Welcome to Running a Fever. My name is Michael Davis. This is 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.
Well, it’s a beautiful day at Lake Fayetteville, and I think it’s about 77 degrees. No clouds in the sky whatsoever. I think this is pretty much the weather we had yesterday. I didn’t really get out.
I was working in the studio. Saturday, it rained a lot for the first time in quite a while. But today’s very nice, and I’m walking on the shady south side of the Lake Fayetteville Trail. I’m going to go ahead and start now that I know how to use the fitness watch to track my walking.
There we go, we have started. I realized last time I got done, I’m just driving home, and I hear the voice, you know, you heard last episode, you heard the voice come out of the watch. telling me all the stats again, and I’m like, oh, okay. I guess I have to turn it off manually.
There’s something that automatically turns on, and it buzzes after 10 minutes. So maybe that had me going. I think my old watch might have had an automatic thing too. None of that worked very well.
So I started it manually. I’ll stop it manually. And this will give me an idea of how many miles I’ve walked. And my pace was a little bit slower than I thought last time.
So I think I did eventually get over three miles for the total trip. But my speed was only about 2.2 miles per hour, which is, you know, a little less than a 30-minute mile, which is, I think, pretty poor. I don’t usually focus on speed that much, but I think I need to keep up the pace a little bit. So I’m going to try to do that and increase my miles per hour. Although I wasn’t too worried because it also tells me my heart rate. Unfortunately, I forgot to run that formula again, and I need to give that to you. So maybe I’ll put that in the blog post in case I forget next time.
Exercise heart rate goal = (220 – age) x 0.7
I noticed that my heart rate toward the end was 150 which I know is more than the previously recommended 144 for exercising, what I should get up to I guess, I don’t know, if you call it working heart rate, resting heart rate is the opposite of that, I guess. So again, I’m not really worried about the speed. I think I used to do a 20-minute mile, and now I’m doing almost a 30-minute mile.
I was just passed by an e-bike, and there are a lot more of those all the time. I was talking to a friend, and he informed me that the Razorback Greenway is referred to as a bike trail, rather than a walking or running trail, or something more neutral. These are bike trails. And I think he indicated, and I’m not going to say I’m quoting him, I’m kind of paraphrasing and interpreting what he said, but my impression was that they built these–and I think the Waltons are mainly responsible for this. The Walton family, Walmart people, and the purpose is basically to have an ebike interstate. They, I guess, have decided that riding an e-bike is better for society than transporting yourself by car, bus, truck, or whatever.
And so they want people to start going to work and doing all their local business by going along these trails. on e-bikes. So, I don’t know, people, I mean, I’m not going to go negative because today is all about positivity, right? Anyway, that’s how I understand it.
I’m just going to need to adjust because, you know, once it becomes as crowded as the streets, it will not be safe to walk, just like it’s not safe for bicycles to ride on the regular streets that cars occupy. I remember that if you had listened to, for example, the Mount Nebo Bench Trail episode, I had at least one e-bike actually on the hiking trail. So, you know, not that that would become an interstate because I know apparently you can get most anywhere on these trails. I don’t ever notice that, but that’s what I’ve been told. Meaning you can get to a business or a neighborhood. And of course, that’s not the case in a state park. But there are places people can walk that it would be extremely difficult for any bike to go. And I think I’ve just got to man up and go find some more difficult trails, do some climbing. You know, like go on the Yellow Rock Trail. I bet I don’t see any e-bikes on the Yellow Rock Trail at Devil’s Den State Park.
And that’s an hour away. A little inconvenient for me, but that may be my only option for people who actually want to get exercise instead of riding on a motorbike. But for now, it’s a beautiful day, like I said, and you know, even though I’ve probably taken you through here before, I urge you to watch the YouTube video if you’re only listening.
Check out the YouTube video for a little bit of it anyway, and see all the wonderful leaves and the colors happening with the leaves on the trees, and all the leaves I’m walking through, and find them dispersed along the trail. It’s beautiful. It is beautiful, and I get to walk through here for now anyway. and enjoy it while getting some exercise and being active, increasing my lifespan, and giving me a little bit of happiness today.
I’m not sure what brain chemical is involved in enjoying nature. I’m sure there is one, but you’ve certainly got your endorphins going with the exercise. And it doesn’t really matter, because it’s very nice, regardless of how it happens. And again, I would really like to know whether you prefer these episodes to the in-depth, heavily researched studio episodes I do.
I like to do that because I’m curious. All the things I’ve talked about have just come up because I’m curious about them. And sometimes listeners suggest them as well. But nonetheless, I become curious at that point.
And I didn’t wear sunscreen today, but I knew I’d be walking in quite a bit of shade because I’d head down the wonderful south side. I gotta say, this looks quite different from how it normally does. I’m glad I’m making a video of it. With all the leaves and everything, it just makes it look different.
And of course, you also get trees that are slowly undressing themselves. And so you can see more through them, such as the beautiful blue water of Lake Fayetteville. Okay–0.80 miles per hour, that’s not good. Almost half a mile. Started while I was walking too, so there’s no messing around, standing around involved in that calculation. Yep, trying to stretch it out a little bit here.
So what do you do when you encounter negative feelings, or you sense yourself going into a negative attitude? I think one of the things I can do is try to think of things that I’m grateful for. And every now and then, I realize that I’m a relatively healthy person. Many people wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing today.
And I so often take that for granted. So it makes me feel good that I can do that. No matter how I perform or how slow I walk, I’m not really feeling any pain. It seems like I’m limping for some reason.
The other thing I can do is resolve to do good things in the future. One thing you can do is be generous with your time.
And I try to do that. Sometimes it’s hard for me to come up with things to do. Some people I know, we call it being of service to others. It’s more blessed to give than to receive.
I think that’s true. I think we’re blessed when we can be generous. And I think a lot of times I find that being generous isn’t as much of a sacrifice as I thought it might be. So it’s enjoyable, gives you a good feeling.
And you’re helping someone else, which is good in itself. Another friend mentioned that it is good to live a life of abundance. You know, the things we need, even the things we want, exist in abundance. And so, you know, we don’t have to worry about not getting enough of something.
There’s enough to go around. And I’m not really talking about material things, although that could be true as well. I’ve never really gone hungry. I know some people have, but I have not.
So I have good reason to believe that, at least in my life, things have been abundant, and I can be grateful for that. That’s a positive thing. But more than that, you know, I’m talking about things like, you know, love, friendship. I think I just have to be open to these things, and they’re abundant in the world.
And so, you know, that being the case, these good things will come to me. And I mentioned last time about visualization, and I was a little skeptical of it. I guess there’s no reason to be particularly negative about it, but it seems to be part of every self-help guru’s repertoire. And that is the thing you want.
And again, when I say things, I’m not necessarily talking about material things. But what you want, visualize it. And it will come to you. There’s this force in the world that’s working to bring things to you that you visualize, but you’ve got to get the idea out there. You’ve got to know what you want. They often say, ” You know, find pictures of things you want, like if you want a particular kind of house, you know, find a picture of it, or you draw a picture of it. Put it somewhere where you’ll see it on a regular basis, every day, or whenever. If you want to have a fit body, take a picture of someone who does.
Visualize the fitness that you can achieve. Anyway, some of this, obviously, if you want a fit body, you have to exercise and all those things. But, you know, there’s a lot that goes into that, as we’ve talked about and we continue to talk about on this show. You want the big house, of course. You probably need to work to afford it, or maybe there’s another way to get it, but buying it is the first thing that comes to mind.
0.9 miles. And 21 minutes, so that’s pretty good. I don’t know, my miles per hour just don’t seem to be following along with that. I can walk almost a mile in 20 minutes.
That’s kind of what was my standard before. And I can feel some extra effort today. A little bit harder to breathe. A little bit of fatigue in the legs.
I’m glad I’m out here. I was out here Thursday. I was out here last Monday. So, if I can go out tomorrow or Wednesday, it’ll be three times this week, which is kind of my intermediate goal.
I used to do three walks a week, and then I’d go to the gym three times a week. Eventually, I think, you know, years and years ago, I started just walking once a week because I’d make it all the way around Lake Fayetteville. I was walking five point screw five miles. Takes a while, you know, takes a couple of hours.
So I would just do that on Sunday and then work out the other, you know, maybe four times, and then maybe have a day off or a night off or something, I don’t know. Well, she said my heart rate was only 84 beats per minute. Good argument for maybe speeding up a little bit. All right.
I saw a couple of those — I don’t know what you call them — recliner bikes or something. You know, where you kind of half lie down on the bike, and it’s got, it’s really a tricycle, I guess. And they had the flag coming up because you’re sort of low down, needs to have something up at eye level. I don’t think that would be comfortable.
There are some red leaves up there. Looks like they’re ready to come off. Maybe just brown, dried up and brown, I don’t know. This is great. There are no trees in my neighborhood, so I don’t get to experience leaves in my yard or anything. All right, now I’ve got 1.1 mile an hour. That’s better than zero.
A lot of leaves down in the trench there, or the valley, or whatever. Oh, I bought some broccoli today. Usually don’t buy vegetables other than tomatoes. There’s some broccoli. I can make some stir-fried broccoli chicken. Probably pick up some fajita meat or something if I wanted to do beef. Tastes pretty good, but, you know, red meat, heart disease, so forth.
I think I got some chicken at home right now, it’s thawing. I was kind of thinking that would be used for tacos. Maybe I’ll do that. Won’t be eating at home tomorrow night, so if I do, then, well, either way.
I don’t remember this. I mean, I remember it. Maybe I just hadn’t been this far in a while. How far have I gone? 1.3 miles, so it would be 2.6 if I turn back now. Veterans Park. I haven’t been here in a while. I haven’t been walking enough to get this far. Veterans Memorial Park, Fayetteville. This is the place where I often see people just sitting in their cars. Motorized vehicle. I’ll get off in the rocks. I don’t have to walk on the road, but I do have to at least cross it twice to get through the park. That’s the first crossing. No motorized vehicles on either side. Nobody is celebrating at the pavilion.
Still coughing after almost seven weeks. Not coughing much, but every day. Guess I won’t try to walk through the trash cans. I think there’s at least one person sitting in their vehicle. I can see the attraction of it. You know, the park’s kind of a nice place. This time of the week, it’s not that busy. In fact, the parking lot on my way in was empty when I arrived. I was the first and only one there. A chain link fence, I never noticed. Protecting you from falling into the hole. Been there a while though. Well-worn. It’s like we’re getting to the bridge.
Keep looking at the watch. We’re at a mile and a half. I try to go a mile and three-quarters. People are behind me, but they’re not walking that fast. If I go left, I’m going to go up into, I don’t know, Bentonville? What does it say? Botanical Gardens, Lake Fayetteville, Federal Memorial, Razorback Greenland, Shopping, Dining.
Now we’re even across the bridge. We are really cruising here today, I’ll tell you. Remember when that was just a trickle? I’m sure you can hear it. A lot of cracks in that wall. Water is coming through the cracks. Nice. We did have a bunch of rain on Saturday, as I said. Probably more than that. But it’s going pretty well today. I mean, we’re not that far from the marina. Yeah, I can see the lake. There it is, right there.
Unbelievable, we went all the way from the botanical gardens to the other side of the lake. Well, my watch only says 1.65 miles. Figure that out. Let’s see, we’ve been going for 41 minutes now.
That unexplained thing there, as always. Not much has changed. Hadn’t been here in a while. Ah, yeah, this is beautiful, all right. Stop, take a look. Oh, three-quarters exactly. So, try to get 3.5 miles in today. Technically, I’ll definitely have to because I’ve got to get back to my car somehow. Feels good in the cool breeze. I wonder if just this part of the Lake Fayetteville Trail is on the Greenway, while the rest is not. I wonder. Let me look into it a little more. Before the last episode, I visited the Razorback Regional Greenway website. 40 miles of it. And we’re just walking three today. Well, actually, one and a half, one and three-quarters.
Plenty more where that came from. Let’s plan a trip and include at least one episode on the Trail of Tears. I’ve always wondered about that, and I just want to put it on the calendar so I can note it to my future self as you’re sitting there reading the transcription, editing the audio file, or editing the video. and it will be unavoidable.
It’s good to get some longer walks in, but it takes up more of my time. I’ve got plenty of days when I don’t have anything scheduled in the evening. Usually don’t. I have two nights of the week spoken for pretty much every week. The rest are usually not. So, that’s one reason why I can get out on Wednesday. I have something in the evening. There should be enough time between getting off work and leaving for that thing to get in a workout and a shower. Maybe not this long. This could be an hour and a half. So, well, still could probably do it. I don’t usually eat until after I get home from the thing. Springdale, 2.1 miles.
Probably the aquatic center is what’s being talked about. It’s on the border between Springdale and Fayetteville. I don’t think they have a sign or anything, but I do know that that aquatic center is, I believe, a joint project or joint location between Springdale and Fayetteville. I saw that somewhere.
Starting to feel kind of tired here. We’re on an upslope. There’s a bench, but I don’t need a bench because I’m just going to keep on trucking here. Squirrel.
Meeting the same people I met on the way here. So I guess people are doing the same thing I did and turning around. Okay, heart rate’s up to 96 beats per minute, according to the little voice. I guess I get a report every mile. 96 beats per minute. Kind of goes up as I go along. It was almost at the end of the workout last time when I got to 150.
No change to the weight-loss plan. Still in the same plan, still in the same 10-pound range between 210 and 220. Been there for many months now. But now I’m exercising at least twice a week. Monday night. I’m going to be good and tired tonight. I’m going to feel good. I remember that.
Sometimes it’s hard to remember, and that’s why it’s hard to overcome that inertia, as I talked about a few episodes ago. Overcoming that inertia, part of the weight mass that you’re trying to move. The friction is that. I don’t remember how good it felt to have completed a workout.
So I don’t get the contrast between that and not working out, just lethargy, and how do you describe it? Whatever the opposite of that good feeling is. How bad does it feel to just be on a daily grind of no activity? Almost to the marina. I’m getting some more distance out here, more work, more calories burned, more activity. I’m constantly learning as I do this show.
I hope you enjoyed the series on screen time and your health. One of those episodes was talking about the problems of working remotely. A lot of people work remotely, and they’re more lethargic. I mean, I think some people are more focused and just head down working when they’re at home. Not really true for me, but, you know, I think I still spend probably at least as much time in the chair as I do in the office.
And, you know, one of the risks of sitting a lot is blood clots. that they call thrombosis. Very dangerous, no matter where it happens, because those blood clots can go to your lungs and cause a serious problem. So, that’s one reason why I want to be as active as possible.
My job, like most people these days, probably in the United States, has me sitting all day. And it’s also good, I think, just to periodically get up. And I haven’t been doing much walking lately, but I used to walk a lot at work. I used to come home with thousands of steps. I don’t do the same kind of walking there, but I do like to go outside, walk around the parking lot, around the building, and then come in the back door so I get just a little bit of walking. If I can do that two or three times, that’s probably really good.
So I’ve done that a little bit lately, probably not three times a day. Maybe once every few days. I don’t know if I went into much about the cough and all that. My voice is still rough. Last night I had a pretty serious coughing fit. The cough is different now. It’s one of the things that concerns me. It’s not just anything normal, you know. We know it wasn’t the flu or COVID. They tested for those things. A cold usually doesn’t last more than six weeks, for sure. And yeah, so last night I woke up, middle of the night, coughing. Might have had something to do with acid reflux, I don’t know. I had a pretty big meal, so it might have had something to do with it. I don’t think I was wearing my CPAP. Sometimes I turn on my side, you know, and I don’t really need the CPAP when I’m sleeping on my side. So a couple of things might have contributed to that and irritated my throat, but as soon as I started coughing, I jumped out of bed and stood up. Tried to relax because one of the differences between this cough and a normal cough that I’ve experienced is that, for a second, my throat closes and I can’t breathe. I’m just kind of sucking air and trying to breathe, but it only lasts for a second. But if I have a coughing fit like I did last night, I can’t get a breath, you know, I just keep coughing. So that’s kind of scary, and I need to go back to the doctor and see. I strongly suspect it is an allergy.
That’s beautiful. Sun coming through the trees. Two and a half miles. One mile to go. And we’ve been going for an hour. The last report at the two-mile mark showed my speed was about 25 minutes per mile.
Sniffing a lot today, my nose is running for some reason. It does that sometimes. I have to edit every one of those out. See, that was a sniff right there. You don’t hear those often because I edit them all out. Little inside baseball for you. Behind the scenes.
I haven’t had a really good pickle in a long time. You guys like pickles? Put something in the comments today. Let that be your first comment if you’ve never commented on the blog at http://RunningAFEVER.com/444 or on the YouTube video http://YouTube.com/@runningafever. I don’t know why I was thinking that. Sometimes your brain acts in weird ways and just reminds you of the flavor of something. That’s what I had, the flavor of a spicy pickle. Just like those Clausen pickles they keep in the cooler section. the grocery store. Ate those for a while. Kind of got tired of them. Probably the best pickles I ever had–when I was in seminary, we used to go all over the state during the summertime when we were not in school. And so, in one parish I was at, this family had us out for dinner, and they, a lot of the people in this town had gardens, and they would can their stuff, and they’d eat it during the winter. And this particular guy had these spicy pickles, you know. I mean, I wish I had the recipe. Not that I would be able to make it. But delicious, very spicy. Homemade pickles.
And I can’t see anything wrong with pickles, health-wise. Certainly a vegetable, a low-calorie food. May lose some of its nutritional value in the pickling process. I should do a whole episode on pickles. Just like I did with eggs, I think. I think you could have an entire podcast just on eggs. So many varieties, but pickles. That’d be a good one. A healthy, tasty snack. Or garnish. Or side. A lot of places, they give you a pickle for free. Seems to do that at catfish places or delis. I mean, if you go to a real traditional deli and order a sandwich, they’ll give you a pickle with that. Sometimes you have to pay for it. I mean, I had one of those in Annapolis when I was there. Chick and Ruth’s Deli. I wonder if Chick is short for anything. I think there was a jazz musician, Chick Corea.
What if I did that? Took Friday off. I could walk in the morning after rush hour. So I’ve got a late lunch on Friday. And I usually have another lunch every week. And I don’t know when that’s going to happen this week. So what if it happens on Friday? Well, it could happen. Because like I said, I’ve got a late lunch, so I’ve got to have a regular time lunch. Wouldn’t eat twice, of course.
How about that? Heart rate has gone down. My pace is now a 26-minute mile. It’s gone up.
I guess I’m slowing down. But we’ve completed three miles. So says my watch. That’s a great new feature. If I could get it to automatically sync with a website or something. I wonder if it does that. I could keep my stats on my computer. Anyway, I’m happy with what I’ve got here.
After years of complaining about this watch.
A mile to go. Kicking the leaves on a nice fall day. You won’t hear this until sometime in 2026, and it will probably be cold here; it’ll be cold. Not if you’re listening in Mauritius. But right now, it’s mid to late October in the upper South slash lower Midwest, and it’s very leafy here. I’m taking you back in time a little bit; that’s what I do here.
When I was in school, we used to say, attitude check. I hate this place. Positive attitude check. I positively hate this place. Humor is positive. In those interviews I’ve been watching about a positive attitude, they said, you know, go watch a funny movie or something. Get yourself in a positive mood.
But it’s been a pretty positive day today. haven’t increased our speed, but we may have extended our distance, or at least kept the same distance as last time. I think there are a few more hills on this one. And the Carol E. Van Scyoc Trail. Didn’t get the heart rate up high enough. But I’m focusing on the positive. Talked about pickles and people sitting in cars and leaves and beautiful sunlight coming through the trees.
Walked a longer distance on this trail than we’ve walked in a very long time. Even though I’m doubling back, I went all the way from Botanical Gardens to the walk towards the marina. Didn’t get all the way to the marina, but got to kind of the middle of the walk where we could stand there, look at the beautiful lake for a minute. So that’s the kind of thing you get on these live episodes with no script and no research, really. You like them? Leave something in the comments. I want to know which kind of episode you like better. And if you like the live ones, you should go back and listen to the initial run. You know, I don’t know how long it was that I was going every day, but in the very beginning of the show, I didn’t do any studio episodes. I did everything on the walk. Or the attempted run. So you’ve got a lot of that.
I think actually I’ll start a new category and maybe a new playlist that’s just for live, I say live, it’s not really any more live than the ones I do in the studio, technically. And then for a while I’d make notes, and I’d go out on the trail. And I’d be walking, but I’d be looking at my notes. Talk about a particular topic. That’s the evolution of the show. Now we’re back to square one. Walking on Lake Fayetteville Trail. where we have walked hundreds of times.
Still beautiful. Three and a quarter, three and a third, 15 hundredths left to go of the mile. I hope you’ve enjoyed this trek around half of Lake Fayetteville, or a good portion of it. My meandering thoughts. And I hope you’ll come away with this with an idea of being positive in your life. That’s what I’m going to try to do. I’m really going to try to do that. Because there’s no reason not to be positive.
If I let those negative thoughts take over my brain, that’s what I’m going to have in my life: negativity. If I let the positive flow in, I’m going to have a positive life. That’s what I want. Happy, healthy, active, right up to the very end.
So, you got the fever, keep it burning. Otherwise, catch the fever. I’ll talk to you next time on Running: A FEVER.
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