Oh you Angell’s Ancients had to go push some buttons on me! YOU DID IT NOW!
Here I am supposed to be working on my TAXES and I see this email in my in box about 80 being the new 50, which touches on much of what I had been thinking when I turned 40. And now instead of working on my taxes, I am procrastinating to respond… but with a good message for ya’ll to follow along with …. I hope……
Responding to below thread about “80 the New 50”
Oh that silly “personal responsibility” thing!
I have oft whined about my sore knees to my friends, but learned to conclude my whining with:
“But I am personally responsible for my knees… I and I alone am the one who has to do it….. doing proper stretching, losing weight by eating better, drinking less beer….(pause…….dear god nooo!).
Keeping my body in shape is not about my vanity! It’s about my SANITY! Because if I cannot burn energy by running or biking, I’ll go insane! “
And then there is being personally responsible for one’s happiness. Still being single, that’s one of my criteria for a woman that I should have in a personals ad: “Take’s personal responsibility for her own happiness.”
Of course that is in addition to, “likes long runs in the mud.” Oh and “beer.” If she cannot meet up to this criteria, I’ll smile as I pass her by. ;-)
80 is the new 50 you say?!?!?!?!?!
Nice. Back in May at Bay to Breakers in 2010 a good friend Jim(bo) told me about what I will call an “Old young athlete” book he read.
Side Note: A little background just to sync with what I will call “The Spirit of Angell’s Ancientness.” Jimbo and I have been friends and running buddies since elementary school all the way through college at Virginia Tech and beyond (yes I acknowledge willingly that Stanford spanked us in the bowl game). So yes, that spirit of lifetime running buddies that AFA has captured is, well, cool!
So back to the book: Jim told be about reading a book whereby a young athletic doctor and a senior citizen athletic doctor wrote offsetting chapters about age and athleticism - First chapter for young athletes, and then the next for aging athletes doing the same and what they can expect at the age. I have yet to read the book (have to get the name again… will bug Jimbo for it). But found the discussion about it fascinating. Jim explained to me that the book talked about how our bodies react to exercise… and how we should keep our bodies always at a state where it thinks it needs to burn not store. If I remember correctly, a conclusion of both doctors, was that for one to truly STAY in shape through the years and keep one’s body on that edge, one must regularly (daily?) exercise for no less than 45 minutes at a heart rate that is 60% maximum. Interesting.
I will say again “80 is the new 50 you say?!?!?!?!?!”
I turned 40 not toooo long ago (Ok over a year). And on that day I wrote a piece about getting old. Knowing you Ancients and your propensity for both humor and deep philosophical thought while running… and drinking beer…. I offer you my own thoughts of age under said influences:
http://www.chickentales.com/hans/F40/
Wait till you read it! Take your time like a bed time story… HA! Me thinks you will get a kick out of it as it touches on much of what we have been through with our age journeys…..
And I must say, in all deference to you, THE Ancients, that in my writing of turning 40 I purposely left out any reference to “MLCT” Mid Life Crisis Trek. Why? Because when I finally go on one, I want to write about it in all its glory and give proper credit to those who deserve the credit for it’s genesis, “The Angell Field Ancients!”
Thanks gents for your mere existence!
Ok back to my taxes…
Hans
The above (reproduced here by permission) was posted on the Angells email list by Hans Bernhardt on 2/11/2011, in response to the following posting on 2/9/2011 by Jym Clendenin
When AFA was started nearly 50 years ago, the "ancients" in the name was somewhat tongue-in-cheek." It supposedly meant a group of runners who had already finished college. Today the term describes quite well the younger surviving AFA members ("fossils" is Don's name for the older ones, i.e., himself). Now along comes venerable Walter Bortz with yet another book--Next Medicine: The Science and Civics of Health. Wally credits fit athletes with a 30-year offset, so 80 year old fit bodies (e.g. Bortz) are like unfit 50 year olds (don't know who that would be). To read a short blurb on Bortz and his new book, go to http://inmenlo.com/2011/02/09/walter-bortz-m-d-advocate-for-a-radical-new-health-care-system/ . Bortz is talking about his book at Kepler's tonight at 7 pm.