Zurichman, very impressed with how well you're feeling and riding. That's some pretty ambitious riding you've got coming up! Good luck and have fun.

Hi All
My birthday next week and I'll still be 65+. Decided it was about time I got the bikes out of the shed and started to ride a pushbike again. I've stopped riding motorcycles but want to remain on two wheels.
First task was to pump the tyres up and then clean the bike.
Then i have to get my head round riding a cycle on the road. Scared me last time
I'll let you know how I get on

I'm 67, no aches or pains. I don't want to brag, but with my fiancee, 61, I ride 200+ miles on a good week if weather allows us to get out 5 of 7 days. We don't ride fast, average 13 mph, plus or minus, depending on the wind. Racing is overrated. Distance riding is our world. Our daily rides are training for our long term goals.

She, a lifelong pavement bike rider, recently asked me for a bike which she can ride on gravel and dirt, hauling her own luggage. Destination rides, including segments of the Great Divide, have been in our conversations, along with self supported and fully supported bicycling vacations. We don't know how long we can keep it going, but we have recently declared that our "short ride" is now 42 miles, up from the former 36 miles. Her idea.

Wow! Very ambitious riding schedule and riding plans. I'm very impressed, though I'm not sure your cycling accomplishments and plans quite go with your user name... :-)

As I've said before, some who are Dead do not lack life, and some who are Grandpa have no children. A good bit depends on your motivation. A life growing up (and a career) on the farm gave me a seemingly rare perspective on riding my bike 40 miles. It's not that far. And at my current stage of life, I basically have nothing better to do. It's a lifestyle, not a hobby. I could be fishing instead, of course, but....

New 80+ facebook group
 

For those on facebook there is a new group. The Royal Academy of Octogenerian Cyclist. You might want to check them out.

Still kicking...
 

Fell in love with cycling when I was 13 and the romance is still alive 59 years later. Oh there have been periods when I've been off the bike for years at a time. Life, including work, family, and other interests sometimes got in the way, and every single time, it had lead to a significant degradation of my health. One of those times was when I started working for NASA and the work and associated pressure totally consumed me. After the first 12 years, I resembled a marine mammal and was according to my doctor a disaster waiting to happen. Didn't have to wait long. The MI I have blocked off my main right coronary artery and took two stents to revascularize. That, my friends was quire the wake up call. Cleaned up my diet, quit smoking, and made time to to ride again. Took me 6 months to get my weight back down under 190 and develop enough strength and endurance to start riding with a group of 50+ guys that were pretty hard core. Another 6 months, and I could easily stay with the guys even on hammerfest rides up Mount Diablo (3800+ feet up) My weight was down to 160 by that time, all my blood work, particularly my lipid panels, was perfect, and my B/P was 110-120/60/75. So imagine everyone's surprise when while waiting to meet my posse in front of a Peet's Coffee, I quietly dropped dead. Yeah, that's right... no pulse, no respiration, nothing. Luckily, there were bystanders witjh CPR skills who thumped on me until EMS showed up. Took 2 jolts with a defibrillator to get me back, but they did. After a angiogram, the cardiologist told me that I should be well and truly dead. Seems I had the well known "widow maker", a complete blockage of the left anterior descending coronary artery, which typically kills 97% of the people it happens to. I was also told flat out that the ONLY thing that saved my ass. Long story short, 2 months later I was back on the bike, riding with my Old Farts group, and feeling as strong as ever. That was 8 years ago, and I'm still fit. The lesson I learned from all of this is riding is essential to my continued life and health. If I spend a little more time smelling the flowers on a ride, it's only because I've developed a better appreciation for the beauty of life. So ride on....

Personally I can't agree with..... "what matters most is getting out and doing it, not how fast."

My desire to maintain maximum speed along with longer distances ridden became more of a challenge for every ride since my diagnosis of *Gleason 10 PCa* then having a *bilateral Orchiectomy* followed by experimental *Cryoablation + immunotherapy injection.* My pursuit of the Quality of Life existence rather than the Quantity of Life has little room for a "slow down to smell the roses" mantra.

OTG -- you are to be commended for overcoming those challenges and maintaining such a great zest for cycling. I can especially appreciate your perseverance -- I volunteer at a hospital and frequently see people who it looks like have just given up.

A number of riders my age or older that I see on the roads flat blow the doors off me, and I hold them in the highest regard. And there are (probably) some people who I can out-perform, if we're measuring speed and distance, or even just being on a bike to begin with. Everyone has specific motivations for why they ride. Yours are clearly defined, and perhaps for some of us they're less clear. But as long as we all ride, whether it's for a sunny day, or for max performance, if we both enjoyed our rides -- that's really what it's all about, IMHO.

It never occurred to me to fret about the things I could do at 32 and I can't do at 72. Thing is, despite some lapses, I've taken pretty good care of myself and I'm frequently mistaken for a man 10 years younger. Been away from riding for a few years up until about a year ago. So I've got some speed and endurance to recover, which means training. The goals I've set are appropriate to me, but I consider my age less of a factor than how I feel. Certainly they're more modest than the ones I had 40 years ago, but so long as I continue to see improvement in my metrics, I'll keep pushing with no concern whatsoever for who passes me or who I pass. There are always plenty of both. Just like 40 years ago... :)

bmcer,
I'm 70.5 and I also have people thinking I'm ten years younger...probably because I still have most my hair and have not gained much weight.
Still, I've found it weird that I now have to actually figure in my age with my athletic endeavors....which are modest. Historically I never thought a ride was "too long"...maybe it would take me a bit longer and I would have to bring extra water but never that I couldn't make it or ride three days in a row, etc.

Now I really have to consider those things and it's a bummer. I'm getting used to it but it makes me wish I had enjoyed and taken more advantage of my younger years. But I suppose almost all older people feel that way. Making your goals an improvement in YOUR metrics is a wise way to approach it for sure. Now where did I leave my prune juice?

Only a fool would try to convince themselves that the passage of 4 decades doesn't bring with it physical changes that must be accounted for. But I'd be an even bigger fool not to take full advantage of the capabilities I still have. My wife has a serious neuro-muscular disorder that is progressive. It's reached the point where she is effectively a paraplegic. But she still volunteers and the local humane society, paints and draws, and attends her "Silver Sneakers" exercise class twice a week. She taught me by example that a person is defined by their abilities, not their disabilities.

Covid-19
 

We are all in the most vulnerable population for serious health risks if we contract the novel Coronavirus. I would like to know how you are dealing with this problem and how it is affecting your daily lives. I’m still riding my bike and going to the grocery store, but not much else. In two weeks I’m having a colonoscopy and endoscopy to try and find the root cause of my recently diagnosed iron deficiency anemia, and am crossing my fingers that it’s not colorectal cancer, which would require chemotherapy that suppresses my immune system. This would make me more vulnerable to this virus, and potentially leave me either ill or cause death.

Well, I need some help from an LBS, and they're closed, doing service by appointment and not calling back. I imagine they're swamped.

I drive a school bus and am off until at least at least March 30th, for now, with pay. I am spending a lot of time at home, doing chores, working on bikes, reading and watching videos, and riding my bikes. I am in south-coastal Delaware, Sussex County, and the first case of confirmed Covid 19 in the county was announced yesterday. The whole state of Delaware was up to 25 confirmed cases as of this morning. I am naturally somewhat isolated, when not working, as I do not do much socializing anymore. I have an appointment at Johns Hopkins Hospital, April 1st, for some neurological testing. I will be contacting them in the next day or 2 to check on that scheduling.

I don't see why it has to be one or the other. I do both depending on circumstances. I suspect we all challenge ourselves some times, according to our abilities and inclinations.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...06cd3b4d22.png

My wife and I just bought equipment to check blood pressure, oxygen levels and body temperature. Unless there is an emergency we are not going to a healthcare facility. My wife's BP is on the left, mine is on the right-notice that my pulse rate is 131-I have anxiety-it went right down to 55 bpm after the check. My nurse practitioner is ok with remote visits and will make changes to Rx if needed.

The BP monitor was about $100 and the oximeter was $70. There are cheaper models on the shelves of most drugstores. I'm pretty sure I had Coronavirus in January the last time I visited my nurse. She gave me an antibiotic because she suspected pneumonia in one lobe of my left lung. I got better in three days. I am 73, my wife is 68.

Is a cuff worn to take BP?

The picture shows a tube going from the machine to the cuff next to it.

Travelling at whatever speed on your bike is better than not at all. Of course this is just my personal opinion, so disregard if you wish. ;)

So, I got a call today from the doctor doing the procedures telling me that they have been cancelled due to the Covid-19 crisis, and will be posponed until the coast is clear. He said that even cancer surgeries are being cancelled, so even if they found something, it wouldn’t matter. Fortunately, my iron deficiency anemia symptoms have subsided since I began taking supplements, so I’m hopeful that my underlying condition is not serious or malignant. Things are getting real tight around here, and hardly anyone is leaving their homes. Even the grocery stores are nearly empty. Yesterday, I went to the post office to mail my income tax return, and the masked postal clerk barked at me because I failed to stand behind a strip of red tape on the floor to keep me at a six foot distance from him. The checkout clerk at the Central Market grocery store refused to touch my cloth grocery bags, so I had to bag my own groceries. People walk around looking like robots hardly ever saying a word or smiling. It’s depressing.

So today I made 65, to my own surprise and the utter astonishment of many in my family. Here's to the next 20. :thumb:

Ya know how how you always have to give your birthday when you call the doc or some services? I do it automatically without thinking.

But the other day someone asked how old I was so I said my age aloud for the first time in a while. 69.
Wait a minute! That dosen't sound right. Can't be. Have I had my birthday wrong? I just turned 50.

Happy to hear that you are feeling a bit better and hoping that your supplements do the trick. It's interesting to hear your zombi-like observations at the market and such as I have seen the opposite. Stores have minimal people and shelves half empty...but people are looking at one another and nodding heads as if saying; "we are all in this thing together" Of course this is the South and people tend to be more friendly in that way. And I say that as a transplanted New Yorker. :) Hope it's the same a month from now. But I have been riding. :)

Bargeon, I have felt the same this past few months as I now have to say "Seventy". It seems a little unreal and maybe embarrassing as everyone is surprised when I tell them. But still....there is a little part of me that doesn't want to be seventy. I mean that's when "old" really become real. The Bible says we get "three score and ten" and anything else is mercy and grace. And I've always agreed with that. But now that I'm here...it's weird. I did 22 yesterday, I better go out for another ride. :)

Thanks for the encouragement, I can certainly use it. I live in North Texas, aka DFW, which is also considered the South, but maybe a bit less friendly than the true South where you live. Part of this is that many people are just plain scared stiff that if they even make eye contact with someone else they might catch the CV and end up on a ventilator. They are now giving out fines to people seen congragating in parks and other public places. Fortunately, I can safely ride my bike around my residential neighborhood without encountering crowds, although dogs can be a problem. Today it’s raining outside, so I’ll get an hour workout on my indoor trainer, while watch DVDs of Laurel and Hardy.

Have you used the at home --- https://www.cologuardtest.com/ --- test??? I've had many members of the 2 cancer forums I belong to also say their treatments have been delayed.

DANG -- I've been upping my age to the next year for years. Going to be 70 in July if I live that long and been riding my new age or more almost every ride. Only managed 105 miles yesterday since still a little tired from Friday/Saturday's 145 miles.

Thinking 3 score and 10 is more like it. :D

I’ve never used Cologuard, because I have no personal or family history of colon polyps or cancer, and all my fecal ocult blood tests have come back negative. The reason for the endoscopy and colonoscopy is that I suddenly had iron deficiency anemia, and my hemotologist wanted to determine if the cause was bleeding in my GI track or some problem absorbing iron. I’ve been taking iron supplements and my blood count (hemoglobin) has returned to normal, so the GI people decided that the situation was not so urgent to risk exposing me to Covid-19 at my age. Also, my dentist has closed his office, so I will have wait to get some fillings done. Today was another beautiful mild Spring day, so I got a nice bike ride around my neighborhood and feel wonderful. :)

You are correct...fixed it!

So the local Albertson's decided to offer "seniors only" hours from 7 to 90 AM Tuesdays and Thursdays. So I headed over there this morning only to be told to come back "when you're old enough" by the ring nosed, green haired (and apparently empty headed) millennial collecting grocery carts in the parking lot. I was born is '48. Was tempted to tell him "do the math", but I have my doubts about his cognitive capabilities.