On Being Sixty. Week One Of Fifty-Two

Week One Of Fifty-Two. 

What strikes me, is how important one week is. 

It is more important to me now that I am on the down side of my life span. What I also realise is that I would have benefited more in life if I had understood that distinction in my younger years. But, I didn’t and it doesn’t matter. That is also something of value that I have learned this week, this week one of fifty-two. The distinction, that all of the worry and regret that I didn’t truly understand until now, will not change the fact that the value of every second of my life was important. So in setting this goal of achieving the sixty things in this next year has allowed me to see the value of my life and the time that I have gifted to me by the miracle of being alive at all. I have an opportunity every minute of every day to live life to it's fullest.

One of the unexpected things that has come from this endeavor, is the feeling of my own humanity. I, like many people my age, am confronted with the fact that I will someday be a memory and not a reality. One day I will run out of days. All of my dreams and plans will simply disappear along with the passing of my life. So what then is the reason for the time we are allotted, what are we here to do?

Why? This is a question I have been asking myself a lot lately. Why do I do the things I do? What is the reason that is behind me getting up in the morning and going to work? Why did I want to have children? Why do I love my wife so much even though we have had our difficult times? So difficult in fact that any sane person (Including my wife) might have quit in search of a better option, but we didn't. At least that question I can answer; I love my wife so much that the thought of not having her in my life seems unbearable. It seems to me that a part of my body would be missing. It seems a crime that all of the growing together through thick and thin just to throw it all away would be a sin.

The rest and the reason why, is going to be at the forefront of my thinking and discovery over the next year. In fact that is the reason for wanting to achieve the sixty things. I did not know that when I started out with the list, I just thought it would be cool to say I had ticked them all off. It’s the journey. I know that’s a cliché, but it’s true. I just had to grow a little in order to understand that distinction.

In week one I have completed two of the items from my checklist. I have worked on several others and I have grown emotionally and spiritually. I have spent more time with my family and I think become a slightly better person. Today I went fishing with Paige. Paige is seven and she is willing to fail because as yet, society has not  been allowed to infect her with a value on failure other than the fact that it is just part of learning. We had a great couple of hours at the lake, we caught a fish and we shared in a common bond of simply being. 

Failure is part of the journey it happens to all of us.

Lee

On Being Sixty: 60 Things To Do Before I Am 60

Sixty Things To Do Before I am Sixty!

1. Write a list of sixty things to do
2. Complete and submit my screenplay
3. Finish three more screenplay drafts, based on the ideas that I have
4. Go to Venice and stand on the Realto
5. Go to Vienna
6. Finish Paige’s Room
7. Finish Erin’s room
8. Get my Headshots done
9. Get my teeth fixed
10. Paint a great piece of art for the house
11. Pay off all of the excess owed on loans etc
12. Sell all of the copies of Esmeralda (that’s worth £12,000) @ £5.99 each
13. Complete the front and rear gardens
14. Complete push it for Peace
15. Complete the London 10 K
16. Complete the London Triathlon 2015 in less than one hour!
17. Qualify to ware GB Colours
18. Re do the kitchen
19. Fix the Oven and Hob
20. At least three romantic weekends away with Chris
21. Redecorate our bedroom and make it passionate
22. Blog 60 times
23. Get 60 followers for my Blog
24. Reach 2000 followers for my twitter account
25. Design and build a fitted wardrobe in our room
26. Create £5,000 in a savings account
27. Handwrite at least 12 letters to Ryan
28. Re-condition my car
29. Buy a new camera Cannon 70D
30. Improve on my website
31. Apply for a promotion
32. Refocus my Kindle Books and publish at least six
33. Start a family tree
34. Organize all of our photos into albums
35. Convert our video into edited digital
36. Be willing to fail!
37. Do an amazing Halloween setup at the house
38. Disney Paris
39. Do something special for Christmas
40. Complete all of the Christmas shopping by Thanksgiving
41. Go Camping with Paige
42. Go fishing with Paige until she catches her first fish on her own
43. Visit my family in Stockport
44. Make a short film
45. Replace Chris’s Wedding Band
46. Teach a monologue coaching class
47. Learn 4 Monologues
48. Go to the Theatre at least four times with Erin
49. Raise £500 for charity
50. Take my two days from work and volunteer for charity
51. Be a better listener
52. Visit the beach where my mothers ashes were spread
53. Go camping on my own and spend that time alone to reflect
54. Replace the dish washer
55. Claim back the conservatory
56. Sort and throw out all unwanted items to make room in the house
57. Grow a wall garden with Paige 2015
58. Do something green for the house Photo or wind
59.  Attend my In-laws 50^th Wedding anniversary
60. Spend time with my Son and Daughter-in-law

Think Positive, Ask Why! 

Lee

On Being Sixty

On August 23^rd 2014 I entered into my 60^th year. To be clear, I am 59. I find this both jolting and amazing. 

When I look back to when I was ten and think of the life expectancy of many of my Grandparents generation, it strikes me immediately how fortunate I am to live in a time when health and longevity are so much better than of those times. Both of my Grandfathers died at age 65 of a similar lung condition brought on by the working environment they were exposed to. I look at my life now and I am extremely grateful that I am not only healthy but that my generation in general is in a much better position to face our future. I have just finished my second London Triathlon along with many my age. While I realise that this is not Earth shattering stuff I am happy that I can look forward to what appears at the moment, a long and healthy future ahead of me.

It struck me that in this last year of the decade of my fifties, I should mark it with a yearlong celebration of my life. What could I do, where could I go and what landmarks might I achieve if I put all of my focus towards those goals? I work very hard and I love my job, but I know how easy it is to let that define the person we are. Nothing wrong with that you might say, however I don’t want my life to have been all work and no play.

I am going to write on this blog sixty times and chronicle the next year of my life. I blog because it is the way we do things these days. An online diary, a letter to the world and a way of sharing what is important to me. I think that is why so many people Blog. If it touches one other person, so be it and if not then at least I will have a diary that I hope will inspire my Children to examine their lives and in doing so, live better ones.

I am also creating a list of 60 things I want to do before I am 60. At first glance that does not seem like a lot, but when you think there are only 52 weeks in a year, suddenly that brings the year into focus. I will post the list when it is complete which should be within the next week. Some of the items are quite large and some no so much, but put together they make up a year of doing rather than of talking about. I hope I am left with a wonderful list of achievements on my 60^th birthday and not a list of regrets and could have been.

I hope you will join me with your own list of things to do before your next birthday. Let’s make the world a little better for having spent a year together.

Live Passionately, Ask Why!

Lee

Biker Dad. Training Is Paying Off!

Training Is Paying Off

It makes sense really, the harder you work the better results you get. That is of course if you are doing the right thing. Einstein did say after all: Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

At the moment that appears not to be the case. At the end of my first week of training I seem to be moving in the right direction and my times for each leg of the of the super sprint reflect that work.

10K Ride 28.41

Swim 9.34

Run 17.04

Have a great week!

Lee

Biker Dad. End of Week One Triathlon Training.

End Of Week One And Still Alive

I am amazed at how quickly our bodies recover from the absence of exercise. Over the last ten years I have, like many, worked too hard, drifted from a good to a not so good diet and lost sight of my goals. (As well as putting on a few pounds) The recent collapse of the world economy has meant that we have needed to focus on the things that are important to us, our families and also us as individuals. In short, I had lost my way.

As I have said before, last year I discovered that I could exercise and have fun and more importantly, I discovered a sport that I wanted to keep going with, Triathlon. The mistake I made last year was not training enough. I thought that last years event was a one off and that I would chalk that up on my Bucket List and move on. Turns out that while I never liked running (even in the Army) I enjoy the fact that is part of the whole, so suddenly running is fun because it is a means towards an end. Swimming I have always loved ever since being a small child and swimming at school and the Army level.

I always had a bike as a boy but beyond cycling around Norfolk (England) in school holidays, I did not see it as anything other than a form of entertainment or a way to go fishing.

So, the end of first week:

The challenges I have had are with the Bike Leg mostly. The issue is that where I ride right outside work, it has two sets of lights on a 2 ½ K circle route. I can hit both lights up and back (4 Times) on each lap, so I have never really been able to judge how well I am doing. I am moving the cycle part to a route near home where I have a 5K outward-bound run and then also back the same. There is a light but at worst `I would only hit it twice.

Swimming on the other hand has seen the best results with my 100 metres coming in under 2 minutes now. My 400 metres looks good at 9.5 minutes. The training has developed to a 400 metre warm up 16 X walks and sprint swims and 100 metres timed to get in under the 2 minutes. My next move is to add two lengths completed in under 3 minutes then the following week build up to 4 lengths and so on until I have the hundred metres down in 8 minutes.

My running is going well (I was never a strong runner or fast, even in the Army) I sometimes wonder how I ever became a PTI. But, I knocked 45 seconds off my previous time and I am going to work on my running in a similar way to how I work on my swimming. Break down the training into bite sized chunks and build up to the 2 ½ K which at the moment sits at 17.40 My goal in training is to get it down to under 16.

 I rested yesterday and today and I am going to completed the Cycle leg and the run leg back to back on Sunday using my new 5K route.

In all, a good week and I am happy with my work and the results. Onward and upward.

Go For Your Dreams

Biker Dad. Work Hard Have Fun See Reults!

A Bit Of Old Fashioned Hard Work.

I am lucky that where I go to swim is nice clean and relatively quiet pool. What it does is affords me the opportunity to train, with limited interruption to my routine. Today I put into the regime a time honoured secret that has always worked for me over the years; Hard work and focus, oh and fun, it must be fun.

Fun I feel is dependent on the individual’s definition of course, and, fun to me is when I see the results of me efforts. You know, reaping the fruits of ones labours. 

In order to beat last years times in the London Triathlon, I am going to break down the whole thing 

into measurable pieces, with attainable goals. My last run, which was yesterday I broke the 18 minute barrier for 2 ½ K. My time was 17 minutes 40 seconds. So my training will be broken into 1K chunks that I can time. My goal is to run a 6 minute 1K and, if I can consistently run that time, it will give me a 15 minute 2 ½ K, which is the distance I will do in the London Triathlon.

Tonight though, my swim training was borrowed from when I swam in the Army. Essentially is was a bit like shuttle runs. You swim a length at full speed and then get out and walk back down the pool, get back in the water and then swim another length at full speed. Don’t cheat by walking slowly, just give yourself enough time to regain some breath and then keep going. I did 16 lengths, which is my 400 metres. I then gave myself a five minute rest and did a time trial on 100 metres (4 lengths) my goal was 2 minutes, which theoretically would give me an 8 minute four hundred metres. Half way down length three I sucked in half the pool (Hey it happens) and as a result half way down lap four, I had to revert to breaststroke (Damn it) my time was 1.58. I am happy with this as my first session of training that was geared to improving my speed, focus and strength.

My next goal is to complete six lengths at the 2 minute pace for 100 metres. As I get stronger I will add two more lengths and so on, until I am up to the sixteen (400 metres)

This is my game plan until I start to see results for all three disciplines. 

• Take the whole. 
• Break it down into measurable achievable pieces.
• Work hard and have fun.

The other benefit is that my pants are starting fit again.

Remember, work hard, have fun!

Lee

Where Do We Go When We Die?