Adjustments to training routine with age

How do you prepare for the rigorous physical requirements of high elevation adventure? Strength and endurance are key, but are only part of a more complex equation. How do you prepare for changes in altitude, exposure, diet, etc.? How do you mentally prepare? Learn from others and share what you know about training in advance for outdoor adventures.
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Adjustments to training routine with age

Post by giantbrookie »

Hi Everyone,

Various aspects of this post have certainly been covered in previous threads, but I thought it might be useful to post this, not so much as a "how to" but to offer encouragement and hope to folks maintaining their activity level at any age in spite of a number of past injuries.

As for my own experience which I relate here, I want to make sure folks understand some of the "fine print", which is that: 1. I am not a professional fitness expert, trainer, nutritionist, etc., so please do not take this as advice from a qualified professional. 2. I have never been a top-caliber athlete such as one who competed in intercollegiate sports, let alone a professional athlete, so I don't have any athletic credibility. 3. I am well aware that what works for me won't necessarily work for others. 4. I am aware that there are folks on this board in better shape than I am, so I'm not the ideal role model.

Here's my favorite quote from a real professional on the subject of training as one ages:
"From your late 30s onward sports is one long rehab"---Nolan Ryan

Anyhow, here goes an account of my training routine from my childhood to age 57 (just short of 58) as well as a summary of my injuries that have partly driven my training routine.
Training Summary:
childhood to age 18: no weights. cardio through swimming and basketball and running stadium bleachers.

age 18-50: Began weight training after first knee operation at age 18. Began with quads only, then later added upper body workout starting in early 20s. More complete leg exercises followed with hamstring curls more fully integrated by late 40's. 2nd knee operation at age 38. More hamstring work beginning in mid 50s. Rehab exercises isolate one leg so as not to favor. I do more sets and reps on the weaker (right) side. Began toe pointing range of motion exercises at about age 48. Ankle exercise (at home) to strengthen ankles begin at age 20. Did various back raises and ab workouts for core (at home), but not enough to offset back problems from age 21 to 50.
Cardio. through bleacher running to age 45, basketball tails off after late 30s then ceases altogether after age 45. Stairwell walking replaces bleachers after age 48. Ht weight during most of this time (say age 22 to 50) about 5'10", 172 lbs.

age 50-55: added more core training and dramatically improved back health. Addition of very long duration plank the key addition. Back much improved over ages 21-50. Because of adding more exercises weight workouts a bit longer (average about 1 hr versus a few minutes less than this before) Cardio solely through stairwell walking during off season when not hiking. Standard workout is about 1000' of elevation gain and loss. weight 160 lbs.

age 55-57+ started doing muscle ups as part of strength training. Bench press sets and time reduced, but overall workout time increases. Average workout time is more like 1 hr 15 min. added basketball to cardio/fun routine. restarted stadium bleachers. Weight 160 lbs.

Training personal bests and decline through time:
bench press 285 lbs (first done at age 30 last done at age 51), single-set reps on 225: 10 (first done age 31, last done age age 52); vertical jump 35" (age 21); decline to 22" by age 55, now probably mid 20s at age 57 going on 58 and continuing to increase a bit; muscle ups (single set):11 (age 57 did first muscle up at age 55), plank duration: 47 min (Age 52). The point here is that you can still set personal bests in various athletic pursuits long beyond the age that professional athletes are past their prime and retired. Whereas some of the reasons for this are that we simply didn't train as hard as we might have back when we were younger (I did in fact train pretty hard when younger), another factor is that professional athletes wear down their bodies a lot more than we do during their athletic prime, in part because they routinely play hurt through injuries that the rest of us would give a lot more time to rest, heal, and rehab. Eventually Father Time will defeat us all, but in doing all we can to stall him as long as possible, we can have a higher quality life in the meantime for our efforts.

Injury summary:
8th grade: really bad charley horse that had me on crutches for several days and led to a calcium deposit that didn't go away until a year before my first knee operation (as a sophomore in college). First time I saw a limb atrophy from lack of use (my right leg).
age 17 (freshman in college): right knee injury (ligament damage, probably fairly mild).
age 18: right knee injury, 1st knee operation
age 19: really bad (left)ankle injury
age 19: banged hip when slipping on rock during stream crossing and crashing hip into rock during a 2-day spring trip to climb Mt Brewer. Would continue to deliver occasional sharp pains until about age 35, but quite regularly from about age 19 to 22 or so. Don't really know extent of injury.
age 21: back injury leading to recurring back spasms
age 24: painful reinjury (probably mild ligament strain) of right knee during skiing fall
age 28: painful left knee hyperextension (twice on two different leaps across streams returning from climbing Mt Rodgers). First of multiple mild injuries and reinjuries to my left knee.
age 31: broke right ankle at Upper Horton Lake.
age 34; broke 2 fingers on day 2 of 5 day backpacking trip (along shoreline of Harriet Lake).
age 37: my first hamstring pull.
age 38: 2nd operation on right knee

Other injuries: many knee tweaks that have required rehab times of one week to three months for either my right or left knee; most of the tweaks since age 40 have been to my left rather than right knee. Last bad one was in spring 2015 (age 55 going on 56) when I hyperextended the left knee stepping into a gopher hole on day 2 of 7 of teaching my field geologic mapping class.

Training relevance to hiking and other activities:
From a hiking standpoint all this training has allowed me to still enjoy off trail hiking and my hiking speed can gain more fishing/leisure time at my destination. More important, can enjoy the "getting there" because I'm not hurting so much that I'm simply looking forward to reaching my destination. I sure remember those days as a kid when trying to follow my dad (up to age 19 after which I had to wait for him; he was 51 when we exchanged the lead). Many think this conditioning level contributes mightily to my research effectiveness and productivity in the field-related components of geology, but it is actually overrated there. The reason is that the main reason for a huge increase in my field productivity is a >10fold increase in pattern recognition ability (and adding to the mental pattern library with time) which would be more than enough to offset a reduction in hiking speed. In other words, scholarship is much more important there than the brawn. I do think that good conditioning contributes to professional productivity when doing what a very large proportion professionals do: sitting at their computer. Whereas I have to subtract some time I might be doing work to exercise, the increase in my level of energy physically leads to a corresponding increase in mental energy which more than offsets the amount of time I put into training. I also think that many professionals tend to expect too much of themselves (I am one of them) and I find that it is helpful to delude myself into believing I can do the impossible by doing physical things that I once didn't think I could do.


Chronological narrative of evolution of training regime:
I was a fairly late bloomer as an athlete. As late as early 8th grade I was near the bottom of my class in terms of athleticism and was picked last (regardless of gender) for most team sports in PE classes. I was, however, a reasonably strong hiker, more from grit than strength. I recall climbing Sawtooth Peak on my 10th birthday for my then personal best elevation gain of 4500'. I wasn't doing any formal training, though, until I began competitive swimming in earnest somewhere around age 14 which kept the cardio up, and I played a lot of full court basketball beginning at about the same age. I did not lift weights at that time (say age 14 to 17) because I was afraid it would mess with my jump shot accuracy. Sometime around age 15 or 16 I started running football stadium bleachers (Stanford Stadium in those days) to improve my acceleration and explosiveness as well as endurance. When I was 17 I suffered my first knee injury (impact from side when knee was planted--a football-style injury I guess) and my medical care, as it is for most people, was based on getting me back walking, not getting back me back to playing basketball over the rim, so I wasn't advised on any rehab methods. In a few months I was back playing ball again and getting over the rim (was about 5'8" at that time and weighed about 150), but I was dismayed at the atrophy of my right leg. As I found out the hard way, when one doesn't isolate the weak side and preferentially strengthen it, one naturally favors the weak side and a disparity in muscle mass and strength between the two legs was the natural consequence. At age 18 I suffered a 2nd knee injury which resulted in my first knee operation (ligament strain, operation was to remove loose piece of bone and cartilage that had floated in and locked up the joint). This operation in later years would have been routine arthroscopy but arthro was pretty exploratory in those days and only a few professional athletes were getting it (1978), so it was a full blown incision and removal operation.
Although I wasn't given any rehab instructions beyond those designed to get me walking again, this time I hit the weight room with a vengeance. I focused on my quads much more than my hammies because I was scared stiff of overdeveloping my hammies and getting those hamstring injuries that plague so many sprinters. In those days I met many rehabbing athletes (including some D1 athletes--these were the days of much smaller athletic budgets when the athletics programs didn't have their own weight rooms) in various weight rooms and comparing experiences with them helped shape my routine. I isolated my right leg and did far more sets of quad extensions on my right compared to my left leg. In spite of this my favoring of this side while playing basketball led to a pretty big disparity in muscle mass (ie left leg quad still much more developed than right). I continued to run football stadium stairs and when I transferred from a JC (Foothill) to UC Berkeley in the fall of 1978 I switched to the track stadium for bleachers because I liked the spacing better than the football stadium.

Granted everyone is different, but the running stadium bleachers seemed to be a really good training for High Sierra backpacking and peak bagging trips for me.I remember going up on that 'opening trip' with folks who were doing much more intensive cardio training than me, my dad doing his distance running and swimming (in 1976 he ran a 2:58 marathon at age 48), and another friend being very close to a national-caliber cyclist, and finding that the bleacher running prepared me better for tough hikes than intense distance running and cycling of my dad and friend. After a few of those experiences (ie kinda rough leadoff trip of hiking season), my dad made sure to get in training hikes before going with me to the Sierra---he'd regularly hike up Black Mtn on the Peninsula as his local training hike. During this time I had two other injuries that would influence my future training: around 1979 (age 19 going on 20) or so I had a really bad ankle injury playing ball (the usual stepping on someone's foot); the sound of the ligaments popping was so loud folks stopped playing on adjacent courts because they knew something really bad had happened. While in the UCB student health clinic waiting to have my ankle looked at I happened to read a magazine that had this article on a sports trainer at a Cincinnati high school that had a remarkable record of injury rate reduction for athletes in programs there (the injury rate was vastly lower than equivalent athletes at other schools in the same league). There was this ankle strengthening exercise he had his athletes do and this became a part of my standard regimen. My ankle was wobbly for nearly a half year, but became stronger than ever afterwards. Sometime around age 21 (late 1980, I think?) I had my first back injury--this took place when I overstretched while trying to loosen up my hammies for a game of basketball. I began a period of many years trying to find the right combo of lower back strengthening exercises, coupled with flexibility, but the back spasms would come back unpredictably as these things always do. Things didn't improve until some later training adjustments around age 50 as noted below. Also during this time early 1980 (age 20 going on 21) I had my first metabolic change that caused me to think about what I ate. Up to that point it seemed I could eat as much of whatever I wanted to eat and I really didn't gain weight (height and weight as of then was a tad short of 5'10" and weight about 160). I ate a ton in geologic field camp and drank a ton of beer and came back notably over my playing weight,somewhere in the high 170s. From then on I tried to use a bit more self control eating. For the next few decades (age 21 to about age 52 or so) my average weight was about 172, my height reached a bit short of 5'11" sometime after age 21 and before age 55 (was not measured between then). I would usually get a bit heavier during the cold months (base more like 175) and lighter during the summer (base more like 170) but wouldn't feel right if I was super lean (say 165).

Anyhow the training regimen I adopted at about age 21 and continued to build on to age 45 was a combination of weight training, first focusing only on the quads and such but later expanding to upper body strength (little squirt point guards need strength to deal with those bigger folks), with running stadium stairs as my main cardio exercise in addition to full court basketball. As I got into my late 20s I started to decrease the amount of basketball, but I probably didn't adequately replace this with more cardio training. During the summers from 1988-1997 the reduction in regular cardio training caused by reduction in playing hoops didn't slow down the High Sierra stuff because Judy and I kept in shape for that by simply going up very regularly, with a gradual increase in degree of difficulty at the beginning of any given season (1992 with Edyth and Shasta back to back early was the exception--that was a very quick ramp up). I had my 2nd knee operation in 1998, after postponing it for 6 years by adding some knee flexibility routines to my training (still do these, though). This operation was more or less related to aging and the decline in flexibility of lateral tendon attachments to my right patella. The fix was a combo of arthro (clean up of rough cartilage "under the hood") plus an external incision to sever the lateral connecting tendons (this is called a "lateral release"). The operation did in fact seem to improve my mobility. As the High Sierra frequency dropped I tried to offset this a bit with regular training hikes to Mission Peak, but this ended in 2005 when we moved to Fresno. My basketball activities were very infrequent by then and shortly after moving to Fresno I decided to quit for good because my knees and back just weren't dealing with hoops very well.

The first two and a half years in Fresno (2005-2007) were a bit rough physically because I stopped weight training. The impact was devastating. I took a lot longer to heal relatively minor injuries. My core training was poor and back spasm bouts that once lasted two days with after effects for about a week, would leave me limping around like a cripple for two months. A student of mine who had his share of injuries asked me when seeing me hobbled for the umpteenth "did you stop weight training"? I began weight training again and it improved things a lot. I was not happy with my cardio conditioning, though and noticed that things like asthma and sinus problems hit me much harder when I was slacking in my cardio. Working out at Bulldog stadium isn't that convenient for where I'm located on campus, as well as the spotty unofficial availability, so I started to walk the stairway in building that houses my faculty office. For a standard workout (2 to 3 times a week) I try to do the equivalent of 1000 feet of elevation gain and loss.I do not like an internal stairwell as much as outdoor bleachers because (1) It doesn't have as much give as outdoor bleachers so it's harder on the knees and (2), partly because of this as well as all the stairwell bends, it doesn't lend itself to sprinting and working on my leg lift, not that this should be important at this age (but see below). However, it has worked very well for the last few years. Starting somewhere around 2009 I think (ie about age 50) I began to increase the intensity of my core training. I would do the back arch bench for my lower back and the oblique machine, then began to increase my duration of holding the plank (the former two done in weight room the latter at home). This has improved my back health enormously. The condition of my back is one thing that I can honestly say is better now at age 57 than it was from ages 21-50. The best measure of this is going to poster sessions at geoscience meetings. Whereas standing on that hard floor would make my back so sore from ages 21 to 50 that I felt nearly immobilized after a couple of hours, from age 50 onward it was no longer an issue. Starting back around age 40 I began to notice problems with range of motion of my right ankle. This may have some relationship to the fracture I sustained in the backcountry at around age 32, or it may be unrelated and connected to some weird toe-pointing hyperextension thingie that happened around age 40 with a crummy pair of boots during an off trail hike. By my late 40s I noticed that the range of motion for both ankles fore and aft wasn't too good (couldn't really point my toes) and I felt this led to poorer balance hiking off trail. I started doing various toe pointing flexibility exercises as well as incorporating a weight exercise where I point the toes against resistance. This improved my range of motion (toe pointing and foot flexing fore aft) a bit and also improved my balance off trail, but more substantive improvements did not occur until more recently. If one notices the pattern, I've repeatedly added or adjusted exercises as needed to combat the issues. I also adjusted my eating habits just a smidge starting around age 50. I just tried not to get as full as I had a habit of doing during meals (especially dinner). This ended up dropping my base weight from 172 to 160. Moreover, I don't have the seasonal fluctuation any more---I don't tend to get heavier during the winter. My weight will temporarily get really low after a hard backpacking trip (as low as 153 after the 3-day Yosemite Inside Out trip in 2014 at age 55), but it stabilizes back at my new baseline fairly quickly upon return.

My main training regimen from age 50 to 55 was stairwell walking (two steps per stride) for cardio and getting the climbing and descending muscles conditioned, weight training for repairs and preventative maintenance with added core training at home (plank). Beginning at age 54 I became obsessed, perhaps foolishly, with doing that uber-pull up move known as a muscle up, mostly because of the challenge. I really thought it was impossible for me to pull one off. After a half year building up to it, it became the centerpiece of my strength training routine (personal best is 11 in one set, with a personal high aggregate of something like 45 in a single workout), and my bench press reps and top end have fallen off quite a bit as a result. On the good side of things it is an exercise that works out pretty much everything in the upper body at once, including the core. On the bad side, it is really easy to get hurt doing it, so I'm enjoying the novelty of this while it lasts figuring that if get hurt too regularly doing this I will quit and simply go back to regular pull ups rather than risking any sort of permanent elbow and shoulder damage.

A bit past age 55 another old athletic vice reared its ugly(?) head: the siren song of basketball. A friend of a friend of mine had some roster defections and needed some bodies to soak up some minutes in a tournament. Folks knew I kept in good cardio shape even though I hadn't played organized ball in almost 15 years. So I started playing again. Initially as I began playing I was playing very occasional pickup games mainly with older guys (approximately my age) who had terrific basketball skill (made me look really silly with their superior offensive fundamentals) whereas something in me still wanted to test myself against young folks. After gradually ramping up for the past two years I now play semi regularly against younger folks (ie college students) and play about as much as I did when I was in my early to mid 30s (return to frequency of my early 20s will NOT happen). My back is way better than it was during most of my peak playing years and my knees are not any worse.The realization of my diminished vertical jump (35" in prime to 22" at age 55) was pretty distressing at first, but after resuming running stadium stairs at CSUEB now that I reside at least half the time in the Bay Area, a lot of the explosion came back (haven't and won't measure vertical but I know its well beyond 22"). Plus I've tried to adapt to a different offensive style (quicker release with jump shot and more emphasis on ball handling; trying to learn from Steph) that doesn't rely on big jumping and acceleration. Whereas the basketball would seem to be a real bad thing, owing to the risk of injury at my age, it has had very positive impact on my off trail mobility. The range of motion in my feet has improved, along with my balance, so I feel more secure off trail than I have in many years. Moreover, I was noticing that I've been getting hurt more hiking off trail (usually doing geologic field work) than playing basketball. I guess this may require some rethinking about the sort of off trail hiking I'm doing, plus more additions to my rehab regimen. My legs are now symmetrical, not so much because of my training, but I think my left knee has become weaker (lots of injuries to it over the last 30 years), so I don't favor the right as much, if at all.

Anyhow the message I'm trying to get across is that one can maintain a very high level of physical activity, including rugged outdoor hiking activity, to a reasonably old age, in spite of a number of injuries if one has a good training program. Everyone's own experience will differ, but one should not concede certain things to age simply because it is conventional wisdom to make such concessions. The sad thing is that I've seen a progressive decline in the fitness level of young folks through time. The time-honored tradition of a field geology professor is to be able to outhike their students regardless of how much younger they are. This has been getting easier and easier to do as the years go by. It irks me that hear excuses such "I have a bum knee, so I can't hike", or "my asthma bothers me so I can't hike", from students who have not had anywhere near the number or extent of knee injuries I've had, nor asthma as bad as mine (mine really isn't that bad, but the folks that are complaining about it are really only mildly symptomatic). Instead of "I can't" which is like conceding the freedom of mobility these folks can at least try to train and get in better shape. Their quality of life would certainly benefit (including their health).

Again, I realize that we're all different and specific training routines that work for each person will be different, but I hope this gives folks encouragement and hope. Train on, hike on, and have fun.

P.S. contrary to popular belief, the main purpose of my training is not to burn the calories associated with those IPAs and Belgian beers I like so much.
Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Adjustments to training routine with age

Post by rlown »

Hmm.. Where do I start. Its a nice post.. I'm 55.5. No, I don't exercise and live near sea level. Still going in late Aug/Early Sept to Evelyn. Why not.. I always take a day before the trip near the trail-head to acclimate.

One question: Why the long post?
Ok, two questions: Why aren't you into Wheat beers? :D Made a few, and they are most excellent.
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Re: Adjustments to training routine with age

Post by giantbrookie »

rlown wrote:One question: Why the long post?
Ok, two questions: Why aren't you into Wheat beers? :D Made a few, and they are most excellent.
1. I dunno. Brevity has never been one of my strengths. I guess I'd been thinking about this for awhile especially with various statements I've heard from students, as well as my own kids over the past 12 years: way too many "I can'ts". As far as not training, everyone's results and approach differs, but with my history of injuries, if I didn't train I would have a very difficult time simply walking, let alone hiking over rugged ground.
2. traditional wheat beers were something I liked when I was younger before I hammered my taste buds with West Coast IPAs causing the "lupulin threshold shift" (see Russian River BC shirt for Pliny the Younger) so that most wheat beers now lack sufficient bitterness to refresh me. First beer we ever homebrewed was a hefe weizen with added fresh ginger (brewed by Judy). It was brilliant, but we very quickly moved to hoppier beers.
Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Adjustments to training routine with age

Post by rlown »

excellent answers.. I know Pliny well. I live here :)

On wheat beer.. this is where I started. http://realbeer.com/spencer/cats-meow/chap3.html note that I crushed my grain as well.. No extracts..

cultured yeast from the bottom of a Red tail a few times. Amazing tones of Strawberry. I too like extra hops, but I change it up to learn.
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Re: Adjustments to training routine with age

Post by Jimr »

Damn, I thought I'd throw in a short response, but something happened.

Let's see. I wrestled my freshman year in high school. Smoked pot the rest of my high school years. Got a job in 1979 right out of high school. I worked for a local water company. A large one. In 1979, they worked like they did in 1959. Hard manual labor. I slung jack hammers and dug holes, big holes every day for 10 years. I worked with a partner. His name was Back, I was the Ho. I was in stellar shape. During that time, I had three surgeries on my wrist, one to graft bone into the nevicular in my left wrist. The second was to replace said bone with a fake, Teflon bone, the third to fuse a couple of other round bones in the wrist together after arthritis set in. End of that career. I had gone to school for grades in water treatment technology, but my employer proved to me that what they had been saying was true. Strong back, weak mind, that's why we hired you. Throughout this time, I lifted weights on and off, but the wrist always had issues as I moved up in weight or reps.

Went through a few years on workers compensation, then sent to some shake n bake computer school. When that was complete, I decided to go back to school and get a real degree. Spent the next 21 years in an office. Stopped smoking pot in 1990.

At 45, I had been taking my small children to Hapkido martial arts for the past two years and could no longer stand sitting at the sidelines watching them have all of the fun, so I joined up. We did that for a decade and in 2012, earned our first degree black belt in the art. Then, our master gave us instructor status and two classes per week to teach. We did that for about 4 years. The first two years, I noticed the stellar shape I had re-earned in mid-life was waning. That was about the time I had convinced my wife that she spent so much time at the gym doing group exercise that she should get her certificate and teach the darn class. Get paid to be there instead of paying to be there. So she did. I joined her core board class every Sunday morning for about a year. It was tough getting off of teaching Martial Arts on Saturday afternoon, then core board early Sunday morning, but I did it. That helped shore up what I was losing by teaching MA instead of participating from the student side.

Hapkido was starting to take a toll on my knees. Earning a second degree belt required a level of kicks that are not for older knees. Especially, low spinning heel kicks. What I also realized that these kicks we were learning were becoming a bit obscure in their usefulness in the street. I knew it was only a matter of time before I would have to give it up. I figured my master would eventually retire or pass away, but the reality that was setting in was it may be my joints that become the deciding factor. Not long after we earned our second black belt, we learned that our master was, indeed, semi-retiring. He was dramatically scaling back and moving his studio. He cut most of his classes, including ours. The new facilities were cramped and my kids were going into college and work. Life was changing all around. After a few months at the new digs, I made the decision to give it up. There were other major factors as well, but all in all, the world was saying it's time to give the knees better care.

So now, I hike, period, full stop. I've gotten back into day hiking in my local area, joined a couple of meetup groups for local hiking and get together with my girlfriend twice per month for either day hiking or backpacking. Currently, at 56, I am hiking stronger that I have in many years. Maybe since my mid 20's.
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Re: Adjustments to training routine with age

Post by rlown »

Nice. I'm looking at a painful first day when I go. But, I'll go.. When the snow melts and kids are back at school. Evelyn..
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Re: Adjustments to training routine with age

Post by giantbrookie »

jimr, nice to hear you are hiking strong at age 56 and getting out a lot.
rlown wrote:Nice. I'm looking at a painful first day when I go. But, I'll go.. When the snow melts and kids are back at school. Evelyn..
I'm still not sure why I haven't visited Evelyn yet. I always wanted to do it as a long dayhike, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I had planned to double it on a dayhike with JPL (giant dayhike loop) but dynamic fishing plus the threat of thunderstorms over the top (plus no doubt some laziness) kept me at JPL. Now the drive is quite a bit longer (from Castro Valley vs Fresno) making the long dayhike plans less practical.
Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Adjustments to training routine with age

Post by SirBC »

I've also had to make some adjustments as I am approaching my 5th decade. The most recent and vexing is pain in my right achilles. Pre- and post-workout/hiking stretching doesn't seem to make much difference so I currently just grind it out and work through the pain. That probably isn't wise and I've scheduled a doctor visit next week to eval. It sure is frustrating to have the desire and motivation but feel like you are at odds with your own body.

I've been interested in coming to the meet-ups for the last few years but have always had something else planned at the same time. This year I had an Alaska trip planned at the end of July but I recently had to cancel so I'm going to try and make this years meet-up. That slog over Taboose is going to do a number on my achilles, I can already feel it...

giantbrookie wrote:
rlown wrote:One question: Why the long post?
Ok, two questions: Why aren't you into Wheat beers? :D Made a few, and they are most excellent.
2. traditional wheat beers were something I liked when I was younger before I hammered my taste buds with West Coast IPAs causing the "lupulin threshold shift" (see Russian River BC shirt for Pliny the Younger) so that most wheat beers now lack sufficient bitterness to refresh me. First beer we ever homebrewed was a hefe weizen with added fresh ginger (brewed by Judy). It was brilliant, but we very quickly moved to hoppier beers.
Another hop-head :) My wife bought me that shirt from Russian River for Christmas one year. We've been homebrewing for about 15 years and she has pretty much taking over the brewmaster duties. Although we have both experienced the lupulin threshold shift we don't discriminate and currently have on tap 2 Belgian beers, a watermellon wheat and a Northeastern-style IPA. The IPA is super tasty :drinkers:
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Re: Adjustments to training routine with age

Post by rlown »

What do the Doctors tell you about the Achilles?
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Re: Adjustments to training routine with age

Post by SirBC »

I have an appointment scheduled for next week so hopefully we can come up with a plan to help.
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Dave | flickr
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