Training Log Archive: barb

home work home soccer practice home

I read Kathy Greeley's book today, about a year with some pretty tough kids at the junior high. Creating a play brought them together as a community. I shed a few tears as I read the book. Hey, it was moving.
While I'm on the topic of books, we read "The Savage Lady and the Dwarf" this weekend. I started reading it to Isabel and we really liked it, so I read it to everyone. Recommended for anyone old enough (or young enough?) to not get too freaked out about the concept of knights beheading each other in tournaments. Great characters, funny dialogue.

First leg of 8-point relay. Caren & Kai Bedwell ran the 2nd & 4th legs.

3rd leg of relay.

David complained nonstop (or so it seemed to me) from the moment we left Cambridge until he started his first sprint on Saturday. This was annoying because he had agreed to come on the trip. Interestingly, he kept citing his homework as a reason he didn't want to be distracted with traveling and orienteering. I had pretty much decided to never ever bring him to any orienteering events ever again. Then on Sunday he came up to me, flushed from his relay race and said, this is really fun! and went on about his whole experience doing the relay. I think he performs well under pressure, and with a mass start. He hung out a lot on Sunday with Alec and the girls. He didn't start complaining again until Alec was gone, and then it was, I want to go - where's my GameBoy?

C • momentarily confused 7

C • So while you were out runni... 12

Event: Sprint Series Final & US Relay Champs
 

A guess about my total time on two sprints. On the first it took me 15 minutes to find the first control! 1:4000 confused me... And supposedly I mispunched although I'm pretty sure I was at #9. Fun though, and Isabel won the white/yellow overall, so that was nice.

Sprint B Course 3 (R/B) - Splits

Home to Melrose.
Young guys in a van honked and hooted at me as they approached me from behind; I'm sure they got quite a disappointment when they passed and saw that I was a red-faced bespectacled F45. Still, I count it as a vote in favor of wearing reflective vests and still looking cool, which is not an easy sell to my older child.

Melrose to work

We had a USOF rogaine committee call last night, attended by Peg D, Eric B, Eric S, Murray F, Jerry R, Mal H, Barb C. Main topics were how to encourage more rogaines to happen in both the US and Canada, and ideas for a Hi-Tec 6-hour rogaine series. Hi-Tec approached Jerry R with this idea; they'd sponsor events and provide a lot of support; local clubs would provide their expertise; someone from the O community might coordinate between the clubs and Hi-Tec. Possibly a good opportunity for spreading the word about orienteering and rogaining, but still very much in the early stages. Would probably happen in 2009. Got some good ideas on both topics from the attendees. Other things we didn't get to because of time include Vlad's proposal for expanding the definition of who can put on a sanctioned event, and getting more people to come to rogaines - committee members have a bunch of good ideas on this as well.
The NARC 2008 bid from Bob Reddick fell through because he wasn't granted access to the land he'd been eyeing. :-(

Looks like we're all going to CT for the whole weekend, after thinking that Isabel and I might not make it at all. Soccer game was postponed to an unspecified later date. I hope we can find some friends to have dinner with on Saturday! So many O people I'd like to hang out with...

Arlington back home, then work then home.

To Arlington to retrieve the bike. Left home around 6:45, and started off by running around the block with David.

to work. To Arlington. Dave left the car there this morning after dropping off a kid at an appointment. I rode out there and took the kid and the car back, leaving my bike. Now I have to find time to run back out there to retrieve the bike.

I'm excited because today will be the first meeting of the Lego robotics club that I'm starting, with 6 kids.

C • LEGO Robotics 6

to work, to home, to school, to home.
Went to the parent open house for the junior high. I was blown away. The teaching team (4 core teachers) works closely together, and it really shows. Kathy Greeley, who used to teach in this school's junior high, wrote a book about their approach. All the kids get to do 10 hours of community service this year, and they'll put a lot of thought into what they'll do. The math teacher has been there forever and is really good. In science they're studying life sciences, with a project-based approach, and will do field work over 4 trips. In Humanities, they'll be studying justice and dissent, with three pieces. First comes the birth of the USA, including the declaration of independence, the constitution, the bill of rights. They'll have a "Democracy Forum" evening where each kid will make a speech in support of some side of some issue (ok, i'm a little vague on this at the moment). Then they study a radically unjust society with a focus on the holocaust. Each student will prepare a monolog and deliver it in character, from a historical person who in some way fought for justice for people hurt in such a society. I know I'm going to have to bring the kleenex box for both evenings - I cry way too easily and I know I'm going to be trying not to sob because it's going to be so amazing. Anyway, the third piece is to study a society that is just recovering from some horrible period - how do you create a just society after such an experience? Two years ago they studied Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, Rwanda and a couple other places. Yay Cambridge public schools!
And of course, they started off the year with a day of team orienteering. A couple parents told me their kids were dismayed before the orienteering trip because they were put with other kids they didn't know, and then came back afterwards really having enjoyed being with their teammates.