Exercise Evolution

When I moved to Tahoe 15 years ago, I was used to a morning walk routine. A very early morning walk routine as my walking pal and I would meet at the path about 6:30. Moving to Tahoe kept me in that routine as Dean was and is a hiker and we have lots of forest trails behind our house. For a number of years I kept up my morning walk routine.

Then my hip started to hurt and striding out over rocks and fallen branches and even down smoother trails became very painful. As you know, I waited way too long to have an X-ray which told me I needed a hip replacement. That happened 4 1/2 years ago. I went from crutches to snowshoes in 7 weeks thanks to a really fine physical therapist and my own obedience to her instructions. As my prescription for PT was about to end, I commented that I might have to join a gym as I really liked the machines. They had a follow-up program and I started right away. For 4 years, I was at the gym almost every morning at eight o'clock. I still hiked with Dean on weekends but my primary form of exercise had become the gym.

This year we had a bit of financial set back and I chose to stop going to gym for a while to save a bit of monthly money. That was ok. I was assured I could return any time. I snowshoed regularly. Then things got to where I was thinking I could return to gym. One day Dean came home from skiing where he had seen one of the assistants at the PT office and asked if I knew they had closed the after care program. What????

Sure enough. 1) They had gotten very busy. 2) They were under new management. 3) They were thinking of expanding their space. 4) In a staff meeting about two weeks ago, they decided to let go of the follow-up program.

So - here I am closing in on the full circle: morning walk to gym to morning walk. This morning I put on workout clothes immediately and right after breakfast Oso and I hit the trail. Dean will join us next week (today being his last day of skiing). I may not be walking quite as early as I used to. My walking partner is 4-legged instead of two (until Dean joins us). And in the winter, I will have snow shoes on my feet. Otherwise, the routine is a life time routine with just a little break for some gym time. It was fun. I will miss it and I am glad they were there for me when I needed them. Neither do I mind evolving back again.