I can’t begin to tell you the number of times over the last six years that I got back into cycling I have heard someone say, “Not bad for someone your age.” To tell the truth when you hear it long enough it begins to effect you. After a while you start thinking of everything you do in terms of, “Someone my age.” Not long ago, a few months at most, I decided that attitude wasn’t healthy at least for me. Yes I know there are threads on goals and fitness but I am talking about not giving up and assuming things will only get worse just because we are older. So I did something about it, lost weight, and worked on getting fitter and eating better so I could live better.

I wonder how many others have decided to drop the “caveat” from in front of your cycling. Tomorrow I will be 66 and I believe I am a better cyclist than I last year. Everything doesn’t “have” to go downhill.

My thoughts are that you are only as old as you think you are. I am going to be 66 at the end of the year and just took up cycling a few months ago. I am currently riding twenty miles after work Monday through Friday. Then more miles, albeit at a slower pace, on the weekend.

I took up cycling for almost the exact reasons you state. Too many of my friends and acquaintances were having bypass surgery, heart attacks, stents and two of them with strokes. Weight loss was a side benefit of cycling for heart health. Once I realized I was losing weight I changed my diet to a healthier one and have lost twenty pounds. I am now at my doctors recommended weight.

In the beginning of my cycling a bunch of my neighbors kept hollering at me to slow down before I had a heart attack. There was no convincing them I was doing this to hopefully avoid a heart attack.

Presuming you're not 100 or higher, then there's this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR-OX_KiFdY&app=desktop

He doesn't give a rip what anyone thinks and I think he's damn inspirational. Especially since I know so many who are many decades his junior would couldn't keep up and spend their day complaining about being old.

J.

That was something that prompted this post. I was on a 72 mile Birthday ride with a good friend of mine. (His birthday) we stopped for water replacement at the 50 mile mark and a well intentioned man man walked over to us just to talk. He was surprised we had decided to ride that far, we do several centuries a year anyway, and began to regale us with stories of friends that fell over dead from heart attacks running, playing tennis and yes cycling. He may have been in his mid 50s and looked every year of it. No he wasn't overweight but I didn't see any tone to his muscles at all. we thanked him for his concern and continued on.

I don't hear that much; the few times I did finally generated the comment, "No, for YOUR age it's not bad; for MY AGE it's AWESOME!" And followed by "Don't you wish you could be awesome like me?"

The derisive talk that gets produced from that only leaves one reply: "It's not arrogance when you can back it up."

Yep "never ever give up up" is so utterly true. I love cycling. It keeps me fit for life.

So you give up on giving up?

This was what a touring cyclist we met in a campground had to say about my wife and me as we were reaching the end of a 1200 mile ride acrosss British Columbia last summer. We are the couple in the top photo:
https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/p...id=337557&v=9l

As John Wooden said, "Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”

Never give up! Never Surrender!

Age is just a number, as long as you physically can ride, there is no reason you need to slow down, or ride less then you want to. With the medical technology we have now, even arthritic hips or bad knees, do not need to slow you down, because they can do amazing things with artificial joints. The biggest stop to an active lifestyle these days is not physical it psychological.

Amen, brother!!

I have a friend - my age - who I have believed for a long time is on his own charted and programmed path to death. He was a minister for a long time at a retirement/assisted living/nursing home facility - which he loved. But, right now, he is going through what I call "approaching death stages." He doesn't do any significant exercise. His latest is he wants to move to one of those warehouses for old people where, for $6,000 per month, they will keep you like a pet. Fed and warm and sort of entertained and comforted, and folks sort of wander around all day. However, his wife refuses to let them do that (good for her). I visited one recently, and one "inmate" remarked to me about being in "prison."

Getting old is not for the faint of heart.

I always lie about my age. I tell people that I am older that I really am. Then I bask in their comments, such as "Damn you look great for your age" or "I can't believe that you are still riding at your age." it is funny.

Never give up. That is what I have been preaching for years. If you set you rust. While we all have different physical abilities due to health, keep doing what you are capable of doing for as long as you can. Once you get the bad attitude that you cant do something due to your age, you will never do it again, and you lose some of your life. And that begins the long down hill slide to you know what.

You're never too old to slow down and smell the peanut butter.

The easiest way to do that is to live in the moment. Sounds like a cliche but it isn't. In the moment there is no age.

Local legend Gordy Shields was still active at 95 when he passed in July. He didn't start actively cycling until he was around 50, though he was an active person prior to taking up cycling:

https://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/...ling-obituary/


Skis, bikes 17 miles a day and rides a motorcycle. And still doing it now at 102...

My favorite example was a man named Forrest that was part of the cycling group I joined when I first got back into cycling. Forrest came out to ride almost every time we met. He rode a cat trike because he had a problem with his balance. Shortly after his 84th birthday he came to ride with us on a Friday, he did about 30 miles, rode home and spent a quiet evening and a good day Saturday. Early on Sunday morning he went to be with the Lord. Almost went with his cycling shoes on. I hope to live up to that example. Death will have to catch me because I am not going to wait for it.

This reference is too obscure. Here is the source: https://www.digitaljournal.com/article/360104

The sentiments of others don’t faze me in the least, as it matters not what others think of me or my accomplishments. I only have to be happy with who I am, and to that end, I couldn’t be more thrilled to be me.

Well put.

I live up to my goals and expectations and change both as time progresses. Going downhill is inevitable and to deny that is senseless.

Going downhill, may be inevitable, that doesn't mean you have to hurry it along. It's kinda like that thing in the 70's that said the average 60 year old Swede was "younger" then the average 30 year old North American. That is probably still true, just saw a TV ad, that said 10% of Canadian's are diabetic, it's probably closer to 15%-20% of Americans because obesity rates are higher there.

As I mentioned in another thread, a 69yo friend of my wife recent died from a heart attack. He was a ranked marathoner and had a race scheduled for the day after his death. Don't know if his activities prolonged his life or cut it short.

Pays your money, or not, and takes your chances.

I'm 53 and got started cycling about 6 or 7 years ago. One thing I noticed though, is that people my age that have been hard at since they were kids, they're all 25 years past their prime and getting slower every day. On the other hand, I lost a bunch of weight when I started cycling, and have the potential to be the best I've ever been at it, right now. So I may not be better that those guys that have been doing it since their youth, but I have a little different outlook on it all.

Or another way to look at is, I'm getting faster every day and Lance Armstrong is getting slower every day...so it's only a matter of time!

I got serious at 50 and peaked at 63. At 68, my wife and I are still getting faster on our tandem. We sucked some wheel today for 9 miles at a steady 23 and stayed with the strong group for 30 miles. We're going to hike up to the snow line tomorrow. Hell no, we won't give up.

well to use another metaphor, you can stack the deck in your favor. So many of my peers have decided to retire and couch surf. When I have invited them to cycle or hike sat, "Oh I am too old to start that now." Unless that is what your doctor says I'm not buying it. Change you life now while you still can.