Duke City Fit Fall 2012

Autumn 2012

Free as the Breeze

Livin’ It and Lovin’ It In Albuquerque, NM Special: Official Albuquerque Bike Map Inside!

r l i G a e i k Yo u C lim b L

Duke City Fit Hot Air Dawn Autumn 2012

2

www.dukecityfit.com

Duke City Fit

Autumn 2012

3

Duke City Fit

From the Publisher Ken Orth

Francisco at The Chile Konnection Broadway and Mountain 242-8601

I’m going to put it right out there in front

DISCOUNT COUPON

Duke City Fit readers Take $10 off a $50 purchase.

Just present this ad on a purchase of $50 or more.

Offer Expires 11/30/12

Runner or Walker

We get it. We’ve got it.

ABQ Running Shop 4

Montgomery & Tramway NE

505.293.2RUN

of everybody… flat out. I’m not going to be embarrassed by it, or try to hide it any longer. I’m coming out of the closet… let it be known here and now that I, Ken Orth, absolutely love the aroma of roasting green chiles. Love it! And really, it’s not just the smell, it’s the whole roasting experience…

The sound of the burners, the blue flames, the crackling seeds, the slow turning of the bin, the slitting open of the bags, and the smell and the feel of the burlap. It is a symphony with so many different parts.

I like the dumping of the chiles into the bin, the barrel, the steel mesh thing.

They are so green, crisp, fresh, and alive. Full of the vigor and vitality of the desert. And with an inner heat that belies their cool exterior.

I like the dumping out, the post-roast scooping of the cooked chiles. Smoking, steaming, hot. Blackened skins, sticking in mushy, messy pieces to the steel mesh and to his damp gloves and to the plastic bags. Seeds everywhere, popping hot… and everywhere the the aroma of fired, fiery, fire. The chile fruits, meant to burn, and to be burned.

I love it. Even the standing in line, if it is not too very long. I watch each chile recipient as they finally reach the head of the line, a look of eagerness and anticipation on their faces as they finally receive the blessings of Hatch.

They watch the loading and the ignition with rapt attention, aware of the steps, the flow, the ceremony, comforted by the routine and the repetition, but exhilarated by the fire and the smoke and the heat. They can feel the heat, from there in front, up close and personal. More than a few end up backing up, tears in their eyes from the doubly-heated smoke and their faces red.

For a few moments, then, they stand and watch. Usually, they are unspeaking and seemingly respectful as their own personal portion of the ceremony unfolds before them. This is their portion of the bounty of New Mexico. This is their tie to the land, and a small gift from it to them. Small, but profound and lasting and graced with an inner fire. And this ceremony is part and parcel of the passing… of the giving and the receiving.

As they walk away afterward with their heated burden, and the next recipient steps forward in turn, they seem to walk with a little more stature. A little taller with a firmer stride. They have received what they came for, a gift and a blessing. Now they return with it to their homes and their families where they will pass it on. Often, that passing is in time-honored traditional foods and recipes and methods.

I wonder as I watch them go… where and when did they come to know the chile? As a child, in grandma’s kitchen? Or did they come into the fold later in life? Converts, as am I. When it is my turn, I rather hope that my man will perform his ceremonial duties in silence, and not regale me with chatter, facts and figures, or condescending instructions on the care and preparation of this sacred fruit. As if I am a rank amateur. A novice.

Which, of course, in the overall scheme of things, I actually am. A novice. Another emigrated yankee, or farmer, or God forbid, a transplanted Texan who seemingly knows everything and respects nothing. At least I can be grateful that I didn’t wear my black Stetson today. I should jot that one down, I decide… don’t wear Texas paraphernalia to chile roasting ceremonies lest I wind up with under-roasted peppers whose skins subsequently refuse to come off properly.

That has happened. Skins that refuse to be parted from the chile. “You ain’t goin’ nowhere without me.”

It was, I’m afraid, a novice chile roaster. I should have known. He looked way too young to be roasting chiles. And he acted way to cocky. I’m thinking’ they should maybe require some certain amount of time and schooling in the finer arts of pepper roasting before one can be turned loose on an unwary chilean congregation. An apprenticeship at least.

As a fellow airline passenger once said to me on a puddle-jumper flight as our pilot walked up the aisle to the cockpit… “I’d feel a whole lot more comfortable if that guy was old enough to shave.”

Me too.

Perhaps I should’ve shoved that youngster roaster feller out of the way and said, “I’ll handle this myself.”

Perhaps I would’ve ended up in jail rather than with a bushelful of under-cooked, tough-skinned chiles on my kitchen counter. Do they, I wonder, serve chiles in New Mexican jails? Properly roasted ones, I imagine, if they do.

Ahem.

So now when I venture forth on my annual roasting pilgrimage, I do more than look for the best prices. I scope out the place. I check out the equipment and the attendant roaster. I stand around and I watch a couple of his ceremonies if I can.

I am leery of equipment that looks too new. The burners or the barrel. If it has the least bit of shine to it. I understand that it all has to start somewhere… but not with me. Let the Texans get that “new” steel mesh smell.

I liken it to my old, well-worn popcorn pot. The one that has been with me nigh unto 35 years.

It is old. It is aged and seasoned. You don’t clean it. Soap doesn’t touch it. You wipe it off. If I want a brand new chile roaster, I’ll order one from Amazon and have it delivered to my in-laws in Kentucky.

(Just kidding, paw. If I got a roaster for you, trust me, it’d be an old, beat up one.)

ABQRunningShop.com

www.dukecityfit.com

Duke City Fit

I have also learned to be leery of of the roaster himself. The grand poohbah. Indeed, he should be old enough to shave. In fact, I’m thinking’ he should be old enough to have a kid who is old enough to shave. He should be a veteran of a thousand roastings. Ten thousand.

He should know his equipment. I like it when I see that he’s stuck an old screwdriver into the slot that keeps the barrel from inadvertently turning while he unloads it. It didn’t come with that screwdriver. I am intrigued when I see that one of the burners is held in place by coat-hanger wire. Or duct tape.

He should roast these chiles, I think, as if he is roasting them for his grandmother. Not because it’s his shift and he’d rather be here than stocking potatoes in the produce department.

I thank him afterward and I give him a tip. Perhaps unknowingly, he is a part of a tradition and ceremony that is so very much a part of New Mexico and so very important. At least to me. And meaningful. It ties me, very literally, to this land. It is of this land. It is New Mexico. It refreshes my memory, on a very regular basis, of all of the many other gifts that this land has given me.

And continues to give me.

Almost every time now, when I am at the kitchen sink taking the few moments to clean and prepare my chiles, I remember back to the roasting. Is that weird? I remember the roaster. Or the one the year before. I remember the guy in line who opined loudly that he liked to use green chile in posole.

And the older lady behind us who thought that sounded like heresy.

“Red chile!” she said, with vigor.

The chile cleaning, that occasional skinning and seeding and chopping, is rather like a devotional time now. A meditative refresher. A chance to relax and unwind and to be grateful for the little things. Like a pepper that skins easily.

And the aroma, ah the aroma. When I open the bag it invades my kitchen and permeates my soul. It sticks to my fingers and clings to my food. It is a blessing, a reminder, a hope, and a tie that binds.

Roasted and roasting green chiles.

How I love thee.

Duke City Fit Editor: Ken Orth

Copy Editor: P Joan Orth, RN

Editor@dukecityfit.com (505) 291-0070

Printed by VanGuard Printing

Duke City Fit is solely owned and published by Duke City Fit, LLC. It is published quarterly in March, June, September, and December. Copyright © 2012 by Duke City Fit. All rights reserved. Reproduction in part or in whole without written permission is prohibited. Opinions and expressions of fact within articles are those of the author and are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. Specifically, the editor and publisher are not liable for actions taken in response to any article. Readers are encouraged to use common sense and consult with a professional before attempting any potentially harmful activity.

Duke City Fit encourages your submission of articles, photographs, comments, criticisms, and ideas. All submissions will be considered for publication. Recommended article length is 800 to 1200 words. We reserve the right to edit all submitted materials.

Materials will not be returned. Advertising is accepted at the discretion of the publisher.

Duke City Fit is printed on recycled paper using soy-based ink. Our mailing address: Duke City Fit, 3801 Big Bend NE, Albuquerque, NM 87111

Autumn 2012

5

Diversion Trail

A Biking

n o i s r e v i D Ken Orth

After so many hot, semi-muggy days in the dog days of August, we finally had a cloudy, cool day. A bike-riding day. And I knew exactly what I wanted to ride.

The North Diversion Channel Trail.

I know a little bit about it because I have ridden bits and pieces of it on other rides. But never the entire 8+ miles in its entirety. From the Balloon Fiesta Park to the UNM campus… on an off-street, multi-use, paved trail that actually only requires you to fight cars at 2 street crossings. And those two are both relatively less busy streets. It’s a cruisin’ good trail, and I was more than ready to give it a shot.

For our mid-week, mid-morning ride, my wife and I chose to set out from a spur trail that hooks up to it, the Bear Canyon Trail. We tossed our bikes in the van and headed over to the Fox and Hound parking lot. It’s just off Jefferson and I-25. Parking backwards on the north side of the lot, we pulled our bikes right out onto the trail. And I figured it would be a good place to end up after our ride.

Part of the reason for starting here was so that I could get a look at the new pedestrian/ bike bridge over I-25 that is going up just east of here. The bridge isn’t quite done yet.

They’re still working on the railings. But it’s awfully close, and the construction guys I talked to guessed that it’d be open by late September.

When it is done and open, it’ll connect the Bear Canyon trail west of I-25 to the trails east of the interstate. Eventually… soon… it will connect all the way over to the existing Bear Canyon Trail on the east side that stretches all the way to Juan Tabo. Indeed, there is a section of the trail on the drawing board to connect it all the way to Tramway and the Tramway trail, but that last section is being held up by a recalcitrant neighborhood association over there. It will be quite a trail, east-west, when it finally clears all its hurdles.

But, we are not riding the Bear Canyon Trail, my wife and I. At least not for far. We’re using it as a shot to connect up with the North Diversion Channel Trail. Which is too much of a mouthful of a name for an aging boomer like me, so we call it the Diversion Trail. Sweet and simple.

And descriptive. For that is what it is… A Diversion. From traffic, from anxieties and stress, from the hectic pace of everyday life.

For much of its path, it is above all this stuff. Literally. There are places where you look down upon the neighborhoods, the baseball fields, the freeways. And from some high places you can clearly see over it all… over the downtown to the volcanoes on the west side. Then, spectacularly, like a swooping roller-coaster, you’re down and under the busiest streets, popping out on the other side into the sunlight with a grin on your face. Diversion indeed.

On this day, we head north toward the Balloon Park. It is a long extended dip under Osuna… a more gradual incline than all the others, and then we are back up on top above the Vista Del Norte neighborhood. A few dogs bark up at us from the distant walled-in back yards. The baseball fields appear, five or six of ‘em in a row, manicured and green, awaiting the little league boys of summer who’ll be playing there this fall. Looking at them, I cannot help but remember my PA announcing days at my son’s little league games so many, many years ago. One of the little guys came up to me after the game. He was about 4 feet tall and all of about 45 pounds. As I knelt down to talk him face-to-face, he let me know that he’d taken exception with the nickname I had given him during the game… Dynamite Dave.

“My nickname isn’t Dynamite,” he told me, a serious look on his little face. “It’s ‘Moose’”.

“Moose?” I said in wonderment, looking at the little guy before me. “Moose?”

“Yeah,” his dad told me later. “He got the moose nickname cuz he does a great Bullwinkle impression.”

The North Diversion Channel Trail • I-25 and the Big I below & to the left • The diversion channel to the right • Sandias are somewhere ahead • Clear blue Infinity above

Rio Rancho 896-4700 909 36th Place SE

6

Albuquerque HighDesertBicycles.com

842-8260 8110 Louisiana NE

We leave the fields behind and decide to take a right (east) alongside Alameda. We could go straight north and under it, but we opt to do the loop around the Balloon Park counterclockwise. So it’s east alongside the south side of Alameda then north at a crosswalk at Balloon Drive and up right next the Balloon Museum. We briefly toy with the idea of going in, but our hearts are with our bikes this day, so we mosey on, promising to try the museum another time.

The trail goes west along the southern boundary of the park. It is empty and quiet. I have visions of it packed with people in the gray light of dawn. People and inflating balloons and the fiery roar of propane flames in the darkness. Twould be a different thing to be here in those early days of October. I have heard that biking to the Fiesta is not only do-able, but quite an adventure. They even have a “valet” service for safely storing bikes during the Fiesta. (See the notes at the end of the story for info on this). I’m giving it a shot this year.

Heading back south on the Diversion, we again pass the cereal plant at Paseo that we’d passed quickly on the way up. We dally a little this time. The aroma is intoxicating.

I’m thinking it might be fruit loops baking. But then again, I might have the wrong dang cereal company altogether. Heck, I don’t know. But it does smell good. Reminds me of the Carnation Instant Breakfast factory of my college days and its warm, inviting, vanilla smell that permeated the town and the campus occasionally. This is like that, and I hang here a bit to bathe my senses in the heretofore unknown aromatic pleasure of baking breakfast cereal. Who knew?

South again, on a path where only strollers and runners and bikers may go, a roadrunner darts across in front of us. His tail and crest are up in a bobbing dance… as opposed to the head down, tail down, full bore run that is his namesake. He’s dallying a bit, too. I always think it’s a good sign when I see a roadrunner, especially one that is in no hurry. It is a happy reminder of where I am, lest I momentarily forget the magic.

Continued on Page 9, Right after the Map

www.dukecityfit.com

the City Duke City Fit andDuke City Fitof Albuquerque Proudly Present

The Albuquerque Bike Trails Map Albuquerque has one of the finest bike trail systems in the country for a city of its size. Even so, the Duke City continues to plan and work to improve this system. The city hass just completed a project to divert the North Diversion Channel multi-use trail under the road intersections at Menaul, Candelaria, and Comanche rather than crossing those streets.

The trail is now safer, faster, and more fun.

These off-street, multi-use trails that lace Albuquerque are one of its finest features...providing safer, more scenic ways to traverse the city. These trails are designated in green on the Bike Trails Map. Look for them when planning your route. Also, keep in mind that all Albuquerque city buses have bike racks. Ride your bike one way, then catch a bus back... expand your ridable territory.

Duke City Fit and the City of Albuquerque are happy to provide you with this official Albuquerque bike trails map. Pull it out and use it to discover how easy it is to navigate the Duke City on a bicycle. Carry it with you along with your other biking paraphernalia. Pin it up on the wall above your desk. Take it down to the office supply store and get it laminated.

Explore the map and explore our city. From the foothills of the Sandia Mountains through the Bosque and Old Town to the Petroglyphs and volcanos of the west mesa, it is all there and it is all here...

Let’s get on our bikes and ride!

Later, when you are ready for this map

PULL OUT ENTIRE PAGE Your own Official ABQ Bike Trails map

Autumn 2012

More info: 243-RIDE or www.cabq.gov/transit

7

Duke City Fit

8

www.dukecityfit.com

A Biking

Diversion

Duke City Fit Continued From Page 6

An interesting aspect of this trail, and the many other off-street trails throughout ABQ, is that the businesses and buildings along it do not, for the most part, have signs on this side. On the trail side. The back side. Who are they?… and what do they do?

Here, for example, where we cruise now, is a yard of stones. Stones. Rocks. Carefully piled, stacked, and sorted. There are flagstones, red and flat. Granite, grayish and speckled. Other stones that I do not know, of many different sizes, shapes, and colors… laid about in an orderly fashion.

Suddenly there is a roaring sound, as of burners, and there is the big back side of what appears to be a huge kiln. Then… a grinding sound and I am watching a craftsman, clad in a facemask and headphones, grinding away, with the dust flying, at a long slim slab of something. Somebody’s kitchen counter, I suppose. He waves at me, and I wave back. Isn’t life strange?

We dip under I-25 and though I know it is a freeway above me, I cannot get a picture of it in my mind. As it must look up there. My imagination fails me. There are cars up there, I know. Cars and trucks, going to Santa Fe or El Paso or Los Lunas. But down here in the cool shade of a steel girder and cement cathedral, I know them not. They are, for now, in another world altogether, as separate and distant from me as the elevated trains of Chicago might be. They are on a different plane of existence. They are a travelogue story in a magazine, and they may or may not be real.

Down here, it’s us and our bikes and a little water in the arroyo. And a busted up shopping cart.

Oh well.

At the turnoff to the Paseo Del Nordeste Trail, which heads east more or less along Comanche, we bump into a friendly, smiling biker who looks vaguely familiar.

“Nick!” my wife exclaims as he pulls off his sunglasses. She gives him a big hug. He is a longtime friend of the family, and a longer-time good friend and classmate of my older son… both of whom are 2012 graduates of Eldorado High School and current students at the University of New Mexico. He is biking home from the campus to our neighborhood in the northeast heights, his backpack full of books. He is excited… fairly beaming as we chat with him. And I can understand it. Life is good. And he has just biked up one of my favorites stretches of trail in all of Albuquerque.

It takes roughly a half hour, he tells us, to bike from UNM to our neighborhood near Comanche and Juan Tabo. This is good to know, I think, though I suspect that he may bike it at a different speed than we would.

That stretch of the diversion trail of which I just spoke so lovingly is ahead of me going south.

It runs from about Menaul to the UNM Hospital. It swoops under Menaul, passing right by an Applebees then curves west and south under I-40. When it re-emerges it heads straight up on a ridge above University Avenue. What a rush! I am here to tell you that when you find yourself up on top, gazing down upon the Big I after the whirlwind descents down and under everything, it takes your breath away. Literally and figuratively.

It is a view and a heady sensory explosion that you cannot get any other way. On a bike on the Diversion Trail, that’s it. The traffic, the ramps, the wind, the noise, the mountains, the buildings… all from a perspective that is unlike any you’ve ever had before. It is like being on top of the world.

It seems like maybe I ought to stop and gawk, but there is something about it that makes me want to keep going. It is as if… to really experience it properly, I have to be moving. Even as the world is moving and Albuquerque is moving. This is not a place to sit. This place fires you up. This is a place to move. Put on your dancing’ shoes!

Then finally, there is kind of a “cool down” home stretch descent on the trail back into the real world, alongside the hospital and out onto the campus. As if this is the real world. Skateboarders and bikes shoot by. Youngsters with stars in their eyes. They walk the malls and wait for the buses and hurry away to unknown classes about unknown subjects.

I walk my bike here. In the crowded world of tomorrow. A world of yesterday. To a coffee shop off Central where I can sit at a sidewalk table next to my bike with a vanilla latte in front of me. To consider what I’ve done. There’s a stupid smile on my face, I know. Hey, I just biked the Diversion Trail. Over, under, around, and through. You know what?… I got Albuquerque’s autograph today.

Diversion.

The Diversion Channel Trail is a great north-south multi-use trail that runs more-or-less along I-25 from The Balloon Fiesta Park north of Alameda, down to the UNM campus at Lomas. It crosses only 2 streets in its entire length… Singer and Indian School, neither of which is a major thoroughfare.

There are a couple easy-access food and drink establishments along the way. The Nexus Brewery has a gate right off the trail into its parking lot and outdoor tables. It is just south of the dip under I-25 and north of Montgomery. Applebees parking lot fronts onto the trail just south of its dip under Menaul.

The Diversion Trail is a great way to beat the traffic at the Balloon Fiesta. I am told that the New Mexico Touring Society, BikeABQ, and the City of Albuquerque will be jointly running the Bike Valet service during all Balloon Fiesta events again this year. It is free. Simply bike your way up the North Diversion Channel Trail north under Paseo Del Norte and Alameda, then follow it as it turns east over the channel, north of the museum. The valet service will be right there. They’ll tag your bike and park it inside their secure area. Retrieve it with your tag after the event and enjoy a leisurely ride home. Or back to your car. Remember lights! It’ll be dark one way or the other. Info online: www.balloonfiesta.com/guest-guide/bike-valet

Autumn 2012

9

Dr Jason On Running

Duke City Fit Excerpt From

Running for Women

Reduced Availability of Energy Low energy results from inadequate caloric intake or increased exercise. In other words, too few calories are consumed to meet both the energy needs of daily living plus those needed for exercise. For example, say you run 30 miles per week. Depending on your speed and effort, you would need to consume an additional 2,000 to 3,000 calories per week to account for the increased energy needs of your weekly distance. As your distance increases, your caloric intake also needs to increase. If you are running 80 miles per week, you will require an additional 5,000 to 8,000 calories per week, depending on your speed and effort.

Failing to meet the additional energy needs of exercise will result in an energy deficit. If the energy deficit is too great, the body responds by suppressing certain physiological functions that are essential for health, such as altering the regular secretion of luteinizing hormone (LH) from the pituitary gland.

This, in turn, leads to decreased estrogen production, causing menstrual dysfunction. Decreased estrogen levels affect bone resorption and bone accumulation. While the suppression of these physiological functions may reduce or even eliminate the energy deficit, it does not increase availability of energy.

If the reduced availability of energy is prolonged, running performance suffers, a deficiency of important nutrients (e.g., calcium, vitamin D, iron, and zinc) develops, and the health of the bones and reproductive system is jeopardized.

Low availability of energy can occur as the result of an unconscious or conscious decision. It is not uncommon for female runners to inadvertently eat too little to adequately fuel their physical activity and needs of daily living. Dieting in an effort to become thinner or leaner is the primary cause of inadequate energy intake.

Dieting and other abnormal eating behaviors can include restricting caloric intake, limiting types of food, fasting, frequently skipping meals, and using diet pills.

Sometimes the drive to become thin can develop into

an eating disorder.

Clinical eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa (often referred to as anorexia) and bulimia nervosa (often referred to as bulimia), are illnesses with serious health consequences. A woman with anorexia has a distorted body image and an intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat even though she is markedly underweight. A woman with anorexia severely restricts calories and often exercises obsessively. Bulimia is characterized by episodes of binge eating in which a person consumes large quantities of food in a discrete time. Overcome with guilt, the person with bulimia compensates with inappropriate behaviors (including self-induced vomiting; using diuretics, laxatives, or enemas; fasting; or exercising excessively) in an effort to avoid gaining weight. Regardless of why too few calories are consumed, eating behaviors do not have to be at the point of a clinical eating disorder to place a woman at risk for the other two components of the triad.

Caloric restriction is independently associated with both irregular menstruation and low bone mineral density. In other words, you could have normal menstruation and still have low bone mineral density if your dietary habits are inadequate to meet your caloric needs. Given the large number of calories expended from many miles of running, you need to make sure you consume enough calories to offset your high caloric expenditure. Many runners simply don’t eat enough to meet their needs for specific nutrients, like calcium and vitamin D, which can put bones at risk for injury. Low energy is the key risk factor for stress fractures among female runners. You need to consume at least 1,500 mg of calcium per day and 400 to 800 international units of vitamin D per day.

Vitamin D is sometimes called the sunshine vitamin because it can be synthesized in the body through an interaction of sunlight with your skin. Although adequate production of vitamin D requires only that you spend 15 minutes in direct sunlight (between 10 am and 3 pm) each day, circumstances such as where you live, where you run, what time of day you run, and sunscreen use will affect your vitamin D needs. If you live in the northern part of the United States between October and March, run early in the morning or later in the evening, train indoors, or use sunscreen with an SPF of 8 or greater, you may not be getting adequate sun exposure to produce the required amounts of vitamin D. In these instances, you can acquire adequate vitamin D by taking a vitamin supplement.

Dr. Jason Karp is a nationally-recognized running coach, 2011 IDEA Personal Trainer of the Year, and owner of RunCoachJason.com. He holds a Ph.D. in exercise physiology and is founder and coach of REVO2LT Running Team™. He writes for international running, coaching, and fitness magazines, is the author of five books, and is a frequent presenter at national fitness and coaching conferences. To order a signed copy of Running for Women, go to www.runcoachjason.com/ merchandise.

10

www.dukecityfit.com

Duke City Fit

&

6 10 to n e p O at hru S Mon t

2817 San Mateo NE

•

884-5300

•

heartnsolesports.com

s r a e Y 2 1 g n i t a r b e Cel Before

After

Our Fit Will Help Fix Your Gait All of our staff is personally trained by a professional gait analysis expert. Always fitting you in the proper footwear.

Guaranteed!

“Everyday Footwear” at Heart & Sole We now carry the finest in casual, comfortable, functional footwear from top makers like Chaco, Keen, and Sanita.

We take the same care to get you the perfect fit in casual footwear that we have always taken with our athletic shoes.

Everyday footware that is not only incredibly comfortable, but good for your feet!

Rated Among Top 10 Running Stores in America. Again!

The Running Network and Footwear Intelligence have honored Heart & Sole Sports as a Top 10 best rated running store in the entire United States and Canada ! Our customer’s faith and confidence in our services has made this happen.

We thank you.

New Mexico’s #1 Running Company

Autumn 2012

11

Duke City Fit

El Malpais

Narrows Isabel Bearman-Bucher

I’m singing under my breath “ I am a lineman for the county - and I drive the main road ...” I’m wandering all over, trying to get the old tune retrieved, anticipating a great hike called “The El Malpais Narrows,” trans: the bad lands. “Searchin in the sun for another over load.” Now, I’ve got it. Good thing I’m not singing for money. My eyes are rambling out the window of the Palo Duro Senior C’s van. We’ve rolled west on I-40, doglegging south on exit 89 that says “Quemado.” I’m remembering when I used to sing with my little daughters going someplace long. The open highway always brings back memories. “I hear you singin in the wire ...da-da-dada da dada,” got the tune but not the words, and remember, “ And the Wichita lineman, is still on the Liiiinnnnne.” M.J. is singing beside me. We grin, knowing we like each other already.

Today about 20 of us are going to do the El Malpais Narrows, part of some 114 thousand plus acres in the park. . It’s old out here. It’s 115,000 years of volcanic eruptions that created a huge lava field, leaving just a tiny ribbon that traces the cliffs on which we travel - the only road could be built in here. Some of the Douglas Fir are the oldest on the planet Huge chunks of rock have broken free from the Narrows. On the top of one of the high headlands, called El Morro, ancients built an 875 room pueblo, as inaccessible as Masada, the great Israeli fortress. While it looked over the Dead Sea, El Morro looked down on a couple of generations of outsiders who camped at its base for shade, rest and water, when there was some and then off into the vastness of New Mexico west.

I feel the age. It’s the “going behind time” sense that so much of New Mexico has, which makes me fall in love with my state one more time, every time. I’m looking at sheer, jagged bluffs rising left. Right is only ancient and desolate volcanic beds. We pass a twisted and beat-up water tank, then heads jerk left, as the massive La Ventana Arch - “the Window” in Spanish, comes into view.

“What kind of massive amounts of water did this!” I muse. We’re 21 miles in now, turning a sharp left at the obscure sign that points to the trailhead. Close, there’s restroom here, and the wide road leads through massive ponderosa. We stop for a moment of silence to honor the memory of a hiker, recently passed.

The sky is cornflower blue; hawks and turkey vultures are circling. Life is moving, like it always has for millions of years. It comforts me to know that long after I’m gone, it will still go on. Elk and Bear scat are visible, and the fall flowers are in bloom. At the huge truck-sized boulder, the path goes around and up beside it for a while. Sticks tap, foot-falls begin their rhythms, eyes are on the rocky up-trail until we top out and move onto the edge. We’re on the Narrows.

Oh, what a beautiful morning! Hooray for the trail ahead, for the adventure, for the vistas, for the “why this,” and “why that,” questions I’m asking. I’m glad for my health, and the everness of the outdoors. On the top of the narrows, people hold their pack straps, pushing their arms wide to hijack a breeze onto their backs.

The hour goes by. Mile markers announce one, two, three. Cairns lead the way. Everybody’s got the trail rhythm. Rusty rocks are covered in orange and sage green; rainwater and winds have etched their signatures upon them, rivaling any art collection. And, it’s free. There’s a visual symphony talking out of the rocks with vertical cuts. Opposing melodies are cut in the horizontal of the far away mesa dressed in lavender. To the north sits Mt. Taylor. A solo is begun by a bright red-orange cactus now blooming in a clump; its relative managing a deep rock crevice. Miniature worlds at your feet look like cat’s toes and lion’s paws. Can’t get lost. We just hug the rim and take it all in, all the way. Sun’s overhead. The path disappears, and we scatter in the sparse growth like tossed marbles. The lunch spot is called “ Cerro Encierra (hill encloses), and it plunges down 500 feet like jagged knives to the smooth mesa leading to La Ventana Arch.

El Malpais. Perfect place to spend a fall day.

Do it.

12

THE HIKE: 7.4 miles round trip Moderate level Spectacular views Bring lots of water and a G.P.S. Highest point: 7,500 feet Take a side trip to La Ventana Arch

GETTING THERE: 1-40 West to #89 Left on #117 for 21 miles Turn sharp left at a wooden trail sign Walk the road until you see the boulder and the trail going up to the right of it Follow the rim to the end

CONTACTS: El Malpais information Center 505-783-4774 Monument headquarters 505-285-4641 Bureau of Land Management Grants Field Station 505-287-7911 El Malpais Ranger Station 505-240-0300

www.dukecityfit.com

Duke City Fit

www .

MtTa faceboo k.c ylorQ uadr om/ athlo n

www.mttaylorquad.org “The Quad” is a 43-mile race to the top and back down of 11,301 foot Mt Taylor.

Start out at 6,500 feet biking 13 miles out of town and up into the ponderosa pines.

Run 5 miles on gravel turning to snowpack. Cross-country ski 2 miles, including the infamous “heartbreak hill”. Top it out with 1 mile to the top on snowshoes. The race is only half over. Now reverse the events and make the 21 miles back down!

Do it solo. Do it as a team. Do it because you can.

Autumn 2012

13

Duke City Fit Dr Elaine Adams, DC

Talks About Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Every day in my office I have a patient look at me and say “I’m sick, I’m tired and I hurt all over. I have been everywhere and no believes that there is anything wrong with me.” It seems to be the mantra of the modern age.

Twenty three years ago when I first began practice, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue were often laughingly referred to as “The Yuppie Flu” or joked about as something a neurotic woman would describe. Today we look at these illnesses with a much more serious eye.

The stress and toxicity of our everyday lives is creating a host of diseases that is falling on the wholistic health care providers for relief. The patients suffering from this malady are often told by family, friends and doctors that they need to exercise, lose weight, eat better and take antidepressants. While the illness is often

Fatigue

described as “just in your head” the level of truth in that statement is profound. Sufferers of fibromyalgia have brains that just aren’t working properly, they don’t make enough of the right brain chemicals and may even have free-radical damage that affects how they think. (Murphree, 2003).

Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) sufferers don’t produce enough of the brain chemical serotonin. Seratonin is a brain chemical known as a neurotransmitter.

Neurotransmitters carry messages from one cell in the brain to another and they help regulate our moods, sleep, mental acuity, pain and other bodily functions.

Seratonin is a calming neurotransmitter. This chemical is important in the regulation of pain, and the ability to get deep and restorative sleep. It is believed that this lack of ability to rest is what leads to the FMS “fog”.

Sufferers of this syndrome describe an inability to focus and to concentrate. This is a significant contributor to the disability associated with fibromyalgia.

What Does Fibromyalgia Look Like?

Lifetime Chiropractic In less than 30 minutes you will receive a complete Chiropractic, Orthopedic, and Physical examination for ONLY $37 with this ad! We offer full Rehabilitation, Nutritional Counseling, and Massage Therapy.

24 Hour Emergency Care Appointments Available!

Most Insurance Accepted • We do the Paperwork

Lifetime Chiropractic

Serving Albuquerque and Rio Rancho for over 15 years!

(505) 891-3111 Rio Rancho (505) 822-0306 Albuquerque

Debilitating fatigue, vague pain and terrible sleep patterns characterize FMS. It may also be associated with memory difficulties, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, chemical sensitivities, allergies, chronic infections and recurrent headaches.

The physical symptoms of fibromyalgia worsen with any additional emotional or physical stressors. (Exercise can make it worse.)

The chronic localized pain of FMS leads to the poor sleep patterns, which creates the constant fatigue which leads to more inactivity, which leads to muscles that are more sensitive to pain which further decreases activity…..more pain….less sleep and on and on.

What Constitues a Diagnosis of Fibromyalgia?

The following list is the definitive list of FMS diagnostics. In order to be diagnosed, the patient must present with all three of the major characteristics and four or more of the minor characteristics.

Major

Generalized aches or stiffness of at least three anatomical sites for at least three months.

Six or more typical, reproducible tender points.

Exclusion of other disorders that can cause similar symptoms.

Minor Generalized fatigue Chronic headache Sleep disturbance Neurological and psychological complaints Numbing or tingling sensations Irritable bowel syndrome Variation of symptoms in relation to activity, stress, and weather changes Depression

www.lifetimechiropractic.com

The Lifetime TEAM of Professionals are ready to help you feel great again!

14

www.dukecityfit.com

Duke City Fit What Causes It?

Transcend Your Limits . . .

LMT# 5687

I would love to be able to answer this one simply, but like many other “modern” disorders and illnesses, there is no simple answer. This makes both diagnosing and treating FMS a challenge. It may be due to poor diet, trauma, stress, infection, immune dysfunction, hormonal imbalance and/ or genetics. No one really knows what the cause might be or it may be a combination of all of these things.

Where Do I Go For Help?

Obviously, such a complicated condition requires an in-depth approach.

It is like peeling away the layers of an onion. Your medical doctor might prescribe medications that will help in the short term with some of the complaints, but most of the time they fail to work over the long term. The side effects and complications of long term medication make some of these choices undesirable. We all are beginning to recognize the problems with the opiod drugs and fewer practitioners are prescribing them, but even the newer medications have their downsides and quite often our bodies attenuate to the medications and their effectiveness is decreased over time.

With a problem like FMS, you have to take charge of your health care.

You have to make the decisions that are best for your particular set of conditions. Exercise is a key component to the healing process and you have to decide what will work best for your body. Some fibro sufferers do better with light exercise such as Tai Chi or very gentle Yoga. Other folks enjoy the aerobic workouts that might be associated with bicycling or even running. Your treatment program must be tailored to fit you. One of the modalities that we use in my office is massage therapy and neuromuscular reeducation techniques. This is one of the oldest methods of health care still in practice. It involves use of different manipulative techniques to move your body’s muscles and soft tissues. Massage can reduce your heart rate, relax your muscles, improve range of motion in your joints and increase production of your body’s natural painkillers. It often helps relieve stress and anxiety.

Self-care is critical in the management of fibromyalgia. Reduce your stress levels. Develop a plan to avoid or limit overexertion and emotional stress. Allow yourself time each day to relax. That may mean learning how to say no without guilt. But try not to change your routine completely.

People who quit work or drop all activity tend to do worse than those who remain active. Try stress management techniques, such as deep-breathing exercises or meditation.

TRANSCENDENCE

Sports Massage

See How Regular Bodywork Can Change Your Life!

Pain Relief • Injury Prevention • Improved Training • Increased Energy

“Liz Farr is an excellent massage therapist. She does terrific massage, responds to patients’ needs, can identify what needs doing, provides a welcoming environment, and overall delivers an excellent service.

I have been to her for massage regularly to support my marathon training, and have always found her massage to be of the highest level and very helpful.”

Mara Yamauchi, Olympic Marathon Runner

$10 Off First Treatment Reg 60 Minute $55, Reg 90 Minute $75 Call For Appointment

Liz Farr 249-6305

Get enough sleep. Because fatigue is one of the main characteristics of fibromyalgia, getting sufficient sleep is essential. In addition to allotting enough time for sleep, practice good sleep habits, such as going to bed and getting up at the same time each day and limiting daytime napping.

Exercise regularly. At first, exercise may increase your pain. But doing it gradually and regularly often decreases symptoms. Appropriate exercises may include walking, swimming, biking and water aerobics. A physical therapist can help you develop a home exercise program. Stretching, good posture and relaxation exercises also are helpful.

Pace yourself. Keep your activity on an even level. If you do too much on your good days, you may have more bad days. Moderation means not “overdoing it” on your good days, but likewise it means not self-limiting or doing “too little” on the days when symptoms flare. Maintain a healthy lifestyle. Eat healthy foods. Limit your caffeine intake. Do something that you find enjoyable and fulfilling every day.

My advice would be to seek out a wholistic practitioner who can look at the whole person. Check out your hormone levels, check out your adrenal gland function, see what your cortisol levels might be, test for food allergies and offer a detoxification program for environmental toxicities.

It’s a complicated process, but there is hope and with dedication and cooperation, you and your health care provider can get this condition under control. I see patients making progress every day in my office. Remember that there is always help available to you. Don’t give up.

Dr Elaine Adams, DC has been practicing chiropractic for 21 years. Her clinic, Lifetime Chiropractic, specializes in nutrition and stress reduction. www.lifetimechiropractic.com email: dradams@lifetimechiropractic.com

Autumn 2012

15

Duke City Fit

Don’t Read This Story

Which came first?

Unless: You are over 50, Know someone over 50, May one day be over 50, Had Chickenpox, Didn’t have Chickenpox... Oh, Nevermind Ken Orth

This story has its roots in chickenpox.

Chickenpox?

Who in their right mind wants to read a story about chickenpox? Not me. And furthermore… who in the heck wants to write one?

Ditto.

Me, personally, I think I’d rather get ‘em than write about ‘em. It reminds me of the time, years ago, when I got the chance to interview a renowned podiatrist. Very cool. And then I realized I had to write a story about sore feet. What was I thinking’?

Chickenpox? Let’s review what we know.

If you’re old, like me, chances are you’ve had chickenpox. Probably as a kid. The statistics I’ve seen say 98% of adults have had chickenpox.

In fact, when I was a kid, they planned for us to get ‘em. When my sister got chickenpox, my mom systematically and intentionally infected the rest of the kids. All 5 of us pretty much had ‘em at the same time.

I remember it semi-clearly, which is saying a lot at my age… a week or so of us all hanging out on the fold-out couch in the living room, playing board games, watching the old black and white tv, and drinking copious amounts of 7-Up. Flat 7-Up, I think. What’s with that?

A couple of us had to wear mittens so we wouldn’t scratch ourselves. That, and calamine lotion. Pink. Very reminiscent of Pepto Bismol. I wondered if they were interchangeable. But I never tried it to find out. (Editor’s note: Don’t) Getting infected with chickenpox was for our own good. Or so we were told. Once you’ve had it, you never get it again. And far better to to have it as a child than as an adult. They weren’t too clear about why. Something about being pregnant or sex or something. We didn’t care. We were off from school and that was good enough for us.

It was, it seemed to me even at that young age, kinda counter-intuitive, although I certainly didn’t know that word at the time. Getting your kids sick on purpose? It raised some questions about the state of medicine of the day. What?…. were they gonna bleed us next?

And you know, in looking back at it, maybe that was the beginning of the rebellious nature that seemed to grow in me in the years that followed. It was the first seed of doubt. That first nagging thought that my parents (and doctors and adults in general) might not be infallible.

Oh Chickenpox, what have you wrought?

Anyway, that was the common knowledge of the day… and all the many, many years later, when I was a parent myself, and one of my sons got the chickenpox… well, you know what I did. What we did. Their mom and I… Yep. We bled ‘em. Attached leeches and….

No, no, no. I’m joking. We got ‘em both infected at the same time. That’s what we did, and we got it over with. I could mumble something about the fruit not falling far from the tree right here, but I’ll leave that to our more scholarly readers. Suffice it to say that our younger son, the one we intentionally infected, appears to be, now, of a somewhat more rebellious nature than his big brother.

Strange, that.

What we were told, what I believed, what I knew… was that once you had the chickenpox, you were immune for the rest of your life. Case closed.

Ahhhh, not so fast, grasshopper.

While it is, indeed, true that you will never again get chickenpox, there is a catch. A catch.

Like a Mitt Romney political ad, we’re not getting the whole story here. The devil is in the details.

Turns out, you see, that the chickenpox never ever really goes away. It just goes into hibernation. It is a virus. And that virus remains in your body long after the pox have departed.

They remain, like… um… forever. They have simply gone into hiding in some deep dark closet within your bodily house. Like the spores of a mold under the sink. It is there. It is always there. For twenty, thirty, forty years. Fifty. It is just sitting there, biding its time.

Until.

Until what?

She’s nearing her 50th birthday. She’s married, has a couple kids, lives in the Northeast Heights. Typical stuff. She goes to church, has a job as a nurse, eats well, is thoughtful about her health, and exercises a lot. She could be your next door neighbor. If your next door neighbor is a health nut.

Anyway, not too long ago she became aware of a pain in her back. On the lower left side. Not a searing pan. A weird pain. Kinda burning, but inside. She suspected she’d pulled something.

Then she discovered some bumps on the skin in the same area as the weird pain. It became kind of a rash. But it didn’t really itch. The pain was below the rash. Inside. But the rash itself became very sensitive to touch. Very sensitive. It HURT if you touched it.

She suspected that it was bug bites. Chiggers. Or a spider maybe. Or bedbugs.

Her husband, when she showed it to him, thought it looked kinda maybe like poison ivy. Put some hydrocortisone cream on it and give it a couple days.

Finally, after having had it for a few days, and with it apparently spreading, she mentioned it to a friend at work. A doctor friend. Sometimes it pays to be a nurse.

Things happened quickly after that. A visit to the Emergency Room, an exam, a diagnosis…

18

Shingles, they said.

Shingles?

Shingles.

What in the heck is shingles? She didn’t know. Her husband didn’t know. I didn’t know.

Nobody seemed to know. What in the heck is shingles?

Well, here is where the story gets interesting. One of the first things they ask when presented with an odd rash in an older person is: Have you had the chickenpox?

Yep. You, my friend, have the shingles.

Remember that virus that we talked about earlier? That one that went into dormancy after the chickenpox left? Well guess what? After all these many, many years, it has awakened. It has blossomed forth. It is messing with your body, as viruses are wont to do.

What it actually is doing is attacking the nerves under the skin. The rash is a by-product. Like the after-glow of bombs. In the sky. The real warfare is going on down there in the nerves.

That is why the weird pain. The nerves are sending messages to the brain… hey, this hurts.

But why? Why now? Why me?

Dang good question, that. Opinions are mixed, but it appears that the virus may be triggered by stress and/or a weakened immune system and/or aging. Usually, it infects people over the age of at least fifty. More likely, over sixty. A doctor friend of mine tells me that about 1 in 5 people over the age of 50 will get shingles. Literature from my pharmacy says that number is up to 1 in 3.

1 in 3.

Look around you.

1 in 3.

But is it a big deal, this shingles stuff? I mean… who cares? So you get a rash.

Problem is, it’s not just a rash. It is not an allergic reaction. It is an attack on your nerves.

And it can get serious. Real serious. For some people, the phantom, weird pain never goes away. They are stuck with it. And if the attack occurs on the face, near the eyes, blindness is a possibility. And it can re-occur.

Our friend… she who got the shingles… our health-nut neighbor… got treated with a drug called acyclovir, an oral medication. It is not an anti-biotic. Shingles are caused by a virus and antibiotics don’t work on viruses. This virus is related to the herpes virus, though it is NOT herpes. It is treated with similar medications.

Our friend, as of this writing, appears to be getting better. The rash is clearing up. She has been allowed to go back to her nursing job… she was out for a while because… because the shingles can be contagious.

But get this. Believe it or not. The shingles virus is contagious while the rash is blistering… but it doesn’t give other people the shingles. In fact, it is NOT contagious at all to people who have had the chickenpox (and are therefore susceptible to shingles). No. It is contagious only to people who have NOT had the chickenpox. Like babies and children and possibly, pregnant moms. And it doesn’t give them shingles. It gives them the chickenpox!

How weird is that? The shingles rash can give other people the chickenpox. If they haven’t had ‘em yet. And that chickenpox, in turn, many many years later, can evolve back into shingles and go after their nerves. Whose idea was this?

Ah, the strange world of a virus.

So let me wrap this up. I start off writing about something I don’t really want to write about, and then that evolves into something I REALLY don’t want to write about. Shingles.

What for?

Well, I tell ya… it is basically to let you know that this is out there. Shingles. I didn’t know.

I didn’t want to know. If you are approaching 50, are over 50, are thinking about being over 50 some day, or know someone who might make it to 50, you should be aware of this stuff. If you had the chickenpox, it concerns you. And if you didn’t, well, you know, you could get the chickenpox from someone with the shingles, so it still concerns you. Either way.

And finally, if you had the chickenpox and you are over 50, you can get a vaccine. A shingles shot. It doesn’t completely prevent the shingles… it’s batting around 50%, I hear… but if you do get ‘em, it lessens their duration and impact. The vaccine is highly recommended.

And if you are lucky enough to have health insurance, the shot should be covered. Mine was.

Now you know.

More info on the web: www.mayoclinic.com/health/shingles/DS00098 Editors Note: Chickenpox has absolutely nothing to do with chickens. Or eggs. This was a shameless use of a cute, unrelated item to draw readers into the story. As are the roof shingles. Though they are not cute. Or even particularly photogenic. They are not related in any way to the shingles virus. I apologize for their wanton misuse.

www.dukecityfit.com

Duke City Fit

Autumn 2012

19

Duke City Fit

20

www.dukecityfit.com

Duke City Fit

Dynamic Fitness Lifestyle Nutritional Knowledge is POWER for Living Dynamically!!!

The human body is made up of a vast array of nutrients… vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, essential fatty acids, amino acids and countless other nutritional building blocks. Now with that said, please note that I did not include drugs, synthetic hormones, chemical based fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides or preservatives of any kind!

After years of extensive research, food scientists have recently concluded that most diseases can be linked to some type of nutritional deficiency. In other words, it’s pretty simple; when our bodies become nutrient-deficient, they just can’t possibly function the way that they were originally designed.

With the latest research now shedding some much needed light on the seriousness of nutritional deficiencies, we find many doctors are fortunately beginning to prescribe to the benefits of supplementing with good quality dietary supplements. A recent article in the Journal of American Medicine even announced that a good quality vitamin, mineral and anti-oxidant supplement should be taken to help prevent chronic diseases. Hallelujah!!!

It was once believed that all we needed to do to maintain adequate levels of nutrients was to eat a variety of foods as long as it included fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, our farmlands have become severely nutrient depleted over the years due to over-farming. This has regrettably resulted in the fact that food just does not contain the nutrients that it once had.

Some farmers do try to replace minerals back into the soil; However these minerals do very little to enhance the nutritional quality of the crop. And many farmers will also make an effort to replace nutrients by growing a crop that is not harvested, that they will then till back into the soil.

But for whatever reason, they refuse to realize that this is pretty much a waste of time. If the minerals are not in the soil to begin with, they won’t be in the crop that is being worked back into the soil either.

For most of us, it is no secret that farming today includes using harsh chemical based fertilizers, pesticides, and insecticides.

These further contaminate our food. And if that’s not bad enough, dangerous preservatives are being added to keep food foods fresh during a potentially long transportation process, which may then be followed by along stay on your store’s shelves. To add insult to injury, additional additives are often used in an effort to enhance the somewhat unhealthy appearance of produce that is commercially grown.

Organic produce doesn’t only contain higher amounts of quality nutrients, they usually look and taste better than the commercially grown produce as well. For example, a tomato grown in organic, nutrient-rich soil has a deep red appearance on the inside. It will also have a robust and exceptionally pleasing flavor. On the other hand, a commercially grown tomato generally has a pink to clear appearance when cut open and lacks the same rich flavor of the organically grown tomato.

Autumn 2012

The same can be said for the raising of livestock and poultry.

There is no comparison between hormone-free grass fed beef and commercially raised cattle. Grass fed beef is much leaner and the fat that it does contain is very high in healthy Omega. They also contain greater nutritional values straight across the board. And to seal the deal, the flavor of grass fed beef is most delicious in comparison… There is nothing quite like it!

This is precisely why I highly recommend for my clients to buy locally grown organic produce and grass fed/hormone-free meats when at all possible. I say “when possible” because it is nearly impossible to do-so 100% percent of the time and by no means should you get down on yourself when you can’t. Just do your best to put in a good effort most of the time and you should be fine.

Because, in my professional opinion, even the smallest effort made to really eat clean will accumulatively help to contribute to your overall health and well-being in the years to come.

You know it’s a real shame that somewhere along the line someone’s bottom line has become more important than the health and well-being of this country’s people. This could all change if we went back to natural farming that consists of rotating crops every few years and resting the fields every seven years. This could also be accomplished without all of the chemical based fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, and preservatives.

Now, you may be wondering why I didn’t really talk very much about nutritional supplements when it might have seemed like that’s where this article was headed. “Fooled Ya! Wouldn’t want to be Ya!!!” No, not really… Actually I wanted this article to get you thinking about what you are putting into your bodies. And for that reason I did not want to use this article as a means to make any endorsements on any particular nutritional supplements/products, manufacturers, or companies.

However, I will recommend that you do your homework before purchasing nutritional supplements. It is important that you discuss nutritional supplements with your doctor or a trusted fitness professional based upon your personal needs. And to collectively gather information based upon what you want to accomplish from using nutritional supplements. Understand this right here and now.. there are no such things as magical pills, powders or potions. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. And remember that Dwain says “Nutritional Supplements are meant to SUPPLEMENT the foods that you are eating and they are NOT meant to be used as substitutes for good quality food”… Capisce?

So again, it’s pretty simple... if nutritional deficiencies did not exist, neither would the problems associated with them. This, in a nutshell (organically grown nuts of course), is TEAM DB’s intense motivation for personally eating and recommending a healthy diet.

A diet that consists of clean healthy organically grown produce.

And grass fed free range meats when at all possible. Combine these with good quality nutritional supplements to help ensure that we are all getting the proper quantities of nutrients. If we do these things, we will be successfully promoting overall health, wellbeing, and longevity in an effort to Live Dynamically!

Dwain Kindelberger has been a Personal Trainer since 1981. He is a graduate of The National Academy of Sports Medicine, and is the owner of Designer Bodies Exclusive Personal Training and Nutrition Management Center.

Visit us on the web at

www.designerbodies.net

The information contained in this article is not meant to treat, diagnose or cure any ailments or diseases. Please consult your physician before starting any exercise or nutrition program.

21

y l l i S Old n a M

Duke City Fit

Ken Orth

The decision was not made lightly... To go backpacking by myself. Alone.

Part of the idea, the decision, was thrust upon me. This was the time I had free, and this was the time that my wife and kids just happened to be back in Kentucky visiting the in-laws.

And part of the decision was something from inside of me. A craving to get out and away, into the boonies, where there were no clocks or cars or cellular phones.

Or people.

And finally, a part of it was… well… part of it was to test myself. Not just my wilderness skills, which are at least adequate, but, perhaps more so, the mental aspects of it all. Of being alone.

Of being confronted, face on, by my own biggest critic. And my own biggest fan.

Myself.

Without interruption. Or at least, without interruption, for example, by a well-meaning friend defending me with a “hey, lay off him… he’s okay.” Or conversely, from someone listing my many flaws, spittle-flecked and angry. Neither would be along. It would be only me.

And look, I am no longer a spring chicken. I’ve got a few years under my belt. This in itself weighs heavily upon such a decision.

It concerns both the physical aspects of a solitary backpack, and the mental baggage I must carry along too. AN injury, a mistake, a slip… could be devastating. Age is not kind in that regard. And then, too, the years have piled a lot of stuff up in the darkened corners of my cranial cavities.

What demons, I wondered, might find their way to the surface in the lonely blackness of a wilderness night?

No, the decision was not made lightly. And when I finally stepped across the line in the sand, it simply shifted the mental burden from “should I?” to “where do I go and what do I take?”

It was better, I thought, to go someplace that I knew. Where I had been before, and liked. But, someplace that I had not visited for quite some time.

And it should have water. I like water.

And it should be isolated. I did not want to carry a pack into the schticks only to find somebody already there.

And it should be down-right, drop-dead beautiful. Is that asking too much?

Cruces Basin. I knew the answer even before I finished asking myself the questions. The Cruces Basin Wilderness. It’s up in northern New Mexico, butting up against the Colorado border. It is a gem. A sparkling diamond really. And I hadn’t been there since backpacking in with my wife and kids about 5 or 6 years ago. It was perfect.

But, I knew, no matter how spontaneous one wants to be, you can’t just throw some stuff together and go backpacking. Not any kind of backpacking trip, much less a solo pack. I have a checklist. I printed it and I actually checked stuff off. And I didn’t cut the corners that I might have when I was young and exuberant. And stupid.

The net result was that my pack was pretty darn heavy. I had stuff that I probably wouldn’t use… Spare pants. A first aid kit. Long johns. A toothbrush.

Oh, wait a minute. I’d probably use the toothbrush. I do, after all, have to talk to myself in the morning. Over coffee. Coffee out of a backpacker French Press. Life can be quite tough in the wilderness.

The drive to Cruces Basin is, in itself, I think, worth the price of admission. (Which is nothing other than the time and gas it takes to get there.)

The final leg is a lonely gravel road out in the very smack dab middle of nowhere. It is 25 miles through rolling hills of sagebrush and scrub

22

juniper with naught but occasional cows, possibly right on the road, for company. And as you cruise that gravel road you are, unbeknownst for the most part, actually going up in elevation. Way up. I guess the scenic vistas you stumble upon here and there should give you some kind of a clue.

Then, when you evidently crest the top and begin a bit of a descent into it, you are actually up at around 10,000 feet, though how you got that high is anybody’s guess.

It is a basin. A big, dang bowl. And when you finally park the car in an empty meadow and set off down the trail, it is indeed DOWN. Not ungodly, steeply, slippery-slidey down. But down, on a nice path through an aspen forest. How steep it actually is becomes much more apparent on the return trip back up. But that is later.

For now, enjoy the beauty and the solitude of the shimmering aspens. The trek is simply placing one foot in front of the other and letting gravity do its work. The weight of the pack supplies more in the way of impetus than it does drag. Life is beginning to look rather good.

And the aspens! Oh, the aspens. I noticed in several spots along the drive up and I notice it again now, that this is not an aspen glade. It is not a grove. It is not a stand or a copse. It is a forest. There must be thousands of them, as far as the eye can see. The leaves are dancing in that way that only aspen leaves can dance. Flashing, somehow, as they do. I’m thinking that this place must be really spectacular in the

fall when the reds and golds of autumn flame forth.

My reverie with the trees is finally broken, about a mile in when I break out into an opening and the trail swerves left out onto a ridge. There is an eagerness to my step as I head out over the rocky terrain to the edge. This very spot is much of the reason I chose to come to this wilderness. This spot. This edge.

This view. (See the view, or close to it, on the previous page in the centerspread) It does not disappoint.

From here, on the jagged edge of a precipice, I gaze out over the basin. The grand bowl. Emerald green it is.

Rolling hills of tall grass. Treeless. But studded here and there with ragged outcroppings of ancient rocks, like monuments of some kind.

The bowl is surrounded, up around its rim, by mountains. In past visits there have been pockets of snow visible up there, even into July. But I see none this time. It has been an unusually hot year, and I wonder if this is just the way it will be from hereto on out.

That thinking leads my eyes to pick out the jeweled strands of water, the creeks, that meander down the length of the meadows. It isn’t hard to find them. They sparkle like diamonds in the late afternoon sun. The water gurgles over rounded rocks and beds of pebbles, glistening.

Diablo Creek comes down from the left, the southwest and the distant rim of mountains there, and Beaver Creek descends gently from the north, almost straight ahead. They are like two forks of a “Y” coming together almost directly below me.

They are like, it occurs to me, the two halves of a giant, diamond-studded necklace. They come together into a sparkling pendant at the foot of my precipice.

It is a necklace of the Gods. It lays on the warm, green breast of our mother. It is the rarest of jewelry… visible,

www.dukecityfit.com

Duke City Fit

perhaps best, from a heavenly perspective.

I am hesitant to descend from my grand viewing station, but descend I must, for dark and ominous clouds are beginning to form in the distant west. They have mischief in mind, I think.

The way down is steep and slippery. Slippery in the sense of loose gravel and rocks that are wont to slide. Which they do.

Near the bottom my feet go out and I end up on my tailbone… a good scrape on my left palm where I caught myself.

It decides to drip blood. Crimson paint on the white granite, brilliant in the afternoon sun. I pull out my red bandana, a hiking staple (and on my checklist), and as I wrap it around my palm and wrist a strange thought comes to me. I have just made myself a blood brother with this basin. The idea makes me smile.

When I finally get myself safely down to the creeks without further incident, I shed my pack in the tall grass and I find a small pool at the base of a little waterfall. I dunk my head and pull off the bandana to rinse it and clean my scrape. A cloud of pink swirls away in the crystalline water.

Then, magic occurs.

Standing up on the bank in the grass, shaking water out of my wet hair and squeezing it out of the bandana, there is a sudden explosion. An eruption. Of butterflies!

Not 2 or 3 butterflies. Not a dozen. Hundreds of butterflies.

All kinds of butterflies. Different sizes and different colors and different shapes. They flutter around me in a frantic storm.

Perhaps they are attracted to or disturbed by the water or the sudden activity or the bright red of the bandana. Or my sunburned nose.

I stand stock still in the midst of the fluttering chaos, afraid to disturb the moment. One butterfly, grey-white with a texture of satin, seems attracted to my nose. He hovers there, closer and closer, as if he intends to land… proboscis to proboscis. I go cross-eyed staring at him there while the flurry of other colorful wings go blurry in the background.

Suddenly, sadly, he is gone… and I have to take a step back in the grass to regain my balance. I am slightly dizzy… failing, I guess, the impromptu Cruces Basin butterfly sobriety test.

The butterflies disperse, perhaps more magically than they appeared, and I am left to wonder if I imagined it all in the rarefied atmosphere. Thunder rumbles, like an alarm clock, and I gather up my pack and my senses and I head on down the creek towards the campsites that I know are there.

Autumn 2012

The rain never comes. Though it threatens and struts and puts on a pretense of malevolence, it is all just a show. I set up my tent and gather dry firewood into the relative shelter of a big ol’ ponderosa pine. I build a small fire and boil water for ramen noodles and hot chocolate, dinner of backpacking champions everywhere. As the sun goes down I am alone with the flames and the gurgling creek, starless and dark.

This is, I think, a good place for me to open the doors and windows of my soul. To air the place out, as it were. To gaze into the dark corners where the rubble of time has accumulated. I talk to myself, here, gazing into the flickering flames, long into the night. I chide myself for this, and I praise myself for that, and my thoughts wander where they will on the wings of butterflies.

Morning comes too quickly and suddenly with a blast of sunlight into the face. The day will be spent in a flurry of activity into the 2 different worlds of the basin.

One world is down the creek. I wander through a big valley with beaver dams to where the creek finally dives into a gorge and begins its plunging, rocking, foaming descent toward the river 900 feet below. This is a world of waterfalls and thundering madness and misty granite boulders. I take lunch on a rock in the middle of the chaos, and I cannot sing loud enough to hear myself over the watery cacophony, though Lord knows, I try.

“Don’t sing with your mouth full,” someone says from a hundred miles away, but I can’t hear them.

The other world, my afternoon world, is out into the gaping, grassy meadows of the bowl itself. It is a warm world of crackling swarms of grasshoppers and clouds of butterflies and flowers and the flattened-down beds where elk have spent the night.

The creek grows smaller and smaller going this way, as if through time, back through its adolescence to its childhood where it dances gaily over colored, sparkling rocks… unaware, it seems, of a what awaits it in the tumbling chaos of adulthood.

“Take your time,” I murmur to it. “You’ll be all grown up before you know it.”

It gurgles with youthful laughter, obviously ignoring the advice of this impetuous intruder.

And I laugh with it in the sparkling sunlight. We all grow older, I think, gazing around, arms high, turning slowly in a tight circle. But very few of us get to do it in such a wondrous, magical place.

“Thank you, my brother,” I say to the creek. And the basin.

“Thank you.”

And the creek ignores me, on its way to glory.

Silly old man.

See next page for info if you are going to Cruces Basin

23

Duke City Fit

Continued from Previous Page

Silly Old Man at Cruces Basin If you are thinking about going to Cruces Basin... Cruces Basin is just a

little too far for a day trip. Its an overnighter.

The best idea is to use the Lagunitas campgrounds there, then dayhike (or backpack) into the wilderness.

Cruces Basin is in Carson National Forest, about a 3 hour drive north on 285 past Santa Fe, Espanola, and Tres Piedras

toward Antonito, Colorado. The stretch of 285 north of Espanola is a whole lotta nothing... deserted sagebrush and scrub pine. A relaxing drive.

Take a detour to the west at Tres Piedras to visit the Ranger Station. Get the wilderness map. As you approach, San Antonio mountain dominates the landscape. Dirt road 87 turns off to the west a few miles before you’re right next to the mountain.

Immediately there is a sign for Cruces Basin. It’s 28 miles to the campgrounds. There is no drinking water at the campgrounds so take plenty.

You’ll want to stay at the “Lower” campground next to the lakes.

Fishing is good.

The wilderness access is a rutted road running off to the right about 5 miles before the campgrounds. A half-down beatup sign just before a cattle-guard marks the road. Unless its been raining, the road is not as bad as it looks. Its about 4 miles back to the parking area with signs. The trail down to the basin is about a mile. Meadows to the left, creek gorge to the right.

There are very few, if any, more remote, deserted, beautiful places than the Cruces Basin WIlderness.

Tres Piedras Ranger Station: (575) 758-8678

898-3562 SW Corner of 4th & Alameda Enter on 4th, Across from the Church 24

www.dukecityfit.com

Duke City Fit

Multi-use Trail: A paved trail close to auto traffic Bicycle Lane: A portion of street with designated lane for bikes One-way Bike Lane: Similar to bike lane but one way Bicycle Route: Cars and bikes share the road Bicycle Boulevard: Shared roadway optimized for bike traffic Mountain Bike Trail: Unpaved but maintained trail Roads with Wide Shoulders Arroyos

Autumn 2012

Bicycle/Pedestrian Overpass Mountain Bike Trailhead Place of Interest High School Bosque Trail Parking Lots Rapid Ride Stop Bicycle Shop Rail Runner Express Station

25

Duke City Fit

Bike to Work

ABQ Biking

Or anyplace else you need to go

Bicycle Safety Program

te u m m o C to s n o s a e R 0 1 Top es resources 1. Biking conserv ng 2. It’s non-polluti costly gasoline o n ve si en p ex in 3. It’s nance or vehicle mainte c congestion 4. It relieves traffi king expenses 5. You’ll avoid par e by combining 6. You’ll save tim muting exercise and com work invigorated 7. You’ll arrive at window seat 8. Every seat is a ience nature 9. You can exper 10. It’s healthy!

:

y t e f Sa Ride in a straight line

Avoid dodging between parked cars. Ride at least one yard from curb to allow room to avoid hazards.

Beware of car doors

The Bicycle Safety Program offers “Bicycle Safety Rodeos” and presenta-tions to the schools and the community. Children and adults learn basic bicycling skills, traffic laws, helmet use and safety.

Presented by certified instructors.

The Bicycle Safety Program provides all equipment including bicycles, helmets, literature, signs and instruction.Presentations on bicycle safety are available for cub/boy/girl scouts, community centers, after school programs, churches, etc. For more information call 768-BIKE (2453).

Help for Your

Company:

• Provide FREE bike maps to yo your emplo u and y ees • Offer FRE E trip plan ning for th bike and b ose who us to work • G u a ra n ju s t call 24 te e d R i d e Home pro 3-RIDE • Marketin gram g and prom otion of b • Organize iking employee informatio meetings nal on biking and walkin g Call 243-R IDE for mo re informa tion!

Obey signs & signals

Cycling 101 Let the Bicycle Safety Education Program help you sharpen up your cycling skills with a Cycling 101 Class. The seven and a half hour program runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and will include: • Effective Bike Handling • How to change a flat • Traffic Rules • Proper Bike Fit • Minor Bike Maintenance All participants will receive a patch kit and tire irons. Groups of 6 to 12 may schedule a private class. For more information call 867-8640

Scan the road behind Shoulder check regularly and use a mirror

City of Albuquerque

Ride single file

Dismount as posted

Dismount & walk across roadways or posted locations

Extra Care at Intersections

Control your pet

Most accidents occur at intersections

Pets must be leashed & owners must clean up

26

Make eye contact

Turn left - 2 options 1-As vehicle in left turn lane 2-As pedestrian in far side crosswalk

Earphone Dangers

Keep volume down or one ear out so you can hear other riders

Citizen Contact Center Municipal Development Dept Street Repair & Sweeping Parks & Recreation Bike Safety Programs Open Space Trail Maintenance Bike NOW Program &

Bike and Ride Construction & Detours

311 768-2680 857-8025 857-8650 768-2453 452-5200 243-RIDE

GABAC- Greater ABQ Bicycle Advisory Committee

768-2680

GARTC- Greater ABQ Recreational Trails Committee

768-5325

924-3690

You may order more copies of the Albuquerque Bike Trails Map by calling 768-2680

Lights at night Strong white headlight & red taillight

www.dukecityfit.com

Duke City Fit

Autumn 2012

27

Duke City Fit

About that cover photo, and the inside cover photo and a couple of photos in the center spread...

Let us speak

Of Rocks, and Balloons, and Many Things Ken Orth See that picture over there to the left… of a girl standing on a ledge, her hand on her heart and an unbelieving expression on her face? Do you what that is? That’s an honest picture. That’s a girl feeling her wildly beating heart, emotions running amuck, trying to come to grips with reality, after just successfully making it to the top of her first real outdoor rock climb ever.

“I can’t believe it,” is what she might be saying. If she could talk. It was what she later told me she was thinking up there.

“It was amazing,” she said. It was something she had never felt before.

I had gone out with the group to the Jemez on a Sunday morning to see if I could get a handle on what this “Climb Like A Girl” thing was all about.

Girls climbing. Who knew?

Carolyn Parker heads up the group, which has been around for years. A certified mountain guide, that’s her on the cover of this issue, cowboy hat and all. As the top banana, she’s the one that has to go up on the first climbs of the day to get the ropes up there. The ropes that will be attached to all the other climbers so that they are secured and safe should they slip.

Which, of course, means that she doesn’t have the full benefit of that safety rope until she hooks it on to each ring as she makes her way up. That’s one such recently attached ring right in front of her face there. Now it’s up to the next one. It is certainly one way to get your blood flowing on a Sunday morning.

On the day I went they sent up about a half dozen lines on the cliff face at various places and various degrees of difficulty. The girls took turns on them, choosing their challenge level, or being guided to one. There was often more than one girl going at a time, but generally they would all stop, watch, and cheer on a particular climber who was nearing the top of a climb. Especially the newer ones. It made for an unusual aura… while it is most definitely an individual achievement, there was still a very palpable feeling of group and community. Support.

Carolyn ParkerIntro&to Rock Climbing September 18, 26

AMGA Certified Rock Guide

Present:

Climb Like A Girl Women’s Rock Climbing Clinics September 22

Climb Like a Girl, Moab!

October 6 & 7

Climb Like a Girl, ICE February 9 & 10

For More Info & To Register: climblikeagirl@gmail.com 505-400-5590 28

Why do they do it?

Well, ya know, some people just flat out like to climb rocks. And that’s all there is to it.

Like I like raspberry-mocha frappuccinos, I guess.

No need to explain. But many of them, particularly among the girls, it seems, do it for the sense of accomplishment. Of overcoming fear. Of being able to say, to know, that “if I can do this, I can do just about anything.”

They probably have a point there. After climbing up a 200 foot cliff with your fingers and your toes, fixing a busted dishwasher doesn’t seem like such a daunting task.

The “Climb Like A Girl” group, by the way, has spawned a spinoff group. Climb Like A Geezer. You have to be over 50 to be in that select group, I’m told.

What can I say?

On another weekend, I was again out bright and early to head out with another group of adventure seekers aiming to get some thrills somewhere up off the ground.

This time, it was in hot air balloons.

We all see them. We notice them. Heck at this time of year, how can we not? They are up there, nearly every morning it seems, dotting the skyline. Colorful, floating, enigmas. We know what they are, and what makes them work. But it stretches credulity. Hot air?

And we’re seeing them, as it were, from the outside.

From afar. What is it like from the inside?

There is a Moody Blues song that often speaks to me in unusual situations, as it did this time… “With the eyes of a child, you must come out and see, that the world’s spinning round… with the eyes of a child you will see.”

For me, floating up and away in a balloon is best done with the eyes of a child. With a leaning towards wonder and magic.

It is a wicker basket, for heaven’s sake. A wicker basket with a flame-thrower attached to it. How much magic do you need?

It is to carry me, and a newly married couple from Tulsa, and a family unit from Amarillo up into the gray, dim light of dawn. Underneath a big, ol’ brightly colored pillowcase. A pillowcase built for the Jolly Green Giant, I’m thinkin’.

When the whole thing actually, finally and really, leaves the ground, I don’t believe it. I look over the side of the wicker that we so laboriously climbed into and I watch the dirt and the rocks, and they’re getting smaller. Or I’’m getting taller. Like Alice in Wonderland.

No, no… I’m floating. I can feel my heart beating like that girl up on the ledge. I’m being lifted up, we’re being lifted up, by hot air. I’m not believing that. I believe in elevators and jet planes. Hot air, my butt. That’s the stuff of fairy tales and medieval dragons. And the Wizard of Oz. Yet here I am. Wingless and airborne. For once in my life, I am going where the winds and the world would take me. Not to school. Not to soccer practice. I’m going nowhere. I’m going somewhere.

I don’t know where I am going.

Is that freedom?

It is a quiet view of the world, punctuated now and then with a bunsen burner roar and the sudden intense heat as from a chile roaster’s flames. I wonder, vaguely, if they could pull double duty with this thing and hang some chiles across up there. Would the aroma of roasting chiles add to the magic?

A crow sails by, borne on the same winds as we. He GRAWKS at us, crowlike. Perhaps it is a greeting of some kind, but I think not. Crows, I know, are rather jealous guardians of their flying spaces. More likely he is chastising us… an intruder, but a rather large intruder, so a few choice crow epithets will have to suffice.

The sun rising over the Sandias seems to partner with us as we rise over the valley. It is a play. Or perhaps a dance with two parts. One mimics the other in a slow, colorful ascension into the azure New Mexico sky. I am dancing with the sun!, I think, and I realize that I have never thought that thought before.

Do crows ever think that?

The sunlight pours out, golden, from behind the clouds and its heat is intense when it hits us. Or is that the burners again? The Rio Grande below, unseen and unnoticed till now in the pre-dawn darkness suddenly flares and erupts… reflecting my heated thoughts… and becomes a river of hot lava. Of molten gold.

King Midas, were he here, would wonder just what the Gods had wrought.

www.dukecityfit.com

Duke City Fit Lighted now, the world below us begins to take form and shape. No longer the empty darkened stage that it was, it becomes a city, with yards and houses and barking dogs. We are voyeurs, peeking down.

Floating above. It seems at times, from the stillness, that we are suspended in place and t is actually the world that is moving below us. Inexorably turning while we just hang out.

Chillin’.

Nothing expresses, I think, the medieval nature of this adventure than the landing itself. The coming back to earth. Though I had not really noticed how fast we were moving when we were aloft, I notice it now. The bushes and trees are evidently late for a very important date.

We will not roll this thing in on rubber tires. Nor do we have shock absorbers. We will come back to earth as God intended. Or at least, as Sir Isaac Newton intended. Like a rock. With luck, we’ll get dragged a little and the basket will tip on it side and we’ll fall all over each other and the fat lady from Amarillo will start to sing…”Turn out the lights, the party’s over…”

What a ride it was! Both of them. Rock climbing and ballooning. A little R & B. Very different from each other, no doubt. But both are very much a part our enchanted homeland.

Inspiring. Motivational. Magicical.

And I tell you what. Were I to take that picture of the girl… her hand trying to still her beating heart and her eyes ablaze with wonderment… that picture could equally be on a ledge of sheer granite, or in a wicker basket afloat in the clear, blue Albuquerque sky.

R ECLAMATION FITNESS

Information about the “Climb Like A Girl” group can be found in the ad on the opposite page.

I went ballooning with World Balloon.

Their ad is on the back cover.

The song “Eyes of a Child” is on the Moody Blues album “To Our Children’s Children’s Children”

Dawn Crocetti, A.C.E. Health & Fitness Coach, Trainer

505.301.7201

Specializing in:

www.ReclamationFitness.com

itness eluctant Athletes alth Reclamation R M id-Life F He

Autumn 2012

29

Duke City Fit

Events in Red Require Registration On-going A View WIth A Room, Free, 9am-5pm everyday, Open Space Visitor Center 6500 Coors NW, a showcase of landscape paintings describing the City of Albuquerque’s Open Space properties, with a special focus on its Waterways and Wildlife contact Josh 897-8831 Yoga With a View, $15 ($5 first time), 9-10:30am, Every Sunday, Open Space Visitor Center 6500 Coors NW, Yoga in a beautiful setting contact 897-8831 Qigong in the Park, Free, Saturdays 9-10am: Altura Park at Hannett and Morningside NE, Qigong practice for all, Loretta 681-1924 www. qigonginthepark.com Annual Corn Maze, City of Albuquerque, Sep 15 thru Oct 31, $7 adults / $5 under 12, Los Poblanos Fields on Montano at Tierra Viva; Fri-

days: 3pm-9pm, Saturdays 10am-9pm, Sundays 10am-6pm 345-4580 www.riograndefarm.org New Mexico Volunteers for the Outdoors, Save trails, learn new skills with cool tools, and “rub shoulders” with forest rangers helping to build and maintain a wide variety of trails. 884-1991 www.nmvfo.org Open Space: A View with a Room, Free, Every day through Oct 28, Open Space Visitor Center 6500 Coors NW, Art Show and sale by regional artists Part of proceeds to benefit Open Space Alliance Joshua WIllis 897-8831 Nob Hill Growers Market, Every Thursday 3pm6:30pm until Nov 1, Morningside Park at Lead & Morningside SE Catherine Gordon, 934-8960 ABQ Uptown Growers Market,, Every Saturday & Tuesday until Oct 27, 7am-noon at Louisiana & Indian School (NE parking lot) Nancy Erickson, 865-3533

Northeast Farmers Market, Tuesdays, 3 pm - 7 pm until Oct 30, West side of ABQ Academy, 6400 Wyoming Blvd. Enter campus at Burlison go right (south) and the market will be on the right hand side across from the softball fields. Jedrek Lamb, (505) 858-8887

Advanced Bicycle Mechanics Class, $20, 9am4pm, Parks & Rec Admin Building 1801 4th St NW , Learn about bike maintenance: brakes, derailleur adjustments, shifting systems, headsets, bottom brackets, and wheels. pre-register: Julian 505-225-8537

Downtown Farmers Market, Every Saturday 7am-noon until Nov 3, Robinson Park at 8th & Central Sarah Wentzel-Fisher, 243-2230 x127

September 23 Tour De Acoma Bicycle Race, Pre-Register, 100-50-25 mile race, unique chance to bike on the beautiful pueblo lands, See Ad pg 5, 505-5521040 www.tourdeacoma.com

Corrales Growers Market, Sundays 9am-noon, Wednesdays 3 pm - 6 pm until Nov 4, Recreation Center 500 Jones Rd & Corrales Rd, Mary Jane 898-7927 Water Exercise Classes, Weekdays, $2.50, City of Albuquerque Indoor Pools at Los Altos Pool 2916291; Valley Pool 761-4086; West Mesa Aquatic Center 836-8718, Morning & evening classes

September 26 Albuquerque RSI Wellness Group, Free, a support group for people in physical pain from their computer use (carpal tunnel,, tendonities, etc), Monthly meetings contact Trina 505-440-4512

Rio Grande Nature Center Bird Walks, $3 parking, 8:30am, Saturdays & Sundays, join a naturalist for a quiet bird walk, preregister, 344-7240

September 29 Hot Chocolate 15K, 7:15am, see ad page 27, benefits Ronald McDonald House, the most scrumptious post race party in the nation with Hot Chocolate and Fondue, www.hotchocolate15k.com/albuquerque

Rio Grande Nature Center Nature Walks, $3 parking, Sundays, 10am in Sep / 1pm in Oct-Dec, an insightful nature tour of the bosque, preregister, 344-7240

Mt Taylor 50K, forested trails & trails through open high mountain meadows and the 360 degree view from the summit of Mt Taylor, mttaylor50k. com Born to Run 2012, 8:45am, Sagebrush Church 6440 Coors Blvd NW, 881-4563 www.borntorunnm.org

September 16 Chips n Salsa Half Marathon, 7am, Pre-registration required, Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute, ww.IRUNFIT.org Santa Fe to Buffalo Thunder Half Marathon, 8am, Pre-registration required, from the heart of Santa Fe down old Taos Highway to Buffalo Thunder Resort www.santafethunder.com Open Space Urban Farm & Harvest Festival, Free, 10am-4pm, Open Space Visitor Center 6500 Coors NW, A celebration of Urban Agriculture / Local food / Community Jodi 897-8831

2401 Jefferson NE • Albuquerque, NM 87111 (505) 884-8012 • www.libertygym.com 30

September 22 Sandia Scoot 5K, 7am, $25, UNM North Golf Course 2201 Tucker NE, races along the beautiful tree-lined fairways of the golf course with a great after-party, benefits Ability Connection New Mexico, www.sandiascoot.com

September 29 National Public Lands Day, Free, 9am, After breakfast (provided by Open Space), we are planning on doing trash cleanup for most of the morning, from 9:00 until noon the geo-caching fun after lunch, Erik 505-452-5208 September 30 Twilight Hike on a Full Moon Night, $3 Parking fee, dusk, Pre-register required, RioGrande Nature Center 2901 Candelaria NW, Call for exact start time, 344-7240 Corrida de Corrales 2012, 27th annual, run the flat, shady, dirt trail along the tree-lined acequia through the heart of beautiful Corrales, www. active.com

October 6 Spooktacular 5K, 9am, Bernalillo County Parks & Rec, run on Paseo Del Bosque Open Space Trail, Vicente Ramirez 505-314-0422, www.bernco.gov/sports

www.dukecityfit.com

Duke City Fit October 6 Trail Watch Volunteer Training, Free, 10am12:30pm, Open Space Visitor Center 6500 Coors NW, Join the ABQ Open Space Division volunteer team & support a community-based commitment to promote conservation and appreciation for our local public lands contact Jolynn 505-452-5207 October 6-14 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, Balloon Fiesta Park, 1-888-422-7277 www.balloonfiesta.com, October 7 Sandia Shadows Trail Run, 8am, Pre-registration required, www.IRUNFIT.org Bosque Wild Sunday Morning Hike, Free, 9am, First Sunday of the month from the Open Space Visitor Center, 6500 Coors NW, 1.5 hour guided walk in Bosque, max 20 people, Pre-register suggested 897-8831 October 13 Run for the Beans, 8am, in McIntosh, NM - 7 miles south of Moriarty, unique awards & everyone takes home a pumpkin, Contact Colleen Burns 505-384-5039 www.abqroadrunners.com/race-calendar.html

October 23 Albuquerque RSI Wellness Group, Free, a support group for people in physical pain from their computer use (carpal tunnel,, tendonities, etc), Monthly meetings contact Trina 505-440-4512 October 26-28 NM Ski Swap, $2, presented by Sandia Peak Ski Patrol at Expo New Mexico, Saturday 9am-4pm, Sunday 11am-4pm, info about selling & buying gear: www.nmskiswap.org October 27 Make A Difference Day, Free, 9am-1pm, Piedra Lisa Open Space conservation, maintenance, & cleanup projects at end of Candelaria just south on Camina de la Sierra, Nicodemus Wilderness Project, Jim Satler 452-5200 October 28 Day of the Tread, Pre-register required, Biking or Running or Walking on pumpkin-lined courses to benefit Tingley Hospital , See Ad page 9, www. dayofthetread.com Great Pumpkin Chase, 9am, Pre-registration reqd, wear a costume, www.IRUNFIT.org

Advanced Bicycle Mechanics Class, $20, 9am4pm, Parks & Rec Admin Building 1801 4th St NW, See listing on Sep 22 for details pre-register: Julian 505-225-8537

October 29 Twilight Hike on a Full Moon Night, $3 Parking fee, dusk, Pre-register required, RioGrande Nature Center 2901 Candelaria NW, Call for exact start time, 344-7240

October 20 Basket of Hope 5K Run/Walk for Hope, 9am, the Bosque just east of Sagebrush Church, 6440 Coors NW, 505-803-4009 www.basketofhope.org

Open Space: Sandhill Crane Celebration, Free, 8am-3pm, Open Space Visitor Center 6500 Coors NW, we celebrate one of our most beautiful & cherished seasonal visitors, the Sandhill Crane Jodi 897-8831

October 20-21 29th Annual Duke City Marathon, Downtown - 3rd & Tijeras, 7am, 505-880-1414 dukecitymarathon.com

November 1 Peace Corps Informational Session, Free, 6-7:30pm, Since 1961 more than 195,000 Peace Corps volunteers have served in 139 host countries, REI Clinic room, 247-1191 www.peacecorps.gov November 3 Bicycle Commuting Essentials Class, $10, 10am12:30pm, Parks & Rec Admin Building 1801 4th St NW , a basic traffic and maintenance skills seminar- learn to fix a flat, basic bicycle maintenance tips, and basic principles of biking safely in Albuquerque pre-register: Julian 505-225-8537

Open Bowling All the Time

November 4 Daylight Saving Time Ends, set your clock back 1 hour

At Sandia Bowl, we’re all about having fun with your family and friends. Come on in and bowl a few games with a burger and a beverage... our snack bar is top notch.

2012 Doggie Dash and Dawdle, 8am, Balloon Fiesta Park, NM Humane Society fundraiser to benefit homeless pets, 5K run or 2 mile dawdle, rent a dog for $10 if you don’t have one of your own, www. animalhumanenm.org

And our full-service lounge, well, it’s the neighborhood place to be! Join us for the game on our big screen TV, or just hang out while the kids bowl.

Finally, don’t forget, it’s bowl til you drop on Tuesday afternoons for just 5 bucks!

Family, Friends, Good Times at

Sandia Bowl 293-5675

11342 Lexington NE Albuquerque, NM 87112

www.sandiabowl.biz Autumn 2012

Bosque Wild Sunday Morning Hike, Free, 9am, First Sunday of the month from the Open Space Visitor Center, 6500 Coors NW, 1.5 hour guided walk in Bosque, max 20 people, Pre-register suggested 897-8831 Day of the Dead, 4pm-8pm, events throughout ABQ & South Valley to celebrate Dia de los Muertos 505-363-1326 November 9 World Tai Chi Day, Free, 3pm, Poblanos Fields, an example of multicultural and international cooperation, W Pentler 505-452-5200 November 13-18 Festival of the Cranes, Free, Bosque Del Apache Visitor Center, San Antonio NM, Cranes!, All day everyday 575-838-2120 www.festivalofthecranes.com

November 17 Advanced Bicycle Mechanics Class, $20, 9am4pm, Parks & Rec Admin Building 1801 4th St NW, See listing on Sep 22 for details pre-register: Julian 505-225-8537 November 22 Hobbler Gobbler VI, 9am, Pre-registration required, www.IRUNFIT.org November 28 Twilight Hike on a Full Moon Night, $3 Parking fee, dusk, Pre-register required, RioGrande Nature Center 2901 Candelaria NW, Call for exact start time, 344-7240 Albuquerque RSI Wellness Group, Free, 6pm?, a support group for people in physical pain from their computer use (carpal tunnel,, tendonities, etc), Monthly meetings contact Trina 505-4404512 December 1 Advanced Bicycle Mechanics Class, $20, 9am4pm, Parks & Rec Admin Building 1801 4th St NW, See listing on Sep 22 for details pre-register: Julian 505-225-8537 Open Space: Winter Solstice Mandala Creation, Free, 10am-4pm, Open Space Visitor Center 6500 Coors NW, a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite contact 897-8831 www.mandalaproject.com December 2 Bosque Wild Sunday Morning Hike, Free, 9am, First Sunday of the month from the Open Space Visitor Center, 6500 Coors NW, 1.5 hour guided walk in Bosque, max 20 people, Pre-register suggested 897-8831 December 16 Farolito Trail of Lights, 5pm, Pre-registration required, www.IRUNFIT.org

31