downtube42

To the problem of Afib from overdoing the high end, my solution is:
Afib from intervals at any age including tomorrow sounds better than what I'm seeing transpire with my 95 yo in-laws.

gobicycling

Afib is much overrated as a problem. I had my first afib 17 years ago, resolved with an ablation. It returned last year and I had another ablation and it is resolved. The television ads make it much more of a problem than it is, in my humble opinion.

gthomson

Does having a heart monitor help in preventing problems with the heart? I've been thinking I should get one to start monitoring my heart rate as I have a history in my family with heart problems.

rsbob 

A heart monitor will alert you to your heart racing when it shouldn’t be, so in a way it will alert you to seek care, but not prevent. Apple watches and others are more sophisticated devices can detect skipped beats and irregularities when fed into a program to look for such. I use a simple chest strap when cycling which only tells me current heart rate and it is up to me to look at my bike computer to see if I am in my normal. So it depends how much you want to spend for a monitor and its functionality. With a history of family issues I would probably start with an EKG and then figure out what kind of monitor might be prudent.

Carbonfiberboy 

Other than what rsbob said, in terms of possibly having a prevention effect, it depends on what sort of riding/training you do. If you commonly do hard rides/intervals, a recording HRM can keep track of your accumulated heart stress in zones 4 and up and enable you to put some limit on that stress if you want to. That's helpful for sure. I've done some damage from going too hard, too often. I have some left ventricular scarring, very possibly from the 10+ minute anaerobic climbs I used to do. A cardiologist discovered said damage and I've quit putting that much stress on the poor organ - using my HRM. But without the cardio, I wouldn't have known anything was amiss other than I've lost some power with age, normal, right? But that's rather a special case. Maybe.

What a HRM is really good for is pacing. On long rides, I pace myself with my HRM, not my power meter, and that pacing is very precise. I want to be within 1 or 2 beats of some target HR, but then I've been using a HRM for 25 years or so. It takes a while to get this all figured out. The first thing to do is to find your lactate threshold HR and your VT1 HR. My wife and I have been using (bought used) Polar V800 sport watches for a few years. They're out of production but still supported and available on ebay.

GhostRider62

Something I learned over the past year during which I had a bad sprain and then got all busted up in a crash. We older people are prone to losing muscle units and it is generally permanent. What I learned is lost motor units (aka muscle fibers or groups of them) do not get replaced or reenerved. You lose it and they are gone. What this meant to me practically was to exercise what I could during recovery from injury and to make sure I ate more protein and more food overall than normal. I went to my Doc and explained that I was waking up in the middle of the night burning up, sweating and all hot AND famished. Starving. He said that I was probably burning 5000+ calories a day healing. The easiest thing is not to get hurt and keep exercising but if you do get hurt, exercise is especially important to speed up healing and to not permanently lose muscle. Of course one can build up existing fibers that have atrophied but the lost ones (hypoplasia) are gone. The researchers are trying to understand why.

For me, it isn't about being an athlete so much as trying to model myself after the 90+ year old farmer who lives just down the road. He is incredibly active and strong unlike 70-80 year old family members who have trouble getting off the couch and walking to the Fridge.


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6202460/

OldTryGuy

Throw in a Bilateral Orchiectomy thanks to PCa (Prostate Cancer) plus 1,700mg/day Metformin, other meds as part of the PCa treatment protocol and Synthroid PLUS add some bike crashes and even all the protein and additional consumed items does SQUAT for maintenance not to mention build back. Looking at 80yo-90yo individuals able to run circles around youngsters is meaningless since life is lived in 5 year increments having all begun in 2015 at 65.

downtube42

So the takeaway here is focus on living now, as a means of dealing with mortality. At 61 my window of focus is about 12 month, but even that realizing every day is potentially my last. I think life is lived in moments.

OldTryGuy

I make plans for the future but live for the second at hand and hope for enough seconds, minutes, hours, days, years to fulfil the plans. Being told "You have cancer" for ME was expected so not surprising or frightening/upsetting. NO DENIAL just a "what's next?"

Nachoman

The main thing that keeps me feeling young is cycling and socializing with people much younger than me.
But it can be a bit demoralizing climbing hills.

countrydirt

We have a weekly group ride that just cruises around our city and countryside. The group is all ages from children to teens to young adults to middle aged and senior citizens. I have made some great friends in the 20-45 age group and we do other things like kayak, hike, snowshoe, ski, etc. Adventures with younger folks keeps the energy up. In fact, I dated a lady 14 years younger than me for a while and she said that 55 was the new 45, so it sort of worked out but the main focus was on adventure, not romance - but let's face it, it sure was flattering to have a young hottie interested in this older guy, so yeah, kept my eyes open!

I'm fortunate to have an adventure/friend group ages between 40 and 70 - some retired, some not, but we are always doing something on weekends and in the summer on weeknights. Soon it will be kayak outings in the mornings (for the school teachers on summer break) and evenings for the working crowd. Mountain biking, road biking, hiking, kayaking and socializing, etc keep us active.

downtube42

It's interesting, I notice that some people tend to have friends just within their age group, and some people have friends spanning age groups tied together by some common interest. I definitely fall into the latter camp, and have my entire life.

In terms of the subject of this thread - 50+ issues and their resolution, whether there's an issue here or not depends on your preferences. Maybe the issue is being defined by your age. And the resolution is to interact with people outside your age group. Like I said, I've done that my entire life, which is maybe why I don't feel any strong generational ties. But that's me.

Carbonfiberboy 

The issues I notice with folks who are getting older and also folks of any age are simply about stuff going wrong with their bodies, relationships, and minds. The biggest issue seems to be, do they do anything about it or just passively accept defeat. Maybe that's what you mean by "being defined." Personally, I haven't noticed any difference with those folks no matter with whom they interact.

When my wife was in college, she did research on "locus of control." IOW belief in where the power lies to determine what happens in your life. Internal locus of control means that you determine what happens with your life. External locus of control means that you believe that your life is controlled by external forces. So there you go. Looks to me like most posters here have an internal locus of control.

I see in the news that Paul Krugman just did a cycling tour in Portugal.

Road Fan

I like it! Just ride and do whatever else you like to do!