The Return of Rollerblading

When I was younger, my rollerblades were practically glued to my feet. During the summers my sister, brother, and I would rollerblade/bike up to the lake and back almost daily. I don’t quite have the hours now that I used to spend outside, but I’m happy that we’ve managed to make time in our schedule to rollerblade again.

It was a couple of months ago now that I all-of-a-sudden had the urge to rollerblade again. I was excited to strap my rollerblades on only to find out that it had been so long since I had used them that the wheels had completely dried out and disintegrated. Literally… they were dust, all the way down to the bearings. So we went and purchased some replacements wheels.

By that time the urge had passed and the replacement wheels sat, unopened, next to my blades for a few more months. A couple of weeks ago I decided to finally put the wheels on and use them, only to find out that the fastening straps on my blades had become too brittle and had fallen apart. I guess maybe it’s been longer than I thought since I had used them. So, we decided to take the plunge and buy completely new rollerblades. I had forgotten how much fun rollerblading is!

Rollerblades

Part of Jesse’s new treatment routine includes walking each morning. His CF team has recommended this for him every time we go to clinic, and he’s finally determined to give it a try. We’re hoping that “flexing” his lungs will help improve his lung function and increase his next PFT score. He has faithfully walked each morning for the last two weeks… improving his time and distance each day. And I’ve committed to tagging along with him. Walking doesn’t really require me to push myself too hard, with my normal lung function. So instead, I rollerblade around the neighborhood while he walks on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and walk/run with him on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It’s been a great way to start our day and spend some time together.

2 Feet. 1 Goal. Outrun CF.

The Outrun CF virtual race was this weekend. Did you participate? We did… well kind of.

Jesse in new shirt

When we signed up and bought the shirt we had every intention of working our way up to being able to run that day. But then Jesse had to have a minor procedure done on his foot, making him unable to train for the run. Oh well. Neither of us are really runners anyways. We’ve tried to be, knowing that it would be good exercise for both of us, but I’ve never been able to stick to running and running doesn’t agree too well with Jesse’s lungs anymore. We choose other ways to get in our exercise these days.

We did, however, make an effort to cover a good distance walking this weekend. On Saturday we went to a huge community garage sale. We got in a good amount of walking throughout the different neighborhoods. On Sunday we had planned to walk either around our neighborhood or around the outdoor mall near our house. Then we got a last minute invite to Busch Gardens with some freinds, so we definitely got a good amount of walking in going from one end of the park to the other for the rides we wanted to get on. We got in at least two miles between the two days, according to Jesse’s Nike Plus sensor.

So our Outrun CF weekend didn’t go quite as we planned. In the end, Jesse thought it was just as well… seeing as how we didn’t let CF stand in the way of what we wanted to do with our weekend. He outran CF by keeping up with friends and activities on a busy weekend. Take that, CF!!