Begin again
Dr Norman Lazarus discovered the bike at 55. Here he offers advice to those following in his tyre tracks…
You are in your 55th year and, tired of looking like a conference pear, you have decided the time is ripe to start some sort of physical activity. Whatever the reason, you should be congratulated for waking to your predicament. That wonderful inherited physiology has been allowed to decay. You are in no condition to withstand whatever illness or infection that life might throw your way.
So, you decided it was time to buy a bike. But hold on there. Remember that you are going to have to keep up your cycling activities for the next three decades. If you do not enjoy cycling, then the sheer tedium of having to wheel it out three times a week in order to just to get mindless exercise will grind your good intentions into the ground. Let us conclude that you have considered other activities, but have selected cycling because you wish enjoyment as the first priority in your chosen discipline. Now you are cooking with gas.
You are 55 years old. You are at the best middle years of your life. You have faced some adversity and coped, you are where you should be in your work, you are your own person and do not need the approval of your peers. Start small. The world you will find is not flat. Go round a quiet block or two.
Get the feel of the gears and the bike. Keep strictly to the Highway Code. Learn to cycle in a manner that is a risk neither to you nor to other people.
If you do not enjoy cycling on your own, join a cycling club. Every club has cyclists of varying abilities and varying ages, but all get enjoyment from cycling. You will be welcomed. As you venture further, remember the enjoyment element. I began my cycling career at your age. I know the problems and the challenges. I loved being on the bike. The rhythmic pumping of the pedals gave me pleasure and I revelled in the ability to cover distances at a pace that still kept me in touch with my surroundings. I also increased my pleasure by choosing to cycle to places that had historic or architectural features. I taught myself to recognise wild flowers and the names of trees.
Why did I do that? At 55 years, you still can do amazing things. When you become sufficiently cycle-fit, you could if you wished cycle round the world. Or ride from Lands’ End to John O’Groats. The world is presently your oyster. But remember you are ageing. Your wonderfully honed physiology is going to go downhill whatever you do. Accept that you are going to get old. For reasons I cannot understand, many people seem not to be able to confront that inescapable fact. Getting old is part and parcel of being a human being. Now in my 85th year, I can personally attest to shrinkage of my abilities. My horizons have constricted, but that should not be equated with a lack of interesting things to do. By preparing myself for these latter years, by becoming interested in the world I cycle through, distances have shrunk but enjoyment remains.
In the summer months, get up with the sun. Those early-morning rides either into the rising sun or with it on your back will, with their early quietude, give you and your companions much pleasure. Winter will test you and your resolve. Get warm gear. There is no need to go out in really foul conditions. Wait for the winter sun. You are now a physiologically honed person; your body will cope with the cold and you will get the satisfaction of adding another accomplishment to your exploits. Watch the moisture in the warm air from your lungs condense like clouds in the sky.
Keep on that bike. Go at the speed that suits your own extraordinary inherited physiology. It is 40,000 years old and still as good as new. Keep it polished and burnished and you will be rewarded with two attributes that are priceless to people like you and me. They are the preservation of our independence and the continued ability to enjoy life into our ninth decades. You cannot realistically ask for more.
“Keep on that bike. Go at the speed that suits your own extraordinary inherited physiology”