Feeling Old

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As the title suggests. Not in the typical sense of the phrase though. Usually when people say they feel old it's because of seeing a child grow up, or walking into a beer store and seeing you need to be born by 1992 to purchase alcohol and realizing that people who were born the year you graduated high school are now old enough to drink - stuff like that.

But this is different. In the past few months I've started to increasingly feel physically old. Stiff when I get out of bed in the morning. Taking much longer to recover from physical activity. Having to really push myself to finish workouts that were not difficult just a couple of years ago. Oh, and my favorite - you go to bed feeling fine and you wake up the next morning and some random body part hurts. How the hell to you injure yourself while sleeping?

I read in the sports news yesterday that NFL QB David Garrard was retiring after a recent knee injury. He says he was on the deck of his pool with his kids, and just turned on it funny, and needed surgery afterwards. His direct quote: "I was home, resting by the pool, and I turned to see my son, and by just pivoting around, I aggravated it." And I feel for the guy because the exact same thing happened to me last year, although it wasn't by a pool. I also didn't need surgery afterwards, but I did have to go through a few months of physical therapy to get it back to where it was.

Evidently crap like this starts happening in your late 30s. And it apparently doesn't matter if you're a Joe Nobody like me, or a professional athlete. It also sucks balls. One thing I guess I'm happy about is I had my kid when I was 33. He turns six this summer, and so naturally I'll turn 39 this year - in about a week to be exact. I'm glad I had him when I did because I don't have the energy level now that I had then.

Slight tangent - I think there is a misconception among people who don't have kids that the hardest point in rearing a child is the early years. The general thinking is that the older the child gets, the more independent he becomes, and it's easier. That's bullcrap. Perhaps it's true in the very early stages of parenthood like when the child is waking up in the middle of the night - that's really hard. But generally speaking I haven't found things getting any easier as my kid gets older. The most dreaded phrase to hear is "Dad, I can do it myself." Yeah. He thinks he knows how to properly brush his teeth. He thinks he can pour his own glass of milk. He thinks he can get all the shampoo out of his hair in the shower. He thinks he knows how to cook his own hotdog in the microwave. All of these activities invariably involve a larger amount of work for Dad than if you had just done it yourself form the start. /end tangent

But the larger point is I'm only 39 and I already feel like I'm starting to fall apart. I knew this was an eventuality but I certainly didn't expect it to start before 40. Hell I didn't really expect it to start until after 50. At this rate of decline I'll be long dead by then.

 

I feel ya, Aldeth. Having your body start to fail on you (even in small ways) is indeed a lot different than those whimsical late twenties/early thirties feelings of having left your youth behind. I suppose the next phase - presumably the 'serious health issues start to arise' phase - will make us pine for these days and think we had it good.

 

I turn 40 this year as well. I have felt what you are describing for several years now. I partied hard in my twenties and beat myself up pretty good as well with all the crazy/stupid **** we did. I don't regret any of it, but I sure am feeling the after effects these days. Now that I have little ones, it really sucks at 7 o'clock int he morning and they want you to get up and run around outside with them. I do it, but yikes! it hurts some days.

You won't be dead at 50, just wishing you were.

 

Oh, I love me some yoga - I really should try to do it more often than I do. Of all the exercise styles I have tried over the years, yoga is easily the one that I underestimated more than any other. The runaway winner of the "Harder Than It Looks" Award.

 

Turned 46 this past March. While I luckily don't have the nagging pains, the big difference is over the past six months to a year my metabolism changed dramatically. It is so much easier to pack on a couple of pounds and almost impossible to take it off. I had to really change a lot of my diet and exercise. It used to be if I skipped a cookie for lunch for a week I could lose five pounds, now, not so much. I'm down around 15 pounds since the beginning of the year, but I know this is going to be a struggle from now on.

I do slightly disagree with you about the kids though. I find that now that my son is 17 it may be mentally more difficult as now I worry about him driving, drinking, knocking someone up, etc., but I don't have to do anything that is physically exerting with him anymore. Then again, we only have one so that may be a mitigating factor.

 

I hear you, Aldeth (and Snook and Blades).

I just turned 40. On one hand, I'm throwing around much more weight in the gym than pretty much everyone else I see there. On the other hand, I'm supplementing like crazy (and chomping about 1800mg of Motrin a day), not sleeping well, and feel sore and tired most of the time.

In the military there is a certain expectation that the old guys work harder so they can keep up with the young guys. Well, I worked in labor-intensive jobs to get through college, totaled two different cars in accidents, I've been in two hard landings in helicopters, jumped out of too many airplanes, humped with up to 120 lbs on my back across the backwoods of five states, patrolled on foot in Iraq, beaten people in military fitness competitions (including probably too soon after a knee reconstruction), rafted Class V rapids (which included full-on, full-body dunks), have been knocked unconscious at least 3 times (that I remember!), hiked up mountains, drank about 150,000 beers, and sustained so many sports injuries I could fill up 2 paragraphs with those alone. One knee is held together with screws and staples and a piece of my hamstring, I've been diagnosed with a degenerative back condition as well as multiple ruptured discs, I've got at least a half-dozen scars that are over an inch long, and I recently found out I have advanced osteoarthritis in my knees and ankles. Working hard to keep up with the young kids has broken me down!

On one hand, I take a certain pride that I've wore this body down; I mean, why have it if you aren't going to challenge it? (When you die, it's gone, right? Why not maximize your experiences when you can?) On the other hand, like you guys, I've got kids that are relatively young and are expecting Dad to play basketball, football, baseball, go hiking, take them swimming, etc, and it is not just hard, but painful to keep up with them at this age!

I envy those guys who haven't broken down. I mean, I really do. It has to be awesome to be 48, to be able to move freely and comfortably, and lack any significant scars where someone had to fix a part of your body that broke on you.

 

I know what you mean. My problems are still pretty minor (I'm 36), but the fact that I'm not really in shape doesn't help. It's not so much a weight thing as it is that I just haven't done much, so my knees act up on me, or my hips, or ankles. And I'm with you on the waking up sore thing: how does that even happen?

I've been trying to get back into yoga, but I keep procrastinating on it. Terrible, really.

Edit:
Oh, and while I think this is at least partly due to the fact that school starts at 7:00, so I have to be up at 5:30-6:00 . . . what is it with needing so much sleep and wanting to go to bed early? I used to be much more of a night owl; now even on Saturdays, I'm usually in bed by 1 a.m. Crazy.

 

Oh yeah. Kids don't seem to ever get any easier. I am sure my nine year old son is as much work as his younger sisters.

But hard to complain about getting old when a 54 year old I run with can run 5k in 17 minutes and 74 year old father of a friend of mine competes in Ironman triathlons.

 

Those days seem like a lifetime ago for me. Maybe if I'm on vacation I'll stay up really late a few nights, but just as a matter of course? Hells no. My typical routine has me in bed by 11 pm every night. Otherwise, I'm non-functional the next day.

Sisters? I didn't realize you had a third child Harbs. Congrats. How old is the youngest?

You see - this is exactly what I'm talking about. When I say I feel old, it's not like I'm getting old and feeble. I'm still as physically strong as ever. Hell, in some respects, I'm probably stronger than I was 10 years ago. While it may be harder to get through my workouts now, but it's not like I'm incapable of doing it anymore.

It also helps that I may as well be Superman to my son. I really think he thinks I'm bullet proof. He has told me several times that he saw some other classmates father, and while that kids dad is taller than me (I'm only 5'9" so it's not much of a feat) there's no way he's stronger than me.

Well, he is 17. When I said in my experience that kids don't get any easier as they get old, me experience currently spans less than 6 years. My kid isn't even half way to his teenage years at this point. By the time my son is 17, I'll be 50. And I certainly hope I won't have to do anything physically exerting with him then, as I'm pretty confient he'll be able to roll over me by that point.

 

My kids are 9, 2, and 1. In some ways they are exhausting but in other ways I am doing more than I ever did before. For example, I have managed to go for a run every day this year so far - 145 days in a row. I never managed that when I was younger.

 

I just turned 44 back in March myself and have two daughters aged 6, who will be 7 next month, and aged 3, who will be 4 in October. I totally understand about trying to keep up with the kids on a daily basis as I have gone through 2 minuscule tear repairs in my left knee within a year of each other and waking up every morning to snap, crackle, and pop and it isn't coming from my cereal anymore.

I used to be a night owl and am diffidently not a morning person yet I have to get up every morning by around 6 or so when I am sometimes not getting to bed until after midnight. Lately though it has been closer to around 10 at the latest.

I used to cross country run 5 to 10k's and now have a hard time running without having to stop frequently to catch my breath. It truly sucks big time getting old.

Just tossing my into the mix.

 

Anyone who runs is an idiot ... geezers who run are suicidal.

On topic ... WTF!?!? Don't know what you're talking about Aldeth....

 

I just came 8th in a 5km race today. I came second in my age group (one benefits of getting older!) But the guy who came first overall was in his 50s - he thrashed all the youngsters.

 

The magic number for me seems to be 52. in the last 12 months or so, I've developed more aches, creaks and pains than I care to think about. Nothing debilitating, but it's definitely annoying.

 

Running is fantastic, but I can't overdo it: had shin splints on and off since December, which sucks. And some of you guys are gonne hate me, but I just feel old now I can no longer drink myself silly and not be hungover the next day, and because I'm coming to the end of my degree...it's a little scary!

@Harbourboy: well done! I came 129th in a 5K race yesterday (out of 400 or so), but got my PB down to 22.30, with which I'm very pleased.

 

damn, I've felt old since I was 20, its a shame life doesn't often give you a break.

 

In hindsight, I really look at my early 30s as being the best time of my life. I was married and had a kid by then, and honestly, it was the best mix of youth and experience. There wasn't anything I could do at 21 that I couldn't do at 31. And yet, there were a lot of things I could do professionally at 31 that I couldn't have done at 21.