Things I Learned from Doing Triathlon in My 70s (2023)
triathlete.com
triathlete.com
I wish I had started and continued training at some level 30 years ago (or earlier) instead of waiting until now. I can only exhort people to not wait until they are old, and things start falling apart to start.
The author doesn't mention his experience before he turned 70, I think that would have been interesting.
I would read that as he's been actively racing for years.
There is no way to expect anyone to do triathlons "all of a sudden", I'm sure this guy spent several years getting up to that level.
I tried to look for more info on him to see if he detailed when he started and the path he took but apparently he's a quack and I got sidetracked looking at the time he got investigated and ended up settling for $100k in a wrongful death case involving the church of Scientology, wow.
The problem with all this connective tissue is - training it takes much longer than building muscles or increasing cardio capacity. For 70 year old, that is easily a decade+ of careful preparation / training to get to such level from 0 (which seems wasn't the case for him).
Also, there are 2 basic body types when it comes to flexibility - either flexible people (like me), or rather rigid ones. Us flexible can do ie yoga stuff that takes a decade for more rigid folks to achieve. Drawback is, our joints, when under load, tends to move farther and experience connective tissue issues way more. If you don't respect which type you are, you don't utilize your (remaining) potential.
And so on, this can be discussed for a very long time, our bodies are unique and fascinating on so many levels. They are also very stupid and completely not built for our modern lifestyles. Ie I broke both of my feet in paragliding accident recently, so wheelchair-bound for a while. It takes only 2-3 weeks of not walking and your feet become completely unusable, you lose basic bending capabilities. I guess this comes from more animal times when broken leg meant almost always death sentence.
In Hollywood anabolics are quite common, since preparing for a role can be a very short term thing, testosterone decreases with age, and very low body fat but large physiques are seen as normal.
Also, shorter people generally have it easier to have a muscular looking physique because of how the muscle mass limit scales with size.
I'm not sure if stigma should exist, but if something gives someone a huge advantage over a natural, but at the same time at the cost of life or health and other things, without telling they are doing it, it gives a false impression to everyone who may be comparing themselves to these people.
Not to mention the issues some young people get into when they work out a lot and compare themselves to those people and think they are never big enough, and then they get into this state of big, that is only appealing to the very same community, but not average person being misled by groups of celebrities, influencers and other people.
And also if you do go on TRT I think there's no good coming back, so usually it would be much better to try to achieve normal test with natural means first, because otherwise you are going a path with side effects and dependence for life.
Also young people wanting higher test don't understand life very well yet, they will tunnel vision on their single insecurity and think this is the golden path to solve it, while with a little perspective this understanding can change a whole lot.
In my limited understanding - as with many drugs - they're the best (or least worst) available option for people with a condition that's affecting their wellbeing. Untreated gender dysphoria can have terrible outcomes for mental health, and so therapies have been developed which are medicine's best solution so far.
And, as with T, this is where "normal for you", "normal for other people", "normal for the person you think you should be", "normal for the person society thinks you should be" overlap and interact with all sorts of potentially destructive interference patterns - especially if you're young.
Because "normal" varies from individual to individual by a factor of at least 2. But there's no harm IMO in getting tested (2x) so you know where you stand, and have a baseline against which to measure if natural interventions are effective for you.
Having said that, if there's no medical reason, what we're really talking about is people taking medication that they'd be, on balance, physically healthier without, in order to better fit in with society's expectations (endurance exercise, triathlons and so on, is associated with good long-term health outcomes, being jacked is not). And while I don't think artificially boosting T within the normal range is necessarily any worse for your body than, say, being on hormonal birth control long-term is for women, it's still pretty messed up that people feel like they have to.
Plenty who are 70 are not in the Viagra generation yet either.
People typically know this, but the social script is to ignore and deflect because we're culturally invested in the story of transformation through personal virtue. It's like pointing out that Santa Claus isn't real.
Say what now?
Fortunately, and to my initial surprise, I found that I liked both the process and the results. Once I started, I never had to push myself to go to the gym or to exercise. I also enjoyed the third-placeness of the gym and getting to know people outside of work.
I quit the gym when COVID was bad, but I had some extra space at home and gradually assembled a good set of exercise equipment. I take a nerdy pleasure in buying and using various cable-machine attachments, grip exercisers, elastic bands, and, especially, swinging implements (maces, light and heavy clubs, Sandflails, cylindrical and hexagonal steel rods bought from metal suppliers, etc.). Ten years ago I went through a bodyweight period, and I include no-equipment exercises in my workouts, too.
YouTube and Instagram have been great resources for ideas about equipment and exercises. Many of the influencers can be a bit too dogmatic, but I can usually learn something even from them.
Like the author, I do feel my age more these days, and I also find myself needing more rest than I used to. Unlike him, I have never even considered doing marathons, triathlons, etc. Running hurts my knees, and I feel I can push myself hard enough without having quantitative targets. To each his own.
Working out at home is convenient and comfortable, but I do miss the gym sometimes. I have considered rejoining but haven’t yet, as I wouldn’t be able to do swinging-equipment exercises at the public gyms where I live.
You should try Planet Fitness, where you won't be able to quit.
The monthly fees anyway.
EXCEPT. There was no way to cancel online, so, may they go to hell. But like, the nice part of hell.
Tried to quit his membership and they insisted he could only do from the location he signed up at in-person.
Sure, just buy a round trip ticket from Tokyo when you get some leave time.
So maybe a not-so-nice part of hell.
Key thing is to find something you like doing.
And I'm with you, reducing activation energy makes a big difference in success probability.
[0] https://www.amazon.com/Starting-Strength-Basic-Barbell-Train...
I work out at home 6 days a week and the total cost of my equipment was under $200. You can find used gear very cheap on craiglist or your local equivalent, especially in the first quarter of the year and after summer, the two times when people tend to give up. Ending of the college term is also good as students dump equipment they don't want to take home. I found my dumbbells (with 100 lbs of plates) lying on the sidewalk a block from where I live the day after Christmas a few years ago, and nearly killed myself carrying them home :)
If you are older and prefer getting into it at home, you need extra patience and attention to safety. When I got those dumbbells I had absolutely no idea what to do, so I tried doing 10 bicep curls with 10 lb each - easy. Next day I did the same with 20lb each, a bit harder but still easy. Next day I did the same with 30lb and seriously messed up the tendons in my left wrist, and it took well over a year to recover and the weights gathered dust under my desk until I decided to give them another go.
You will get regular small injuries with any kind of serious exercise program so you have to pay a lot of attention to your body's signals. Muscle injuries can be quite painful but are also relatively easy to train around, and a stretch or small tear muscle heals in 4-6 weeks. Tendons and ligaments take much longer to heal and grow, and you'll have to get used to both dealing with pain and thinking about the mechanics of exercise so you understand what you did wrong and what you can do safely.
If you want to be able to lift heavy weights then you should use a gym, even if it's only once a week, to learn about safety racks and get advice/assistance. But you can get plenty fit by starting with light weight/resistance and focusing on repetition while you slowly increase the weight over time. One of the pluses of this sort of training is that as you get the hang of it you can vary your routine to work different muscle groups on different days and allow time for recovery while still moving your training forward. You must also take longer rest periods every few months where you give your body a break. If you need the daily routine such that you hate taking breaks, then just cut your weight or reps in half for a week and then ramp back up to your regular weight over another week or two.
> Running hurts my knees
I've been following ATG (from Ben Patrick, the "knees over toes guy", google/youtube it) for about 2 years and it has made a tremendous difference to my knee ability; I have a torn meniscus and the routines he suggest have allowed me to regain full functionality.
[1] https://leangains.com/ - it is now mostly Patreon, but circa 2008 it was awesome. A lot of information.
[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20191220193823/http://hypertroph... - it is only in Archive now
Applying both leangains and HST, I've managed to lose 2.5 kg of fat while gaining 4.5 kg of lean tissue in three month. I was 38 years old at the time (2009).
For that I am very, very grateful to HN.
Regarding knees' pain, please look into HST's principles and literature. 15+ repetitions incorporated there heals ligaments' and muscles' microinjuries.
I was amazed at how my body responded. It helps that I immediately fell in love with the sport.
However, I found the most important change I made was in my nutrition, which I changed at the same time I started BJJ. Not only did my body really respond to that, I saw dramatic improvements in my mental and emotional health as well.
I'm 51 now and I've easily kept that 40lbs off the whole time.
Eating less (95 out of 100 people in the general population today are eating way too much)--in general, it means ingesting fewer calories, solid and liquid--and keeping protein intake between 100 and 150 g per day is an excellent starting point and likely a final one. What does it mean to eat less? Half of what you eat now is a good starting point. If you are losing weight, go on, if you are not, eat less.
Some disciplines, such as endurance sports, require special dietary modifications, but if you are fat (and most of us are), you already have bigger problems.
My main legacy, much more than my academic research and my work in tech, will be to have encouraged people to get in shape by telling them that they eat too much and are fat (without fat shaming of course, all to their advantage).
Eating healthy fats and protein is so satiating that one doesn't need to try to eat less, they just naturally do. Yes, there are exceptions to that but, for most people that is true.
Should I be eating this food? Eat less. What about this supplement? Eat less. A cheat meal? Eat less. Charles Bronson was asked how he kept in excellent shape in his 50s. His answer? Small portions. Accept you need to eat less, food will be there tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after again (there is a reference there to the movie "The Eclipse" by Antonioni, with Alain Delon and Monica Vitti as protagonists). In a short time, a few weeks, you get used to ingesting fewer calories.
Most folks are likely at a mild surplus of calories, so the swing to actually get you to lose weight is often as substantial as 700-1000cal to actually lose weight. Per day. It’s a lifestyle change, unfortunately.
Also, sometimes when we think we're hungry, we're actually dehydrated.
So, I would argue that nobody needs to ignore hunger pangs. First, drink some water and wait a few minutes. Still hungry? Then eat something[1]. It's ok.
1: See my earlier post about what to eat. If you want to keep being hungry an hour after eating, eat food from the Standard American Diet.
Also, we'll have to disagree on your opinion that food manufacturers are poisoning us, though. I don't subscribe to that hyperbole. Additionaly, organic and locally grown has essentially nothing to do with nutritional properties of the food we eat. It may be better for sustainability, but that has nothing to do with how healthy it is.
There are enough fruit and vegetables like celery, carrots, cucumbers, apples, pears etc that you can eat if you feel hungry, and you'll feel physically sick well before you've eaten too many calories.
While it's a diet change, it's far less intrusive than just having to put up with being hungry.
I would say that this is one of the wrong ways of approaching the problem, which makes it more difficult to lose weight. People who are (severely) overweight who gorge on food have an unhappy lifestyle: they don't look good or feel good, they are prone to energy swings that make them irritable and bad company, and they are obsessed with food. Fortunately, an all-too-simple lifestyle change would make their lives much better. The food not eaten today will be there tomorrow. No need to obsess over it.
My point is that it's not some quick fix, it requires dedication to unlearn bad habits and commit to changing for the better. It cannot be a one-and-done approach, as falling back to similar levels of consumption will just lead them right back to where they started.
Yes, that's the quibble. 'Unfortunately, you need to do resistance exercises if you want to grow substantial muscles'; 'Unfortunately, you need to stop watching porn like crazy if you want to have normal behavior with men/women'; 'Unfortunately, you need to stop stuffing yourself with food if you want to be in decent shape.'
For the first two examples, 'unfortunately' seems out of place. But for the third example, food, it seems reasonable. And it is because gorging on food until you lose your wits has been normalized, but there is nothing unpleasant about having a normal relationship with food.
If you could take a pill to make yourself grow muscles without downsides, it would be great. There's nothing 'fortunate' about having to spend hours of time on exercise which is otherwise meaningless.
Also, there definitely is something unpleasant about dieting to lose weight. It's not fun. Maintaining a healthy diet less so, but you are absolutely making sacrifices personally and socially if you cannot eat or drink whatever you want whenever you want.
But suppose all these negative consequences did not exist, would eating all day like a pig be heaven on earth? What sacrifices do you make when you don't eat ad lib to maintain a normal weight, nothing as extreme as preparing for a bodybuilding competition? I like food, but I don't feel deprived by eating portions that allow me to maintain a normal weight. And I can eat or drink whatever I want, but not all the time. That hunger feeling may last as long as you pay attention to it, a couple of minutes. If someone had a problem with alcohol, you wouldn't say to them, “I'm very sorry that you have to make this sacrifice of not drinking all day every day to have a normal life,” but for some reason eating smaller portions seems, because that's the narrative of these fat times, an unbearable sacrifice. And it is a self-fulfilling prophecy that leads to yo-yo swings in weight.
If there was a pill that would make me grow muscles without exercising would I stop exercising? I would not, it is fun and engaging, makes me test my will and my intelligence.
I'm not suggesting that having a pill that allows you to eat unlimited amounts of food without consequence would be "heaven on earth", I'm just saying that for most people's lifestyles you are placed into an environment that by default will lead to over consumption. That's the sacrifice. You cannot choose the default behavior anymore, and it requires foresight, thought, and planning to execute. All of that is unfortunate, because it is not easy especially if you're not used to it.
Regarding building pathways to use muscles, it’s effectively like riding a bike. You spend some initial time learning good technique, but year 2, 3, 4, and onwards isn’t really doing much in that department. It’s just grinding to get stronger/more muscular.
I tried restrictive diets a few times in my 20s and they always made me feel tired and messed with my stomach. Now in my late 30s reducing carbs and fats have been really helpful.
Interestingly, when a person gains weight they are not asked to do so under medical treatment, but when the same person wants to lose the fat and get down to a reasonable weight there are all these warnings, dangers and side effects. It's all autosuggestion. Eat less, and do that reasonably.
DON'T PUSH YOURSELF TOO HARD, LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. PAIN IS NOT GOOD, IT'S A WARNING SIGN.
Bold red line is BPM. Green area is "burn fat", red area anaerobic, in between aerobic, above anaerobic the "warning" area. White line is speed, usually going to 0 when I make a photo. Black line is altitude.
The peak you see at 9pm is at 172 bpm, I think I have 180 set as bpm max.
hrmax = 178
hropacity = 0.1
g.append("rect").datum({y:hrmax*.9, height:hrmax*.8})
.attr("x", 0).attr("y", function(d) { return yHR(d.y) })
.attr("width", width).attr("height", function(d) { return yHR(d.height)-yHR(d.y) })
.attr("fill", "rgba(255,0,0,"+hropacity+")");
{"ht":"20:59:36","lt":1724439576300,"to":7200,"pr":"ble","sn":"hrm","sv":{"hr":172}},
{"ht":"20:59:37","lt":1724439577350,"to":7200,"pr":"ble","sn":"hrm","sv":{"hr":172}},
{"ht":"20:59:38","lt":1724439578399,"to":7200,"pr":"ble","sn":"hrm","sv":{"hr":172}},
But knowing your max HR won't directly tell you the heart rate at which the majority of your power output is generated from anaerobic metabolism. There is only a loose relationship between those numbers, with significant variations between individuals. Again, if you want to actually know your numbers then you'll need to do a metabolic test in a real sports performance lab where they can measure inhaled and exhaled gasses while you pedal a stationary bike, along with data from power meter and HR sensors. Some consumer fitness trackers such as Garmin bike computers can also give you a rough estimate of heart rate zones based on your HRV response curve.
Like a lot in life to be honest. When I lived in CO I did a lot of hiking at the higher altitudes there. I almost always hiked alone and could have easily turned around when my breath got short, but I didn't. It was strictly mental exercise. Similar to when I power lifted for years. Obviously there's a physical part, but when the numbers got big for me, it became just as much mental.
Now I've been doing BJJ for a number of years. There is so much mental effort expended to not panic or give up simply because you're uncomfortable (different from being put in an actual finishing move). As I started with, the exercise of accepting discomfort, staying calm, and moving forward is skill that resonates all through life.
It's pretty clear from observing almost every sport, including running distances shorter than 50 miles, that men dominate women physically. If men and women are similar at mental effort, and men are better physically at performing, then why would women start to take over on long distances but not shorter distances?
So, either women are better at mental effort than men, or something about biology lets women perform better than men at the ultra long distance stuff but not the shorter stuff. I say it is just biology. If OP thought it had no relation to mental effort skills difference between men and women, then why even bring it up?
At longer distances the mental advantage for the top women start to matter more than their physical disadvantage when compared with the men who happen to be physically tougher but mentally weaker than them
Maybe it's the fact that women have a higher percentage of type 1 muscle fibers than men, and it just takes until ultra marathon level distances that the increased proportion of type 1 fibers makes up for the relative higher percentage of type 2 fibers in men. Or maybe women are more efficient at burning fat than men are.
https://x.com/Scienceofsport/status/1828149521441763729?s=19
> It’s more productive to ask, “How can I?” than it is to ask, “Can I?” The latter is the question that comes to mind more readily, especially when faced with a new or unique challenge…I have learned how to ask, “How can I?” From there, a path of action inevitably reveals itself.
Also, last week on HN there was a post about how uniqueness bias holds us back by causing us to disregard learnings from the solution of similar problems. (While a problem may be unique to us, it is rarely unique to the world - though perhaps in a different costume.) It’s telling here that the author says he defaults to the less productive “Can I?” mindset when he sees his challenge as unique - and also that he opens the article with the realization that he is not unique.
The moral is - part of listening to your body is learning how to train within your age / ability band.
> consigning yourself to the binary greatly limits what you can achieve
This is the good one here, IMO. I see people helplessly stuck in binary thinking all the time.
Now, breaking things down to a binary is a good technique for analysis. It's just that you can't stop there. You always need to be thinking "why not both?", "or neither?", "or some other thing?", "or some of one and at little of the other?", "is there a binary that more neatly slices the problem?"
Most effective in the gym when counting reps for someone else, always start with a big loud "Zero", then continue counting from there.
If they can keep a straight face :)
It shows dedication ;)
The author also acknowledges the realities of aging: "Age is just a number? You’re only as old as you feel? Acknowledging reality is crucial." And did I mention that he's doing Ironmans at 71?
Additionally, there are more stuff, like "Rest days are non-negotiable." Many amateur and even professional athletes often overlook the importance of rest. You frequently see people training nonstop, not realizing how critical rest is to their overall performance.
If you see no improvement at all then definitely mention it to your doctor.
It could be vitamin deficiency. Vitamin D during low sunlight seasons really boosts my energy.