Four weeks in I am enjoying a glorious bank holiday weekend. Apparently it will be the hottest early May bank holiday on record. So time to get my dog ravaged garden in order to enjoy the rays. I may even get my running shoes on to kick off my Great North Run training. Can there be anything more glorious than an early morning run in the park with the promise of a beautiful, relaxing day ahead. I’m sure you agree. Or possibly not.

I have submitted my annual entry into the London Marathon. Could it be 4th time lucky?  The odds are not good. I read that I have a 1:16 chance of getting a place so I’m not holding my breath. I could get a charity place but the pressure of raising what is not an insignificant amount is daunting. My preferred charity, Bowel Cancer UK, has a minimum target of £2,500. I raised over £1,000 last year but that was on the back of recovery from heart surgery and the loss of my best friend a few months earlier. It will be more challenging next time. So fingers crossed that my name is pulled out of the box.

A new entry on my 60 for 60 list (see About) is kayaking on the Thames with work colleagues next month. We pick up our kayaks in Limehouse and sail (is that the correct verb) 6km to Crate’s Brewery in Hackney Wick. And no Eskimo Roll. Well not an intentional one.

My strength training is going well. Four weeks ago I bench pressed 15kg dumbbells for the first time. But I needed help getting them into position and some serious ‘spotting’ by my personal trainer as I was nervous that I might drop them on my head. Not the best thing to do when you are taking Warfarin. But now I confidently lift them into position and do 8 repetitions without any support although I need a bit of encouragement to get that final rep in.

The road to doing a pull-up is slow. A lot of focussing on my back muscles. It is those that do the ‘pull’ not the arms. I really have to concentrate to engage them and whilst my personal trainer can tell whether I’m using them or not I’m not so sure. It will eventually fall into place but currently it feels as if the challenge is more mental than physical.

What’s not going so well is the battle to dispose of my excess fat. Although I tell myself I shouldn’t be in a battle with my own body as I have total control (allegedly) over what I do with it and what I feed it. But I often give in to its desire for beer and biscuits. I can’t seem to get back to the place I was three years ago when I felt in control of what I was eating and drinking. I wasn’t on a diet. I just ate, 90% of the time, what my body needed not what it wanted. I became even more attentive to my diet when I was diagnosed with heart valve disease. But with recovery came a more relaxed approach to what I was eating as I needed to put on weight. And I have struggled to get the control back ever since. I want to hit 60 minus the belly fat so I need to get my body and mind on the same side. Here’s hoping that the good weather will help synchronise this relationship.

One thing that I am happy about is no longer being on beta blockers. When I spoke to the cardio thoracic surgeon in May last year he agreed I could come of them as long as my resting heart rate remained below 80 beats per minute. I had hoped that coming off them would be medically supervised but as no cardiology appointment has appeared and I have no faith in my GP (I would be dead if I had listened to him) I have just got on with it. I reduced the dose very slowly and stopped completely over a month ago. My resting heart rate is consistently below 60 bpm. So all good. And I feel great.

Now where is the sun lounger.