EP Walking Weekends in May (Copy)

May Clinics

EP Walking Weekends

There are many ways to ambulate on two feet: hiking, ambling, meandering, running, jogging. However on weekends in May we will not be doing any of those. On these walking weekend mornings we will be discovering Endurance Powerwalking (EP) which is the intermediate step between strolling and racewalking. The formal pace is between 15 -10 mins/mile. During these sessions we'll be learning form techniques in order to increase our speed and distance.

Through the month of May we will increase our distance aiming for 5 to 6 miles, and increase our speed by one to two minutes per mile. In order to accomplish these goals, you will need to have other powerwalking sessions within your week. I would recommend at least two if not three.

I will be available to help you plan a personal walking program both to establish your base and keep you going strong through the month and beyond, if you like.

Prerequistes:

I advise that prior to beginning our May sessions, you have, or develop, a walking base through April, so that you will already be comfortably walking at least 3 miles at a pace somewhere between 18 and 15 minutes per mile.

Pretraining:

Without a base and additional weekly walking sessions it is possible that you may experience discomfort, pain, or injury in the shins, knees, hips, or hamstrings. One way to mitigate this likelihood is base training in concert with learning to regulate your pace for form and efficiency.

If you are not used to walking at speed/pace, shin splints are a frequent obstacle. So through April when you are building your base, do not try to walk too fast and back off at the slightest feeling of fatigue in your shins. Give them time to adjust. Focus on carrying your body lightly with all your Pilates techniques, letting your arms swing free, and lean into your walk from your ankles.

Why PowerWalking:

This practice is ageless. I began racewalking in my early 30’s after overtraining injuries sidelined me as a sponsored cycling and triathalon athlete. So no, speed walking is not merely for the seniors. This practice is also ageless in that you will be able to fall back on these tools for moments that come up in your life like illness and injury. It is a practice you can do almost anywhere in the world, For Free! And some of these principles will cross over to other sports you may already be participating in.

During our sessions we will be out doors on relatively flat surfaces some paved and some chat trail. We will use fartlek style interval training that will tune us into form, energy efficiency, and give us the skills to notice when we can push and when we should ease off. In EP, much like swimming, form shaves off time, in some cases much more effectively than sheer aerobic training.

I recommend that your weekly walks also be outside when and if at all possible. It will mitigate your chances of injury which can occur using treadmills, and it will also give you the benefits that being outdoors uniquely provides, different from working out between four walls. This is a walking program for your mind and your body.

I hope to give you the foundational principles of Endurance Powerwalking without incurring injury so you can continually reap the benefits of walking, particularly outdoor walking.

When: Saturdays and Sundays in May

Sunday walkers, our approach will be slightly different. While we will still walk and learn about form and pacing and increasing miles, for those who would like to stay, we will add 30 minutes of discovery writing post session. During walking the brain releases chemicals, I like to call them openhearted truth serums, that allow us into places of mind and heart not otherwise accessible. Writing directly after an EP session is a good way to catch those serums so you can use them later.

Don't worry, even if you don’t consider yourself "a writer" or if thinking of taking pen to paper causes you consternation, relax. I will provide tools to jumpstart you and guide you in the process. You're totally supported. Just bring a small notebook and pen.

These sessions are offered FREE of charge! So you and your friends are welcome and on Sunday stay for the discovery writing portion or not. Currently I only plan to offer this through the month of May. That being said, it is rather important to make at least one of the sessions each week, because we will be increasing distance and speed regularly and as you all know, continuity is key.

I ask that you not bring your pets or your earphones. Your shoes should flex easily at the toe box so as not to put unnecessary strain on the foot and shin during push off.

EP uses the entire body to generate power and speed, so get ready to feel muscles like you’ve never felt before! And I hope you will come prepared to have fun, learn, and get in Endurance Powerwalking shape.

For inspiration check out my blog post: www.coreworkspilates.com/blog/2024/3/29/someday-walking

Here are some other resources and bit of curiousness about EP:

https://olympics.com/en/news/all-you-need-to-know-about-race-walking

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fartlek

https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/health/a45709070/average-walking-speed/

https://www.webefit.com/articles_900_999/article_959_PowerWalking.html

https://athleticsweekly.com/featured/injury-study-walk-this-way-39192/#:~:text=Most%20common%20problems&text=It%20was%20unsurprising%20that%20the,distances%20in%20training%20and%20competition.

If you are tempted to go out into the world, I say GO. Enjoy the springtime!

COVID Update April, 2022

Dear ones –

In one sentence, my update on COVID is: For as long as it lasts, let’s enjoy this while we can!

Cases and hospitalizations around New Mexico are a tiny fraction of what we’ve seen. Our

vaccines are holding up extremely well when it comes to severe illness and hospitalization,

and as a community we are approaching numbers that suggest we may have real herd

immunity to help buffer us – come what may. If you get nervous watching trends in cases of

positive COVID infections, try to watch hospitalizations and deaths instead.

Yes, the Omicron BA2 sub-lineage is likely to take over as the dominant strain of the virus that

is circulating. It is more transmissible than the earlier Omicron subtypes, but that does not

mean it is destined to cause more severe illness and death. All of this is very good reason to

feel relief and optimism. Hospitals are no longer packed to overflowing, but our whole health

care community has been badly beat-up by everything that’s happened over the past couple

of years. This is a great time to see your dentist, get a mammogram or go see your PCP for a

checkup, but be patient – wait times for non-emergency care are going to be very long

for a good while yet.

PREVENTING COVID

You know the drill. Get vaccinated, wash your hands, and wear masks when appropriate!

MASKING

Masking continues to be one of our effective pillars of prevention. If you are in an area with

high rates of infection or have a high need for extra protection, I recommend the KF94, KN95

or N95 mask respirators– available at pharmacies and online.

However, I also believe that it is safe for fully vaccinated people to shed their masks in

most public places in New Mexico. I am currently using a benchmark of an expert

infectious diseases epidemiologist that I found helpful. His recommendation was that it

is OK to not mask in indoor public spaces as long as your community rate has a low

amount of circulating Covid – specifically, fewer than 20 cases per 100,000 population,

which you can find reported at either of the following links. (At the time of this writing,

Bernalillo County has 6 cases per 100,000 population)

CDC Prevalence Tracker: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/covid-by-county.html

New York Times Tracker: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html

Outdoor and well-ventilated spaces are still safer than indoor spaces without good

circulation, and masks are still protective, especially if you have a weakened immune system

or are regularly around vulnerable people.

MORE BOOSTERS? HOW TO MAXIMIZE YOUR VACCINATION STATUS

All of you should have completed your original vaccine series (one dose of J&J or two doses of

Pfizer or Moderna) plus at least one additional booster. You should already have an account

on the NM Department of Health website - VaccineNM.ORG.

I recommend that you receive ONE additional booster with either of the mRNA vaccines

(Moderna or Pfizer), regardless of which vaccine you got originally. Side effects from the

booster doses are usually comparable to the side effects of the second dose of your original

series and can be mild or substantial enough to put you in bed for a day or two. Large,

swollen lymph nodes are a very common effect. Second booster shots (for most people, this

is the 4th shot) are a different story.

Fully vaccinated and boosted adults and children are still very well protected from

illness. Please be mindful of medically fragile people and small children in your life that may

be more vulnerable.

We are just now getting news about approval of a second booster, or a 4th shot, for

patients over 50 years old. Saying that a booster is “authorized” is not the same thing

as being “recommended,” and I am still waiting to see what kinds of guidelines follow in

coming weeks. Studies continue to come out showing that fourth doses of vaccines are

not meaningfully helpful for the large majority of the population – unless the patient has

a very abnormal immune system causing them to not respond to the first series.

The CDC will issue a guideline soon that is aimed at two important goals – keeping you

healthy as an individual, and keeping the population as healthy as possible as a

whole. When the guidelines suggest that you should consider getting an updated

booster, you’ll be able to register again through the state’s department of health

website: VaccineNM.ORG.

**** FOR PATIENTS WITH IMPAIRED OR ABNORMAL IMMUNE SYSTEMS

Your vaccination regimen is going to be different that the general public. If you have

moderate to severe immune system compromise, please be in touch with your docs to make

sure that you’re covered as fully as possible.

Moderate and severe immunocompromising conditions and treatments include but are not

limited to:

• Active treatment for solid tumor and hematologic malignancies

• Receipt of solid-organ transplant and taking immunosuppressive therapy

• Receipt of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T-cell therapy or hematopoietic cell transplant

(HCT) (within 2 years of transplantation or taking immunosuppression therapy)

• Moderate or severe primary immunodeficiency (e.g., DiGeorge syndrome, Wiskott-Aldrich

syndrome)

• Advanced or untreated HIV infection (people with HIV and CD4 cell counts <200/mm3, history

of an AIDS-defining illness without immune reconstitution, or clinical manifestations of

symptomatic HIV)

• Active treatment with high-dose corticosteroids (i.e., ≥20 mg prednisone or equivalent per day

when administered for ≥2 weeks), alkylating agents, antimetabolites, transplant-related

immunosuppressive drugs, cancer chemotherapeutic agents classified as severely

immunosuppressive, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blockers, and other biologic agents that

are immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory

IMPORTANT SCAM WARNING

The NM DOH has issued an alert that there is an active scam through which patients are

contacted by text message by agents stating that they will help schedule your 4th

vaccine shot. This text prompts recipients to enter personal information including

social security number into an online form. PLEASE BE VIGILANT. The NMDOH will

NEVER ask for your social security number by text or email.

TESTING

Thankfully the intense Omicron surge has passed, and our resources are back in good

supply. Rapid antigen tests are available over the counter. PCR tests are also widely

available again, with fast results, through the NMDOH

website: https://cv.nmhealth.org/covid-19-testing/ Being able to do a rapid antigen test at

home is going to come in very useful for almost everyone. We know that the Abbot BinaxNOW

tests and the Quidel QuickVue tests seem able to accurately detect the Omicron variant. I

would continue to stick to these two brands for now when you can. (Depending on your

circumstances, you may need to use two home tests, 2-3 days apart in order to be confident

in the results.)

IF YOU CATCH COVID

Effective medications are now widely available and should be used ASAP when an at-risk

person contracts COVID.

Please be in touch with with your physician immediately if you do catch COVID. The new

outpatient treatment options (some are pills and others are IV treatments) are incredibly

powerful and effective, but there is a very short window of time in which they need to be

prescribed. Not everyone qualifies for treatment, but A LOT of people do. Let your PCP know

so they can make sure to do everything they can to help you recover as quickly and safely as

possible.

QUARANTINE AND ISOLATION are still important for exposed or infected patients, so please

be mindful. We have learned a lot about when a COVID infection is contagious, and about the

incubation period, or when an exposure turns into an infection for those unlucky

people. Quarantine is what we do for exposed patients that are not yet infected but are being

observed. Isolation is the process for infected patients. The definitive guide that I use is

here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/quarantine-isolation.html

That’s it for now! If you are tempted to go out into the world, I say GO. Enjoy the

springtime! Your mental health, physical health and preventive care are all important!

Dr. B

DR. BRISLEN’S GUIDE TO UPPER RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS - SUPPORTIVE CARE

Things to remember are: Viruses can make you feel TERRIBLE and can last 2-3 weeks.  They cause nearly all sinus infections, bronchitis/pharyngitis and the plain old "head cold."  Lingering symptoms may hang on for as much as a month and a cough for up to two months.  Times to get seen are when you get better and then get worse again after that, or if you have real fevers, meaning a measured temperature of 101 or higher. 

General principles --

- Nobody has been able to prove that you can shorten a course of a cold by taking zicam or huge amounts of vitamin c, but lots of people swear by them (and I suspect they work for some people.) I personally like an herbal blend from whole foods called "deep health".  I take three gelcaps at a time, 3 or 4 times a day when I start to feel it coming on.  (Again, no research to support this - full disclosure.) 

- The viruses that cause colds and URIs are not curable, but they are treatable, meaning symptomatic over-the-counter medications can make a big difference in how you feel while you wait it out. 

I recommend: 

1 -Combination "cold and flu remedies"- Makes no difference whether you get the powder/drinkable ones or the pills, but you may want both "day" and "night" types if the drugs making you groggy is a problem.  (If you are going to be home in bed anyway, just take the nighttime blend because it's stronger.)  I've been buying the generic of the Alkaseltzer-plus type, and the Kirkland-brand at Costco.  Usually these will have three or four of the following ingredients: 

· Tylenol(acetaminophen) - for pain and headache

· Dextramethorphan - a cough suppressant

· pseudoephedrine - a decongestant

· antihistamine (type varies between brands and between day and night formulas) - dries up a runny nose, decreases inflammation in your mouth/throat/nose

· Mucinex (guaifenisen) -- another mucus thinner.  If this isn't included in your combo medication, go ahead add it on as an extra (I'd say take it twice a day.) 

Combo meds are awesome and effective -- your mainstay for serious viruses and flu-like symptoms.  While you are sick, take these around-the-clock. Usually the instructions say to you can take them every 4 or 6 hours, and I'd just stick with that.  (*important note -- this will probably max out your daily allowable Tylenol, so don't take anything else with tylenol in it.) 

2 -Sinus Washes - morning only and once a day.  (If you've never used one before, start with NeilMed Sinus Rinse.  It's available at every drug store and is super easy to use.) When you are sick, up the amount of salt to 1.5-2 times as much as usual.  If you are having that really socked-in sinus congestion, try adding a tablespoon of "Alkalol" to the water.  This is a mucus thinner that's mostly eucalyptus and menthol - very strong.  Available from the pharmacist (just ask for it - no prescription needed.) Start with a small amount to make sure you don't overdo - it's intense stuff. 

3 -Afrin -- the nasal spray; generic is fine.  Afrin is a miraculous nasal congestion eraser and can help you lie down to sleep or get through a day.  It's a real game-changer, but there is a big hitch -- you can't take it for more than 3 days, no matter what.  So -- you get three days of clear nose passages during any given cold, but that's it.  Pick your days carefully.

4 -Misc Tips: Coughing begets coughing. There isn't any actual benefit to "cough it up" unless you are choking on a hot dog, and the more we cough, the more we traumatize our bronchi. Many times it's not avoidable, but it's ok to stifle a cough if you can and definitely don't cough more than you need to. Cough drops, teas with honey, humidifiers or steam, lots of old-timey remedies really can make you feel better and help with cough.

Immune Health in the time of COVID-19 by Colleen Cummins

Many of us are sheltering in place, quarantining, or self-isolating. Undoubtedly, we have all been affected by this pandemic. As we change seasons into winter and infection rates are soaring, I would like to offer suggestions for supporting your immune health.

1. Immune health is linked to both mental and emotional health as well as to the health of the gut biome.

2. Consider ways to strengthen and care for your mind, heart, and body.

3. Rewire your brain for emotional resilience and mental strength and do this daily.

   • Calm the nervous system by sitting, walking, or lying down meditation

   • Get good rest and sleep. Sleep hygiene is ritualistic and may need practice.

   • Find time for laughter and play

   • This is a great time to learn something new. What have you always been curious about? Learn a new skill, hobby, language, or study something from history, science, astonomy.

   • Express yourself creatively by journaling, singing, playing an instrument, dancing, juggling.

4. Feed your head brain and your gut brain well.

   1. Choose foods that balance acid/alkaline in your gut. (This could be one of those “new” things to learn. See above).

   2. Choose mindfully the information and entertainment you ingest.

5. Oxygenate your body and mind.

   1. Take regular daily walks in the fresh air. Notice the world around you. Take deep cleansing and strengthening breaths. Swing your arms, challenge your balance, mostly make it playful.

   2. Make eye contact and greet those you see. It will lower your BP, increase your endorphins and serotonin levels—the feel good hormones—and build better community.

It's about life

Play and recreation are vital to life, to a productive, complete, responsive, and healthy life. There is much research to support that statement. However, play and recreation are deadened when our bodies hurt, and perhaps our bodies hurt when we don't take the time to REcreate. Without this elemental space, dreams fade and visions are strangled. Change your mind; sometimes it's not about finding more time--it's about changing the way we think about the time we use.

Cheers,

Colleen