70 : Fit and Healthy

I’ve got a towel draped over my back so the sweat doesn’t run down my skin onto the chair I’m sitting on to type. I have just returned from my morning walk and run up and down the Tjampuan Ridge trail in Ubud, Bali. I broke my own record this morning and did it from Villa exit to Villa entry in one hour and 5 minutes. My Oura ring tells me that it is 7.4 kms, this may or may not be the case. The point is that I did it and that I’m doing it almost every morning.

I recall back in the mid 90s when I was in my early 40s I met a man in the local gym who ran daily on the treadmill, he may have been in his late 60s I don’t really know but he was really fit and had great legs with well defined muscles. He spoke to me from time to time and we had a bit of a mutual admiration society going on. I decided back then that I’d like to look like him when I turned 70.

In the ensuing years I went off the rails and to put it bluntly I got fat and my fitness waned. Almost 4 years ago I took stock of my life and made a decision to return to my original goal to grow old gracefully. I’ve been working hard ever since to return to the the level of fitness I enjoyed back in the mid 90s.

I’m quietly pleased to report to anyone who cares to listen that I have achieved my goal.

I am 70. I have a bounce in my step. I’m not scared to look in a mirror and I can bound up and down steep pathways dripping with sweat as the morning sun rises.

My circadian rhythm is working well. I seem to naturally get out of bed at 5.45 a.m, well at least I do in Bali. It’s yet to be seen what happens when I get back to summer in Melbourne in less than 2 weeks. If I get out the front gate of the villa at 6.10 a.m I’m happy.

Half way down the ridge this morning a memory popped into my awareness. It was the early 2000s and I had gone into the local Athletes Foot store in Camberwell to buy a new pair of ‘running shoes”, not that I was running much back then. I’d put on a bit of weight from my heyday and my fitness had well and truly gone down the drain. The guy who managed the store looked at me and said something that shocked me! It should have been a wake up call at the time but unfortunately I let it slide and continued to put of weight and get slacker and slacker. He said “ What’s happened to you? I used to look at you and I was inspired. My goal was to be like you when I reached my 50s.” Shit if that wasn’t enough to turn me around nothing was. The thing is I didn’t take heed and continued on my downward spiral for more than a decade.

I’m very pleased and proud to say that those years are now behind me and I’m back on track. 78 kgs and getting fitter and healthier as each day goes by.