetic and it is windy at the moment (though the forecast just says winds of 6-9 mph).

Hopefully a nap this afternoon--I stayed up late just because I couldn't let go of being busy and woke up early. My daughter and I spent a long time last night shopping for a bathing suit for her, talking on the phone and looking at the same web sites. She finally settled on one from Title Nine.

I did get good news that I have been approved for long-term care insurance at the healthy person rate. It is too late to get long-term care insurance on my husband but thinking about years of paying for care for him (whether at home or in a facility) convinces me I need it on me. I was nervous after they called me and did a health survey and memory test on the phone--there is Alzheimer's in my family and on the phone is hard because I am much more a visual than an auditory learner. One part of the test was to try to remember a list of 10 words--I got to repeat them twice and use them in a sentence but then was asked them 5 minutes later after doing a bunch of math problems. I got seven, which wasn't terrible, but I didn't know if it was good or not. My diabetes was also a question for getting the healthy people rate, but I thought that might be ok because my blood tests show blood sugar well in the normal range. I took the call after the Clemson Triathlon, so it was particularly weird to be asked a whole lot of set questions about such things as whether I used a cane or walker.

Update: there was a festival being set up where the farmers market is held but I got some nice beets at a farm stand. After a long nap after lunch I decided that I need today to be a sick in bed day, or close to it (if I'm not feeling well and take a sick in bed day I often can avoid actually getting sick).

blogging elsewhere

I'm writing a blog elsewhere about our experiences with my husband's Parkinson's disease. I want to keep that one more anonymous than this one is, so I'm not going to put in a link, but if anyone is particularly interested email me (link in my profile) and I will send you the address.

My son is home for the summer, my daughter gets out at the end of the month (and then we are taking a family trip). That reminds me; I told my son we were going to spend an hour this evening putting away the stuff he brought home. I had better go do that.

Race Report: Clemson Triathlon

Swim 750 meters 00:23:05
T1 00:03:27
Bike 11 miles 00:46:22
T2 00:01:50
Run 5K 00:44:06
Total time 01:58:48 (compared to 1:50 last year)
143 out of 148 women, 11 out of 11 of women age 50-54

Despite being slower than last year I felt I had a much better race. I've kept up my basic swimming, running, and some biking, but I haven't been able to train seriously this spring. I've had particularly little time for biking--I was out of town three weekends (and then my daughter was here) plus taking my husband to doctor's appointments gets in the way of weekday afternoons. I decided I wanted to do the race anyway but I wasn't expecting to be fast.

There was a thunderstorm during the night but it was a beautiful warm morning. I packed my gear into a smaller than usual backpack and rode my bike to the race site (about a mile from my house).

We got back from Charlotte in time yesterday for me to pick up my packet for the race. I was glad I had; the line was very long this morning. It was so warm I was almost tempted not to wear my wetsuit, but I had done all my open water practicing with it so I decided I would.

There was one change this year: because the water level was low the start was in the water rather than on the beach. With a warmer morning that usual and lots of extra time I even did a serious swim warmup. I was glad I had--I felt awkward at first.

The warmup and open water swim practice paid off, I felt comfortable from the beginning in the swim. I was frustrated for a while by someone who was averaging the same speed as me, by swimming faster and then stopping. And I was swum over by more people than before in this race when the next wave caught up. But I felt good.

The bike felt good, considering how limited my training had been. My average heartrate was 88% of max, so I kept up a pretty good effort. Since I have been doing longer races I don't see as much point in food during a sprint, but I had made myself half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and I enjoyed it.

Last year I had a miserable run because I realized as I ran that as I was leaving transition I had spit out a crown that had fallen off one of my teeth. It turned out that it was replaced for free because the dentist said it was a design that hadn't been satisfactory. But for a couple of days I thought it was going to be expensive because I hadn't realized what it was and saved it. Also, last year the run course was changed because of a crew meet, which meant more hills.

This year we were back to the old run course, which has a nasty short hill but then a lovely run on the flat dike. I thought I pushed pretty well but my average heart rate was 79% so I could have pushed harder. At least no one said something about me walking when I thought I was running. The sun felt hot. The university weather says the temperature was 72 degrees at 10 am, but I'm not used to warm weather yet. It was a little discouraging to be passed by a 67 year old woman (I saw her later leaving transition and was interested that she had a fancy Softride bike).

My two goals were to enjoy the race and to push myself, and I accomplished both. I was stiff when I got on my bike to ride home but it isn't too bad now. And I didn't get chafed, which I have struggled with. Now if I can keep myself from feeling badly about being slower than the first year I did the race (I shouldn't have looked). My swimming has gotten faster but my running is slower.