Athlete at Age

At 85, More Peaks to Conquer and Adventures to Seek

The New York Times reports on Fred Beckey - 85 years old and going strong.

SEATTLE — He had been called a vagabond, a recluse and a schemer, a cantankerous mountain man hiding his little black book of secret climbing techniques from the world. In seven decades, he had claimed more virgin ascents than any mountaineer alive. Some ascribed his feats to vengeance of a long-ago slight, others to the murder of his own fears. He was said to howl at tourists. His past was the stuff of lore, his plans the stuff of mystery.

Then, this fall, word of his next expedition spread among the worldwide network of contacts whose telephone numbers he kept scribbled on notecards wrapped with rubber bands in the gearbox pocket of his station wagon. The plan was announced in disarmingly casual fashion.

“Hi everyone, Fred Beckey called yesterday and he is going to northern Spain in early to mid-December,” began one posting this autumn at an online rock climbing forum. “Might be a long shot, but he’s looking for a partner to hook up with in Barcelona.”

Quoting Fred himself:

“You’ve got to be physically pretty strong to be any good at it at all,” Beckey said. “You’ve got to have a hard-core mental attitude. You’ve got to have the right mantra. You’ve got to have dedication, a sense of security, safety and sensitivity with your partners, and a good sense of balance. It’s a combination of many, many things. You need to have the capability or desire to accept a certain amount of risk. A lot of it is maybe spiritual, not a religious type, but you have to have an affinity with the outdoors.”

I'll follow his exploits with interest.

Alpha^2

Quote for the day

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts."

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

The Supermen

As earlier posts have show, I take inspiration from the formidable accomplishments and capabilities of the likes of Don Wildman, Arthur De Vany, and Clarence Bass.  All in their 70's they represent outliers in any measure of human performance, athletic ability, and fitness at almost any age.  They all train intensely and have refined their food consumption to an art.  Yet, what makes them outliers? 

• Genetics? 
• Discipline? 
• Mental toughness to train consistently at intensity?
• Harder work than anyone else does?
• Have they each discovered by long trial and error a universally applicable method to optimize fitness at age? 
• Have they each discovered by long trial and error a means to optimize only their own physiology an performance?
• Willingness to do what almost no one else will do?

Maybe some measure of all of these things.  I admire what these men have achieved, but in light of the information Chris Bell's film Bigger Stronger Faster puts before the public consciousness, I think it behooves us to ask to what degree, if any, these men have employed anabolic steroids, testosterone replacement therapy, and/or human growth hormone supplementation. 

Clarence Bass, claims to have used very modest amounts of steroids many years ago and claims not to use them now.  Several internet sources report Bass as having 2.5% body fat, an extraordinary figure even if he took steroids.

Arthur De Vany at 8% body fat has an interesting link on his public blog to a site, Steroids, Other "Drugs", and Baseball, run by baseball analyst Eric Walker, which questions among other things the effectiveness of steroids in the sport, the conventional hysteria around them, and the Mitchell Report in particular.  He may not say anything directly about his own use of performance enhancers, but where does this bring Professor De Vany on the side of their use?

I haven't found anything to link Don Wildman and performance enhancing drugs.  He looks different than the others, more wiry, perhaps less muscle mass on his frame.

Sylvester Stallone interviewed by Time Magazine, in January, denied ever using anabolic steroids, but did admit to taking prescription testosterone:

Testosterone to me is so important for a sense of well-being when you get older. Everyone over 40 years old would be wise to investigate it because it increases the quality of your life. Mark my words. In 10 years, it will be over the counter.

Stallone makes an odd distinction between anabolic steroids and testosterone, but I wonder if Stallone has nevertheless done us all a service (deliberately or not) by beginning to speak more openly, if only about "prescription" testosterone replacement therapy.

While the three 70+ year old "Supermen" may not use any performance enhancers, I for one would find it very very interesting if they did use them and came to speak about them openly. But then I once asked, a 90 year old painter how he continued to do such innovative work at his age, he replied with a wry smile, "One is only as good as the obscurity of their sources". 

Alpha^2

NY Times "Golden (and Silver) Oldies at the Olympics"

The NY Times has a short rundown, "Golden (and Silver) Oldies at the Olympics" on the older Olympians and how they performed at the games:

Constantina Tomescu-Dita, 38, Romania, gold in women's marathon;

Dana Torres, 41 United States became oldest Olympic swimming medalist;

Ian Millar, 61 Canada equestrian silver medal and oldest medalist of the Beijing Games;

Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli, 49 France 4th place cycling road time trial;

Haile Satayin, 48 or 53, Israel, oldest runner in men's marathon 69th place at 2:30.07;

Luan Jujie, 50, Canada, fencing 32nd in women’s individual foil;

Iain Murray, 50, Australia 14th in keelboat racing;

Nick Skelton, 50, UK 7th team equestrian competition and 29th in the individual event;

Richard Johnson, 52, United States, archery, but didn't make the final;

Libby Callahan, 56 United States 25th in the 25-meter pistol;

Susan Nattrass, 57, Canada, oldest shooter to compete at the Beijing Games, 11th in trap-shooting;

Laurie Lever, 60, Australia, equestrian failed to qualify for the final round; and

Hiroshi Hoketsu, 67, Japan, dressage, 35th in the individual competition.

I know a few of these seem a bit young, but over all a great showing for the athletes at age.

This earlier post might also interest you: Inspiration from Beijing.

Alpha^2

David Strathairn - Pose Technique runner?

I attended a screening last night of, The Sensation of Sight, a 2006 independent film starring and produced by David Strathairn (Good Night and Good Luck, The Spiderwick Chronicles) .  A brief description from the film's My Space page:

A fusion of dream/reality, this off-beat drama about a man..s search for meaning amid the ache of despair, chronicles Finn, a middle-aged English teacher (played by David Strathairn), as he enters a mid-life crisis impelled by a recent tragedy for which he counts himself responsible. As he sets afoot selling encyclopedias to the town locals, encounters ensue and sales are made, but Finn's anxieties begin to consume him as he finds himself pursued by an unrelenting ghost. Circling through sleepless nights and desperate days, The Sensation of Sight intertwines lives of loneliness and disconnection, fatefully leading Finn toward an unexpected and sublime awakening.

An interesting film and David happened to sit next to me during the screening.  In the final sequence, Strathairn's character, Finn, runs through the a small New Hampshire town waving to all the characters in the film in an homage to Jimmy Stewart's run home in Frank Capra's, It's a Wonderful Life.

The sequence riveted my attention as I realized Strathairn had flawless Pose technique throughout the run - every footfall a forefoot strike, slight forward lean, quick pulls of the feet - I don't think his heels ever touched the ground. 

They had a discussion about the film after the screening, but I didn't get to put a question about Pose to the actor.  Still, I recommend the film, odd and well acted with added bonus of an embedded Pose technique video.

Alpha^2

Evolutionary Fitness, Arthur De Vany

The TimesOnline starts its 17 August article on Arthur De Vany and his "Evolutionary Fitness" with this intriguing paragraph:

A half-naked 71-year-old with 8% body fat and the testosterone levels of a boy of 18 greets me at the door of a large house overlooking a golf course near St George, Utah. He has the physique of a very fit young man and the springy, energetic demeanour of somebody who has cracked most of life’s outstanding problems. I am calling on him because, ever since I heard of him, I have begun to look uncannily well.

Two weeks earlier I had strolled into the office of the editor of this organ.

“You look 10 years younger. Why?” he barked, as editors do.

I was 11lb lighter than the last time he’d seen me. But he said “younger”, note, not just thinner.

“Arthur De Vany,” I reply, “he’s this guy…”

More on this as I work my way through the article.  Meanwhile check out Arthur's site.

Alpha^2

Overcoming obstacles

From CrossFitter LauraR's blog, The sport of fitness, the art of getting better.'s "About Me" page,

Take the words "genetic freak" out of your vocabulary and substitute the words "hard working, committed, and focused" and you will have removed one obstacle to doing things you never thought possible.

This idea works with lots of replacements for "genetic freak".  I almost automatically think about it (OK, try to think about it) as:

Take the words "middle age" or "old age or injured" out of your vocabulary ...

Alpha^2

P.S. Recovering well from the knee surgery, looking to get back to the gym this week.

Inspiration from Beijing

Whatever else one may think of it the Beijing Olympics should give all aging athletes inspiration (hat tip www.goDuke.com ) :

08/11/2008 - Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) - Dara Torres welcomes drug testing. So does John Dane III.

Just don't test him for one substance.

"If Advil were a banned substance, I would be in trouble," he said.

At 58, the sailor is the oldest U.S. Olympian in Beijing and the oldest the country has had in more than 50 years. After 40 years of trying to make the U.S. team, the New Orleans native is an Olympics rookie.

It's an appropriate time. This gathering could be dubbed the Geriatric Games.

The U.S. team has five competitors 50 or older, including shooter Libby Callahan, the oldest U.S. female Olympian ever. There are 17 others 40 or older, including Torres, 41, the American swimmer who has gotten the lion's share of publicity for the veteran set.

But Torres is a youngster compared to Dane. Then again, Dane is rather green compared to Hiroshi Hoketsu, 67, a Japanese dressage rider who has referred to himself as "the hope of old men."

Hoketsu, who has a graduate degree in economics from Duke, is returning to the Olympics after making his first appearance at the 1964 Tokyo Games. Dane would love to meet Hoketsu, five years shy of Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn, who won a silver medal in 1920, for oldest Olympian ever.

"He'd probably call me a young whippersnapper," Dane said.

Two others could say the same to Dane. Canadian equestrian Ian Millar is 61 and Australian equestrian Laurie Lever is 60.

Callahan isn't even the oldest woman at the Games. That would be Canadian trap shooter Susan Nattrass, 57.

...

While it's obviously easier to have longevity in sports such as sailing, shooting and equestrian, there is some cheating going in more rigorous pursuits.

No, not cheating as in doping. Cheating the calendar.

Israeli marathon runner Seteng Ayele is 53. French cyclist Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli is 49.

U.S. pole vaulter Jeff Hartwig is 40. And Torres, in her fifth Olympics, is the oldest swimmer ever to qualify for the Games.

OK, OK, maybe the competitors in their early 40's don't qualify.

Alpha^2

Don Wildman

I turned 56 this summer and outside of some injuries (more about these in coming posts) I've figured that I've kept in pretty good shape.  I have greater strength and endurance than I've had at any time in my life.  I have lower body fat and more lean muscle.  I follow a rigorous and demanding training regimen and usually provide strong competition to my very athletic 17 year old stepson. 

Feeling pleased with myself I come across Susan Casey's Esquire article on Don Wildman.

The World's Healthiest 75-Year-Old Man

Don Wildman can run like a Marine, snowboard like an Olympian, and bike like a Tour de France champion. Not bad for a 75-year-old.

This guy makes an impression

On any given day, in a private gym above Malibu's Paradise Cove, a handful of men show up to attempt a workout known as the Circuit, more than three thousand repetitions of weight lifting and balancing and abdominal exercises. If you're thinking that three thousand is a huge number of times to lift or pull or curl some heavy object, you are right. Which is why the Circuit has developed a reputation for causing some of these men to -- there's really no subtle way to put it -- projectile vomit. Its twenty multipart exercises are cycled through six times in a complicated sequence, but the Circuit's ground rules are simple: Once you start, you don't stop until it's done. There are no water breaks, no substituting easier moves when the going gets tough, and obviously no whining.

Well, that just redefined what I believed possible.

Alpha^2

Hello world!

Aristotle suggested that health, sufficient wealth, friendship, knowledge, and virtue constituted the key components of happiness.  This site proposes keep all those in mind as it focuses on its mission to provide and aggregate information to aid and assist the aging athlete to continue to run, jump, swim, row, ski, skate, lift, balance, and compete against themselves and (if they choose) others of their own age and younger. We'll look at any issue, which affects our performance and pledge to do so in a frank and open a manner.

Thanks for coming. We look forward to your thoughts and comments.

Alpha^2