I’m 59 years old. I am now just over 51 weeks away from my 7th decade. I wanted to get old. The alternative is not good. But it feels as if I got here too fast. I am starting to bore people with talk of retirement when it doesn’t seem that long ago that I started my career journey as a student nurse. As a fairly normal eighteen year old it was easy to look at the patients I was caring for and only see an old person. Not someone that had also been eighteen with all the hopes and dreams that youth offers. Life passes so quickly. It is up to us to make the most of it.

But 59 is the new 39 so hopefully I have a lot of life left to live.

So how did I celebrate? Well it was Thursday so it had to be at the gym with my daughter and personal trainer. And while there wasn’t a bottle of prosecco in sight I did celebrate a 15kg dumbbell bench press. I have a couple of strength goals in my 60 for 60 bucket list (see About) so this was a good start to my 60th year. Strength training progress can feel slow. Sometimes progress can be like buses. Nothing for ages and then the gains all come at once. But I’m certainly stronger than this time last year so the outlook on doing a pull up is good.

I was tempted to have a large glass of wine to celebrate my bench press and my birthday but I had an appointment at the anticoagulant clinic the next day. Alcohol has an adverse effect on Warfarin. It increases its effectiveness. I didn’t want to risk a blood test result which would mean more frequent visits to the clinic. It was a good call as my blood test was spot on so no hospital visits for four weeks. Apart from the inconvenience of having to fit a clinic visit into my working life it always brings back memories of my surgery. The clinic is in the hospital I was admitted into prior to transfer to another hospital. It is the smell of the place. It evokes memories of being wheeled around the corridors for various pre op tests. It wasn’t a bad experience but one I’d rather not repeat. Our sense of smell is so sophisticated. A little while ago I liberated a bottle of Cinzano down the sink which certainly brought back memories of my teenage years. 

This time next week I will be up a mountain. Three mountains to be exact. I’m doing the Three Yorkshire Peak Challenge. I’m doing it with the women I met doing the Three Peak Challenge last August. I had found that challenge hard but it had been spread over three days. This one is 25 miles to be completed in 12 hours. Am I fit enough? It is fairly difficult to train to climb mountains in Essex. Not a great place for elevations. But I exercise fairly consistently. A combination of high intensity, strength and the occasional six mile walk with the dog. I always walk up escalators and do over 14,000 steps daily just by my commute and walking the dog. So fingers crossed I will be able to cross this one of my list. And the weather is looking good so hopefully some great photos. It is going to be fun.