Enjoyable day

Started out the day with a 7-8am spinning class, and got my HR about as high as I've ever seen it spinning. We did about a 30-min warm-up (haha...more like a 5 min warmup and 25 min workout!) and then a 20-min time trial. Ouch! The time trial is pretty tough. 5 min "flat road", 80-90rpm but with your power output reasonably high. I started with my HR about 150, because I figured that was a good place to start for a hard 20 min. Then, we had a 2 min "run" (standing, fast pedaling), which always gets my HR up, followed by a 2 min climb (increase resistance, sitting), and then a 1 min standing climb. Then, repeat the whole thing. On the last 1 min climb, my HR pegged at 168. Granted, it gets higher racewalking (I've seen it as high as 180 in a 5K, at the end of the race), but still...yeah...hard effort for cycling. Notes to self about the time trial: bike #26, ave rpm 79, ave power 211 watts, distance 7.8. Not sure I'll be able to get that same bike again, and they are quite different, but at least that is something. The instructor plans to do the time trial again in a month to see if we've improved. Oh yay!

After the spin class I went home for a quick shower and change, and then took Calvin with me to breakfast with my friend Kelly. She's leaving for California for a couple months before moving to Idaho for a job. I'll miss her a lot, so we had to do breakfast one last time. Of course, she got Eggs Benedict, her favorite :).

Then Calvin and I did a bit of shopping for ingredients for our holiday baking frenzy today. It was pretty fun --- and then we did our baking! We made a couple batches of caramels, which need to be chocolate dipped sometime soon (tomorrow???), and also some caramel nut popcorn. We are still going to make some peanut butter balls coated in chocolate ("buckhorns"), and some white chocolate espresso macadamia nut bark. We also played Monopoly for a little while, and Calvin totally killed me! He did really well; for a while it was neck-and-neck but then he pulled ahead. Good game. Finally, we had a couple from church over for dinner; she plays the cello, so after dinner she and I played some music together. After they left, I played my clarinet and the piano for a little to scratch the music itch a bit more.

It was a good day :).

My toe is quite sore after the baking frenzy, and I did ice it, but...well...yeah, probably shouldn't be on it so much. Oh well. It is still very tender to the touch, and putting on socks, pants, standing too long, and walking hurt. Mostly just annoying, but am trying not to think about how much longer it's going to be that I can't racewalk. On the flip side, I get more rest to hopefully make the mystery illness go away for good. Yesterday at Kelly's graduation I was sitting a lot (driving, the ceremony, more driving, then dinner) and it barely bothered me at all :).