You're Not 13 Anymore! Duh!

Ah, youth! It's invigorating, inviting, fun, energetic and full of potential.  It's also fleeting!  One minute you're a young sprite and the next you're plucking gray hairs from your head, squinting at medicine bottle instructions (which leads to trying on your first pair of reading glasses to test if the medicine bottle print is just getting smaller or if your once 20/20 vision is betraying you ... spoiler alert ... it's not the print), finding new folds, wrinkles, and fat deposits on your body despite how much you work to fight it, turning DOWN the music in the car, and hearing yourself say things like, "get off my lawn" to the kiddo's. Okay, maybe not the last one.  I'm not that old!  Yet.  It's coming.  Um yep, did I mention I'm talking about me?  As my husband so chivalrously said to me last night, "One day you'll realize you're not 13 anymore".  I'm getting old.  At least if I believe my lovely children, I am.  But I'm fighting it, I tell you!

On the whole, I feel blessed to be able to move and run and jump and keep up with my kids despite my age.  I work hard to stay in shape and I hope to be one of those Senior Citizens lucky enough to still be out racing and hiking in my golden years.

And let's face it, I'm still fairly young, right?  In the whole grand scheme of things, I still have some youth left in me.  You're only as young as you think you are, right?  I love to play.  I love to hoola hoop.  What's more kid like than that?  How about cartwheels?  Uh oh, that's a clue about where this is going.

Skirt Sports is doing a challenge for the month of July.  We're supposed to post a photo of us every day moving, preferably in something Skirt Sports but it doesn't have to be.  It's a #Realwomenmove challenge and the idea is to show real women moving.  We're given a calendar with ideas of themes for each day.  We can choose to use these themes to take our photos around if we want.  Yesterday the theme was "Inner Kid".  I had planned on a hoola hoop photo originally but I've already posted photos of myself with my hoop so I thought something different would be fun.  What could I do?  Yes, this is where the cartwheel idea entered the picture.  My brain latched onto the idea of a selfie of myself with my feet up in the air, mid cartwheel.  Can I still do a cartwheel?  I couldn't recall the last time I'd tried but how hard could a cartwheel be?  A four year old can do it!

I set my phone on selfie mode and aligned the camera to catch me mid action.  And in case you're thinking I flubbed it up right away ... you're wrong!  I cautiously did a sort of dry run as I made my aging brain remember the steps in a cartwheel.  Hands up, feet spread, one hand down, other hand down, feet following through.  When I thought I had it I pushed the selfie button on my phone and went for it.  Around I went and back up again with a flourish!  That was easy! I had this!  I had set my phone to automatically take 3 shots in a row so I quickly did another cartwheel and then checked my photo gallery to see what I'd captured.

This is what I got.

Oops, let's try that again.
And again.
And again.
And again.

It's hard to time a cartwheel with the self timer.  I lost count of how many times I did cartwheels but they were feeling easy so I didn't worry about it.  I was feeling confident!  Look at me go!

And then, seemingly out of nowhere, my body said, "Enough woman!  You're 44 years old.  Almost 45!  Stop this madness or I'll make you stop!"

I didn't listen.  I still needed that perfect shot.  That was the inner kid in me speaking ... stubborn!!

I didn't get my perfect shot.

This is as close as I came to the image in my head before my leg said, "Ouch", forcing me to stop.

See that photo in the middle, the one with my leg almost straight up in the air?  I think that's the moment my body told me I'm too old for this many cartwheels in a row. I was getting tired at this point and I'm sure my form (if I had any to begin with) was failing.

I have been kicking myself ever since. If only I'd  rested more in between cartwheels. If only I'd warmed up first. I am so good about warming up before I run.  Why did I not warm up before gymnastics stunts?  I wasn't a gymnast so this is as gymnasticy (made up word) as my stunts got for the most part.  Duh! Doh! Or as my sister in law says, "Oofdah!"  That was dumb.  What was even dumber was thinking I just needed to stretch out my leg after it said "Ow".  I tried a leg swing and that's when I really felt the pull in my muscle.  I'm still not sure if it's my hamstring or my glutes that took the brunt of it but if it doesn't feel better in a few days I'll have to go get a professional opinion.  In the meantime, I'm officially on RICE.  Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation.  Well, some of it anyway.  It's hard to Elevate your butt (don't think my family wants to see that effort) and the compression is really just wearing my Skirt Sports Capris with the bit of compression they offer.  I'm also using some oils that are good for muscles, applying Arnica gel, and drinking a turmeric latte mix which is good for inflammation.  And NOT RUNNING.  I'm crying a little as I say those words.  Well, not really but I want to.  I have races coming up and I was feeling so good!  I'm hopeful that since I can still walk and move around for the most part, this will heal up quickly.
Meanwhile, it's time to focus on other things.  Like scheduling all those doctor appointments I've been putting off but need because I'm old now.  Ha!

I'm not a spring chicken anymore.
But I'm also not old.  Not really.
I'm happy with my life and my age.
And even if I didn't get the perfect action shot, I did get a blog post out of the ordeal.
Being older and wiser, I'm able to see the bright spot and humor in my circumstances.
Age has its benefits!
Meanwhile, I'm still trying to decide if I need to capture that perfect mid-cartwheel shot ... after I'm healed up and properly warmed up, of course!  What do you think?