Fall has always been my favorite time of year with all the changing colors, cooling temperatures, and cozy nights in bed listening to the rain dance across the roof above our heads.

Sweaters, fuzzy blankets, and wooly socks are my go to, so it isn’t so easy trying to live like that during the warmer months of the year… Fall is my jam!

This time of the year all the way through til spring is my prime for trail time… hey, that rhymed!

All of my life has been a kind of roughing it lifestyle… I acclimated to living outdoors in the darkened streets, at the tender age of eleven… I was born for running in every sense of the word.

As time rolled forward, I developed into an adult with the same inclinations as that runner of my childhood years… fast and light… able to bolt with lightening speed!

Fast and light…

Running fast and light…

Walking fast and light…

Walking light…

and now just walking!

This year is a bit rough for these running, walking legs… the cold, it seems, is much less forgiving nowadays. Not just the weather temps, but my own body is rebelling against this seasons trail time. Don’t worry… it won’t stop this traveler… but it has forced me to slow a bit and exercise more caution. Get it?! Exercise… oh well, if I have to explain it, then it probably wasn’t as funny as I thought it was.

Anyway, yesterday I had to laugh at myself while considering the changes life has brought about for this body. As I was walking out on the trail, I did some self assessing of things like my gait, where my feet were making contact with the ground, and my actual walking posture… all of which greatly impact how my fibromyalgia will repay me later in the day. I’m not sure how long it has been since I did this last, but things are different lately.

Whatever happened in my back several years ago has come full circle back to the source of the injury, and as I have refused to stop walking, my body has apparently made its own changes to accommodate. Never fear though… we all know that I am currently getting things figured out about the injury. However, in the mean time I will have to adjust my regime to avoid exacerbating the situation. I decided this yesterday after a walk that began with me walking like the holy woman of God that I am, graceful and smooth… to the swagger of a 14 year old gangster wanna be, nearly dragging my left leg along like a one legged pirate!

These shoes were apparently made for walking, but not 6 miles a day… and not at the speed of a 20 year old marathon runner. In an attempt to preserve what remains of my hip sockets, I am officially standing down! It is time to take more days off, walk a bit slower and not so far all the time, and show myself some grace… I think it’s only fair, don’t you? 54 years of running has earned this girl some chair time… not too much mind you… but just enough.