Cycling Wed: Hope for the stiff and aging athlete

Hey (Masters-aged) Athletes,

I’m with you.

Birthdays are tough. You feel old. Your body creaks.

I know. I feel your pain. I, too, ride with youngers who sprint, climb and otherwise float past effortlessly. I’m thinking to myself as they shoot off the front, easily cutting through a crosswind or stomping up a hill…”Hey, where you going that fast.”

Then, at a store stop in a place called Elk Creek, you sit next to the local Northern Euro cycling phenom and gaze down at this sad sight.

But yet, for us birthday-challenged riders, hope always springs eternal. Why else would we keep chasing?

I was just poking around the Internet today and happened onto some severe inspiration. (Note: Using ‘severe’ as an adjective to ‘inspiration’ constitutes cycling-speak.) Though these one-minute videos have already been seen 2.7 million times, I think they are worth a share.

Calcified marathoners, perpetually sore triathletes and watt-obsessed bike racers, feast your eyes on the nimble 86-year old Johanna Quaas: (From Germany, where else?)

There’s more:

Kind a makes you want to eat less, stretch more, and maybe even grow old.

And this thought just popped into my head: Close your eyes and picture the average 40+ endurance athlete trying a handstand or somersault. Grins are indeed heart-healthy.

So is thinking that stuff is possible.

JMM