Training Log Archive: barb

Event: Pawtuckaway Camping Weekend
 

Wicked hard night-O with Dave. Very fun.

To school for another round of meetings with the excellent junior high staff and the Grade 1/2 teacher (Linda) about the upcoming team-building orienteering event. Leah also came; she's a parent who has volunteered to coordinate the many chaperones.

As usual it was an excellent and productive meeting. It is so nice to work with people who are committed to making the orienteering thing happen, and see the value, and look for ways to enhance the experience; I don't have to do any convincing or arm-twisting. They are dedicating a huge amount of classroom time to the preparation: 1 period for my lecture, 1 period to review the homework and have teams plan their route, 1 period on how to work together as a team, 1 period on the older kids preparing to work with the younger kids, 1 period for actually getting the older and younger kids together, and smaller chunks of time to discuss things like trust, responsibility, safety, logistics and kids' feelings about the trip. Plus 1 period afterward to do a post-mortem reflection on the experience. Isn't that cool? And all this in the context of teachers scrambling to find enough time to teach the required curriculum each year in the face of losing tons of time to testing.

Linda told us about the money Target is providing for field trips. This is really awesome, because one of the hindrances to me taking kids to the woods in the past has been the cost of renting the bus.

After the meeting I got together with Leah and went over the chaperones' roles and how she'd contact everyone and many other such things.

Morning bridge circuit. Dave suggested I ran fast over the bridge so I tried to do that.

To the strategy offsite for work again.

To the Royal Sonesta for a work strategy offsite meeting.

So proud of David! It looks like he's going to stick with the cross-country thing. Apparently there are some really nice older kids on the team who have been very welcoming and helpful. Today David went to the weight room with the team, after a long run. This is going to be great! I hope he goes orienteering sometime later this fall and is suddenly really good.

oh, and there was some "g" reference in a recent issue of Science - have to find and report it here...

To work and back early in the morning.
A little after 7:00 David and I left the house and headed toward the high school. He had a map with him, and part way along he told me I could go now. So I left. I can't wait to hear how his first day goes. He's going to go to cross country practice after school. Isabel is going to her first day of junior high -- not as scary but still very exciting.

I am so happy Swampfox is logging again.

5k race, with David, his first 5k race. Bridge circuit around the Charles. Couldn't out-sprint David in the end; his time was 27:10. I was 2nd out of 9th in my age group, so I came away with a prize, which was surprising. I must say I never thought I'd ever be in a running race with David. It's pretty cool.

Bridge circuit with David.

Spent much of the day gardening. Took out a few tomato plants and put in some fall crops: lettuce, kale, beets, peas, bok choi. The kids had friends over. I made them all sit down at the dining room table for an afternoon snack that I spent a while preparing. Izzy begged me to let her and her friends eat in her room because the boys were "too noisy". The kids didn't eat much, but an hour later the guys were scoping out the kitchen because they were hungry. I think there are some lessons for me in there somewhere.

C • snack 2