Good Pursuits – Page 33

Traveling for Leisure

My Cayman Clan — Seven Mile Beach isn’t actually seven miles long. Per our taxi driver, it’s just short of six miles long. Why the name then? My guess is “seven” is often a lucky number so why not name it for good fortune?

Most of the time I’m traveling with a big agenda and trying desperately to squeeze as much as possible in to every day. For me that’s fun. I get a real sense of accomplishment from planning well and executing thoroughly. The pay offs are lots of great experiences, lots of learning and lots of pictures.

When I travel with my family the rules and goals are different. My ladies like the surf, the sand, the sun and relaxation. We focus on achieving very little and spend most of our time doing very little. Relaxing in the sun on the beach makes them happy which in turn makes me happy. They’re great company and we had a good time together in Grand Cayman where we had nothing short of perfect weather.

Swim

Prepping for Distance

Outdoor Distance Goal — What’s a swimmer’s mile? It’s not a mile. For swim competition it’s considered 1,650 yards or 1,500 meters. Go figure!

I will be competing in two long distance swim meets in coming months.

On May 25 I’m in my team’s two-mile swim on Lake Audubon. I’m really excited about the event this year because Courtney will swim it with me. Then two weeks later on June 8 I’m in a swim across the Chesapeake Bay. This swim is 4.4 miles as the crow flies but probably closer to 5.0 miles when you consider the zigzag path a swimmer takes in open water.

OK, so now you have the background for why I got in the pool at 1:55 this afternoon and swam continuously until 3:55. I must prepare now for these events since I’ll be traveling for six weeks between now and then. At my pace I covered 6,000 meters today and nothing broke. I could probably swim both events in my current condition but will I fall apart during my travels?

I hope not! We’ll see come May 25 and June 8.

Hike Mountain Travel

This Rock Scramble Doesn’t Get Old

Post author By TravisGood
Post date March 4, 2008
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Travis atop Old Rag — The climb takes 2 hours. The gradual decent takes 90 minutes. The base of Old Rag is 1:40 from my home. If leave by 7:30 AM then I’m home by 3:00 PM. Can you tell I’ve hiked this mountain a few times?

I did it again.

I hiked Old Rag Mountain.

Why?

Simple. The top third of the climb is a fun rock scramble that never seems to get old. When I saw the forecast for today I had no doubt what I’d do. I was going to hike to this rock playground-for-adults named Old Rag Mountain.

Curious about my favorite 8.8 mile circuit hike? Learn more here.

Swim

A Steady Swim

Baltimore County Indoor Pool — Mental. I had no idea how much of performance in sports was dependent on your mind. Good thing I like living there or competing would be no fun at all!

I’ve become a moderately good swimmer, competing largely in longer distance events: 1-mile, 2-mile, 1650 yards. While I occasionally place in events, all you can really call me is a decent but actively-improving swimmer. The important thing is that I enjoy it, I’m healthier than I’ve ever been in my life, and I like the community of friends that come with being a part of a swim team.

Today I swam in a 1650 at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Pictured above is the pool and diving area. How did I do? I don’t know because I didn’t stick around for the results but I’ll update this post when the results are published. The goal was to be consistent over the course of my 66 laps and on that I did well. I also beat my best time; my new best is 24:59.

Bridge Hike Travel

Bridges of Manhattan

Manhattan Bridges — It all started a couple years ago when I was walking the Brooklyn Bridge and looked north: there stood the Manhattan Bridge and beyond it the Williamsburg Bridge and beyond it ….

It was an idea that had been percolating in the back of my mind. Ken Burns got it all going with a documentary of the Brooklyn Bridge that I once saw in-flight. I was really impressed and subsequently walked the Brooklyn Bridge whenever I found myself in downtown Manhattan. After a while I started thinking, “If one bridge was good then wouldn’t more bridges be even better?”

That was the core idea: have a fantastic time walking across every bridge that was open to pedestrian traffic. It turns out there are 17 that fit the bill and I crossed them all. In addition there were two rail-only bridges, two bridges that ban pedestrian traffic, and one ancient aqueduct/footpath which is now closed. Pictures of all of these are available below.

[Show as slideshow]

Manhattan is an island city that is a constant source of fascination for me.

I wonder what I’ll to next in the Big Apple?

Technology Travel

First Radio Broadcast

Most of my adult life I’ve been entertained through radio and more recently through podcasts. When I’m driving on road trips I almost always have a program playing from my iPod which is loaded with hundreds of programs. It’s an endless source of entertainment and it’s wonderful!

I’ve toyed with the idea of creating my own show and signed up for a course called Radio Production at our local Public Access Channel. They have two radio studios and my class commandeers one each Saturday morning. In only our second session today we were set free on “the board” to produce a five minute show. Five minutes doesn’t sound like much does it? Well, when you’re running the studio and it’s all about your performance, it feels big!

I’m working now on a radio show proposal which I will submit in a few weeks. My guess is I’ll propose a show called “Good Pursuits” and talk about the tools and techniques, planning and execution of themed travel. It’s something I do a lot, it’s something I enjoy and it’s something I’d like to share.

(Later Note: The archive of Good Pursuits Radio can be found here.)

Road Travel

Desert Southwest to San Francisco

Post author By TravisGood
Post date January 25, 2008
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Golden Gate Bridge — It’s sooo sappy to quote Tony Bennet but I did, I really did leave my heart in San Francisco. In two an a half days I walked an incredible 25 miles and took hundreds of pictures. SF smiled the whole time!

Three weeks, 8,250 miles of driving, and a breathtaking set of experiences. I won’t elaborate on it here because I’ve done that in spades here. <fix> Our National Parks are amazing and San Francisco is out of this world!

Travel

Enter: Small Adventures

Atop Old Rag — Adventures should not only be extended excursions. If they were then they’d be too rare. Adventures should also be brief, as brief as a day.

During certain months it’s difficult to take road trips. Camping isn’t an option. Weather doesn’t cooperate. Parks are closed for the season.

At the same time, I live near some of the world’s greatest cities. Washington D.C. and New York City are two excellent examples and they’re both a reasonable driving distance. I’m committed to not repeat my past mistakes; I will take advantage of getting to know great places near where I live.

As I write this, I’m putting the finishing touches on a new sidebar feature of this blog: Day Trips. Here I will pull together my smaller sites which describe short trips. With this feature I hope to have fresh postings often.

Family Travel

Ski Day with my Girls

Ski Liberty — There was little snow, few runs were open, and the weather warm but it wasn’t crowded and attitudes were great which resulted in a wonderful time skiing today at Ski America with my girls.

Out by 8:30 AM and back by 5:00 PM. Not long but rarely do I get this much quality time with Court and Kels. Going skiing today wasn’t my fondest idea of how to spend the day but their enthusiasm fueled our exit and once we hit the road the fun began. En route we came across a covered bridge and a child’s playground, both at which we had fun. While at Ski America we skied all the slopes available to us.

Basically we skied till we dropped. It was fun! See pictures …

Swim

My First Indoor Swim Meet

Post author By TravisGood
Post date December 17, 2007
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Indoor Swim Meet Facility — By trying new things I’ll often fail at first but from that failure comes learning and a new day where I can try again and do better.

I’ve been swimming now for two years. The first year was spent getting healthy and learning the basics. The second year I started to increase my strength, began refining my strokes, and participated in a few outdoor long distance lake swims. Today, at age 47, I competed in my first indoor meet.

The event I swam was a 1,650 yard swim which I completed in 25:26. That isn’t a bad time for a beginner but not a terribly impressive. For the first time I started the race off the block (elevated diving stump), that was fun, but I didn’t pace myself well and therefore grew tired too early. My coach gave me lots of constructive feedback afterwards and I know I’ll do better next time.

“Next time.” I can hardly believe it. I’m actually considering a repeat.