My 62nd birthday is 5 weeks away. I thought it was a big deal that 3 days ago, I ran 5K under 9:00/mile for the first time this year (27:48). Now that I've read this thread, my dinner tonight will be a large sausage and pepperoni extra cheese pizza and a bottle of chianti.
Thanks.
Guys your age probably has to use testosterone replacement therapy just to hit those times. We try to cheat aging but anyone over 50 running moderately fast is probably on testosterone treatments.
Why do you troll on Letsrun? Does it make your time before you die more enjoyable?
I've done a lot of research on aging. Around 1980, life expectancy (LE) at age 65 started increasing a lot faster than LE at birth. The reason was that medical advances were keeping seniors alive who previously would have died from the same illness. As a result, seniors today can spend many more years in a highly debilitated state as a result of these conditions.
The healthy seniors replying to this thread are proof that it doesn't have to be that way. Instead of looking at the average 70-year-old, look at the M70 who are competing at the national level. That is what aging can look like... if you take care of your health while you're middle-aged.
There is no point in the end. The point is in the beginning and middle. Would you rather be healthy and in shape your whole life or unhealthy, fat, sick, injured, out of shape while you're alive? Sure, you're going to get old and die no matter what you do but you might as well make the best of it while you're alive - what would be the alternative?
There are loads of reasons to stay fit into your old age, but in the end there is only really one overriding goal behind all of it, and that's avoiding chronic pain.
Sure, having poor mobility or restrictive health issues would suck, in and of themselves, but chronic pain is the big daddy when it comes to making you miserable.
In this, those who overtrain put themselves in the firing line as well. But, it needs no exhaustive rundown to simply state that keeping oneself fit, avoids many conditions causing chronic pain. OA is just one. Just off the top of my head, peripheral neuropathy secondary to diabetes and chronic low-back pain alo sound extremely ordinary.
I do NOT want to live an old age doped up on opiates. Fringe benefits like avoiding CVD etc aren't beside the point to me, but they're close.
Serious question. We put so much emphasis on health and fitness yet we're all gonna be hobbled, crippled or otherwise burdened by old age one day. Alternative is to die before you get old enough to see your body deteriorate. So what's really the point in the end?
You should simplify your question: if life always ends in death what is the point of living? If you don't know the answer to that question - or the version you have posed - then you are wasting your life. It is to be lived.
Serious question. We put so much emphasis on health and fitness yet we're all gonna be hobbled, crippled or otherwise burdened by old age one day. Alternative is to die before you get old enough to see your body deteriorate. So what's really the point in the end?
You should simplify your question: if life always ends in death what is the point of living? If you don't know the answer to that question - or the version you have posed - then you are wasting your life. It is to be lived.
You are not necessarily wasting your life if you don’t know the point of living, or if you are, then you are all wasting your lives, because none of you know what the point of living is.
Letsrun vs Nihilism, and I think letsrun mostly wins. Life ultimately has no point or meaning, but the beautiful thing about is it that you are free to create your own meaning and assign meaning to things that matter to you. For many here, that’s running. Weird choice but we all made it.
I was a sub 14:5x 5k runner and 145 pounds. I stopped running and got up to 195 pounds and couldnt run 8:00 for the mile. I decided I didnt want to be in poor health the rest of my life so now I run again. I now weigh 170 and want to be 15x lb in 6 months. I am 10 years older than when I ran 14:5x. Should I give up on health? No. Absolutely not.
Letsrun vs Nihilism, and I think letsrun mostly wins. Life ultimately has no point or meaning, but the beautiful thing about is it that you are free to create your own meaning and assign meaning to things that matter to you. For many here, that’s running. Weird choice but we all made it.
The medical advances keeping sick seniors alive longer is very costly to the population as a whole.
Both in additional cost of healthcare and reduced social security funds available.
Very true.
A little-known piece of legislation keeps the appalling rise in Medicare expenses hidden from the public. Basically, when a shortfall in the Medicare Trust Fund occurs (which happens every year), Congress automatically transfers funds into the Medicare Trust Fund. This is called "General Revenue" in the Assets section of Table II.B1 in the Annual Medicare Trustees Report.
This makes the annual shortfall appear to be MUCH smaller than it really is. For example, in the 2020 Trustees Report, the shortfall is reported as only $25 billion, but hidden in the assets category is an influx of $415 billion in general revenue.
I do not think there is any reason to be a fitness fanatic and only eat wild caught salmon and leafy greens for your entire adult life. Genetics plays a pretty big role in how long we live and how well we will age. That being said, being active and in relatively good shape in your 30s and 40s can make a huge difference when father time catches up to you in your 50s and 60s. I run 25-30 mpw mostly very easy 9-10 min jogging and do some weight lifting. I have not had to worry about my weight at all and all the blood work is clean. My colleagues at work who are about my age are all taking blood pressure meds (which are pretty scary drugs) and have had huge struggles with their weight with Drs. telling them they need to drop 50 lbs or else they will have a high risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. And these are guys who played sports in college.
Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth, foiled by these rebel powers that thee array, Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth, Painting thy outward walls so costly gay? Why so large cost, having so short a lease, Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend? Shall worms, inheritors of this excess, Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body's end? Then soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss And let that pine to aggravate thy store; Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross; Within be fed, without be rich no more. So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men, And, Death once dead, there's no more dying then.
The writer of Ecclesiastes beat him to the point by about 2500 years...
It was as if I had carried on living and running until I reached a precipice from which I could see clearly that there was nothing ahead of me other than destruction. But it was impossible to stop, and impossible to turn back or close my eyes in order not to see that there was nothing ahead other than deception of life and of happiness, and the reality of suffering and death: of complete annihilation.
Serious question. We put so much emphasis on health and fitness yet we're all gonna be hobbled, crippled or otherwise burdened by old age one day. Alternative is to die before you get old enough to see your body deteriorate. So what's really the point in the end?