Staying Alive

Tony Brickel ,one of my current running partners, sent me an article from the April 15, 2015 edition of the New York Times titled” The Right Dose of Exercise for a Longer Life.” For brief background information, I first met Tony and Jeff at a Ride and Tie event on Mount Hamilton in San Jose, California in 1997. Tony and Jeff were competing in the Ride and Tie and I competed in the 25 mile limited distance endurance ride. My life changed at that point. For those unfamiliar, Ride and Tie is an event consisting of two individuals, and a horse. This team competes against other teams covering 25 – 100 of miles over various mountainous terrains. Each team begins with a runner on the ground and a rider mounted on his horse. Someone yells” go “and the horses and riders race off. After a certain distance, determined by the team, the mounted rider dismounts , ties his horse to a tree limb and then continues running down the trail. Meanwhile, the runner reaches the horse, unties it, mounts and begins chasing the runner ahead. This ride, run, and tie process goes on until the entire team crosses the finish line. The first team wins. At that San Jose competition, I learned more about the event and was set up with Russ Kiernan, my partner, for the next event at Quicksilver. This meant that I had to begin trail running. For additional information, I refer you to “It Has Nothing To Do With Age.” In my book, I give background to my running and riding along with profiling athletes at least 65 years or older competing in ultra-events. In 2002, I ran the Western States ultra-run that began at Squaw Valley, California and ended in Auburn, California. This was a one day 100 mile run. Back to the present as last Saturday, Tony, Chris and I ran in a Western States training run. Incidentally, we were joined by Lance Armstrong and Eric Byrnes. Eric, formerly played for the Oakland A’s . They passed us at No Hands Bridge. The next Western States training run will be on the Memorial Day holiday. In early March, Tony, Jonathan and I have entered the Way Too Cool 50 K. Tony and I, on average, run in the neighborhood of 50 miles per week. I started running that mileage in late 2001. The New York Times article, followed the exercise habits of 661,000 adults, most of them middle-aged. These adults were categorized from those who did not exercise in all, to those that worked out for 10 times the current recommendations. They then looked at 14 years of death records for these individuals. The conclusions were the following: 1. Those that did not exercise at all were at the highest risk of early death. 2. Those who exercised a little lowered their risk of premature death by 20%. 3. Those who met the guidelines by competing 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise increasing longevity and had a 31% less risk of dying during the 14 year period compared to those who never exercised. 4. Those who tripled the recommended level of exercise, mostly by walking for 450 minutes per week, were 39% less likely to die prematurely than those who never exercised. 5. Those individuals engaging in 10 times or more the recommended exercise dose gained about the same reduction in mortality risk as people that simply met the guidelines. But they also did not increase their risk of dying young. Tony’s conclusion “okay, Frank were going to live longer.”