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By now some of you have no doubt set yourselves some New Year’s resolutions. If so, good for you. Make 2017 a year that you grow. Hopefully your resolutions are things that inspire you, things beyond the typical lose 10 lbs., drink more water, tripe that adorns near everyone’s beginning-of-the-year goal list. Dream big dreams, and if you’ve yet to put pen to paper, I encourage you to take the filters off when creating your list. Filters? Yes, the societal filters that are either subtly, or overtly, imposed on you that say you’re too old, too poor, or too uneducated to accomplish the really exciting things on your list. Because really, that’s all just BS.

dreams

Let’s take the too old excuse for example. It’s one of my favorites, as evidenced by the fact that I’ve posted on the subject before. I actually chose the quote for yesterday’s blog entry knowing that I was going to write on this subject today.

Just the other day I posted on Facebook that I was in the process of rehabbing a knee injury that occurred during the 950th hash in Grenada. Several well-meaning friends made comments to the effect that I was not 18 any more, implying that I should perhaps set my sights a bit lower. Sure, some were joking, but I’m positive others were convinced that what they said was gospel. Should we settle for less as we age? Hell, no. I certainly don’t intend to.

I used to visit a chiropractor whenever I was faced with a minor injury inflicted from overly-aggressive jiu-jitsu training. Almost every time I saw him he would tell me that maybe I should slow down now that I was getting older. I appreciated that advice so much, I fired him!

It’s worth noting that several of the hashing FRBs in Grenada, that is the constantly-fastest front runners, have a decade or more on me. Every week they outrun athletic youngsters a third of their age. I can tell you, they aren’t making excuses, and neither should you or I.

climb

Yesterday morning. We never saw any of the sunshine that was forecasted several days ago. Instead, we had brutal weather for almost the entire climb. Many might not believe this but we even had sleet up on the mountain. I’m Canadian so you can trust me… it was wet snow! Crazy, right?

top

1:40 to the top. It was freezing up there, and we wanted nothing more than to get moving again. We had to record this New year’s greeting first though!

track

My knee must be getting better, we shaved over an hour off our last time! The cover picture at the top showing my stop watch was taken when we were back in the car.

11 Comments

  1. Great post.Sleet?? Wow – you must have felt like you were back in Canada!! I don’t know what type of injury you sustained, if it was inflammation or something worse. In some cases time and persistence will allow the knee to heal.. and you should be able to recover 99% but just remember to listen to your knee. Years ago I too suffered a knee injury and got the same speech you did. “You aren’t 18 anymore.”No, but gradually over time my knee got better , and returned to normal – over years. I find that it can just get little aggravated once in a while….. if I jump on the boat wrong or something small. At that time I take a few aspirins or Tylenol and some long walks on level ground and within a few days it is fine again. In 2015 I was once again in the gym regularly but unlike my younger days I didn’t really see any benefits.month after month I got stronger , and lifted more weight – but I am already strong enough. I didn’t lose any of my beer belly. So this year, it will be hiking and watching carbs. YMMV

  2. You had me worried there, I thought you were going to tell me to ditch the Racor.

  3. If I can press 200, or 225 lbs I’m not wanting to press 300, which seems to be the standard goal for guys in my gym. As for the diet thing, yep its a real problem.

  4. I really like the premise of your post, only thing I would ad is listen to your body. Pain is usually the sign that something isn’t right. The human body is like a diesel, it wears out over time and use. Over use or abuse no matter what age will take its toll. I’m betting all the older people who are competitive in hashing had desk jobs, low mileage bodies! Myself, I have the body of a 95 year old and the mind of a 15 year old, as my mind has had little use:-)

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