Welcome to Running: A FEVER, a show about fitness, diet, and medicine. My goal is to live a long, healthy, happy, active life right up to the very end. It’s all about livin’ long and lovin’ life. That’s what we’re doing today.

Well, I’m out on the Spring Creek Trail, north side, today. And it looks pretty different from the last time here. The main difference is that the construction site is completely gone. I mean, the construction is gone, but the site, obviously, remains. It is very different. And no video today. One reason is that it’s dark. But the trail is actually lighted now. It might have been for a while. It probably has, but I haven’t been out here in a while.

But I do want to get video eventually, because that construction site was bizarre. Some kind of big hole in the ground with lots of concrete, and they have covered it up. And it’s all grass now, with one little building. It’s got a ventilation stack, a light, and a door; it’s actually a little building, and there’s some device outside.

This part of the trail is lighted. I don’t think the rest of it is. Once I cross this street, I’m not sure. I’ve got my head lamp on, so I’ll be able to see, and people will be able to see me if someone comes by on a bicycle or something. It’s also wet today. I mean, there’s some standing water, some puddles, but the trail and the road are pretty much dry. Yesterday we had like two inches of rain. And that’s a lot. So interesting for today’s activities, which I’ll go into a little bit later.

I took today off. Today is Friday, Labor Day weekend in the United States. I found out Labor Day was established under the administration of Grover Cleveland back in the 1800s. Labor Day is, I believe, a celebration of labor. It’s a big union day. And that’s one of the reasons that it’s a national holiday. And it’s one of those holidays that’s not overlooked. I mean, there are some like Columbus Day. Everybody’s going to work on Columbus Day. Nobody’s getting that day off. Well, maybe government employees will. But in the corporate world, nobody’s getting Columbus Day off. On Labor Day, everybody gets off. Everybody. Now, it’s not going to be closed down. People are traveling; it’s a long weekend. So grocery stores… It’s not that kind of Christmas Day holiday, New Year’s Day holiday where everybody, the whole world, shuts down. But basically, the corporate world shuts down out of respect for people who work. That’s this weekend.

And I took today off. If you’re a regular listener, you’ve heard the previous episode and hopefully watched it on YouTube, which is basically the Corvette episode—the one where I drive a Corvette around my area. And I had various comments about how I feel and what chemical reactions make that happen, along with some video from the car. The thing is, thanks to the magic of time travel, even though that was last week’s episode, I haven’t done it yet. That’s this morning. I’m picking up the car this morning at 10 o’clock. And we’ll start working on that episode and having fun with the car. So I thought, it’s going to be a fascinating and exhilarating time, so it would be a good idea to get a little exercise before I start that day. So that’s what I’m doing out here. I’m doing a little training for my driving experience.

And that’s all I have to say. Bye! Just kidding.

So I’m on the trail. I think I’m going to walk a couple of miles today. I got my watch out, and that’s how I’m determining the distance. But I haven’t really extended the distance on this trail to see what it looks like beyond a couple of miles; it’s a beautiful temperature. I think it was like 69 when I left. My watch isn’t accurate when I’m away from wi-fi. It says 62 right now, and that’s not right. It’s probably more than that. And cloudy. I think it’s supposed to be cloudy all weekend, which is okay. That’s pretty good driving weather as long as it’s not raining. That will put a damper on things. Yeah, so a slight breeze, just like it always is around here.

I’ve been talking about brain chemicals a lot lately. We had the menopause series, which I hope you enjoyed and found beneficial. It’s a critical topic. And I think there needs to be more talk about it. We talked about brain chemicals in that series. We talked about brain chemicals, probably talked about them in the screentime series. But I know that the main chemical released when we exercise is endorphins. That can give you a good feeling that lasts for quite a while. It’s not as intense over time. It goes away. That’s another reason why it’s great to exercise in the morning: you are setting yourself up for that good feeling at least at the beginning of your day, whatever you’re going to do that day.

Over to my left, which you obviously can’t see, I will tell you about an area I’ve been wondering about. Because for months, maybe a year, I don’t know, they’ve had. It’s been graded dirt, and it’s enormous! It’s definitely got to be several acres. I’m not sure exactly, but it’s a vast area right on the street. So I know it’s going to be something big. And they’ve got, occasionally, I’ve seen a bulldozer or a truck going in, but not much going on. And now I’m seeing the back side, and there are several pieces of equipment. The term ground support equipment comes to mind, GSE. That’s something they use in the aviation industry and naval aviation; they talk about ground support equipment. It’s usually yellow, like this stuff I’m looking at now, which is probably Caterpillar, Komatsu, or something like that. It’s kind of interesting to me because I’ve never seen it at this angle and recognized it to be the same lot that I see on the street, when I go to work and back, and all the other places I go. It’s the main street off my subdivision.

And today, you know, I didn’t really think about it, but there could be a lot of traffic, because people are going to work. People who are not as fortunate as I am, taking today off from work. Or maybe they didn’t want to. I’m starting to see that over time. You know, I don’t think this was open the last time I went by here because it looks completely different. I believe the last time I went by here, the trees were blocking the view. So that’s a significant change. There are a lot of big changes. Do you have changes in your neighborhood? Things change over time.

Yeah, it’s like, completely different. I don’t recall any of this. I can see, my goodness, there are several mobile offices back here. It’s like a James Bond thing, you know. In a secret area, there’s just all this industrial activity. And I don’t remember it looking like this at all. But I don’t know, it’s been a long time. So I could be wrong. And there’s rebar coming out of the ground over here, like they’re going to build a wall or something. Interesting. Because it’s at the same level as where I am. I’ll probably go ahead and turn around.

So I should kind of report on how things are going. I haven’t been exercising in a while, and that’s been a thing for me. Getting on a regular schedule has just not been something that I have done. I’ve been going to work early. At this point, I would have already been at work for 35, 40, or 45 minutes. And then when I get home. You know, sometimes I have something in the evening, and I don’t want to go out. But if you listen to the old episodes, I would do that a lot. Every day I would go out. No matter what was happening in the evening, I would take a shower and do my evening thing. So there’s no reason I couldn’t do that now.

Actually, I’ve been working on a lot of podcast stuff. Writing episodes, researching. I’ve been putting a lot more time into that than I might have in the past. I don’t do as many episodes like this one, where I’m just walking and talking. It involves extensive research, four pages of notes, and a lot of editing time. But, you know, I love doing it. I love doing it. But I haven’t gained much weight. I haven’t weighed today yet. And I’ve already taken my medications and hydrated with a BCAA mixture. So anyway, I don’t know what today’s going to bring. But yesterday. The day before yesterday, I had three protein shakes instead of the regular two plus one regular meal. Because I had two meals the previous day, it was just the way scheduling worked out. I had dinner with my mother and lunch with my friend. So anyway, I was down to 211. I’ve been down to 210 but not below 210 yet. It seems to jump around a lot and not move much in either direction. I think a big reason for that is not having regular exercise. Regular exercise would help my metabolism. It would burn a few calories. And it would help my mood. There are all kinds of — I’ve talked about ad nauseam on the benefits of exercise. That’s why we’re doing this whole thing right?

So it’s going pretty well, but I haven’t lost any weight or anything like that. So I haven’t had to budget for a new wardrobe. I’ve got a couple of 38s that I wear, and one 36. The 36 is probably about right. It’s weird. It’s tight when I put it on, then looser later in the day. The 38s are definitely loose. So I’m not buying any more of them. I’ve still got a pair of 42? 40? Something in the 40s. I use it for hiking, mowing the lawn, and other stuff. And it’s perfectly intact. Size forty-something. But it’s great for hiking because it’s very loose and protects me from branches, rocks, and such. And I use it to mow the lawn.

But I’m doing okay. I’m kind of okay with the way the weight thing is going. I didn’t really want to do it fast. It always goes faster in the beginning. We know that logic. There’s a vast area here. I’m on my way back, and it’s on my right now. An extensive area, and I don’t know what it’s going to be. It’s another one of those mysteries. And I’ll ask my friend, who I’m going to see tomorrow, who’s in the sort of building supply industry, I guess. It’s related to the building of new things. Anyway, she might know. Sometimes she has an inside track on these things. I’ll see if I can describe where it is. It’s in between a shopping center, and…in between the civic center and something else.

It’s incredible, you don’t notice these empty lots until they start building, and you think, “What was there before?” It’s hard to remember the way things looked before. Everything’s just gradually building up. And this place is going mad. There’s a little rabbit—rodent department.

Medical department. I had an appointment pop up on my schedule for the VA, so I went down there, got labs, and then I went to wait for the doctor, and I was thinking, “I don’t know what this visit is about. I had an annual back in March. What am I doing here?” And I told them that. And they said, “Well, we’ve got you down for an annual.” So then my Clinical Nurse, who is my primary care provider, came in and said, “Uh, that was a mistake, we don’t really need you here today, unless you’ve got any questions.” So I did have, since I’d already had the labs, I had her call me back later and give me the results. And everything looks good. My liver is clear, which I am always concerned about. My A1C was good, I’m not pre-diabetic or anything. Well, another thing was, I guess, sodium. In the summertime, people go out and sweat a lot, which can cause them to lose electrolytes. So she says, get plenty of that. But it’s easily fixed.

I started putting some Mio Sport in my water. I don’t drink much water. I mean, I drink when I’m mowing. I’ll take a few breaks and get some water when I come in. And when I get home from this, I’ll get some water with some Mio Sport in it. And the other thing was cholesterol.

So this will be good. I’ll go home and take a shower. I got a few hours to relax. And then I’ll pick up the car at 10 o’clock. I’ll have some nice calming chemicals in my bloodstream. I should have—I’m planning to have a wonderful day. I’ve just crossed the street, and I’m not in the area where my mother’s apartment complex is. I’m coming up on, this is actually the only puddle I’ve seen today. This is one puddle on this trail. And nothing really on the sidewalks of my neighborhood, where I go for five minutes trying to get here, and back. One puddle. Soaked yesterday. Two inches of rain. Hopefully, it will not affect my traction on the roads today, south of here, where I plan to go. The Corvette’s tires are better suited to a flat, smooth surface. No four wheel drive either. However, there is now a version available that is all-wheel drive and hybrid. It’s called an E-ray. It has two or three electric motors, along with the big honkin’ 6.2-litre V8 that’s in all the other ones. That’s an interesting development. But I’m not driving one of those. I am driving a Stingray today.

Oh, here comes another runner — a runner. Going by the road ahead. Not going to turn this way, it looks like. And not going on the south side, either. Just going up the road, presumably to the main road I talked about, where the construction is going on behind the scenes like a James Bond movie.

I’m going to go ahead and shut this down. I’m in my neighborhood. I don’t want to be talking to myself in front of my neighbors’ houses. Anyway, yeah, it’s been great to get back in touch with you today. I hope you enjoy the episode I recorded today. It’s going to be really fun. And I hope you enjoyed this episode. And remember if you’ve got the fever keep it burning. And if you don’t, catch the fever. And I’ll talk to you next time on Running: A FEVER.