morning run: 10miles evening run: 5miles 45 minute yoga

Bingham Copper Mine Turquoise

this turquoise, though not particularly valuable, is extraordinarily rare

"all" turquoise from the Bingham mine is/has been destroyed

these pieces are old and were "obtained" decades ago

Mostly, I feel like vomiting today. Some days are like that.

the accounting:

Tuesday

1 mile run

bc

4 mile run

60 minute yoga

Wednesday

20 minute skate avg hr 150

30 minute bc

7 mile run: 20º running south, warm in the sunshine thought it might be a good day to run 10, then I turned around and the beloved North Wind kissed my cheeks and froze my fingers and I had to call the run short....

hr, a steady 152

very hot shower to thaw hands and two slices of very hot pepper jack cheese to thaw nose

30 minute yoga

Eka Pada Koundinyanasana is the bane of my yoga practice

(when I get this pose on both side I'm declaring a celebration of great magnitude)

4 mile run: 30º aahhhhhh, HOT, avg hr 166

would have kept going but have to get the girls to Steiner

&, want to save a little something for

ZUMBA?? or maybe a spin

the "dissatisfied follower" is going to be deleted if he keeps demanding posts:

can you do that on blogs?

GETTING OLD IS A BITCH

I can hear decrepitness churning about in my head:

I used to be flexible

I used to be quick

I used to be able to stay up all night and play all day

I used to recover faster than this...

at least I still smell good

and my hair isn't falling out,

yet.

the accounting:

Sunday - 90 min yoga

Monday - bc #6, 6m run, ski, 60 min. yoga

arm balances

those two or three words

The first dream of the year;

I kept it a secret

and smiled to myself.

Sho-u

winter afternoon-

a crow blackens

the white sky

Forrester

The thief

Left it behind-

The moon in the window.

Roykan

Poetry and prose are loyal friends. Those two or three words affixing to the mind, returning, becoming a part of who we are: how we think, how we see, how we understand.

(Who can forget the image of a little boy using his tongue as a handkerchief! Thank you, Mr. Hugo.)

Yesterday's haiku comes from the opening lines of a poem, "The Caged Skylark", written by Gerard Manley Hopkins, a wonderful study of a poet. Over a decade ago I read passages from his notebooks. It changed the way I observe, the way I think.

Hopkins noted is observations, often coupling them with colors or texture, comparing, looking, listening.

"The lines of the fields, level over level, are striking, like threads in a loom."

"Moonlight hanging or dropping on treetops like blue cobweb."

Stream of consciousness:

"Cups of the eyes, Gathering back the lightly hinged eyelids. Eyelids like leaves, petals, caps, tufted hats, handkerchiefs, sleeves, gloves. Also of the bones sleeved in flesh."

penetrating thought, Hopkins!..."bones sleeved in flesh."

Continuously gathering new words - Hopkins collected words!! He had no thesaurus. He studied the people around him, their vocabulary and pronunciation. He would note:

"Mr. Wells calls a grindstone a grindlestone"

"Mr. Coup called a basket a whisket."

"Fr. Casano's pronunciation of Latin instructive. (He is a Sicilian but has spent many years in Spain.) Quod he calls c'od and quae hora becomes almost c'ora -...Fr. Morris gives long u very full (Luca); he emphasises the semi-consonant and vowel before it where two vowels meet"

"Br. Yates gave me the following Irish expressions -"

and this:

"Take a few primroses in a glass and instress of - brilliancy, sort of starriness: I have not the right word"

"I have not the right word" he writes,

a constant thought of my own as I plod on my run:

breathing in winter's sage, it smells like HONEY and milk

(sage smells delicate in the spring, and heavy in the summer's heat).

dappled with tufted shadow

a lovely damasking in the sky

leaves yet the mind a mother of immortal song

finally, for the barefoot runner:

the soil is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

note: Americans are taught haiku is 5-7-5, this however is a simplistic definition of the art form. I won't get into it now, but the poetry of haiku is more than this rigid formula!

the accounting: run 15º, icicles for fingers called it at 5m

60min yoga

man's mounting in his bone-house

riddle runner, the run, the why: ?

As a dare-gale skylark

Scanted in a dull cage

Man's mounting spirit in his bone-house

brilliant Hopkins, his word-wit flair!

five wt rm phases complete

1hr. RUN

bc with my new tool, a Buddy Lee jumprope

second run: to be determined by my "mounting spirit" and subject to my bone-house

2m:

meager though it may be, the small black frozen footprints in the snow dust are mine

a.m. bootcamp

worst run ever.

8m

so freaking

cold

stone cold :(

food + yoga = maybe better?

When this blog had 1 follower I never received any complaints.

Now it has 2 followers (much to my dismay), one of whom is

dissatisfied I have neglected to post this past week.

Get over it.

Here's the meager accounting:

60min yoga

(it's exceedingly difficult to practice yoga with 3kids, 2dogs, and a husband)

34 total miles run: "maintenance"

wt rm x4

3 ski days, tried for 2 more but failed

80min spin

30min skating

2 very sick "rest" days, I think I was sick all last week but didn't really "shut down" until Christmas Day, which was spent in bed sleeping.

Merry Christmas.

I'm really hoping to get back into a normal routine starting tomorrow.

With the kids on winter break for one more week I'm not overly optimistic.

The yoga is suffering. The running is suffering. The spinning is suffering.

The swimming is non-existant.

Bing Crosby & The Crosby Collection

Sweet Bing and Vickie Crosby invited Rob and I into their home yesterday for an afternoon of cookies, Mexican hot chocolate, and turquoise.

Not only did Vickie give us the grand tour of their home (including spectacular views, stained glass windows from the old Albuquerque Bank, and an amazing set of dining chairs made from one of Bing's prized textiles almost resulting in divorce :)), but they welcomed us into:

THE VAULT!!!!!! I GOT TO GO INTO THE VAULT!!!!!!!!~! THE VAULT!!!

- do you sense my excitement?????????

I have dreamed about going into Bing's vault for years (but NOBODY, "not even Vickie, gets to go into the vault" is how the saying goes).

I knew I would be invited someday, I just didn't know when.

Bing kinda loves me: two souls connected in our passion for a blue-green rock.

Vickie laid out over a hundred concho belts for me to inspect and choose from!! They are amazing, each one a piece of art.

Silver conchos inlaid with Broken Arrow, Blue Gem, Royston, Persian, Pilot Mt., and Red Mountian turquoise (to name a few). I believe they have claim on the most extensive concho belt collection in America.

(Bing's belts were at the store, so I did not get to see "his"....hahaha, they each have their own collections - gotta love them.)

Bing's office was my favorite, of course.

When I walked in and saw his fetish rocks covering the selves, I felt NORMAL,

... this kindred spirit of mine and his treasured rocks.

He casually handed me a Leekya Deyuse (the Rembrandt of Zuni art) turquoise bird to identify and admire. I admit, I did tear up a little.

He then handed me a second Deyuse bird made of jet.

He also showed me his Leekya squash blossom "turtle" necklace, and a classic Deyuse leaf ring.

Red Mountain, Pilot Mountain, Fox, Blue Gem

Holiday demands and Jr. Nationals have had me completely off schedule.

I want my routine back to normal.

Unfortunately it will be another couple of weeks:

kids are off for the winter break until next year.

I'm hoping this actually improves my schedule - I won't have to be running people as many places over the next two weeks, with the exception of skating.

Fitness notes:

Stopped drinking my daily Coke in October, haven't seen much of a difference in weight/body fat%, but I think I may be running at a faster pace and I definitely have more energy.

The tabata wt rm routine Eric has me on for the next couple of weeks is wearing me out. My body is wanting more rest and recovery.

this week's accounting: wt rm x3, 20miles of running, 60min. spin, 2hrs. of yoga practice, 2hrs. Zumba, bc x4, one ski day -

hoping for a little yoga and possibly some type of cardio today -

(not bad considering I had L's birthday, Jr. Nationals, & the office party)

To The Lighthouse

2010: loss, subjectivity, and perception

I've made it through Thanksgiving. I've made it through our trip to California. I've made it through the family holiday Heber gathering (still need to clean up from this one, but mess always waits, so no rush). I've made it through my lesson (had to deny the request to play my flute for the program next week - which seemed to put people "out" - but I can only do so much, there is simply no way I can get two songs performance worthy between now and next Sunday). I've got Lauren's birthday tomorrow...please, please, please don't let me forget!! But the National Jr. Figure Skating Championships may kill me.

I'm trying to ignore the fact that it's a balmy 53º outside today, with sunshine,

and I'm not skiing or running.

The Christmas shopping, it will happen when it happens, if it happens.

If not, it won't be the first time the children receive a letter on Christmas morning and nothing else.

HO HO HO, where's my Florence Nightingale nurse's cap? I gotta go set up medical...

Friday:

weight room

short, bc

Saturday:

3m run

6m run

flying pigeon practice,

a few inversions,

& some hip openers

I woke up in the middle of the night hot, sweating from pain, again.

Oh bother, that's the third stone episode this week.

More on pain later, but not tonight.

Tomorrow is an early one!

bc, 6m run

My candle burns at both ends, it will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends - it gives a lovely light.

Wednesdays pretty much suck. I get up at 4am so I can get to the weight room early. If I arrive around 5am I can blast through my routine because I don't have to wait for the idiots who are stretching themselves out ON THE MACHINES (can't even tell you how much I HATE THIS), etc. I can pump out my sets, keep my heart rate up, and for the most part not have to deal with the normal weight room drama.

Then I skate for a few minutes.

Then I do bootcamp.

Great! 1000 calories burned all before 8am and I have the entire day to....yeah, not ski.

Unfortunately, I have to go back to Steiner in the evenings from 4:45-7:30. It sucks, I'm hungry, and I'm tired. And I never know what to do with myself because I've already done everything. (East is usually using the pool or it would have potential for a good swim, that, and Tommy said "no swimming at steiner")

I'm griping about this right now because I'd like to go for a run, it's 42º, but I've got all that time at Steiner tonight, so it doesn't seem practical to run now, and then again.

10m run, 30 min yoga

the accounting:

10 min. elliptical

1m run

bootcamp, holy cow! deceptively difficult: rapid implementation of sets reduced me to rubble in a puddle of my own sweat...but I kinda wanted to keep going

15 min. elliptical

7m run

kinda want to get on the spin bike, but I think I've had enough cardio for one day...ahhh, that means one thing: evening yoga.

Mel, where do you practice yoga? When? All the classes I seem to be interested in are for 90min right in the middle of the post-school pre-dinner chaos?...or Sunday morning

Great running weather in Ca. so I was disappointed not to get a beach run/yoga into the schedule. I did get to run the MSAC course with Josh, and go for a little run during his race: had to beat him back so I could cheer him on at the end! He did great, but says to me, "I should have run in my Nike Free shoes." I noticed him change out of them before the race and thought "that's a mistake" - but I figured it was his race, his decision, so I kept my opinion to myself. He still finished sub 20 which was his goal for the course...somthing like 41 out of 128, 6th from Utah.

Thursday: bc (cardio) 6m run

Friday: 4m run

Saturday: 3m run

Sunday: rest

Monday, that's today.

wt rm: 1hr.

13m run

ready for some yoga after I pick up the girls

I've been thinking about honey bees.

In the hive, bees flutter their tiny wings creating a venting breeze. The zephyr helps water in the honey evaporate, keeping the honey from fermenting.

Tupelo honey is good, esp. in tea. But fireweed honey, from Alaska is my personal favorite (a pretty flowering tundra plant with bright pink blossoms).

note: Weeds don't look like "weeds" to me anymore, I think: "hmmmmm, I wonder how the honey from that tastes????....probably very good!"

...you know what else I like about bees?

(other than they work and work and work their whole life for a teaspoon of honey - which is REALLY great because they work endlessly, and then they die, but what's amazing is the product of their work is eternal - honey is the only food that never goes bad. ever. the honey from the Egyptian mummy's tombs, still good!...& if we didn't have these little bees working so hard we'd all be dead: so much LIFE depends on this small laboring creature!!! think upon it, the eminence of a bee...)

They dance.

little gypsies reaping flower's fruits, fluttering their wings, and dancing around their golden harvest

...those weeds: the golden harvest within

1 hr. weight room

bc

1/2 hr. skate

4m run

3m run (kept HR 173-180, so more effort than my usual sauntering pace)

45min. yoga

missing summer. missing my daily combo of run, bike, swim (guess I can add it back in, but it's not quite the same)

morning run, 40 minutes

bootcamp

evening run, 30 minutes

evening yoga, 90 minutes: pretty sure I'm not going to be able to walk tomorrow, might have pushed this one too hard. focus = splits. wow. not as flexible as I used to be. not even close.

this is what is being sacrificed to the ski gods:

knees

quads

long runs

swimming

skating

clean laundry

christmas shopping ummm actually christmas everything

drinking enough water

lunch

nap time

shoveling the driveway

weight room: perfect day!! Alone because of the weather :), I enjoyed myself so much I stayed for an hour and a half just because I had the place all to myself.

Snowbird...hours and hours and hours (it's really warm and comfortable when you forego a skirt for a pair of ski pants)

aprés-ski: 7m run

can't deny the laundry any more, but if I get it done quickly I'll reward myself with a little YOGA