granny

i went for a trail run with the dogs in Red Butte tonight after working in the clinic all day.  it was delightful.  i'm feeling pretty good the last few days and although i had to stop and stretch a few times to work out the kinks, i really think i'm on the mend.  i couldn't help but think what a granny i've become... sometimes i am so hard on myself.

my reasoning is, i feel like these days it's harder to bounce back from an injury.  it's taken me about three weeks to recover from my IT band, hip, and low back issues but i guess in a lifetime, three weeks is really not that long.  especially if you choose to *live* life actively instead of letting it pass you by...

so anyway, today i was running up an incline on one of my favorite loops (Roxie's loop; a four-miler with a little double climb.  each climb is about 10-15 minutes and about 300 ft elevation gain.  i named it after my departed yellow lab).  anyway, i was running this route (and when i say "run" it is more like steady forward progress, sometimes a shuffle and sometimes a jog.  it is oftentimes a power-hike on the uphill that many would feel more comfortable jogging at that pace).  i digress; i was on this run/jog/hike and as i was about to start the second climb and i heard a mountain biker coming up the trail behind me.  i pulled the dogs over to the side and let the twenty-something-year-old male pass me and the dogs.  then i put my head down and wasn't really working that hard, but moving steadily uphill.

i got to the first set of switchbacks and i could hear the bike ahead of me shifting gears and moving through the rocks (a technical little section) and thought to myself, "huh, he's not that far ahead."  i called Franklin back to me and thought that the biker didn't really need a golden retriever panting at his back wheel.  then i moved through the second set of switch backs, and onto the straight-away climb (not a steep climb, mind you) and i had caught him--the biker.  i hung on his back wheel for a little bit, and saw that he was in his granny-gear and then thought to myself, "he's going too slow.  i can take this guy."

so i passed him.  and he was surprised.  and so was i.  (he actually apologized to me as i hustled around him on the downhill side.)

i am a week away from my 39th birthday.  i have been feeling my age a little bit.  feeling really strong in some ways, but feeling kind of creaky and stiff on some days too.  i wouldn't say i'm easy on myself, physically or emotionally.  i'm pretty hard on myself in both respects, actually.  but i keep plugging along.

i turned around and smiled to the twenty-something-year-old on the mountain bike, and said, "i'm sure i'll see you on the downhill."  but honestly, it was quite a ways (about a half a mile) down the descent before i heard him coming and i pulled the dogs to the side again.  i had to smile.  this granny passed the whipper-snapper in granny gear on the climb.  this granny has still got it.  maybe i'm not such a granny after all.