I was discharged yesterday.
Drove all the way up to Boca Raton, and had a chat with the Orthopedic Surgeon who pasted my shoulder together. I'm 99.5% human with 1/2 percent titanium thrown in.
Math should just about be right.
All those miles on the bike, all those miles on the skates have their drawbacks.
I'm also on a scheme with the health insurance company where if I do 10000 steps a day, I get a couple pennies. Those pennies add up. I'm just about ready to pass $1000 since last fall.
Will I stop? Nope, but I can relax with my record keeping.
See the thing is that I rather like being active. I strongly think that this "10K per Day" mantra that trainers give you is a benchmark. And just like every other benchmark you have been forced to follow, it's arbitrary.
I can say having a low resting heart rate is very nice.
For some it is unattainable. Life gets in the way. You can't do the steps because of reasons. Bad knees, and trust me I know about those, can slow you down. Work hours. Weather.
But it is a goal, not a requirement.
I truly believe that like all arbitrary goals, it should be more of a rolling average. 70000 steps over the last 7 days is more likely but anyone who is not as rigid as I am with math and record keeping will roll their eyes at that comment.
The Doctor and I had a conversation. "Lets see your range of motion, Lift your arms".
I had him step aside and I picked the rolling chair off the ground and held it over my head.
Doctor said "Holy crap you're good, you're done".
We got into a discussion about just how active I was. I pulled out the phone and the step count and said "It's 9am, Most days I am around 7000 steps by now, yesterday was a total of 16000 steps.
I was wrong, it was 18000 by bedtime but that's irrelevant. I hit the goal.
Thing is though, that's me. It's not enough to do that kind of activity to maintain the fitness level I require to do two sports. I am feeling the difference between where I feel I should be in both of my sports' performance and where I am now due to being Benched since October.
And the "Get out of Jail Card" to have that second cupcake is real nice.
"How do you do all that?"
"Left foot, Right foot, you eventually get somewhere."
I ended the conversation with "Training sessions are available by appointment" with a smile.
As a trainer, I could tell he'd benefit from "a little more cardio".
The thing is that if you just jump into something you will get frustrated and quit. It took you "Your Age" number of years to get where you are, you won't turn the battleship around over night. Do what you can and live knowing that tomorrow you will do just a little bit more.
Compound Interest is a wonderful thing in financing, and it works just as well in Fitness. I have a set course that I walk. At the end I tack on just a little bit more by walking behind an "Executive Center". It adds about 180 steps. I do that every walk and I do four walks a day. There, that's 720 steps a day.
Having a dog helps. Rack the McNab SuperDog (TM) requires long walks every day. Any herding breed will benefit from that sort of activity. As smart as he is, he has learned my routes and tells me that he's done by turning toward the house.
Trust in Dog. They won't steer you wrong.
Be patient. But get out of the chair, now, and get started.
That's what I am about to do. It's a beautiful day and I am going to do my hour on the bike outside. I'm planning on a half marathon. It's time to graduate to the big park next week, and if I am lucky I will see the Goodyear Blimp.
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