Open Mike: Up That Hill (OT)

Welker Hill

I used to love to run. As a kid I could throw a softball farther than only half of the girls, and my inability to throw a wadded-up piece of paper into a wastebasket from any distance verged on the comical. But I was always the fastest kid in my class.

When I was six, I went to a summer camp with hundreds of kids aged five to eight. One of the counselors was a track star at one of the Boston-area colleges, and he used to lead all the kids on runs around the soccer field. I would try to challenge his lead and naturally he would pull away with ease. I was very interested to know if he was running his fastest when he led us around the field, and of course he said no, not even close; so I asked him to show us how he ran when he ran his fastest. One day he announced a demonstration (mentioning my name, which made me feel like it was exclusively for me) and he ran a fast lap alone. Some of the kids didn't even pay attention, but I was entranced. I never forgot the sight of that counselor on the far side of the field, under the dark wooded hillside, feet hardly touching the ground, fleet as a gazelle.

Later, we had a camp-wide footrace among all the kids, also one lap around the soccer field, and I came in first.

In high school I went out for track and on the very first day the whole team ran a 440 around the football field. The best 440 runner on the track team, who was also the fullback on the varsity football team, pulled out ahead. I kept pace with him just to challenge him, and he put his head down and ran like a locomotive, determined to put me in my place. We soon got way out in front of everyone else (because they weren't racing). I toyed with him all the way around and then sprinted ahead of him in the last thirty feet, beating him easily. What I remember most was being astonished by how bad my body felt just a few seconds after I stopped running! And that after a walking "warm down" lap all the way around the track I still felt almost as bad. The quarter mile (now the 400 meters) is a brutal race.

Unfortunately the track coach was young and inexperienced. (He was an English teacher.) Seeing a future 440 star for his team, he worked me far too hard. It wasn't just the work everyone did—he singled me out for special training because I was "gifted." I would come home and fall asleep before dinner. I told him I wasn't serious about competing—I just liked to run—and I warned him three times that I would quit the team if he didn't stop running me to death. He didn't believe me at all—he just smiled when I mentioned it—and didn't let up.

So I quit.

He didn't believe that, either—for years he would ask me when I was going to come back to the track team. I never did—I ran cross-country instead—but as an adult I've always regretted that I didn't have a more experienced track coach in high school, someone with the wisdom to bring me along like I needed to be brought along. Looking back, I would have liked to run track in high school. You're only young once.

I was a miserable cross-country runner, and never should have run distance. In short races, though, only three people ever beat me in a footrace. One was a classmate named Neil Yashiro in the 100-yard dash. Neil was short and muscular—a gymnast—and he would explode out of the blocks and have two or three steps on me right from the start, which I couldn't always make up by the finish line. He never beat me in the 220. But Calvin Malone did—he was the school's standout track star and in my grade. I ran my hardest against Cal in one 220 and simply ran out of legs before he did. That's the only time I saw the good in training. It's also the only time I ever recall running out of speed.

Even in my own neighborhood there was one kid who was as fast as I was whose name was C.B. Harper. Although we never ran a straight race, I always had a tough time catching him when we all played keep-away in our front yard. But then, he had a tough time catching me too. C.B. was quick. I always reasoned that C.B. was an indicator that I wasn't as fast as I thought I was—how could I become anywhere near the fastest kid in my school, much less the State, if I was barely the fastest kid in my very own neighborhood?

That reminds me of a story I might have told here before. I have an Indiana relative by marriage named Dan. Danny was a great baseball player as a kid, but he was discouraged by the fact that he wasn't even the best player in his own family—his same-age cousin and best friend Donny was always a little better. Just a little better, but clearly better. So, Danny reasoned, how could he be so great, if he wasn't even better than Donny?

The kicker is that Dan's last name is Mattingly—and his cousin Don's number 23 was eventually retired by the New York Yankees. Dan says, "How was I supposed to know I was comparing myself to Don Mattingly? When we were 11 he was just my cousin Donny, the same as me." Neither C.B. nor Cal went on to greatness as runners, though, as far as I know. Cal is now an attorney and a grandfather many times over—I got to have dinner with him a year or two ago.

'Having lost but once your prime'
I ran throughout most of my youth just to keep in shape, but eventually let it fall by the wayside—probably during the stretch when I was drinking alcoholically. As with a whole lot of things during that time, I don't remember. Then, in the Fall of 2014, I tried to get back in to running. My girlfriend at the time was a marathoner. I went to the YMCA with her one morning and enjoyed sprinting repeatedly around the indoor track.

...Which turned out to be an enormous mistake! My knees hurt so much a day later I thought I had damaged them permanently. I could barely walk. They ached badly for two months before slowly returning to normal. At that point I did what I should have done from the first, and started reading up on re-entry running—"re-entry" being a common term for resuming something in older age that you did when you were young—a "re-entry woman," for example, is a woman who re-enters the workforce after raising her children.

Following the advice I read, first I conditioned my knees by walking every day for three months. Then I started interspersing very short jogs in with my walks. Next, I gradually lengthened the jogging sections and inserted more of them into the walk, always paying close attention to how my body felt. Only when I'd been doing that for a number of months did I try to add any speed to the runs. It got so that I could do an old-guy semblance of a sprint for a hundred or two hundred feet. Of course my old speed had long since departed.

This is the best way for middle-aged former runners to resume exercising. By middle age, the primary focus has to be injury prevention. The walk/jog/walk—always taking responsibility for how your own body feels, and laying off when you detect any pain—is a great way to exercise. There's a book that explains it, although it lays out a more serious and more competitive program than most seniors may be interested in. (There's evidence that most marathoners actually run faster times if they mix in some walking.)

But I just couldn't manage it. My brain knows I'm 35, but my knees for some reason think I'm 60. (Calendar age: 60.) I stuck with the attempted running up until last Fall, but my knees just don't like it—I would continually get pains or aches in my knees and have to lay off. It got so I was laying off more than I was exercising.

What to do? Just walk? Bike? Get a stationary bike?

Nineteen waterfalls
Out of the blue, the answer came just recently when my son was here visiting. We took a trip to Watkins Glen—not the famous racetrack but the scenic gorge. I was completely unprepared for what we found—it's gobsmackingly spectacular, a very steep, very deep rocky gorge with, count 'em, 19 waterfalls. The paths are well built (and well peopled), but feature lots and lots of stairs—enough so that I was worried about whether I'd be able to handle them all.

But I did. When I was huffing and puffing up the last long set of stairs at the end of our three-mile or so tour of the Glen, my son (who is a rock climber and very fit) said, "too bad you don't live closer—you could come here every day and walk the stairs."

That's what lit the lightbulb over my head. No, I don't live close to Watkins Glen, but I do live right under a steep hillside—the Finger Lakes mostly sit well below the elevation of the surrounding countryside. All the downhill roads around here have switchbacks—S curves—built into them to lessen the steepness for cars.

So now what I do is walk up Welker Road every day, up the hill to the high meadows. Adam Sauder's pick-your-own-fruit and vegetable farm (the farm pictured in this post) is a mile and a half from where I live, so it's three miles there and back. Which doesn't sound like much, but there's 520 feet of elevation change in the mile and half between there and here. (Yep, there's an app for that.)

The last rise before the high meadow

It's perfect, turns out. Like the prettiest, most scenic Stairmaster ever conceived. Walking up the hill gets my heart pounding even more efficiently than running, but the road rises to meet your feet so it's even lower-impact than plain old walking. And, so far (knock on wood), easy on my knees, which are holding up just fine. The hardest part on my body is probably walking down the hill again! It's steep enough in places that you think about the grip of the soles of your shoes on the pavement.

Of course, I don't know yet if this will be feasible for enough of the year—we've had a gorgeous month of June here, with glorious and, more to the point, cool weather. It's probably the absolute best time of the year to be walking up that hill. But for now, I think I've found the perfect exercise for my age and stage in life. It's different for everyone, of course.

I'd write more about this, but I'm late for that very walk. Rain is forecast for this afternoon, so—not unlike most older people generally—I've got to get out and get a little exercise while the getting is good.

Mike
(Thanks to Xander)

"Open Mike" is the sometimes off-topic Editorial page of TOP. It's supposed to appear on Wednesdays but there were already enough posts yesterday. Off-topic posts are labelled "(OT)" for those who don't want to read them.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Roger Overall: "The cover of the book about running you linked to made me laugh. 'Finish a half marathon in a few months.' How slow do you have to go to cover 13.1 miles in a few months?"

Hans Muus: "Great piece, Mike, especially for someone like me who, even as a young boy, never managed to do anything impressive with a ball, but loved to run—the LSD type of thing (long slow distance, that is, nothing acid here). And when I got to the link 'there's a book,' I said to myself, 'Jeff Galloway?' And indeed there he was, some thirty years after I thoroughly enjoyed his Galloway's Book on Running I think it was called. Thank you for a very nice refreshing of my memory. I gladly forgive you in advance for your next two, no let's make it three pieces on cars, coffee and billiards."

Eric Rose: "Good for you Mike! I walk on average about 40 km a week. A combination of steep hills and gentle stuff. Have been doing this since March and have lost 20 lbs. and feel a lot better. Keep it up!"

Matthew L: "The magic to exercise is finding something you like to do. Congratulations."

TDE: "I sense a 'one camera, one lens, one year, one hill' convergence on the horizon."

Mike replies: It's tempting....

John Lehet: "Yeah, that's pretty much my fitness program. Sometimes I don't get very far from home. Sometimes I drive someplace and walk a bunch with cameras. The other trick of course is to carry a couple of camera bodies and lots of lenses to increase the load. Mere walking with your body weight isn't enough. You need gear."

Mike replies: You're as bad as me!

JohnMFlores: "As old motorcycle racers like to say, 'The older I get the faster I was.' Ed Whitlock recently passed at 86. He was the fastest old distance runner on earth, holding age records for everything from 5k to marathons. He trained in a cemetery near his home. Probably not as hilly as your daily walk so there's hope for you yet. ;-) "

John Camp: "I'm one of those fortunate people who had lots of older male relatives who I liked, and who apparently liked me. So I got to talk to them a lot as I watched them die (I'm now 73, they're all gone, the WWII generation).

"One thing became very clear to me as they died off: at any age, but especially after you're 60 or so, you must avoid injury. The problem isn't so much the injury itself (unless it's awful, of course) but that an injury can take you out of exercise. My father was a life-long walker, but in his mid-70s, developed plantar fasciitis that made walking terribly painful. In the year it took to recover, which he mostly spent sitting, he probably lost five—I'd see him every month or so, and could watch as his body lost conditioning.

"A favorite uncle was a life-long smoker and drinker. He went first of that generation, and you could literally see and hear the effects of smoking on him, as it tore up his lungs. (His example made me quit when I was 34.) That's a different kind of injury, and maybe even worse than the obvious ones, like breaking a leg. But his brother, also a life-long smoker and drinker, had a stroke in his late 50s or early 60s, recovered, but had to give up smoking and drinking. Despite the stroke, he outlived his brother by years...living a healthy life in his 60s apparently was a major benefit. He simply stopped hurting himself. I'm not in bad shape (I walk a lot and do yoga) but some friends have tried to get me into mountain biking. I won't do it, because mountain bikers hurt themselves. I'd rather sound like a wimp that do what my father did, which is sit down for a year...."

Comments

[John Krumm]

We have a similar story, except I'm 51. I also was best at middle distances and the long jump, but ended up in cross country, where I was so-so. And now I also live in a place with good hills for walking, which I do. I have to force myself to not bring a camera (other than a phone) because if I get into photo mode my heart rate never rises. If I'm doing my best, I lift weights 2-3 times a week, and walk fast or bike all the other days. Just got back into "best" mode, and feel good. Also started using the sauna at the fitness club, which is new for me, and feels very good.

[Nigli]

I have a parallel experience, for years I compared myself to a friend who was seriously fast (fastest in the school, fastest in ths city for his age, etc etc. I just dont have fast twitch muscles. Then, when I was 21 I did a fitness test and found out I was fit, as fit as an Olympic water polo player. It took me another 25 years to get that in perspective. Pity I dont swim well.

[Tom Passin]

I see you've hit on the same solution I did - uphill walking/hiking. I need more strenuousity than walking on the level, but I can't pound my joints any more with running (or biking either). My artificial hip doesn't let me rock climb any more. But uphill hiking ... that does the job.

[Richard Reusser]

I'll second the brisk walk over hill and yonder as a terrific way to get exercise. So much less boring than the gym, and once in awhile you're rewarded with something photogenic.

Here in hilly Seattle my route consists of a loop through Chinatown - guaranteeing photo-ops and an increased heart rate by the time I claw my way back up to my hospital of employment.

[Robert]

Hello Mike
I am glad you have found your hill. My wife and me do something like you too (Running 2 miles, walking the dog 1 hour with one nice steep slope near the end. Only 160 steps, but what steps!). We have re-entered running after 35 years and after our entry into our retirement and were surprised to be able to run ar all. My wife tried once or twice to jog with me (40 years ago), but stopped always after 100 meters. "Jogging is stupid" she said. She just could not run more slowly than at full speed then. Just to be sure: A stern warning regarding stationary bicycle! Alone in one's own cellar it is not boring, it is deadly! I tried it, I know. Take care of your knees.
Regards
Robert

[Kristine Hinrichs]

Long time (very slow) runner here, transitioning to more hiking. My friends with knee issues find it very helpful to use a trekking pole, especially on the downhills. It cushions the shock on the knee. Using two poles also provides a great core body workout at the same time as every time you push off with the poles, it activates your core muscles. Keep up the good work!

[Nicholas Condon]

I didn't "re-enter" exercise in early middle age; I hadn't "entered" it to begin with! I never ran a mile without stopping until I was 39 years old, when I started doing Crossfit. It beat the hell out of me, but it worked. Within a year I was in the best shape of my life. In the last three years (after stopping Crossfit because it wasn't a good fit with my schedule anymore) my exercise routine has been on and off, but I can now put up vaguely respectable running times over distances up to about 10 km. I have arthritis in one foot (the arch is all wonky for reasons that aren't clear, and that screwed up the big toe), and running actually helped the arthritis by strengthening the muscles that stabilize the joint. As I get older, I'm sure I'll have to tone down the running in favor of something less punishing (bad knees run in my family, and while mine are fine now, I'm sure that won't be true forever), and your hill climb sounds wonderful. Too bad I live in Evanston, where the "hills" aren't exactly strenuous...

[Pstuart]

Get a pair of hiking poles. They are great at relieving the downhill stress on your knees. Here's a good resource: https://sectionhiker.com/top-10-backpacker-recommended-trekking-poles-2017/. I use the $44 carbon fiber poles from Cascade Mountain for backpacking.

[Tim McGowan]

Mike, wonderful recall and telling of your younger years. You may want to think about getting a FitBit so you can monitor your heart rate on those climbs. Do a little research on max heart rate for our age and the range you should stay in.

[Stephen Scharf]

Walking is great exercise; I've been walking 1.2 miles myself daily for the 5 weeks because some of old back problems tha thave flared up again from all the business (read: airline) travel I've had to do over Q1/Q2. Like you, Mike, I've been walking up and down a pretty steep hill near where I live.

Just a word of advice/caution: With respect to your routine: mix it up a bit. At our age (I'm in my early 60s, too), I found that doing the exact same 1.2 mile walk up and down a steep hill daily for the last month has resulted in some muscle imbalances in my hip that are now causing some (new) problems. I'm now seeing a neuromuscular therapist who is now working on those new muscle imbalances; he recommend walking on the flats to change things up as did my doctor. What I've taken to doing as an alternative is snorkeling (i.e., kicking) in the pool at my HOA for a 30 minute stint, which my therapist REALLY likes the idea of. Cheers, Stephen

[Stan B.]

Been riding my bike a lot less these days- but walking a lot more to compensate... and always with my GR.

[MarkB]

Kate Bush is singing in my ear. Good on ya, Mike. Maybe I'll take the family to Sugarloaf tomorrow (Crowded on a summer Saturday? Nah.)...

[Joel Schochet]

I smiled throughout the column as I've had similar experiences. In college (in the late '60's), I opted for track to fulfill my gym requirement. I was just moderately fast and my knees always hurt. The coach of the college team ran the 400 meters in the 1932 Olympics and he taught me what he said was the proper way to run that distance. I was never fast enough for sprints nor did I have the endurance for distance races, so the 440 was perfect. His method was ball of the foot, then lightly touch the heel, then ball of the foot pulling - not pushing - the ground. All of a sudden, I posted times much, much better than I had before. With the lower impact, my knees hardly bothered me at all.

As to another point you made, there was a somewhat steep road near where I used to live. Before going on a hiking trip, usually to a national park, I would hike up that hill for a week before transitioning into a jog for a week. Not only did it strengthen my legs with less pain than doing this on a level surface, it did so in less time.

And to think that I appreciated your OT columns only to learn about Miatas.

[Richard Tugwell]

Walking uphill is great exercise, you can push yourself if you want in a way that is difficult on the flat. Walking down can be tough if you have knee problems. (walkimg poles might hjelp)

[DavidB]

I enjoyed your tale of running as a youth. I was trying out for the high school basketball team when the coach called me over and said I should consider another sport.

I ended up on the track team running the 1- and 2-mile races and did quite well. I thought I was pretty good until my first week of college. I went out on a 5-mile run with the cross country team but lost sight of them after a few minutes.

I'm a few years older than you, Mike, and I still run. Not as often and shorter distances but I still enjoy trail running. Most of my runs these days are "Personal Records" as in "Slowest Ever." No matter—I keep running.

Sometimes I even take a camera along and snap a few photos of my friends running.

[Tom Frost]

Ummm, you might think about taking a dog and a tennis ball along, too. Sometimes it's hard to manage a dog, a leash, a camera, a tennis ball, and a bag of poop, but hey, those are the sacrifices we have to make.

[plus.google.com/114824186603451301825]

Get some trekking poles. They'll offload some weight from your knees and can be readjusted to help with the downhill sections.

Sounds like snowshoes would be a great assist for the winter.

[kirk tuck]

Good thing you never had to race Jerry Seinfeld.... (referencing a show where he has a re-match with a high school competitor).

[Dan Dill]

What an unexpected, treat of a post! The bit about aging requiring shifting focus from performance to injury protection particularly hits home. And also that there are sensible approaches to being able to continue in our athletic endeavors. My 70-year-old rower's body feels encouraged. Thanks!

[Alex]

Any hiker can tell you that going down is a lot harder on your knees than going up, especially if you're carrying weight. If the hill ever starts to seem like too much work, go buy a pair of those hiking poles and sling your veggies into a backpack. Hiking poles are a huge help when descending because if you have to shift the point where your leading foot is going to land, the only way to do it is to apply torque through the knee that's still connected to the ground. This is unkind to one's knees.

Yep, you will probably look slightly ridiculous. Not as bad as one of those Hoverounds, though. (For non-USians, a Hoveround is one of those electric scooter-chairs you can purchase when walking from your car to the supermarket is too much for your decrepit self.)

[Oskar Ojala]

Good to hear you found a form of exercise that suits you. Steep declines are treacherous in winter, but there are studded winter running shoes that I hear are great. I always felt that running on slippery ground was easier than walking, simply because the constant forward motion makes it easier to lurch forward and correct an imbalance. Still, if I was to now get back to winter running, studded winter running shoes would be my choice.

[David Brown]

“As a kid I could throw a softball farther than only half of the girls …”

Oh God, I’m with you there, brother. In school, it seems we were always playing softball, from recess in elementary to “PE” in junior high. Thank God, marching band saved me from PE in high school.

Then, in my 30s, I played a couple years of church league softball. I was good! It’s all relative. My Texas leaguer line drives just over the infielder’s heads would put me on base every time. I just had to remember not to run too hard to first! (Yes, I hurt myself the first time out.)

Now, I’m 66, and walking is it! We must know our limits and do things in context. Cheers!

[Speed]

In my seventh year as an undergraduate I took a mandatory phys. ed. course. A half mile run was required and while it wasn’t the near-death experience I remember it was certainly a life-changing experience.

That was followed by 40+ years of mostly daily four and five mile runs plus one marathon, three half-marathons and many 10k events. Running has kept me happy, healthy and fit.

[Jim Bullard]

I ran for 7 years in my 40s. I never felt better in my life and wish I could do it today but at 72 with arthritic knees, running is a no-no. Once when I was running 4.25 miles every day a nephew who was running HS track was visiting and announced he wanted to run with me. I think he planned on showing me up but he was trained for the 100-yard dash and the quarter mile.

He took off like a shot and was soon far ahead. At around the end of the first mile, I caught up with him and we ran together for about a mile until we came to a narrow bridge with traffic coming so I told him I was going to pull ahead so we would be single file. I did and that was the end of his run. He walked the rest of the way demoralized. He had burnt himself out on the first mile instead of pacing himself for the distance.

When I started running I did what you mentioned, walking first, then I interspersed walking and running but my aim was always to be a distance runner so I never sprinted, I always paced myself until I could easily run 4-5 miles/day. I even ran a marathon once in just under 5 hours. It may not sound like much but try running 26.219 miles. I'm proud of my "finishers medal".

Now I walk, hike and (occasionally) climb mountains in the Adirondacks, carefully and always pacing myself. My knees hurt but there is something magic in both the exercise and being outside, especially a hike in the woods. Like the line in Psalm 23 says, it restoreth my soul. Keep it up. It is worth whatever discomfort you experience in the process. The rewards are greater than the cost.

[Ken Tanaka]

A long-winded way to tell us you're over the hill?

[Very funny, young fella. --Mike]

[Nature Lover]

Well you did it and here I go in pedantic mode.
Disclaimer: I am a freshly retired rheumatologist who ran distance not well in high school, injured his left knee playing pickup football, ran a bit recreationally in college, and had 2 arthroscopies including a complete meniscectomy at age 34. I walk the dogs about a mile quickly now, the poorly trained Doberman dragging me down the gravel road.

Before I retired I urged people with knee pain and/or early osteoarthritis to 1) swim 2) use an exercycle 3) bicycle but never to use a stair stepper.I termed the latter a commie plot. Many of my patients were limited by lack of availability of an indoor pool or their general debility but done right this can be very helpful.
The observation that the downhill gait is more uncomfortable than the uphill gait is born out by testing and by my knees left greater than right.

See for an example: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/537f/cac9d4b94cd54d989cbc690d18a4a02898fb.pdf
Just read the abstract, much of which should be easily understood by those in this forum.
Impact loading, which walking and especially running and downhill walking represent are effectively much more than static loads. The peak standing (static)load was measured at 107% body weight(BW). Stair descending puts 346% of one's BW as a load on each knee successively. Uphill the load is only 316%.
Water exercise: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0171972#pone-0171972-g004

This has been very well studied and is really outside of my core expertise but suffice it to say "Be careful out there" As one ages "No pain, no gain" may not be very wise...

[Lynn]

My regular walks were doing me good until I decided to take a camera along. Bad idea! I became too distracted taking pictures to get enough exercise :(

I was pleased with the pictures, however.

[Not THAT Ross Cameron]

Hi Mike, I'll second Alex's comments.
Just a couple of additional thoughts to aid you in your research - I won't presume to tell you what to do or offer advice:
- some walking poles can double as a mono-pod, if that's to your interest :)
- as others have already said, mix it up, which means (& I know this may seem contrary to what others have implied) primarily using the poles when needed, or for that core wor-out. Please be wary of using them all the time when out hiking/walking. Humans are bipeds, not quadrupeds.
Cheers,
Ross

[Dave Kee]

In June of 1967, I was finishing basic training at Fort Dix, N.J. and because I had no upper body strength I failed the final PT test. The penalty for this was to be recycled through basic with an ungodly emphasis on PT. They gave the 20 or so of us losers one last chance to pass, a mile run in our combat boots. I came in first. A week later, I was on in a standby, first class seat on a jet from Newark back home to Chicago. I will always remember the wonderful steak they served us. The reason it took a week to be released was that they put us all on hold because of the war between Israel and her Arab neighbors. We were told that if the U.S. needed to intervene, we would all be converted to infantry (I was headed to code school). Of course, the Israelis kicked ass in six days, I got my steak and learned Morse code. The only code I can remember fifty years later is the obscene ..-. ..- which is handy to tap out on your car horn when someone cuts you off.

[Peter Mc Convill]

Mike - similar but slightly different story here.

Remove running and replace it with swimming. Not yet 60 (51), and replace alcohol with food. At 45 was just shy of 140 kg and after I was worried I'd had a heart attack was told by my doctor I was fine, nothing had happened and I had a good 10 to 15 years left. Yeah, I was going to be dead somewhere in my late 50's.

I needed something concrete to aim for and a mate suggested triathlon. Great sport for old, fat men. You've got to swim, run and ride so risk of overtraining is small and if something is hurting just back off for a bit and focus on the other exercise for a while. Oh - and never forget the gear (photography and triathlon - gear lovers heaven).

Slowly but surely I made progress and when I waddled through my first tiny little half sprint I was both elated and addicted. I watched the same mate that introduced me to the sport finish an ironman and seeing his face crossing the line all I could think was "I have to feel that".

That said, its hard. In this world getting access to the things that will kill you is so easy (for me that pretty much any food that is golden brown - ie baked or fried). Not doing what will keep you in good health is even easier. But its being hard that makes the finish line, and even more, the run (or walk/stagger/crawl in one case) down the carpet so valuable.

Now I just make sure I'm always entered in an ironman race. I finish one, take a month off, enter another, train, race, rest, repeat.

So a couple of ironman races done (to your point - my marathon PB is a run/walk), I'm at around 90 kg, just ran the fastest 1km time trial of my life at age 51 and feeling better (and am healthier) than I did in my 20's.

[gary bliss]

Mike: each of us have a our stories. I am about your age and embraced running for many years, simply reveling in the daily opportunity to be outdoors. I ran for the first two decades of my adulthood; it turned out to be a very bad idea of me orthopedically.

I now know that i am an osteo patient. As a lasting memento of those years i have both a prosthetic hip and ankle ("yes", they do those now, and MUCH more delicate to recover from than a hip).

If you have joint issues you should seriously consider two 30 minute sessions a week of carefully calibrated strength training. The machines now are quite good and, if used properly with, say, a super slow protocol, do not overload the joints while building supporting muscle tissue. The latter is the ONLY way to delay the onset of further joint problems.

Sadly, the operative word in that last sentence is "delay" the onset . . .

[D. Hufford]

Well, if you have found something you enjoy, something that motivates you, then the hard part is over and the exercise becomes fun. Maybe even addictive.

But yes, if you re-enter any sport after any layoff, you have to start slow. Even a scheduled winter break of a few weeks means you have to start working on a base again (endurance sports---cycling/running).

I cycled for well over 15 years from 3-5000 miles a year, but every winter I slowed down and stopped serious training. Then in February, I'd start long slow rides to build my base up slowly again. That would take 6 weeks at a minimum. Got no solid base then you're gonna get a solid injury when you ramp up or else be weaker than you should be. There are a number of cycling/endurance sports books about "periodization" that explains this process.

I had to give up so much cycling a few years ago due to a harder schedule and moving further away from the riverside course I used. I started seriously running this year to replace cycling, and started with long slow jogs and steadily increased length, speed or difficulty at about 5% a week. No problems, no strains, no sprains, just aching muscles from a new sport. And aching muscles are motivating. Aching joints, painful tendons, are reasons to stop and see what's wrong.

Build a solid base over several months and add challenge and difficulty to that as your body gets stronger and remains injury-free. Age matters not in this.

[Earl Dunbar]

I'd love to go up that hill with you, Mike, but the return trip might be a bit difficult for me. I'd bring OCOL. OK, two lenses because it would be the Rolleiflex. :)

[Tom Burke]

I'm another walker. Living in the UK the weather is never really awful enough to prevent a walk - sometimes it might be wet, and on a few days some winters it might be icy enough to be dangerous, but it's been three winters now (2014/15) since we had any snow. There's a 35-minute round walk that my wife and I do whenever we can - starts with 10 minutes or so downhill, then a 3/4 mile solid pull uphill, followed by a warm-down short downhill stretch.

If I feel like some real exercise I walk in the Peak District. I'm still able to do up to 12 miles across the hills, taking a good 5 hours or more to do it.

I hear what you say about the downhill stretches hurting worst. I did the Samaria Gorge walk in Crete a year or so ago - great experience, stunning location - and that starts with a 2,500 foot steep drop, often down steps. 48 hours later I could hardly move.

[Herman]

Another alternative is to get a recumbent bicycle. Then you lay back and jog.

[mark jennings]

There's a lot in that post, Mike. Thanks.

As I remember it, the thinking in my early 60s high school track team days tended toward a mindless "No Pain No Gain". I rowed in college, but with better coaching. After grad school I regularly ran cross country by myself and sometimes with a few friends. Those were good years. I took time and was patient with myself.

Now I'm 70 and there's arthritis. Most days I get up on my area's steep and trailess ridges or paddle the steep rivers. Photography.

My arthritis stays under control as long as I keep at it. In fact, I feel good.

When I come off the ridges at the end of the day I do 15 easy sprint starts and then stretch. Before I started that routine my knees would stiffen and get sore in the evening. I'd be ready to go the next day. But the sprints and stretching have made a big difference. I think that using my knees' full range of movement does good.

Some torso work helps everything. A little light weights keep my upper body paying attention in the off season, when there's no paddling and little farm work. I go slow with the weights, but my dream is to once again clean and jerk my body weight. 3 years.

What's fun about this stage of life is figuring out solutions to problems and then by taking it very easy, with a "no pressure" attitude, see them through to eventual results. I avoid burn out from doing too much and expecting too much too soon.

Both of the star atheletes in my family became couch potatos. It was the competition and the glory that motivated them. I'm the marvel now. 😎

[scott kirkpatrick]

OK, we (three brothers) got pretty good genes from our parents, as we're all over or nearly 70 and energetic, haven't stopped doing what we love. Our parents lived to be 75 and 81, but three packs a day and four ounces of whiskey every evening made the last ten years of each of their lives quite miserable. As a result, none of us have smoked, and are light beer/wine drinkers. My sister is the exception, as she died of lung cancer in her 50s, we suspect as a result of second-hand smoke.

Never competitive in high school sports, I discovered rowing, skiing and sailing in college and got competent at all three. But my approach to exercise has been to indulge when the occasion presents itself. This has left me with two artificial hips (they really have this down, painless, and a quick recovery) and knees which limit my skiing or hiking to a few days at a time. Hills are great, especially when you reach the top.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

I always hated President Kennedy for his grade-school physical fitness program. I guess because I was a very rules-conformant kid, I actually tried to do well on the tests, which is what made them unpleasant. But there was this one thing called the "600-yard run-walk". It was right there in the name, I was allowed to walk, so I did -- and a bunch of geeky friends walked with me as it turned out too. PE teacher was disgusted, but apparently knew better than to try to argue with me (high-verbal and pretty unrestrained here!). My high point in public school PE. I wish there hadn't ever been PE classes, it would have made my life far better.

[Richard Parkin]

I'm not sure if this will cheer you up or cast you down, but I recently heard a radio interview with English immunologist William Frankland who said he starts his day with an hour of stretching exercises because the body gets less supple as you get older. He is 105 years old and still working and publishing papers. See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Frankland_(immunologist)
If you think he must have suffered no injuries in his life, I would point out that he spent three and a half as a prisoner of the Japanese in Singapore which was no picnic.

[Fraser Cutten]

Hi Mike:

Here's a link to the University of Calgary's Running Injury Clinic.

http://runninginjuryclinic.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Hip-Strengthening-Exercises.pdf

By strengthening your hip muscles, you're enabling them to stabilize the knees, thereby reducing, and in many cases, eliminating the problem. Works equally well for running or walking.

Cheers,
Fraser