Finally! My heel spur plantar fasciitis tendinitis has fully healed (it took four months!), and I've been out hiking in gorgeous fall weather. I have missed my therapeutic time in the woods. I'm back to nice multi-hour hikes.
Hiking through a rain of falling leaves today was both thrilling and healing.
I've also resumed other cardio, such as gym classes. I'm happy again!
- © 2011 by Willy
Personal best happen and races get won, just like injury happens and we get sidelined... good things happen just like bad things do.
Is this luck?
I don't know when something is luck and when it is providence, but I believe in preparation: Good things happen when preparation meets opportunity, and you will be given the opportunity if you are prepared. There is no real control over opportunity but I sure can be prepared. I believe in training. Train like you play, because you will play like you train. I also believe in a higher power just like I believe in this chicken-and-egg cause and effect.
So, do we create our fate?
Both good and evil are out there. Evil is everywhere. Evil is not ugly and firebreathing, but charming and beautiful. It mesmerizes and seduces you until it makes you doubt yourself. Yes, evil functions best when nobody believes in it. Our decisions create our fate, and our decisions are based upon both good and evil influences. Things happen due to influences. I pray that my Father gives me the strength of character to keep me from temptation and deliver me from evil.
I'm going to stick to solo exercise and diet no matter the injury, no matter what shape I'm in, how stressed people make me or how attractive they are... whatever the siren song. I have faith that there just might be a reason to stay prepared.
- © 2011 by Willy
The bane of my existence has been injuries. Yes, I admit it... even far worse than divorce, since divorce has happened far fewer times, and I've been rather klutzy. I'm an engineer, not a jock.
During the past couple of months, ever since I developed heel spur plantar fasciitis tendinitis during training, my regular cardio exercise has been swimming. There was no mp3 player and no scenery... I just followed the painted line in the pool, over and over again. Since I'm blind as a bat without glasses, I can't even delight in googling swimsuit beauties.
To me, my plantar fasciitis means a tendinitis tear between heel and arch, on the outside rather than the arch side. I am stressed and the foot tries to supinate. So, I have to think the feet to relax. The body tries to repair this tear/swelling using calcium and I get a heel spur. I've had this many times... my left foot being rather finicky. Walking and hiking on the swelling makes it worse and keeps the injury from healing. It will take months to heal.
The unloaded spin bike was OK, but did not elevate my heart rate like it should for conditioning. And bicycling outside hurt, specially uphills. Today I did a slow and flat one-hour ride, with minimal pain... and only at the end. I had a great ride. I was glad to be out, enjoying the sun, listening to the critters and dodging the cars. Today I had a delightful breakthrough. I will ride once a week and continue swimming so as to heal. I expect the elliptical on tiptoes is next, and will wait for healing before going hiking.
We heal slowly but surely... day by day.
In all aspects.
- © 2011 by Willy
I'll be 60 very soon and my buddies bugged me about it, so I recently went and got a colonoscopy, prostate exam, blood test and etc. The cardiologist who did a baseline set of tests said I have the heart of a 25-year-old, but I did not tell him that (according to charts) I have more flexibility and can do more pushups & sit-ups, press more weights, and even hike & bike further than most 25-year-olds too... although much slower. Old age is a sport of persistence, endurance and determination.
The gastroenterologist said I'd need to get somebody to drive me home after the scope because I would not be able to drive. Negotiating, I said I'd bicycle or hike home, since it was half the distance I usually hike on weekends, but we settled on calling a taxi instead.
Turns out that the scope procedure was an assembly line and not too embarrassing. Matter of fact, I got a chuckle out of the nurses being concerned because my heart rate was less than 60 to which I replied that this was normal (they were worried they overdid pre-sedation). After that I was asked to roll over on my side, the lights went out and then it was time to call that cab.
The prostate exam was embarrassing only because it was a lady doctor sticking her thumb up my butt. But the real trauma or embarrassment to me was when I got the blood drawn, which was done by the X-ray lady, who told me she did both blood and X-rays. Evidently I have gone from breaking bones to needing blood testing.
It also illustrated that my definition of a young woman had changed as well as the line between being a flirt or a lecherous old man. Anyone younger than me is a kid, and older than me is an old fart, so there are more and more kids around nowadays.
I don't think I've ever waltzed around feeling young. My buddies always told me I drove my Vette like an old man, but then they blew their engines and I didn't.
The only time I've felt touched by mortality is when a '65 Buick and my motorcycle collided back in '82 and I stayed two weeks at the most expensive "motel" room in town (had breakfast in bed too), although I also have had many broken or sprained limbs, digits and ribs. Life has been a great adventure.
What we think of as aging is really symptoms of disuse due to lifestyle, but there is a line between doing and breaking that I no longer want to push.
So, now I get blood tests rather than X-rays from an attractive young woman with whom I hope I flirt with.
- © 2009 by Willy
Like the bumper sticker says on redneck pickup trucks, Shit Happens. It happened to my good friend Dave today... during a group ride on a gorgeous, sunny day. At the end of a long descent, he turned right from a 4-lane into a small road and collided with a vehicle that was moving slowly or perhaps stopped. He's in the hospital with a bruised lung (they have inserted a tube for drainage), a separated collarbone and some road rash. He's sore, stiff and beat up but already looking for a recumbent to ride while he heals... Dave loves riding.
Injuries take a long time to heal... if ever... for old farts like me and Dave. And injuries do a number on our fitness level. Neither group nor solo riding is immune to risks. Dave will be back among us soon, I hope.
- © 2008 by Willy
.
