Cross-Fit and Ironman Ironies

    Fitness  was not much of a thing then, during the years when I was growing up, and was even less addressed after the required high school and college gym classes.  Even then, the goal seemed more focused on the exercise drills themselves rather than the effect on the person performing them.   "How many deep knee bends can you do?"  Never mind that that exercise was later found to be destructive to the knee joint and dropped from the program of calisthenics. Same thing for the reverse back bends or whatever the exercise was called when the back was arched upward from a supine position.  The completion of the drills was more important than the person.  (I wonder how many back and knee problems of later life emanated from the ill-thought exercise regime of old.)
     Anyway, I think I was more active than many girls and young women of my age group. I never had much talent for or interest in the feminine pursuits of cooking or sewing or household decorating, preferring to spend time outdoors whenever possible.  I did a lot of walking, with friends, with children, family pets, and alone.  So I would say I have been fairly active for most of my life.
     An active lifestyle I may have had, but not one that ever included sustained physical labor.  Until now.  For the last year and a half I have had to do more actual lifting, tugging, pulling, and pushing than ever before.  If only I'd had CrossFit to prepare me.