Checking in

So much has happened. I quit therapy after three years plus. My knees never got all the way straight but I do walk well in spite of that. I have moved to Nevada, where the dry heat often makes my body feel rather good, but it feels good no matter what most of the time.

I am still working on posture. It's a tough one. I am consciously standing taller and pushing my head back more regularly. None of this happens naturally. I am hoping it will eventually.

My knees seem fine almost always. Sometimes I get a little fluid in the left one or it hurts a little, but rarely. I walk the recommended 10000 steps most days - not that 10K is any magic number.

I also walked the Bolder Boulder 10K for the last two years. That run/walk takes place on Memorial Day each year and uses a route through residential neighborhoods. It is like a six-mile-long party! Bands spaced out (all of them good!), goofy games on the side (trampoline, anyone?), so much action all the way that one can almost forget about one's legs. But I do find it challenging, that long a walk. Especially because to get into the stadium at the end you have to average a bit over a 20-minute mile. It's one thing to do this alone, with no distractions, but hey, it's fun to take part in some of the diversions and we also sometimes need the bathroom.

I also was doing a class at my former gym that is a nice whole-body workout. It's called Group Active. Cardio, strength, balance, core, and flexibility. Unfortunately, my new gym doesn't have an equivalent class. So I am back in an Aqua class. Fortunately, a good one. But it feels like regressing in a way.

I am also back in therapy. My left shoulder this time. I'm there three days a week for about an hour each time. No fun but I want to swim and this dang rotator cuff doesn't want me too. The therapists say this is fixable so I'm soldiering on.

Altogether I feel better and stronger than I did in my thirties. Age is just a number, as they say, although honestly thirty-somethings have no idea of the challenges ahead.