Summer 2014
Free, Take Me Home
Livin’ It and Lovin’ It Around Albuquerque, New Mexico
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Summer 2014
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Duke City Fit From the Publisher
Ken Orth
It’s Not Done Yet “What’s it like, living in New Mexico?” When she asked me that… my sister… when she asked me what it is like, I really had to do a double-take. What? My relatives don’t ask that kind of question. They’ve never asked it. Not when I moved here twenty years ago. And not now. And at no time, ever, in between. We’re from Nebraska. The heartland. Nebraska people don’t go sticking their noses into other people’s business. Not even their relatives. The answer to a question like that is either good, or it’s bad… and either way, it’s not good. Why you’d want to move to a God-forsaken place like that, anyway, is your own concern. Do they even speak English there? Do you need a dang passport? Really, they didn’t want to hear about it. It’s way too far from home. It’s too far from family and friends and the world as we have come to know it. And depend upon it. We need to be surrounded by loved ones in a culture that is good, and right, and true. They are the salt of the earth, are Nebraskans, and they’ll be the first to tell you so. They believe in hard work and self-reliance. And family. The sign on the border as you cross in, I believe, says “No Sniveling!” Either that or… “Don’t Bring That West Coast Crap Into Our State.” Or East Coast. It don’t matter. We’re good the way we are. The way we’ve always been. Beef and corn and church on Sundays. Believe me, I’m used to it. I grew up there. I understand it. I can visit and talk about Husker football and cattle prices and pivot irrigation systems with the best of ‘em. Truthfully, it’s kind of reassuring to know that a heartland like that still exists, like an old rocking chair. So when my younger sister asked about life in New Mexico, it took me by surprise. To be fair about it, we were alone, she and I, when she asked the scandalous question. She could not have asked it, nor could any of my relatives, at a gathering of some sort. Not in front of the family. Not unless it was a preamble of some sort to
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to a joke or a putdown of the desert. No, asking the question in sincerity would have shown a weakness. A chink in the armor. A train of thought headed for a place toward which they did not want to go. That there might be a different place to live. They did not want to be exposed to such thinking. Not them. Not their children. Not their children’s children. Isolated as we were, my sister and I, in a sparse little room with but a couple of chairs and no other people, she could ask it of me. Implicit in her eyes, I imagined, if not her words, was the admonition to keep this discussion to myself. To not tell our big sister that she had asked such a thing. That she had shown a weakness. I understood it. What IS it like?, I wondered, as we looked at each other across the cultural void, rather solemnly. This was not the time, I surmised, to crack jocular about prairie dogs and scorpions. I shared a room, this day, with a caged bird. A caged bird that longed to know what life was like out there. New Mexico, I have come to learn in the last two decades, is not so much a place… a state… with borders and physical boundaries, as it is a… what shall I say?… as it is a stew. A big old pot of stew. Green chile stew. It has an abundance of flavors, does our New Mexico stew. Of all kinds. Herbs and peppers and meats, some subtle, some not. Some so delicate that you catch them only as a whiff when you step back and breathe deep of a spring morning. It is a hearty stew, robust and healthy. It nourishes from deep, deep inside. It nourishes the body, the mind, and the spirit. It has simmered here, on the burner of the southwest high desert, for a very long time. Like the “Rock Soup” story of our childhood, it has had many and varied flavors added to it over the centuries. Some were peppery and hot and threatened to overwhelm it, but given time and stirring and a long, slow simmer it has absorbed the fire and incorporated the heat. It has become a better, more flavorful stew because of it. And that aspect of our New Mexico stew is really what stands out for me… that it has taken in all of the flavors, the spices and the herbs and the fires, and it has balanced and blended them in some almost miraculous way, as if by the hand of a masterful chef. It has created a culinary masterpiece. A stew the likes of which the world has never seen. It is not a melting pot. It is not a coagulated conglomeration of disparate colors and and flavors that has been boiled until it is a limp and tasteless sludge. It is not a simple, easy-on-the-palate corn chowder composed of three ingredients. A chowder that has remained the same throughout time, unerringly, just like grandma used to make. And her grandma. It was the same yesterday, and it will be the same tomorrow. No. Ours is a stew that can surprise and delight. You may sit back, one day, push out your chair from a particularly wondrous meal, and say, “Dang, I never tasted that flavor before!” while picking at something that’s caught between your teeth. “Has that always been there? What is that?” “I believe that may be Anasazi, dear. Early twelve-hundreds. That’s maybe a piece of Chaco Canyon.” No, no. I know the flavor of ancient civilizations and pueblo ruins. Gila Cliff dwellings ring a bell? No this was a bit more subtle. Franciscan monk maybe? European grapes in the Hatch valley?
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2401 Jefferson NE I don’t know if there actually is, or was, a grand chef of some kind, carefully pulling together ingredients over the centuries to put them into this New Mexico stew. Or if it was just pure, blind luck. Or a natural evolution of things. Or perhaps a whimsical cook with a sense of humor and a tainted palate… Let’s just toss this in and see what happens. Carlsbad Caverns is what happens. Spanish conquistadors and Navajo fry bread and pinyon coffee and adobe cathedrals, that’s what happens. The oldest wilderness area in the country, and the newest space port. A hot springs gurgling up out of a volcanic caldera and a cold spring seeping out of a granite wall. Today, we’ll wade in the chill waters of the Rio Grande as it cuts a hundredthousand-year-old gorge through the Taos plateau. And tonight we’ll roller-coaster our mountain bikes around the canyon of White Mesa, driven by the wind atop the Spine of the Dragon. We are a steeped, simmering stew of what has happened here for centuries. For millennia. From the vanished Pueblo peoples to the atomic laboratories at Los Alamos. From the volcanoes and the petroglyphed escarpments of the west mesa to the upthrust coral reef which is the stark harshness of the Guadalupe Mountains… We are a stew of flavors and peoples and cultures and geographies that is so rich and complex that it is almost beyond imagining. Just where one flavor leaves off and another begins is often impossible to define. It is
Summer 2014
neither this nor that, it simply is. This stew… this stew in which we gurgle and blend here in New Mexico… it is not a chain. It is not a cage. It does not trap us with with our past and how it has always been. Nor does it bury us beneath a slagheap of dogma and prejudice. To the contrary, our stew enriches us and nourishes us. It encourages us, to learn from our flavored, storied past but not to rest upon it. Our stew is alive and changing. It is not what it was yesterday, nor what it will be tomorrow. It pushes us forward. It demands it of us. It demands… it yearns for… creativity, artistry, athleticism. That is our heritage. The very landscape screams it out: “I was born of fire and turmoil. I have been through pestilence and earthquakes and drought and the shattering of granite. I have even suffered the inhumanity of the atomic bomb. I have been here, and I will be here. And you… YOU… you are here now. Let us hope that you are more than a dried up crouton, tossed on the soup bowl as an afterthought, to be blown away and discarded by the next east canyon wind.” So what is it like?, she asked. It is harsh. It is old. It is electric. It is bigger and better than I can ever hope to be, wiser and stronger and tested by time. But it is a goal, a hope, a spirit toward which I strive. To pass the test. To contribute my part. To enhance the flavor. New Mexico? I don’t know if I can explain it to you. It is a stew. It is sitting on the high desert stove over there. Simmering. But I don’t think it’s done yet.
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NambeTheLake Jewel in the Crown Isabel Bearman Bucher
While this writer does take liberties with the title of Paul Scott’s 1984 superb novel, Jewel in the Crown, in hikerspeak, Nambe Lake, which sits in the crown of Northern New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristos, is just that - a translucent, shallow jewel, bedecked in summer by armloads of wild flowers - magenta Parry’s Primula, Rocky Mountain blue Columbine, white Marsh Marigold, scarlet King’s Crown. Maybe a little June Shooting Star Orchid will remain, hidden amongst the lush green quilt, head tipped in shy welcome. Nambe Lake, meaning “earth roundness” in the Tewa language, sits as the piéce de résistance tucked into the rock shelf of Lake Peak and Santa Fe Baldy, a mere half mile from the Santa Fe Ski Area, and a wink away from the fabled city of Santa Fe. It bears, however, no resemblance to those touristy real estate places. Born in violence, the Sangre de Cristos began 1.7 billion years back, when, once again, a huge sea, one of seven earlier ones, subsided. Came then the collision of the Earth’s crust, called the Rio Grande Rift, fueled by a wild period of volcanic blows lasting many millions of years. Colliding with itself, it folded up and over, shoving, heaving, buckling, warping. Early mountains formed, were worn down, but the Sangres, the southernmost part of the American Rockies, just kept rising. The same rocks that were created 1.7 million years back can be found on their top, and if one digs 13,000 feet down in the valley floor, like kinds are present. The highest mountains of this southern Colorado, Northern New Mexico chain reach over 13,000 feet. Nambe Lake sits at 11,500. DIARY OF A HIKER IN LOVE Morning on the trail. Life winds ahead, and up a brown thread. It’s cool, everyone is full of anticipation, energy, ready for the big up. This one’s just that too - 6.6 total miles, with a 1,906 vertical gain everybody’s read in the description, but nobody kens its meaning ... yet. “Steep, baby, steep!” this writer muses. “I can do it.” The early sun turns pine needles, grasses, bushes into sparkling diamonds; feet walk the mica in the millions of trail pebbles that are millions of years old. Who can get those millions? Not me. “All is well,” I sing to myself. Time wanders by. Humans pass under hundred year old spruce, always taking that brief moment in time for the 360 view. The sun warms the forest, liberating the pine scent, reminding one of Christmas and the real inside tree all glitzed up. They’re prettier out here. Deception Creek is left, and the major trail goes down. “NOT!” a fellow hiker trumpets, “That’s Nambe Creek. We missed it!” Dawn, our leader, turns back quickly finding the obscure sign that says “Nambe Lake” up to the left on a bit of ridge at 1.9 miles. We begin the trek. It’s hard now, this ever up and up and up. Dozens upon dozens of tiny brownish butterflies flutter round us, momentarily taking us out of ourselves and away from the effort. We wave our hands gently, as they flit in and out of the pools of light, settling on a pile of horse pucky for a collective social hour.
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“Well different strokes,” I chuckle, thinking back to my mothering mantras to my two daughters, having to do with hanging with the wrong crowd in a bad place. Miner’s Candle plants are now waist high, growing happily from the gift of rain. STEEP. STEEPER. At 2.7, I can hear a stream. “Are we there yet?” somebody chokes out. “Yah,” another somebody answers through huffs and puffs. “If you’re going to Alaska.” Divert yourself, count backwards, say the alphabet. Know now the meaning of the fateful 1,906 with every breath, with every step. STEEP. STEEPER. Grasshoppers, the harbingers; of fall, snap, crackle and pop, jettisoning themselves with stored air from their internal leg pouches, the entire length of a football field, in grasshopper feet, of course. Butterflies wait for them to blast off, then several do circles around the in-air flight. “They’re PLAYING!” I yell, totally delighted. “Different species are PLAYING!” Everyone turns to watch the acrobatic show. The worst is yet to come. We’re breathless, supporting ourselves with outstretched hands on the steep dirt uptrail cut we’re roosting on. We stay bent over dragging in breaths. “Tell me why I do this,” murmurs somebody. “Because you love it,” comes the gasping answer. Then, suddenly, it’s over. We crawl up and out. Trail flattens ... We’ve managed 3.3 miles of 1,906 vertical, over rocky, insecure upward pitches. This writer slips into math speak, reasoning and calculating it’s about 6,666 footsteps, if the average human does 2,000 in a mile, plus a third more. Interesting number this quad six. Then comes the slow unveiling of the crystal clear lake. All P.A.T. - pain, agony, torture - have now vanished as the mind and soul take in the great patriarchs that rise scored, craggy, steep and protective all around.
Summer 2014
The heart squeezes, not in angst, but joy. Not a bit of garbage can be found; not a gum wrapper, not a plastic bag; not a carelessly thrown beer or pop can - only what nature offers - total, concentrated unbearable beauty. All troubles are forgotten and replaced with the elation of this moment. Great lungfuls of air impel the dizzy human interlopers to celebrate truly, this day, this summit, this life. A hawk rides the uplifts, easy, watching. This writer, once again, contemplates human kind’s soulful wish to be able to spread wings and do the same, some of us only doing it in our dreams. White clouds move quickly paying little heed to the panicles who restrain them not. We have made it to heaven. No one speaks, heads nod. There’s just personal whispers ... Oh man - God Almighty...Thank you Earth ... Each of us finds our own solitary spot to take all this unto the mind, the soul and the heart. The lake reflects changing blue hues, a mirror to the great pinnacles; the dot of the hawk moves like a pointer across it. The air is rare, is sweet, pure, fragrant with flowers, mountain and pine. All is still; all is quiet; all is well. Isabel Bearman Bucher continues to walk her paths of life - new friends, old friends, more wisdom, less know-it-all, more filled with joy for her health, her girls, her friends. She thinks deeply about the beauty of the universe and the lessons it teaches on her many hikes, strolls, and wanderings. Everything she knows, thinks and learns comes from her intimate connection with the wilderness. Having completed one book, Nonno’s Monkey, she is currently working on two more, Tafoya’s Laundromat, her first fiction set in 1969 Taos, when the hippies arrive, and Semi-Mayhem, a Widow’s Guide to the First Year Universe. At the end of his life, near death, Sigmund Freud was asked to give the meaning of life. He quietly said, “meaningful work and love.” For Isabel, those two words are one in the same. www.isabelbucher.com
STATS 6.79 miles - difficult hike 10,375 up to 11.400 feet 2.50 up 2.35 down Pace: 2 miles an hour GETTING THERE, from Santa Fe: Right on Paseo de Peralta Curve north and cross the Santa Fe River Turn right (east ) onto E. Alameda St. Go .75 mile, left onto Gonzales Rod Go one mile to Hyde Park Road (NM 475) Right 14 miles to the Santa Fe Ski Area. Park, on the side near the privy, and the trail info board THE HIKE: Trail 254 up - switchbacks 0.8 miles Reach the saddle and the Pecos boundary fence TR 254 goes downhill Go a quarter mile to little noticed trail on left: JCT #403 (1.3 mi) Rio Nambe 1 3/4 (This is known as the ELEVATOR SHAFT DOWN TO THE RIO NAMBE. DO NOT TAKE THIS TRAIL!) Continue past this junction about 1 1/4 miles. A clearing comes on the right The Winsor Trail drops down to cross the Nambe Lake Creek. A sign to the RIGHT (SMALL WOODEN OBSCURE SIGN) says Nambe Lake There are several paths up, which bring you along the right side of a stream Follow the stream up. There are several paths, steep ascents, stream crossings After the first ascent, keep to the left bank. Then use your own instincts to get up from there.
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Here’s Lookin’ Up You, Kid Ken Orth If you would have told my grandfather, back in the day, that someone wanted to shove a camera up his backside and have a little look around, I believe he would have told you exactly what you could do with that idea. And it wouldn’t have been polite. He was an ornery old cuss and he wasn’t real keen on the way the world was changing in his later years. “Technology, my butt,” he would say, in his apparently prognosticating way. “Why, when we wanted to talk to our neighbors, we walked over there. None of this fancy-schmancy telephone stuff.” The era to which he refered was long before cellular phones. It was when telephones were new. It was when you had telephone “party lines”, for heaven’s sakes…where you had to pick up the phone and listen for a little while to see if somebody was already on the line. If you were nosey, you might just listen in for a little while to see what your neighbors were discussing. “Marla over Rokeby way has got herself a machine that actually sews. Can you believe that? A sewing machine. In her own home.” “What are you old biddies gossiping about now?” I can hear him saying, looking at the mouthpiece in his hand as he talks into it, unsure of how the darn thing works. “Now Gus, “ one of the disembodied voices scratches at him, and he realizes he has to stop looking at it and actually put it up to his ear. “Now Gus… don’t be getting all crotchety on us now. You know your Bessie would just love herself a sewing machine and then maybe you could have yourself some pants that actually fit.” He harrumphs and again looks at the black object in his hand as if he can’t believe the blasphemy emitting from it. Blasphemy followed by snorting giggles. Such was life in the rural west. Telephones were black hulking monstrosities, alien and intimidating. Automobiles were new… luxury items. A washing machine was a tub with a washboard and a wringer on it. And cameras? Cameras were nearly as big and bulky as the telephone. The entire concept of putting a camera into such a tight, small space was completely foreign. Laughable, even. You’re putting a camera where? My butt! So the truth of the matter is that I have a little bit of my grandpa in me. They tell me they want to put a camera in there and take a look around and see if anything seems to be amiss. I seem to shift automatically into crotchety mode. “Just what do you think you’re going to find in there, anyway? Besides the same old… stuff?” “Polyps,” the nurse politely tells me, like she’s had to say it a few times before. I know this. Just like I know that cameras are no longer the size of car batteries. Heck for all I know, car batteries are no longer the size of car batteries. Still, the idea of sneaking in a little camera on a long flexible stalk is a bit unsettling. It seems kinda like something out of a Mission Impossible movie. I suddenly have visions of Tom Cruise, the little weasel, night vision goggles
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on, surreptitiously slipping a camera up under my bedclothes in the black of night. “Arrrgh…” I wake up sweaty. “What’s the matter dear?” my wife says quietly. “It’s not Tom Cruise again, is it?” “I gotta quit eating that pistachio-fudge ice ream right before bed,” I mumble. I ask the polyp nurse how old the doctor is who is going to take a camera and boldly go where no man has gone before. And how tall is he? She looks at me with a quizzical look on her face and I think, “Finally!” I have asked a question that she has not been asked a thousand times before. She pauses amidst her long line of questions and stares at the screen from which she has been reading. She has been mechanically asking me things like what meds I am allergic to and when was my last tetanus shot and how often do I have bowel movements? She seems to skip with her eyes to a question further down the list… “Do you eat ice cream late at night?” she asks, peering at me patiently, and my proud facade crumbles. My God, I think… don’t tell me there’s a question about Tom Cruise on that screen. The doctor who will be performing this procedure is actually a surgeon, so she says. He will be looking for abnormalities. Inflammation. Redness. But mostly polyps. Polyps can be pre-cancerous. If he finds any polyps, he will remove them and they will be sent to the lab for a biopsy to see if they are cancerous. If he does remove any polyps, then the whole procedure officially changes from an exam to a surgery. Mid-stream. This seems a little ticky-tacky to me, since they are already way into me and all they’re going to be doing is snipping the little bugger off. But it seems to matter to them. It matters to Tom, no doubt, who is no longer just a voyeur, but a secret agent who is defusing a possible bomb… I mean… it matters to the doctor who is now a surgeon. And it matters to the clinic and the bean-counters and the insurance company and the code that is entered on your form. Surgery. Ka-ching. You know, the worst part of having a spy mission go up your south forty is actually not the mission itself. That, for the most part, is rather short, painless, and non-descript. They knock your ass out, so to speak. No, the difficult part is the preparation. The three days prior to the invasion. What they have to do… what you have to do… is basically flush out the pipes so that the little camera will be able to have an unobstructed view of what’s up there. On day one of the three days prior, I had to eliminate fruits and veggies from my diet. Anything with seeds. While, for many people, this might not be
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Philosophically, I thought of myself as unto a Tibetan monk, fasting my way to a greater wisdom about life… and hoping that the knowledge I gained had absolutely nothing to do with the Mission Impossible theme song which kept wanting to play itself in my head. Tibetan monks never had to deal with such things. I didn’t sleep so well that night. The third night. The night before. I had weird dreams of the FBI, monks, and my grandpa. And an accountant from Blue Cross Blue Shield. But thankfully, no Tom Cruise. So I was a little tired and a little hungry and a little fuzzy on the day of. As I lay on the gurney, an IV in my arm, the doctor asked me if I had any questions. As a matter of fact, I did. Just what in the world could have ever led you to get into this as a career choice? Cameras and hineys. But I didn’t ask it. It’s probably a latent secret-agent thing, I thought to myself, smiling as they wheeled me in. And I thought, briefly, of my grandpa. “Just what do you think you’re gonna do there, sonny?” I could see him asking. “Harumph.” “Technology, my butt.”
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Duke City Fit Demand Soars For Relief of Severe Neck and Back Pain! People Are Swarming in Overwhelming Numbers For Treatment At The New Mexico Back Institute.Treatments are FDA Cleared, No Side Effects & Best Of All... It’s Non-Surgical & Painless!!
Denver, CO – Recent medical breakthroughs have led to the development of advanced technologies to relieve severe back and neck pain without drugs or surgery. Through the combination of proven scientific principles, the latest technological developments and the brilliant work of physicians and medical engineers– this space age technology is available to the general public via licensed and trained doctors, in its incredible DRX 9000 spinal decompression equipment. The DRX 9000 is an FDA cleared medical technology for providing True Spinal Decompression and has been clinically proven with up to an 88.9% success rate with back pain and symptoms associated with hernated and/or bulging discs...even after failed surgery. WHY SO MUCH EXCITEMENT? Since 60% of spinal fusion surgery patients continue to suffer and conventional treat ments such as medications, injec tions and exercise therapy offertemporary results, the fu ture is bleak. The treatmentprogram at The New Mexi co Back Institute works for:• Back and Neck Pain • Sciatica/Numbness • Herniated and/or bulging “ I had such intense pain from a sec discs (single or multiple) ond herniated disc that I could not walk without the aid of crutches. • Degenerative disc disease Couldn’t shower or even dress and • A relapse or failure was out of work for a month. After 3 weeks of treatments my pain was following surgery GONE! I have recommended this • Facet syndromes procedure to at least seven people. I pray that they try it.” • Spinal Stenosis ~ Eva Wilkstrom, Denver • Spondylolisthesis CLINICAL RESULTS Several university studies at Johns Hopkins, Stanford and Duke have confirmed what doctors in practice have known for years, the treatments plain WORK! Dr. John Leslie, who is a clinical re searcher from the prestigious Mayo Clinic reports a 50% reliefof back and leg pain after 2 weeks and an overall 88.9% success rate at the end of a six week protocol. Our own case studies have shown 50% reduction of disc protrusions after 4 weeks relieving the pressure on the sensitive nerves, thus reducing your pain. HOW IT WORKS The advanced computer system automatically adjusts to the proper angle of decompression, allowing us to target specific discs...that are causing your pain and symptoms.
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The gentle decompressive forces utilize a logarithmic curve to avoid proprioceptor (pain) response, which would create muscle spasm. The split table design decreases friction and allows gentle separation of the vertebra to reduce pressures on the tissues causing pain and encourage hydration of the discs. PAIN-LESS TREATMENTS Patients describe the treatment as a gentle, painless, intermittent pulling of your back. Many patients actu ally fall asleep during treatment! A spinal strengthening and stabilization program is often included with thetreatment protocol in order to achieve optimal long term results. The number and duration of treatments are determined by the supervising physician. Many patients get substantial, immediate relief after just a few treatments. GETTING STARTED Call one of the Albuquerque area clinics to schedule a no-obligation consultation. Only a consultation and evalu ation by the doctor can determine if you qualify for thistreatment and the number and length of the care plan. The New Mexico Back Institute has more experience with decompression than any other health center in New Mexico. MENTION THIS AD FOR A COMPLIMENTARY CONSULTATION
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Kayak ! Ken Orth with Kelly Gossett
“The thing about kayaking,” he told me, “Is that it isn’t really hard. Not physically. Kayaking is really more of a mental thing. Much of what we do is counterintuitive. You have to use your head.” I was talking with Kelly Gossett, head honcho with New Mexico Kayak Instruction. I had been out a few days before to get some photos of a class/lesson he’d had with a bunch of veterans out at newly refurbished Sandia Lakes. They were having fun, no doubt about it. But I was kind of curious about the whole thing. Why kayaking?, I wondered. Is it just to get out and get some exercise and fresh air and have some fun on the water? (As if that isn’t enough.) Or is there more to it?
That was when we talked about the “mental” aspect of kayaking. About it being more mental than physical. “What do you mean when you say that it is counterintuitive?” I asked. Many of the things that you do while kayaking are done in a way that you’d not really expect them to be done. Rolling, for example. Getting yourself back, right side up, after you’ve flipped over. You take a big, old boisterous young guy who finds himself upside down, and you know what he’s going to do? He’s going to try and muscle his way back up on top of the kayak. Well, that kayak has about 600 pounds of buoyancy, more or less, and it wants to be on top. He’ll shove and flail and probably end up having to bail out. There is a technique. Muscling your way back on top is not the way it is done. What you do, believe it or not, is to slip the kayak under yourself. It is not hard… it’s just not… natural. It is not what your instincts tell you to do. You’ve got to think about it and do what you need to do. It is that way, I was told, for many of the kayaking techniques. They require more thinking than brute force. Especially when you are first learning. Actually, you have to “unlearn” things that you never really ever learned in the first place… things that you just think you know. Like climbing back on top of that darn boat. When you are kayaking, you have to stay in the present. Truth be told, when you’re learning, you’re going to be firing some brain synapses that maybe haven’t been fired for a while. You’ll be doing things differently, at least from what you’d think you’d normally be doing. It’s giving your brain a workout along with your body.
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Duke City Fit Now, this line of thinking reminded me of a story I’d done not long ago. It was about our aging brains and how to help keep them a little sharper. One of the techniques, I remembered, was to “…do things a little differently.” Brush your teeth with your opposite hand. Turn the pictures in your house upside down. Things like this will force your brain to do things it hasn’t been doing. You’ll be firing synapses that haven’t been fired. This is good exercise for your brain. In some respects, learning to kayak does the same sort of thing. It can be therapeutic in addition to being fun. Not only do you exercise your brain along with your body, but you also get a real sense of accomplishment by being able to achieve something that looks to be fairly difficult. “Do you know what my number one demographic group is for people taking kayak lessons?” he asked me. No, I don’t. College kids, I suppose. It is women over 40. By a fairly large margin. This surprised him at first, but now that he has come to understand the dynamics, it makes a lot of sense… When you think about it, that group that you would assume would be there, that 20 to 30 year old male… well… the thing is, that group in large part has a lot of “macho” in it. They don’t want to take lessons. They can handle a silly little boat. Just how hard can it be, anyway? They get a kayak somewhere and go out with a buddy and try to muscle their way through it. Then they almost drown themselves, give it up, and tell themselves they didn’t really want to do that anyway. But the women, well, they approach it differently. Many of them are at a point in their lives where they want to experience some new things. They want a challenge and they want to learn. Kayaking is a perfect fit. It does not require brute force. It requires mental toughness. It rewards thinking and learning. They succeed! They discover that it is easier for a 120-pound woman to slip a kayak back under, than it is for a 220-pound man to climb back on top of one. It’s technique, and you can master it. Kayaking is full of techniques. Almost everyone knows someone who has had a near-death experience in a kayak, which makes sense, according to Kelly, because so many of the techniques are counter-intuitive. Most techniques follow a few simple laws of physics. If we can understand and master them, kayaking becomes easy and effortless, regardless of age, strength or physical health. In fact, a growing number of Kelly’s students are people with physical or developmental disabilities. When you’re talking about kayaking, you can’t go for long without talking about “whitewater” kayaking. For many people… most people… whitewater is the goal. The pinnacle. The dream. It is where the thrill is. What Kelly says is this… “Whitewater kayaking is a strategic game that anyone can play once they learn the rules.” Whitewater requires you to be fully present in the here and now. No daydreaming or wandering minds. There is a way to do this. A proper way. An effective way. It requires thinking, sometimes quick thinking. And a great deal of trust in your decisions. And it is, indeed, a thrill. So there you go. Kelly was off to do kayak lessons for a Girl Scout group. I sat there for a few minutes more, realizing that kayaking was much more than I’d ever imagined it to be... It is more accessible and more do-able. It is not just for macho guys. It is for veterans and Girl Scouts and housewives. It is for people like me, who could use an injection of new exercise and fun into their lives. And, trust me, I could really afford to exercise the old gray matter, too. Now, how do I go about muscling my way back up on top of that silly little boat? Kelly Gossett, owner of New Mexico Kayak Instruction and founder of Kayak New Mexico 501(c)3 is an American Canoe Association certified Level 4 Whitewater Kayak instructor, Level 4 Open Water Sea Kayak instructor, and Level 2 Stand-up Paddleboarding instructor with 9 years experience actively teaching kids, adults, seniors and people with disabilities how to kayak. With more than 90 boats in their instructional program, NMKI offers classes from beginners through advanced whitewater and expedition sea kayaking, classes and birthday parties for kids and scouts, classes for anglers and life-changing experiences for people with disabilities www.newmexicokayakinstruction.com
Summer 2014
Rio Rancho 896-4700
Albuquerque 842-8260
HighDesertBicycles.com
909 36th Place SE
8110 Louisiana NE
Do You Suffer From Loss of Bowel or Urine Control ?
You Can Get Your Life Back !
Fecal and urinary incontinence are embarrassing and frustrating for those who suffer from these conditions and are tired of sacrificing fun. You no longer have to live your life tethered to the restroom. Here’s how we treat the problem so you can get back to doing the things you love!
Sacral Nerve Stimulation is an example of a new procedure offering hope for patients with fecal or urinary incontinence.
A TREATMENT PLAN DESIGNED FOR YOU !
We may suggest dietary changes, exercises to strengthen your bowel and urine control muscles, a minimally invasive procedure or a combination of methods to ensure a successful end result. We are respectful of your modesty and dedicated to finding a solution to restore your quality of life. We know how hard it can be to discuss these conditions. We are sensitive to these concerns and will do everything in our power to make your visit as respectful and comfortable as possible.
Pelvic Health Center
A Division of Surgical Oncology and Gastrointestinal Surgery Consultants
4901 Lang Ave., Suite 202 Albuquerque, NM 87109
505-200-3808 13
Duke City Fit Dr Jason Karp
Three Top Cardio Workouts
Whether you are a lawyer, a soccer mom, or a businessman, we all want to make the best use of our workout time. Although organizations like the American Heart Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American College of Sports Medicine recommend at least 30 minutes per day of moderate- to high-intensity aerobic exercise, many people lack the time or the inclination to meet these recommendations. So, how can you make your cardio workouts more efficient and obtain the greatest benefit in the least amount of time? Research has shown that the intensity of exercise, rather than its volume and frequency, is more important for improving, and especially maintaining, fitness. So, if you only have time for a few cardio workouts per week, 15 or 20 minutes of steady-state cardio on the elliptical trainer or stationary bike at an intensity easy enough to allow you to read a magazine while exercising isn’t going to cut it. The fewer workouts you do, the greater each workout’s quality should be. In order of intensity, below are the most effective cardio workouts for improving cardiovascular fitness and burning fat. Long, Slow Distance (LSD) Workouts What: As its name implies, LSD workouts are long, continuous aerobic workouts at a low intensity during which you cover a great distance. Why: LSD workouts target many factors associated with aerobic fitness, increasing the number of red blood cells, hemoglobin concentration, muscle capillary and mitochondrial volumes, and aerobic enzymes. Since hemoglobin in red blood cells transports oxygen through your blood vessels, the more red blood cells and hemoglobin you have, the greater your vessels’ oxygen-carrying capability. Oxygen’s last stop on its journey before being delivered to your muscles is the branched network of capillaries, small blood vessels that perfuse your muscles. Creating a larger network of capillaries provides more oxygen to your muscles. Once inside your muscles, oxygen is used by the mitochondria, microscopic “energy powerhouses” that contain the enzymes involved in aerobic metabolism. Since fat is burned aerobically, these cellular adaptations following LSD workouts enhance your muscles’ ability to conserve carbohydrates and rely on fat as fuel so you become a better fat-burning machine. In addition to burning many calories during LSD workouts, your metabolic rate remains elevated for hours afterward, continuing to burn calories. A number of studies have shown that the longer the exercise session, the more and longer metabolic rate is elevated afterward. A study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise in 1994 found that walking at 70% of maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) for 60 minutes resulted in a higher post-workout metabolic rate than walking at the same intensity for 20 or 40 minutes. Also, the longer the subjects walked, the longer it took for their metabolic rates to return to pre-exercise levels, taking 2, 3.5, and 7.5 hours following the 20-, 40-, and 60-minute exercise bouts. In another study published in Canadian Journal of Sport Sciences in 1988, post-workout metabolic rate more than doubled when the amount of time subjects exercised at 70% VO2max increased from 30 to 45 minutes and increased more than five-fold after exercising for 60 minutes. How: You can use almost any piece of cardio equipment in your gym to do LSD workouts, including a treadmill, bike, or rowing machine. You can also run or cycle outside or swim in the pool. The more muscles involved and the more weight-bearing the exercise, the more calories you’ll burn during the workout. Whichever mode of exercise you choose, do these workouts at about 65 to 70 percent maximum heart rate for at least one hour, increasing the length of time as your training progresses.
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Duke City Fit Tempo Workouts What: Tempo workouts are performed at the intensity corresponding to your lactate threshold, an important physiological variable that demarcates the transition between exercise that generates energy almost purely aerobically and exercise that includes energy generated from both aerobic and oxygen-independent (anaerobic) metabolism. While you use both fat and carbohydrates for energy during exercise, these two fuels provide that energy on a sliding scale—as you increase your intensity up to your lactate threshold, the contribution from fat decreases while the contribution from carbohydrates increases. When you exercise at an intensity above your lactate threshold, you use only carbohydrates. Why: Tempo workouts raise your lactate threshold to a higher percentage of your maximum heart rate and maximum oxygen consumption, which delays fatigue during aerobic exercise. Since tempo workouts are performed at the highest intensity you can maintain aerobically, these workouts are great for burning fat. Although the percentage of calories from fat is small when exercising at or slightly lower than your lactate threshold intensity, the total number of calories being burned per minute is much higher than at a lower intensity. Research has shown that exercising at or slightly below your lactate threshold intensity elicits the highest rate of fat oxidation. And since you are exercising aerobically, fatigue is minimal, so you can complete other quality cardio and strength workouts during the week. In short, tempo workouts give you the best aerobic bang for your buck. How: Like with LSD workouts, you can use any piece of cardio equipment in your gym for tempo workouts. To get the most from tempo workouts, they should be performed at the intensity corresponding to your lactate threshold. For unfit people, this intensity is approximately 70 to 75 percent maximum heart rate. For those more aerobically fit, it’s about 80 percent max heart rate. Subjectively, these workouts should feel “comfortably hard.” You can do tempo workouts continuously for about 15 to 20 minutes or as shorter segments (e.g., 5 minutes) with short recovery periods (1 minute). Interval Workouts What: In the 1960s, famous Swedish physiologist Per-Olaf Åstrand discovered that by breaking a set amount of work up into smaller segments or intervals, you can perform the whole set of work at a higher intensity. Interval workouts alternate high-intensity work periods with low-intensity recovery periods. There are four variables that can be manipulated within an interval workout: time (or distance) of each work period, intensity of each work period, time of each recovery period, and number of repetitions. Why: Long, aerobic interval workouts target your cardiovascular system and increase the rate at which you can consume oxygen by increasing the volume of blood your heart pumps with each beat (stroke volume) and the volume of blood your heart pumps each minute (cardiac output). Short, intense interval workouts increase your anaerobic power and capacity by calling on your anaerobic metabolic pathways that don’t use oxygen. Since short, intense intervals recruit fast-twitch muscle fibers, they also complement your strength training workouts by adding to your muscle definition. Research has shown that the more intense the workout, the greater and longer the postworkout elevation in metabolism, which helps you to burn more calories throughout the day. A study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise in 1996 found that not only did subjects burn more calories during interval cycling (15 x 2 minutes at 100% VO2max with 2 minutes rest) compared to continuous cycling (60 minutes at 50% VO2max), they also burned more calories during the 24 hours following the exercise. Other studies, in which subjects ran instead of cycled, have used different interval workouts (e.g., 6 x 3 minutes at 90% VO2max with 3 minutes recovery at 30% VO2max or 20 x 1 minute at 105% VO2max with 2 minutes rest) and different continuous runs (e.g., 36 minutes at 60% VO2max or 30 minutes at 70% VO2max), but still found that the interval workout resulted in a higher post-workout metabolic rate. How: You can do interval workouts on a treadmill, bike, rowing machine, or outside on a running track. For long intervals, run, cycle, or row for 3 to 5 minutes at 95 to 100 percent maximum heart rate with recovery periods equal to or slightly less than the time of the work period. Repeat each hard-easy cycle 3 to 5 times. For short interval workouts, run, cycle, or row at slightly less than an all-out sprint for 20 seconds to 1 minute with recovery periods 2 to 3 times as long as the time of the work period. Repeat each hard-easy cycle 5 to 8 times. Time is a valuable commodity. If you don’t have the time for cardio every day but still want to improve your cardiovascular fitness and lose fat, try these three fitnessinducing, fat-burning cardio workouts. And with all of the time you’ll save, you’ll be able to watch your kids at soccer practice.
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Runner
ABQ Running Shop
ABQRunningShop.com 505.293.2RUN
Summer 2014
New Location!!
6550 Holly Ave NE, D2 Just North of Paseo Del Norte between Louisiana & San Pedro
Sample Cardio Program: To maximize the efficiency of your cardio workouts, you can do just three quality workouts each week. Include a warm-up and cool-down before and after interval and tempo workouts. Alternate weeks 1 and 2, increasing the volume of the workouts as you progress. LT = lactate threshold; HR = heart rate.
WEEK 1
Tuesday
Interval Workout
Tempo Workout
LSD Workout
5-8 x 30 secs fast w/ 1 min recovery
Friday 15-20 min. @ LT intensity (80-85% max HR) Sunday
WEEK 2
Dr. Jason Karp is a nationally-recognized running and fitness expert, 2011 IDEA Personal Trainer of the Year, and recipient of the 2014 President’s Council on Fitness Sports & Nutrition Community Leadership award. He holds a Ph.D. in exercise physiology. He has more than 200 articles published in international running, coaching, and fitness magazines, is the author of five books, including Running for Women and Running a Marathon For Dummies, is a frequent speaker at international fitness and coaching conferences, and won a team silver medal at the 2013 World Maccabiah Games in Israel. For his popular training programs and autographed copies of his books, go to www.run-fit.com.
or Walker We get it. We’ve got it.
Tuesday
Interval Workout
Tempo Workout
60 min. @ 65- 70% max HR
LSD Workout
3-5 x 3 min. @ 95-100% max HR w/ 2 min. recovery
Friday 5 x 5 min. @ LT intensity (80-85% max HR) w/ 1 min. rest Sunday
75 min. @ 65-70% max HR
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Apache Plume
Prickly Pear blossoms
Beargrass in bloom
See descriptions on the next page - Page 18
Red Admiral Butterfly
Female Black-chinned Hummingbird
Great Plains Skink
Duke City Fit
Neighbors of the
High Desert
Apache Plume - fluorescent pink, feathery, whispery
seed heads, that dance in the slightest of breezes. They prefer full sun, are extremely drought tolerant, and are hardy to minus 30 degrees. The flowers of Apache Plume attract bees and butterflies, the plants shelter wildlife, and the seeds attract birds. This is one of the showiest of the Southwestern native shrubs.
Red Admiral Butterfly - These butterflies can be easily identified by the red-orange band across the wing. The name compares this band to a Navy Admiral’s chevron. They migrate and winter in south Texas. The caterpillar prefers nettle plants while the adult prefers feeding on sap flows, fermenting fruit and bird droppings. They are people-friendly and may well approach and perch on humans, but the males are territorial toward others of their species and will attempt to drive them away. They are most active in spring and fall.
Female Black-chinned Hummingbird? This female may be of several different species. I observed a unique, dazzling courtship display by the male in which he repeatedly plummeted, pendulum-like, about 50 feet through the tree branches, chirping as he went. They often can be seen catching insects both in the air and from spiderwebs. Great Plains Skink - About life-size
in the center-spread., he is 10” long, assertive and unafraid. He will not hesitate to bite if captured. A strong burrower and a cockroach eating machine, he has an easily identifiable undulating movement that distinguishes him from other types of lizards. He regularly patrols the perimiter of our house and will venture into open doorways. Young skinks look like small lizards. They are black with a brilliant, almost flourescent blue tail.
Beargrass in bloom - So named because its
blossoms supposedly smell like bear. The natives called it “sacahuiste” (sock-a-weest-ay). We call it the “rope plant” because its tough leaves and solid roots make it ideal for grabbing and hauling one’s self up a rocky scree. Its leaves have traditionally been harvested for the making of brooms. The Sandia Hairstreak butterfly feeds exclusively on its nectar.
Prickly Pear blossoms - The blossoms have sprung forth this year due to the good precipitation in late spring. Blossoms have a rather rank odor that effectively attracts flies. The purple fruits (tunas) come next. The fruits are covered with nearly invisible, hairlike spines that are troublesome to remove from your skin.
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TJ’s Evergreen Herbal Market in Rio Rancho
Healthy Living is a Habit, Not An Event
• Full line of quality Herbs, including Herbal Formulas by Dr Michael James • • Bulk Herbs • Supplements • Essential Oils • Tinctures • Healthy snack foods • • Personalized Customer Service • Experienced, Knowledgeable, Friendly Staff • Check us out ! Periodically, we will have in our Market:
TJ’s Evergreen Herbal Market
- Free Health Screening and Acupressure -
Dr David Soul & Dr Noelle Baroody of Soul Acupuncture Clinic, Board Certified Doctors of Oriental Medicine
- Free Health Consultations -
Southern
Dianna Roach, Certified Clinical Herbalist of Village Herbs
- Live Blood Analysis -
- Chair massages on a weekly basis -
Barbara Loop
Sara 528
Our bodies strive to be in balance and our philosophy is to support and nurture this process with herbs and supplements. Although most of us try to eat right, get enough sleep, and generally take care of ourselves, as we age we often need a little extra help to facilitate the work our bodies are trying to do on a daily basis.
1520-B Deborah Rd Rio Rancho, NM 87124
Debora
528
Please stop in or call us for Days and Times
x
h
Becky Thomas, Nutritional Consultant, Formerly of BK’s
505-892-5243 tjevergreen.com
Intel
Continued from Page 21
Stress But the thing is, that chemical or compound they isolated, it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Not normally. It is/ was a part of a synergistic whole. It is but one part of a complicated structure. I must have looked at him with a “just what in the heck are you talking about?” look, because he said, “Here, let me demonstrate…” And he walked over to the light switch. Let us say that we have identified a problem. In this case the problem is darkness. And he switches off the light. We know that there is a solution to this problem. He switches back on the light. If we were to work like the drug companies work, we would investigate this “remedy”. We would discover that the root of this solution appears to be electricity. We would isolate electricity and assume we can use it to solve our darkness problem. But guess what? Electricity by itself does not cure darkness. Not very well. And it has some nasty side effects. The thing is, the electricity is just a part of a whole system. A system of wires, fuses, conduits, switches… that work together to good effect. You can’t just pull out one part of it. Similarly, that is the way it works with herbs. For the proper effect you need the synergistic whole. Not just that one chemical. And besides, our livers don’t like that. So we have found that there are certain herbal formulas that are very effective in helping the body to fix itself. These are not new. They have been used, many of them,
Summer 2014
for thousands of years. I have personally been involved with these age-old herbal effects since the 1970’s. I use them because they work. But the thing is, some of these herbal formulas, like the ones we use to restore the nervous system, they don’t work overnight. It may take some time to replenish, restore, rejuvenate a system that is burned up and burned out. But given time, they will do the trick. They always do. “The thing is,” she told me, “It took a little bit of time. It doesn’t happen overnight. It took a few weeks.” “He told us we’d have to hang in there,” her husband said. “ ‘They’ll work’ he said. You just have to persevere.” Which they did. With sleepless nights and chamomile tea and a vigorous attempt to cut back on disagreements. And it worked. She was having to take a bunch of herbal capsules every day, But she did it. Faithfully. And she added coconut oil to her diet. She put it on toast. She put it in her coffee. She used it for popcorn and for her eggs. “I do it for my brain.” And for the myelin sheath. She’s sleeping now. She’s functioning now. She’s facing the challenges of life without the frantic, frenetic surges. Without the “overwhelmed” feeling. Her reticular/activating system is coming back to normal. “I’m not out of the woods yet,” she says. “I’ve got to stay on my toes.”
She’s got to watch her diet. Her nutrition. And her husband is helping her. “You are what you eat,” she says, smiling. He nods with her… “then I’m about 90 percent popcorn”. What they want me to convey with this story, they both say, is for people to be aware that stress and anxiety may be caused, or at least exacerbated, by real, physical issues within your body. Nutritional issues. The “common sense” approach, which is to try and cut back on stress, will not address the underlying physical issues. It may make it worse, by the very fact that it seems to be failing. It is the same with drugs. They address the symptoms, not the problems. Sleeping pills, too. So, take heart… if you are suffering from “too much stress” and too little sleep… it is probably not because you are incapable or are losing control of your mind… it may be because of what you are eating. Or not eating. If you can fix that, you can fix your stress, anxiety, and insomnia. The herbal supplements created by Dr James (and the coconut oil) seem to have worked for them. And pretty much on the time-table that he predicted. While they still have a skepticism about herbs, especially for things such as this, they both think that this skepticism is a cultural thing. It is the way they were raised and what they were led to believe by parents, media, and society. The proof… the proof, they say, is in the pudding. It is, indeed.
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Stress “I had reached the end of the line,” she told me. “I couldn’t sleep. I just couldn’t shut my brain off. If I was getting 2 or 3 hours of sleep, that was a good night. Some nights it was none at all.” Sleeping pills didn’t even work… and she’d tried them all. At best they’d konk her out for a few hours, but then she’d be wide awake in the middle of the night. She’d get up and wash the dishes or clean the bathroom or something. Anything. Anything to avoid just laying there with those crippling thoughts racing through her head. Thoughts about work, her kids, her marriage… her life. Thoughts that wouldn’t stop. “It was stress,” her husband said. “All the stress gave her insomnia, and the insomnia gave her more stress, and it just kept snowballing.” He, too, was reaching the end of his rope. His sleep was suffering. He was getting irritable, especially with her. With the kids. With his job. “And I blamed it on her.” Their lives spiraled downhill. The more they bickered, the more stress they felt, the less sleep they got, the more they bickered. It fed itself. It got worse and worse. She slept less and less. It finally broke one night. They were reticent to talk about the nittygritty details of that night, but it reached a point where she could no longer function. She was crying… sobbing… on the floor. It was like she couldn’t go on. Like there was no way forward. Like there was no hope. She had to call in sick to work. Or, to be more accurate, he had to call in for her. Something absolutely had to change, he knew, as did she, in her blurry way. Something had to break the vicious cycle in which they’d found themselves. They had doctors. They’d been to doctors. They’d been to counselors and therapists and sociological PhD’s. They’d had tests. They’d gotten prescriptions. They’d gotten medical advice and they’d gotten psychological advice and it seemed that none of it worked “worth a diddly-squat”. In desperation, he said, they decided to go outside the box. Both of them agreed, which was a rare thing for them these days. They chose to go a “natural” way. An herbal way. They were acquainted, somewhat vaguely, through a couple of herbal products, with a doctor of herbology. What they knew was that his herbal capsules had worked. And if he could solve allergies and asthma, perhaps he had something for this. Whatever “this” was. “It’s our diets, more than anything else,” Dr James said to me when I finally connected up with him to talk about their experience. He
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Ken Orth with Dr Michael James
didn’t want to talk with me specifically about that couple, although they had given him permission to do so. But he was more than willing to talk to me about stress and anxiety and insomnia and the things that are plaguing so many people today. People like them. It is our diets. Or more specifically, it is the nutritional content of our diets these days. Take sugar, for example. We all know… we hear, again and again, about how bad refined sugar is for us. But we can’t do anything about it. Sugar is in everything. Everything. Look, we’ve reached a point in our civilization where “we are fed by people who do not have our best interests in mind.” That is an understatement. They are not concerned with our health. They are interested in selling something. This is especially true of processed food. Which is most of our food. It is full of junk. Not only is it lacking in actual nutritional value, but it often contains stuff that is counter-productive. That is bad for you. Take, for another example, our long-standing battle in this country against “saturated fats”. The battle was started way back in the 1950’s to combat heart disease. We switched, as a country, from butter and lard to margarine and shortening. Polyunsaturated fats. “Trans fats” as they are now called. But look what this change hath wrought… heart disease has sky-rocketed. It is higher now than it was then. The proof is in the pudding. Chances are that they will be trying to put you or your spouse on some kind of heart medication before it is all said and done. Probably both of you. This fight against saturated fats has not only NOT helped (except for the drug companies), but it has actually contributed to our health woes. Did you know that your brain is made up mostly of fat? Saturated fats are, have been, and always will be a major building block for the brain and the nervous system. And did you know that there is a sheath around each nerve, called the “myelin sheath” that allows the nerve to function properly. It acts as an insulator. Guess what that myelin sheath is made of? Fat. You got it. So when I stumble onto what looks to be nervous system disorders… runaway neural activity… I suspect that there might be a lack of good, dietary, saturated fat. This is certainly not uncommon today. My fat of choice, then?… add some good, unrefined coconut oil to your diet. A couple tablespoons a day. Start feeding that nervous
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system what it needs and what it wants. Also, by the way, many of our vitamins are fat soluble. That is… not enough fat in the diet and the system is not able to absorb the vitamins.
it is just too much”. The inability to make decisions. Anxiety. Depression. Oftentimes, we say this emotional state is caused by “stress”, which in a strict sense is true. But it really isn’t the stress, it is the failing system that is supposed to react But let’s talk about stress. Stress, by our definition, is to the stress. Cutting down stress, stimuli, won’t fix that neither good nor bad. system. It’s broke, and it’s gonna stay broke. Basically, stress consists of any and all external stimuli And you know what? There is another critical aspect upon your system. Upon your eyes… your ears… your of this broken system… The reticular/activating system skin. Everything. It is the continual bombardment of controls sleep. Sleep! sensational input that must be processed, reacted to, and This really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise when resolved in some way. And who or what does all this you think about it. It does the filtering out of the external processing? Your nervous system. And by the big honcho stimuli to the brain. Pretty critical for sleep, one would in your nervous system, your brain. think. There is a part of the brain, referred to as the “reticular/ So when it fails, sleep fails, too. Insomnia. activating” system, that is in charge of receiving and filtering all of this stimuli. It filters out most of it. The stuff Our traditional health care these days, our doctors and that is known, understood, and acceptable and no action our medicines, tend to deal with things like this, illnesses is required. It does this pretty much automatically. in general, as isolated events. We treat the symptoms. And the stuff, the stimuli, that gets moved on… well, Individually. something has to be done about it. Generally speaking, Can’t sleep?… here’s a pill. Anxious? Nervous? Dethat is “yes’, “no”, or “defer”. pressed? Here’s a pill and here’s a pill and here’s another All of this stuff that hits this system… this is stress. pill. Of course, after all that, your blood pressure is high And the human system is built, has evolved, to handle it. and your liver seems to be out of whack. Magnificently. It is a remarkable, effective machine. Here’s a couple more pills. “IF”, and it is a BIG IF… if it is working as it should. Speaking of pills… “Did you ever notice,” Dr James As it could. asks me, “How often with these medications that among The problem is that it is a biological system that reall of the long lists of side effects, you will almost always quires fuel and nutrition. If that nutrition is lacking, the find ‘liver damage’? Do you know why that is?” system begins to break down. That filtering system starts I look at him blankly. I have no idea. to fail. It becomes overwhelmed. It can’t keep up. It starts It is because we are injecting, infusing, chemicals into making “defer” decisions by default. It simply can no our system. Chemicals that are not normally there. At longer make all of those decisions, even those it used to least not in the form they are in. Often they are synthetic. basically ignore. Often raw. And it is the liver’s job to try and keep our Out of this is born a growing sense of being oversystem in balance. It is the liver’s job to get those chemiwhelmed. Hopelessness. The “I can’t handle all of this… cals out of there.
Summer 2014
The guys making those chemicals know this. They know that your liver is going to try and pull out this stuff that they’ve talked you or your doctor into putting in there. So they load up more of it. More than your liver can get rid of. They overwhelm it. They beat it into submission. And that is why you might well get liver damage. How much (more) abuse can your liver take? What kind of shape is it in? Anyway, back to anxiety, which is kind of a reaction to uncontrolled stress. Sometimes I am confronted with someone whose nervous system is in shambles. What we want to do is “fix” the nervous system. We cannot do this with chemicals or drugs. In fact, we can’t “fix’ it with herbs, either. But what we can do is allow the body to fix itself. What we do with herbs is to give the body the nutrients it needs to restore its own normal functionality. That is how we use herbs. Certain herbs are known to contain certain nutrients. And unlike many of our vegetables today, which are grown in nutrient-depleted soils, the herbs we use are grown in soils that are meant to nourish and enhance their natural nutritional content. “But what,” I ask, “About drugs and pharmaceuticals that are created from something that came out of an herb? Can’t we just use those things instead?” Good question. You know, most of our drugs originated in that way. They came from herbs. They investigated an herb that worked and tried to isolate just what it was within that plant that seemed to do the trick. And they pulled that out. Or synthesized it.
Story Continued on Previous Page 19 Turn Back 1 Page 21
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Dynamic Fitness Lifestyle Good Attitude is POWER for Living Dynamically!!! I am here to give you the facts and I promise not to sugar coat them! Agave nectar has become very popular over the past decade as a so-called healthier alternative to sweeteners which contain high-fructose corn syrup. The marketing geniuses or as I prefer, prevaricators who promote Agave nectar would have us believe that Agave nectar is a miracle product that has been used for centuries by many indigenous populations. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Just like High Fructose Corn Syrup, Agave “nectar” is not “nectar” at all. Even though its name sounds like it came from heaven, Agave nectar is a highly-processed “syrup” that is metabolized by our bodies in the exact same way as High Fructose Corn Syrup. Blue Agave is a beautiful plant that grows abundantly in Mexico. Mexicans have used it as an herbal remedy for many digestive and skin conditions for centuries. Tequila is also made from fermented Agave. However, Agave syrup is not natural at all! It is highlyprocessed and refined to the point of leaving it essentially stripped of all its nutrients. And in many cases, the syrup actually contains more fructose than High Fructose Corn Syrup. Fructose and fructose-like products do not increase insulin levels per se, because our bodies do not metabolize fructose in the same way as sucrose or glucose, so it gives the illusion of being healthy because it has a low glycemic index. However, what fructose syrups do is target the liver in a way that just happens to be much worse. It’s actually OK for insulin levels to rise or “spike” because it’s a natural part of the digestive process. What isn’t good, and what causes problems, is when we develop insulin resistance and our sugar levels remain high when we are not digesting. This is much more dangerous and leads to Syndrome X (or Metabolic Syndrome). High Fructose Corn Syrup and other similarly-processed compounds, such as Agave syrup, cause fat build-up in our livers, high triglycerides, belly-fat and a host of other symptoms which lead to Metabolic Syndrome. In contrast when we consume glucose, only 20% is metabolized in our liver. The rest is used by our body as fuel and is burned up almost immediately after consumption. The “fructose molecule” in Agave syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup and other similarly-processed products is not the same molecule found in fresh fruits. Whole foods contain fiber, enzymes, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, in contrast to the nutrient-void processed syrups. Whole food is broken down in our bodies before we absorb what is left after the process. Processed syrups are free molecules and are absorbed by our bodies (liver) completely, which is NOT good. Pure fructose is also responsible for elevated uric acid levels, which causes inflammation. Inflammation has been identified as a risk factor in cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, and wrinkles, as in premature aging. Fructose also destroys our
Summer 2014
ability to control our appetite. Fructose trains our body to eat more and absorb more of it, thus doing more damage. Are you starting to see the BIG picture here? I sure hope so! Now, you should remember that we have been talking about fructose-syrup, specifically Agave and High Fructose Corn Syrup. As you probably are aware, fruits and vegetables contain fructose as well. As I mentioned a minute or so ago, these are fine to eat in most cases. The key is to try to watch your fructose consumption. Especially if your goal is weight loss, more specifically body fat loss. Every meal should contain fibrous carbs like broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, etc. Fruit is grand for healthy eating but limit its consumption if your goal is fat loss. Fruit is most certainly not as bad as the manufactured syrups but it will convert to fat in the liver if not burned prior the second pass of your liver. What it unfortunately comes down to is most peoples eating habits, (especially here in the “land of processed foods” and “factory farming”), have evolved to include deadly amounts of sugars and sugar-derived sweeteners. Our over consumption of these poisons (I kid you not, that is exactly what they are), has, over two to three generations, created a population of overweight, under-conditioned, chronic- disease-ridden children and adults. People are diagnosed with cancer, epilepsy, dementia, hypoglycemia, obesity, heart disease and diabetes, to name a few conditions, at younger and younger ages. The Pharmaceutical Industry is in making billions of dollars because we are developing a never ending source of candidates for the medicinal solutions it produces. It’s no wonder that the cost of Healthcare (which most of us know is really “sick” care) is skyrocketing with no end in sight. Recently, a female client of mine told me that prior to me educating her on the dynamics of proper eating that she used to drink the product “Ensure” when she couldn’t eat lunch because she was led to believe that it was “healthy.” Not even close... Products like Ensure are high in empty calories; of which most of those calories are coming from sugar. They are also “fortified” with vitamins and minerals. BAD company! And I am not referring to the rock and roll band. Anytime you see the word “fortified” it means that the nutrients have been put back in, after the substance has been completely stripped of all nutritional value. What this comes down to is, there is so much sugar in this product that it destroys homeostasis within the body’s natural chemistry and in no stretch of the imagination is it a healthy alternative for clean healthy food.
Products like Ensure contain Sucrose, Corn Syrup and Maltodextrin; all three are sugars, deceptively broken up into three ingredients for the not so enlightened label reader. Unfortunately, sugar is added to most processed foods (even if it is not needed). For example regular Heinz Ketchup is made with high fructose corn syrup… And Heinz (Reduced Sugar) Ketchup is not made with high fructose corn syrup. And wouldn’t you know that the regular ketchup and the reduced sugar ketchup have the same texture and taste exactly the same! You are probably wondering why so many companies are adding this poison to our foods? So I will give you my professional opinion! You see sugar causes our bodies to look for more sugar. It fosters addiction. If manufacturers want people to eat and purchase more of their product, it is good business to add addictive sugars. Unfortunately, ethics went out the window a long time ago for many, if not all, of these processed food companies. Fructose, Sucrose, Glucose, Lactose, HFCS, Maltodextrin, are all sugars and can often be found on labels for processed foods. But what about the sugars we add to our food at the table? Brown Sugar, Beet Sugar, Date Sugar, Fruit Juice concentrate, Granulated Sugar, Honey, Maple Syrup are only a few, but they all have the same deleterious effect on our metabolisms. My Rule of Thumb is that less sugar is good and almost none is best. Our bodies can tolerate some daily doses, but not the large quantities our society consumes now. Soft and so-called Energy Drinks are the biggest source of sugar consumption in our society today. One 12oz can of soda contains approximately 10-12 teaspoons of sugar in the form of High Fructose Corn Syrup. Fortified liquid “meals” like Ensure are another offender. Fruit Juices made from concentrate are another high-sugar product. Again, I remind you that since sugar causes addiction, most fast-foods have added sugars. This would include burgers, fries, hot dogs, the batter on chicken, ketchup and other temptations at your local drivethru window. A combination of processed food and poor lifestyle choices have contributed to the proliferation of sugar addiction in our society. Awareness is the first step to solve our problem. If we read labels, prepare our own food, reject non-health supporting products by educating ourselves and making proper lifestyle choices we will be able to begin to reverse the process. It’s going to be a long hard battle that is not going to be easy, but, I promise it will be worth! If my articles intrigue you, then I would like to take this time to offer my readers a complimentary wellness evaluation from me, here at the Designer Bodies “Dynamic Fitness Lifestyle Center.” That’s correct, if you call Designer Bodies and tell whoever answers the phone that you are calling in reference to Dwain’s “Duke City Fit” offer, we will schedule you to come in for a free wellness evaluation. I can be reached at 505.899.1700. Until next time… 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.com
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.
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Duke City Fit
Junipers, Piñons, And Jays, Oh My ! “What kind of tree is this?” If I had a dollar for every time I was asked that, especially through my boys’ formative hiking years… well… I’d have a couple bucks. Bucks that I probably should have spent on a good field guide to the flora of the great southwest. But I didn’t. So I’d tell them “I don’t know.” It’s some kind of evergreen tree. Which is to say, its leaves don’t come off in the winter. Or its needles. Or its scaly things. Whatever in the heck it has. The other kind, I’d continue sagely, the one’s with leaves that drop off in the fall, they’re called “deciduous”. I think. I was trying to show ‘em that I did actually know something. Anything. But they didn’t care. They were already off climbing one of ‘em. It didn’t really matter what it was called. As time went by, however, just what tree was what seemed to be increasing in significance. Especially, around here, in the spring, when the winds carried with them the yellow powder. The juniper pollen. “You’re allergic to juniper,” I was told by a wise man of medicine who then billed my insurance company a healthy amount for imparting this unhealthy news. No kidding? Me and a few hundred thousand other Albuquerqueans. My son was diagnosed with asthma. This was thanks in large part to our old friend, the juniper. More than once I thought back to the trees they’d climbed and I wondered at what the woods had wrought. In time, we overcame the allergies and the asthma, and I came to realize that it was not actually the juniper’s fault. It was just doing what it does, which is trying to keep the species alive. The problem was actually in the way our bodies were reacting to the juniper’s primeval efforts. I had come to looks at trees a little differently. We sauntered past them with confidence, but the old questions still lingered, like little spiderwebs stuck in the dusty corners of my mental closet. And the yellow-powdered thoughts of evergreen trees that haunted my subconscious, were eventually joined by another. The piñon. (Or… pinyon… if you happen to be a little more anglic in your visual representation of words.) The piñon name is ubiquitous around these parts. This is due, in large measure, to the roasted nuts that are hocked from roadside cargo vans throughout the valley. Throughout the state. Indeed, if you are lucky, you may be able to get roasted piñon nuts and an Elvis rug all in one parking lot. All in one stop. Add to that, the fact that no hiking story is complete without a mention of the piñon pines, and you have the beginnings of another mental cobweb. Just what in the heck does the piñon pine look like, anyway? It is the New Mexico state tree, and I don’t think I could pick one out of a police line-up. I’ve talked about ‘em for years, like they were old drinking buddies, and I finally came to the realization that I couldn’t rightly tell a scrub juniper from a stunted piñon pine. My trail cred was in serious jeopardy.
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Piñon Pine
Ken Orth
So I went in search of enlightenment. I sought counseling. I went straight, as it were, to the botanist’s mouth. Carolyn Dobson, come on down. First things first. A juniper is a juniper, and a pine is a pine, and ne’er the twain shall meet. They are separate branches on the evolutionary tree. The pines are older. More primitive. Pines have needles. Their needles grow in bunches (called fascicles, if you must know). The number of needles in a bunch varies from 1 to 6, but it is always the same for a given tree. Ponderosa pines have 3. Piñons have pairs of needles. That is, their needles are always in groups of two. Who knew? Not me. I have a ponderosa pine in my backyard and it never occurred to me to count the number of needles in each bunch. Or even that they were in bunches! Consistent bunches. I’ve been raking up needles for nigh unto twenty years and I was totally oblivious to something that was right there under my nose. Or above my nose, as the case may be. I went out and started pulling random needle bunches off of my long-suffering ponderosa (imagining him wincing at every yank) and found, to my cynical delight, that they were all the same. Three. Three. Three. Is this verification of a hypothesis? I DID notice, however, through the years, that ponderosas have LONG needles. Six to eight inches. Piñon pines, on the other hand, have SHORT needles. One to two inches. In pairs. There ain’t going to be no mistaking a ponderosa for a piñon around here. Not with me and Carolyn on the job. (A little side note about evergreens and needles. If the needles are in clusters, like we’ve discussed, it is a pine. If the needles grow individually out of the stalk, it is a fir or a spruce. All of them are referred to as “conifers”. That is, they bear cones. We often call any or all of these cones “pine cones”. This is incorrect. They are not all pines, and they are not all “pine” cones. Now you know.) Anyway, pine trees have pine cones. Pine cones are a rather primitive form of reproduction. The cones, containing the seeds, simply drop to the ground. Great. Not much spread, if you know what I’m talking about. Maybe they’ll roll downhill a bit. But evolution didn’t stop with a rolling pine cone. They’ve overcome this lack of mobility by establishing relationships with some real movers and shakers. In the case of the piñon pine, their transportation buddy happens to be none other than the… wait for it… the piñon jay. That squawking, cantankerous jay, the bird that looks kinda like a blue jay without the crest on top, but with a considerably similar attitude problem… that jay has become the piñon pine’s preferred partner in reproductive locomotion. It has evolved so that it is particularly suited to getting those piñon nuts out of those pine cones. And that ain’t easy. But the piñon jays can do it. And they find the nut so darn nutritious that the piñon nut has become a main staple in their diet. So much so, that they have taken to getting excess seeds out of the cones, beyond which they can consume at the time, and taking them and burying them in various locations (called “caches”) throughout the area. Storing ‘em up for a “rainy day”, as it were. This is a clever strategy for the forward-thinking jay bird.
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Duke City Fit It also suits the piñon tree, too. The thing is, that rainy day just might come before the jay gets back to his cache. His larder. His root cellar. Or he may forget where he put some of the darn things. Either way, that’s a big bonus for the piñon tree. It just got its potential progeny disbursed all over heck and back. Sure beats hoping that a cone will roll downhill. As Elvis would say… “Thank you… thank you very much.” (Yes, I do remember the reference earlier to Elvis rugs being sold alongside roasted piñon nuts, and frankly, it kinda creeps me out. So we’ll just pretend it didn’t happen. Elvis has left the building.) So now that we’ve got a little understanding of the piñon pine, how, pray tell, does it differ from the lowly juniper? “Well,” my botanist friend and mentor may have said to me, “Other than that they grow in the same places around here, they are not at all alike. In fact, they are quite different. Whatsamatta you? Are you blind? Or just plain ignorant?” No, no, no… she didn’t say that. Not that last part. She didn’t even imply that. She would never do that. That’s just those dusty, cob-webbed corners of my mind speaking up. Them and maybe the jays squawking at me as they often do from their safe spots amongst the cholla needles, giving me grief… Hey you (squawk), Writer boy… Don’t know the difference between a piñon and a juniper, huh? (squawk)… Hell, even I know that, and I’ve got a brain the size of a… of a bird. Brain. Squawk. Anyway, as we noted earlier, junipers are not pines. Junipers do not have needles. Junipers have those scale-like, over-lapping leaves. And junipers have berries, not cones. Berries are considered to be an evolutionary step up from cones. Berries, like other fruits, are not actually the seeds themselves, but they contain the seeds. The fruit… the berry… lures various birds and critters into consuming said fruit and then depositing the seeds, which are built to survive the rigors of the digestive tract, wherever and whenever they happen to feel the urge. It could be miles from mama. This seems, indeed, to be a step up from relying on a rolling cone, or the forgetfulness of a jay bird. Juniper Another notable difference twixt the piñon and the juniper is in the trunk. As in, the piñon HAS a trunk. A single trunk. From which multiple branches spring forth. The juniper, however, usually has multiple stems coming up directly out of the ground. Got it? Needles in pairs, pine cones, single trunk… piñon. Scaled leaves, berries, multiple trunks… juniper. Both grow, around here, in the altitudes between 5,000 and 7,000 feet. That range has been slowly moving uphill as the climate has warmed, and that movement may be accelerating these days. Fortunately, both have devised means of uphill transport. Juniper berries, boiled, have traditionally been used as a medicine by Native Americans. In Europe, of course, the berries were used as a “medicine” of a different sort… the basic flavor ingredient of gin. Different strokes for different folks. The shreddy bark of the juniper was woven into mats, and was said to have been used for diaper material. Hmmmm, shreddy bark for diapers? I’m not sure what to think about that. Piñon nuts, on the other hand, were not relegated to the “medicinal” fold. Piñon nuts are high in protein and fiber, and became quite important in the diets of indigenous peoples. The nuts were collected from cones that were still green and unopened and covered with pitch. Back at home they were opened with the application of heat, or the sun, and by using these methods rather than waiting for them to open naturally, they were able to get a step up on their competition for them with the jays. After removing the nuts, the dried, pitch-covered cones remnants made for excellent fire kindling. The resin from the branches was used for paint and glue. Healthy piñon pines may live for several hundred years. Tree ring dating has some junipers getting as old as 2,000 years. So there you have it. Wander the foothills up there and take a look around. Junipers, piñons, berries, cones, and nuts. And jays. They’ll tell ya what’s what. And remember, they were all here a long time ‘fore you got here, and they’ll probably still be here long after you’re gone. After we’re all gone. Doing what they do. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Summer 2014
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2014
Summer Calendar
Events in red require preregistration or reservations Events in Red require pre-registration Ongoing Farmers Markets: Downtown Farmers Market, Saturdays 7am-noon, Robinson Park at 8th & Central Gina Meyers 243-2230 Nob Hill Growers Market, Every Thursdays 3pm-6:30pm, Morningside Park at Lead & Morningside SE Catherine Gordon, 934-8960
June - July - August
Open Space Movie Matinees, Free, 1:304pm, Every Saturday, Open Space Visitor Center 6500 Coors NW, Enjoy a variety of movies in the media room, Kim Selvig 897-8831 Movies Under the Stars, Free, 8:30pm, Every Friday in Rio Rancho, Cabezon Park 2307 Cabezon Rd 87124, Family friendly movies will be shown on a large inflatable screen, 891-5015
ABQ Uptown Growers Market, Starts June 28, Saturdays 7am-noon at Louisiana & Indian School (NE parking NM Volunteers for the Outdoors, Learn lot) Nancy Erickson, 865-3533 new skills with cool tools, “rub shoulders” with forest rangers, enjoy the camaNortheast Farmers Market, raderie of new friends, & help to build & Tuesdays, 3 pm-7 pm , West side of maintain a variety of trails. ABQ Academy, 6400 Wyoming Blvd. www.nmvfo.org Enter campus at Burlison go right (south) and the market will be on the Best Masters Swim Program, $40/ right side Jedrek Lamb 369-6549 month, 6-7am, Monday-Friday, Rio Grande Indoor Pool, 2312 Arenal SW, Presbyterian Farmers Market, for adult swimmers/triathletes, coached Tuesdays, 7am-1 pm , starts June 24, by Lobo record-breaker Ashley Grisdale at Presbyterian Hospital parking lot at 314-0418 1300 Central SE Nancy Erickson 865-3533 Rio Grande Nature Center Bird Walks, Free, 8am, Saturdays & Sundays, join a Corrales Growers Market, naturalist for a quiet bird walk, preregisSundays 9am-noon, Recreation Center ter, 344-7240 500 Jones Rd & Corrales Rd, Mary Jane 898-7927 Rio Grande Nature Center Nature Walks, Free, Sundays, 10am, an insightful nature tour of the bosque, preregister, Ongoing 344-7240 Qigong in the Park, Saturdays, 9-10am: at Altura Park located at Hannett and Old Town & Sculpture Garden WalkMorningside NE, Sundays, 11am at ing Tours, Tuesdays thru Sundays, Free, Robinson Park at 8th & Central, Qigong Sculpture Tours 10am, Old Town Tours practice for all, Loretta 681-1924 11am, ABQ Museum 2000 Mountain Rd qigonginthepark.com NW 243-7225 Yoga With a View, $15, 8-9:30am, Every Sunday, Open Space Visitor Center 6500 Coors NW, Yoga in a beautiful setting (1st class is $5) contact 897-8831 Rio Grande Nature Center Bird Walks, Free, 8:30am, Saturdays & Sundays, join a naturalist for a quiet bird walk, preregister, 344-7240 Rio Grande Nature Center Nature Walks, Free, Sundays, 10am, an insightful nature tour of the bosque, preregister, 344-7240 Open Space Sunday Morning Hike, Free, 9am (Some start earlier), every Sunday out of various Open Space locations. For info & to register: Bill Pentler 452-5222 cabq.gov/openspace
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Rio Grande Nature Center Full Moon Walk, $3 Parking, The Bosque comes alive under the light of the moon, Call for time & reservation 344-7240
June 15 16th Annual Butterfly Run, 5k/10k, 7am, Pojoaque Pueblo, www.pojoaquewellness.com
Full Moon Run by Heart n Sole Sports, Free, 8:30pm, Kit Carson Park 1744 Kit Carson Ave NW HnS info: 884-7653
JCC Fathers Day 5K Run/Walk, 8am, a healthy fun run/walk to start off your Father’s Day, contact: Susanna Pier at 348-4521 www.jccabq.org June 19 Bike Maintenance Basics, Free, 6-7:30pm, REI Clinic Room 1550 Mercantile Ave NE, how to lube a chain, fix a flat tire in record time, and make other minor adjustments, 247-1191
June 14 Walk Like MADD, family friendly 5K, 8am, Natl Hispanic Cultural Center, your chance to lace up your sneakers and get involved in stopping drunk driving in our community, contact Kristin Kroger 255-2955
June 21 Cherry Garcia Run, 7pm, Valley High School, www.irunfit.com June 22 Pollinator Awareness Day, Free, 10am3pm, Open Space Visitor Center 6500 Coors NW, Annual event with honey tasting and beekeepers Q & A, info: 897-8831 cabq.gov/openspace
Open Space Sunset Series, $2 parking, Various presentations every Saturday night at 7pm, Elena Gallegos Picnic area, east of Tramway on Simms, Info&Directions: Bill Pentler 452-5222 cabq.gov/openspace Summer Music Series, Free, 6:30pm, Every Sunday in Rio Rancho, Haynes Park 2006 Grande Blvd 87124, Live music played at the park’s Rotary Club Barbeque Pavilion, 891-5015 June 13 Bike Roadside Maintenance Class, $10, 6-8pm, City of ABQ Esperanza Community Bike Shop 5600 Esperanza NW, flat tire repair and prevention, simple brake and shifting fixes, and other common roadside repairs. 224-6668
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Duke City Fit International SUN Day, Free, 10am2:30pm, Petroglyphs Natl Monument Visitor Center, groups around the world in over 20 counties will be participating in a global solar observing event, 899-0205 June 28 Mud n Color 5K, 10am, in Moriarty, run over hills through Mud and Bubbles all while getting blasted by color, www.sandiamx.com June 28 7th Annual Jim Thorpe Native American Championships & Open Community 5K, SW Indian Polytech Institute 9169 Coors NW, 710-3323 nativeamerican5kchampionships.org
July 5 Powder Up 5K Color Run, 9:30am, Acoma Pueblo, benefits Acoma Education Foundation, www.coloraceionforeducation.com July 7 City Cycling Class, $10, 5:30-8:30pm, City of ABQ Esperanza Community Bike Shop 5600 Esperanza NW, Learn to cycle safely in Albuquerque as a vehicular cyclist for fitness, commuting, or recreation 224-6668
July 27 Run on the Volcano, at Valle Caldera, 8am, half marathon (13.1 mi) or 10K, Run off-road all terrain race at 8,700 feet thru stunning Valle Caldera, this is your chance www.runningguru.com Open Space Wild Herb Hike, Free, 9am Milne Open Space (East Mountain), A 2 to 3 hour moderately strenuous hike led by Dara Saville who will share her extensive background in Herbalism, For info & to register: Bill Pentler 452-5222 cabq.gov/openspace
August 2 Taos Ski Valley Up & Over Trail Run, 10K high altitude challenge with 2,612’ elevation gain in 1st 3 miles, www.taosskivalley.com/trailrun 800-517-9816 NMAA Foundation Run, 8am, 5k walk/ run, benefiting scholarships for NM High School students, at ABQ Academy, contact Chris Kedge 977-5386 www.abqroadrunners.com August 3 49th Annual La Luz Trail Run, Registration Closed, 7am, premier race in the southwest, starts on 333 one-half mile from Tramway, shoulder parking allowed on Tramway, finish at the Crest, www.abqroadrunners.com
July 11 Bike Mechanics I Class, $10, 6-8pm, City of ABQ Esperanza Community Bike Shop 5600 Esperanza NW, Learn basic tune-up, shifting systems and brake systems, and maintenance skills and techAugust 4 niques 224-6668 City Cycling Class, $10, 5:30-8:30pm, City of ABQ Esperanza Community Bike Rio Grande Nature Center Full Moon Shop 5600 Esperanza NW, Learn to Walk, $3 Parking, The Bosque comes alive under the light of the moon, Call for cycle safely in Albuquerque as a vehicular cyclist for fitness, commuting, or time & reservation 344-7240 recreation 224-6668 July 12 Full Moon Run by Heart n Sole Sports, August 8 Bike Roadside Maintenance Class, $10, Free, 8:30pm, Kit Carson Park 6-8pm, City of ABQ Esperanza Commu1744 Kit Carson Ave NW nity Bike Shop 5600 Esperanza NW, flat HnS info: 884-7653 tire repair and prevention, simple brake and shifting fixes, and other common July 13 roadside repairs. 224-6668 Chunky Monkey Run, 7pm, Valley High School, 5k/10k/KidsK www.irunfit.com Rio Grande Nature Center Full Moon Walk, $3 Parking, The Bosque comes July 20 alive under the light of the moon, Call for Women’s Distance Festival, 7am, 5k time & reservation 344-7240 walk/run, state’s premieir women only running event, Southwest Indian PolyAugust 9 technic Institute Open Space 30th Anniversary Event, www.abqroadrunners.com Free, 5-8pm, Open Space Visitor Center 6500 Coors NW, join us as we look back July 27 & look ahead at our Open Space lands, Open Space Workshop - Mulching Like info: Jodi Hedderig Forests, Free, 9:30am, Open Space Visi- 897-8831 cabq.gov/openspace tor Center 6500 Coors NW, a new way of growing with the important skill of sheet mulching, For info & to register: Jodi Hedering 897-8831 cabq.gov/openspace
Summer 2014
August 9 Full Moon Run by Heart n Sole Sports, Free, 8:30pm, Kit Carson Park 1744 Kit Carson Ave NW HnS info: 884-7653 August 10 Rio Grande Half Marathon & 5K, National Hispanic Cultural Center, benefit Special Olympics New Mexico www.bosquerunningshop.com www.active.com August 17 ABCs of Simple Bike Repair, Free, 9-11am, Open Space Visitor Center 6500 Coors NW, led by Chuck Malagodi of the City’s Bike Safety Program, Bring your bike and helmet for possible rides, info: Bill Pentler 452-5222 cabq.gov/openspace
August 31 Dam to Dam, 8am, Starbucks 12201 Academy Rd NE, www.irunfit.com September 7 2nd Annual Rememberance Run, 8:30am, Balloon Fiesta Park, 5K, by Blu Star Mothers of ABQ to support military & veterans, www.abqbluestarmothers5k.org September 8 City Cycling Class, $10, 5:30-8:30pm, City of ABQ Esperanza Community Bike Shop 5600 Esperanza NW, Learn to cycle safely in Albuquerque as a vehicular cyclist for fitness, commuting, or recreation 224-6668 September 11 Rio Grande Nature Center Full Moon Walk, $3 Parking, The Bosque comes alive under the light of the moon, Call for time & reservation 344-7240
August 23 Albuquerque Color Run, 8:30am Crazy colorful 5k for all levels , your moving body plastered in an explosion of vibrant color with all your friends BalSeptember 12 loon Fiesta Park colorinmotion5k.com Bike Mechanics II Class, $10, 6-8pm, City of ABQ Esperanza Community Bike August 30 Shop 5600 Esperanza NW, Learn about Hero’s Run, 8am, ABQ Academy, ball bearings & wheel truing and keep 15k/5k/1 mi fun run, www.allfaiths.org your wheels, cranks, and pedals spinning freely. 224-6668 Rebel Donut Dash, 8am, Balloon Fiesta Park, fun 5K obstacle course September 14 www.active.com Chips n Salsa Half Marathon, 7am, SW Polytechnical Institute, www.irunfit.com
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Uncle KC’s KC’s Corner Corner
The Gila Wilderness
“We gotta get outta this place,”
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I am singing as I walk up to my front porch, “…if it’s the last thing we ever do.” “Girl, there’s a better place for me and you.” I don’t even know who does that song. It was on the oldies station I was listening to as I wound my way home. (104.7 if you must know.) While I have empathized with the theme of the song many times… most times… over the years, I don’t think I’ve ever had it strike me quite so resolutely as it did this day. It reflects a feeling that is in there inside me somewhere. Somewhere deep in my gut. I am up to HERE (he says, his hand held up level with his nose) with the stuff of life. It is overwhelming me. It is burying me. I want to scream. I want to cry. I want to run and hide. “We gotta get out of this place,” I say to my wife, coming in the front door. She is sitting at the kitchen table in front of the laptop, pecking away at something. She stops and patiently looks up at me, cup of tea in her hand. “Let’s go backpacking,” I continue. Pause. Let it sink in. She doesn’t even bat an eye. “Let’s go backpacking down in the Gila. I’ve found a new place… along the river. We haven’t been down in the Gila for years.” “That’s a great idea!” she says. She even sounds enthusiastic about it. She loves to hike. She loves to backpack. She loves to see me get excited about something new. “When?” “Today. Now. As soon as we can get our stuff together and get out the door.” Pause. Sigh. Puppy dog look in my eyes. Can I even get a puppy dog look in my eyes? I don’t think so, but I try anyway. She looks up at the clock. 11am. She looks at the calendar there by her side. Friday.
“I’ll have to cancel lunch with Karla tomorrow. And we have to be back by Wednesday because Quin has a doctor’s appointment.” What? It’s going to be this easy? I am torn between a victory dance and wandering around wringing my hands…What have I done? I think of all the things I’ll have to do to get ready. I wander around the kitchen, aimlessly, wringing my hands. “Well, don’t just stand there,” she says, finally. “Times a-wastin’. Let’s get on it.” We get on it. I discover, to my surprise, that it can be done. We can make a decision to go and actually be gone within a few hours. Perhaps one of the most overlooked, advantageous aspects of going backpacking is just how little you actually need. For a few days at a resort, she’d need a suitcase the size of Cincinnati. But backpacking?… no, nay, never. That’s the whole idea. You have to carry it all on your back. A couple changes of clothes is it… Including the expedition weight Patagonia long-johns. Don’t leave home without ‘em. She actually has most of her backpacking clothing laid aside in a plastic tub. We have lists and we have equipment and it is my job to make sure that we have all of the other stuff we will need. Packs, sleeping bags, mattresses, stove, cook kits, food, etc, etc, etc. All she has to do is get her clothes and her toiletries. AND, get the house in order for our departure. That’s a big “and”. But we do it all and are heading down the driveway a little after 3. Record time, really. Four hours from inception to departure. As we head south down the freeway in our little convertible, packed to the gills, sun on our faces and wind in our hair, I am smiling so broadly that I know I must look like a big ol’ goof. She looks at me and she smiles, too. We are heading for the Gila in southwest New
Mexico. First we’ll find the Gila National Forest, one of the oldest and largest national forests in the country. It’s about 3 million acres. Then, within that, we’ll find the East Fork of the Gila River, departing along it on our trek from a trailhead called “Trail’s End”. I like that name, as ominous as it sounds. And that trail will take us into the Gila Wilderness Area. It is the first Wilderness Area ever created. In 1924. The trailhead is about 95 miles due west of Truth or Consequence, on a two-lane highway that winds its way through cattle-ranch country, the little town of Winston that has a gas station that is only open until 5pm, and eventually into the national forest. I greet the “Welcome to Gila National Forest” sign with a sigh of relief. I had rather assumed, when we got out of Albuquerque so late in the day that we would not be able to embark on our backpacking trip this day. We’d get close, I figured, and spend the night camping in the forest. Then we could get on with the real thing bright and early tomorrow. But for that to happen, we actually had to get into the forest. Today. So I look at the sun, arcing lower into the sky just over the Welcome-to-the-Gila sign, and I let out a grateful sigh. And a little “thank you” to no one in particular. My wife has wandered over to the facilities. A crow draws my attention by gakking at me from atop the sign in that rather irritating, belligerent way that crows have, and we stare eyeball to eyeball for a few seconds. Yellow eye to blue. He cocks his head, as if thinking about things. “Now don’t give me any crap,” I say to him, “I’m as free as you are.” He gakks again and soars off into the pinkening sun as my wife wanders up. “Talking to the birds again, I see,” she says. We stay the night in some unknown, unnamed clearing in the Gila beneath a blanket of a million stars and within the bosom of a thousand ageless pines. Our
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Duke City Fit little tent fits in nicely on a thick carpet of pine needles, secure and snug and homey. Sleeping bags and warm ginger-root tea and a splintered slice of a crescent moon lull us to sleep. There is no wind. There are no bugs. There is no sound at all. “Good night, my friend,” she whispers in the darkness next to me. “Sleep well.” We sleep well. We do not get up “bright and early”. We lay there languorously until the sun hits the tent and the birds break out into full symphonic mode. Loudly and with vigor. “How many birds can there be?” Pause. “Maybe one for every tree.” “And one for you and one for me.” “I believe I’ll have a cup of tea.” “What happens then, I guess we’ll see.” “What will be is what will be.” “Que sera, sera…” Poetry in the morning? We sing the few lines of the “Que Sera” song that we remember from our childhoods as we clean up our site and force it all back into our little car. Did all of this actually come out of that car? As we ready to go and I take a last glance around, I recite another bit I remember, fittingly, from my Boy Scout days… “Let no one say it, and say it to your shame, that all was beauty here… until you came.” The “Trail’s End” trailhead is a little bit hidden. We miss it and end up having to trespass a little bit through some private land. We do so delicately and quietly. And quickly. Then we are along the East Fork of the Gila River! The sky is cloudless and the valley is wide. Cliffs and ramparts, like fortress walls, rear up into the sky on both sides and there is no doubt about where we must go although we have evidently not found the official trail. The river and the valley go THAT way. And so do we. The river, for its part, has opted not to go from here to there in a straight line. It winds. It undulates. It goes completely from side to side within this big valley as if it cannot make up its mind. Or perhaps it simply wants to take up as much time as it possibly can in its downhill journey. It averages 10 to 12 inches deep and about 10 feet wide, does the Gila. On this day and in this season. It has obviously been higher. It is cool and surprisingly clear, considering it is winding its way through what is essentially a sandy desert. And desert it is, though stands of cottonwoods dot the valley here and there. Indeed, our journey is kind of a trek from cottonwood grove to cottonwood grove, crossing the river again and again as we go. The trees, in their little groups, are close enough to the river that they can get their roots down there to it, but not so close as to be drowned when the river runs high. There are a few skeletal, old, dead trees standing about, here and there, oftentimes alone or in pairs or with the broken remains of a comrade scattered about its base. The river changed course and cut back onto itself and left this one high and dry. Or, that one, flooded as the river took its spot. And its toll. Hiking down the valley is not, we discover, a stroll in the park. Though it looks flat and the river lazy, looks can be deceiving. The valley floor is covered with weeds and briars and brambles. Thistles and burrs and spiny weeds that cling to my socks and scratch at my ankles. And generally make walking a bit of a chore. As does the sandy loose soil here and there. Occasionally I step into a hole of sand. Like quicksand, but dry and dirty and gritty. And nasty. Usually it is where moles, or some
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subterranean creature has dug a network of tunnels just beneath the surface and I AM stepping into a hole. Caving in a tunnel. And the extra weight of the pack on my back forces me down even further into the gritty muck. The cockleburrs grab higher at my calves and the dirt and the gravel slip in over the top of my boots. I cuss and I kick, and I swear I can hear some moles chortling at me from somewhere, so I stomp around a bit, hoping to catch one of the little buggers. “What are you doing?” she asks from her perch up on solid ground. She is more dainty and aware, and lighter by half, and does not ever seem to find herself in these compromising positions. I throw out a refurbished line from a Harry Chapin song… “I’m hunting moles, he said.” She gets it, but frowns anyway. “Leave ‘em alone,” she says, “It’s their home.” We find a nice campsite about 2 or 3 miles down into the valley. This is about as far as I care to go. I really don’t “enjoy” carrying a 50-pound pack on my back, especially through this terrain, and I have no intention whatsoever of doing so for long distances. It is simply the price I have to pay for some isolation and solitude. Two miles from the nearest trailhead is isolation enough for me. Our spot is underneath a gnarly, massive cottonwood… standing alone 20 feet from the river like a solitary old man. Big, boney, and bent with age. Beneath him lies the broken, decaying body of another cottonwood, long since passed on. Its huge trunk makes for a great bench/table for us and our gear. It occurs to me that this is rather like spreading out our stuff on the coffin of this big old boy’s life mate. I wonder how long they stood here together, their branches and roots entwined like brothers. Or lovers, perhaps. Soul mates. Through seasons and floods and droughts and… well… you’re all alone now, big fella. But we’ll keep you company for a few days, me and her. And we’ll sing ya a few songs. And we’ll remember you fondly when they ask us about the Gila. She looks at me from her seat on the trunk over there, patting it, but saying nothing. She can appreciate the trees, but talking to them is my thing. We chose this spot, in part, because there is a gravelly, rocky “beach” just a little ways upstream. Soon we are there in just our swimsuits and sandals, beneath the glare of an afternoon high desert sun, splashing in the cool, clear waters of the Gila. Miles and miles from anyone. My wife, with her keen nose, has found some mint growing wild amidst the riverside brambles and we have collected some. Also, luckily, for it was not really on our list of
Story Continued on Page 31 Summer 2014
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Duke City Fit
Dr Elaine
sciatica As a chiropractic physician for more than 25 years I have learned a few very interesting things. First, there are no black and white answers; healthcare really is an art and a science. Judgment develops over the years. Second, conditions seem to go in cycles. I have no idea if this is related to the condition or just my awareness of a condition. It seems like I will have a week where everyone has a stiff neck and neck pain. Another week everyone has shoulder pain. Sometimes it seems to me that it is in the air. This week I am inundated with sciatica. Leg pain abounds. I took this as a message to tell you about sciatica and how I treat it in my office. A lot of athletes, especially runners, can experience sciatica. Chiropractic is a great way to take care of it. The American Chiropractic Association offers many good resources for both practitioners and the public about both low back pain and sciatica. You can also find a practitioner through the American Chiropractic Association. Below are just a few excerpts provided by the ACA that suggest that chiropractic care is a positive way to go for the treatment of low back pain. Sciatica has been investigated to some degree, but the more general low back pain has been investigated more thoroughly. “Many treatments are available for low back pain. Often exercises and physical therapy can help. Some people benefit from chiropractic therapy or acupuncture.” --Goodman et al. (2013), Journal of the American Medical Association “[Chiropractic Manipulative Therapy] in conjunction with [standard medical care] offers a significant advantage for decreasing pain and improving physical functioning when compared with only standard care, for men and women between 18 and 35 years of age with acute low back pain.” --Goertz et al. (2013), Spine “Patients with chronic low-back pain treated by chiropractors showed greater improvement and satisfaction at one month than patients treated by family physicians. Satisfaction scores were higher for chiropractic patients. A higher proportion of chiropractic patients (56 percent vs. 13 percent) reported that their low-back pain was better or much better, whereas nearly one-third of medical patients reported their low-back pain was worse or much worse.” – Nyiendo et al (2000), Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics Mayo clinic describes sciatica as pain that radiates along the path of the sciatic nerve — which branches from your lower back through your hips and buttocks and down each leg. Typically, sciatica affects only one side of your body. You may have an idea of where the pain developed or it may occur from out of nowhere. One of the things I have learned about sciatica is that you don’t want to push through it. You have to respect this pain because it will stop you in your tracks if you don’t take care of it. Sciatica most commonly occurs when a herniated disk or a bone spur on the spine compresses part of the nerve. It can also occur when the piriformis muscle goes into spasm and traps the nerve. This causes inflammation, pain and often some numbness in the affected leg. Patients often confuse pain in their low back, pain down the side of their leg or pain in the gluteal muscles as sciatica. While the pain from these nerves can be quite severe, they do not have the clinical significance that may occur from sciatica. Pain that radiates from your lower (lumbar) spine to your buttock and down the back of your leg is the hallmark of sciatica. You may feel the discomfort almost anywhere along the nerve pathway, but it’s especially likely to follow a path from your low back to your buttock and the back of your thigh and calf. The pain can vary widely, from a mild ache to a sharp, burning sensation or excruciating discomfort. Sometimes it may feel like a jolt or electric shock. It may be worse when you cough or sneeze, and prolonged sitting can aggravate symptoms. If you feel a cough or a sneeze coming on, brace yourself against the wall or a chair so that you don’t increase the pressure in your back. I have seen more than one herniated disc from a giant sneeze. Usually only one side of your body is affected. Some people also experience numbness, tingling or muscle weakness in the affected leg or foot. You may have pain in one part of your leg and numbness in another. It has been my experience that the quicker you see your chiropractor, the faster the condition will resolve. Many times patients will put heat on the ache in their leg and this is almost always the wrong choice with sciatica because it is associated with inflammation and the heat will make it worse. Choose ice especially if there is any trauma associated with the sciatic pain.
Although most people recover fully from sciatica, there are some warning signs. If these signs occur you need to immediately get yourself to the emergency room. • Loss of feeling in the affected leg • Weakness in the affected leg • Loss of bowel or bladder function I tell my patients that it is no longer a choice if they experience these symptoms, they must consider a surgical intervention. It is not something that I suggest often with my patients, but I have seen several patients left with permanent neurological deficits because they did not seek treatment when these symptoms developed. Now, how do I treat it in my office? I begin very slowly to see how the patient responds to the care. One of the most effective tools that I have for sciatica is a technique callled flexion distraction. It is a table that bends and very gently flexes the spine. Most patients tolerate this treatment very well, but some patients cannot tolerate even that gentle flexion at first. I use a tool called a percussor over the sciatic nerve trace to try to relieve some of the pain radiating down the leg. This is sometimes tender, but it relieves a significant amount of pain. Once my patient is able to tolerate the flexion motion, the sciatica begins to resolve quickly. Its interesting that sometimes the pain and/or the numbness goes away from the leg up to the gluteal muscles. It heals from the farthest point to the nearest point. Usually within a few more treatments the patient is painfree and back to normal activities. The moral of my story? If in pain, seek help. You do not have to live with pain. Pain is an indication that something is wrong somewhere and it should not be ignored or tolerated. Get after it!
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The Gila Wilderness Story Continued From Page 29
backpacking essentials, I have brought along some fine Kentucky bourbon. Good for me. Combining the two, the mint and the bourbon, we are able to make reasonable facsimiles of a Mint Julep. Right here. Right now. We sing a few lines of “My Old Kentucky Home” and it echoes back to us a bit off of the rocky ramparts that surround us. A crow, irascible as ever from his spot atop our cottonwood, adds his squawking twocents worth to our melodic endeavor. A muskrat startles me with his noisy, splashing dive right next to me after he apparently came swimming down the river, minding his own business and certainly not expecting to find human beings right here in his own front yard… he nearly swims right into me. I scare him and he scares me and my wife gets a good chuckle out of the whole thing. “I believe I’ll have another Mint Julep.” Mint, I am told, has a very soothing, calming effect. It certainly seems to work on this occasion.
We piddle around for a few days, enjoying the sunshine, the scenery, and the isolation. And the quiet. We have nothing to do and we do it well. We let our clocks slow down. The most work we have to do is occasionally pump river water through the filter so it is safely drinkable. I have discovered that one pump stroke yields about one ounce. Thus, 32 strokes gives us a quart, more or less. I wonder at all of this exercise being forced upon me. How many pump strokes will I have done by the end of this trip? Gallons. Gallons, I say. As is our wont, we take a day hike a few miles further down the Gila valley, dillydallying in our sandals, playing in the water and “river walking”. We watch for more muskrats, but never see any. We don’t see any elk, either, though their massive footprints are everywhere, deeply cut into the soft soil. There is a spot on a bend of the river where dozens and dozens of trees have been knocked down, all of them, helter-skelter around and on each other. It seems to be very much like walking through an elephant graveyard. Old bones and old stories, and we walk through it quietly. When we finally take our leave of the Gila, it is not really because we want to, but because we are running low on food. We have eaten well. We have nourished ourselves. In so many ways. As we hike back, that song plays itself in my mind. That song that kinda got us out here in the first place. “We gotta get out of this place.” Only now, it doesn’t seem like such a song of despair. It is now a song of hope, of dreams fulfilled. I know that from this time forward, when I hear that song, I will think of this wondrous wilderness. Of the river and the beaches and the castle walls. And the muskrats and the moles and the mint. I know now that we CAN get out of this place, wherever that place is. We CAN find a better place. It is a 5+ hour drive from ABQ to the “Trail’s End Trailhead” into the Gila Wilderness. I-25 south almost to TorC, exit 89, 181 south to 52 west. 52 west about 40 miles through WInston (gas until 5pm) to 59. 59 west about 30 miles into Gila Natl Forest to the “T” at 61 just south of the Beaverhead Work Station. South on 61 (North Star Mesa Rd) past Wall Lake and the Guest Ranch. Slight right (west) onto 225 (gravel) and right again at fork. Stay on 225 to its end at gated private property. We could not take our low-slung car down the steep last mile of the road. We hiked it. The trail is to the west across a big meadow just before the “Private Property” gate. It goes down a draw to the East Fork. Large cairns mark the way. The trail 804 goes down river several miles. If followed long enough, it eventually leaves the river and goes up into Adobe Canyon where it meets up with Trail 27 (North Mesa Trail) which descends down to the Middle Fork and to the Gila Visitor Center.
Summer 2014
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