After years of leaping up early out of bed, feeling strong and dashing off all day to do any form of exercise; suddenly in the last few months my body has become a dead weight that just wants to sit down and read a book. I know that in order to keep alive I must keep moving….but after a days walking my legs can hardly drag my body up the stairs and are full of aches that were only there during my teens when I had had a hard physical grilling and my muscles were developing.

An old guy once told me that as you age you must train harder than you ever did before, to keep fit. At 80 he was walking 20 miles every other day, still cliff climbing and riding a mountain bike. He was always out walking no matter what the weather conditions were like.

I don’t think that I will be able to follow his footsteps as my muscles seem to be taking a lot longer now to recuperate. But he said, “At your age if you once stop you will never get started again”.

But I must keep going and push through the pain barrier, just as I did years ago when racing.

I tell you…old age is not for wimps. If you can’t take it don’t get old.

Oldun it is better than the alternative.

yes it is harder to get out to exercise, just been to check last time I was in my jym, 14 day's ago , have been busy gardening though, heavy roller over the lawn and hand push lawn mower
it is a fair size lawn as well

Glad to hear from you Tim. I was getting worried because I had not seen your name for some time.

It is true that as you get older, if you stop due to injury or something else it becomes harder and harder to get back. I believe that after 60 if you stop all exercise completely for more than a couple of months, you probably wont get quite back to what you were before.
Injuries heal but take longer and don't heal as good as years before, recovery takes longer.
The only thing that becomes easier is getting injured.
So the answer is don't stop, but if you have to get back out there as soon as possible.
Dave. (State Pensioner as of 5th April)

Pensioner as of July 2003

Hi Oldun,
As an OAP myself I can empathise with your concerns. Don't know about the advice of 'training harder than you ever did' though. Could cause a few problems if your fitness regime tries to keep pace with what you did in years gone by! I find that as I age my problem is not so much the 'physical activity' side of outdoor life but more the 'comfort' side of things. Like they say, growing old is not for cissies! At one time, spending weeks in a damp tent, baring my nether regions to mossies and sandflies and scraping susbsistence level meals out of the bottom of a billy wasn't much of an issue, but now I tend to dwell on that side of it a bit more!
Having said that, I'm certain it's true that it's a case of 'use it or lose it' and like to visit the local gym twice a week supplemented with daily walks. (that used to be jogs) Off at the end of this month for a ten day stint to remind the bod that I have not surrendered.

.

What's that? [clueless]

It never ceases to amaze me as to the differences that I find in the older walker. There are those who die at 40 but aren't buried until they are well into their 60s. They spend their lives being morose and everything in the world is wrong. You meet them and get a constant string of minor complaints (this path is boggy, that stile is broken, why isn't there a signpost at xxxxx)

Others are well into their 70s and even 80s and are just so positive about everything. I marvelled at the "Over the Hill" walking club that I met. A group of 70 years olds carrying camping gear and walking across the Lakes.

I suppose, if you love the hills and can keep enjoying them then it is easy to be positive. If,for some reason, I couldn't get into them I would feel thoroughly dejected. Life without the lonely fells wouldn't, to me, be a life. However, that's my opinion now and when age does creep up on me (or gallup) I will have to reassess the position and perhaps volunteer in a position that will enable me to help others derive as much pleasure from them as I have done.

Keep enjoying them as long as you can Oldun,but the maxim is Enjoy them rather than ENDURE them. If it becomes too much then are there alternative opportunities that you can explore. I work with 60, 70 and 80 year old volunteers. One, a keen walker in the past, now sadly has angina. However, he is rostered to work on the main , Hawes, Grassington etc etc and just turns up, chats and gives advice to visitors. Life, has regained its meaning to him.

Here endeth the first lesson . We will now sing hymn "I will lift up mine eyes to the Hills"

pot the missing word ...... it is carparks

Hi Oldun,
not to worry, I get out as much as I can, was out in February on a cicular walk from Pocklington, up Chapel Hill,Kilnwick Golf course and on to join the Wolds way above Warren Dale, Then the Minster Way At Warren Farm to Givendale Church, then om PROW which misses Grimthorpe Manor, Through Grimthorpe Wood and on to The Mile, Woodhouse Lane and back to Pocklington through Pocklington Wood. In all about 11 miles
I thought it was not too bad for an 85 year old,
doc's worried about the old ticker, say's it is an athlete's heart, very slow beat.