It’s a beautiful day at Lake Fayetteville, surprise, surprise. It’s maybe seventy degrees, maybe a little warmer than that. It’s been a great day, maybe low 60s to low 70s, something like that.
Welcome to Running: A FEVER. My name is Michael Davis. This is a podcast about fitness, diet, and medicine. My goal is to live a long, healthy, happy, active life right up to the very end. If that’s what you want, you’re in the right place.
I’m going to try to walk about two miles today, just like I did last time. I didn’t have much trouble with the two miles last time out. It’s maybe been over a week. Time flies. This week has been very stressful for me. And so when I think I’m doing unhealthy things like eating the stress or other things. That just brought to mind something I was told recently. That’s to call somebody in times like this. He also suggested I take a walk and leave my money at home so I won’t be tempted to go buy some food. So that’s what I’m doing. I’m taking a walk, and I left all my payment methods at home. Except it just occurred to me that I brought my phone. I could use that instead; for example, use the Pizza Hut app that has my debit card saved. I could have left my phone at home. I don’t think anything would come up that would require me to respond in less than an hour.
I went to a funeral today, then worked from home. It always feels good after a walk. During, not so much. Depends. There’s something about getting out in nature and breathing fresh air. Seeing the beauty even right here in the middle of a heavily populated area, by my lights anyway. In the middle of it all, some number of acres that’s big enough to have trails that are completely wooded on both sides. I can hear the traffic, but I don’t smell the fumes. All I smell are leaves and grass. And it’s a beautiful time of year. As I record this, it’s October 19th. The leaves are falling. There are constantly leaves falling all around me. These kinds of days are memorable. I remember a podcast I recorded in which I talked about God. I thought of God when I was walking through this particular area under a canopy of golden leaves, right in this area. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that scene. You can’t get this from looking at a picture or watching a video. You can’t even get it from listening to my podcast. You’ve got to go out and do it yourself.
It helps during periods of high stress like I’ve experienced this week, to think of others. And to check out my gratitude list. You know, my health could be better, but I’ve got up there with the best health care in the world. If I did not have the health care that I am privileged to access, I would not be seeing right now. I would have my old corneas and no contact lenses, and everything would be blurry no matter how far away it was. I would have a tendon that would be just about torn in two. God knows how that would heal without good medical care. And the list goes on. As if being blind and crippled wasn’t enough. I’m grateful for that, and because of that, I will probably live a longer life, and a more active life longer. And that will make me happier. So it will help me reach my goal.
Now, I know I’m not even close to a mile yet, but I’ve got to pay attention to the markers along the trail so I know how far I have come and how much farther I have to go. It really sounds like a metaphor for life. I don’t want to spend too much time thinking about the past and worrying about the future. I want to try to focus on now. Now I am enjoying nature, enjoying putting my body through some mild exercise, breathing, and smelling the forest.
Because of the cooler temperature, I didn’t want to come out in my shorts today. So I’m wearing sweatpants and my 2009 Red Sox playoffs hoodie, made of acrylic or some material that never seems to wear at all. It’s only 14 years old.
My back’s starting to bother me, and I kind of expected that. I’ve been having some pretty serious back soreness when I get up in the morning, and I’ve had some weird things going on in my neck. It’s not like a crick. I’m not sure exactly what a crick is. I’ve got to look that up.
[Note: The definition of “crick” from drchrisharlan.com: “A crick in your neck refers to tightness in the muscles surrounding your lower neck and shoulder blades, which various unpredictable factors can cause. Alternatively, it can also refer to a type of neck pain in which something seems stuck in your neck or cervical vertebrae.”]An area of my neck hurt when I bent my neck toward that area. It’s just a bunch of tension going on in my neck, and exercise is a good tension reliever. So I’m hoping to help that here, but my back is already starting to tighten up. It’s going to be good for my back, I’m sure; it just may not be painless.
The sun’s pretty bright here, coming into an open area on the trail. It’s an area where there are some little fields. There are signs that say, “Private property beyond this point. Park boundary.” I’ve often seen deer over there, and there are some hay bales. It’s kind of warm in this hoodie at this point.
I don’t like this watch as much as my old one for functionality. It looks great, though. I actually had someone ask me why I didn’t have a smartwatch because the face looks like a regular diving watch, even though it’s just a screen.
I should have hydrated before I came out here. I just got dressed and wanted to come out before I changed my mind and decided to watch the video and order some food. Ordering food is so much more expensive than picking it up yourself. I think that’s actually a deterrent for me to eat unhealthy food from a restaurant because I’m too lazy to get dressed and go pick it up. So if I can get home without picking up some food, everything will be fine.
I just got a call. Just a friend who wanted or needed to talk. It’s good to have people in your life. Just friends, you can call and talk about things going on in life. Like I said, all the stress I’ve been feeling this week. I have to be able to reach out and talk to people. It’s part of my responsibility. I may get lucky, and somebody will call me. But I shouldn’t wait for that. So it was good to talk to my friend. And I sat down on a bench while I was talking and got a little rest. So, I feel more energized as I finish this walk. I’m cooled off, and the sun is going down as well. I’m still kind of glad I wore the hoodie, so I think that’s going to be the uniform now.
One of my healthy activities has been writing fiction. I finished a novel this year. It’s called Backstop. I wrote it under the pen name Davis Falk. On my to-do list of healthy things is to write something else. What should I do next? It’s common to write a series about a main character. More rarely, an ensemble cast, like David Baldacci’s Camel Club series. Michael Crichton was not one of those people; there’s another model to follow. I have an idea for another book, which comes from a fictional world in which I have written two short stories. Backstop has more of an ensemble cast. I started a sequel, but it just didn’t seem to be happening.
It feels pretty good now. I’m sweating, but there is a breeze. I’m not really fatigued at all. I still feel the tightness in my back. I probably should have drank some water and taken some ibuprofen. I’ve been taking a lot of that, mainly due to my back. Tension in my neck can also lead to headaches.
There are several people out taking pictures at this beautiful time of day in this beautiful place. And at the end of the walk, I’m already feeling good.
References:
https://www.drchrisharlan.com/what-causes-a-crick-in-your-neck/#:~:text=A%20crick%20in%20your%20neck%20refers%20to%20tightness%20in%20the,your%20neck%20or%20cervical%20vertebrae.
http://Dictionary.com
Photo by Ketut Subiyanto: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-person-walking-4719924/