#1
|
|||
|
|||
Staying young
My no-good brother-in-law left this morning to go back to Indiana.
He's my wife's brother and I love him, but all the guy wanted to do was sit on the couch, watch television, and drink beer. The only time he would get off the couch was to go outside to smoke since we wouldn't let him smoke in the house. He's 50 years old and must weigh 300 pounds. I tried my best to entertain him while he was here but, after he left I was excited to get back on the bike and go for a ride. My friend Matthew and I rode to the St. Mark's Lighthouse on Apalachee Bay. On the way back we stopped at a biker bar/oyster house, the only place to get a bite to eat in Newport, Florida. We weren't too sure about going into a biker bar dressed in Lycra, but there were no motorcycles outside so we figured it was safe. We went in about 1:30 p.m. The only person in the place other than the tatooed waitress cum bartender was a sixtyish guy nursing a beer. He didn't even look up as we came in. I watched him as we ate. I figured that he was no more than, at most, ten years older than me. I could not see myself, in ten years, riding a bar stool alone on a Sunday afternoon. I could not help but think as we rode back to town of my bike riding friends; many of them in their sixties and seventies. They do a lot more than ride. They are intelligent, articulate, engaging people. They are quite unlike my brother-in-law and the bar stool jockey. I have to wonder if my friends ride bikes because they are intelligent, or if they remain intelligent because they ride bikes and stay otherwise active. I am going to operate under the assumption that riding keeps you young and interesting. That way I can justify keeping up this hobby and postponing my dotage. Dick Durbin |
Ads |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
"Olebiker" writes:
I have to wonder if my friends ride bikes because they are intelligent, or if they remain intelligent because they ride bikes and stay otherwise active. I am going to operate under the assumption that riding keeps you young and interesting. That way I can justify keeping up this hobby and postponing my dotage. Well, I know stupid people who ride bikes, average people who ride bikes and smart people who ride bikes. I seem to know a lot of the latter, actually, but that may say more about how lucky I am in finding friends than about bicycling. There is a body of evidence suggesting that aerobic exercise is actually good for the brain, promoting (for reasons no yet known) an increase in capillaries and blood perfusion to the brain. Regular exercise does seem to be protective of cognitive abilities in aging, which also tends to be true of mental activitiy as well. People who regularly do crossword puzzles, for example, appear less likely to suffer deficits in language skills; indeed, in general the longitudinal testing has suggested that as people age, they tend to keep the skills they use and tend to lose the skills they don't. There are many famous examples of people cycling well into their golden years, including three over-70 men who finished the 1200 km ride Paris-Brest-Paris in under 90 hours (Roger Baumann, Jean Toulis, and arrgh, forget the third- all of them have completed 10 PBPs). Paul de Vivie (a.k.a. Velocio) rode well into his later years, doing epic rides across France, the Alps, etc. He did complain of a loss of abilities in later years, though, and decided he could no longer ride more than 40 hours at a time. Dr. James-Edward Ruffier, who would probably be called an exercise physiologist nowadays, lived to be 99 and cycled strenuously (on a fixed gear) into his 80s. He wrote a number of books and developed an exercise method focused on developing fexible strength, combining stretching and resistance training. Ed Delano rode across the US at age 72 or something like that. Age may take away some of your speed, but it shouldn't take away any of your fun! I think the key to successful aging is to avoid acting old. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
"Olebiker" writes:
I have to wonder if my friends ride bikes because they are intelligent, or if they remain intelligent because they ride bikes and stay otherwise active. I am going to operate under the assumption that riding keeps you young and interesting. That way I can justify keeping up this hobby and postponing my dotage. Well, I know stupid people who ride bikes, average people who ride bikes and smart people who ride bikes. I seem to know a lot of the latter, actually, but that may say more about how lucky I am in finding friends than about bicycling. There is a body of evidence suggesting that aerobic exercise is actually good for the brain, promoting (for reasons no yet known) an increase in capillaries and blood perfusion to the brain. Regular exercise does seem to be protective of cognitive abilities in aging, which also tends to be true of mental activitiy as well. People who regularly do crossword puzzles, for example, appear less likely to suffer deficits in language skills; indeed, in general the longitudinal testing has suggested that as people age, they tend to keep the skills they use and tend to lose the skills they don't. There are many famous examples of people cycling well into their golden years, including three over-70 men who finished the 1200 km ride Paris-Brest-Paris in under 90 hours (Roger Baumann, Jean Toulis, and arrgh, forget the third- all of them have completed 10 PBPs). Paul de Vivie (a.k.a. Velocio) rode well into his later years, doing epic rides across France, the Alps, etc. He did complain of a loss of abilities in later years, though, and decided he could no longer ride more than 40 hours at a time. Dr. James-Edward Ruffier, who would probably be called an exercise physiologist nowadays, lived to be 99 and cycled strenuously (on a fixed gear) into his 80s. He wrote a number of books and developed an exercise method focused on developing fexible strength, combining stretching and resistance training. Ed Delano rode across the US at age 72 or something like that. Age may take away some of your speed, but it shouldn't take away any of your fun! I think the key to successful aging is to avoid acting old. |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
In article .com, "Olebiker"
writes: That way I can justify keeping up this hobby and postponing my dotage. Current data suggests that regular exercise will do just that. Taking care of yourself will, statisticly speaking, allow you to live 7 years longer than those who don't and the period of incapacity at the end of your life will be much shorter than that of those that die 7 years younger than you do. I don't remember the name on the study but I think they followed a bunch of graduates from the U of Pennsylvania. Keep it up. Tom Gibb |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
In article .com, "Olebiker"
writes: That way I can justify keeping up this hobby and postponing my dotage. Current data suggests that regular exercise will do just that. Taking care of yourself will, statisticly speaking, allow you to live 7 years longer than those who don't and the period of incapacity at the end of your life will be much shorter than that of those that die 7 years younger than you do. I don't remember the name on the study but I think they followed a bunch of graduates from the U of Pennsylvania. Keep it up. Tom Gibb |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Your no-good brother-in-law likely won't be around much longer in this world,
and will bother you no more! I am 65, and I ride and weight lift and walk because I like the feeling of being in control of my body and the absolute joy of being in the fresh outside. I just came back from a 2.5 mile walk in the sunny snow. Such a pleasure, and 2.5 miles to me walking in the snow is as easy as a 25 mile bike ride! However, there are no guarantees. September 1st I started continuous atrial fibrillation, and have been fighting it ever since. This is despite my years of biking, walking, hiking and eating right. However, my heart is otherwise in such great shape that I can still do extended walks and rides with no difficulty. Dick Durbin wrote: My no-good brother-in-law left this morning to go back to Indiana. He's my wife's brother and I love him, but all the guy wanted to do was sit on the couch, watch television, and drink beer. http://members.aol.com/dnvrfox (Family Web Page) |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Your no-good brother-in-law likely won't be around much longer in this world,
and will bother you no more! I am 65, and I ride and weight lift and walk because I like the feeling of being in control of my body and the absolute joy of being in the fresh outside. I just came back from a 2.5 mile walk in the sunny snow. Such a pleasure, and 2.5 miles to me walking in the snow is as easy as a 25 mile bike ride! However, there are no guarantees. September 1st I started continuous atrial fibrillation, and have been fighting it ever since. This is despite my years of biking, walking, hiking and eating right. However, my heart is otherwise in such great shape that I can still do extended walks and rides with no difficulty. Dick Durbin wrote: My no-good brother-in-law left this morning to go back to Indiana. He's my wife's brother and I love him, but all the guy wanted to do was sit on the couch, watch television, and drink beer. http://members.aol.com/dnvrfox (Family Web Page) |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
TBGibb wrote:
In article .com, "Olebiker" writes: That way I can justify keeping up this hobby and postponing my dotage. Current data suggests that regular exercise will do just that. Taking care of yourself will, statisticly speaking, allow you to live 7 years longer than those who don't and the period of incapacity at the end of your life will be much shorter than that of those that die 7 years younger than you do. I don't remember the name on the study but I think they followed a bunch of graduates from the U of Pennsylvania. Keep it up. In a Scientific American Frontiers episode they explained how adult mice, simply by running on running wheels, generate new brain cells. They needed to run 4 -5 hours a night to do it, but ..... ........ a mouse on a running wheel? Hours and miles on the bike? Think about *that* the next time you're out riding. -- ***************************** Chuck Anderson • Boulder, CO http://www.CycleTourist.com Integrity is obvious. The lack of it is common. ***************************** |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
TBGibb wrote:
In article .com, "Olebiker" writes: That way I can justify keeping up this hobby and postponing my dotage. Current data suggests that regular exercise will do just that. Taking care of yourself will, statisticly speaking, allow you to live 7 years longer than those who don't and the period of incapacity at the end of your life will be much shorter than that of those that die 7 years younger than you do. I don't remember the name on the study but I think they followed a bunch of graduates from the U of Pennsylvania. Keep it up. In a Scientific American Frontiers episode they explained how adult mice, simply by running on running wheels, generate new brain cells. They needed to run 4 -5 hours a night to do it, but ..... ........ a mouse on a running wheel? Hours and miles on the bike? Think about *that* the next time you're out riding. -- ***************************** Chuck Anderson • Boulder, CO http://www.CycleTourist.com Integrity is obvious. The lack of it is common. ***************************** |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
Olebiker wrote:
My no-good brother-in-law left this morning to go back to Indiana. He's my wife's brother and I love him, but all the guy wanted to do was sit on the couch, watch television, and drink beer. The only time he would get off the couch was to go outside to smoke since we wouldn't let him smoke in the house. He's 50 years old and must weigh 300 pounds. I tried my best to entertain him while he was here but, after he left I was excited to get back on the bike and go for a ride. My dad left on Sunday. He's 75 yo and has trouble walking to the car. The reason we walked to the car was so we could go get donuts or eclairs or eat, eat, eat, eat, eat. It wasnt even gluttonous but it still made me itch. Literally the minute he left I went for a 40 miler with a hell of a lot of climbing. I cant describe the feeling, but those who know already know. Whether its true or not, the only thing that keeps me going is the thought that at 75, Ill still be able to get on a bike, if Im still alive. k |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Young cyclist killed | Brian | General | 208 | February 12th 04 12:09 AM |
The steed of the young Anakin | Danny Colyer | UK | 7 | October 23rd 03 06:49 PM |