Why this?
Background
I startled myself a few days ago. I was walking up a steep hill in North Wales and had to stop to get my breath back. My heart was racing and I felt a little faint.
I have always been physically active, taking care to eat well, maintain strength and cardiovascular fitness and adopt good postures. In my 20’s (back in the 1980’s) I competed in triathlons. I went ski touring many times in Norway, cycled long distances (for example Bordeaux to Barcelona), competed in orienteering competitions, time in the Territorial Army, and so on. I think I would have been classed in the elite fitness camp at the time. From the age of 8, as a cross country runner, to masters swimming and cycle training at my retirement age of 60, I’ve never been one to throw in the towel and say to myself ‘I’m getting too old for this’!
Norway 2003’ish
My Triathlon days 1989
Alps about 1986
But, alas, you are only as fit as your recent past month or two’s activity. Recency and Frequency count! What I did 50 years ago is irrelevant. No doubt it set up good habits and mental fortitude but that’s about all. Even then, they won’t count for much.
I’m 73 years old this year (2026). I’m a full time carer for my wife who has Alzheimer’s Dementia.The forecast for me is quite bleak. Caring full time for someone is stressful and affects one’s well-being. Put simply, it often shortens one’s life. One can just succumb to the stress and monotony of the situation, just be a recipient, just accept the poor hand you have been dealt, or one can try to play that hand with some finesse, ttry to recover some sense of control over one’s life, to find the positive.
One of the things that seems to happen in your 70’s is the lessening of motivation. It’s probably linked to hormonal changes, loss of testosterone for example, hence a doubly difficult situation pertains. Not only does ageing impair physical capability but it also messes with the will to do something about it. Ha!
Fortuitously, in the last week I read ‘What makes Olga run?’ and I realised that all of the ‘good’ habits that I had lived by in my life would be worthless if they didn’t contribute to my well being in my old age, the time when you really need an accrued benefit from a life carefully lived. And so, this web-page.
Principles
This morning I decided to take some steps towards pushing myself. I don’t think it’s too late. Over the next 4 months I’m going to push myself physically. But I want to do this intelligently and attentively (in furtherance of this website’s raison d’être of ‘being attentive’ and ‘without force or haste’) and publicly. Why publicly? Well, I think someone might find this helpful one day. But it might also help me to stay with the course.
Here are the principles I’ll adopt:
Exercise will be attuned to how I feel things are going:
Joint pain = Rest!
Lack of sleep due to caring responsibilities = Day off!
Blood Pressure too high = Rest!
Etc.
I will measure my progress using all of the tools at my disposal. Sports Science will be my guiding light. If I can measure an activity, I will. I’lll share the details of cardiovascular training on Strava, reproduced on this website. Unfortunately Strava is not geared up to capturing strength training.or flexibility or balance exercises.
I have to be selective about the physical activities that I pursue. I am not able to leave my caring responsibilities whenever I choose. So most of my activities have to be within the confines of my property. I have a gym with free weights. I have a large garden. I have a static erg bike (Wattbike). I have a rowing machine (Concept2). I have means to train in the manner of ‘X Fit’: chinning bar, dips station, medicine ball, sand bag, punch bag. I am able to go for local runs.The things I can’t do, which I wish I could, are swimming and outdoor cycling.The local swimming pool’s hours are difficult for me. As for cycling, I can’t afford a mishap given my caring responsibilities.
My training activities will try to reach all fitness modalities, (The 10 Capabilities):
Strength - the body applying force (lift heavy things)
Cardiovascular Endurance - ability for the body to deliver oxygen (go the distance)
Flexibility - the joints ability to maximise full range of motion (range of motion)
Stamina - body's ability to process, deliver, store, and utilise energy (muscle fatigue)
Coordination - combine movement patterns into a singular movement.
Agility - minimize transition time from one movement to another.
Balance - control placement of the body's center of gravity.
Accuracy - ability to control movement in a given direction.
Power - ability for muscles to apply maximum force.
Speed - ability to minimise time cycle of a repeated movement.
I’ll try to achieve these through the programme - see later post, but some are more important than others. Underlying them all is a background neuromuscular adaptation that involves a dialogue between brain and body, a dialogue that I believe we can have some awareness of through attentiveness.
Entry/Exit. I will measure my vital statistics on entry and exit. These are heart rate recovery. VO2 Max, BloodpPressure (pre-prandial). Caliper tests, Weight. Strength tests. Resting heart rate. The bottom line is measuring the change from entry to the exit inn 4 months time. But this is not a scientific experiment. In the end what’s important is how I feel.
Along the way
There’s a lot to learn along the way.
Use of technology for motivation and tracking
The chemistry of fitness
The science of training methods
Nutrition
The physics of posture
Injury and pain
Sequencing activities
Rest
The phenomenology of flow states
I will try to cover each of the things in my supporting blog posts.
Finally
My first tasks will be to catalogue my resources, set out my pre-entry status as honestly as I can (a personal balance-sheet), and write up a calendarised plan. I will begin this in the next post.
What do I hope to achieve? I think the word ‘resilience’ might serve well. I doubt I can much influence the quality of old age since I already have quite good habits. But I think a spell of being tougher on myself will help how I deal with the old-age problems that will certainly befall me in time, as they are starting to do. Whether I can climb that hill in North Wales without stopping to catch my breath, I don’t know. I shall have to wait, train and see!
