Turning 60 on My Seventieth Birthday | Healthy Aging Series: S12 E27

Two sobering things happened to me this week.

The first was my Garmin watch announcing that my fitness age is 60. It uses my average resting heart rate, which has been 53 BPM, my body fat percentage, and the number of vigorous minutes and vigorous days I spend exercising.

Turning 60 on my 70th birthday is encouraging.

I walk a lot! I do a lot of cardio. I do lots of hills. Honestly, I love feeling my heart beating in my chest. I go to the local park and strap 30 or 40 pounds of cat litter on my back and do 2 to 4 hill repeats.

The second thing that happened this week was starting cardiac rehab.

I sat down with a wonderful nurse, Dee Dee, who evaluated my cardiac history and habits and helped me develop a plan to ensure I live to be 90. In the last episode, I walked you through the week of June 15-19, which started with angina because of a 90% blocked RCA and ended with receiving the gift of a stent.

It was very sobering. But it was also a gift. No heart attack. No heart damage.

The two lessons I learned were these: You cannot completely hike or backpack your way out of a marginal diet.

And I learned that I didn’t die, in large part, because of my cardiac history.

These two events moved me to look back (What did I do right?) and to look forward (What do I need to change nutritionally in order to ensure my good cardio health?).

First of all, what did I do right?

Looking back for me means taking an assessment of the past decade to see how I prepared for life with a stent.

What better way to look back than using Facebook? It’s the devil, but it’s my devil.

I did a search back to July 19, 2016, and I saw a picture of me at the summit of Mount Bierstadt.

A Ten-Year Review of My Fitness Life

Here are some of the things that I saw as I reviewed these past 10 years:
I did my first 14er on my 52nd birthday, Mount Massive, in 2008. In August of 2011, I did eight 14ers in nine days.

In these past 10 years, I did Mount Sherman twice and Pike’s Peak last year with my son Trevor. I’ve done the Grand Canyon nine times in the past years. I’ve done a rim-to-river-to-rim twice, where you go down and back in one day. The last time was in October 2025. One of the toughest things I’ve ever done.

On one trip, I hiked out to Plateau Point and back in a day. I backpacked to the bottom during the pandemic. It was eerie. I’ve done Canyonlands National Park 15 or 20 times, three times in the past decade. I did some solo backpacking and several trips with my son.

The last time was October 2025. I plan on being there again this November.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve backpacked into the Red River Gorge. I’m guessing 20 or 30 times. Probably more.

I know the Gorge like the back of my hand. I’ve done many solo nights there (thank you, Garmin and inReach). I’ve been joined several times by people, including my wonderful wife, my brother, good friends, and a few pups.

I hiked the Smoky Mountains several times over the past 10 years. I tried to do Mount LeConte at least once a year. I’m headed there sometime this fall.

Colorado

Over the past decade, I’ve done many, many hikes in the Pikes Peak area: Pancake Tocks, Devil’s Playground, Lovell Gulch Trail, Catamount Trail, Garden of the Gods, and the Incline, which is a trail that is 1 mile in distance, but you increase your elevation by 2,000 feet. The last time I did it was in August 2024. I’ve also done some hiking in the Cañon City area and around Royal Gorge.

Over these past 10 years, I’ve done many national parks: Teton National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Canyonland National Park, St. John’s National Park, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Capital Reef National Park, Joshua Tree National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Mammoth Cave National Park, and the Smoky Mountains, not to mention the number of hikes in the Parklands of Floyd’s Fork.

I have hiked hundreds and hundreds of times in the Jefferson Memorial Forest.

And, of course, I need to mention my Sunday morning bike rides on the Louisville Loop. Over the past decade, I’ve had my Cannondale 613 out, enjoying the sunny weather.

During these past two or three years, I’ve been spending more time hiking in Bernheim Forest.

Along with the hiking, backpacking, cycling, and climbing, I’ve spent a ton of time—one to two hours each week—in my workout room, lifting weights and stretching.

This is why my Garmin watch says I’m turning 60 on my 70th birthday.

That’s the past.

Me and My Stent

My future involves taking a little 4 x 24 mm Synergy Megatron Drug-Eluting Stent wherever I go.

It will be a reminder that, in fact, I did not die and that I am being chased by the hound of hell called coronary artery disease. So, what does my future hold? What are my plans?

There’s a saying that goes something like, “Leave the dance with the date that brung you.”
My ‘date’ has been hiking, biking, lifting, walking, and, over the past couple of years, climbing.

In September, I’m going to carry it on a 25-mile backpacking trip to Cirque of the Towers in the Wind River Range, Wyoming. In October, I am going to drag my little stent up to the top of Mount LeConte. In November, it’s going with me to Chesler Park, an area in the Needles District of Canyonland National Park.

My genetics played a big part in my coronary artery disease. My father had a five-bypass surgery when he was 72.

Having said that, I need to clean up my diet. I snack too much, which means too much salt and too many partially hydrogenated oils. I think that partially hydrogenated oils are the hidden cause of coronary heart disease.

I never thought that I had a bad diet, but yep, I have been eating too many snacks. Omega-6 oils create the slippery slope of inflammation. Inflammation is, in part, the cause of most heart disease. Inflammation increases the likelihood of plaque, which narrows and eventually blocks blood flow.

So, I’m going to dramatically decrease my intake of snack food—and really, I’m talking about ultra-processed foods. The doctors, nurses, and nutritionists keep telling me to decrease my saturated fats, so that goes too!

When I was in my late 50s, I became a Certified Personal Trainer and a Senior Fitness Specialist. I’ve forgotten a lot, so over the next year, I’m going to refresh that certification material.

Knowledge is power over coronary artery disease.

What I had on June 19, 2026, was a life event. It was a formative experience. That little 4 x 24 mm metal mesh cost me (Medicare & Humana) about $20,000, and it was worth every penny.

It taught me two lessons.

First, keep doing what I’ve been doing, which is exercising.

Second, pay more attention to what I eat. Avoid junk food and highly processed food.

In 10 years, when I have my 80th birthday, it is my hope to look down at my Garmin watch, which I’m sure will be mostly an AI watch, and have it announce that my fitness age is 70, or maybe even younger.

To read more entries to the Healthy Aging Series by Mark Neese, click here.