ONE MORE POST....GOALS AND HAPPINESS

I think I may end up being somewhat caught up on my life if I write just one more post! I am happiest when I have a goal. Last spring my goal was to get in good enough shape to hike to the summit of Mt. Washington in North Conway, NH. I started out in very poor shape. Huffing and puffing up even small hills. I guess because of my personality, I didn't get discouraged. My only fear was that my health problems would rear their ugly head. I had spent the previous fall and winter struggling to get my thyroid back on track with two medication increases. My iron level seemed to be okay but my migraines had increased. I was afraid that if things started to go bad again, I would not be able to tackle Mt. Washington. I love walking and hiking so most of the time, I went with happiness and a positive energy.

At the end of July 2010, I met my goal!! It took longer than we thought and it was almost dark when Thomas and I got back down the mountain but our entire family reached the peak! Thomas and I have knees that allowed us to hike back down. Tom met us at the bottom after him, Erin and Sarah took the shuttle down....their knees not so good.

Since Thomas and I have the real hiking bug we've made a new goal this year. It's not quite so lofty as last year but still quite a challenge. We plan to hike up Mt. Wittenberg in the Catskills. We've gone for a couple hikes in the snow so far for our training. We had wanted to hike up Mt. Tammany at the Delaware Water Gap in the snow/winter and we did that when he had a half day of school this past Thursday. It was an unseasonably warm day so we were able to wear just a couple of layers and be comfortable. Fortunately there are plenty of other hikers that think it's fun to hike there in the winter so the snow on the trail was packed enough to walk on. We went in our trail sneakers and our feet only got a bit wet. It was warm enough that they weren't cold though. Thomas had wanted to hike up to the knob down in Milford in the winter as well. We did that a couple of weeks ago but had a bit more trouble with the snow. Not as many people hike there in the winter so we were happy that we had worn our boots. They don't make for the best hiking footwear but at least our toes were dry and snuggly!

It's nice because although the stress of the previous six months had led to my inactivity, I was not as out of shape as last spring. This has been so encouraging to me that I've made an individual goal separate from Thomas. I would like to be able to "run" in the 5K run/walk that we participate in every May. I "ran" last week for the first time just to see how I would do. It was how I made my decision whether this was a goal I should make. Initially, I had thought I would try just a half mile and see if it killed me. Once I began, I realized that I could actually do a mile. Mind you, I put "run" in quotes for a reason. The fact that I was able to move at something more than a walk for an entire mile made me positive that I would at least attempt to run the 5K. I think I will be able to run without stopping and depending on how my training goes, I will probably make a time goal of doing it in under 45 minutes. Well, after consulting with my trainer (Thomas - smile) he says that after numerous calculations and contemplation, I should make a goal of running it in under 40 minutes. I'm not sure if I that should excite me or scare me! Well, for now I think I will just go do laundry...unfortunately there is not much muscle building in that.

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

TORN MENISCUS

I really believed that if anyone would be unable to hike Mt. Washington it would be me. So far so good, I seem to be holding up pretty well but I don't want to jinx myself by talking too much about it. Unfortunately, Tom is the one who may be unable to accomplish this feat. On our "get in shape for Mt. Washington" hikes he has been having knee pain, especially on the downhill portions. I told him that if there was any hope that he'd be able to make Mt. Washington he needed to go see our friendly orthopedist. After poking, prodding and bending Tom's knee, the doctor declared that he thought it was a torn meniscus (hence the title to this post). He needs to follow up with an MRI to confirm but we trust the talent of diagnosis of our doctor. He agreed to give him a cortisone shot right before we climb the mountain and eventually he will need surgery....sigh. We've decided that he can climb up but will take a van down the mountain and hopefully keep from damaging it further.

ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?

I realized right from the moment I considered climbing Mt. Washington with the family that it was going to take a lot of work to get into shape. After all, I've spent the last couple of years working very hard at getting out of shape. All that laying around watching TV was quite a job! I've been impressed with how long the family has been willing to put up with my constant suggestions for various hikes. Until recently, they agreed without much objection. Now however, they groan every time I say "we need to go on a hike!"

When we went to Knoebel's for a few days this week I was nice enough to let Erin and Sarah forgo the hike that Thomas and I had planned. They happily pranced off to the amusement park while Thomas and I went zipping in the the van over hill and dale. We arrived at Nescopeck State Park about 45 minutes later. Leaving the parking lot, we looked for the entrance to the "Mountain Loop" trail. We should have known that things would not go well when we spied it off through a tangle of prickers! About half of our hike was through gawd awful, leg grabbing weeds, bushes and more prickers! Looking on the bright side, we found a few wild raspberries that tasted good and we hiked an incline that Thomas said was similar to a portion of Mt. Washington (pant, pant, huff, puff). We won't mention the fact that the raspberries were right beside the parking lot and we didn't really need to go on the hike to find them.... Not surprisingly, the incline was not located on the Mountain Loop but instead it was on the Oak Trail. The Oak Trail had very few oaks. A good portion of our time I complained about the upkeep of the trails. "They have that big beautiful visitor center.....THAT ISN'T OPEN!!" "All they would have to do is drive an ATV over these trails a few times and it would take care of all these bushes!" "Did the people who named these trails even hike them??" Even Thomas chimed in with "How hard is it to paint a few colored squares on the trees?!"

(Pause to get ice and ibuprofen for Thomas's finger that he slammed down while tripping on the stairs - broken or not broken that is the question of the day...)

We emerged from the undergrowth battered and bleeding and wondering if any ticks had reached our underwear. Well, at least I was bleeding, Thomas was unscathed. After Thomas made a trip to the well appointed porta potty (meaning it had plenty of toilet paper) we collapsed into the comfort of the van's air conditioning. In regards to our hike I said "I'm glad I did that!", without any sarcasm. I guess I am a glutton for punishment.

HIKING

During the past four years, I've slowly turned into a big marshmallow. Mind you, I've been a marshmallow for many years but now I am a big marshmallow! I used to be in pretty good shape as far as my muscles were concerned but then all my health issues started. First my thyroid went kaput. Then my brain decided migraines were a good thing. My iron became depleted. Physical activity made me feel worse, much worse. So I sat, and sat and sometimes laid down to rest. I've gotten really out of shape and can no longer do the things I've always loved to do. Well, at least not as much as I've always done. It's hard for a person to get older and realize that each year your body slows down but for me the slow down from my health issues was fast and drastic. It's taken me a long time to get my health back on track. I'm still not totally there because I just had to change the dose of my thyroid medication in December (2009), I still sometimes get migraines and I constantly have to be careful to keep my iron level up. I know I am feeling better but to some degree, I've learned to ignore the side effects of these health issues. I've been able to increase my activity level. I had planned to do it slowly but sometimes I've tended to overdo it.

Besides gardening, one of the things that I've missed is hiking. I think my whole family has missed hiking since I was always the one who got us in the car to go explore a new trail. In February and March I started by getting back to my walks around the community. We have some moderate hills where I would get out of breath and feel my heart pounding. I wondered if my iron level had dropped but I kept it up. After awhile I saw some improvement. "The Knob" that overlooks the town of Milford is accessed by a rather short but steep hike. I've always wanted to hike it but have never gotten around to it. That was my new goal. At the beginning of April, just before Easter we went on the hike but got sidetracked and I never went to the overlook. The perfect reason for hiking it again the following week! Although I had never made it to the overlook on the first hike, something even more important to me happened. I got back my hope that I really would get back into shape. I began to form an idea. I want to hike Mt. Washington in the White Mountains of New Hampshire!

Quite a few years ago I had made the statement that one day when the kids were older we would hike up Mt. Washington. I'm guessing that was at least six years ago. Thomas will be 18 years old in September so he would have been 11 or 12 back then. Old enough to be excited and looking forward to the hike. It's been a long wait but now Sarah is 13 years old and old enough to make it....I think. So we've started to get in shape for a trip to NH towards the end of July. What I've discovered is that Sarah is in much better shape than I thought and I'm in much worse shape than I thought!

I'm in the worst shape of the family and although Tom is much, much better than me, he is next in line. It's hard to say if Erin is better than Sarah or vice versa because they are pretty much the same. Thomas, of course, is the best. He could hike the mountain tomorrow without a problem. Actually, everyone could hike the mountain tomorrow except for me! I think everyone except for Thomas would really be hurting if they hiked tomorrow but they could at least make it. Yesterday, Thomas told me that he thinks I would be able to make it right now also, but I have my doubts.

Since April, when I told everyone that I wanted to hike Mt. Washington, we have been trying to hike every weekend. Thomas and I have gone on a couple extra hikes - me to catch up to everyone and him for encouragement! He can be quite an inspirational motivator! I also think my new found gardening energy has helped me build some muscles. I've joked with everyone that I'm not sure how heavy everyone is breathing because I can't hear them over my own gasping!

Our goal as a family is to get strong enough for everyone to be able to make it without being in agony. We know it's still going to be tough but if everyone were in agony we would more than likely turn back. I think my individual goal may be slightly different than everyone else. I would like to be able to just make it, agony or not. What a satisfied feeling I would have! Unfortunately, I know that there is always the possibility that I won't be able to do it. Sad but always a chance. I cannot control certain things in my life and my health is one of them. I do know that barring a major setback, I can at least start the hike with everyone. It's important to me to face my reality because acceptance of these facts helps me move on. I guess I'm trying to live in the moment.

So, we've (I've) made some major strides. Pun intended. Yesterday we hiked around 4.5 miles through the steep inclines of our area. We took a rather long route to end up at Dingman's Falls. We had been surprised to discover that it was a back route to the falls. We hadn't known that is where we would come out and had walked about 2.5 miles to get there. We had quite a laugh to discover that when we followed the creek back to our car on a more direct route, it was only about a half mile away! Ha ha ha! The entire 4.5 miles took us about 2 hours. The distance is about the same as the hike up Mt. Washington but the elevation change is not the same. The hike up Mt. Washington should take between 3 and 4 hours one way so that can give you an idea how steep it will be! It's hard to get a hike that is near the equivalent.

So it's nice to have a new and exciting goal and especially exciting for it to be a goal involving physical activity!