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Robin Recommends…APPLE Center
APPLE Center for Sustainable Living
Services: Sustainability Center. A community member and leader collaborative effort to create a virtual and physical hub to assist the public, private, and business sector in collectively reducing our planetary impact and improving a sound quality of life in Nevada County as a whole.
The APPLE Center will serve these needs by providing a place where visitors and locals can connect to businesses and organizations that provide knowledge and tools for sustainable living. The Center will serve to coordinate existing groups’ efforts in Nevada County as well as developing new programs to build relationships that increase efficiency and effectiveness as Nevada County proactively transitions to a local, sustainable economy.
Robin’s Thoughts: Giving to the community is a reward unto itself; the physical transformation of the building in which the APPLE Center now lives was an amazing and inspirational collaborative effort. Local businesses donated supplies, local friends tore down, sanded, put up, painted, caulked, and had a merry time creating the physical space. Volunteers will be on site during open hours to answer questions, make referrals, and fulfill the mission of the forward thinking APPLE Center.
Contact Info
Web: http://applecenter.org
Phone: 530-478-1700 Address: 412 Commercial Street, Nevada City, CA (Wed – Fri 12 – 5 PM, Sat & Sun 11 AM – 6 PM)
Email: info@applecenter.org
Calendar of Events: http://www.applecenter.org/whats-happening/calendar (clearing house for community wide events)
Exercise stimulates the senses, the mind, and the body
A run, after the rain
Late in the afternoon, I was fortunate to find thirty minutes to run with my dog. After the torrential rains, the bits of blue sky visible between the dark clouds lured me outside. The sunrays were beaming towards the ground, creating steam from the wet earth, warming.
Senses alive, I savored every moment of the waning afternoon. The smells are what I noticed first, they were so incredibly rich: an earthy aroma of wet dirt and leaves, a crisp freshness in the air, sweet wood smoke. I so love that smell, it is somehow soothing in its’ association with the Fall season.
The visual beauty was astounding: raindrops clinging to tree limbs and leaves, catching the sunlight, creating prisms of color; subtle variations on green—the dull green of the oak leaves, the deep green of the cedar and pine boughs, and most amazing of all is the iridescent greens of the mosses. I have long been fascinated by the mosses, particularly after a rain. What hearty life form this is! Dry and dull after a hot summer, having turned stringy and brown, but after a good rain—it’s a miracle! The moss comes alive, turning a gorgeous vibrant color, plumping up with water, resilient and quietly powerful. Other stimulating sights were the reds and yellows of the changing liquid amber tree leaves, the downed branches from the high winds, and most exquisite was the deep red of the madrone trunk, glistening in the afternoon light. Simply beautiful.
I was serenaded by many birds, their melodic songs seeming to celebrate the end of the storm, were music to my ears: piliated and acorn woodpeckers (yes, they have a distinctly different sound), chickadees, kinglets, house finches, and goldfinches. And the sound of the wind in the tall trees, swaying.
My sense of touch was stimulated as the gentle, fresh breeze ruffled my hair and caressed my skin, by the water drops from the tree limbs, plentiful leaves softening the trail, and by the incredibly supple yet tough feel of the mosses and lichens.
The dust is gone, perhaps for the year now, and that is a welcomed transition. I splashed through puddles on the trail. My heart, on a physical level, was working hard for me, responding well to being engaged in exercise. My spiritual heart was filled with joy for the abundant beauty of the woods after a rain storm, and gratitude for my desire to be out in that natural beauty, moving my body, appreciating that movement, and seeing my dog smile.
Target Heart Rate and Range: optimize your workout
Exercising within your target heart rate range will not only ensure an effective workout in terms of a fat and glucose burn, but also will provide an important aspect of exercise safety.
Key Phrases:
Resting heart rate: the heart rate at which you are at resting metabolic function. As in your heart rate upon waking luxuriously on a Saturday morning, and before moving much.
Pre-exercise heart rate: the heart rate immediately prior to initiating an exercise session. This heart rate will be faster than the resting heart rate.
Target heart rate range: the heart rate range between which you will gain a safe and effective exercise workout.
To calculate your individualized target heart rate range, you will need to find your pulse to determine your pre-exercise heart rate. Start with your index and middle fingers and place them gently on either your radial or carotid artery; either the artery that lies 3 inches below your thumb (radial), or on the neck, 1 ½ inches from your Adam’s apple (carotid). Find and feel your heartbeat, look at a second hand watch, then count how many heartbeats you feel in 15 seconds; multiply that number times 4, to know your one-minute heart rate. Example: 17 heartbeats felt in 15 seconds equates to a heart rate of 68.
My preference to calculate target heart rate range is to use the Karvonen Formula. As opposed to the standard 220 – your age formula, the Karvonen takes into account your pre-exercise heart rate, affording you the opportunity to dial in a specific and individualized target heart rate range for your exercise session. The formula is as follows:
220 – age – pre-exercise heart rate x 65%, x 85% + pre-exercise heart rate
For a 50-year-old woman with a pre-exercise heart rate of 68, it looks like this:
220 – 50 = 170 (max heart rate)
– 68 = 102
x 65% = 66; x 85% = 87
+ 68 = 134; + 68 = 155
target heart rate range = 134 – 155
Several external factors may affect heart rate: hydration status, level of fitness, adrenaline (stress) response, certain medications, and caffeine to name a few. Someone who is new to exercise and therefore may be “deconditioned” (less than optimal fitness level), will likely note that their resting, pre-exercise, and exercise heart rate is higher than what is age predicted.
When writing an exercise prescription for this 50-year-old woman beginning an exercise program, we would start at the 65% level of exercise intensity, so that her exercise heart rate stays around 134 beats per minute. As she works up to 5 – 6 exercise sessions per week over the course of 6 – 8 weeks, her exercise prescription will be modified, allowing her to increase her exercise intensity to work at higher heart rate response, at 155 beats per minute.
As the heart muscle becomes more conditioned, each contraction becomes more efficient, so that ultimately fewer heartbeats per minute are required to pump the same volume of blood. In the real world this translates as a lowered resting and pre-exercise heart rate, as well as a lowered exercise heart rate response, ultimately allowing the exercising person to increase their workout to achieve a higher heart rate response. Conditioning takes several months to achieve.
Another valuable aspect of determining the effectiveness and safety of your exercise program is to assess your Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE). This is a subjective response, and it basically allows you to assign a numerical value to your exercise intensity. I use a modified scale of 1 – 10, with 1 being the amount of energy required to sit up in a chair, and 10 being a marathon effort. An RPE of 3 is moderate, 4 is somewhat hard, and 5 is hard. 3 – 5 is the range of perceived exertion that I include in an exercise prescription. (6 is very hard, 7 is very, very hard, and so on). An RPE of 6 and above is correlated with an anaerobic level of exercise; anaerobic means “without oxygen”—oxygen feeds the muscles and aids in fat burning, thus the presence of oxygen is favorable while exercising (and most other times as well!).
As a side note, athletes who are conditioned to train for competition are often at their anaerobic threshold; for most of us who exercise to stay in shape and optimize our health, maintaining an aerobic exercise program is suggested.
Future articles will address additional exercise considerations: frequency, type, duration, and how to mix it all up.
Have at it!
Posted in Articles, Exercise, HeartMatters e-newsletter, Move | 
Tags: conditioning, Exercise, fitness, target heart rate | 
2 Comments »On Running In Fort Lauderdale: Pros and Cons
Where to begin? OK, 0945 and still time for a quick run before brunch with mom and dad. I am staying at my sister’s house and she lives in a lovely neighborhood right off of a golf course/club area. (they don’t golf, thank goodness). As my cup is perpetually half-full, I focused on the Pros, but alas, I must admit, there were some Cons…
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Pro |
Con |
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88 degrees, 90% humidity; incredible sweat |
88 degrees, 90% humidity; incredible sweat! |
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Thick hybrid grass, lots of cushion provided for running |
Chemicals being sprayed on thick hybrid grass; golf course watering in the morning, even though it rained overnight |
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Amazing blooming bushes and exotic flowers |
Homeowners spraying more chemicals on amazing blooming bushes and exotic flowers |
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Lizards, box turtles, and one long brown snake |
Flattened snake in the road |
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Ibis, Egrets, Hawks, Blue Heron, unknown but lovely sounding songbirds |
How do the birds and reptiles survive the chemicals? |
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Plastic water bottles along the grass and floating in the mad-made lakes |
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Being reprimanded by a dapper fellow in a golf cart to stay off the course, so they would not be “liable if you get hit by a golf ball” |
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A hot dog and soda concession, on a modified golf cart, cruising around the course |
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No pick-up-after-your-dog rule (guess how I found out??!) |
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A great workout! |
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Robin Recommends…The Flour Garden Bakery
Flour Garden Bakery
Business: Bakery and CyberCafe
Services: Rather than baking with the commercial/industrial methodology of using manufactured mixes and artificial flavorings, Flour Garden bakes with a special blend of classical European-style and California health consciousness. Combining this blend of quality and beauty is labor-intensive and time-consuming. Everything is made from scratch. It is also much more costly to bake with the finest quality, most nutritious, ingredients; but the Flour Garden is determined to produce food that is not only delicious, but also nutritious.
It is also the Flour Garden’s intention to serve the community by providing a “well-lighted place” where everyone will feel welcome and cared for. On any given morning, one would find a rich blend of the local populace: Republicans and Democrats, students, doctors, school teachers, construction workers, local law enforcement officers, artists. There is a children’s area with a smaller table and chairs, and children’s books. There are handicapped-accessible restrooms. Classical music, usually. Or jazz. All of these reflect a welcoming and serving of the community as a whole.
Robin’s Thoughts: I have long appreciated Flour Garden! There are so many choices, depending on your mood and time of day. My personal favorites: organic peanut butter on a whole grain toasted bagel, coconut macaroons, pumpkin muffins, hot chai and ginger cookie (a must have combo–especially in the winter!), frittata (great for a quick lunch), to name just a few. I have ordered special-made cakes and have been appreciative of the real frosting, as opposed to the artificial stuff offered at other bakeries; numerous pies for the holidays; and the bread, oh my, the bread–something as special as the edible bread basket for Thanksgiving, Tibetan multi-grain, seeded baguettes, I could go on and on. A new addition to the offerings at Flour Garden are a line of Gluten Free breads, goodies, and soups. This is yet another reflection of the commitment that Susan and Bill have for the health and well-being of our community. I must also mention the daily soups — made from scratch, absolutely delicious, many are vegetarian and/or vegan, and they are all for eat-in or take home.
Flour Garden is fully engaged in our community. Susan and Bill generously donate their wares to various organizations as well as sponsor fund-raising events. The ambiance provided at their bakeries is inviting and comfortable. Their commitment to our physical health as well as to the health of our world is to be acknowledged and to be thankful for. Flour Garden combines flavor, satisfaction, and consciousness in a way that is a treat for all.
Contact Info
Web: http://flourgarden.com/
Phone: 530-272-2043; Sutton Way store; check website for Neal Street, and Auburn store info
Email: copeland@flourgarden.com
Posted in Eat, restaurants, Robin Recommends..., specialty shops | Tags: Auburn, bakery, Grass Valley, Nevada City, organic, restaurant, whole grains | No Comments »Sunday Morning Ride
It would have been oh-so-easy to stay home this morning, cozy in my robe and slippers … but a date is a date, and it’s Sunday morning, which means bike ride. Dressed in double layers on top, full leggings, long-fingered gloves, thick socks, and a wind shell, we set out into the chilly fall morning. WooHoo, was it brisk! My core warmed up quickly, but my fingers and ears stayed frosty throughout the ride.
How invigorating. Rewarding. Fun. I am oh-so-glad for the ride!
Sunday is off to a marvelous beginning.
