6/10/2025

Session: 55-minute walk

Weight: 206.5lbs post walk

Diet: Water fast 48 hours in

Today started just like I figured it would. Early this morning I was trying to talk myself out of walking because my legs were feeling a little rough but that’s always been pretty much normal. There’s usually a part of my mind that doesn’t want to put in the work but thankfully I grown to recognize that and tune it out. I was once again out at Big Creek at 8am this morning and looking to go just a little further. When I first started it was painful but once I got going, it all came together.

I’ll say this about the mushroom coffee; I’m starting to feel some benefits. Today I had a little less anxiety, the energy level was up, and I felt pretty good compared to the last week. I ordered the sleep mix, and I’ll give that a try tonight. Sleep for me is like 4-6 hours of crazy town. There’s snoring, farting, cramping, sweating and lots of hot flashes followed by cold chills. There are moaning nightmares at midnight, cats doing zoomies across my face at 2am and of course, I have to pee at 3am. Let’s see if that mushroom coffee sleep aid can help with all that.

Once I got going on the trail, everything kicked into gear after the first 10 minutes and muscles started to loosen up. About 30 minutes into my walk, I felt that old surge, or “runners high”. If you’ve never experienced runners high, it’s kinda hard to describe but it is a small feeling of euphoria, and I get very comfortable in my pace. It’s like I put it on the cruise control, and I could run forever. Today was a good day and looking forward to tomorrow. I think I’m going to travel to some of the different trails I’ve run over the years and log a few miles. There’s the Silver Comet and the Chattahoochee River run down in the Cobb Co. area and my oldest favorite, Kennesaw Battleground. We’ll see how everything goes with some brisk walking for a few weeks and controlled weight loss.

Chances are that if I run to soon with too much weight on my knees, it will result in stress fractures, so I need to get down into the 175lb range to even think about a 5k. It’s possible to run on two replaced knees but I need to be smart about it. Basically, there’s a metal ball attached to my femur, and it rolls back and forth on a silicone pad on top of the tibia/fibula. My surgeons have told me that the silicone pad has a life expectancy of at least 10 years but if I run, the pad will wear down much quicker. I’m sure weight is a factor on how quick that pad will wear out, but stress fractures in the femur or the tibia/fibula near the knee would probably develop with too much weight, and that would be a showstopper for a while. I had 2 stress fractures in my right tibia back in 96 and even at 36 years old back then, it put me on the sidelines for more than a month. No telling how long it would take to heal at 65 years old.

Favorite tune from today.