I could not agree less with the statements in the WSJ article. Kevin Helliker is, I think, projecting his own sense of loss onto everyone else in his age group.


"baby boomers [snip] can become a threat to their stiffening joints, rigid muscles, hardening arteries and high-mileage hearts."

It's the opposite - inactivity is the threat to joints, muscles, arteries and hearts.


"A number of medical experts [snip] now believe that extreme exercise can increase the body's vulnerability to disease like cancer."

This is true for everyone, not just older people.


"Evidence shows that feeling worse during exercise translates to doing less exercise in the future"

Then what's the problem? Over-exercise leads to less exercise? The author advocates less exercise.


"Of course, exercise [snip] help[s] weight control."

No, exercise leads to increased hunger, as studies have shown. Whatever it's other benefits, weight reduction isn't one of them.


"In my case, the aneurysm-induced prohibition against high-intensity aerobics seven years ago presented an ultimatum: Either give up trying my hardest in races, or quit racing altogether"

Well, I don't have an aneurysm. And even if I did, my choice wouldn't necessarily be the same as the author's.


After a recent operation that saw two stents placed in one of my arteries (detailed here, in the road forum), my cardiologist, my wife, and some of my friends have suggested I slow down a bit. Why should I do this? So that I can live a long time not doing what I want to do? I'd rather go out in my cycling shoes than a pair of slippers.

I'm with Dylan Thomas:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Of course, this was easy for Dylan to say, because he said it while he was relatively young. And he went out from this world rather young, too, for reasons still somewhat mysterious, but certainly not related to over-exercise. Perhaps, with a couple of decades more of living under his belt, he would have decided to slow down, too. We'll never know, and I think that's just as well.

I suppose I could stay quietly in my home, reading and making comments in this forum. That would offer less of a risk of injury or death than riding a bike would. Each time I climb into the saddle, I know I might be killed in a collision with a car, or suffer a heart attack.

I do wear a helmet and carry nitroglycerine tabs with me. But sometimes I ride as hard as I can, even as sometimes I ride easy, and it's as I decide.

I'm old, or at least a lot older than Dylan Thomas, and I'm still with him:

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.