Lifetime Fitness

I've become a convert to the idea of being a fitness center member. I fought it for a long time because I took pride in running (ok, jogging really) outside, year-round, except in conditions of dangerously-poor footing, or strong in-your-face wind.

Something in me has changed so that now I don't mind the treadmill like I used to, I like the hubbub of the busy LifeTime Fitness center that I attend just 2 miles from home. I get a kick out of seeing all the pre-school kids that come in with their moms, and the little snippets of the kids' conversations that I catch as they walk through LifeTime holding their moms' hands.

I've increased the length of my not-quite daily runs there from 3mi to 5mi, occasionally dropping to 1-mile when I get a message from a body part that it's working on a problem, and "please hold, pain-free service should be restored shortly." I reply, "thank you," and gladly oblige.

For the past 21 years (years before then were non-fitness years) the body parts have given quite good service. I did have to get some warranty work done on the exhaust and suspension, but the rest is pretty much original equipment.

Of course now I'm having issues with the on-board computer, for which replacement parts are not yet available.

In the meantime, Dr Golden says, exercise is the single most important thing I can do for my health.

Comments

Hilary said…

I'm glad you are enjoying Lifetime so much. We are seriously considering a family membership for the summer!

April 4, 2009 at 9:32 PM

Heather said…

It's great you have such a nice place so close to you...we sure live in a prehistoric type of town :(

April 4, 2009 at 11:34 PM

scott said…

Youth is not a time of life, but a state of mind. It is not a matter of healthy cheeks and supple knees; it is a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a vigor of emotions. It is a temper of freshness of the DEEP SPRINGS OF LIFE. No one grows old by deserting ideals. Some are old at 30, and some young at 80. If we are living in the power of the resurrection life of Christ, we will never grow old.

After reading your post today....I happen ( just happen ?
I don't think so )..to come across this and thought of you at the gym.

April 5, 2009 at 11:28 AM

Vivi said…

You exercised regularly long before anyone else in our family did. Maybe we were all suffering from a bit of nescience (see your word of the day). You've logged a lot of miles - you're in a farily small group of 60-somethings who can say they do that still!

April 7, 2009 at 8:43 PM

The Gentle Smith Matriarch

We met in 1966 when she was 18 and I was 22. We began dating soon afterward, and as I recall never disagreed on much. Our childhood homes were 3000 miles apart and we loved Minnesota and each other, so we got engaged in July 67, married in December and moved into a house with a teenage foster daughter. This was followed by , Daughter 1 the following September, Daughter 2 three years later, Daughter 3, a year and a half later, ..and eventually Son, 3 years later. There were also about 15 different short-term teen-foster boys in those years. The gentle matriarch has worked her whole life, hard. I went to college nights for a few years, she worked outside the home part-time while the kids were growing. She spent frugally, loved lavishly, and has always cared first and foremost about her family. She is a gentle giant who has brought love, fun, discipline, imagination, good food, and artistic, creative homemaking to our big family....and as I write this she's preparing for Easter Dinner...

Red fiche- table with impatiens

It's an odd practice, in a way, but one I've come to like: you set a piece of old indoor furniture outside, and just let it weather, ......forever. I grew up in New England,where there were a lot of roadside antique (or junk) stores, which converted to fruit and vegetable stands in the growing season, or Christmasy craft stores and maple syrup places in winter. At any rate, I'm accustomed to indoor furniture outdoors, and since Nana likes it, everybody's on board at our house. She's selective, however, and requires that the pieces have some interesting, enduring quality. In the case of this red table, it served it's first 30 years as a sturdy table for fiche at Bethel College. When BC became BU, the fiche lost out to digital media, and the sturdy table hitched a ride 45 miles south to our Lakeville back yard, where it is now learning to give itself to a new audience of human admirers, plus a few daddy long-leg spiders, and a specimen or two of summer-sno...

I was invited back to Paragon for a day of fun

On a gorgeous August 13 morning, Sandie picked me up at home so that I could tour the new Paragon office and hang out with lots of great work friends for lunch on a river cruise aboard the Mississippi Queen. Jesper and Bill Lunch was a banquet of fine food, drinks, and desserts, which we enjoyed while leisurely cruising the vital Mississippi, including a couple of the locks, and a great view of the Stone Arch Bridge near downtown Minneapolis. Martin met me with a huge cucumber, which made it seem just like the old days for me. Paragon occupies a bright new suite with terrific views in all directions. Mid- morning I got called into Martin's office. When I stepped in, there were already people there, and they presented me with a handsomely-framed collage capturing many of my fondest days with this extraordinary collection of work-friends. I am a blessed and lucky man!

PTCPapa

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