So dammit! Years ago I used to run almost every morning. It was the only aerobic exercise that I enjoyed. Then when I reached 40 my lower back and hips gave out, so I had to stop. And so I bought a bicycle and took regular jaunts along the river (though it actually felt like more exercise lugging the thing up and down three long flights of stairs). More recently I’ve taken to riding the recumbent bike at the gym, where I actually get a good sweat going, usually riding for about an hour.

Then my left knee starting giving me grief, starting a few months ago, feeling all stiff and achy, especially on the stairs. I chalked it up to age & weight and just got on with things. Until the other morning. Somehow overnight the knee situation got serious and it was suddenly VERY painful. So yesterday I went to see Dr Agustín and he wiggled my knee around a bit and went “whoah, listen to that!”. “That” being a clickety-click sound that I’d been trying to ignore. Anyhow, it seems I have a bad case of osteoarthritis which, yep, is most likely due to age & weight. And apparently there’s not much (anything?) I can do about it, other than lose weight to alleviate the stress on the knee. Except I was told to stop cycling (at least until Dr A sees the x-rays I’m getting done next week), which will make weight loss even more difficult. *sigh*