does everyone fall apart at 40?

[Alan57]

I did fall apart a little at around 52yrs old , diagnosed with type 2 diabetes 18½ stone, developed tinnitus in right ear. Now 57yrs old 14½ stone Diabetes blood sugars good ,tinnitus still there but I live with it. Apart from aches and pains now and again I am generally doing ok and ride every day ,hopefully I will continue to ride until the end. So even if you do start to fall apart you can glue yourself back together , maybe not as good as new but still useable.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I did fall apart a little at around 52yrs old , diagnosed with type 2 diabetes 18½ stone, developed tinnitus in right ear. Now 57yrs old 14½ stone Diabetes blood sugars good ,tinnitus still there but I live with it. Apart from aches and pains now and again I am generally doing ok and ride every day ,hopefully I will continue to ride until the end. So even if you do start to fall apart you can glue yourself back together , maybe not as good as new but still useable.

wasn't me that tore myself apart (only go there if strong stomach)!

 

[Alan57]

wasn't me that tore myself apart (only go there if strong stomach)!

Ouch , very nasty .

 

[lulubel]

wasn't me that tore myself apart (only go there if strong stomach)!

I looked because I couldn't resist, and felt very queasy long before I finished reading the story of your day. After that, looking at the photos of your stitched wounds was a breeze, although I think I'd have felt rather different if I'd seen them open!

As Alan said, very nasty.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I looked because I couldn't resist, and felt very queasy long before I finished reading the story of your day. After that, looking at the photos of your stitched wounds was a breeze, although I think I'd have felt rather different if I'd seen them open!

As Alan said, very nasty.

did you go to the following days? there are some 'better' shots of it - but rest easy, we chose not to photo it with it open, that was too much for even me, but in hindsight it would have been very useful once we got back into the UK. I still can't walk far, but surprisingly can cycle , just not amazingly fast or far (I can manage 42 miles without too many problems now, but the 55 miler in November as a test I did won't get repeated for a while yet). the 2nd to last page shows the scar once it was healed.

 

[lulubel]

did you go to the following days? there are some 'better' shots of it - but rest easy, we chose not to photo it with it open, that was too much for even me, but in hindsight it would have been very useful once we got back into the UK. I still can't walk far, but surprisingly can cycle , just not amazingly fast or far (I can manage 42 miles without too many problems now, but the 55 miler in November as a test I did won't get repeated for a while yet). the 2nd to last page shows the scar once it was healed.

I hadn't, but I have now, and I blame you and your very descriptive writing for the facts that:

1 - I've just spent quite a lot of minutes lying on the floor
2 - I've had to lie to my partner about why I was lying on the floor

(Obviously, I'm joking, and it was actually quite funny.)

I skimmed the rest of the blog, just looking at the progress photos and reading the descriptions, and after I'd rested my head back and shut my eyes for a while, decided I was OK to stand up. Bad idea! I had to lie down on the floor very fast, and only just made it before the black in front of my eyes and the hissing in my ears completely overwhelmed me.

While I was lying there, my OH came in and (understandably) asked why I was lying on the floor. My initial explanation that I'd looked at some photos online that made me feel very ill and I'd explain when I felt better gave me time to think of something. (My OH is quite scared of dogs, and it's taken me a long time to get her to stay calm when she comes across loose dogs when she's cycling. Knowing what happened to you would set her back years!) So, as far as she knows, you swerved to avoid a dog, and ripped your leg to pieces on a barbed wire fence!

Anyway, that sounds (and looks) like it was very nasty. At least you were lucky to be able to get all the help you did at the time. Being the kind of person I am, I'd say that nice man (I can't remember his name, and daren't go back to look!) giving you his phone number was more than just a co-incidence, but whatever your views on that are, it really does show how much goodness there is in human nature.

I'm going to go back and read the rest (the early part) of your blog at some point because you tell the story of your adventures so well, and I think it will make a very enjoyable read.

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

Since hitting 40 my left knee is a mess. 1 major reconstruction surgery, and a minor one a year later and it is worse than before I had them. If I knew what I know now I would of just let it destroy itself and had a full knee replacement. I have also had back problems. Apart from that fine, but it all started as soon as I hit 40, 43 now.

 

[gbb]

I don't know whether i'm sad or glad i started reading this one..
I'm 54 and i find i'm a mixture of fit and cream crackered. I don't suffer any health problems like asthma etc, barring a lifelong bad back (which has TBF been not too bad this year)..but i'm finding myslef increasingly tired in the evenings, most days i finish work, slump on the sofa...and thats it. I cant get enough sleep, even 6 or 7 hours a night leaves me waking up like a zombie, i just feel so crocked all the time.
But then, i can go out and and push myself physically for an hour and more...how many 54 year olds do that ?
I dont run any more, i mean run just to get somewhere quicker. I used to run up several flights of stairs, just because. Dont do that anymore.
I get pains in the front of my groin when getting up off the floor, i cant put my socks on without sitting down (even then its a struggle, thats my back)....i feel tired and crocked, but i won't give in.

Telling myself i'm off to the docs soon, get checked up. Whats all this over 40 MOT, i never had one...but TBF, i only go to the docs maybe once every three years


Fast forward...err back, TBF at 40 i was fitter than i ever was at 30 thanks to cycling. And between 45 and 50 i was pushing myself harder and harder on the bike on solo rides, getting up to 18mph average over 40 to 50 miles. Sadly those speeds are a dream right now.
However bad it seems, as a cyclist, i'm thankful for the fitness i have compared to couch potatoes that seem to abound when you look around.

 

[jefmcg]

Just a couple of data points: Australian champion cyclist Hubert Opperman stopped cycling when he was 90 (and died on a exercise cycle a couple of year later) and the longest (confirmed) living person, Jeanne Calment only stopped cycling when she was 100.

 

[Drago]

Since hitting 40 my left knee is a mess. 1 major reconstruction surgery, and a minor one a year later and it is worse than before I had them. If I knew what I know now I would of just let it destroy itself and had a full knee replacement. I have also had back problems. Apart from that fine, but it all started as soon as I hit 40, 43 now.

looks like my right elbow. When the Doc discovered I do 600 press ups a day with an arm full if Meccano he had a fit. When I told him if quit body building and moved into powerlifting he almost fainted.

I don't care if my elbow looks like a used hand grenade. Proving Doctors wrong is very satisfying.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

I was diagnosed asthmatic at 4, now I'm 44. General fitness has been my best weapon, and I'm on that QVar crap - which saves the ozone layer, but is poo compared to Beclomethazone. I prefer a decent cuppa to Salbutamol/Ventolin, the caffeine content helps. Other than that it's control and limits.
I was 12,000ft up Mt Teide a week ago, got headache and couldn't breathe, but thought, oh well, the tricks that work on a bike must work walking round here (brave words - the speed it hit scared the crap out of me!).
I've been doing Tai Chi for 2 years, and there's elements there that are supposed to help with asthma but I've not explored them much.

Other than that my destroyed knees seem to be nearly back to their old selves. Just the odd bit of soreness after rides. But then I'm riding less and I'm fat.

The aches and pains have ganged up on me more lately, but what the hell, I can get out and fly. In the end that's all that counts.

 

[Globalti]

Erm... am I allowed to say that I'm 56, still weigh the same as I did at 26, have a resting HR of 48 and a 32" waist and have never been seriously ill?

But then my Mum is 83, fit as a butcher's dog, leads Ramblers' groups every week, sings in three choirs, is a museum guide in her town and goes to the gym once a week? So if I've got some of her genes I'll be good for a few more years yet.

 

[lulubel]

I'm on that QVar crap - which saves the ozone layer, but is poo compared to Beclomethazone

Qvar is beclomethasone. It's a brand name, just like Becotide is.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Not too bad a state of health, I guess???

5'8" & weighing in at 10 stone (+/- a pound or 2)

Started running @ 42, & kept going (just don't ride as much now, as I did before running )

No real health issues, just the odd niggle - mainly knees/ankles from the running

My left knee's starting to play up again, after the fall that chipped the Femur back in February, it won't straighten fully for the first 1/2 - 3/4 miles over the past couple of days (unless it's still recovering from Sundays XC??)

 

[BrianEvesham]

Passed my 50th mot for my vocational licence in may, but was told I was obese. Still have all my own teeth!
I am losing weight thanks to cycling again after a twenty year gap.