My problem is that I lost the major veins in my legs. The blood goes down, but it doesn't come back like it used to. As long as I'm on level ground to a few degrees decline, I'm great. If I hit an incline of only a few degrees I can really feal it. And if it gets to be 5 to 10% plus, I can't walk more than a few blocks without resting. Truly pathetic, but then that's the breaks.
Sounds like a great present. Good job.
When I was 40, I tried very hard to get in shape. At the pinnacle of my performance, I managed to complete a 15 mile non-stop skate in 66 minutes. That feat was made possible because my doctor put me on Beconase for my allergies. It had the side effect of eliminating all the pain in my back, knees and ankles. When the prescription ran out, I felt like I'd been mugged with a baseball bat. That 66 minute time dropped to 72 minutes and hurt like hell.
For comparison, my son skated that same 15 mile path in a pack with some rather elite inline skaters. He completed the circuit in 44 minutes.