Biking wisdom from middle aged cyclists

Most of the people with whom I bicycle these days are twenty to thirty years younger than I am. Some worry, fearing that they could lose their abilities as cyclists. Others continue to hope that despite the inevitabilities of advancing age they will be able to continue serious, long distance cycling for many years to come.

Some of these “younger” riders are making constructive adjustments to their cycling attitudes and habits, and a few of them have been interviewed in Bike for Life: How to Ride to 100. Judging by biographical information I have found on line, Roy M. Wallack and Bill Katovsky, authors of the book, are themselves in this middle range of life. It would be interesting to see how they would revise it if a new edition were to come out in 2035. Here are some notes from their interviews.

Gary Fisher, closely associated with the development of the mountain bike, starts his 2004 interview: “I’m 53, but I feel like I’m in my 20s. That’s because I can still get on my bike and do what I do. It’s still the same.” Acknowledging that he’s not as fast as he used to be, Fisher continues: “All the same actions are there; standing up out of the saddle, powering through this, climbing in certain gears. The act of being able to do this is really important.” He lists the changes that have come as he has aged, especially the fact that he can’t recover as quickly as he used to or go as fast. A sign of his self-knowledge and wisdom in this comment: “I’ll ride within myself and ride fast. But I’ll ride within what I know I have confidence I can do.”

John Howard, one of the nation’s most celebrated competitors and coaches and about 57 during his 2004 interview, states that “we all reach a point where we diminish in terms of vital capacity. You can accept it or just deny it.” He describes ways that he tried to fight that diminishment and provides several paragraphs of constructive ideas about maintaining vital capacity.

The fascinating part of his interview, however, comes later in the essay when he declares that he wants to have balance. “To me, that balance is more than physical. It’s mental as well.” Howard has come to the conclusion “that all of us are geared for X-number of miles at effort. When you use that up it’s probably going to be gone and you’re going to have to find something else to do.” He’s chosen not to race anymore because for him that’s “wasteful dissipation of the energy…I’ve reached a point where I know that there is no immortality. What’s important for me is to prolong, elongate the process of life and to experience it on a positive, blissful level.” For Howard, this means that he doesn’t have to compete anymore; instead he wants to be “the best coach in the world.”

Ned Overend, a record-holding mountain-biker and 57 at the time of the interview, decares that as we get older we have to pay attention to pain, nutrition, hydration, and not falling. He recommends “banishing burnout with variety.” Even in these later years he maintains “an enthusiasm for racing and riding hard” by “cross-training and not being obsessive.”

Mike Sinyard, founder of Specialized Bicycle Components and 54 when interviewed, notes that in recent years he has worked hard at “trying to be fit.” Then comes the paragraph that speaks to me because I’m the same age as the people he describes. “What would be the ultimate goal in life? It is, like, you know: great family, being healthy. But you see some of these 80-year-old guys in Italy? On Sunday morning they’re out riding on these real cool bikes. I mean, that’s the goal, to be healthy like that. And helps ya keep perspective. You go for a long ride and you come back and you have a full glass of juice. It’s like the best thing ever.”

Patrick O’Grady, freelance writer and cartoonist (print and online), who is described as “bearing down on 50,” has a inviting list of recommendations: be less serious about training, keep riding all year round (older riders can ‘t afford off-seasons), have fun on a bike (O’Grady scoffs at “terminal serious types”), and make your cycling habitual.

A lot of this advice can be summed up with a recommendation my wife gave me years ago when I came into the house sweaty and out of breath after a game of kickball with our kids and their neighborhood buddies: “The way to stay young is to play with your kids, but not their games.”

As we move into the later decades, our goal should be to keep on biking much as we always have but in age-adjusted ways. For most of us, the two-wheeled life is still a great way to go.

Biking 100 miles on the day you turn 100

“Wouldn’t you like to ride a century when you turn a century?” Bike for Life offers a “blueprint for longevity, fitness, health, and well-being” so that people can plan to bicycle one hundred statute miles on the day they turn 100.

Genetics, the authors tell us, account for only 20 to 30% of a person’s life span. The other factors that determine how long we will live are related to life style, over which we have a lot of control. These are the factors that Bike for Life discusses. The book gives a comprehensive review of the expected topics like training, nutrition, and equipment. To this the authors add topics that are not often treated in cycling literature: osteoporosis, depression, impotence, and what to do when attached by cougars and grizzlies.

The writers are experienced journalists who have done their research in technical books, medical reports, travel literature, and cycling manuals. They handle this material deftly, giving enough detail to explain and persuade, but not so much that they bore readers and make them skip through the book. They largely ignore topics that quickly grow obsolete or seem beneath the interest of the readers they have in mind, topics like what kind of bike to buy and instructions on bike repair.

Two hard-core cyclists have collaborated in writing this book: Roy M. Wallack who has published extensively in the cycling field and is now “a fitness-gear columnist for the Los Angeles Times,” and Bill Katovsky who has written extensively about triathlons and more recently coauthored Embedded: The Media at War in Iraq, An Oral History.

Both men are serious cyclists and the book tells just enough about their exploits on two wheels to demonstrate their competence to write on this subject. The most harrowing of their travels described in the book is La Ruta, a three-day mountain bike event in Costa Rica, which (judging by the experience they report) must be one of hardest events on bicycles any place in the world. Since Bike for Life is not an exercise in self-promotion for the authors, most of the illustrative material describes the serious cycling of other people.

One of the most interesting features of the book is a series of 12 interviews with people who have become legends in the world of cycling. Among them are Gary Fisher, who was one of the developers of the mountain bike; Eddie B, the coach who “changed American cycling,” and Maria Streb, whose exploits on a bicycle leave me gaping in consternation. Perhaps most important, given the focus of this book, is the interview with John Sinibaldi, a 90-year-old resident of St. Petersburg, Florida, who continues to bicycle 7,000 to 8,000 miles per year.

Sinibaldi has his own prescription for cycling in old age, and it differs significantly from the advice given in the book. Here it is:

Ride your bike like crazy. Hope for good genes…Grow and eat your own vegetables. Eat red meat only when it’s on sale. Listen to classical music. Avoid television. Read the newspaper every day and do the crossword puzzle. Go barefoot most of the time. When you find a gear you like, stick with it. And get your rest on the bike while you climb hills.

The book has lots of sidebars (which seem to be required in bike books these days) on all kinds of topics. The authors, who know how to write as well as how to ride, have given readers a comprehensive book. A word of warning: This is a persuasive piece of journalism, capable of making a true believer out of casual and sometimes skeptical cyclists.

You should get the book and do what it says. 100 comes sooner than you think and you need to get started in your training if you expect to do a century ride on the day you reach a century.

I’m glad that all I have to do this year is 80.