Therapy - back in the saddle again

Ahh...I'm surprised to say it, but it was fantastic to be on my bike again.

You see, last week I missed it. I took the week off to recover from RAGBRAI and be ready for the triathon on Sunday (yeah, poor planning on my part), but as many of you know, I took a hearty tumble from a tube behind a friend's boat last week and tore a ligament in my knee. Thankfully, it wasn't a bad tear and the ortho doc recommended biking as my therapy.

Damn the luck!

Fridays I get off work at lunchtime, which leaves wide open trails (or pools) without much traffic. Today, I opted for a lap around White Rock Lake to test out the knee and see how it would hold up. A lap is about 9 miles, depending on which offshoots you take.

I took it really easy the first lap, avoiding the hills (okay, truthfully, I missed a turn) for the most part and just enjoying the ride. Suprisingly enough, I must've gained a lot of strength on RAGBRAI, as my average speed ended up at 15.8mph...again, I wasn't pushing it at all! The few hills that used to bog me down a bit were mere speed bumps now. It's amazing how perspective changes, isn't it?

So it felt really good that first lap so I decided to try a second round. This time I went ahead and tried a few of the "stronger" climbs and didn't feel a thing. Nice! This lap was a bit slower, but still, it wasn't bad considering.

The therapy was for my knee, in theory, but also for my soul. Nearly 2 weeks with little to no exercise left me edgy and craving more.

This ride helped, and thankfully, it didn't hurt.

Botox anyone?

I am a person who always thought that plastic surgery and all this botox stuff was only a way to get around growing old. I think that people should just grow old gracefully and enjoy the lifelines that they've been given. Embrace the smile lines!

That was, before I noticed something the other day.

It was a gorgeous day here in Dallas. Temperatures were supposed to hit near 80 in January, so why not try out a new dress now instead of waiting for spring?

Having fine, thin hair on my head is, most days, a curse. It just doesn't do much and there's not much I can do with it. The upside of this, is that the hair on my legs is nearly non-existant or hardly shows up. Some weeks, it takes a light breeze for me to realize I need to shave.

But this projected warm day, I thought that it might be time for a quick leg scrape before heading off to work. As I plopped my left foot on the counter I noticed something horrifying! I saw wrinkles on my knees! What the hell?!

Curious as to where they might be coming from, I put that leg down and looked down. Sure enough, I have a little fatty deposit, which probably won't go away with running and cycling, just above my kneecap on the inside. Both legs! I felt like crying!

Now I don't mind my wrinkles on my face, but for some reason, this new wrinkle, pun intended, in my growing older just sent me over the edge that morning. Sigh. Now I'm not going to rush out to get botox or have a knee lift, but wow, what an awakening.

Have any of you noticed weird stuff like this as you get older?