- Wow, the AHA blog linked to my post about sprinting with @jcmeloni last Saturday! http://bit.ly/aDfH6O #
- RT @LookBackMaps: People gearing up for thatcampsf next wkend. posts from @miss_eli @janaremy others. http://bit.ly/c9wjie #thatcamp #
- Watching lightning storm roll into Pasadena #weirdsocalweather #
- There's something magical about working @TheHuntington that makes me a more productive scholar. #lifeofahistorian #
- Is anyone else having problems with google calendar? I haven't been able to access mine for 2 days now… #
- Such an fun meeting with my #ChapmanU History students tonite. Sometimes I think I like my job a bit too much. :) #
- My HistoryCompass blogpost about (dissertation) Sprinting with @jcmeloni & co: http://bit.ly/bjXy4F #lifeofahistorian #
- The Pacific ocean was thick with swimmers today–never seen so many people bobbing around in the waves before #heatwave #
- RT @barbarahui: Holy Heat, Los Angeles. It might've gotten OVER 113˚F but we'll never know cos the thermometer broke: http://is.gd/fwJAz #
- Tweeting at TJSL right now!!! #
- Watching the sunset in the cemetery http://brizzly.com/pic/3KUW #
- More Old Town cemetery http://brizzly.com/pic/3KUP #
- Wandering thru El Campo Santo, Old Town San Diego cemetery http://brizzly.com/pic/3KTZ #
- Looking forward to my talk for faculty at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law tomorrow. Anyone have any good lawyer jokes for me? #
- RT @wcaleb: Eric Rauchway on Teddy Roosevelt's address to the AHA on "literary history" http://bit.ly/b8gDbE #
- Tummy all rumbly-hungry and I just remembered that it's my turn to cook dinner. Oops. #wildsaturdaynight #
- Item from my to-do list: ""Email Dr.P to get prescription for new leg." #lifeofanamputee #
- RT @johnremy: Getting the post-MUN debrief from an excited CatGirl over some vegan "summer rolls": http://ow.ly/i/46JQ #foodiethrowdown #
October 1, 2010
About four hours in to each of my long outrigger races, the shakes begin. I’m cold, but bundling up for warmth does almost nothing to reduce the jitters. It’s that point where my body says ‘no more.’ It wants me to stop. And it takes everything to keep going…
When I was traveling around Boston and visiting with friends that I hadn’t seen for a year, a few mentioned that I’d changed. Getting a full-time job seems to have altered me at a metabolic level–I am not only thinking about work most of the time (and rather tied at the hip to my computer just in case something goes terribly awry), but I’m also far less to prone to just relaxing. My major realization from the Exponent retreat was that I need to make sure to keep space in my life for the things that calm me. Like friends and nephews and picture books and long walks and wading. One symbol of the way I “let go” over the weekend was that when my Prezi for my talk didn’t materialize (due to being saved on the Internet and I didn’t have any ‘net access at the camp), I let it go and I didn’t beat myself up about it…
But let me back up a bit, back to the shakes… I don’t think I mentioned here that I accomplished the Catalina crossing once again. We had a wicked south-pulling current and it was a longer-than-long race–my GPS marked 37.7miles, and 6.5 hours of paddling. I steered two long pieces, and afterwards my forearms were so sore from trying to hold the paddle in place against the waves, that they kept rapidly cramping and contracting–resulting in my fingers twisting into strange claw-like shapes. When I got off the boat after the finish line, John was snapping photos. Later, he said he wasn’t going to show me the pics because they were so unflattering—I can only imagine how tired I must have looked. It’s one of those accomplishments that doesn’t feel good until a few days later, when the body has had time for some repair work…
So as I’ve finished the team outrigger season and now have some more space in my life, I’m considering where I’ll look next for my exercise and my fun. I feel as though I need a bit less of the long-haul endurance work–both at work and at play. I want to continue to develop my strength, but I also want to just “be.” I need to remember what that feels like. Again.