Let’s see -
I’ll be 50 this summer, 5’10" and I vary between 165 and 185, depending on what work I’m doing - I tend to bulk up if I’ve been doing a lot of heavy lifting for a few months. I avoid ‘exercise’ . Rowing ( with a plain rowboat or sliding seat single shell ) is fun, not exercise, and a nice little demonstration to myself that my coordination hasn’t gone yet. But you couldn’t get me inside a gym unless it was at gunpoint.
So many of my contemporaries get off the couch, ride the lawnmower around and then get in their Silly Useless Vehicles to drive to the gym. And guys decades younger. Amazing that they can’t connect the dots.
My collar’s still blue and I dislike driving cars enough that riding the bike to work is an unalloyed pleasure, even in the rain. Or turning over the garden with a garden spade and spading fork rather than paying somebody to roto-till it. Or splitting firewood, or working with heavy timber. Work rather than exercise, getting paid for it ( or not shelling out to have it done) rather than paying somebody else so I can sweat.
As was mentioned before, old injuries do return to haunt you. I had a set of rotator cuffs that had me half crippled a few years ago ( and eating aspirins like they were salted peanuts ) to the point where I wondered if I was gonna have to start working in an office. Cured 'em by lifting weights, keeping ice packs nearby and cussing a lot. The amusing part was that by favoring one shoulder I put enough strain on the other one to mess that up. Then again, waking up in the morning hurting is something you can get used to as a sign you’re still alive, especially as I seem to see so many contemporaries names in the obituary column. Also makes a handy barometer that you can take everywhere you go.
I eat anything set before me, but I’ve learned to trust what my appetites are. If I need some more vitamins and such I tend to have cravings for salads and veg and fresh fruit. When I need energy, it’s time to pick up the bread and noodle making schedule. I don’t seem to be hungry as much as I was, in fact I have to cook pretty well to want to eat it.
Boards… I go around my trio of 5’4" Romanoskys, tri, quad and ‘guest board’ . Which are actually a little bigger and floatier than I’d like: I may have to make some flexy kneeboards this summer, for the fall swells. I like the pocket and points further back on days with some punch to 'em. Otherwise, it’s a good day to go clamming or just take a book to the beach, not a board.
Started on a longboard, hated it then and at the very least dislike 'em still. When I can’t do what I do now, it’ll be time to hang up the fins and go to sailboats full time. Then again, there’s kneelos in their sixties that are still pretty impressive.
As the saying goes, Age and Treachery will always defeat Youth and Skill.
doc…
