In the winter of 1998, when I was 21, I drove myself to Pompano Beach, Florida in an old white mercury my grandparents gave me for an 8 week physical therapy clinical. I lived in my own apartment in an ancient building that used to be a hotel. Most of the outside lights didn't work or were dimmed to approx 10%, paint was peeling in most places, everything was shadowy at every hour, and it was as creepy as it sounds. A lot of things happened while I was there, alone, as a just-barely-adult, but I need to stick to a topic. One of the very first things I did there, while all of New England was in the midst of dealing with the devastating ice storm of ‘98 that I had escaped, was drive to the beach, and overconfidently run 5 miles barefoot on the warm white sand. Needless to say, using all of those intrinsic muscles that are typically less active because of always being in sneakers, and unthinkingly performing all of the extra work calf muscles must do on a moveable surface such as sand, rendered me unable to dorsiflex or plantarflex (bend my ankles either up or down) for about 2 weeks of my 8 week clinical. So I spent about 10 days of that clinical walking through the hallways to get patients like my ankles were fused in neutral. Try that. It makes you look completely foolish. You have to exaggerate your hip flexion, lean a little to each side as you step forward, and move your legs too far out to each side. This is a ridiculous gait to approach a patient with just before you introduce yourself as a PT student who understands how to move to prevent injury. (Once though, when we lived in Washington state, my incredibly smart PT husband gave himself significant frostbite with a homemade ice pack ;) ). Today, during the 3rd freaking snow day in November, I spent 25 minutes “doing a workout” with M, who cannot sit still for more than about 12 minutes, which is enough to drive any adult crazy by 12pm. So we alternated making up exercises to do in the house. Her first 3 were skipping and then galloping and then running. We did each of these throughout whole songs on Sonos, so maybe 12 minutes total. Skipping and galloping and running at 7 years old in your socks for 12 minutes is one thing. But I am 35 years older than she is, and after 120 seconds, let alone 7200, I could tell I had socks on and am not 7 years old, and do not usually do locomotion activities on my toes for 3 song lengths. My calves are not going to feel like they did in Pompano Beach after 50 min on sand, but it’s reminiscent, for sure. I think you should try this, too, if you are over 30. I like knowing someone can relate, and it counts as exercise. ;) I have a lot of Florida stories that I thought I had forgotten, but this is making me remember them.