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July 13, 2006
No Power = No Fun
Craziness in Oakland today! Very early on (read 5:50 am, approximately 5 minutes into my swim workout this morning) the power went out on all of Pitt's campus. And by the time I left work at 4:30 pm, it still hadn't come back on. That equals one big headache for anyone who lived, worked or breathed in Oakland today!
Swimming in the dark is kind of fun. I was worried they were going to make us get out but we just kept right on going. It really wasn't too bad although I do have tinted goggles that made things look quite a bit darker and more eery. The bad part of no power at the pool is that means no clocks at the pool. It's pretty hard trying to lead your group timing yourself on a watch that you cannot see. The good news is, about halfway through the workout someone found battery operated clocks and I was very excited. Much easier to keep track of your intervals that way.
Swim workout for the day:
4 sets of 5x100 as:
3x100 at pace
1x100 easy
1x100 all out
1st set on 2:05
2nd set on 2
3rd set on 1:55
4th set on 1:50
With warmup (700 meters) and cooldown (300 meters) I swam 3000 meters total and thus finished my biggest swim week yet - 9500 meters or over 10,000 yards! :) If my training log didn't tell me I had swam a lot this week my shoulders are certainly screaming it loud and clear. I'm blaming my arm soreness on the back/breast stroke that I attempted on Tuesday though. Evil, no good strokes... :)
Work was just chaos. Of course essential operations continued with back-up generators (ie: ventilators, pharmacy fridges, etc...) but things like computers and air conditioning didn't work. It was like an oven in that place! They brought in huge fans for the patients but the rest of us (and rightfully so) were very, very hot. You can ask O - when I'm hot, I'm bothered and NOT in a good mood. I was reminded yet again how dependent we are on computers to take care of patients. Lab data, OR/procedure reports weren't available. It was very hard to feel confident about my TPN orders this morning! I wonder how doctors used to take care of people before we had the technology and monitoring tools that we have now. In a way, I wonder if we've become too dependent on these things. Anyway, I mostly tried to get what I could done and stay out of the way. Not all the ORs were operational so they were carting patients off to other hospitals for emergent surgery, etc... Argh! All was supposed to be fixed by 8 pm tonight so hopefully tomorrow everything will be A-okay!
When I got home I quickly changed and got on "the" road bike. I call it "the" road bike because it's not mine, it's Trizilla's bike. I just get to ride it sometimes. Anyway, I rode it down to the shop which turns out to be exactly 18.0 miles from our garage door. Kim was doing a talk at the shop tonight about sports nutrition (she is a dietitian too) so O and I went along for moral support. She did a great job and had a good audience. Anyway, I rode the bike to the shop and O drove down so I had a ride home. Worked out perfectly! I rode pretty easy and it's relatively flat so it wasn't too bad of a 2nd workout. My legs are tired and it was 90 degrees and humid so killing myself wasn't an option tonight.
And now I must sleep! Good night all!
Posted by beth at July 13, 2006 10:19 PM
Comments
10,000 yards! thats awesome!!!!
Posted by: Kranky C Dale at July 14, 2006 9:05 AM
Beth & O (and in fact y'all out there in general): guys, I am going on vacation with my family. We are off to the mountains for hikes, climbs, cycling, running, rolling in the grass, eating wild berries, swimming in rivers, more good food and lots of rest. So all the best for the next 2-3 weeks. Maybe I'll get to the web at somepoint but maybe not. Running has gone really well in the last two months and I am very grateful. In general can't really complain about anything. So it's nice to be in a good mood going into a vacation, no?
Beth, re. doctors taking care of patients before high technology: auscultation and observation. Listening and looking. Makes sense, doesn't it? Still probably very useful, but underused. Sometimes all the answers we are looking for are right under our nose. If only we slowed down enough, to get the full picture of an instant. All the best to you and O and your sports teams! take care everybody, corrado
Posted by: corrado giambalvo at July 14, 2006 11:43 AM