Fort/Day 2

Today we ran on post for the first time, meaning ran off post onto post. The dog had a vet appointment and I figured that it would be best to tire him out a bit by running there. However, I wasn't quite sure how getting on post on foot would go. I knew I needed to show ID, no problem there, but would I have to go into a building for this? Would I have to cross a lane or two of traffic? Would I have to wait behind a car or something? What was the etiquette? And how would the dog fit into all of this? Would he behave? He's used to being around people while out, including the occasional police officer with a bulletproof vest and helmet, but still I worried.

In my backpack, I brought a halti (head harness type thingy) and a muzzle for him, neither of which he wears regularly. The halti is for some walks when all three of us are walking together, especially if it's a hike--the dog loses focus when my husband and I are chatting and there are many interesting smells. I also put the halti on him when we go to the vet, and sometimes when we go into a store. The muzzle is for almost never (he has never bitten anyone but it's the breed, not the deed, in some places, sometimes...) but I brought it along too, maybe for the gate, maybe for the vet.

At the gate, I didn't feel like putting anything on him, and he was a trouper, just stood quietly by my side while my ID was inspected by a guard who came over to the "bike lane" we were in, checked my ID, and let us go--easy peasy!

Most of the run thus far was uphill; we had a dip and then another rise, probably a few of these because I seem to remember only the big hills. I made the mistake of starting a sprint across a street while my head was turned--this can (and did) trigger SVT, that irksome but benign atrial fluttering, and it took a bit for my heart rate to calm down again because emotions and adrenaline levels were high: we made it onto post for the very first time! We're in!

Amusingly, untold individuals nearby might have once experienced a similar reaction to the opposite endeavour: We're OUT! We'd made it into Fort Leavenworth, which also houses the US Army's only max-security prison. There are also at least two other prisons in this area, a minimum security in the next town over, and a former Super-Max federal penitentiary (which has reviews on Google?!?!? probably fake--the individual complaining about the crappy Wi-Fi may have gotten pages to load properly behind bars, who knows? LOL) There is apparently also a fourth prison according to a brochure I skimmed through and then forgot a couple of weeks ago. More prisons than I'm used to, but they don't seem to cast a pall over the post or town or anything like that, although the sight of the old stone and incredibly substantial military prison wall, complete with peeling institutional-green paint in some places and rickety old watchtower ladders in other places, is not uplifting. We didn't see that this run. Apparently, the military prison has been moved somewhere else on post, and this old prison is used for other things...I will have to investigate further but a cursory wiki skim has me further confused because there is this old prison husk, the new and fully operational military prison, and a third medium-security prison on post....maybe that third prison is the fourth prison in the brochure?

At any rate, we resumed the run and went the long way around the golf course because we had extra time. The golf course loop is supposedly just over two miles in length. I distrusted this at first because, A: the hills made it seem shorter and, B: I suspected that these were what I think of as "Old Army Man Miles". This is how these are formed:

Some young buck habitually rips off his 2 mile PT run in 11-12 minutes. His longer runs are 6:30-7:00/mile, and they stay like that for years and years and years. Several decades later, he runs a loop that takes him 21 minutes. Oh, it's got to be at least three miles! He runs another loop that takes him an hour. Oh, that's got to be at least 8 miles, maybe close to nine! Armed with this info, I set off at an easy jog, around 10:00/mile, and lo and behold, I'm done in about 21 minutes or an hour respectively too. The Army beats up its soldiers pretty harshly, leaving bad backs and bad knees, and I don't mean to poke fun at veterans but it's disappointing to run out of road prematurely. This Old Army Man surveying has let me down a few times.

Anyway, I checked later at home: the golf course loop is about 2 miles, and not 1.5 or whatever I thought it might be.

We went to the vet, I put on the muzzle just in case, and the dog was fine. There were a few sad moments; he didn't like being on the examination table as it was being raised, and he never likes having his temperature taken the wrong way, but I brought plenty of treats with which to distract him.

The vet's office was relatively uphill--I had a very lovely coast down and for a while I was feeling how I often felt on runs at home: loose, relaxed, not breathing hard at all, just drifting along. The route flattened and I continued to coast...and then I hit the first of several hills and that was it for breathing easy. Still, I had enough in me to complete the golf course loop and run part of it again, and then up and down a few more hills, and home.

9.75 miles. I would like to run this sort of distance more often, but it's harder with the hills.

And this is Day 2 of a detox. I took a gentle herbal tincture program several weeks or so ago and didn't feel much of an effect, probably because I got a nasty chest infection of some sort and wasn't doing or moving or eating much for a week or so. There was plenty left over so I'm giving it another chance. This time, my husband is also taking an herbal regimen, a stronger one than mine, and we are following the recommended diet.

I have followed a couple of diets in my life, mainly the steak-and-spinach diet that was recommended to me when I was anemic, and a gluten-free diet, also prescribed by a doctor, that I will have to follow for the rest of my life (barring invention of a 100% effective glutenase pill or something). The first diet was easy: eat steak and spinach every day for a month, no problem! Near the end of it, the butcher gave me the best filet mignon I have ever had--and there have been some very nice tenderloins in my life--for free. The second diet has had its challenges, but since digressions result in pain, I seem to have more than enough willpower to knowingly avoid gluten (it's the surprises and misinformation that get me). This new diet is something else. We had a transition day on Monday (basically, we, okay, I consumed the last of the Valentine's Day candy and a few other things that are off-limits, but otherwise stuck to the diet) and today is the first full day, but really Day 2 according to my husband. It's a bit complicated, I guess. We have 12 more days to go.

Twelve days of no dairy, no sugar or refined grains or even whole grain flours, no fermented things, including vinegar and alcohol, no shellfish, and no bananas or grapes or a few other types of fruit and vegetables. Grapes apparently have some sort of natural yeast growing on their skins, and I forget what excludes bananas. Mushrooms and peanuts are also out...fungus in general (some of which is found on peanuts) is banned. Two weeks without these guys will apparently help our systems clean themselves out.

We can eat most fruits and vegetables, whole unground grains (got a lot of rolled oats, buckwheat, rice, guinoa, and POPCORN), non-dairy milk (although I'm not sure what the difference between rice flour and rice milk is), fish, meat, eggs, and oils including BUTTER. Guess what I'm using to combat those powerful evening snack cravings? I'm trying to be reasonable, I put in a bunch of grapeseed oil to make it healthier, but, man, two days without cheese or chocolate or milk, and I'm feeling kind of lost. I got the hunger.

However, this has already been a great learning experience. Today for the very first time in my life, I made old-school Ceasar salad dressing--lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, anchovies, egg yolk and salt & pepper--if possible, I'm not buying that stuff in a bottle ever again. SO GOOD.