Updated September 18, 2024.
Reaching 70 and being in overall great health emotionally and physically is something I celebrate! Sure, I have my share of “age-related wear and tear”, but nothing yet is holding me back from enjoying life and being active. So, I plan to continue many of the things that have brought me happiness and satisfaction over the past decade, and adding a few more new challenges.
My plans and goals for this year include:
- Triathlons: Sprint, Olympic and Half Ironman.
- Increasing my overall strength and bone density through strength/resistance training.
- Continuing a whole foods plant-based diet with occasional addition of seafood that’s low in mercury and high in omega-3 fatty acids.
- Continue volunteering with the Arizona Trail Association as a Trail Steward, Watershed Management Group, and the Community Food Bank.
- Continue working part-time with the Interprofessional Clinical and Professional Skills Center (iCaPS) at the University of Arizona.
- Follow The Blue Zones Power 9® Principles as much as possible.
- Resume practicing my art/illustration.
- Visit family in Ohio and the UK
Triathlons:
After completing a 50k trail race with Alastair last November, I swore that I never wanted to do another one. I enjoy hiking and trail running, but that beat me up more than I expected! However, since I also love swimming and cycling I figured I would sign up for a few TRIs: Sprint, Olympic and Half Ironman distances.
As of June 2, I’ve completed the Iceman Sprint Triathlon at Lake Pleasant on February 24 (placing 1st in my age group), the Everyone Runs Catalina State Park 5.3 Mile Trail Race (placing 2nd in my age group), and the AZT Vail Scramble Half Marathon trail race on April 14 (the only female in my age group), the Deuces Wild Olympic triathlon on June 1, and the Mountain Man Olympic triathlon on July 14.
I completed a Half Ironman in Santa Cruz on September 8. A full Ironman consists of a 2.4-mile (3.9 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.2 km) bicycle ride and a marathon 26.22-mile (42.2 km) run, completed in that order. A half Ironman is half of all those distances, which was more than enough for me. A full is not on my bucket list! Out of the 2000+ participants, there were only 3 women in my age group, 70-74, and I finished 3rd.
Strength/Resistance Training:
Many decades ago I was somewhat of a gym rat – loved working out and lifting weights. But my career took off in the 80s and most of my time was either spent hunched or a drawing board or in sitting front of a computer. I didn’t become physically active on a regular basis again until 2010, and began to compete in swim, bike and run events. Unfortunately, genetics, age-related wear and tear, and repetitive physical stressor have taken their toll. I have mild scoliosis (first became aware of it with imaging done in 2017), mild arthritis in my knees (per imaging done in 2021), osteoporosis in my lumbar spine (per 2023 imaging) mild multilevel disc degeneration in cervical and lumbar spine, mild to moderate canal stenosis, and advanced facet hypertrophy of the lower lumbar spine (per 2024 imaging). What did my orthopedist recommend? Keep doing what I’m doing as long as pain doesn’t increase significantly, and take ibuprofen. REALLY, that’s it?! Thanks, doc.
I’ve rarely been satisfied with our healthcare system, which is generally more focused on prescription medications and surgery. You have to learn how to advocate for yourself and do your own research, which for me has led me to working with some great physical therapists, seeking providers who take a more integrative medicine approach, and finding reputable/credible books and online resources. Over the past year, I’ve realized the importance of resistance/strength training to help build bone density and strength. Last summer, I started working with a personal trainer and 2 physical therapists to help create safe and effective programs; and this year I joined our local YMCA. I’ll go into more detail about my strength and exercise programs, as well as the imaging findings and how they’re affecting me, in a future post.
Nutrition:
Inspired by nutrition experts like Michael Greger, M.D. FACLM, Dr. T. Colin Campbell, and Ph.D, Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr, M.D., Alastair and I started a whole food plant-based diet at the beginning of 2000. There are numerous clinical studies that show the benefits of eating more plants, and this article on Forks Over Knives sums it up well. If you haven’t read the book (New York Time bestseller) or watched the film, you should. “Incorporating more fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and nuts into your diet could increase your lifespan by a decade or more… Apart from extending your life, plant-based diets are associated with using fewer medications in old age, better sexual health, and lower rates of cancer.” We are also motivated to adopt this diet not just for our health but also the health of our planet. Per the UCLA Sustainability website, “From a greenhouse gas emissions perspective, it is without doubt; significantly better for the environment to eat plant-based foods. If we all eliminated meat and milk from our diets and went to plant sources of these foods, we would be saving at least 50% of our water use.” In the past year, I made the decision to occasionally eat seafood for the essential omega-3 fatty acids, focusing on sustainably caught seafood that are low in contaminants. Apparently a more accurate term for my current diet is “seagan”, (yep, I’m not just making that up). I’ll provide more details about my diet/nutrition in a future post.
Continue working part-time at the University of Arizona:
The U of A was the third school in the United States to establish a Standardized Patient (SP) program as a resource for medical sciences curricula. The program allows students in Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health and Veterinary Medicine to learn and develop their clinical skills.
SPs are trained to:
- Act out real life scenarios based on actual patient cases.
- Meet students along with their faculty and accurately represent a medical patient with various symptoms and complaints.
- Participate in simulated office visits where students ask medical history questions and/or conduct basic, non-invasive physical exams.
- Evaluate the students’ performance in the medical interview, physical examination, diagnoses, and presenting decision information skills.
- Use their bodies to facilitate physical exam practices in various capacities.
I became an SP seven years ago and have found it rewarding in many ways, from learning about medical sciences and anatomy, to developing wonderful relationships with the students and my fellow SPs.
Volunteering:
I started volunteering with Arizona Trail Association five years ago. Being part of this amazing group has been one of the most rewarding and satisfying things I’ve ever done, and I plan to continue for as long as possible. I’ve participated in trail building and maintenance, community outreach events, and in the past two years hosting trail events on segment 4F, of which I am the Trail Steward. The segment is located on the east side of the Santa Rita Mountains, near the town of Sonoita.
Over the past several years, I have volunteered with the Community Foodbank in several of their locations, and also with Watershed Management Group as part of their Flow365 Monitoring Team, tracking the year round status of flow in the Cañada del Oro River (CDO) at a location in Catalina, as well as other locations. After a very dry 2023 monsoon season, the current El Niño is now one of the strongest on record, and we’ve been fortunate to receive significant precipitation! I was thrilled to record substantial flow in my location at the beginning of February!
The Power 9® principles:
You may be familiar with the concept of Blue Zones®, which examines the the role of lifestyle and environment in determining how long a person lives. The Power 9® principles are shared traits of the longest-lived people from the five blue zones around the world.
I try to adhere to these 9 principles, and I feel like I’m doing well in many of them. Areas I feel need work: Down Shift, Wine @ Five, Family First and Belong.
- Down Shift: Many factors affect longevity, and the Yale research indicates that chronic stress can shorten one’s lifespan. Yes, even us retired folks who appear to be having fun and staying busy with things we enjoy can deal with stress everyday. My stressors are generally of my own doing: taking things personally, making my self anxious by projecting scenarios, mind-reading others or overthinking things. I’ve tried mental health counseling, which has helped, but these behaviors have had decades of practice – not easily undone. There are an overwhelming number of self-help books and videos, it takes a while to find someone who’s right for you. I quite like Emma McAdam – therapyinanutshell.com and @TherapyinaNutshell. Getting the “down shift” thing right may take the rest of my life.
- Wine @ Five: A glass of wine everyday – no problem – but just one glass – that’s a problem for me. And I don’t have enough friends to get together with everyday to enjoy a glass, so I might have accept failure on this one, and lose some months off my lifespan.
- Family First: This is a tough one. I prioritize time with Alastair, my immediate family member and partner of 25 years. My brother and his family live in Ohio and while we communicate regularly, we only see them once every few years at the most. I have cousins in Canada, but we haven’t spent much time together over the years and that’s not likely to change. Alastair’s family all live in the UK – his 90 year-old father in Edinburgh, and his cousins and aunt in South England. We visited all of them last fall (see my ‘2023 Highlights’ post), and plan to visit them more in the future.
- Belong: Attending religious services is not going to happen (I’m an agnostic atheist), so I prefer to focus on surrounding myself with more like-minded people, perhaps get involved with another group that advocates for a cause I believe in. Still thinking about this one; so, again, will discuss this more in a future post.
Art & Illustration:
For many years early in my career, I made a living as a freelance illustrator, primarily airbrushing. This eventually opened the door to my more lengthy career in the computer game industry. In the past few years, I dabbled with some drawing, but not on a regular basis. It still brings me pleasure even though I’m quite rusty, so I hope to do more of it this year.
