by liberal japonicus
From the Grauniad here.
The 39-year-old Jamaican had not watched athletics at all since retiring in 2017 until seeing Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Oblique Seville win gold. And, as he also admitted, he now spends his time streaming movies and building Lego – and even gets out of breath when he walks up stairs.
I feel ya, Usain. An open thread for your complaints about your aches and pains. Have at it.
For someone soon to turn 72, I seem to have remarkably few aches and pains. My sister is younger, and I have quit comparing notes with her because I feel guilty. Given our two histories, I’m the one you would expect to have painful worn-out joints*. All of mine seem to be cranking along fine. She’s replaced both knees, one hip, one shoulder, and had an ankle rebuilt.
For the record, last time out on the bicycle I did 20 miles. I have had to admit that I will be the slowest person on the trail from now on, because the people I used to pass have all got e-bikes. I’m old-fashioned, I guess — the goal is to conquer the uphill bits on your own, not to pass the job over to some batteries.
* Bicycling since I was six with the inevitable falls, plus off-and-on golf, racquet sports, soccer, basketball, softball, hiking/climbing, fencing, lugging around children (and now grandchildren). A variety of joints occasionally sprained, with only amateur stretching and PT routines during recovery. Tossed down the side of a mountain by a horse once.
I have had to admit that I will be the slowest person on the trail from now on, because the people I used to pass have all got e-bikes. I’m old-fashioned, I guess — the goal is to conquer the uphill bits on your own, not to pass the job over to some batteries.
I hear you on the e-bike thing despite riding one myself most of the time. Paradoxically, I too want the uphills to be a challenge, and chose my e-bike because it promised *less* than the other e-bikes. I wanted minimal added weight and the ability to be able to set the pedal assist low enough to keep the rides challenging and natural feeling, with just enough of an electric tailwind to make the steepest parts of the trails rideable, rather than forcing me to hike-a-bike. It’s not quite as challenging as riding full-acoustic, but it reduces the effort by a third, while doubling the time I spend riding, so it’s a net gain for my fitness.
Alas, the rest of the e-bike knuckleheads I encounter seem to be addicted to the thrill and illusion provided by the boost, or are wanting the motor to shuttle them up the hills so that they can bypass the struggle and just get the downhill rush. And the social riders among them are hopeless on this front. The most competitive among them always rush to be first up and are in a hurry to get to the gnarly bits, and they haze everyone else into conforming and upping their boost just to keep from being dropped. Most of the group would be happier with less boost, but the biggest man-child always seems to drive the consensus.
I am in the process of turning my older, non-electric, hardtail mtb into a more gravel-and-excursion oriented bike for when weather limits me to the mixed-use bike paths. Those hills are much more manageable than the local wilderness trails.
My latest tests show my cholesterol getting out of hand despite having a healthy diet and getting the recommended exercise. Not a surprise, given the family history. Will probably end up on statins soon enough. Diet and exercise have held off genetics for a decade-and-a-half longer than most of my line, but there’s only so much to be done with that.
Michael, you’ve got me rethinking things. If I had to narrow it down to a single event, during COVID, when we were having some classes on campus but still a lot of online stuff, a colleague and I went to the basketball gym on campus. I used to play a lot of basketball, but that was over 40 years ago and I was totally embarrassed that my shots were basically a foot or two short of the basket. Free throws seemed like a heave. While we were ‘playing’, a gym class where the students played basketball came in and the teacher asked if I wanted to run with them. I said sure, and did about 15 minutes of running up and down. It was a PE class, so none of the students were very good, but they were young and running and about 5 minutes in, I thought ‘I could really hurt myself doing this’. After they did the first rotation, I said thanks and bowed out, but now, any kind of really strenuous play that is random seems like asking for trouble.
I’m in pretty good shape for 71–meaning I didn’t have weight gain with menopause; don’t have cancer; I can see, hear and think; my hair is still brown; and I can walk three or four miles without collapse (if the weather is cool).
As mentioned above, fast movement or sudden movement is jarring and painful. I’m not flexible anymore. I can’t remember names. I can’t walk very far if the temp is over 80 without getting ill. This is a big change from my previous baseline which included 20 mile mountain hikes wearing a backpack and weekend bike trips of 60 miles or so plus occasional bike trip vacations.
Mostly I’m okay so far. I’m kind of afraid I will follow the pattern with my family which is to lose my sight and hearing while continuing to live into my nineties. I don’t want to keep going when it stops being fun.
Lest anyone think I’m asserting that I’m immune to aging, I have a list of things to demonstrate that I’m not. It’s just that none of them hurt.
Maybe it’s just me, but it’s quite hard to interact with someone whose handle is ‘
That’s wonkie, I’ve been going into the backend and changing it and was going to contact her about fixing it, but that was sort of down on my list. I’ll change these, and I’ve just written a message to her and we will sort it oul.
I have never been consistently active and fit long enough to establish any pattern. I have years of being very fit followed by years of being a complete couch potato. Here I am, turning 70 in a few months, and I can’t really gauge my status because I’m always in between.
On the one hand, I can still hike for miles and manage elevation gains of up to 1000′ without much trouble. The only aches and pains I get are normal ones, gone after a hot shower or a night’s sleep.
On the other hand, elevation gains of more than 1000′, or any hikes in 80+ degree weather (never mind humidity) are so much more draining than I think they should be. My lungs seem to get a weird spongy feel, which DuckDuckGo tells me could be COPD or fluid, gee thanks.
I have told a friend I’d love to go with her on her next Mt. St. Helens summit hike. I have a LOT of conditioning to do before that, and am hoping I am capable.
On a more whimsical note, I was about to wish us all a happy Autumn Solstice Eve when I looked up what date it actually is and – ???- the Autumnal Solstice is September 22.
Solstices and equinoxes always being on the 20th or 21st was good enough while I was growing up; it should be good for the current generation!
Sorry about the apostrophe.
I’m replying to this comment in the admin interface to see how this works.
The only aches and pains I get are normal ones, gone after a hot shower or a night’s sleep.
I’m curious how you are defining ‘normal ones’. 20 years ago, if I was hurting, I would generally know why. Ache in the wrist, ahh, we were doing this technique a lot. I always had a pretty good idea of what caused it. Now, I’m living in a world where I have aches and pains and I have no f**king idea where they came from. As a friend said, ‘getting old is like you have the flu, but it is more like a baseline rather than an exception.’
lj – Mostly muscle stiffness in my legs and back, because I am deliberately doing difficult-for-me hikes. Predictable, explicable, and – so far, knock wood – non-permanent.
I have a history of getting banged up and not paying much attention to it, unless (1) I need to go to an ER; or (2) the hurt doesn’t go away after a few days. I’ve fallen on trails (have a patch of numb on my right leg from a fall that smashed a nerve). I have a tricky knee from bending and twisting while over-enthusiastically ripping up invasive blackberry vines. I’ve been kicked, bitten, and stepped on by horses; broke my arm riding. (Well, not *riding* per se; it was the falling-off-the-horse part that did the actual breakage.)
One impairment that might be age-related, or due to my history as an ex-smoker/current vaper, or a combo of the two, is I have to stop and rest frequently to catch my breath if I’m going upslope. Doesn’t happen on the flat, only if I’m climbing. Stairs or trails. It’s been that way for a few years now, and at least doesn’t seem to be getting worse (knock wood, again).
Not sure that answers what you wanted to know…?
I go running some 2 times a week and have been doing this for decades. No major problems so far, but I seem to be one of the younger ones here. What’s really annoying is that additionally to my myopia, which I have had since childhood, I have developed far-sightedness as well in recent years. Also, I get the feeling that I’m slowing down when it comes to planning, multitasking and such things, feeling a bit overwhelmed at times of high stress, but generally I can handle it.
No particular answers, just wanted to grumble.