Feeling My Age
Note that I did not say acting my age. Anyone who knows me that is not likely happen, at least not for very long stretch of time. Besides, I like hanging out with younger people too much to really truly act my age all the time, though I am sure that they often think I am way out of touch and to old to be hanging around them. That is whole other story though.
I went to the gym today. Now granted, I have been exercising a LOT the last couple of months. I have managed to get rid of the ten extra pounds that had been picked back up over the couple of weeks with all the big meals and such and I am now actually under the big 300 mark. That is a very pleasing thing, as I had been hitting that plateau for a bit and never could seem to push beyond that. Anyway, I have been getting in exercise, mostly in the form of walking. Just about every day, though this past week was a bit hit and miss on that. Prior to the move I was walking about 1.5 miles or 3 miles every other day. Since this little move, I have not tracked the course, but I am guessing it is just over a mile just about everyday. I have also been doing a lot of other little things, like going to the park some with Bitzer, parking at the far corner of the lot, and of course spending some time with the horses. Heck, the two stays I have had in a hotel in that last month or so I got on the treadmill and exercise bike in the work out room as well.
One would think, especially with all that walking, that is generally at a pretty good pace, I would have been more than ready for the gym. The weights and such, not that I spent a huge effort on that today, but no problem. However, I got on the treadmill and set the computerized program to do a good cardio workout. First time that this uber-geek actually figured out how the darn things are supposed to work. Now to actually get that to work right, you have to stay in contact with the sensors, but it electronically monitors your heart beat and adjusts the incline of your workout to try to keep you in the general area you have indicated. All good things so far and even during the 30 minutes I spent on it I was feeling great.
However, I have this tendency that as long as I am going and have my mind in a different place to zone out and push through things. So I slowed down the treadmill, got off, and was heading to the track to cool out some. The first few steps off the treadmill felt a little odd, but I attributed that to lack of motion that I had just been experiencing, plus I was level now. The track however, was back up a flight of stairs, past the pneumatic weight machines. As I started up the stairs, it occurred to me what was wrong.
My knees were killing me, especially the right knee. A large number of years of trying to cut time down on the heads course when I had a horse that would turn on a dime (not very often, most of my horses turn on the same radius a semi uses) and bagging that knee on occasion certainly did not help. However that time back in 1994 or was 1995 when a car tried to run me over on a motorcycle and I dropped the bike at about 35-40 miles per hour and skidded down the payment on that knee was probably the big mess that was done to it. It is the same one that messed up one afternoon after sleeping on it funny on the couch and sent me to the ER, which in itself is funny giving all the stupid dangerous stuff I do and sleeping is what gets me.
The incline, combined with the hard-driving speed I was using really made the knees tender. Reminds me of why I have a big and little knee brace packed in those armour bags for support when I do a full weekend of jousting and walking around fairs in full armour and such. So, I have really been feeling the age from that since about 4:00 today. Was feeling in so much that I came home and took a nap afterward, which is I am sure at least part of the reason I am up writing this at 2:00am in the morning.
It gets worse though. I then got a call from an old friend and went out for a drink. Keeping my low carb low-calorie theme, despite really wanting a big Irish draft that I could chew and drink, I went with the bourbon and splash of diet coke over ice. And darn if I did not start to get a tooth ache almost immediately. This is one of two cavities (I think that is right, maybe it is three) I have had in my life. This one though was giving me major problems about the same time last year and after much ado I finally relented and saw a dentist (yeah, this dentist made me feel old to, as he went to school with my youngest sibling). He refilled it and told me at the time that the next step if that didn’t fix it was a root canal. It has been happily fixed over the last little bit, but if this is any indication it is starting to be unfixed.
The long and short of these is I am glad I am getting in somewhat better shape, as it starting seem like my age might actually be starting to catch up with me.
