My headlamp is not working. Fortunately, I forgot about this, but there are streetlights here. So hopefully that will be enough. Anyway, I decided to come to Lake Atalanta in Rogers, Arkansas today.

It’s a beautiful day. It’s dark, so I’m not sure what the sky looks like, but it’s supposed to be clear later today. Sunrise at, I don’t know, 7.30 or so. An hour from now, we’ll see how far we get.

And if we see the sunrise here. Not a single person in the parking lot, which might be expected at 6.30 on a Friday morning in December, when it’s 28 degrees outside. Again, not normally a temperature in which I would go out in recent years, but new attitude, people. New attitude.

Motivation department. Hadn’t been out here in a while, probably a year or more, I don’t know. Time seems to be in flux. Fashion report is kind of the same as last time.

I hear it clicking, but it’s just the railing responding to my footsteps and uh I’m wondering if off to my left or to my right I see some ice it’s possible the uh lake of course is not frozen I don’t think it ever gets cold enough to freeze the lake but uh interesting I think probably the last time I was here I had a working headlamp. The last time I was here was at this time of day. But yeah, hopefully 28 degrees will warm things up here.

It doesn’t feel too bad so far. Fashion report. Let’s see. I need to get a base layer for the bottom half.

I’m currently just wearing sweats, which is pretty cold. Three layers on top. This is not too bad. I could still probably use something a little warmer than just cotton and polyester.

The old hoodie is on. Gloves. Master knitter, Henrietta Davis. And the hood’s up, and I’ve got a skullcap on as well.

Under the camera mount. Been here about two weeks away from 20 years, believe it or not. Can’t believe it myself. That means I was 39.

39 when I came to Northwest Arkansas. So I got some, I don’t know the timeline, and when the episode’s coming out. I did an episode on factor meals, factor meal service. I’ve recorded part of it.

and unboxing. So subscribe to the Factor Meal Service. I think it’s pretty expensive, but, you know, supposedly the, you know, the food is supposed to be really good. You know, it’s supposed to be better than the ones, because it’s just a frozen dinner you heat up in two minutes, but it’s supposed to be better than the ones you get in the supermarket, I suppose.

Grocery store. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be paying so much money for it. I don’t know. Find out.

Honestly, I don’t really eat frozen dinners from the grocery store. So why am I eating them from a delivery service, I don’t know. Just wanted to try it. I thought it might be a healthy alternative.

Anyway, it came in a FedEx container, and everything was still frozen. So I did that episode and actually ate my first factor meal on camera there and, you know, it wasn’t bad. Flavor-wise, it tasted good. It was enough food for a meal.

So, I mean, those are the things you want, right? Factor is one of several companies offering meal services. Hello Fresh, I think it’s one. Blue something, Blue Apron, or something like that.

We’ve gotten so used to things showing up at our door. I was listening to someone on the radio, trying to explain that back in the day, we used to go to buildings. Obviously, everybody knows that anyway. But yeah, we used to, if you didn’t have something in the area, you couldn’t get it.

Now you can get whatever specifically you want delivered right to your door. So that is something else. And my watch, I did not start the walking app. I won’t do so now, but it’s telling me I’ve been walking for 10 minutes anyway.

This kind of automatically starts something or other. Three, two, one, go. Again, it would probably be a good idea to watch a YouTube video on this. Watch.

Even though they don’t make it anymore, I’m sure there’s plenty of video out there about it. Supposed to be good weather today. Clear sky. But it’s supposed to get up in the 50s.

It’s amazing how wide the temperature range has been lately. Yesterday, I think the low was, or overnight, it was 25. The high was like 57 during the day. Just crazy stuff.

30-degree swing in one day. It’s frickin’ cold. I think I’m gonna try for two laps here today, which would be longer than I’ve walked in a while. It’s two miles around, so that’s four miles.

But I’m feeling pretty good this morning. I took the day off. I haven’t been getting into morning workouts on workdays. You know, I would have to be as bad as traffic is before 6 a.m.

it’s even worse at 7 a.m. so that’s part of my concern I guess just inconvenience of that sort of thing and I usually leave work earlier so I have the same problem in the afternoon I’m hearing some critter activity up to my right little place to hide on the left basically goes right down to the water a few trees with no leaves on them. Leaves are gone at this point in the year. There’s a limb that came off recently because it still has leaves on it. Dead leaves. Weather-wise, I like this time of year. You know I’ve learned in the Running: A FEVER-inspired workouts that I can go out in the heat, no problem.

Just prepare for it with hydration and sunscreen. But I still prefer the cooler months of the year. Just the way I’m wired, I guess. And you can prepare for that too by dressing appropriately.

They always say, you know, when it’s hot, there’s only so much you can take off. But when it’s cold, you can put on as much clothing as you want. Funny how much life is driven by weather. You know, as soon as we had the technology, we started making artificial temperature control. The room that they took Abraham Lincoln to after he was shot.

Supposedly, I guess he died there, even though shot in the head, you’d think he’d die instantly. They had a crude form of air conditioning in that room. So that would have been 1865. The air conditioning in 1865.

And of course, it took a really long time before it became popular, and eventually ubiquitous, in the United States. But I took a course in Southern history in college, and it was interesting. Probably most of the people in the class were actually Southerners. But it said that, you know, the history of the South was formed more by weather than anything else.

Because compared with the rest of the country, it’s relatively warm. So then it all changed in the 1930s when air conditioning became available. Back in the lighted section here. 25 minutes into the walk.

Good morning! The birds are pretty angry up there. Or, you know, upset in some way. I don’t think I’m walking that fast today.

The tips of my fingers are so cold. I’ll try to pick up the pace. Concrete all the way around. It’s interesting, though. I was on the way here, and I took a kind of wrong turn.

I was just trying to find a different way here I know I’d taken a different way but not that much different really it’s kind of a loop goes around. Anyway I saw on there the it said Trail of Tears historic trail, so there you go, another section of Trail of Tears, I’ll have to check out here in Rogers I’ve been on one in Fayetteville, I’ve been on one in Bella Vista or Pea Ridge, actually, Pea Ridge, because it was the Pea Ridge National Park up there. And now I’ve driven down one, and I drive by these signs all the time, so it’s about the best method of discovering these things, because they’re not always clearly described in the literature. But another Trail of Tears episode is probably coming up. Fingers still cold, all right? Yeah, I’ve picked up the pace, and I’m kind of 0.91, so I’ll have a report pretty soon from Sammy on what my heart rate is and all that, so that’ll be good.

I believe at my age, I’m only supposed to get up to about a 130, something like that. I’ll get that, I’ve got it on my refrigerator, but I don’t always remember the number. Any second now. Average pace 26 minutes 13 seconds per mile duration 26 minutes 13 seconds I think she said 13 and not 30, could be wrong. Two squirrels are running toward me. There’s your wildlife.

Not off in the bushes, but out here on the trail. I don’t often see that, except I do remember being in Washington, D.C., in the, I don’t know what they call it, that big park. And a squirrel came right up to me, and I got a picture of him somewhere.

Probably gone to the dustbin of history at this point, but probably thought I would have a nut for him to feed him, and not afraid of any squirrel guns in Washington, D.C. But those guys were running right toward me. So thinking about heart rates made me think about my cardiologist visits, and I’ve been meaning to set a new appointment, assuming I don’t already have one on the books, my cardiologist of many years.

And I say that because he is booked out for about 18 months. 18 months. Cardiologist, to get to see a cardiologist. I mean, think of all that can happen in 18 months to your body.

So, probably not ideal if you’re having regular issues; you need to see him on a regular basis. Oh, there’s a jumping squirrel. Some serious jumping is going on. I wonder if they get somehow energized by the cold.

I wonder if the cold inherently possesses some squirrel energy. At least in this area, it seems that way. But I want to see them because I’ve had a lot of non-CPAP time recently. It seems like I’ll wake up and realize I hadn’t had my CPAP on sometimes all night, and that’s gonna affect me because I have sleep apnea, and that would affect my heart because my heart will be working harder during those times.

I haven’t seen any visible effects, such as leg swelling. But I am concerned about it and would like to track it. I was diagnosed with an enlarged heart many years ago. Probably, I don’t know, maybe over 20 years ago.

I can’t remember. I kind of used 2012 as the date I started using a CPAP, but I don’t know; it might have been earlier. Now there are four cars in the parking lot as I’m finishing my first circuit of Lake Atlanta. And I think maybe the dog lady is finishing our circuit as well in the other direction and it’s now 7.15 so despite what my watch says I’ve actually been going for 45 minutes which isn’t bad but I need to pick up my pace of course part of that

first circuit was and that first mile was me getting out of my car, turning on the camera and stuff. Plus, I took a little rest stop for a few minutes, so… Five cars. There’s one on the other side.

Good morning. People are friendlier in Rogers. Six cars. They’re really coming in now.

Oh, now I think one of them has left, so we’ll do three, four, five. I’m going to take the shortcut, go beside the lake here. Split off, I don’t know if there’s a main versus a shortcut, but this is a split that goes in between the sides. I mean, there’s a lot more in the park I could do, but I’m like, going around the lake is what I want to do here.

And since I started the watch, it says mile and three tenths, but again, I didn’t start the watch until 10 minutes into the walk, so. Maybe not exactly two miles. We’ll see at some point. I’m sure we’ll go out here, and we’ll remember to turn on the walking app.

But we’ve been doing three miles recently, so this shouldn’t be too much of a trouble. And the sky’s already getting lighter. So, back onto the main trail here. And we’ll start our second loop.

And halfway through the session, it seems appropriate to encourage you to like and subscribe. Runner’s coming. I wonder what kind of maintenance they do on these guys. We have seen some.

Sticks and stones on the path today. Critters off to the side, probably squirrels. They seem to be dominant in this area. But, you know, nothing that the wind might blow over, especially in this area where we have lots of wind.

Tornado Alley, we’re near there. Well, the new attitude feels pretty good, but I can’t say I’ve fully adopted it yet. I walked on Monday and took today off, as I said, so that made it easier. I can’t take every day off, though, and I need to do something.

Every day, I think, under the new attitude. So at some point, I’m going to have to start going to the gym or walking in the morning. One of the two. It’s almost winter.

Today is two days away from the start of winter. So it’s appropriate, the temperature, I suppose. Supposed to be 77 degrees on Christmas Day, we shall see, got the same guy I met on the other side of the lake. Heart rate’s going down, but my speed is going up.

So that’s good. 21-minute mile. It’s not bad, but we’re just now hitting two miles, so uh, probably more like a mile and a half around. We will see when we get to the end. I was told it was two miles around, but I never, I don’t think I’ve ever tested that. Maybe i tested it and the old number just stuck in my mind. That could have happened. A little gazebo off to the side here.

You could have a little more private party than in the main park. I don’t know if you need to reserve it. There’s a light there. And there’s another trail off to the side called The Grove.

And it’s got a picture of a railroad engine on it. I should try some of these trails. I think they’re okay to walk on or hike on. They may have been made for biker cyclists.

Well, it feels like we’re on the backside of the trail, but I think it’s quite a bit longer than the front side in the same way that the outside lane of a turn is longer than the inside lane. That kind of curve is going there. I don’t know if you can see that. I mean, it looks like this is a dam.

You know, and it’s got a weird thing over here. It kind of reminds me of Lake Fayetteville and that walk that goes across and gives you great views and stuff. And then it’s got a weird thing that may be some kind of leveler draining somewhere. There’s no water on this side of the dam, so maybe it’s a levee.

I’ll have to check out my water hydro terminology. A little sort of clearing down there. Some rocks. I wouldn’t really call it a park, because there’s just so much dirt.

But, yeah, it’s Lake Atalanta Levee. Or just Atalanta Levee. Or Levee Atalanta. Atalanta.

Could be. Look at those. There are some jet trails in the sky. It looks pretty clear.

Got some cirrus clouds up there. I suppose this was a natural lake at some time. I don’t know. I went through the history at some point, so probably the first time I came here.

And there’s a road up from that park area. The dirt park, if you want to call it that. The third time I’ve seen that guy, and now he’s running. I don’t really feel like running after a mile and a half of walking, but you know, he’s probably in better shape.

I can hear the water coming here, so that’s definitely where the leveling happens into this creek. I’m not going to stop in the creek. I’ll try to give you a view as I pass by. There’s a sign here.

Let’s see what that says. Dark the first time I came around here, so… I didn’t see that sign facing the other way. Lake Atalanta Loop.

1.8 miles, it says. So that’s useful information. It is close to 2 miles. And I’m at 2.61 miles now.

So I should have another mile to go. Doesn’t seem like that, but I’m doing okay physically. I’m not exhausted, going blind, out of breath, or anything. I don’t have a heart attack.

I’m not experiencing any of those symptoms. 1.8 miles. I’ll try to keep that in my head. I wouldn’t have seen that sign if I hadn’t.

Some people have some Lakeview houses here, not bad. Not a lot of wind right now. There was a wind advisory yesterday. You wouldn’t be able to see those houses.

The trees, although there seem to be some cutouts out there, don’t obstruct their view. But from down here, during the spring, summer, and autumn months, you wouldn’t be able to see up there for all the leaves. Wow, there’s a steep trail. Billy Goat Trail.

Kind of reminds me of Miller’s Goat Trail at Mount Nebo, in that it looks very difficult. And it looks kind of treacherous. It’s quite a drop-off there, a steep drop-off. Billy Goat Trail.

Which I guess could have been a mile marker. Not representing the entire trail, because it looks like I’m coming up here, and I don’t think it’s going to be. 3.6 miles. It’s only 2.85 now.

It must include some other parts of the trail. Like, you know, I just went around the water. There’s some other You know, it goes all the way around the park, a significant park area with pavilions and seats and grass and various landscaping, etc. I think they’ve even got a restaurant there. There’s a boat launch.

Bring your boat, and go fishing with it. almost eight o’clock now, the sun’s definitely up, although you can’t see it here it’s definitely up sky’s blue you can see the sun shining on the trees up ahead tops of the trees 2.94 miles one hour So not bad overall, especially considering the fact that I did stop and had some startup time and was getting all the equipment going. Pretty good workout today.

22 minutes, three seconds per mile. Duration, one hour, 10 minutes, 16 seconds. You’ve completed three miles. Heart rate, 108 beats per minute.

Yeah, just completing three miles, about 100 yards from my vehicle. So yeah, more than 1.8 miles around, or less than. And I would have to go another way to get 1.8 miles. Fingers aren’t cold anymore.

Good morning. How are you? Good. People and their pets.

I’m a cat person myself, and they don’t really walk very well when it comes to taking them for a walk. The dogs do, and I see a lot of dogs in the trails, at least around here. But I’m taking the shortcut. No, not that much shorter. All right, three miles, almost exactly. Interesting. Probably be 3.2 car to car.

But we’re done with this episode. You’ll have to check out the next one. Or listen to this one again if you like. And much more at http://RunningAFever.com.

Audio and video are available there. And until next time, you got the fever, keep it, If you don’t catch the fever, I’ll talk to you next time on Runny or Fever.

Image by Linny Miles from Pixabay