Duke City Fit 2015 Summer

Summer 2015

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Duke City Fit El Porvenir Canyon Summer 2015

Summer 2015

3

From the Publisher

? e c i r P t a h W Ken Orth “Who is the President?” she asked.

I know that. I know I know that. But the answer is hidden away somewhere. I can’t find it. It is up there amongst the convoluted folds of my gray matter. Up there where the synapses fire and the electrons swap places and memories reside… like prairies dogs… ever hidden, buried and unseen… until one of them, or several of them, triggered

by God-knows-what, sticks his head up and out and barks a warning.

Or a greeting. Or something.

Or the answer to the question.

But no prairie dog appeared for me in the back of that ambulance.

The President’s name did not issue forth from my bloody lips. I stared at her with what must have been a look of despair. Anguish, even.

For her look softened and she dragged out a bit of a smile. A smile of sympathy. It tore at my heart, and a brief vision flashed by of my 3rd grade English teacher smiling at me in the same way when I missed a spelling word.

“You’re just not all that smart, are you?” her demeanor said.

Smile.

But that’s okay. We’ll just keep you back a grade…

And maybe you ought to stop playing soccer now. You’re getting a little old for that…

“Soccer,” I said. Feebly. I guess. Or maybe strongly, like I really knew that word. And how it was spelled. Maybe I should spell it for her.

But I couldn’t.

More anguish on my face.

“Yes… soccer,” she said softly. And her smile shrank just a little, if that was possible. “Can you tell me what year it is?”

What year it is? Of course I can… of course I can…

A horror began welling up within me. This was not right. Who am I? Who will speak for me?

But as quickly as it came, the horror was gone. The horror and the worry. Like the year and the President, the prairie dog went back down into its hole.

This is what happened, though I am relating it second-hand…

It was a clean hit, that is what my son told me later. There was nothing dirty about it.

He was short, the player who hit me, and stocky. And fast. He came from an angle where I couldn’t see him. It was a bouncing ball up high and my eyes were focused on it. I suppose his were, too. Being shorter, it was the top of his head that took the brunt of it when we collided. The top of his head collided with my chin. Slammed into my chin. It had the hard ferocity of a Mohammed Ali uppercut.

The lights went out and I went down. They tell me my head

4

snapped back and I collapsed like the proverbial sack of potatoes. Flat on my back. My eyes were open, but sightless. Blood on my mouth and blood dribbling down my throat. I gather that it was not a pretty sight.

My brother said he thought I might have broken my neck. My son, first there and closest witness from his position on our soccer team right in front of me, immediately yelled out to the sideline to call 911.

This did not look good.

I started gurgling as I breathed. “It was kinda like you were snoring.”

My son made a quick, but thoughtful, decision then. Fortunately, he is better equipped than most to make a decision like he did. He is a third year student at UNM in sports medicine and athletic training. He is serious and contemplative. And strong. Mentally.

He turned my head, gently, and used his fingers to make sure my tongue was not plugging up my throat. I started breathing more normally. So did everybody else.

For a minute or two everybody stood around… players, refs, parents, spouses… they stood around and worried in silence.

Suddenly. SUDDENLY. I sat up, and looked around and said something like, “Well let’s get back to the game. I’m okay. Let’s finish this game up…’

There’s a cold beer with my name on it waiting for me somewhere.

Smiles.

Chuckles.

Relief floated in the air as thickly as the juniper pollen.

But no, you’re not getting back into the game. You’ll wait for the ambulance. Which, in its turn, showed up in what surely must have been record time, mere minutes later. I guess in that regard, it was fortunate that we were playing in town here at Arroyo Del Oso, and not out at the Bernallilo complex.

One of my first recollections of the entire event is of myself, strapped onto a gurney, looking up at the clear blue New Mexico sky… with a bunch of strange, bodiless heads around me, speaking gibberish. Then sliding headfirst into the closed, boxlike rear of the ambulance. I hoped briefly that it wasn’t the last time I saw that sky.

I’d miss it.

“Obama!” I blurted out, spontaneously, sometime into the ambulance ride after they’d inserted an IV tube into my left arm and taped a monitor of some kind onto my right hand.

“Obama is the President,” I said proudly. “And the year is 2015.”

It was coming back. It came back. I answered a few more of their impertinent questions and then started joking around with them. I tried to crack ‘em up. They seemed so serious. Hell… that’ll give you

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ulcers or high blood pressure or something. I know. I put out a health and fitness paper. Life is short.

Another scene flashed through my mind, (a recalcitrant prairie dog sticking its head out). It was a scene from the Monty Python movie “The Life of Brian”. The hero, Brian, is meeting his demise but manages to get everybody singing “Always look on the bright side of life…”

“When all you get is gristle, just pucker up and whistle…”

I think I tried to whistle, there, on the gurney, on my back, but I couldn’t do it what with the bloody split lip and a strap across my forehead.

I don’t know, maybe my old English teacher would have given me a “B” for my efforts, though.

The hospital, the emergency room, the CAT scan, and the eight stitches in my chin… they all stand out now with crystal clarity. It is almost as if I was watching it all as a newspaper reporter. But I was very much a part of it. My mind was back into working order, such as it is capable of.

When it became clear that mine was not a life and death situation, I got put back at the end of the line of the emergency cases. I got to wait. There were more serious things around me. The guy next to me had a broken arm. And I was just a wise-cracking goalie who got popped in the chops. Hell, I wasn’t even bleeding much anymore.

Since things were going so slowly, I tried to talk my brother into smuggling us in a cold beer. (Purely for medicinal purposes). He wouldn’t.

I told him the story of another time I’d been to the emergency room, years ago, with a busted chin. From soccer. My teammates had convinced me after that game that I needed to go get stitches, while they all went to the bar. I was bummed and it was slow, so I convinced my girlfriend to go out to the car and smuggle me in a beer. She was more cooperative than my brother. But once she got it in, we decided that it would look bad for me to be drinking out of a beer can, so we poured the beer into the only available container we could find in that emergency room… a sterilized, plastic-wrapped specimen bottle.

Yes, you heard that right. A specimen bottle. With beer in it.

And there I was, taking a swig out of that when the ER doctor finally walked in.

Now, I cannot tell you what went through his mind when he saw what he saw.

He froze for a second. And that gave me enough time to chug down the remainder of the contents. I imagine to this day, if he ever tells stories about his time in the ER, that specimen bottle prairie dog shows his ugly head.

Summer 2015

But that was then, and this is now. There was no specimen bottle or beer. There was a CAT scan, with its round, tomb-like appearance that was nowhere near as exciting as I hoped it would be. With its weird noises and mechanical table, it was strangely reminiscent of Young Frankenstein. “He lives! He lives!”

Indeed, I lived. Through the 8 stitches which I eventually received rather than the originally estimated 3.

“It’ll have less of a scar,” the doctor said as he did it. Perhaps he felt bad because I had to wait so long. Or maybe he felt like he had to do what he could for my aging, ugly mug. I mean really, that’s a face only a mother could love. We probably shouldn’t scar it any more than we have to.

But just maybe he was thinking… at least this buffoon isn’t swigging something out of a specimen bottle. I hate when that happens.

Anyway, we got out of the hospital and back to my humble home about three and a half hours after they’d first wheeled me into the ambulance. There were cold beers in the refrigerator. I played in our next soccer game, one week later, because it was the last game of the season and I’d be darned if I was going to miss the last game.

We won that game. In the rain. In fact, I got a shutout. Maybe there’s a moral there somewhere.

Epilogue.

There is only a faint pink line on my chin. You’d never know there were stitches there. If you want to know the truth, I believe it healed much better because I occasionally plastered it with a paste made of Redmond Clay powder. The magic healing powder. And not only did it help it heal, but it kept it from getting infected.

This I believe.

I got all of my faculties and my memories back, except for the few minutes right around the blow itself. I wonder if those minutes are actually in my brain somewhere, or whether the blow shook things up in such a way that the memories never got stored.

There was a short circuit on the way to the inscription process.

And finally, strangely… I was supposed to go back after a week and have the stitches taken out. But things got busy… we had another game for heaven’s sake, in the rain even… and I never actually got the stitches removed. But they are not there. I guess they must dissolve eventually. Or something. Where they went, and where the few minutes went… well… I’m okay with a little bit of mystery.

Also, I had a weird dream... that Obama was not the President.

It was Hillary.

5

Cave Creek Isabel Bearman-Bucher

In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments - there are consequences

Oh pants, why do your snaps defy me Your button becomes invisible While others wait - I fumble

Need to escape to the cool? Want some green? Take a Saturday, no matter what is on the to-do list - it’ll be there tomorrow - and find your way past Santa Fe on 1-25 north, then take the Glorieta Exit #299. You’ll wander through the little town of Pecos, following SR #63 north to Cowles. You’ll see a sign “Panchuela C.G. where you’ll take a left, then comes a right fork onto a one laner. In about a mile when you pass the Pino Ranch on this tight little dirt track, go to the Panchuela C.G. (Campground) and park. By now, you’re way out in the back places of New Mexico. The air smells pure, you’re surrounded by green, and your nerves are already calming down.

Get over to the right side of the Panchuela Creek Campground, cross the bridge, and follow the Cave Creek Trail #288 up the creek. You’ll cross the Panchuela on some logs at about 1.7 miles, following the left fork, on the right side of the creek. Follow the path to the caves off to the left.

By now, the stream has disappeared. In the way-back days, it was this underground stream that carved out all the caves.

It’s about three plus miles up there where you’ll have a nice meadow in which to sit and eat your lunch. It’s also fun to poke into the caves, but if you’ve got kids, watch - there’s dark, dripping water, and slippery ground. Bring a flashlight. Dogs on leash please.

Back in time Let’s go back 318 million years. Then, ancient seas covered our earth. Hard as it is to believe, Santa Fe, the Ancestral Rockies, the grandparents of those that now house our Pecos Wilderness, sat around the equator. The world then was dressed in shimmering blue salt water inlets and untouched mountains. In the shallow seas, lime beds were the big motels for crinoids - upside down umbrellas, whose tines waved, reaching towards the sun and surface, as did the tree-like animals, bryozoans, and horn corals that lived inside fan-like seashells. They, and many more, infixed themselves into the limestone that was an easy grab.

In time - millions and millions of years - the continents shifted, moved, re-shaped themselves. The Ancestral grandpas washed away.

Millions more years passed. Their children were born in their place because of the interior grumbling, angst of our planet, enduring on through massive volcanic spews and violent weather. The nubies didn’t forget their origins, sealing their ancient history in their layers of rocks. Dinosaurs came and went; man arrived, things quieted; the

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seas disappeared, and a giant stream wandered down the oft-snow covered mountains, carving the cave creek caves. Humans wandered, made trails, homes. Life as we know it has wandered down the slight show of years, compared to what the Rockies have seen. The stream diminished, and now goes underground. So, we hike the Cave Creek Trail, held close within the huge 223,333 acres of the Pecos Wilderness, set aside for us all in 1933.

Trail Thoughts The long, long days of summer open to meadows of yellow, struck with brush strokes of orchid and lavender. The ribbon brown trail, crosses a fine bridge, follows the stream, then pitches upwards onto a wooded canyon/ We turn back to a green view that spreads like the opening of a pair of hands. Song of the robin drifts on the sweet summer air, asking “am I the one and only?” Queen Anne Lace waves; blue petals lay on the trail. The Panchuela, once ancient rushing giant, now a happy creek, becomes a symphony to human ears ... and then, disappears. It’s then, at about 8,000 feet, a couple of miles in, the caves appear, quietly, dark holes, staring out like one-eyed cyplopses amongst the veil of gnarled green. Rock strata looks like layers of a huge cocoa cake. The humans perch in front of the scene, like at a museum of art. Some of us relive its geologic history. Curiosity is now the master, and we cross the little stream, which enters the first cave, disappears. We explore ... tentatively, this one, that one and let the black surround us - only for a little bit. It’s a scary place. What water can do, with its unending effort against hard rock. Balancing on rocks, recrossing the Pancheula, there’s beauty for us in the architecture the stream has created. Green heads dip gracefully into the water, making blossoms. It seems so tame today, but the sides show us another time when it ran high and wild.

Lunch is in the meadow. People lie back against trees, chat, eat, drink, and finally cover their faces with their hats, slipping away into the unconscious for a moment in time. On the down track, stomachs happy, bodies watered, we get new eyes because the landscape has taken us unto it.

“There! Look!” Someone whispers. “Oh, my gosh! They were hiding!”

We all stop, squint, and within the grasses and brush, yellow Lady slippers - masses of them, all clumped, with puffing heads that nod and wave in the summer air and clumb up the gentle hills.

“They’re posing for us,” someone else whispers, grabbing for a camera.

“May they reproduce into infinity,” adds another.

We are all obsessed by this perfection and by perfect timing that has put us into their season of “hurrah.”

“Such beauty and design,” this writer thinks, bending low to smell.

Filled to the brim with the views, the green, the beauty, the stillness, the camaraderie of those who share a love of the trail, we leave, enjoying the views, vistas and the comfort of sharing a moment of beautiful together.

Loaded in the van, the group is glad for the chance not to be a driver, but to be a tourist enjoying the drive down along the Pecos River, where we pass a monastery, Monastery Lake, and a little subdivision of cabins.

City life returns for us all.

We stop in the little town of Terrero and see the stuffed cougar because somebody knew it was there. We take a moment to enjoy the cavorting, fighting, flying, buzzing hummers. We’ve done five and a half miles in perfect 70 degree weather, and went up only 692 feet. Piece of cake - or piece of green velvet - masterpiece of art - beauty of flower and stream.

Cave Creek Trail. Treat yourself. Enjoy.

Summer 2015

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Drive Directions • • • • •

1-15 north past Santa Fe Glorieta exit 299 Follow SR 50 to Pecos N to Cowles on SR 63 Left at sign “Panchuela C.G.” • One land road for a mile N. Past the Pino Ranch to Panchuela CG • And park

Trail Directions

• Cross the right, north side of Panchuela Creek at the campground on the bridge • Up #288 Cave Creek Trail • Cross the Panchuela on logs at 1.7 miles • Follow the left fork, right, N side of the Cave Creek • Caves are about a half mile up • Lunch, then return the same way

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Dr Jason Karp

Top Nutrients for Women Runners Women’s nutritional needs are different than men’s, due in part to the menstrual cycle and differences in bone density between the sexes. Inadequate caloric consumption to match the caloric expenditure of running—a common problem among women runners—puts many female runners at risk of nutrient deficiencies that can affect their health and their running performance.

Here are the most important nutrients for women runners.

Calcium

1,000 milligrams/day (age 19-50) 1,200+ milligrams/day (age 50+ and menopausal women) Calcium is essential for bone health. It prevents bone loss and reduces fracture risk. When calcium intake is inadequate to offset your body’s calcium needs, calcium is stolen from your bones to maintain its level in the blood, which contributes to osteoporosis.

Your body absorbs calcium better if it’s obtained through food rather than a supplement. Good sources of calcium are dairy products, including milk, yogurt and cheese as well as dark green leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale and broccoli.

Other sources include canned salmon and fortified foods such as orange juice, breads and cereals.

If you do take a calcium supplement, take it with meals in dosages of 500 milligrams or less throughout the day to enhance absorption.

Vitamin D

600 International Units/day (age 19-50) 800 to 1,000 International Units/day (age 50+ and menopausal women) Vitamin D aids absorption of calcium and increases bone resorption to provide calcium from “old” bone to make “new” bone. Research has shown relationships between vitamin D intake and cancer prevention, increased immunity and the prevention of diabetes.

Vitamin D is produced when skin is directly exposed to the sun. Although sunscreen is important for skin cancer prevention, it also blocks the chemical reaction of the sun on the skin.

Age, geographical location, time of year and duration of sun exposure all affect skin production of vitamin D. Older women have higher requirements of vitamin D because the skin is less able to synthesize vitamin D from the sun.

Because dietary sources of vitamin D are limited to fortified foods and fatty fish, a vitamin D3 supplement is the best way to ensure you’re getting enough vitamin D if you’re lacking it.

Iron

18 milligrams/day Iron is an essential component of hemoglobin and myoglobin, the proteins that transport oxygen in your blood and muscles, respectively. Iron deficiency causes anemia, which is common among women runners because women lose iron every month during their periods. Anemia, which can result in fatigue, poor recovery and subpar performance, can occur from diminished dietary iron intake, excessive iron losses, or both. Running also increases iron deficiency through losses in sweat and through breakdown of red blood cells, known as hemolysis.

The most readily absorbable forms of iron are in animal foods, such as red meat and dark poultry. Other good sources of iron include dried fruit, dark greens, beans, whole grains and soy foods. Consuming vitamin C along with iron enhances iron absorption. Many women runners with anemia, including vegetarians who may be at higher risk, need an iron supplement.

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B Vitamins

B12 — 2.4 micrograms/day B6 — 1.3 mg/day Folate — 400 micrograms/day The B-complex vitamins, specifically thiamine, riboflavin, B6 and niacin, are involved in metabolism. Vitamin B12 and folate, which are frequently low in women runners’ diets, are required for the production of red blood cells, protein synthesis, and tissue repair and maintenance.

Deficiency of vitamin B12 or folate can cause anemia and reduced endurance.

Good sources of B-complex vitamins include fortified cereals, pork, ham, tuna, yogurt, milk, chicken, salmon, turkey, bananas and ground beef. Clams, oysters, beef liver and chicken liver are exceptionally good dietary sources of B12. Good sources of folate include broccoli, spinach, pinto and black beans and enriched spaghetti.

Antioxidants

Vitamin C — 75 milligrams/day Vitamin E — 22.4 International Units/day Vitamins C and E, the antioxidant nutrients, play important roles in protecting muscle cell membranes from oxidative damage. Long-term running can produce a constant oxidative stress on the muscles and other cells, predisposing them to damage, because the activity increases oxygen consumption 10 to 20 times that of rest.

Runners at the greatest risk for low antioxidant intakes are those following a low-fat diet, restricting calories, or limiting dietary intakes of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Despite the antioxidant supplements so heavily advertised to athletes, there is little evidence that antioxidant supplements enhance physical performance.

The richest sources of vitamin C include citrus fruits and their juices, tomatoes and tomato juice, potatoes, green peppers and green leafy vegetables. Good sources of vitamin E include meat, chicken, fish, nuts and seeds, vegetable oil and products made from vegetable oil, such as margarine and salad dressing.

Carbohydrate

2.7-4.5 grams/pound body weight; 55-70% of daily calories Carbohydrate is your muscles’ preferred source of fuel when you run. Achieving and maintaining optimal carbohydrate intake is important for training intensity, preventing hypoglycemia during your runs, serving as a fuel source for working muscles, assisting in post-exercise recovery, and strengthening your immune system.

Since eating increases carbohydrate stores whereas running depletes them, runners who don’t consume enough carbs experience prolonged glycogen depletion that decreases endurance and performance. Glycogen synthesis occurs most quickly if you consume carbohydrates within the first 30 to 60 minutes after you run.

When increasing carbs before a half marathon or marathon, women runners need to increase their total caloric intake as well as their percentage of carbohydrate calories to obtain the same carb-loading effect as men.

Foods rich in simple carbohydrates, which are digested quickly, include fruits, fruit juice, honey, molasses, dairy products and sweets. Nutrient-dense carbohydrates include whole-grain breads and cereals, rice, pasta, fruits, vegetables, legumes and low-fat dairy products such as yogurt.

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Protein

0.5-0.7 gram/pound body weight (recreational runners) 0.6-0.9 gram/pound body weight (competitive runners) 15-20% of daily calories Protein is important for muscle growth and aids in recovery and repair following muscle damage from training. Protein is also needed for red blood cell development, antibody production and the synthesis of new structures that improve your running, such as mitochondria and enzymes. Protein provides up to 15 percent of the fuel during activity when muscle glycogen stores are low, but only five percent when muscle glycogen stores are adequate.

Runners lacking protein are more likely to experience decreased muscle mass, a suppressed immune system, increased risk of injury and chronic fatigue. Women at risk of insufficient protein intake include those on a low-calorie or vegetarian diet, since plant proteins are less well digested than animal proteins.

Good protein sources include meats, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy products, nuts, seeds, peanut butter, soy foods and beans. A well-balanced vegetarian diet can easily supply enough protein as long as the protein sources are varied and you eat enough calories during the day. Vegans who avoid all animal proteins such as milk and meat should increase protein intake by an additional 10 percent.

Fat

20-25% of daily calories Because fat supplies more than twice the number of calories per gram compared to carbohydrate and protein, it provides a concentrated calorie source to furnish energy for the runner. Fat provides essential fatty acids that supply energy, help to produce hormones, contribute to nerve function, and carry the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K into your body. A diet too low in fat, common among women runners trying to lose weight, limits your running performance by inhibiting storage of fat inside your muscles, resulting in earlier fatigue during your run.

Good sources of fat include polyunsaturated fats, such as soybean oil and sunflower oil, and monounsaturated fats such as peanut oil and olive oil.

Run-Fit.com Jason Karp, PhD, is the 2011 IDEA Personal Trainer of the Year, 2014 recipient of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition Community Leadership award, and creator of the Run-Fit Specialist certification. He has more than 200 published articles in international running, coaching, and fitness magazines, is the author of six books, including Running For Women and Running a Marathon For Dummies, and speaks around the world.

Summer 2015

9

Salt

of the

Earth Ken Orth with Dr Michael James

I stood next to the older lady in the produce section of the grocery store. We were there together in front of the avocados. Each of us was, dutifully, picking out likelylooking avocados, one at a time. She, over there on the right side, and me on the left.

Most of the avocados were not ripe enough. We could each tell this by an initial firm touch. But some, we had to pick up and squeeze just a little. Evidently she was looking for about the same ripeness as I… good for using this very afternoon, or possibly tomorrow. We touched, picked, squeezed, discarded at about the same rate. But I got done first. I only needed two, while she was aiming for six.

“I need six,” she said to me, without averting her eyes from the prizes. “My husband is going to make… uh… what’s that stuff?”

“Guacamole?”

“Yeah, guacamole. Tomorrow.”

A pause while she landed another good one.

“I don’t really like that stuff. But I do like avocados. Just the way they are. I slice ‘em up and eat ‘em straight. My daughter, who is a nutritionist… she lives in Phoenix… she tells me that avocados are very good for you. The right kind of fat. The good kind.”

So we chatted for a bit as she finally finished up at the avocado counter. We moved to the sweet corn where we each in turn peeled back the husks to look at the kernels. Sometimes, if the corn is dubious looking, I’ll burst a kernel with my thumbnail to see if the milky juice squirts out. I refrained this time, somewhat intimidated by the nutritionist’s mother.

At some point I mentioned that I was the publisher of a health and fitness newspaper… trying, I guess, to insinuate that I, too, had a little bit of nutritional knowledge. She immediately asked me what my degree was in.

“My daughter has a PhD,” she said. “In nutritional Science.”

So much for my bonafides.

“Well,” I thought, but I didn’t say, “I’ll see your PhD with 10 years of a health newspaper and raise you a health-food guru who’s been at it for nearly 40 years.”

“That’s nice,” I said.

I had mentioned that I was writing a story about the big differences between Sea Salt and regular table salt.

“My daughter says there is no difference. They both have sodium. I’m on a sodium-restricted diet. What is your degree in?”

Now, I am nothing if not polite, especially with older ladies on sodium restricted diets… presumably for some reason like high blood pressure, or hyper-tension or something… and I knew that a disagreement while fondling hothouse tomatoes just did not seem to be in order. This, even though what I thought I knew about salts was very germane to her situation. It did make a difference. A BIG difference.

But I kept my counsel to myself.

We parted ways near the potatoes with a polite goodbye and good luck. I was headed for the Yukon Golds and she for the Russets. I wondered, then, in my snobbish, healthpaper publisher way if her daughter hadn’t yet gotten to the discussion about the nutritional values of various potatoes.

Oh, maybe it’s her husband who prefers Russets. Heck, maybe he puts guacamole on them. And no salt. ”The things is,” I said to myself as I drove home with the radio off so I could hear myself talk, “The thing is, there is a difference between sea salt and table salt. A significant difference.”

So says Dr James, my health food guru, naturopath, herbologist, friend, doctor, and compatriot in the search for natural nutrition and drug-free health.

(Now there’s a mouthful!)

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Table salt is refined. Processed. It is sodium chloride that has been extracted from its more complex source (an ancient sea bed?). It has been “purified”. Usually it has some other chemicals added to it to keep it from “clumping”. Often is has some type of iodine compound added. Table salt is a chemical compound that does not occur in nature.

It is bad for you.

Why?… for basically the same reason that refined sugar is bad for you… it is a foreign, unnatural chemical compound that your body simply is not equipped to deal with. It is not built to handle these compounds. Your digestive system has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to use what it has ingested. Sea salt.

Your body has “learned” to use sea salt. It recognizes sea salt and the complex combinations of chemicals and trace minerals that it contains. Amongst those chemicals, there is a good deal of sodium chloride, but that sodium chloride has never, ever stood alone. Never. It has always had partners. Your body needs, uses, and expects to find the whole party present when it tackles salt. Period.

Evolution is a strict teacher.

Do you know why we have table salt?

Prior to its creation, which is mostly credited to the Morton Company in the early 1900’s, salt came in big bags. And it tended to clump. It absorbed moisture. The more moist your environment, the more clumpy your salt. Your great grandmother hated that.

Well, actually, I don’t know how much she hated it. But the Morton Company thought she disliked it enough, though, that they figured out a way to extract the sodium chloride (NaCl) and add an anti-caking agent to it (magnesium carbonate) such that… voila… it didn’t clump!

“When It Rains, It Pours.”

Table salt was born. Americans… all Americans… stopped using the old-fashioned salt bags and started pouring pure sodium chloride into their bodies. That was about a hundred years ago. In evolutionary terms, a hundred years is but a drop of water in the ocean. It is a single grain of salt in the vast salt shaker of time. Evolutionarily speaking, we were introducing a brand new chemical compound into the bodies of every single person in this country… babies, children, grandmothers. And not one of those bodies… not then, and not now… could use that compound properly.

Since then, coincidentally enough, we have seen a geometric increase in heart disease.

Did they have high blood-pressure back then?

We certainly do now. Was hyper-tension even a word? Anxiety disorder?

“Hey, wait just a darn minute there… are you trying to tie all these things to table salt?” I hear several of you and the nutritionist’s mother asking. Skeptically.

And the answer to that is, “Why yes, as a matter of fact. Yes, I am.”

Those things and a few more.

The people we all know who are on lowsodium or no-sodium diets, they need to be.

They should be. They have flooded their bodies for a long, long time with too much sodium. In their salt shakers and in their processed foods.

Stand-alone sodium. That their bodies can’t handle. And hasn’t handled for years.

None of them, not one I’ll wager, grew up on a sea salt diet. A diet that foregoes the processed sodium chloride with its anti-clumping agents that make it so much easier to use.

Easier to use. The mantra of our times.

Himalayan Pink

Sea Salt comes from dehydrated sea water. Either from real, live sea water which is

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expressly evaporated, or from old, possibly ancient dried up sea beds where the water evaporated naturally long ago. Either way, sea salt is what remains when you remove the H2O from sea water. It is the combination of chemicals, minerals, elements that managed to, over time, dissolve themselves into that sea water.

Since the dawn of time on earth, or at least from the dawn of the time of water on earth, things have been dissolving into the water. Life itself, it is theorized by many if not most knowledgeable scientists, began in the hodge-podge of inorganic chemicals dissolved and suspended in sea water.

It all started with a single cell. A cell suspended in and entirely made up of… sea water. And even today the cells in your body, every one of them, from your brain to your toenails, the nerves, the muscles, the bones… those cells have evolved from that one. They have evolved, adapted, and specialized. But they still all have one thing in common… they use sodium.

It is true.

It is called the sodium-potassium pump. It is a mechanism built into your cells, all your cells, by which sodium ions and potassium ions exchange places through the cell membrane. It is critically important and finely tuned. Among other things, it maintains proper fluid pressure within the cell and it creates an electrical charge.

We, as humans, didn’t even know the sodium-potassium pump existed until it was discovered in the 1950’s (by a Danish scientist, Jens Christian Skou, who was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1997.)

By the time it was discovered, however, isolated sodium chloride in the form of table salt was already very much a part of all of our bodily systems, and had been for nearly half a century. Not that it made any difference. The sodium-potassium pump was still there to be discovered, and it was still trying to do what it does, but it was beginning to malfunction. Or at least, under-achieve.

The reason?

You got it. Too many sodium ions. Table salt. Pure and simple.

But, oh so easy to use.

Sea salt, because of its complex combination of elements, chemicals, compounds which are present in addition to the sodium… well… it does not result in all those free sodium ions running amuck. It doesn’t. Your body, your digestive system, when it encounters the sea salt combination, recognizes it, as it should, and knows how to break it down. To utilize it and all of its constituent parts exactly and efficiently. Minutely.

Perfectly.

But that sodium chloride stuff? What the heck is that anyway? Never seen it. Don’t know what to do with it. What should we do with it? Break it down and get rid of it, I guess.

I don’t feel so good.

Dr James is very much in favor of eliminating table salt from your diet altogether.

Replace it with sea salt. But that is easier said than done.

Putting the fine ground sea salt into your shakers is easy enough. But it tends to clump. Especially when the rain comes and. . . “they run and hide their heads.”

Or the swamp coolers kick on.

Gotta have shakers that are sealed up, air tight. Or grinders. Like for your pepper.

But the salt in your shaker isn’t enough. That table salt is also in pretty much all processed foods. (As is sugar.) It’s easier to use, don’t you know? It doesn’t clump.

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(Which clumping, I’m thinking, is worthy of a side note here. Sea salt, as we know, wants to absorb moisture. It is as if it wants to return to its more natural state. Its heritage, if you will. It wants to become sea water again. The cradle of life. But table salt does not. It wants to stand by itself, isolated and alone. This peculiarity of table salt should have given us a forewarning of how it would comport itself within our bodies. It ain’t natural, that’s for sure.)

Anyway, sea salt is the way to go. Aside from the fact that your body absolutely needs sodium, sea salt also tastes better. Really. And there is quite a variety of sea salt out there.

An 89-year-old friend and confidante of mine swears by the pink Himalayan salt. When I mentioned that I was doing this story she got it out so we could do a taste test. It is a far cry from that bitter stuff I’ve been shaking onto my food for most of my life.

Like popcorn.

I, myself, am a hopeless popcorn addict. A popcorn gourmet, if you will. In only these last few years, however, have I finally achieved popcorn perfection. I pop it in unrefined coconut oil (another whole food), and I use sea salt on it. It is the gold standard of popcorn. There is no going back.

Home made roasted cashews? Step it up onto the top of the podium with sea salt.

In fact, I actually use sea salt in all of my cooking now. Freely and comfortably. And tastefully. That pourable, non-clumping, iodized stuff no longer is allowed to cross my threshold. Give me sea salt or give me…

Heart problems.

Strangely enough, my blood pressure is fine, and I don’t seem to be afflicted with hypertension or anxiety disorders. I’d slough that all off as genetic predisposition, but my dad ended up with all of those and eventually succumbed to them. He was on a low-sodium diet for many years. He never tried sea salt in his entire life, except for that time when he tried to snorkel down in Florida.

Which reminds me, my old health-food buddy, Karl Thomas, sold his health-food store and moved to Belize. When we chatted a while back, he was telling me about how he usually goes down every day to the end of the pier and swallows a cupped handful of sea water. I told him I thought he was crazy. But in light of what I am learning about sea salt, I may have to rethink that opinion.

It appears that we have to place table salt on the “dangerous foods” list. Along with refined sugar and white flour. It may be even more dangerous than these. Many, many of the maladies we suffer from, health-wise, as a society and individually, can be traced and correlated to the extracted, refined, unnatural chemical compounds that we have created and are now putting into our bodies on a regular and overwhelming basis. They are, literally, killing us.

But, like the sugar in raw honey and the flour from whole grains, sea salt is not the enemy.

Table salt is.

Editors note - It has come to our attention that there are some “sea salts” on the market that are processed and refined, possibly even “iodized”. To qualify as sea salt as we have discussed it here, it must be “unrefined” with no additives.

In general, unrefined sea salt should not be pure white. It should have some color to it, from off-white to gray to pink to black.

Some of the salts we recommend are: Celtic Sea Salt, Himalayan Pink Salt, and Hawaiian Sea Salt.

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Dirty Knees Sometimes, I envy little children Their view of the world ‘Tis cleaner, and Less cluttered with opinion And oh so much closer To what’s happening On the ground Where wonders dance And flowers pirouette.

So look... look...

Wise men and tall Upon your knees...

With the eyes of a child You will see

Dr Elaine

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k c o l B n u S I am pale. I have always been pale. I will probably always be pale. Too much sun makes me break out in bumps. But I love to be outside and I love being in the mountains where the protection from the sun is even less. So what is a pale person to do?

I have spent my whole life looking at Jody Foster’s bottom in the Coppertone commercials, so that must be what I need to do right?

Not necessarily. We have become such a nation of sun blockers, that many of us actually have a shortage of vitamin D in our systems.

One study presented on the Baylor College School of Medicine website suggests that we have used so much sunblock on our babies (and their respective bottoms) that they are developing rickets. Rickets is the failure of the body to build bones. This study suggests that infants be supplemented with vitamin D drops.

The dilemma for parents may be that sun damage is most devastating when we are young. Children should never get a sunburn and as parents we have to decide the best way to protect them. But without the sun exposure, we can’t make the Vitamin D that we need to calcify our bones.

Vitamin D deficiency may predispose some individuals to infection. Vitamin D is what our body uses to help with the absorption of calcium. Vitamin D also increases an antimicrobial compound in white blood cells called cathelicidin, which targets bacteria, viruses and fungi. This compound is important in maintaining our immune system. Lack of sun, depletes the cathelicidin in our white blood cells. It may only take a single dose of UV-B radiation, just enough to evoke skin reddening the next day, to activate the vitamin D receptor and the cathelicidin gene in the exposed skin.

A recent study also suggests that low levels of Vitamin D are related to poor physical performance in the elderly. This study has suggested that Vitamin D may be related to musculoskeletal function in some way that we are not yet aware. This study showed a decrease in the abilities to grip, walk quickly, and stand from seated position and maintaining balance.

Insufficient exposure to ultraviolet radiation may be an additional risk factor for cancer in Western Europe and North America according to a new study published in the Cancer journal. The research examined cancer mortality in the United States. Deaths from a range of cancers of the reproductive and digestive systems were approximately twice as high in New England as in the Southwest despite a diet that varies little between regions. This appears to be nearly the opposite of what we traditionally think about sun exposure and cancer.

At this time of year, the news is full of cancer stories and the emphasis on the use of sunblock. I was watching my usual Sunday

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morning fare and came upon the story of Giada DiLaurentis brother who died of skin cancer at 30 years of age. Once again, sunblock was portrayed as the answer to what had caused this young man’s death. I’m not sure what the right decision for this young man might have been, but I know that some exposure to the sun is necessary. It is when we forget moderation that we get into trouble. Sun BURN is the problem, not just sun exposure.

As if it weren’t bad enough that we could get rickets from shielding our skin, it turns out that some sunscreens can actually cause more free radical damage to the skin than just exposure to the sun. Free radicals are formed when normally stable molecules are disrupted for some reason and they give off one of their electrons. When this happens, the electrons go looking for a new home. They may displace a normally stable molecule and create a chain reaction that can lead to illness or other cellular disruptions.

Normally the body is able to deal with free radicals, but if antioxidants aren’t available, damage can occur. Antioxidants work by donating one of their own electrons to the situation and ending the free radical cascade. According to controversial nutritional advocate Dr. Joseph Mercola, skin cancer may well be more prevelant with poor eating habits and the toxins that are inherent in our food in modern times, than sun exposure. Increasing the fish oil in our diets may well be more beneficial than coating our skin with sunblockers. It seems that the healthy fats increase our ability to maintain healthy skin and thus decrease the likelihood that we will develop skin cancer.

Well, my recommendation is that EVERYONE should spend some time out in the sun with some skin exposed and without sunglasses.

Remember that in New Mexico the high altitude effects the amount of the sun’s rays that we encounter. Begin slowly and with adequate clothing to cover your body. Spend maybe as little as ten minutes out in the sun every day. Its ok for your skin to turn slightly pink, but it should not get to the red stage.

Gradually increase the amount of time that you spend outside and your skin will adapt to the sun exposure without the need for the sunblockers. Your eyes should be able to accommodate to the sun without the aid of sunglasses. If your adrenal glands are functioning properly, your pupils should be able to adapt quickly to the increase in light.

We test adrenal function by watching how your pupils react to light and if they fail to react we look for an underlying problem.

If your adrenal function is inadequate, your pupils cannot constrict and hold the constriction long enough for your eyes to accommodate to the sun. In extreme cases of adrenal fatigue,

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photophobia may be present even indoors in bright lights. If you are going to be out and think that you might be exposed for a long period of time, there are a few sunblocks on the market that use natural ingredients to help block the sun. The Environmental Working Group’s researchers surveyed 1,700 products with SPF to produce the 5th edition of their Skin Deep Sunscreen Guide, which is a resource that was released at the end of May that does a lot of the hard work for you.

“What we found is that manufacturers still produce sunscreens that don’t provide adequate protection from UVA and UVB rays and also contain hazardous ingredients,” says Paul Pestano, a research analyst who worked on the survey. One of the biggest problems is that SPF numbers only indicate protection from UVB rays. Many products don’t shield you from the more powerful UVA rays, which can beam through glass as well as layers of skin, and lead to melanoma without ever causing a burn. And super-high SPFs can offer a false sense of security, encouraging people to stay out in the sun for longer periods of time without reapplying.

But new products on the market rely on minerals to screen you from the sun. They are safer and more reliable than ever before. You should also have adequate sunglasses for long exposure. I found several products just doing a simple internet search. But remember, DON’T BURN. It’s the burning of the skin that creates the damage. Even one serious sunburn is enough to create serious skin damage.

The point is to allow yourself enough sun to avoid the hazards that lack of sun can create, but don’t overexpose yourself and create a situation that can lead to skin damage. Step out side and boost your adrenal glands with a little bit of sun. Have some Vitamin D for free. Moderation seems to always be the key and it is the same with sun exposure.

Have a great summer!

Lifetime Chiropractic Our offices offer - Full Exercise Rehabilitation Programs, Nutritional Counseling, Massage Therapy, and Homeopathic Trigger-Point Injections.

24 Hour Emergency Care Appointments Available!

Most Insurance Accepted • We do the Paperwork

Dr. Elaine Adams has been practicing in New Mexico for 25 years. She has a bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in behavioral psychology and she spent her early career in the field of autism. She has served on the Board of Directors of the New Mexico Chiropractic Association for most of those years. You can contact her office for a consultation on the services available or for an appointment with Dr. Adams. www.lifetimechiropractic.com

Dr. Elaine Adams

Dr. Lonnie Peets

Serving Albuquerque and Rio Rancho for nearly 25 years!

Lifetime Chiropractic (505) 822-0306 Albuquerque (505) 891-3111 Rio Rancho www.lifetimechiropractic.com

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

Summer 2015

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Duke City Fit

Dynamic Fitness Lifestyle Do you really ‘UNDERSTAND’ what you are putting into YOUR Body?

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

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

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

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

Some farmers do try to replace minerals back into the soil; However these minerals do very little to enhance the nutritional quality of the crop. And many farmers will also make an effort to replace nutrients by growing a crop that is not harvested, that they will then till back into the soil. But for whatever reason they refuse to realize that unfortunately this is pretty much a waste of time because if the minerals are not in the soil to begin with, they won’t be in the crop that is being worked back into the soil either.

For most of us it is no secret that farming today includes using harsh chemical based fertilizers, pesticides, and insecticides that further contaminate our food. And if that’s not bad enough, dangerous preservatives are being added to keep foods fresh during a potentially long transportation process that is then followed by an additional stay on your store’s shelves. Then, to add insult to injury, additional additives are used in an effort to enhance the somewhat unhealthy appearance of produce that is commercially grown.

Organic produce doesn’t only contain higher amounts of quality nutrients they usually look and taste better than the commercially grown produce as well. For example, a tomato grown in organic, nutrient-rich soil has a deep red appearance on the inside along with a robust and exceptionally pleasing flavor. Whereas a factory farm grown tomato generally has a pink to clear appearance

Summer 2015

when cut open and lacks the same rich flavor of the organically grown tomato.

The same can be said for the raising of livestock and poultry. There is no comparison between hormone-free grass fed beef than commercially raised cattle. Grass fed beef is much leaner and the fat that it does contain is very high in healthy Omega fats while also containing greater nutritional values straight across the board. And to seal the deal, the flavor of grass fed beef is most delicious in comparison… There is nothing quite like it!

This is precisely why I highly recommend for my clients to buy locally grown organic produce and grass fed/hormone-free meats when at all possible. I say when possible because it is nearly impossible to do-so 100% percent of the time and by no means should you get down on yourself or feel like it is useless when you can’t. Just do your best to put in a good effort most of the time and you should be fine. Because in my professional opinion even the smallest effort made to eat clean will accumulatively help to contribute to your overall health and well-being in the years to come.

You must also be aware of cheap fillers that cause inflammation and inhibit nutrient absorption such as High Fructose Corn Syrup and other similarly-processed products like Agave Syrup.

They do not contain the same molecular structures 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 ability to control our appetite.

Fructose trains our body to eat more and absorb more of it, thus doing more damage.

Soy is another cheap filler that seems to be in everything, yet, isn’t even safe for human consumption. It was farmed originally to be used as fertilizer. Until the Chinese learned to ferment it and use it as a condiment much like we use mustard. It was never intended to be used to make fake meats, fake cheeses, fake milk, fake ice cream or any of the other ridiculous fake foods that some people seem to worship in this country. Don’t believe me. Google Dr. Kayla Daniels and buy her book the Whole Soy Story. Dr. Daniels and dozens of M.D.’s conducted hundreds of studies on soy and its effects on the human body. Their conclusion, soy could make an amazing petroleum product.

And unfortunately it doesn’t stop there. Gluten is yet another cheap filler that is creeping up in almost everything with a label. People always ask me “what’s the problem with gluten?” Doesn’t it occur naturally in wheat? And the answer

is yes. However through genetic modifications that have been occurring since the 1950’s wheat now contains 28 additional chromosomes that has formed a super gluten that is wreaking havoc on many unsuspecting consumers. Gluten can cause skin conditions, digestive discomfort, digestive cancers and there are even documented forms of gluten induced schizophrenia just to mention a few damaging effects of inflammation due to gluten consumption. I recommend certified organic wheat products to my clients after we go through detoxing and cleansing procedures in an effort to reduce inflammation naturally.

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

Now you may be wondering why I didn’t really talk very much about nutritional supplements when it might have seemed like that’s where this article was headed. But in all honesty, I really wanted to use this article to get you thinking about what you are putting into your bodies. And for that reason I did not want to use this article as a means to make any endorsements on any particular nutritional supplements/products, manufacturers or companies.

However I will recommend that you do your homework before purchasing nutritional supplements. It is important that you discuss nutritional supplements with your doctor or a trusted fitness professional based upon your personal needs. And to collectively gather information based upon what you want to accomplish from using nutritional supplements.

Understand this right here and now. There are no such things as magical pills, powders, or potions. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. And remember that Dwain said “Nutritional Supplements are meant to SUPPLEMENT the foods that you are eating…

They are NOT meant to be used as substitutes for good quality food!”

So again it’s pretty simple, if nutritional deficiencies did not exist; neither would the problems associated with them. This in a nutshell (organically grown nuts of course) is TEAM DB’s intense motivation for personally eating and recommending a diet that consists of clean healthy organically grown produce and grass fed free range meats when at all possible. This, combined with taking good quality nutritional supplements to help ensure that we are all getting the proper quantities of nutrients for successfully promoting overall health, well-being and longevity in an effort to Live Dynamically!

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

Visit us on the web at

www.designerbodies.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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SUFFERING FROM AEROBIC BOREDOM? I so often hear the comment that aerobic exercise—on a treadmill, on a stationary bicycle, elliptical trainer, etc.—is boring. B-O-R-I-N-G! Well, I suppose that might be true; and not only from a mental standpoint, but physiologically, too. Do we know that aerobic exercise is important?

Absolutely! Do we know that there are a multitude of benefits gained from consistent aerobic exercise? Absolutely! Do we want to get all we can out of our aerobic efforts? Why, of course! Then let’s end the boredom (physiologically, even more importantly than mentally) and make our aerobic exercise not only non-boring but extremely effective.

What do the recent exercise science studies tell us? HIIT is the answer.

And what is HIIT, you ask? High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). That sounds scary, you say? Not at all. Here’s what we know: (From a recent article by health columnist, Jane E. Brody in the New York Times; and I might add, the current, reliable scientific literature all reports the same information.)

“Many people with chronic health problems resign themselves to lives of modest activity or no activity at all, thinking vigorous exercise is unsafe or that they lack the stamina for it. But recent studies are proving just the opposite. They are showing that high-intensity exercise may be even better than regular aerobic activities for many patients with conditions like heart disease, diabetes, stroke, pulmonary disease, arthritis, and Parkinson’s Disease.

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George Fraser The studies strongly suggest that a more demanding but more efficient and often more enjoyable form of exercise known as highintensity interval training, or HIIT, is not only safe for most patients but more effective at preventing or reversing the deficits associated with many chronic ailments.

Although once reserved for athletes seeking a competitive advantage and for healthy people wanting to burn more fat, HIIT is now being studied as a treatment that is sometimes as effective as medication for many people with chronic health problems.

Researchers have found that repeatedly pushing the body close to its exercise limits for very brief periods, interspersed with periods of rest, is more effective than continuous moderate activity at improving cardiovascular, respiratory, metabolic, and mechanical functions. Instead of continuous movement for 20 or more minutes, as is typical for exercise walkers, joggers and cyclists, HIIT usually involves 30 to 60 seconds of exercise near the peak of a person’s ability, followed by a comparable recovery period of easy activity, with the sequence repeated for a total of about 20 minutes three times a week.”

Jonathan P. Little, a specialist in exercise physiology at the University of British Columbia reports that “study participants find interval training more enjoyable than continuous aerobic exercise, making it more likely that people will continue it.”

Intensity of any exercise should, of course, be tailored to an individual’s starting ability, and high-intensity exercise is not appropriate for everyone. In a recent report, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), wrote that HIIT “is only appropriate for low-risk individuals, moderate-risk individuals who have been cleared for vigorous intensities by a medical professional, and highrisk individuals who are under direct medical supervision during exercise training.”

Among the physiological benefits of HIIT are the body’s increased ability to use oxygen and insulin, as well as arteries that are more elastic than continuous moderate exercise can achieve. “We’ve seen that interval training is remarkably effective at lowering glucose levels in people with diabetes,” Dr. Little reports. By making blood vessels better able to expand, HIIT can improve the cardiovascular system’s ability to respond to added exertion.

Oxygen-carrying blood can flow more smoothly through arteries that are wide open, which reduces the risk of a vessel-blocking clot. The body’s ability to use oxygen efficiently improves markedly “after as little as two weeks of training” with HIIT, the researchers wrote. Peak oxygen uptake—the amount of oxygen an individual can use during intense exercise—is considered the best indicator of cardiovascular fitness. In a 2012 report reviewing the effects of HIIT in patients with coronary artery disease and heart failure, researchers in Canada, France, and Switzerland wrote that, “HIIT appears safe and better tolerated by patients than moderateintensity continuous exercise” and more effective at increasing patients’ peak oxygen uptake, blood vessel flexibility and pumping ability of the heart.

Pretty exciting information! If aerobic boredom is getting you down, make a point to ask your favorite trainer or physical therapist to introduce you to HIIT! BE SAFE, BE STRONG, BE HEALTHY; and BE EXERCISE SMART. Never hesitate to enhance your exercise efforts by pursuing additional information and instruction.

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Summer 2015

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2015

Summer Calendar Events in Red require pre-registration Ongoing Farmers Markets: Downtown Farmers Market, Saturdays 8am-noon, Robinson Park at 8th & Central Robert Hoberg, 252-2959 Nob Hill Growers Market, Every Thursdays 3pm-6:30pm, Morningside Park at Lead & Morningside SE Catherine Gordon, 934-8960

June - July - August

Open Space Sunday Morning Hike, Free, Sundays 9am (Some start earlier), every Sunday out of various Open Space locations. For info & to register: Bill Pentler 452-5222 cabq.gov/openspace Rio Grande Nature Center Bird Walks, Free, Saturdays & Sundays 8:30am, join a naturalist for a quiet bird walk, preregister, 344-7240

Movies Under the Stars, Free, Fridays 8:30pm, Every Friday in Rio ABQ Uptown Growers Market, Starts Rancho, Cabezon Park 2307 Cabezon June 27, Saturdays 7am-noon at Blvd 87124, Family friendly movLouisiana & Indian School (NE park- ies will be shown on a large inflatable ing lot) screen, 891-5015 Northeast Farmers Market, Tuesdays 3-6 pm , West side of ABQ Academy, 6400 Wyoming Blvd. Enter campus at Burlison go right (south) and the market will be on the right side Joshua Shelburne 369-6549

NM Volunteers for the Outdoors, Learn new skills with cool tools, “rub shoulders” with forest rangers, enjoy the camaraderie of new friends, & help to build & maintain a variety of trails. www.nmvfo.org

Presbyterian Farmers Market, Tuesdays 7am-noon , starts June 29, at Presbyterian Hospital parking lot at 1100 Central SE John Lewis 720-7757

Old Town & Sculpture Garden Walking Tours, Free, Tuesdays thru Saturdays 10am & 11am, Sculpture Tours, Old Town Tours ABQ Museum 2000 Mountain Rd NW 243-7255

Corrales Growers Market, Sundays 9am-noon, Recreation Center 500 Jones Rd & Corrales Rd, Al Gonzales 898-6336

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

Los Ranchos Growers Market, Saturdays 7am-noon, Village Hall, 8528 Rio Grande Blvd NW Sue Brawley 344-1023 On Going Qigong in the Park, Saturdays, 9-10am: at Altura Park located at Hannett and Morningside NE, Sundays, 11am at Robinson Park at 8th & Central, Qigong practice for all, Loretta 681-1924 qigonginthepark.com Open Space Sunset Series, $2 parking, Various presentations every Saturdays 7pm, Elena Gallegos Picnic area, east of Tramway on Simms, Info&Directions: Bill Pentler 452-5222 cabq.gov/openspace Yoga With a View, $15, Sundays 9am, Open Space Visitor Center 6500 Coors NW, Yoga in a beautiful setting (1st class is $5) contact 897-8831

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June 24 Bike Maintenance Basics REI, Free, 6-7:30pm, REI Clinic Room 1550 MerHeart Health Family Fun Run, 5k/1 mile, 8am, Vessel Health 10601 4th cantile Ave NE, how to lube a chain, fix a flat tire in record time, and make other St NW www.hhnmf.com/fun-run minor adjustments, pre-register, do not Terry Harris at 440-8799 bring bike 247-1191 June 21 June 25 17th Annual Butterfly Run, 5k/10k, Camp Cooking Basics REI, Free, 7am, Pojoaque Pueblo, 6-7:30pm, REI Clinic Room 1550 Merpojoaque.org/events/butterfly-run cantile Ave NE, learn how to set up your JCC 14th Annual Fathers Day 5K Run/ camp kitchen and create easy and fun meals, pre-register, 247-1191 Walk, 8am, a healthy fun run/walk to start off your Father’s Day, June 27 Susanna 348-4521 www.jccabq.org Tooth Fairy 5K 2015, 9am, Sagebrush Community Church • 6440 Coors Blvd June 21 NW, Dental Hygienists’ raise money to Cherry Garcia Run, 7pm, Valley High build community outreach events, spread School, www.irunfit.com awareness of the importance of oral health 884-1234 x8558 www.active.com

June 13 Billy Mills 50th Anniversary 10K Gold Run, 7am, various races at various times, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, 9169 Coors BLVD NW www.abqroadrunners.com Rio Grande Nature Center Nature Walk, Free, 10:30am, an insightful nature tour of the bosque, preregister, 344-7240 June 20 Mad Cow 180 Mountain CX/Road Bike Ride, 4am, ride will incorporate five dirt road sections, totaling 55 miles, and 123 miles of pavement, and 18000 feet of climbing, 3700 Ellison Rd NW, www.active.com

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July 31 Full Moon Run by Heart n Sole Sports, Free, 8:30pm, Kit Carson Park, sign in 1 hour prior, 1744 Kit Carson Ave NW HnS info: 884-7653 July 2 Full Moon Run by Heart n Sole Sports, Free, 9pm, Kit Carson Park, sign in 1 hour prior, 1744 Kit Carson Ave NW HnS info: 884-7653 July 4 4 MILER ON THE 4TH, 8am, Mariposa Basin Park, certified & sanctioned fast and flat 4 miles, Bosque Running Shop 503-8076 Run for Orphans 2015, 9am, Albuquerque Academy, support abandoned and orphaned children around the world, 750-8040 www.active.com

August 1 Atomic Smasher 200 Endurance Road Ride, 5am, endurance road bike ride of approx. 206 miles and 14K climbing, 3700 Ellison Rd NW, www.active.com

Open Space Sunset Series, 7pm, $2 parking, Bonnie Schmader and Friends – A blend of Classical, Jazz, and World Music, Elena Gallegos Picnic area, Bill Pentler 452-5222

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

July 11 Rio Grande Nature Center Nature Walk, Free, 10:30am, an insightful nature tour of the bosque, preregister, 344-7240

Rebel Donut Dash 2015, 8am, Balloon Fiesta Park, Dash your way through donut themed obstacles stopping at sweet spots along the way www.eventbrite.com

July 12 Women’s Distance Festival, 7am, 5k walk/run, state’s premieir women only running event, Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute, 844-9583 www.abqroadrunners.com

Taos Ski Valley Up & Over Trail Run, 9am, 10K high altitude challenge with 2,612’ elevation gain in 1st 3 miles, www.taosskivalley.com/trailrun 800-517-9816

July 31 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 July 2 Full Moon Run by Heart n Sole Sports, Free, 8:30pm, Kit Carson Park, sign in 1 hour prior, 1744 Kit Carson Ave NW HnS info: 884-7653 July 12 Chunky Monkey Run, 7pm, Valley High School, 5k/10k/KidsK www. irunfit.com July 18 Walk Like MADD, 5pm, family friendly 5K, Natl Hispanic Cultural Center, your chance to lace up your sneakers and get involved in stopping drunk driving in our community, Aisha Smith 255.2955 Ext. 3558 July 19 Live Love Tri, 7:30am, 5th Annual, Rio Rancho Aquatic Center, help empower women by building their self-esteem, Angela Kandalaft 948-7971 www.livelovetri.com

Summer 2015

August 2 50th 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 Corrales Arts in the Park, Free, 9:30am-3:30pm, La Entrada Park - Corrales, Award-winning artists show a wide range of art and fine crafts 3691012 August 8 Resilience Run, 8am, commemorates the first successful revolution against a colonizer on North American soil, Indian Pueblo Cultural Center | 2401 12th St NW, 866-855-7902 Rio Grande Nature Center Nature Walk, Free, 10:30am, an insightful nature tour of the bosque, preregister, 344-7240 Open Space Sunset Series, 7pm, $2 parking, Poetry and Spoken Word – A wonderful evening of offerings from a collection of talented artists, Elena Gallegos Picnic area, Bill Pentler 452-5222

August 9 Rio Grande Half Marathon & 5K, National Hispanic Cultural Center, benefit Special Olympics New Mexico www.bosquerunningshop.com www.active.com 553-9413 August 15 Watermelon Beat Down Endurance Mountain Bike Ride, 7am, Cedar Crest, A course - approx. 47 miles/approx.

8400 ft climbing; B course - approx.

34 miles / approx. 6100 ft climbing; C course - approx. 28 miles / approx. 4800 ft climbing, www.active.com Vision Walk 2015, a pet-friendly 5K walk and run, Rust Medical Center • 2400 Unser Blvd. SE Rio Rancho, 888-465-1482 August 22 To Catch a Crook 5K Fun Run/Walk, 8am, to support The Albuquerque Metro Crime Stoppers, Balloon Fiesta Park email: abqcrimestoppers5k@yahoo.com www.abqroadrunners.com August 23 TOUGHMAN NM Triathlon, 7am, Cochiti Lake • Cochiti Dam Rd Cochiti Lake, www.toughmannm.com Hero’s Run 15k, 7am, Mesa Del Sol 5700 University West Blvd. SE www.allfaiths.org

Run By The Rio, 8:30am, REI Run Series, Hispanic Cultural Center, 5K/10K, www.rei.com August 28 Hoof It To Happy Hour 2015, 6:30pm, Balloon Fiesta Park, 5K, benefits the Carrie Tingley Hospital Foundation, Call the Carrie Tingley Hospital Foundation at 505-243-6626 if you have any questions www.active.com 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 29 Full Moon Run by Heart n Sole Sports, Free, 8pm, Kit Carson Park, sign in 1 hour prior, 1744 Kit Carson Ave NW HnS info: 884-7653 August 30 Dam to Dam, 8am, Starbucks 12201 Academy Rd NE, www.irunfit.com September 13 3rd Annual Rememberance Run, 8:30am, Balloon Fiesta Park, 5K, by Blue Star Mothers of ABQ to support military & veterans, www.abqbluestarmothers5k.org Chips n Salsa Half Marathon, 8am, SW Polytechnical Institute, www. irunfit.com

21

El

i r n e v r o P Ken Orth

A Place. . .

A Canyon, A Campground A Trail in Time

An Adventure Into the Pecos Where the River Dances And the Trees Sing

“El-por-vuh-nee” That is the way the Las Vegas local told me it was pronounced. He might have been pulling my leg, as locals are often wont to do with unsuspecting tourists, but I think not. He seemed sincere.

“It might be French,” he theorized, around a mouthful of chile cheese fries.

The fries looked great, smothered in green chile. These were New Mexico chile cheese fries, no doubt about it. It weren’t no chili-con-carne on these fries. No Texas chili here… no sir.

Green chile.

He saw me eye-balling his fries and he pushed the plate… platter, really… over toward me. “Want some?”

“No… no thanks,” I demurred.

A buddy of his who showed up a few minutes later was not so reserved, and dug in with relish. He cleaned the plate. Even the garnish greenery.

“You gotta get your green vegetables in,” he told us, scooping up the last bit of the lettuce, onion, tomato, and green chile.

Yah, you do.

When he’d finally polished it off and pushed the plate away, he confirmed what we were talking about… “It’s elpor-vuh-nee” he said, with seeming authority.

“But it isn’t French. It’s Spanish (duh), and it means something like ‘The Future’. I think.”

“If you’re going to that campground, let me tell you, that is a long and winding road out there.”

They were the kind of friends who tended to start or finish each other’s sentences. I like that, though it tended to keep my head on a swivel. Thanks God the fries were gone, as that at least eliminated one of the focal points for my eyes.

“It says it’s only 15 miles to the campground, but it is a narrow road with a lot of curves. It’ll take at least a half an hour. Probably more like 45 minutes since it’ll be dark, too.”

“And some guys drive crazy on that road. You gotta pay attention.”

“And take your time.”

The road goes up through Montezuma. (Heck, that’s not French is it?)

There’s a castle there, in Montezuma, up on the hill.

You’ll see it as you drive by. It’s a college now. I don’t know what they teach there. Foreign languages, maybe.

There’s an area past there called Gallinas (Guy-een-uss) where the speed limit is 15… schools, kids, and cops.

Professors, maybe.

It’s a pretty drive and then you’ll be along the El Porvuh-nee.

22 22

It’s a nice campground, too, but it can get pretty crowded on weekends. And noisy. The kids tend to party up there sometimes.

“Good thing it’s not a weekend,” I got a word in edgewise.

As a matter of fact, I had the entire campground to myself that first night. Which, by the way, can be a little spooky if you are by yourself. A strange place with strange noises and strange names.

It is not my preferred way of travel… or of camping… but it is what presented itself. The weather, the timing, the opportunity. And more than a little bit of intuition…

I’d not been there for nigh unto 18 years, when our family was brand new to New Mexico and my collegesenior son was just a toddling little boy. We’d camped there and for some reason, never returned. Until now.

It was intuition. The campground called to me, from across the years. From a place on the Santa Fe National Forest map just west of Las Vegas.

So I went. Midweek. About three hours of travel time from my driveway in ABQ to the campground at El Porvenir. Allow more time if you intend to chat with locals in the city at the hotel on the plaza.

The campground is fine. It is near the creek… you can certainly hear it from all the sites, but access to it is a little tricky. The campground is totally fenced in and surrounded by private property, the biggest of those being the church camp next door.

The reason for going, however, is not the campground, but the hiking trails that go out of it. Two of them. One

goes up to Hermit Peak, and I mean UP… and the other meanders along El Porvenir Canyon. Perhaps you will believe me when I say I chose the “meandering” hike because the gathering dark clouds threatened to wreak electrical havoc upon anyone going up the switchbacks onto the exposed terrain of the Hermit.

I am nothing if not a “safe” hiker.

And somewhat lazy.

In my defense, though, I do prefer to hike alongside running water, I always have… you can’t really ever get lost as long as you can find the creek and keep track of whether you were going up it or down it. And you can always dunk your head if you get too hot. It’s a win, win situation. Also, I heard rumors that there were a number of waterfalls along this creek.

So, El Porvenir Canyon it was.

A darn good choice!

There ARE waterfalls. And steep-walled granite cliffs.

And a seemingly endless old-growth forest with huge ancient trees… standing, and toppled. It teemed with life and death, intermingling. It is a fire waiting to happen.

The deadfalls are prevalent… everywhere. I lost track of the number of times I had to detour around one end or the other of a massive fallen tree.

My boys would have called them “grandfather trees”.

It is a canyon of grandeur. It speaks to the awesome power of nature…

Sometimes it growls, in the creaking timbres of the trunks and branches above me, roughly played up there by the winds. Threatening, always, it seems, to bring down

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yet another aged grandpa. To crash down amidst the vast graveyard of its peers. Its buddies. Its siblings.

Sometimes the canyon sings. Gurglingly poetic. In the rhymes of a river. Splashing and dancing over smoothed boulders or tumbled logs, or falling… leaping, really… over ragged edges of rock where the world cracked and the water changed its tune.

It is a mysterious canyon, a canyon that has its own rules. You are obliged to dance with that stream. You must cross it again and again… on slippery stones or fallen limbs, the water dancing at your toes. It tests your mettle and it tests your balance. It tests the rubber tread in the soul of your boots.

But do not show any fear. Not here. It is bad mojo. It is like unto a wasp showing up at a picnic… the one who shows fear is the one who will be bothered. This canyon is like that, I think. If you let it know that you are afraid, it will mess with you.

More.

So I sing, sometimes. Quietly. Almost humming. An Arlo Guthrie ballad, maybe, as I step through the soupy, spongey bed of mushroom matter and a thousand decaying trees…

Or I belt it out, sometimes, in a narrow part of the canyon where the weathered granite towers up on both sides of the river, creating an echo chamber of unmatched resonant possibilities. I belt it out, then, in my loudest Freddie Mercury voice, trying to keep up with the raging treble chorus of the river… which is tumbling chaotically through a slot in the rocky walls. There is often a surprisingly strong bass counter melody coming up from the depths somewhere, in the dark pools at the bottom where the big fish hide.

We sing and we dance, this canyon and I. But mostly we stroll… more often than not… in quiet meditation, the thrum of a hummingbird’s wings playing on the edges of the stillness… barely there, then gone. Like a dream.

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The hike itself is dreamlike. Surreal.

Sometimes the sun breaks through… through the clouds, through the trees, through the tall edges of the canyon itself and it lights up a section of the river. A rocky ledge, perhaps. When it does, the rules of the hike demand that I take a break. Shed my shirt. Dunk my head. Lay back in the warmth of the sunshine to absorb the sights and sounds and what little Vitamin D the canyon chooses to share with me this day. Like a little nip of mother’s milk, it fortifies and sustains.

But like the hummingbird’s signature, the sunshine is short-lived. Clouds roll as clouds do on a summer’s day in the mountains. Distant thunder rumbles. The canyon chills as quickly as it warmed.

A few splats of rain lead me to think that I should, maybe, cut this adventure short, and turn myself back toward home. A booming crash of thunder not nearly so far away seconds the motion.

All in favor say “Aye.” It is not a fearful return, though. To the contrary, it feels like the interactions I have had with this mystical canyon have strengthened my spirit. It has tested me, to be sure, but it has seemingly bestowed a passing grade upon my efforts.

If I am to get wet on the way back down… well… there are worse things in life than walking downhill in a summer rain. I have my poncho.

And my wool socks. And a few miles of this wondrous canyon from a different point of view.

El Por-vuh-nee.

Very cool.

Summer 2015 Summer 2015

A fifty foot cliff in the granite wall towering up and out of the other side of the river. Echo chamber.

I’m pickin up good vibrations.

23 23

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