Fifty-eight!!

It’s my birthday. Fifty-eight. That means that I’m closer to 60 than 55. And definitely closer to 60 than 50. I put this blog on the net a couple of months ago. Given the title is, “Pushing sixty, one day at a time,” I guess this is a good day to post.

Most of you know that I share my birthday with my brother John, who popped out about ten minutes before me, in the great blackout of the Northeast in 1965.

So, we’re pushing sixty. I don’t feel like it. There are days when I feel like I’m pushing, that’s for sure. But, when I look back, faraway are the days when I felt like I was wading through water when I was simply walking. The bad old days of severe CFS, or chronic fatigue syndrome.

These days, when I feel like I’m walking through water, it’s because I AM! Like yesterday. I went to the pool, and waded through the water to a lap lane. In one corner of the pool, there were women riding stationary bikes. A cardiac workout. For a split second, I was jealous. Then I told myself, not today. Maybe in the future, but that doesn’t matter.

I swam 500m backstroke, or 20 lengths, being careful not to get into an aerobic heartbeat. That would have caused too much post-exertional malaise, or fatigue that comes 24 or even 48 hours later. The water was warm, and there were only two other people in my lane. I had gone to the shallow lap pool because the deep   one was full, as it often is after 12.  I used to try to get there at 11:30, when it was relatively empty. But I noticed it was hard to swim with just breakfast in my stomach, and when I didn’t have much energy. Now I use the after-breakfast time slot for email and writing.

In any case, swimming yesterday was divine. When I was healthy, I didn’t like backstroke. It was the slowest stroke and I couldn’t see where I was going. Now, slower is better. It’s harder to do crawl slowly than backstroke. At one point, you have to breathe. On your back, you can breathe like a middle-aged lady, which I am. No harm in that. Middle-aged, but strong. Relatively speaking. I don’t have to see behind me to know my body is going straight. A lesson in life.

After finishing, I got out of the water and quickly made my way to the showers, trying to beat the fit ladies who were putting their bikes away. I shouldn’t have since I slipped and almost fell. Wouldn’t that have been awful had I broken a hip? There were enough showers for everyone, anyway. I guess I have some old habits I still need to change. There’s time….