The 60yo Type 1 Diabetic Athlete

  It has taken me years to do a World Loppet ski marathon since becoming an M60 and starting this blog. In 2020 I travelled to Finland to do the Finlandia-hiito but the race was cancelled for lack of snow! We had to head a long way north to Vuokatti to find good skiing. Then there were races cancelled because of Covid, and races that were on, but border closures meant I couldn't compete. Finally, I made it to the Hoppet at Falls Creek. An arthritic knee meant that I had done no running, bike riding or skiing in the 6 months before we travelled down to Victoria so my time was nowhere near a PB. 2hrs 43 mins for the 39km, shortened from the full marathon distance by lack of snow on one loop of the course. Unfortunately, there was no race photographer so I have included 2 pics from training skis in the days before the race. One shows Ana with Mt Buffalo centre far horizon. The other shows me and mid-kid on a different day near Mt Nelse with Rocky Valley pond in the background. G...

 Bouldering gyms are one of the funnest ways to be active and have become massively popular. There are now many bouldering/climbing gyms within a short drive of my house. Kids have parties there. Retired folk meet there on weekday mornings. Schools take students there for sport.  They have equipment for people with a wide range of physical abilities, including those who wish to quantify their performance over time. Enter the Moonboard.   There are no problems easier than V3 on the Moonboards near where I live. Make sure you are sufficiently trained and warmed up before trying. I delayed writing this post because I was making progress on a V5 problem, but failed on that so my best is still a V4, Pugs in a Blanket. V3s I have ticked are The Warmup Problem, Jug Rash, That Problem, Kat in the Hat and Best Ball. There are different flavours of Moonboard. If yours is not a 40 degree wall with yellow, wood and standard holds you will not be able to do the same problems, but you ...