Several weeks ago I hurt my achilles. I’m embarrassed to admit how I did it, but I’m going to anyway. I was running sprints up our super-steep driveway as part of a high-intensity interval workout. I was on my final sprint when my achilles just exploded in pain, right at the end.

I knew it wasn’t ruptured since I had an old injury on that same achilles from playing college basketball.  I figured I had just re-injured it, but nothing major. I’ve been dealing with it since, and when I do a lot of climbing on the bike, it continues to hurt. But Sunday morning, (after Saturday’s steep climb in a short period of time), my achilles not only hurt but was bruised, so I knew something was/is definitely not right.

As a result I had to ride on flat roads instead yesterday. I was able to ride part of the route of the Ironman competition, and I had the ocean to one side the whole time, but I also faced 13 miles of a headwind, too. Jonathan, on the other hand, did a pretty epic ride (one that I’m pretty sure would have put me in the hospital).

Jonathan’s ride involved 4000 feet of climbing in about 10 miles. The road was absolutely beautiful, and had sustained 17 – 20% parts. We drove it after so I could see what I missed out on. Below are a few pictures from the top. And, Jonathan got his first-ever callus as a result. I’m not kidding. But I refuse to post a picture of the callus. John D. – it’s here in the blog, so it happened!

We then had an amazing kalua pork bowl for lunch, and after a quick swim we visited a beautiful coffee plantation with amazing coffee. We took the tour and learned all about the coffee making process. I took pictures of the local caretakers, Marjorie and Hubert.

We were treated to another beautiful sunset while sitting on the patio. We head home tonight, so no more rides, just recovery!

Jonathan and I arrived Friday night for some high humidity, high temperature bike training (who does that?). And a long weekend of fun in Kona…assuming we can still move after our rides.

Today we  climbed about 2,000 feet and rode just under 30 miles. We did a similar route about 6 years ago and I was pretty sure I was going to fall off of my bike because the road was so steep. But because we didn’t do the exact route today, Jonathan thinks we have to do it tomorrow, and add 6 more miles plus another 1000 feet of climbing. It’s going to hurt. I don’t think most people realize how hilly Kona is and how many steep roads there are here. It’s quite impressive, actually.

We had a great lunch after our ride today at the highest rated poke bowl restaurant in Kona. I rarely take pictures of food, but the “Big Boy” poke bowl was a sight to behold. We had 2 kinds of ahi poke, some kind of crab salad that was amazing, garlic edamame, and brown rice. Wow.

We are renting a home here up in the hills of Kona, so we get to look out over the town and the water below.

And tonight we were treated to a beautiful sunset. This was taken from the front patio (as was the one above).

Oh, and I got sunburned. But not in a normal way. I apparently had a “mishap” when applying sunscreen so I have random patches of red mixed in with otherwise bright white skin. Jonathan can’t look at me without laughing. It’s embarrassing.

Now it’s off to bed so I can rest as much as possible before tomorrow’s suffer fest on the bike.  Here’s to hoping I can apply sunscreen correctly.

I recently had a friend send me a video about art and Alzheimer’s. It’s short, about 7 min long, but is very interesting. You’ll find it on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/I_Te-s6M4qc

While not directly related to Alzheimer’s, another friend sent me this article about how fasting for 72 hours can positively impact your immune system: http://awarenessact.com/study-finds-that-fasting-for-72-hours-can-regenerate-the-entire-immune-system/

And last but not least, Max Lugavere has announced the release of his first book, Genius Foods.  Max has been digging into the science of food and dementia for several years now, ever since his mom was diagnosed with early-onset dementia. I had the pleasure of meeting Max a few years ago when he spoke for an ElderCounsel conference on this topic.  I can’t wait to read the book!

Dr. Mark Hyman is hosting a free docuseries called “Broken Brain.” It features a number of “all stars” in the area of brain health, including Dr. Perlmutter, Dave Asprey, Max Lugavere, and many more. I wanted to get this post out quickly, as each episode is only available for 24 hours. You can, however, choose to purchase the entire series.

Here’s the link to sign up and get started (a few episodes have passed, but it’s not too late to take advantage of the remaining episodes). https://brokenbrain.com/trailer/

I’ve known aspartame is really bad for you, but after reading compelling evidence in this article of the link between aspartame and leukemia and lymphoma, I’m pretty sure I’ll never touch another Diet Dr. Pepper.  The article is short but compelling (22  years studying over 2 million people), so I won’t repeat it here, but I hope you’ll take a look. And then put down the diet soda and read labels religiously as it’s in a lot more than just diet soda (Red Bull, lots of other “healthy” drinks).