The first anniversary of fitfrom50.com  has been and gone. I posted my first blog on 11th April  2015 with the intention of it being a diary of my progress towards my fitness goals. And sharing along the way any pearls of wisdom with other men and women of a certain age. If someone had told me that within a few months I would be diagnosed with a serious heart condition that would require open heart surgery I would have questioned their grip on sanity. But here I am 12 months on with the same intentions, the same ambitions, just humbled by my experience.

Life has returned to normal. After seven months off work I have now been back for three weeks and it feels as if I have never been away.  The only thing that has changed is my attitude to life. I am grateful to be alive. I am grateful that I had something that could be fixed. I am grateful that I came through the surgery unscathed. Well apart from the 9 inch scar. My zipper. I was happy with my life before I found out that I was ill but I feel that I am now even happier. All those clichés about living every day as your last etc. etc.  all now make sense. A friend told me that there would be a silver lining. She was right.

I  had hoped that during my unpaid leave I would have qualified as a personal trainer. I was due to attend an assessment weekend on advanced fitness in February. It was cancelled. I was given a rearranged date for this weekend. Again it was cancelled. So I told the provider that I had lost confidence in them and that I wanted my money back. They agreed but I have yet to see the money appear in my bank account. When it does appear I will be signing up with a new provider.When I first started I anticipated the I would qualify in August. I am still on track just a year late. But I do believe my experience will make me a better older adult personal trainer.

An update on my personal challenge which I set myself in my previous blog. My weight is 74.8kg. A loss of 0.2 kg is pretty poor but my body fat percentage has dropped slightly.  I am starting a 8 week Body Transformation Challenge next week. When I did the same challenge two years ago I was really happy with what I achieved.  I am confident that this time it will get me back on track and ready for three challenges that I have set myself this summer.

On 17th  July I will be doing the Great Newham London 10k run. I struggled doing this last year coming in at 1 hour 32 minutes. A photo taken of me as I walked  the last 500 metres really brings home how ill I was. This year I want to replace that photo with one of me entering  the Olympic Stadium, running, a stupid smile on my face and hitting the finish  line in just over an hour.

Last year RAW Inc. Training  (the very best training establishment) held a Summer Slam. A friendly strength based competition over five different events. I couldn’t do it last year as I had to give up training but this year on 30th July it is go, go, go.

And finally on 17th September I will be doing a Tough Mudder Half with the RAW Inc. runners. If all goes to plan I will be running as a qualified personal trainer but if the last year has taught me anything is you can never be sure what the future holds. You can only hope for the best and do your very best to achieve it.