Running at High Altitude

We didn’t do much these past three days.

For the most part, the weather was mild for this time of year.  We tried to do our workout twice during this three-day period.  The weights and Pilates were o.k., but the run was a killer.  The altitude at our campsite was 5,060 feet, the air was thin and two days was not long enough to acclimate.  The run almost killed me the first day.  The second day was little better.

There was a Starbucks close by which we used for regular computer updates.  The rest of the time was mostly spent running errands and hanging around the coach.  It was really a waiting game, since our next destination was the FMCA rally in Farmington, New Mexico.

During this time, Jeanne mostly read and worked crossword puzzles.  I used to the time to continue with my self-study of the Microsoft .NET technologies.  This is computer-geek stuff and the section on Regular Expressions was fascinating.  However, all knowledge turns out to be useful — even the French classes my father forced me to take in junior high school.  I must have been the only kid is Southern California who took French instead of something useful, like Spanish.  C’est la vie.

We debated if attending the rally was a good idea.  We had never been to one and didn’t know what to expect.  Also, Farmington is out of the way and timing the weather would be tricky.  The last thing we wanted was to be stuck in the middle of the desert during a storm.  This is high desert and snow is a real possibility.  In the end we decided to go.  The plan was to cut our Albuquerque stay short by two days and head to Farmington during good weather.  If it rained or snowed after we arrived, so what?  Once again, weather controlled our movements.

With the Farmington issue settled, we prepared the coach for travel.