TWA Canyon Adventure Run

Sunday afternoons are my time to leave a little early and do a longer or more challenging run. Although quite short distance wise, the run from the Elena Gallegos Picnic Area to Domingo Baca Canyon presents the challenges of a rocky trail, altitude and then the limited “visibility” of the sun shining directly into your eyes on the rocky descent on the way back (before the trail begins heading south back to the picnic area).Starting at about 6,400 feet and stopping to take a picture with my Katana II, I reached just over 7,000 feet in Domingo Baca Canyon before heading back because of time constraints. The actual wreckage of the flight from Albuquerque to Santa Fe which crashed on the morning of February 19, 1955, according to the ASN aircraft accident description, is at 9,243 feet and the trail becomes much more challenging beyond Domingo Baca Canyon. Photos from TWA Canyon are available here.By carrying my Katana II in my Camelbak Alterra pack, I am able to track my runs and have the peace of mind that if something happens on my solo runs, I will have a way to contact someone and also my location tracked on my GPS enabled phone. In addition to GPS tracking, I use the Polar RS800sd with the Polar S3 Stride Sensor, which also performed flawlessly and gave the same exact distance as the GPS. Activity   Route: – Elev. Avg: 6669 ft Notes   Elena Gallegos Picnic Area to Domingo Baca Canyon and back. Map Elevation (ft)

Posted from runtracker.runnersworld.com

Are You BIM Active?

As I have mentioned before, I am a late adaptor, meaning, for instance, that I just learned to send myself an email on my phone. That’s late. But because I was able to do that, I could share with you a couple of pictures that I also figured out that I could take on my run by putting Wireless Run Tracker into Suspend Mode. Wow, that is technological progress.So let’s recap. I track all of my runs with my Polar S3 Stride Sensor, which I now know much to my dismay, is exceptionally accurate (I am dismayed because I had hoped that it would be wrong and that I was really running a lot faster than it was telling me – but alas, no, I am slow). I also always carry a cell phone and now that I have my super duper Katana II (probably old in your terms) phone with Power Vision, I can log into BIM Active in Applications and track my run by GPS every step of the way (thus I know how accurate the S3 Stride Sensor is). On top of that, I can whip out my handy, dandy Katana II, pause GPS tracking, take a couple of pictures to show the wife that I really was up in the foothills running and that is why I got home late and then post my tale in my blog all from Wireless Run Tracker.The late adaptor has made a quantum leap forward today and it is a giant leap for us old folks!

North from Albertson’s on Academy, under Tramway then east to 365. Stopped and took some pictures and turned around at 30:00

Map

Elevation (ft)

Posted from runtracker.runnersworld.com

Keep It Simple, Stupid

    As in life, so it is with technology.  I have Comcast high speed Internet and I have four blogs, each with a different purpose.  My Polar heart rate monitor and heart rate training blog was the first and was a good way to spread the word about Polar products and the value of heart rate training.  My next blog was my How To Be Fit blog which has general blogs about fitness, health and nutrition.  It really has some great posts and lots of information.   In August, I wanted to have a blog dedicated to Million Dollar Body which would explain all of the programs, the benefits and the opportunities.  And then last week, I realized that being 56 and in great shape was something that I needed to share with other people and I created a blog for the “active lifestyle” which I think is generally considered active people in their 40’s, 50’s and beyond or those who wanted to regain their zest for life through fitness and good nutrition.

So what is wrong with this picture?  The first three blogs are so slow loading, even with high speed Internet, that I can’t imagine that anyone would want to wait for them to load.  We do enough waiting in traffic and in lines that we don’t need to wait on our computers, too.  I, therefore, going to not risk losing anymore readers and will put all of my blogs in one basket.  I am done contacting tech support at my hosting company (Dreamhost is absolutely great by the way) and done thinking how I can get around the problem.  Anyway, who needs four blogs or has the time to maintain them?  I am going to follow that great gem of advice – “keep it simple, stupid” – and admit that this has been the way to go all along…

The seniors win it 10 – 8

My mind is very active when I run and so it was yesterday as I did an adventure run into Domingo Baca Canyon, one of the few places east or west of the Rio Grande River in Albuquerque where there is a running stream year round. If you follow the link, you will also find out that the trail leads to TWA Canyon where a plane crashed on the morning of February 19, 1955. On my way there, on a whim, I started counting the people that I saw based on their age and grouping them into over 50 and under 50. I was beginning to realize after doing a Google search on the phrase, “active lifestyle” that there are a lot of people 50 and over who are very active and very proud of the healthy lifestyle that they are able to maintain.

I know that it sounds silly, but seniors deserve a lot of respect for maintaining a high level of physical activity in the face of some of the challenges of aging. I was simply thrilled to see so many people my age and older in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains, hiking and enjoying the sights on a beautiful fall afternoon. All of the trails are rock strewn and challenging, not to mention the altitude at the trailhead at the Elena Gallegos Picnic Area being about 6,400 feet and the trails staying at the same altitude or going higher. I reached over 7,000 feet in the canyon itself before turning around and heading back to the parking area.

The final score, helped by an older couple from Arizona who finished their walk by waiting for and watching the brilliant sunset was 10 – 8. It had been a blow out for the seniors until three young “stallions” came running by me heading into the canyon, but I’ll still count this one a victory!

Where are the blogs?

If you are a first time visitor to my blog, then you might think that it was a wasted trip. Not so when you find out that I had to create a new blog site because my three other blogs were hosted on very, very slow sites and no amount of head scratching could figure out how to improve them.

Visit the original How To Be Be Fit blog here
Visit the Mirror, Mirror Speak to Me blog here
Visit the Heart Beat blog here

and you will understand right away why I moved them. You can get a lot of multitasking done while you are waiting for each post to load.

The Empty Park

If you have been to my How To Be Fit Blog (which I am replacing with this blog because it is pitifully slow), you might have seen my posts about Wireless Run Tracker, my Katana II phone with BIM Active and how I use it for GPS tracking. I also mentioned in my post on Sunday that I can pause the tracking and take a picture either to document my run or let you see something that caught my eye.
That would have been the case today (had it not been for the thought that someone might wonder why a guy was taking a picture of an almost empty park – considering the arrest of the Chief Operating Officer of the National Children’s Museum on child pornography charges) when I ran past Quintessence Park at 4:30 in the afternoon on a sunny, 65 degree day in the beautiful Albuquerque heights. Big park, well equipped, large beautifully kept grassy area – one child and one parent. What is so wrong with that picture? In fact there are attached tennis courts and only two people were playing. Okay, most people are still at work, so it is understandable that no one was playing tennis, but to not see any little kids playing when school is out. How can that possibly be. I spent seemingly my entire childhood outside playing – virtually no TV, no computer games, no video games, no cell phone – just playing and being healthy and fit.
Every time that I see this map that has been featured on CNN a number of times – Fit Nation Obesity Map – I wonder what this country (world) is coming to. We have enormous challenges to face in the future, and although I have a deep respect for emperor penguins (having seen “Happy Feet“), unlike them, although they waddle on land – somewhat like the way obese people are forced to walk because of lack of mobility and range of motion – they are among the fastest swimmers in the sea. If you think that comment sounds harsh, then read “Obesity Found to Lead to Disability” in Reuters Health.

The health risks notwithstanding, obese children will have a bleak future indeed as they try to mobilize and face challenges and are physically limited in their ability to do so. Empty parks are a foreboding sign of what may lie ahead for this nation and this planet.