Living to and at 90
I recently learned of two books for men who want to bicycle in later years:
Cycling Past 50 (which already applies to me), by Joel Friel (the same author as the book I read last year getting ready for my first triathlon.)
Even more impressive to me as a concept is this one: Bike for Life: How to Ride to 100. From it, I now have a new goal: ride a century on my century (do a hundred mile bike ride on my hundreth birthday. Mind you, not many men make that age period, let alone fit enough to ride a bike, but if I should still be around then, I'd prefer enough of me still be around to pull off a stunt like that.
Now today I read that getting to at least age 90 may be easier than expected, and with better than even odds (54% chance of success), if I manage to do five simple things:
Exercise regularly
Avoid obesity
Not smoke
Avoid diabetes
Avoid high blood pressure
The details are in this article from Med Page Today:
More than half of men in their early 70s who exercised regularly, were not obese, didn't smoke, and didn't have diabetes or high blood pressure survived to 90, reported Laurel B. Yates, M.D., M.P.H., of Brigham and Women's Hospital, and colleagues in the Feb. 11 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.
Men surviving to 90 also had significantly lower rates of many chronic diseases compared with those who died earlier, the researchers said.
And among those who did have chronic disease, the age of onset was significantly later in the long-term survivors.
"Modifiable healthy behaviors during early elderly years ... are associated not only with enhanced life span in men but also with good health and function during older age," the researchers said.
In an interview, Dr. Yates said the implication is that the benefits of these factors extend into old age. Earlier research has established beyond doubt that they prevent early mortality.
Interested? There's more. Read the whole thing.
If I don't make it, here's what I want on my tombstone :)
Lost the weight
Got fit
Died anyway
But if I do make it, how about
Rode a Century
on His Century
Update:
Friend Greg suggests an intermediate goal for each intervening year:
Ride my birthday on my birthday
that is, ride as many miles as my current number of years of age as a birthday celebration.
Since it's not usually biking weather on my birthday, he suggests I do this on my half birthday instead, but I may also go with the original idea and use it as a reason to take both me and my bike someplace where the weather is nice on my birthday. Thanks for the idea, Greg!:
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