OK. Progress is being made. So much progress that I am hopeful that this will be the last post about my physical woes for a long long time. Yes, I'm getting older and yes, there is pain involved. So let's get over it and focus on the positive. I continue to walk 2 or 3 times a week. Sometimes I am bad and I run. I am uber-aware of my SI joint and stop when there is the slightest twinge of anything - tightness, pain, anything. This past week I put in a 5 mile walk and met my goal of a 12 minute pace. I don't know why that was important to me beyond the fact that 12 was less than 13 and I'm bored with 13!
My chiropractor advised me to do some yoga, swim and bike. She will be proud when I tell her at my next visit that I'm doing all three.
Yoga - I found a yoga studio close-by and have been going weekly. I like it but in all honesty, it is getting expensive. I have also found some great yoga shows that I am taping and doing on my own at home. The beauty of it is that I can watch it, replay it and do it again. That works for someone like me who competes with herself to do it and do it right.
Swimming - I struggled to figure this one out. I could go to the senior center 3 blocks from my house but our hours only coincide on Saturday mornings. I could go to the public pools but do I really want to expose these thighs to previous students I have taught that I may run into? I could go to the Y but I quite frankly don't trust the water there. I know how many people are in that pool and what they may have done while they were there! I could join a private pool but once again, the ugly money thing raises its head. So yesterday, I went to the senior center and was very pleased. There were lots of pudgy women like myself and the payoff was worth it. The bonus is that I am working on my lung capacity - one of the things that got all this fitness stuff started. A few months ago, all I wanted to do was figure out how to run without running out of air. Well, it looks like swimming will deal with the breathing thing.
Biking - This morning I went on my first real bike ride since last summer. I chose Coyote Creek Trail because I have never done it (remember, I am easily bored) and I had heard from a friend what a beautiful place it is. Imagine my pleasure when I realized that I now own a car that will hold a bike either direction, vertically or horizontally. No dismantling the wheel and reassembling necessary. So off I went to Coyote Creek Park. I put in 14 miles in 1 1/2 hours. That sounds pretty good to me but I have no idea if it is or not.
That's the great thing about this cross training thing. I don't become obsessed with time and distance because I am changing it up all the time. In yoga, I'm just trying to get through the stretches without pain. In the pool I am focused completely on my lungs. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I swam competitively as a child. I don't remember struggling to breathe! And on the bike, I'm thinking about the pain in my butt. I've been told that will pass. If not, I foresee a new bike seat or some padded shorts in my future.
So that is the state of things. Through exercise and yoga, I am strengthening my muscles to hold my joints and bones. There is pain now and then but nothing I can't handle. I am aging and evidently that is just something that is going to hurt. I still feel healthy and give thanks every single day when I wake up and am able to get out of bed. Perhaps the little twinges are just a quiet reminder that I'm alive. I love challenging myself and meeting the challenge. And I love that I have people in my life who can support me and help me figure out ways around the pain. That seems to be what this stage is all about; challenges I set for myself and friends and family that cheer me on. So here's to finding new ways to exercise so that I can remain healthy.
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