I’m walking through at least a foot of snow today. Is snow walking a good fitness activity? Well, there are several things to consider.

Welcome to Running with Fever. My name is Michael Davis, and 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 living long and living life.

I’m looking at what looks like a car has smashed into a retaining fence there, rail, on the road into my neighborhood. Honestly, you know, we’re on Dean’s Trail in the snow today. And of course, I have no idea where the trail is at all today.

But I can see the lights, and I would just kind of stay reasonably close to them as we go along here. And we’re at Mystery Park, which I will call it. Mystery Park. I’m walking in at least a foot of snow today.

Weather department. According to Alexa, we received between 8 and 12 inches between Friday night and Saturday night, with an expected additional 2 inches today. Although the way things are going, it kind of looks like it may be more than that, but it’s early in the day. So we’re looking at at least 10 inches, possibly 14.

That’s a lot of snow, especially for this area. I remember when I was a kid in Northwest Tennessee, getting snowfall of 10 or 12 inches some winters wasn’t too uncommon back then and up here for some reason we don’t get much snow at all but this is a big huge winter storm in this area for sure don’t know what the temperature is today yesterday it was 10 degrees it’s probably around there should have checked I suppose. Fashion report, if you watch the Lake Fayetteville in the snow episode, wearing the same outfit that I did. Not walking shoes, but boots, thick socks, two layers on the bottom, three layers on top, a beanie, a knit beanie, and knit gloves.

Of course, provided by master knitter Henrietta Davis. I don’t expect I will go as long today as I did yesterday, and certainly not as long as I often do. It’s going to be no more than an hour. I’m going for 11 minutes.

It did take me between six and seven minutes to get to the trail today, when it’s normally around five. Is snow walking a good fitness activity? Well, several things to consider. It’s physically more difficult, I can tell you that right now.

If you’re walking in undisturbed snow of this depth, it is just more work picking up and putting down your feet. And also, another thing while I’m crossing the street here, I’ll tell you is, packed snow, of course, is very slick. And so there’s a danger there. There’s also a danger of tripping on something.

You don’t really know the terrain underneath the snow. Everything’s just smooth on top, which makes things easier in some cases. I don’t have to worry about curbs and this depth of snow, because I just walk on the snow over the curb. Of course, there’s a danger of low-temperature effects on the body.

Definitely want to make sure you’re dressed for it. And I am nominally dressed for it. Could do a little bit better, I think. I don’t know if there’s something between the base layer and the sweatpants that I could put on underneath, down below, or probably should have tucked in the lower levels on top, and probably need something to cover my ears.

And so forth. So there’s that danger, the danger of unknown things under the snow and the danger of packed snow. Also, didn’t bring my phone, which is probably a good idea. Definitely have your phone with you.

Some form of communication. Someone knows that you’re out in the snow in case something happens. Yeah. And I see several people out with their dogs.

Springdale Public Parks. It is a beautiful day. It’s a beautiful day on Dean’s Trail in Springdale today, with snow coming down and a blanket of snow over everything. I don’t hear any vehicles, but I know some have come out because I saw new tracks while going through the neighborhood.

And of course, everything from before would be covered up. Yesterday, on the Lake Fayetteville Trail, I was not the first one to go out. There were tracks from a bicycle and human tracks as well, probably from a runner, based on the distance between the tracks, or a giant with small feet. Today I saw deer tracks and three deer along the trail.

They apparently are active out here when it’s cold and snowy. And I’m seeing some more of those here. I didn’t think there were deer in this area, but I know there are rabbits. I see rabbits in my yard all the time.

So, be a big rabbit. I don’t think there are deer in this area. Although deer do show up in populated areas because apparently, at least this is what I’ve heard, they return to their native lands wherever they are geographically, regardless of what has happened. in the interim 17 minutes and I see if I’m keeping track nope the distance still isn’t working today for some reason wasn’t working yesterday either on the watch so it could be that my steps are not triggering even though it seems like they’re more impactful today in the

snow but that’s another thing I’m kind of jarring on the body. Is it good exercise? Yes, I think it is generally good exercise. Yesterday I definitely felt the endorphins, and I had a little, a little soreness in my, I don’t know what they’re called, they’re not shins, but they’re on the sides of your, lower legs. That’s where I had some maybe ankle strain from walking in the snow.

Well, it’s nice out here once you get going. Climatologists say that we are going to have a cold rest of the winter. So I purchased a pair of rechargeable hand warmers. Again, I’m old, so I remember back in the day when hand warmers were basically cigarette lighters that were completely covered up.

Made by Zippo, you put lighter fluid in them, lit them with a lighter, and then you actually had fire in your pockets. Beautiful day! Yeah, I can see why you, too, okay, where was I? Yeah, so not anymore, just like everything, you know, we’ve got all this battery technology, so anything can be rechargeable. So you don’t have to have fire in your pocket, you can have electric.

And good reviews, the ones I got. 23 minutes. And this is, this is actually a lot more, I think, because of the depth of the snow. Yesterday, there was only, oh, should have been only a couple of inches, but it was really more like probably four or five inches, and today you’ve got a foot, so there’s a big difference there, your ground is unsteady, so you’re constantly adjusting, and that takes muscle power, but

I’m gonna check and see. Yeah, my heart rate, this is definitely good aerobic activity, even though I’m not going very fast. My heart rate is 147. My target rate for my age is 113. So, definitely good cardio today just from walking relatively slow in the snow.

This is a different type of exercise, a different type of workout. I kind of like it, you know, just like I did yesterday. I like it. Get to see a different view of the world.

Somewhat similar to what you’re used to, but definitely overall a different view. Everything’s white or gray. A lot of birds are out around here, not too scared of me. Kind of surprised I don’t usually get this close to birds.

They’re in among the bushes, certainly trying to get something to eat. Birds have to eat a lot. When you think about it, flying takes a lot of energy. Staying warm takes a lot of energy, even with a feather coat.

So they have to eat quite a bit every day. You can’t just stay inside because there’s no inside for a bird. And these are birds that somehow didn’t fly south for the winter. They’re small birds, so I don’t know.

I don’t know what they are. I’m not a bird watcher. Somebody who could certainly tell me immediately what they were. So, as I was saying, we got more cold weather coming.

I don’t know if we’ll have a storm this bad again in this area, but I don’t know anything about El Niño or El Niño. causing a disturbance in the force of weather, as it were. It’s okay. You know, I like four seasons.

I can always work from home if necessary, as long as the power and internet hold up. I haven’t had any power problems so far, and I see lights up in the window up ahead, maybe left over from Christmas. Christmas, it was like in the 70s. But that’s not the depth of winter that it is now.

Now through February into early March, but this is the deep part of winter when it’s usually the coldest and most significant weather events. And you can see the fields, the James Bond facilities over there that I’ve talked about before. And in the last episode, I talked about my experience at the Naval Academy running the seawall in icy conditions. And a fictional account of that as well.

I was much younger then and in a different environment but you know I could say there’s something about the challenge of doing these things that always you know kind of attracts me to it a little bit and you know when you get older, in your mind, you’re still young. I don’t know if I ever realized that, but sometimes people talk about how they’re old and can’t do anything anymore, but my experience and those of other people say, in your mind, you’re still young and invincible, and maybe not invincible. You’ve got a lot of knowledge of how the world works and things that can harm you. So forth, but at the core, still want to show you can still do it, and still think you can still do it, you just gotta be cautious. And I think the life experience helps

with that. Passing by the area where the dog was very frisky. I’m trying not to walk in the footsteps of others because that’s going to be less predictable on my feet and my balance. There’s quite a crosswind right now. Almost horizontal snow is going across.

And really, the right side of my face is really taking it. Very cold. A pretty low wind chill factor. As I said, I should have checked the temperature. My you know limit at this point is zero degrees. I will come out in freezing weather, but not below zero. And I’m still kind of cold. I warmed up just a little bit. My hands aren’t as cold as they were yesterday, and they haven’t taken advantage of the pocket.

I used my hand to shield my face at this point because the wind was very cold. Northwest Arkansas is a windy area year-round. Not just in hurricane season or tornado season, but even now. I don’t know where that road goes or why it’s there.

It’s another mystery. I suppose I could follow it at some point. on days like this, when I’m pretty sure there’s not going to be anybody driving through it. Of course, you never know.

Somebody might have to check something out or repair it, depending on what it’s for. Horizontal snow is coming across in front of me. And this snow is probably at least twice the density of the snow that I saw yesterday, and so of course it may not go as long, but that’s kind of why I’m thinking there’s going to be more than predicted snow today, and now fortunately coming behind me, so not on my face. There goes the truck going pretty fast. Snow is not bad to drive on, you know.

Even driving back yesterday, I was able to get up my steep driveway without trouble. There’s one hill on the way to Lake Fayetteville. Ice is a different story. I will not venture out into the ice with my vehicle.

I’m not really planning to venture out. probably even tomorrow, because this snow isn’t going to be gone by tomorrow, which is Monday. I will not be going to church this weekend, sadly, but I think it’s prudent to do or not do those things. But in this case, I was able to walk to the trail.

I’m very grateful for this trail. It allowed me to walk and get out in this era of the new attitude. I was trying to make some headway in my health. I was always trying to improve myself, mind, body, and soul.

So I saw the truck. That wasn’t actually in a neighborhood. That was on the street. Still a street that’s no doubt covered completely in snow. Unless you have snow plows, that’s what’s going to be the case, and we don’t have snow plows. There might be some snow plows that go on the interstate or something like that, but not sufficient for a road like that. It’s only going to be the most traveled roads.

I didn’t press the button, and I don’t know if it’s even going to work in this weather. Kind of hard to see, because it’s, I don’t think it’s a physical, oh, okay. It works. I don’t know whether that’s,…oh, man.

Snow’s very deep there and hard to pack, so I’ve got to be careful. Yeah, there’s the road that that truck was cruising down. Well, coming back to the street that I will turn off of Dean’s Trail onto. I’ve been going for 47 minutes now, so it’ll be an hour by the time I get back to the house. I want to thank you for listening, watching, and reading the subtitles. I’m trying to add subtitles to all my videos now in several different languages. I want to thank the Hindi-speaking people who have started to watch my videos.

1.9% are Hindi-speaking people, more than any other foreign language. I want to thank you for all of that. And as always, if you’ve got the fever, keep it burning, especially in this cold weather. And if you don’t, catch the fever.

And I will see you next time on Running: A Fever.