It’s time, high time, to tell you about one of the many benefits I’ve been seeing thanks to my get-fit program.

I’ve told you a good deal about the injuries and missed sessions that have slowed but by no means discouraged my fitness effort.

But there have been benefits, psychological and emotional, as well as physical ones: increased heart and lung capacity, strength, flexibility and agility, and decreased weight.

Today let me tell you just about that nasty little matter of weight, or, if you’ll allow me the strong language, "flab."

In a recent conversation I had with Air Force physiologist Dr. Reginald B. O’Hara, he talked a bit about the differences in drawing up a fitness program for a young active-duty servicemember, and designing one for a middle-aged person like me. I’m 57.

One key difference, he said, is that with a young active-duty person you can pretty much just give them the program and they’ll work through it with probably few if any setbacks because of injuries or anything else.

I’ve been keeping you updated on the things I’ve been doing during my workout sessions and how I’m loving the entire process. But today it’s time to tell you about something I’m not doing.

Or, put another way, about The Problem of Missed Workouts.

When I’ve had to skip a workout it’s almost always been because of either injuries or the irregular hours that are not at all unusual in the lives of news people.

I’m on a six-day- a-week program designed for me and overseen by Air Force physiologist Dr. Reginald B. O’Hara.

Although getting fit enough to keep up with ground troops in Afghanistan continues to be one of the key aims of my get-fit program, my scheduled November deployment downrange is off.

Some recent changes made at Stars and Stripes affect reporter deployment schedules, including mine.

But my effort to train for combat conditions doesn’t change, and neither will the duration of our Making it Fit blog, which was to run until late January, and will.

When we launched the blog in late August, the plan was — and remains — for me to write weekly updates on my effort to follow a fitness program designed for me by Air Force physiologist Dr. Reginald B.

Although my push to get my legs strong enough for jogging has gone pretty well since my last post, I discovered I’ll have to put side shuffles on hold, at least for this week.

I made that discovery on a cool cloudy afternoon this weekend, when I made my first aerobic session that combined a three-mile walk with varied movements — side shuffles as well as walking backward and in zigzags.

I resumed aerobic exercise on Monday after a two-week halt because of knee pain. Monday’s three-mile walk was a test of whether my legs could handle a resumption of aerobic sessions and, so far, so good.

The day’s brisk workout on a cool, cloudy late afternoon in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, was important because it served as a transitional session to a new interim set of aerobic workouts I have to complete before I can return to jogging.

Air Force physiologist Dr. Reginald B. O’Hara has advised that I hold off on jogging until I make my legs stronger. My heart’s ready, he said, but my legs aren’t.

Maybe I shouldn’t be left alone without adult supervision.

Or maybe I should be drinking strong coffee before any morning workout.

Because I almost caused a big self-inflicted setback to my get-fit program.

This became clear only hours – about six hours – after I’d told you how thrilled I was last week to have run for the first time in years and how my legs came through with no pain whatever.

Well, I spoke too soon.

Hours later there was sharp and persistent pain in the base of the left knee and it would at times extend several inches below the knee.

I ran again today for the first time in years and felt nothing but good, and encouraged.

Encouraged because I think the last time I’d run was in 2002 on the track at Camp Walker’s Kelly Field in Daegu, South Korea.