The frigid weather having uncharacteristically invaded the southland, I am not able to take my morning four mile walk up route 54 to Country Club Road and back, so I have been going to the UNC Wellness Center two blocks away to use a treadmill. This is a rather daunting experience, because inevitably there is some perfectly toned young thing who looks to be running a four minute mile on the treadmill next to mine. My son, Tobias, who at forty is in better shape than I have ever been, even during my brief stint in the United States Army, and who goes to a gym in whatever city he finds himself for rigorous workouts, has counseled me that I must not take notice of the other folks in the gym, but rather concentrate on trying to up my personal best at whatever machine I have chosen.
Well, the machine I favor has an elaborate display, and is capable both of varying speeds and varying elevations. The speed is calibrated in tenths of a mile an hour, and the elevation seemingly in halves of a percentage of incline. This morning, I set the machine at 4 miles an hour and the incline at 12%, and then ramped it up during the next half hour to an incline of 20%. The readout at the end told me that I had walked 2 miles [as indeed I should have, doing 4 miles an hour for half an hour], and had climbed a total of 1694 feet. That was a hundred feet better than yesterday, a personal best. Next to me was a tall slender young woman who was walking effortlessly up a 30% incline at 4 miles an hour for what seemed like forever. But, guided by my son, I took no notice of her at all.
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My girlfriend and I have the same experience. I only go with her to the gym as support, to keep her going - if I had it my way I'd just do my own personal cardio exercises. Somehow, I rather quickly got to the point where I stopped noticing the juggernaut humans around me, finding most of them to look ridiculous. I always try to think of a Socratic dialogue in those moments when the vanity starts bleeding over on her and I; 'health' is what's 'good,' not the 'appearance' of strength.
I think the dialogue is in the Gorgias...?
So you don't know if she was blonde, then. LOL.
Evidently you are in better shape at 76 than I am at 60, so ... all the best to you!
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