Yo DaVita!

First the bad news.  I consumed WAY too many calories yesterday, meat, pasta, wine, etc.  Yikes.  Darn.

Second, the good news.  What a wonderful America’s Birthday we had, with a solid workout followed by a wonderful outside concert with 2 hours of Americana music (Aaron Copland, Stars and Stripes Forever, a medley of the songs of each military branch where the veterans all stood when their song was played, etc).

On the workout front, Joe Mello and I (Joe was our COO for about 8 years) did the “Mirabelle Back-Way Hill”.  13 minutes to get to starting point, then 56 minutes of climbing about 2000 feet.  Some flat sections, which means there were also some steep ones. 

I then forced myself to go in for another deep tissue massage.  I only did 60 minutes on this one.  The usual pain and discomfort, all for the greater good.  So 110 minutes of excellent exercise yesterday!

Today was special – I went with 2 buddies on some new mountain biking trails (new to me that is).  2 hours of great biking, about half of it single track, through meadows and forests, virtually no other people, some very good vertical challenges.  Glorious!  I can’t wait to do it again, they are close to our cabin so I will be able to do just that.

Later today I will subject myself to another deep tissue 60 minutes – I am trying to get ready for a 25 mile, 4000 vertical, high altitude (10,000-11,500 feet) approx 4 hour ride this Saturday am.  It was kind of foolish to push it today, but I could not resist once we were on the trails.  Today’s massage will accelerate my recovery from today so I have a chance on Saturday, I hope.  So today will be a 170 minute score, all very high quality.

And today I had no breakfast and a healthy chicken and vegetable lunch, so that rally begins.

I hope you all are still picturing locking arms with your 3600 partners across the globe, plus 11 dogs and 2 llamas!  Just as we make bank deposits for our financial future we must make health deposits for our physical future.

Take care, KT

Yo DaVitans!

Happy Birthday America!  A good day to reflect on whether each of us is being a good citizen.  Imperfect, but well-intentioned.   John Gardiner said “Liberty AND duty.  Freedom AND responsibility.  That’s the deal.”

A quick late night message here on July 3^rd.  First, I only did about 1.5 hours of Village work today, that felt good.

I did my standard bike ride up here in the mountains, 5 miles, 1900 feet of vertical, and I set a personal best of 44:32, beating my prior personal best by 7 seconds!  Also 3 sets of curls and push-ups, 70 crunches, and a bit of stretching.  On top of that I went in for a painful deep tissue massage, it was 90 minutes long of which 60 were painful.  So total exercise time of 135 minutes, i subtracted out the 30 minutes of the massage that were not painful.  I need the massages to reduce inflammation and stiffness when I do a bunch of riding or running, otherwise my risk of injury goes up a bunch.

I hope you are doing well in your pursuit of better health!  Many many others are pulling for you, and applauding your victories!

One for All & All for One …. KT

Good Evening to the Good People of DaVita-Land!

Well I guess there are two ways to look at today.

The half-empty look would say I worked all morning and then another 1.5 hours in the early evening, so not a great vacation day.

The half-full look would say that I am lucky to have the wonderful job I have, I love serving the Village as best I can, and the afternoon and evening post-work have been awesome.

I prefer the half-full look.  After I worked this morning, Denise and I had a healthy lunch outside on a deck with a good view of nature’s beauty.  Chicken and veggies, left-overs from the night before.  Then we went for a drop-dead gorgeous 90 minute hike, and had some serious conversations.  Then I went for my one hour intense/efficient road bike ride, 11 minutes coasting downhill (which has some good balance/skill building elements, despite no cardio value – one of the things many new studies show is that us over 50 folks (( I am 56)) need to consider the Big Four, meaning cardio, strength, flexibility AND balance, as we age), followed by 45 minutes of re-capturing the 1900 vertical feet over 5 miles.  With a little bit of stretching, you get the 60 minute total.  My climbing time was only 25 seconds slower than yesterday, which was a personal best.  So a total of 150 minutes today, 90 of them pretty healthy but mellow, the other 60 quite intense.

Tonight Denise made pork tenderloin, with incredibly fresh snap peas and some high-fibre rice pilaf.  Once again we ate out at our little table on the deck.  Once again we saw the glory of nature around us.  Once again we felt most lucky. 

Now we will call our 2 kids.  Normally we talk on Sunday’s, but yesterday we missed each other.

I hope most of you had a great day today, and felt the power of 3600 partners across the World.  The Village lives, when people decide it does.

One for All … & All for One … your mayor, kt

Dear DaVitans,

I hope you have been able to take advantage of the weekend to do some great things for your physical, mental and spiritual health!

I got my best night’s sleep in a few weeks last night, I bet it was 9 hours.  A good gift to myself.  Denise and I spent some time looking around in a few art galleries, just for fun.  Then we had a 2 hour drive to our cabin in the mountains

When we got there I had to do a couple hours of calls.  Then I got out and did a great road bike ride, 12 minutes downhill followed by 45 minutes up, 1900 feet of vertical, 5 miles in horizontal distance, great workout and I beat my best time by 90 seconds!  I followed it up with 40 push-ups, one set of curls (16×20), 100 crunches, and 3 minutes of stretching.  A total of 54 minutes, strong ones at that.

Brunch was a tad decadent with ham/sausage/cheese all mixed in my scrambled eggs – but dinner was healthy chicken plus lots of veggies and high fibre quinoa (however you spell that).  So far I have limited my evening snacks to a glass of chocolate milk.

I wish you well, all 3600 of you, let’s do it together!

One for All …. Your mayor, kt

Greetings to the good people of DaVita,

I hope you are all going to take advantage of the weekend to get some great healthy exercise.

This morning (Saturday am) I had the luxury of sleeping in until 8:30, then got up and did a strong set of mountain biking for 90 minutes – substantial vertical, on terrain that added to the intensity.   However, I must admit that I treated myself to a cheeseburger for lunch after!

I also will declare with big happiness that I did almost zero work today!  What a nice relief that was.

3600 teammates are locked arm in arm with you, in our shared quest for better health. 

One for All … kt