Life Past 30

I am finally beginning to shed the blues I had during the extremely cold winter we had.  After suffering from cold, stiff fingers, a numb nose, and mean winds, I volunteer to be the first person to bid winter goodbye!  I happily wore a jacket today and left the coat behind.  It felt good.  Now that Spring is here, my spirit is soaring and yearning for a change of scenery.  Lately, I have been dreaming of taking a nice vacation where the weather is warm, the water is blue, and the night breezes are mild.  Rejuvenation is what I crave and any island will do right now.

This summer will be the perfect time to take a break between training for this year’s Marine Corps Marathon and running it.  An island break is my prescription for getting rid of heavy clothes and forgetting dreary skies.  One thing I miss about being in Okinawa is being able to go to the nearest beach, have a few drinks, and watch the sun rise.  Okinawa is where I was able to truly relax and take in the scenery.  I plan on rekindling a bit of that this year!

For the past three days, I have been experiencing a nagging pain in the back of my right knee.  That is the knee I had surgery on 10 years ago and for some reason, the pain is exacerbated by sitting for long periods of time.  Another thing I have noticed, besides the pain, is some accompanying swelling.  This is more than likely the cause of the pain behind my knee.  Stretching and massaging the area mitigates the discomfort, but only temporarily.  I am quite sure this is the result of running the marathon, but I do not know why it is affecting me now.  It is almost like it was lying-in-wait until I was ready to start training again.  An ambush.  I am sitting here now and constantly shifting in my chair because movement while sitting helps a little. 

I understand perfectly that marathon running puts a lot of strain on the body and that the healing process can sometimes take longer than expected.  Up until three days ago, everything was feeling great and then this new pain showed itself.  I wish it would go back to where ever it came from.  Its presence is only telling me that I need to run a little and soon!  The only thing I can do between now and Thursday is continue to stretch the area and deal with the discomfort the best way I know how.  Did I mention that my knee issues get under my skin sometimes?   

Lately, I have been having bouts of nostalgia and feeling like I want to be 16 again.  That was a great for me, although it was not a great time for many people here at that time.  The city was dealing with a highly elevated crime rate with people being killed almost every night.  Back then, I was two years away from being a legal adult and making my own decisions and I loved it.  Life was still good when I turned 18, got my first tattoo, danced the night away at a club for the first time, and enlisted in the Marine Corps.  Fourteen years later, I am sometimes amazed at how those early days seem like yesterday to me.

I love being 32 and feel stronger, mentally and physically, than I did after becoming a Marine.  I have always heard that the “thirties” is the decade where you find yourself and mold yourself into what you want to be.  Since 2006, I have learned it is also the time when little things have more importance and you give more thought to your actions and behavior.  Although perpetually impatient, I am calmer than my 21 year old self.  I am still learning that wisdom comes from life experiences, both good and bad, and how you deal with them.  I even find myself telling my daughter the same things my mother used to say to me.

Regaling my daughter with stories of my childhood and early adulthood give me great pleasure because it enables me to share my memories of a different era with her.  Every day, I try to make her youth as enjoyable or better than mine was.  Watching her grow into young woman is the best thing I could ask for.  This growing up thing is pretty cool.

Normally, I am a very busy person who has a problem with sitting down too long.  The only time sitting for a while does not bother me is when I am blogging and surfing the net or crocheting a project.  My parents used to have to tell me to walk instead of running to get from one place to another.  In school, teachers used to tell me to slow down and that I moved too fast.  I could never understand why everyone was always telling me to move a little slower.  Now I know why.

Since running the marathon, I have been taking things one day at a time and not forcing myself to do more than I feel I can handle.  It is taking some time getting used to because used to doing something all the time, but at the same time, it is allowing me to be able to enjoy things more.  In past, distant and recent, I always placed time restrictions on almost everything I did, including getting ready to see a movie and going to dinner with my family.  To me, completing any task as quickly and efficiently as possible was my goal.  I understand why slowing down a little is so important.

I am taking a break and now learning to savor moments a little more and enjoy my life experiences without feeling weighed down by thoughts of what I have to do next.  Honestly, the slower pace I have been working on has eased some tension, however, I still have those urges to race to the next task.  Surely, with more practice, I will be able to master it, but who knows for how long.  That is a question that can be answered only with the passing of time.

It must be the constant rain we have been having here, but I am feeling all of my 32 years today.  Some may say that is not a long time, but tell that to my knees.  It has been raining here since last night and has not let up.  Since this morning, my knees have been swollen, I have been in a slight fog, and the only thing on my mind is the weekend.  Even Osteo Bi-Flex could not fully tackle the pain today.  It must be the weather because I was feeling great yesterday and had lots of energy.

Over the years, I always heard people talk about how one’s body starts to reveal everything that has been done to it as you grow older.  I used think they were loopy or just making things up.  Boy, was I wrong!  I am now fully convinced they were telling the truth as I have spoken with many other people since then who have told me the same thing.

On days like today, it is as if my body reminds me of the crazy stunts I pulled when I was in school and the military.  One of those stunts was when I jumped out of my second story window at the barracks in Okinawa to escape “field day”, a weekly cleaning of the common areas and private rooms of the barracks.  I usually got stuck with stripping and buffing the floors because I made a mistake of doing a good job the first time.  The window was the only way escape since the building was on an unofficial lock down until the cleaning was done.  I can only imagine the damage that jump did to my joints.

Aside from everything written above, I believe some of the pain I have been feeling today can be attributed to my body healing from the stress of running the marathon.  Every now and then when I reach to pick something up from the floor, I feel a slight tinge of pain in my back, but some gentle stretching takes care of that.  I have a date with my pillow and will be turning in soon.  Hopefully the rain will be gone tomorrow so I can feel better.

You’ve heard it before.  It has been written and talked about in all forms of media over the years.  People who have sedentary jobs have been warned they are twice as likely to gain weight if they work in an office and remain seated for most of the day.  Snacking while sitting at your desk can also contribute to what I call ”Office Ass” because the gluteus is usually the first part of the body that starts to grow without exercise.  It kind of sneaks up on you until one day you put on your favorite pair of jeans find they’re a lot more snug than usual or cannot be zipped up.  Sitting at a desk all day never bothered me in my 20s because I exercised regularly, but after I had knee surgery, I was forced to slow down.  As I got closer to 30, I became more active when I noticed some weight gain.  At a former job, I used to work out at the gym during my lunch breaks or run around the business complex.  Now that I am in my 30s and know my metabolism will gradually slow down as I get older, I am fighting OA every chance I get.  When I’m at my desk, I perform leg lifts, then I get up to do lunges and squats and walk around the building at least twice a day at a fast pace.  My profession requires me to be at my desk for hours, but that does not mean I have to succumb to OA.  If you have a desk job, don’t fall victim to OA, just fight it. 

I used to love winter and the snow that usually accompanied it.  The blizzard of 1982 is my favorite memory because the snow came up to my knees and my mom and I used to throw snowballs at each other.  When I was younger, extreme winter conditions did not bother me as I always hoped for lots of snow.  Now, I dread winter because the cold sometimes finds a way to seep into my body and settle there.  I am sure this is partly due to the high activity levels I maintained throughout my childhood, during my time on active duty, and aging.  I am not that old, but I have learned that everything physical thing you do in your youth has a way of catching up to you as you get older.

Until last year, winters had been brutal to my knees, caused them to stiffen often, and made walking up and down the stairs difficult and painful.  Osteo Bi-Flex has helped me out a lot and taken away the pain, however, I am curious to see how it will help me deal with this year’s cold temperatures.  It has been slightly cold here for the past two days and I have not had any pain, except for when I sprinted for the bus yesterday, and have been able to use stairs without any problems.  If all goes well, I will be ice skating again.

I thought this morning would be a normal beginning to a work day.  As usual, I showered, got dressed, fixed my hair, and worked out the budget for breakfast and lunch.  I use public transportation because it is easier than driving.  Tooling around in a car in Washington, DC during morning rush hour traffic is not my idea of fun, so I choose to use the bus.  This allows me to think, read, or crochet during my trek to work.  As I was walking up the street to get to the bus stop, I saw my bus approaching the stop quickly, so I did what is normal and sprinted.  This was the first time I ran since running the Marine Corps Marathon and it felt weird, but I did it.  I made it to the bus, got on, paid my fare and sat down for what would be a 20-30 minute ride.  When I got up to debark the bus at my stop, I did not expect to feel some not-so-nice pain in my feet and ankles.  I got off the bus and had to walk slowly for the first five minutes just to help my feet feel normal again.  I am now convinced that the little sprint to the bus was the cause of the pain.  I will continue to walk like I have been and try not to sprint for anymore buses any time soon.

During my time in Marine Corps boot camp, I injured my right knee when I fell on cement flooring in what we called a “sea-hut”.  It was 19 degrees outside and the only thing separating us from the cold were screens all around the building.  Determined to graduate from Parris Island on time, I continued to run and train as usual.  From that day on, my knee hurt and I dealt with it.  In 1998, I had knee surgery to correct the problem and felt better for a couple of years.  However, the relief I got from the surgery was short-lived because sometime in early 2001, my knee began hurting again, although I had not been doing anything strenuous.

Over the years, the pain got progressively worse and I would, on occasion, take pain medication for it.  I also used heating treatments and sports creams to alleviate the pain.  This continued until I started taking Osteo Bi-Flex last year.  After one week, most of the knee pain was gone and the swelling had subsided significantly.  I couldn’t believe it!  After one month, all of my knee pain had disappeared and I felt like I did before the initial injury.  If it was not for Osteo Bi-Flex, I would not have been able to run 5 miles, let alone the 26.2 miles of the marathon and I’m glad I started using it.  It was a wise decision.

This is day I was waiting for since crossing the finish line.  All week long, walking and wincing in pain, I kept Friday in front of me like a dangling reward.  Although I felt better yesterday, Friday has been stuck in my head because it means the beginning of my first free weekend in three weeks.  It signifies the start of me being able to get as much sleep as possible without having to wake up to the clock for other obligations.  When I woke up this morning, I felt refreshed and could not wait to get the day started.  I have been wearing a smile all day because I know that as of close of business today, I will have the chance to crawl into bed and stay there for as long as I wish.  Nothing could be more satisfying to me at the moment.  I just want my pillows.