A lovely piece by Caitlyn Flanagan.

https://www.theatlantic.com/he...gan-aging-60/620679/

Also for any ladies who’ve shopped in upscale department stores:

quote:

buy a few postsexual separates from Eileen Fisher

A month ago I was taking an asthma drug that made me feel very old.
Symbicort had me breathing hard after walking up one flight of stairs. Sitting made my hips hurt because the muscles seem to be collapsing. I was not moving or walking any further than the bathroom.
My mind was confused and I was anxious, depressed, and angry at everything.
I was in such a bad state if took days to realize that maybe the drug I was using once a day rather than twice as recommended might be causing the problem.
I was on a road trip from my home in Colorado to Tucson when I quit it. Was better in 24 hours. 48 hours after quitting it I pedaled 10 miles on the Tucson bike loop and may go further today.

That's a great piece.

If you don't feel old yet, just read this. This woman walks about the same distance I do every day.

https://www.usatoday.com/story...or-games/6367227001/

I think I mentioned that up until mid this year, the past couple of years were tough for me breathing. I was struggling with running - run a couple hundred feet and have to stop - then start up again - and have to stop.

I took a pulmonary function test and was in the 11th percentile. For a distance runner, that's unreal. I was put on an inhaler. I started doing interval workouts - and soon dropped the inhaler. At a mile time trial a couple of months back, I ran a good 6:30ish mile.

Since then, I've started to feel like I was in my 40s again - but I'm not, and I know it. I've known friends who had that experience in their 60s and tried to live like they were 40 - and crashed and burned. I need more recovery time - less push to the limit, and more rest between exertions.

I keep thinking about when I was in my teens and I had a relative who just turned 70. He tried to be funny and "with it" - but as a 15 year old I knew that no one that age could be with it - so I was polite in pretending to acknowledge his humor and friendly intentions. I remember that now when I run with 20 or 30 year old's. In some cases, I'm the age of their grandparents. I'm grateful that I can keep up - but how much longer?

I had lunch with an old friend this week. We started at The NFFMCo at the same time, though he had worked there briefly once before, then spent a few years teaching history in high school.

We spent the first ten minutes talking about our various maladies. I had just come from a post-surgery follow-up. He had just come from a PT visit because his hips aren’t working. I pointed out that after not seeing each other for almost three years, the first thing we talked about was our health (or lack thereof); I said “James, this means we’re officially old.”

When I was telling him that I bought a new (to me) motorcycle last year, he interrupted me and asked “how old are you?” (honestly, I thought he was asking how old the motorcycle was). I told him I’ll be 59 at the end of the year. He said, “oh, you’re just a kid.”

I guess that after a certain age, one is not to be riding motorcycles.

I hope I don’t get that old.

Do you wear ear protection when you ride? Nothing has aged me faster than 24/7 tinnitus, now in its 3rd year.

Jf

quote:

Originally posted by Jack Frost:
Do you wear ear protection when you ride? Nothing has aged me faster than 24/7 tinnitus, now in its 3rd year.

Jf

No. I never have. But I (almost) never ride loud motorcycles. I've had a string of BMWs and Hondas with windshields, so little-to-no wind noise. I do get irritated riding behind a Harley or a crotchrocket with loud pipes.

I developed tinnitus in about 1998. Not debilitating and just my left ear. It started immediately after having extensive drilling and planing for two two crowns on the upper molars on that side. I contacted a malpractice attorney who said I would never be able to prove it was from the dental work, especially since I 1) ride motorcycles, 2) frequently drive with the car window open (that would be the one on my left), and 3) grew up listening to rock and roll at, ummm... "elevated" volumes.

Have had episodes of tinnitus.
Thankfully it went away.

quote:

How can all of the things that happened since that photograph was taken have occurred in one lifetime?

I used to think about my grandmother, and how much life had changed in her lifetime. She grew up on a ranch, rode horseback to school (and later to work). Shoshone would visit their house routinely, and were always given a meal. She lived to see the moon landing, and take a cross-continental jet, crossing in hours what had taken her parents months.

Now I'm that person, and I wonder whether my (currently non-existent) grandchildren will look at me in the same way, partly familiar and partly like an alien.

My own personal early on realization that I was no longer young was when I overheard a kid in a store point something out to her mom by indicating towards me and saying, "over by that lady." Wut? Me? Now I will occasionally catch a glimpse of myself unexpectedly and think that I'm my mother or, on bad days, "how the h*ll did that happen"?

But it sure beats the alternative.

I haven’t been able to run since summer 2020. My ankle problem allows me to do other things, thankfully, but my running days are over.

I am sad about it. I never especially liked running, but it was a nice change up and gave me a sense of accomplishment.

What’s wrong with your ankle, Cindy?

I have Achilles tendonosis, which is degeneration of the Achilles. It was so bad for a while that it was hard to walk. It felt like someone holding a blow torch behind my heel.

PT has me in a good place. But there’s no effective treatment other than significant surgery, so I can’t take a chance on running and making it worse. And every month I don’t run makes me farther out of running shape, so it would take a long time to be in shape even run for 20 minutes.

I had never heard of Achilles tendonosis. Sounds painful. And more common than I thought.

quote:

Tendon injuries occur in 30%-50% of all sports related injuries. Sixty-six percent of joggers complain of Achilles tendon pain and 23% of them usually have insertional Achilles tendinosis.3)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4329521/

I ran in my much younger youth but gave it up. My knees didn't like it anymore.

I hadn't heard of it either. Wow, Cindy, I'm so sorry! That must be very frustrating!