The tipping point.

Musing about health,fitness and activity in older age.

In the days when I was still working as a specialist nurse we used to generally accept that there was a kind of step change that happened to people’s health at around about 65 years of age : in terms of the kind of acute healthcare that I used to work in even major problems were still rescue-able before that point but more often than not, not afterwards. Having recently passed my 66th birthday and survived a nasty winter chest infection to claim both a state pension and a bus pass I note that it took a very long time to recover from whatever we both had (my partner’s GP thought it might have been RSV virus and I still have slight end expiratory squeak (wheeze) when I am powering up the long hill out of the village I can say that recovery is slower as well.

So…I think I can say that I have reached a tipping point of sorts in that my physical ability and endurance for certain activities – like long distance hiking for example – have now passed me by. Whereas, in the past, I would have thought nothing to shouldering a heavy pack and working my way into the start of a multi day hike in the high desert mountains of the eastern Sierra Nevada (California) or the deep bush/mountain country of New Zealand – well lets just say that I wouldn’t have the confidence to do that today ; I did have one ‘last gasp’ of an outdoor multi day hike plus road trip planned out and even trained for back in 2020 – but we all know what happened next – I used that cash to build a boat instead.

Before my knee replacement and pre Covid lockdown, training for the trip to the canyonlands of Utah that never came about.

This afternoon I have just come in from walk no 70 ; my smallest of apologies for the little double-entendre of my previous post by the way. I often use my walks to plan my posts and today was no exception in that I used the time to think about where I am heading with my thoughts about health, fitness and, simply put, life in general as a, now, pensioner.

Today’s walk through the woods was clear and warm but blustery which is so often the case, down here, in early spring. I am slightly frustrated in that I haven’t been able to take the boat for sea trials as the 25Kn gusts today was too much, I felt, for an unknown boat with new sails. I’m waiting now for a less windy day as it is now light enough for an early start and evening finish : today’s walk and think though was mainly about whether it would be the right moment to retire from sailing or at least to make it a lesser feature of my outdoor life. Strangely enough I was out with my partner this morning and we both wondered how we would get on with the kind of ultralight sleep mats that we used to cope with in our 40’s and I have to seriously consider that I made a bad move in selling the cruising boat that was both a dry home from home, warm with it’s Pansy stove and comfortable for the two of us with it’s permanent double berth arrangement.

Over-wintering in the Exe river maybe ten years ago.

I didn’t want to make this just another post in which I regret making another mistake in my own ownership of boats but rather I wanted to make it a post about accepting the reality of a situation as it is actually happening. Just as I wouldn’t now travel all the way to California or Utah with the expectation of doing a multi day hike neither would I head off into the southern ocean on a tired old maxi yacht with the intention of going around the Horn one more time……been there – done that in both cases. While I might spend time musing about what kind of cruising boat I would have if it were to suddenly become feasible – it would be very close to the size of the Liberty and have the same shallow water capability I wouldn’t do it simply because it would mean having to deal with the a**s who runs the boatyard

The reality of being me right now is that iv’e just become a pensioner and I seem to be roughly on the right path to being an even older one. In several posts now iv’e explored what I think i’m doing with my physical training and my new dietary approach – also, just as with my boats, I accept the mistakes that I have always made with my ‘diet’ throughout most of my life …….simply put, too much sugar. I’m not saying that iv’e got it perfecto and totally in order, for instance right now I am working on what to next after I complete my first hundred exercise/walk sessions ; I happen to think that I have to reduce the volume but up the intensity to preserve my operative knee for as long as possible but while still consistently losing weight.

All of that is mere detail though – there is an old saying that goes something like “for everything a time and place……for everything a season”, I may have that wrong but you get the gist of the idea I am sure. It’s not even that interesting although true that we all live and one day we all get sick and die one day…..some just sooner or later than others. The trick it seems is not to spend some 30 years slowly degenerating as my late father did and then dying of ‘old age’ while having not lived for decades at that time.

The interesting aspect (to me and my life) is which direction to go in next as an outdoorsman/sailor, long distance and ‘heavy’ hiking is out and maybe I have had the best of being a sailor…..that one is still open BTW. As I continue to train and at the same time continue to work on the trike it is possible that 3 wheeled adventures become a possibility although I do still hanker for being on the water at least some of the time. I am somewhat drawn towards having what are, badly named, microadventures whether on foot with a lightweight bivvi pack, similarly with something that floats, paddles and sails, or as I explore the idea more, letting the trike carry me and the load.

New tent needed !

Postscript – post edit (late March)

To anyone who has been following events even slightly it will be obvious that a lot has happened since I originally wrote the post and sadly a lot of what I said is now more relevant than less given that iv’e just had one of the health events that Dr Attia talks about and which none of think about much…….until it happens to us. So, I have had a stroke and i’m not sure how relevant it is that it might be classified as a ‘minor’ stroke ….minor in the terms that I am still talking (often too much) walking and generally being a PITA.

From not thinking about it at all I have gone to thinking about it almost obsessively and that’s not helping either as there isn’t anything I can do about it now except perhaps give it less chance of having a repeat in the future as both of my late parents had happen several times.