Cycling Over Sixty
Join us as we continue to follow the inspiring journey of Tom Butler, an average man in his 60s, who has found an invigorating path to fitness through the power of bicycling.
In Season One, Tom achieved his long-desired goal of completing the grueling 206-mile Seattle to Portland ride. He also discovered that his capacity for gaining strength and endurance was much higher than he anticipated for his age. However, despite Tom’s success, some key indicators of lifestyle diseases persisted.
Season Two steps up Tom's quest for improved overall fitness. Determined to make changes that will yield better results, he embarks on a fresh cycling challenge, pushing his boundaries even further. Along the way, we'll witness his trials and triumphs as he seeks to transform his health.
The podcast features insightful interviews with experts in exercise, nutrition, and various health topics. From seasoned cyclists to leading specialists, these guests offer valuable advice and guidance to Tom on his mission to achieve and sustain optimal fitness.
But it's not just about the physical aspects of cycling – the podcast also explores all things biking. Discussions range from bike mechanics and equipment to the broader impact of cycling on society and the environment.
Tom, wholeheartedly embracing cycling as the foundation of his fitness journey, shares his struggles and successes candidly. His infectious enthusiasm aims to inspire people approaching or over 60 to hop on a bike and discover their untapped potential for increased fitness.
If you're seeking motivation, expert insights, and a heartwarming story of perseverance, "Cycling Over Sixty" is for you. Listen in to this fitness expedition as we pedal towards better health and a stronger, fitter future!
Cycling Over Sixty
Next Level Goals
In this first episode of Season 3, host Tom Butler sets the stage for the next chapter in his cycling journey. Inspired by the insightful feedback from guests in Season 2, Tom has elevated his goals, aiming for even greater challenges and accomplishments.
Discover Tom's plans for his cycling adventures this season. From tackling demanding routes to exploring new territories, Tom is committed to pushing his limits and inspiring others to do the same. Additionally, he shares his vision for improving his overall health and well-being, incorporating cycling into a holistic lifestyle.
But Tom's goals don't stop there. He's also passionate about fostering a stronger and more supportive Cycling Over Sixty community. In this episode, he outlines his plans for taking community engagement to the next level, creating opportunities for connection, collaboration, and shared experiences.
Tune in to get a glimpse of what's in store for Season 3 and join Tom on his exciting journey!
Cascade Bicycle Club Pedal Relief Project: cascade.org/outreach-advocacy/pedaling-relief-project
Thanks for Joining Me! Follow and comment on Cycling Over Sixty on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cyclingoversixty/
Consider becoming a member of the Cycling Over Sixty Strava Club! www.strava.com/clubs/CyclingOverSixty
Please send comments, questions and especially content suggestions to me at tom.butler@teleiomedia.com
Show music is "Come On Out" by Dan Lebowitz. Find him here : lebomusic.com
This is the Cycling Over 60 podcast, season three, episode one, next level goals, and I'm your host, tom Butler. Welcome back to the podcast or welcome to the podcast. Whichever applies to you. The podcast is my attempt to help others benefit from the journey I am on to get and stay fit later in life. This is the first episode of Season 3. Before I get into what is in store for the podcast this season, here is a brief update.
Tom Butler:As I talked about last episode, season two ended in a disappointing way. However, overall, season two represented some real gains in my fitness. I'm really happy to report that pushing it last week didn't seem to do much damage to my knees. I took a whole week off just to give my knees time to heal. I did go on a couple of light walks, but I was making sure I didn't push it. Yesterday I went on a short hike that was pretty steep. I was happy that I didn't feel knee pain during that hike. Today I did a few miles on the bike Again, no problems. Tomorrow I will throw on a backpack and see how I do with some weight on my back. I'm hopeful that even with the pack I won't reignite the inflammation in my knees.
Tom Butler:The plan is to go on a backpacking trip with some friends over the weekend. I haven't been on a backpacking adventure for over 30 years. The backpacking trip is a symbol for me. I started this journey to get fit a couple of years ago. It wasn't just for biking, it was to be fit in general. This backpacking trip is a symbol of what I can do now that I'm in better shape thanks to the bike. I won't be hiking a long way and I'm keeping the pack fairly light, but it is a couple of nights out in the wilderness that has been made possible by my efforts to get stronger.
Tom Butler:I set out with a couple of goals at the beginning of 2024. One is to ride 3,650 miles and the other is to climb 100,000 feet. Going into last week, I felt really good about reaching these goals. The miles that I was planning to cover as I rode across Washington and the climbing along the way was going to make it easy to reach my goals. Well, as I've mentioned, that didn't work out as planned. The consequence is that I have about 1,280 miles still to get in this year and I still need to climb 32,581 feet. The way I see it is that I need to put in some big rides on the weekends for the remaining months of 2024. Combining those rides with normal weekday riding should get me where I want to be. At least that is the plan for now.
Tom Butler:I am excited to be starting season three of the podcast. That means I am looking for some new goals for the season Goals that will take things to the next level. I didn't achieve my big goal for season two. Maybe I bit off more than I could handle and I'm not looking to try again to achieve the ride across Washington, at least not for now. But I think I might look at that goal again later.
Tom Butler:For season three. There are three types of goals I'm setting. First, there are riding goals. Secondly, there are overall health goals and finally I want to make some goals for the Cycling Over 60 community. Let me first look at my goals for Time on the Bike. I have been inspired by several people on the podcast to look for a particular way to enjoy Time on the Bike. As an example, I want to revisit a conversation I had with Christina Erickson, the Executive Director of Local Motion, about biking in Vermont. Vermont is a special place in fall. I think that a lot of people think of the Northeast when they think of fall and they think about the colors changing. So if someone was considering doing a bike trip to experience Vermont this time of year, what might you say to that person?
Christina Erickson:I'm on over. It is beautiful, it is stunning, I'd say at any time of year really. But yes, fall is special because of the foliage. There are a number of trail networks and rides that have been outlined, and we keep a few suggestions on our website and link to other organizations who also kind of outline different rides and suggested rides, and so, whether you are wanting to ride on a bike path or a mountain bike trail, or the gravel riders, you know there is something for everybody here for sure, and we just have so many towns that really embrace that. So there are a lot of festivals and, my goodness, breweries, you name it ice cream. We've got a lot of those things that help make the ride a lot more fun too. So fall's a great time to ride. Bugs are by and large gone, you know. Uh, the daylight starts to dwindle a little bit, but the air is drier and temperatures are comfortable and it's great time to ride.
Tom Butler:If you want to hear that full interview, you can find it in the October 5th 2023 episode. It was many conversations like this one with Christina about so many great places to ride that it made me think that in season three I want to do more events in different places. I haven't begun to exhaust all the places in the Pacific Northwest that I want to experience, so for this season I might not get out of the upper left corner of the US. In season two I did six organized rides. All of them were in the state of Washington. I guess you could argue that Seattle to Portland isn't in Washington for part of it, but the vast majority of it is in Washington. I want to expand my number of organized rides to seven in season three, but I want at least three of them to be outside of Washington State. I see this as a way of beginning to explore different places. Canada is an obvious choice for at least one ride. I think I will check out Tour Victoria. That might be a really good option to expand my horizons.
Tom Butler:There are a couple of specific bike experiences that I want to have in Season 3. Horizons there are a couple of specific bike experiences that I want to have in season three. One is joining the Cascade Bicycle Club Pedal Relief Project for at least one ride. If you don't know about the project, I will put a link in the show notes. Briefly, it is a way for cyclists to give to the community by delivering food by bike to food insecure neighbors. I have wanted to do this for the last two years, so season three is a chance for me to finally get more focused on making it happen. I also want to expand the type of writing I do. In season three. I was very inspired by the conversation I had with Brett Babb of the Bicycle Hub bike shop when he was talking about bikepacking. Here is an example of what he had to say.
Brett Babb:Textiles have come a long way, especially in the past 15, 20 years. I mean, we got some really lightweight, waterproof, rip-resistant materials. So in that respect, yes, bags have come a long way. You can fit a lot of stuff, a lot of heavy stuff, in these bags that you know, compact and compress. So, yeah, bags have made bikepacking one possible, but just kind of endless possibilities with it as well, you know, you can pack up anything you need and get out there and sustain yourself, you know. So, having that freedom, you know again, with the freedom thing, you know, having the freedom to be able to do that and go out and just be disconnected for four days, that's that to me. That's super valuable, you know, and bags have definitely made that possible.
Tom Butler:If you want to hear more thoughts on bikepacking from Brett, tune into the July 12th episode. I am certainly looking to experience a different kind of freedom on a bike that I think bikepacking offers. I don't get the freedom of being away from the world while road biking, so season three is where I'm going to dip my toes in the water with bikepacking. Along these same lines, I'm going to be looking to do some gravel rides. I think gravel rides are going to be important in the future as I want to ride more with my wife, kelly. Her experience on the Port Townsend tour this summer is pushing us toward gravel. Here's what Kelly had to say about why she preferred doing the gravel section of that ride.
Kelly Butler:Because it wasn't on a highway where there's a whole bunch of cars driving whizzing by and there's either a tiny shoulder or no shoulder. I find that somewhat nerve-wracking. I mean, we've done a lot of miles of it now but that's not my favorite kind of riding. I liked being where there were no cars and it was pretty and it was in nature and smooth and beautiful and really fun.
Tom Butler:As she is saying here, kelly is going to enjoy gravel rides more than being out on the roads, but we do need to figure out how to make sure her cruise bike is set up for gravel riding. If you want to hear all about Kelly's experience with her first group ride, you can find that in the August 23rd episode. That is it as far as my writing goals for season three. Another set of goals is centered around improvement in my overall health. There's a moment from my conversation with Dr Jeffrey Gladden from August 2nd that is driving the goals that I have for my overall health this season. Here is his comment.
Dr. Jeffrey Gladden :You know, it's not enough to just be active like that. You've got to actually have an exponential strategy for an exponential problem, and a get healthy strategy consists of eating better, exercising, maybe drinking less or whatever. You know, things you take out and things you add in, getting the right supplements, getting some testing done, seeing where you are in the aging process, maybe doing some genetics to see what cards you're holding, what might be lurking around the corner. All that is incredibly wise, but then you need to act on that and you need to actually have a program that actually enables you to go after those drivers of aging right, those hallmarks of aging. When you put together an exponential strategy around the mindset of living young for a lifetime, now, you can actually really back it up right Now you actually get the job done, and so that's what we do at Gladden Longevity.
Tom Butler:There are two elements that hit me from this comment. First, the impact of aging needs to be addressed in a way that is counter to how I have conceptualized addressing aging in the past. I need to understand more about what a quote exponential solution looks like. The other element that jumps out is that a highly individualized approach to health seems to be where medicine is heading. I believe there is a shift happening that involves a lot of testing to get a picture of an individual's biological functioning. There is a lot we have learned, and yet the majority of information in the realm of individualized medicine is yet to be learned. We can do genetic testing, hormone testing, MRI, bone scanning, biogenome analysis, brain scanning, organ function testing and more, and then, on top of all that, there is an emotional component that is vital because of the mind-body link.
Tom Butler:Season 3 is going to see me going down the road of individualized medicine. It is an expensive road, so I will do as much as I can afford. It starts soon with me doing a set of lab tests to try and determine how to have more success controlling my blood sugar. I look forward to having many conversations this season with experts looking to be part of a new era of medical intervention. The final set of goals for season three comes from something fantastic that I have experienced over the last two seasons. My failure on the ride across Washington really highlighted this dynamic. That is, that I felt really supported and empowered by the Cycling Over 60 community. Something that Anita Elder said when I interviewed her on January 4th has stuck with me. Here it is.
Anita Elder:My first event with Cascade, I did the Lake Chelan tour and that was on the cargo e-bike and I didn't look like a lot of the other riders on that, but I didn't let it stop me. I didn't care if I was too slow, I just wanted to have fun. Nobody gave me any crap about being like I was, you know, riding with them. Everybody was great and not everybody was a Cascade member. There was people from out of state too. So just that nice feeling of being accepted for who I was just gave me more encouragement to do more and more with Cascade and other bike clubs around the area. So everybody in the bike community has been so supportive and encouraging and because of that feeling I'm now a long distance bike rider, which I never thought I would ever say that.
Tom Butler:Anita pointed out there that everyone in the bike community has been supportive of her efforts. That has been my experience as well. People on bikes just seem like the best people as far as I am concerned. I have benefited from support given and wisdom shared. I've had people be very patient with me and cheer me on.
Tom Butler:For season three, I want to take the Cycling Over 60 community to a higher level. What I really need at this point is to have as many people as possible join me in brainstorming what can be done. I have a few things I would like to work on, but these are only ideas and I'm open to any other ideas out there. First, I want to optimize the Cycling Over 60 Strava Club. I expect that Strava has more planned for the platform to expand community building tools. I want to get really good at leveraging those tools to encourage and support members of the club. Secondly, I want to do some live educational events where people have the chance to ask questions. I would like to hear from you concerning what platform you think is the best for a live event. Some options are a Zoom conference or a live Instagram broadcast or YouTube live streaming. What platform do you find is the easiest to use. I also need some feedback on what topics you would like to have presented live. Finally, I would like to have a Cycling Over 60 ride a year from now, in September 2025.
Tom Butler:Because of the logistics, I believe a group ride would need to be here in Washington. However, I could imagine a scenario where it would work to do it someplace else, in collaboration with another event To pull off a group ride. I will need to get busy with it as soon as possible, and I expect that the first Cycling Over 60 group ride would be relatively small. There are a thousand different issues to work out to make this happen, but I do think it is worth it to take it on, because it would be such a blast to see some of you in person.
Tom Butler:Well, that's a brief look at some of the goals for season three. I would love to have any feedback that you have to offer. You can find my email and Instagram link in the show notes and, of course, the best option is to post on the Cycling Over 60 Strava Club. If you aren't already a member, please consider joining us. Thank you for all of you have hung in there with me for the last two seasons. Keep the images coming on the Strava Club and remember age is just a gear change.
