Spinning and spinning and spinning I go..

Taking Geekgirl's lead, H & I decided to do a double-header spin class this AM. The forever coming storm, that really never did anything but blow and fog here, prevented us from outside riding. So we signed up for a 7:30AM spin class this AM, followed by a half hour of spinning, then did the 9:00 AM spin for a total of 2 and 1/2 hours. Now first of all, I don't get up early anymore-ever. I set my alarm for 6:00 and felt like it rang in the middle of the night. With a few cups of coffee, that was OK-the good news is we were done like by mid-morning! I got to the class only to discover that my Garmin was dead. I realized later that you actually have to replace the battery in those things from time to time..H so generously offered to give me his HR monitor ("because you are more anal than I am")-how sweet of him..Then the bike I was on did not have a computer that was working so I had to go by H's mileage on the spin bike-however accurate that may be. Anyway-I think-not sure now-that my effort was a little better at the below HR of 135 thing. That is the goal so I feel more positive about this whole fat-burning training!
All-in-all the double spin class is not really something I want to do every week but it was definitely less tedious than I thought it would be.

Has anyone else noticed and been annoyed by the lack of spell check in blogger recently? Seems it is a system wide problem. What a pain..I digress..and I am not responsible for any typos..
:)

This afternoon is my last knitting class. I am really going to miss it! But i am signed up for Knitting 2 so will resume in March. Not that I have actually knitted anything solid yet but it really is relaxing when I do pick it up..

Still no word on Michael and his friend. A really sad article appeared in the paper this week. It is heartbreaking:

Families Search for Their Missing Sons and Answers
JIM BELSHAW Of the Journal
Their sons disappeared into a snowy mountain the way soldiers disappear into the miasma of war. No trace, no tracks, no clues. As the missing always do, they left behind only questions and mysteries and an aching emptiness. “Not knowing is the hardest part,” Laura George said Friday, 36 days after her son, Michael, disappeared in a blizzard in southern Colorado. “We have to find them. We have to find out what happened to them. Our minds are in such torment.” Michael George,27, and his childhood pal, Kyle Kerschen, also 27, have been missing since Jan. 4, when they went snowboarding at Wolf Creek Ski Area in Colorado. Hampered by severe storms, search efforts were delayed and when finally under way found not a trace of Michael George and Kyle Kerschen. The families hired professional trackers who continue the search now, the official attempt to find the missing snowboarders having ended. Friends held fundraisers to help pay for the trackers and helicopter support. Another will be held today from 11 a.m to 5 p.m., at the Gene MarieZ Salon, 9729 Menaul NE. Sixteen hair stylists will hold a “cut-athon,” charging $10 for children and $20 for adults. All proceeds will go toward search expenses. When the families are immersed in the details of search planning, the emptiness is better managed. When time slows and no such details engage the moment, the emptiness cannot be escaped. “It’s minute to minute dealing with it,” Laura George said. “We’re OK when there’s activity going on, but when nothing is happening, sometimes I don’t want to get out of bed. I don’t want to face the day. But I do. For him. I know what I need to do for him.” Late last week, the families held a meeting to discuss the search for their sons. Because of the snow depth and the continual pummeling of the mountain by storms, it’s hard to determine where to search. There is nothing to guide them. “We ask how two young men can disappear like that,” George said. “We could see one being injured and one trying to get help, but we can’t understand how both could disappear with no sign.” They know the snow depth when the boys went missing; they know how much snow has fallen since. Now they need a melting, a drop in the depth to the point where something — a snowboard, perhaps — will peek through the crust and give them a sign. But they know, too, that much time has gone by. “We’ve realized as each day passes what the outcome will be when we do find them,” she said. “As a mother, you still want to hold on to some hope that we’ll find them alive, a miracle … but too much time has passed for that.” So the passage of time mitigates against a miracle, and brings something awful to contemplate in its stead. “My fear … I want to find them before Mother Nature does,” she said. They expect a “weather window” in the next three to four weeks, a warming trend that will melt snow. “But with the snowmelt and visibility also come animals,” George said. “We have trackers on the mountain right now. Already they’re seeing quite a few animal tracks. We have to find them before the animals do … the thought of that … I just can’t tell you.” An abiding religious faith sustains them. A community that has rallied to them is “almost too much to comprehend.” Friends and relatives, strangers from nearby and across the country write and call, offering help and prayers. It’s difficult to focus, she said. They have jobs, and people at work have been understanding, but it’s hard to go back. Her son is everywhere. She sees him at the gym, where he was her workout partner. She sees his photo in every room of her home. “I can’t walk by a picture of him without dropping to my knees and praying,” she said. “I wear his clothes so I can smell him. His belongings are here and I just scoop them up and hold them. I wear his jacket constantly.” Always there is the ache of not knowing, questions that refuse to surrender answers. Always there is the need to bring them home. “That need to know goes deep into your soul and it doesn’t let go,” she said. “I can’t get through 10 minutes without thinking about it. It’s there constantly. It never leaves you, it never leaves you.”

My Valentine's Day

Ok so I have the most romantic Valentine's Day every year..My wonderful husband, whom I have known for 19 years, and I had our first date on Valentine's Day, 1989. We ate at a restaurant called "Villa de Capo" in downtown ABQ. Believe it or not, the place is still open after all these years and this year, last night, we had our 20th annual dinner to celebrate the beginning of our relationship. I can't really remember all the years and specific days, I wish I had journaled or something. I know one year, we almost broke up. One year, shortly after V-Day, he proposed to me. Hartley and I have something special and he is my forever Valentine:

What? I am too fast?!?

I talked to my new coach, Luis yesterday for the first time. He is really nice and sounds like my friend Miguel on the phone. We talked about my training, how it was going, questions about heart rate training and my RES bike rides. That stand for "ridiculously embarrasingly slow " -I just made that up..he encouraged me that we are teaching my body to burn fatty acids as oppose to glycogen first, the whole theory behind RES (low HR) training. In theory, I should get faster as I train more like this..I am trusting this guy because he works with the great Mark Allen, who is my hero. We'll see. He told me my max HR's were still too high (say what???)..I am going to check my ego at the door next time I ride hills.

My run was VERY RES yesterday but lifting weights I am feeling stronger everyday. Now the discussion on the Mark Allen Online (MAO) board is about how bad artificial sweetners are for you. Damn! I don't eat sugar-now my aspartame, saccharine, Stevia days may be over at least until Ironman. Oh, I LOVE my diet cokes! I'll have to ponder this one.

We are also going to discuss what other races I can do before the big one June 22nd. He said that Buena Vista 25 miler in May is definitely NOT a good idea, which sucks because I already paid and registered (no refund). My bad on this one-I should have waited before I signed up.