Me to 1st grade class: "over the vacation I turned 50.  Halfway to 100, woo-hoo!"7 yo girl: "Why are you so happy about being so old?Me: "Well I've had a long life, and if I want to live to 100 I just have to do this much again."7 yo boy on the other side of the room: "So basically, you're just starting your life all over again." Me, after a pause: "Why YES I am!" heh - give that boy an A+! ------- Today we only had morning class at massage school, the afternoon session was left open in case we needed a make up class from a snow day.  I used the time to explore the school library - I'm writing a paper on the history of massage.  Left around 3, and it was such a glorious day I got on my bike and did a short little 18 mile ride. Good lord, but I have de-conditioned!  Not doing any centuries any time soon, but it DID feel good to be on the road.  Heart rate info from monitor: highest rate was 184, averaged 145 for the whole ride (which included stops at traffic lights).  Which sort of begs the question about maximum heart rates.  Rule of thumb says 220 minus your age, so theoretically my heart shouldn't be able to pump faster than 170 beats per minute, but I exceeded that on this ride.  Not for long periods of time mind you, and more than once I read 174ish on the watchface. Average speed 14.9.  On the slow side, but then, this was my first ride in MONTHS!!! Soon as I got home I showered and went over to L & R's house to practice massage.  Just learned how to do deep tissue work on the forearm, bicep and tricep.  ris an organist and I was pretty sure he would benefit, his partner L works an office job, type, type, type, so, more or less the same story. A thought about where I'm at with this: When we finished learning the trademarked Bancroft Swedish massage sequence it felt like a big achievement.  Plus it is so well put together that if you stick to it you give a thorough full-body massage. Then we got to the first Regional Massage Applications class and they told us that now we need to improvise, get creative, "color outside the lines." Oh dear. Well today, I got a sense of what that might actually look like. L & R had just finished doing a massive yard cleanup (they had three trees removed) and were definitely glad I had showed up!  I needed to practice the arm work, but in addition R was having some neck/upper back issues, SO, for his massage I did neck, traps, arms, all supine, then prone worked on his triceps and upper back.  I don't have a lot of specific work I can do there yet, other than the basic sequence, but I have learned a few extra moves, so I put together something that would address the owie parts. L didn't have the same issues but did have mid-low back stuff, so after the arm work I did the back sequence with a few additions. They were both happy with the massage they got, I felt like I was able to practice what I needed to work on AND give them both something they needed.  I'm also becoming more aware of how to "read" the tissue with my hands - there are definite changes in texture when the knots in the muscle relax.  I want to go back over my anatomy notes because the more clear it is in my mind about where all the structures are the more precise I can be in the massage.  Some things that feel like knots really aren't, they are divisions between adjacent muscles, or tendons, or sometimes bone. Long day, but good!