Exercise Benefit

Intensifying my physical efforts has gone mostly well.  Treadmill schedule maintained over months.  Speed gradually advanced.  Duration gradually advanced.  Cool-down period initiated.  I might even approach a sense of Flow periodically, but not often.  Mostly it is a chore to complete with a daily end point but no future end point.  It has a purpose.  Feel more energetic.  And I do.  Sleep better.  Mostly improved, though harder to tie the consistency of my exercise program.

Everything has its downside, including exercise.  While I try to have a set time to put myself on the treadmill, with a ritual of placing a brace on my right knee, then adding the running shoes kept adjacent to the lounge chair adjacent to the treadmill, some minor deviations become necessary.  Morning appointments require me to exercise either earlier or later.  I prefer earlier, though when done on consecutive days during the OLLI school term, I can sense the disruption.  While I usually wear my designated treadmill shoes, I also have two other pairs of New Balance walkers.  Both are better quality running shoes than those generics kept on site.  And I walk more comfortably with the New Balance shoes, but I use them primarily as daily street wear because of their comfort and versatility.

I've also made an attempt to improve my flexibility.  Every MWF unless traveling I set the big flat screen in My Space to an eight minute Tone and Tighten program.  It had been M-Th for a long time, but due to inadequate progress, I added an extra session each week.  I feel less stiff but more achy, particularly the sacroiliac and thigh regions.  It does not seem to be the type of myalgia I can blame on each evening's statin dose.  And since adding the intensity and frequency, I've only had to postpone the treadmill once and the stretch program not at all.  Yet the soreness remains noticeable, even at each month's end when I give myself a three day recovery from the treadmill, though not the stretch.

For now, the commitment to this has been mostly good.  In addition to physical well-being, there is a mental boost.  Maybe it's Grit, that ability to perform on days I don't really want to perform.  I've not experienced Mastery, though I probably could not have endured what I do now at each session a few months ago.

It time, some illness or injury or maybe travel will disrupt what I have achieved, as it did previously.  Now I know I can reset the program, add to the intensity every few weeks, and restore what had been achieved.  Worth the effort, both to feel better and to prove to myself my ability to meet a difficult challenge and the excuses to avoid it.

Caught Up With Me

Good habits to create, then nurture.  For me, getting up when I tell myself I should irrespective of how I feel, then going on the treadmill for the pre-determined session before my first activity.  I've done well since New Year's.  Up at 7AM with few exceptions such as illness following my Covid vaccine, which traded one healthy effort for another.  Then treadmill.  Lapse for an illness like cytokine surge from the covid vaccine or an injury to a part of my lower extremity.  But lapses are few.  To do this successfully, I set a fixed time:  8:15AM, enough time for two 8 oz cups of coffee made in a Keurig K-Express and to review my plan of attack that keeps the rest of the day productive plus at least one crossword puzzle.  And maybe a blog entry, and certainly check overnight messages.

Resumption of OLLI classes interfered with what had been going so well.  To get to my 9AM classes, treadmill sessions were shifted to 7:35AM.  One cup of coffee, retrieve newspaper for my wife, attention to my indoor plants on scheduled days, then about a half hour to get dressed, prepare lunch on Thursdays, review my day if outlined the night before, make an insulated mug of coffee before heading to the driveway at 8:25AM, which would give me enough time to sip from the mug and greet an old friend or two in the auditorium, then settling down for my morning class.

It has a beneficial purpose, but a few weeks into the adapted schedule, I feel its effects.  Legs sore, slightly tired, not always able to squeeze a breakfast together before leaving the house, something I had been doing as an initiative with reasonable success while still on OLLI intercession.  I do not feel particularly tired before my computer or desk clock reaches treadmill time.  And I don't struggle with the session.  But I also have not noticed the traditional benefits of regular exercise at appropriate capacity.  My ability to increase the treadmill rate and duration has not happened.  My muscles sometimes ache.  Knees feel like they have been stressed.  Stretching, which I schedule twice a week, has found my capacity deteriorating.

I sleep better.  I've been perhaps a tad more energetic in the late morning, though hurting by midday.  And being among people, even interacting with a mixture of strangers and friends, has improved my lingering feeling of loneliness.  So I'm not feeling badly with the new schedule, just with some musculoskeletal sequelae of my effort.  

Vacation, with its respite from the schedule, is not for another four weeks, though close enough to anticipate a need for some new scenery and new people.  And at the end of each month I afford myself three consecutive days off the treadmill for my legs to recover.  It has been gratifying to display what some might call grit, doing what I set out to do despite its discomfort.  Though the health benefits and social benefits come at the neglect of some of my mental activity, as my commitment to the things I create has fallen behind.  Now that sleep and exercise are reasonably committed and executed, I can make a similar commitment to perhaps some fixed writing and expression times.

New Schedule

First week of this semester's Osher Institute.  Have been off about 7 weeks. Previous semester only one in-person 9AM class.  I requested seven classes this semester, all 7 first half, 5 second half. Despite overwhelming registration, the computer algorithm found a place for me in all seven.  And six meet in person.  Every day except Wednesday, I have a 9AM on-site starting time.  On Thursday afternoon I have a gap followed by a second class from 12:45 to 2PM the first five weeks.  That makes for some adaptations on my part.  Allowing for traffic, the drive in each direction plus parking and walking to the entrance comes to about 25 minutes, so it does not pay to add another full round trip between classes on Thursdays.  And my scheduled exercise times run 8:15-8:45 two days of three.

Some decisions needed to be made.  I moved exercise to 7:35 on the scheduled mornings of 9AM classes.  Did that on Monday and Thursday, cutting speed and duration a little on Monday, keeping speed but cutting three minutes of duration on Thursday.  I performed adequately, but definitely not my customary rhythm.  It made my legs sore.  It made me eager for an afternoon snooze that morning coffee could not offset.  And it put me to bed earlier than Sleep Hygiene standards would recommend.

And there are nutritional concerns.  While off, I made myself coffee in the Keurig machine each morning, took my morning pills, typed on the computer, made some more coffee, made a calorie decision on the second trip downstairs.  With 9AM classes, the second trip downstairs is out the door.  Some quick first downstairs initiatives still squeeze in easily.  Water plants on Tuesdays and Fridays, retrieve the newspaper from the end of the driveway, finish as many dishes as will fit in the rack.  Then bring coffee upstairs.  The treadmill days impose an uncomfortable deadline.  If I start the session at 7:35 or so, I can go back upstairs in time to get dressed for class, then make a second cup of coffee in a travel mug to sip during my first class.

On Thursdays, I also need to make lunch, as I am on site from arrival a little before 9 until just after 2PM.  Sandwich, some vegetables, a dessert of some type, an herb tea bag. The University contracted with a caterer to sell lunch. While I think it is important that those in attendance support the project, my kosher limitations and the prices of what I am willing to eat are sufficient deterrents.  I found a backpack from a previous Endocrine Society Annual Meeting that accommodates my plastic writing portfolio, laptop, earphones, a pocket for a tape recorder, and an insulated lunch kit, while I carry the insulated mug separately to sip coffee in the morning.  

A week's experience with this has created a needed learning curve.  Morning adaptations seem about right, but I pay a price in fatigue and productivity by late afternoon.  I am optimistic that this is ordinary adaptation, much like would happen at the end of intercession or on returning from a two-week work vacation in the past.  I need to be a more rigid at not taking advantage of the proximity of my bed when I am tired.  I have a recliner in My Space.  And I need to use a timer to keep me on focus for projects that I undertake despite fatigue.  Things seem to fall into place when I do.

There is a one week spring intercession after six weeks of classes.  I have some travel plans that also entail some morning attention to exercise and nutrition, with some recreation thrown in.  It would help to have this guided by a successfully implemented class schedule that can continue during vacation and resume seamlessly when classes resume the following week.

Did Nothing

Snow shoveling left me sore.  Two days this past week, spread over three sessions.  One effort to clear the small ridge deposited by the street plow.  Not a lot of snow, as much pushing as lifting.  But maybe not something a senior citizen should be doing, even if paced.  I gave myself credit for an exercise session in lieu of the scheduled treadmill.  

The following day, a Sunday, treadmill hiatus day, I took off.  Not catch-up.  Idle.  As every Sunday morning, I mapped out my week, a very long list of activities I aspire to tackling.  Then a much shorter list of activities for Sunday, most doable at my upstairs desk in My Space.  I did next to none of these.  Washed milchig dishes.  Retrieved the Sunday paper from the driveway to the front door for my wife. Descaled the Keurig Express-Mini as the guy on YouTube recited the instructions.  Made an Aunt Jemima or less offensive new brand pancake for breakfast.  More coffee.  Filled my weekly medication cases, AM and PM.

Over the course of the day, I had done no mental activities other than some easy crosswords and responding to some r/Judaism inquiries on Reddit, including as abrasive response on adverse day school assessments which pampered my id in some way.  No housework other than washing milchig dishes.  No Twitter.  No significant meal preparation.  No quest for my highest level of amusement.  No pursuit of my semi-Annual goals, though I did consider places I might like to travel for the OLLI intercession.  No exchanges with old friends.  Not a whole lot that anyone would judge trying to get ahead. 

By mid-afternoon, I felt a little bored so I got in the car, intending roughly the same circuit I would take during the height of the pandemic when all I could do to get away was drive somewhere.  This time I stopped at a department store.  Strolled the upper floor where they have the non-clothing items, with no serious interest in acquiring more stuff.  A half-lap of that floor got me to the escalator.  Despite my herb pots being indoors due to a freeze, newly placed lurid patterned men's swim trunks at premium prices had been placed at the base of the escalator on the first floor.  I guess people are preparing for their cruise or week in the Caribbean.  I'm not.  No tour of the rest of the clothing floor, just a straight path back to my car.

Home in time for NFL Divisional games.  I didn't really want to watch any whole games, just the final quarters.  First game late afternoon, second game after supper.  No particular interest in supper.

I keep two logs that I fill out each evening except Shabbos.  One is a record of Daily Annoyance.  Not doing anything of significance is a good way to not having any personal calamity, though I did slip on the ice sheet outside my front door.  No fall, no injury, but recorded in the log.  The second journal was titled Hakaras HaTov, or Gratitude for Good Things that day.  It really turned out more to a record of three things worthwhile that I achieve each day.  Being purposefully idle, I found it hard to come up with three, but on reflection:

1. I ate a proper breakfast and lunch
2. My remarks of r/Judaism satisfied my id and were helpful to others
3. I arose from bed when the clock said to even if I didn't really want to=

There's always at least three.  The sun always goes down at the time the astronomers predict.  I read my current e-book, three chapters of a classic borrowed from the Hoopla Service offered by the public library.  I do not know when it will have its auto-return.  And watched the score of the Division Playoff on my smartphone.  

After supper, I always outline the following day, which I proceeded to do.  Having done nothing of substance, largely by intent, all Sunday, Monday would have to be a lot different.  Activities to pursue filled three columns.  Some element of my twelve semi-annual projects appears somewhere on this very long to-do list.  It is the day I weigh myself and take a waist circumference.  I have fleishig dishes from shabbos to wash.  It's a scheduled treadmill and stretch day.  Time of the month for financial record keeping.  And some future projects that have deadlines.  The very opposite of my idle day.  And more forced than motivated activity.  I cannot really say my Sunday downtime left me restored for Monday. 

Yet I needed this respite, one day in which I created a Daily Task List as usual but did not get concerned about letting it sit mostly untapped to the right of my laptop while I escaped for one day.

Treadmill Hiatus

Sometimes it's the small victories that mean the most.  Exercise does not come naturally to me.  It makes me tired, often sore.  I rarely find it recreational.  Over the years, now decades, I've had a number of schemes to keep me at it.  A one-year participation on an athletic team in college which harmed my grades.  An after work jog with good New Balance shoes through a very pleasant path as a resident. JCC gym membership as a young adult.  Always a chore, never a destination.  To be fair, I did feel better the months that I engaged in physical activity.  And I really don't remember why the lapses occurred.  I've purchased exercise equipment at yard sales, now adding to clutter in my basement and garage.  I've purchased a bicycle.  I've had a garden which I found enjoyable but did not accelerate my heart rate.  Neither did fishing, though I had to walk from the parking lot to the water.

I bought a treadmill, used episodically.  The elevation mechanism broke.  Otherwise it works well.  As a senior, though, exercise became more like a prescription, self-prescribed but put on a schedule with a set time to perform.  I chose to stay with that treadmill.  If I had to leave the house to get someplace else like a gym, there would be an excuse not to.  It's much harder to rationalize not going downstairs to my family room, especially if I need not get dressed into street clothes first.  I put running shoes and braces for my right knee and ankle next to the treadmill.  A suitable timer for each session attaches to a magnet in the kitchen.  The treadmill itself has a timer that counts up.  I prefer one that counts down.

And so, I've done a good job, now spanning a few years.  Unless physically unable, I am on the treadmill at about 8:15AM on scheduled days.  Dates divisible by 3 are days to let muscles recover.  And the final three days of each month, modified for 30–31 variations, are designated restoration, like leaving a field fallow.  I look forward to these.

As the new month begins, I'm not exactly eager to resume, but those 22 min/ 22 sec at 3.1 mph, my most customary settings no longer get excuses.  I am there at roughly the appointed time.  After coffee.  Sometimes postponed to midday if I need to be someplace else before 9AM.  And when the timer counts down, there is a transient satisfaction, though probably not a full dopamine surge.  

I've struggled to add intensity, though when I do extend the time or speed I tolerate it.  However, it registers more as a disruption than a new norm.  I don't really like the treadmill time, but I think my consistency with doing it has only benefits, no downside.

Stretching

After years of neglect, my limbs got too stiff and achy.  Need to stretch.  No shortage of videos to guide people at all levels of flexibility through this.  The ones on TV, even on demand TV, tend to run about a half hour.  I needed one that got me started without undue pain in under ten minutes.  YouTube to the rescue.  First session done with my laptop while the NFC Championship played on the Big Screen.  Second session, done a little later in the day than I had intended, but still done, completed on the Big Screen.  That was more satisfactory.

So two days into this I do not feel more sore and I do not feel more limber.  But it's something that needs a set time to do.  The set place, in front of the Big Screen, and the program, the one I just selected, each seem worth maintaining.

Recovered

Ready to resume my scheduled treadmill sessions after an intentional three-day respite.  Leg soreness largely recovered.  Not sure if the adherence to the schedule, which took its toll, resulted in better leg strength or stamina, which was its intent. Next session will tell.

Those days also included some light snow shoveling with enough soreness of my upper segment to warrant a naproxen.  But yesterday I felt some recovery, did well with sleep, more refreshed on arising than I've been.  Give today it's go.

Sore Legs

As the first month of this calendar year reaches its end, I'm still 100% compliant with my intended treadmill performance, adding three minutes to the duration and 0.1 mph to the speed.  Two days on, one day off.  Unfortunately my legs can attest to the extra effort.  Still two more sessions to go, same time, same speed.  When doing less, at the turn of a 31 day month, I would do three consecutive days on.  May not be a real good idea this month.  One day may not be enough to recover legs with exertion driven improvement in their function.  I think it better to modify this to two days off as we move to next month.

Changing the Measurement

For a while now, I have been tracking my weight and waist measurements as surrogates of health, achieving progress about a year ago when I altered what I permitted in the grocery cart, then leveling off at the new level.  My weekly list of health related initiatives has become far more comprehensive.

1. Treadmill two days of three
2. Weight measurement weekly
3. Waist measurement weekly
4. Blood Pressure tracking
5. Stretch Daily
6. Upright during waking hours
7. Sleep Hygiene standards daily
8. Take medicines each evening
9. Omit snacks 8PM to 6AM daily

Health and functionality have an overriding importance, one that either enables or undermines all other activities.  As I pass the age of mandatory Social Security payments, stable health has been my good fortune though the arc of advancing years has imposed its presence.  With the New Year, I have shifted my measurement of progress from the scale and tape measure to the settings on the treadmill and the timer.  The first session went well.  An additional two minutes was added to my program, same speed, same cooldown, same tune to hum to pre-occupy me so I don't stare at the timer, which also took a new format. This being the first weight/waist day of the calendar year, there was a slight uptick just beyond the random variability of my scale and tape measure.  Took medicine.  Omitted munchies.  Payed attention to sleep.  BP, stretch, and upright all need more focus.

Not a bad start.

Sore

After some snow shoveling, within my physical capacity, though not done in a while as we've not had meaningful amounts of snow for about two years, I find myself a little achy.  The cars are movable, my upper limbs and back a little less movable.  Interestingly, as I commit myself to exercising on the treadmill two days of three, which may have enabled the stamina to do the driveway as I nearly conclude my 60's, it has been my calves and ankles that have needed the day's break.  Fortunately, chest symptoms, either cardiac or pulmonary, have not limited me, either on the treadmill or on the driveway.

Still I need to deal with the soreness.  After finishing, I took a naproxen tablet, had a small mug of decaf coffee in the late afternoon, took a welcome nap timed to prevent it from extending into a late afternoon's premature sleep, and spent some time in the hot shower at bedtime.  I'm better today, not yet decided on naproxen.  And it's a scheduled day off from the treadmill.

I'm fortunate to still have the physical capacity to do this.  Moreover, there is something a little energizing as I see the various segments of driveway appear with each session, eventually to where I could back up my car into the cleared area to approach an uncleared area more efficiently.  Accomplishments appear tangible, much like washing dishes, less like writing or studying where progress often goes under the radar. Worth the sore shoulders.