200 km Anywhere - Mind, Body, Age
Invitation to the Party!
As one of the first two hundred to respond to an email from Rouleur, I was one of those fortunate enough to secure a place at the launch party for Issue 1117 of the Rouleur Cycling Journal. Issue 116 was The Mind, Issue 117 is The Body. As I made my way home from the venue, VIA Atelier in Coal Drops Yard just north of St Pancras, I thought that perhaps considerations of the mind and the body should be joined by a third - age. After all, the main purpose of this website is to encourage people who’ve not ridden 200 km day rides regularly to give it a try: “never too late”.
Leaving Watermill Theatre at Bagnor on a recent 200 km ride
The Mind
While I was working, riding 200 km on a regular basis seemed too difficult; it’s a long way, so much can go wrong and it would be unfair to the students for me to arrive at school on Monday tired if not exhausted. Post retirement, it’s still a long way but planning, preparation and, where possible, being able to visualise at least part of the route put me in more confident frame of mind.
The Body
I’ve been using the Pillar training app, to which I was introduced at Rouleur 22. It’s helped me achieve a more consistent cadence and to improve my ability to make the sort of short, sharp efforts needed in the Chilterns. Pillar reminds me to do some stretching on recovery days. Phil Cavell of Cyclefit, author of “The Midlife Cyclist” urges cyclists to take time off the bike for strength training, a recommendation I really need to take in the interests of “The Body”.
Which brings me to Age
OK, the last two paragraphs were too short to do justice to the subjects. In discussing age I will come back to both the mind and the body.
When I was young - teenager, twenties - I knew that people eventually died and I was aware that some people died early but I didn’t really think about growing older. I’d cycled as a young adult but then “life got in the way” and it was not until I turned 50 that I began to cycle again. A couple of rides on a mountain bike with local groups soon showed me how unfit I had become. I bought a road bike to help me get fit to ride my mountain bike, found I preferred the road and eventually sold the mountain bike. I joined Audax, rode a few events, let my membership lapse, then joined again.
Healthy Ageing Study
In 2012 at the age of 65 I responded to an item in the Audax magazine Arrivee looking for volunteers to take part in the Healthy Ageing Study held at the Centre of Human and Aerospace Physiological Sciences based at Kings College Hospital in London; this was described to participants as “a scientifically rigorous study attempting to understand the effects of exercise on the ageing process.” Here I was introduced to the concept of “compressed morbidity”: we are all going to die, so let’s stay as active and healthy as possible and then “go quickly”.
This is very much in line with one of principles of “Fuelosophy” from 33Fuel.com, whose products fuel my rides and recovery: “We think healthspan, not lifespan. Lifespan is how long we are ‘alive’, healthspan is how long we are alive and in good health. Healthspan is what matters and our products must always fuel it.”
Ross Pollock who was conducting the tests at Kings told me that the ethics committee responsible for project approval had to be convinced that it was safe to subject these older people to a VO2 max test; eventually the committee accepted that cyclists put themselves through similar strain on their bike rides. Nonetheless I was repeatedly told that the cardiac unit was close by!
Older Cyclists are very fit and don’t seem to fade with age
Participants varied in age between 55 and 70 plus. The report on testing which I received in March 2014 stated “There appears to be little effect of age on any of the variables measured” (BMI, heart rate, blood pressure). “The distances cycled per month are high and do not appear to change with age.”
On VO2 max the report stated, “The values we have recorded are very high for the age group we are studying. This indicates that you are all extremely fit, much more than would typically be expected. This is an extremely important finding particularly given that some of you only took up cycling relatively recently. This data highlights that irrespective of age you can always improve your health and fitness by taking up exercise and that it is possible to perform what some people would classify as “extreme” amounts of activity well into later life.”
I found this latter statement particularly interesting as someone who had not cycled consistently throughout life.
Follow up Study 2021
The team at Kings had intended to retest participants after 8 years but we all know what happened to delay this until 2021. My VO2 max had dropped in the 9 years since the first tests but only by 50% of what would be expected from the passage of time. In both years my scores were in the “athletic” range, above “High” and just below “Elite”. What is interesting is that I achieved these scores despite having taken up cycling in my early 50s and then not at the level or intensity at which I now ride in the second half of my seventies. “Never too late”
Back to the Mind
In my experience confidence can be fragile. If I’ve packed my 200 km rides into the first half of the month, I often start the first ride of the following month with doubts: will the weather turn against me, will I get a puncture that won’t seal? Fortunately, age and experience contribute to resilience. Despite doubts on the surface, deep down I know I can cope. The torrential rain and flooding on my first February ride of 2023 would have been a problem if I did not know the area well enough from previous rides to find an alternative route. And if I weren’t so obstinate….
And, if all else fails, I do have cycle breakdown insurance from eta.co.uk
And the Body
Longevity and Self Destructive Behaviours
In a recent WHOOP podcast, Will Ahmed, CEO of WHOOP, discusses anti-ageing and longevity with Bryan Johnson. They reflect on the decreasing life expectancy in the US and increasing obesity and cardiovascular disease; they go on to discuss whether everyone in society can be brought along for age reversal or whether we may have two distinct populations, with 5-10% pushing the age of 100 or more. Bryan Johnson’s response is in terms of self-destructive behaviours; in driving to work “we need to pass McDonalds and Starbucks that has the sugar drinks and fifty other possibilities of temptations of engaging in some kind of self-destructive behavior, food that we know is not going to be good for us…” Going on to discuss social media algorithms and drinking with friends he argues that we have “a culture of self destructive behavior.” Personally, I believe that governments at both national and local level can take steps to encourage better health but examples are few and far between. McDonalds is the largest but not, of course, the only fast food outlet. However, a poster I saw on my last 200km ride advertised one of its products with the line “It’s back for good”: Once the genie is out of the bottle, there’s no putting it back: we can’t close fast food outlets but I do hope that local businesses that fall foul of the recession don’t become fast food outlets. I’m not an advocate of anti-ageing regimes to keep us all alive to 120 but I do regret the effect on society of so much fast food and lack of awareness of its effect. OK, off the soap box!
Is “Extreme” Exercise Harmful?
“Are you sure it’s not harmful to you to ride so far?” I’ve been asked more than once by friends and relatives. The Healthy Ageing study concludes that “it is possible to perform what some people would classify as “extreme” amounts of activity well into later life.” Cycling does reshape the body to some extent; I took part in a lung function test at Kings College Hospital in Denmark Hill, London, in September 2018 and was told that my lung capacity was about 30% greater than average.
Cycling can also reshape the heart. A small line on my ECG printout showed minor enlargement of the left atrium and sent the doctor carrying out the test to consult a colleague: no problem with the VO2 max test, he was told, most cyclists have the same pattern.
In “The Midlife Cyclist” Phil Cavell refers to research on “the emerging number of reports suggesting that intense exercise may have an adverse effect on an otherwise normal heart” and poses the question “So where are the bodies?” I cycle because I enjoy it, even if some rides are more “type 2 fun” but it’s great to know that cycling is good for the body and the mind.
We can keep cycling until the end
It’s also reassuring to know that “The distances cycled per month are high and do not appear to change with age.” I achieved my first Randonneur Round the Year in September 2021, having completed day rides of 200 km every month for a year (albeit with a COVID enforced break); I completed RRtY 6 in April 2023. Armed with the research-based knowledge that ability to ride relatively long distances does not decline in a linear manner with age, I am reassured that I don’t have to pack in RRtY 7-10 in the next year to meet my new goal of Ultra RRtY - 10 RRtY awards. I expect that I will be able to continue until I can’t - perhaps at the point when, courtesy of compressed morbidity, I fall off my perch for good.
