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Aging gracefully as an athlete

Well it's been three months since my original post and I finally hit my ideal weight. Phew! Much as I whined about it taking so long, I do realize I did it right. This means the pounds won't come back unless I get sloppy with my calories in vs. calories out. This might be a challenge, though. I tweaked my knee skiing 6 inches of chopped up powder on April 26 and now my leg workouts are limited to the recumbent bike. It's very important that my stretched ligament recovers well enough to deliver two Camp Rollerblades in May and June while serving my local students.

I did want to share this link with you all. It is a single web page with lots of fitness-related calculators to personalize your workouts.

I also have a pretty cool Excel spreadsheet for calculating your basal metabolic rate and then plugging that into a list of activities and their calories burned that compares the day's total with a simple journal of calories consumed. If you are an Excel nut, feel free to ask for a copy to customize for yourself!

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Do I dare share this stuff? Does anybody even care or have time to read it? But I have a feeling that other Boomer athletes may empathize or even share advice, war stories or tips for staying active and fit in spite of the effects of aging. Anyway, here's the state of Liz:

What brought me to skating was my love of alpine skiing, which I took up after meeting Dan, who I couldn't tire out on a dance floor. I had been body building for about 3 years then, so when he taught me to ski, I already had a good foundation of strength. Now we both love to ski and go to Tahoe every other weekend during the season. We work out year-round to stay in shape for that plus backpacking, skating and hiking. Over the years, my workouts have transitioned from proving I was the strongest woman in the gym to lifting lighter weights and doing more reps and cardio training. I've also added components from Pilates and Yoga to stabilize my core, improve my balance and retain my flexibility. (Actually, I have a whole section on my website called Off Skate Fitness, describing a "lite" version of what I do.)

Thanks to Dan's great cooking skills, we eat very healthy and delicious dinners and save dining out for special occasions. I spend hours every week preparing lunches and snacks to keep us at optimum weight and energy levels for athletic performance. I've even reduced my alcohol intake (but not my desire for fine wine and scotch!) because of my family history of breast cancer (Mom and me) and ovarian cancer (my little sister). Now my Mom, my sister and my ovaries are gone. But I've just had my annual physical and cancer screenings and I'm in enviable health at age 57.

That said, I am constantly battling "Boomeritis!" Last year, it was a sprained thumb from a ski fall. Before that I worked through a couple years of knee and shoulder pain thanks to my over-enthusiastic approach to Yoga. With 10 or more hours a day at the computer, I am at risk for an overuse injury from "forward head" posture. Twenty years ago, I got sloppy doing squats at the gym and compressed a lumbar disc that continues to act up sporadically. And last week I saw xrays of my cervical vertebra that shows prominent bone spurs. I have just started four months of chiropractic care to see if I can get rid of the pain when I look over my left shoulder.

And then there's the 5 lbs to lose from the holidays, which have still not disappeared despite my stepped-up aerobics! (No ovaries equates to a lower metabolism.) However, this week I'm going to hang in there and get in my four gym sessions of resistance and cardio training, at least one run, and two days of skiing. And try not to hurt myself!

Tags: aging, chiropractic, fitness, healthy, injuries, lunches, pilates, skiing, workouts, yoga

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Comment by Liz Miller on May 12, 2009 at 10:39pm: Al, I wish I could give you a qualified guess about the hip pain in 100mm. My UNqualified guess is that there must be some leverage or angle difference that causes over-training to tire out your hip muscles. The slightest change in skeletal alignment can cause some pretty dramatic reactions. I'm often enthusiastic to the point of injury, even when doing something that's supposed to be good for me.

Comment by skateme/Al Grant on May 12, 2009 at 2:16pm: Hello Liz from a fellow Boomer, I love the goodies in that little shack (resturant) at Alpine Meadows.And of course we got all the boomerists that you have but it it inspires us to fight the good fight aganist father time.Do you have any suggestions why I get hip pain when I skate with 100 mm skates and seem to do just fine with 80 mm 5 wheel skates. Today I burned 948 calories skating and I am still 20 lb overwieght. go figure .............Al

Comment by Mr. T on May 10, 2009 at 10:58am: Great Liz.. I also got into skating for keeping in shape for skiing. Then I caught the bug and I almost gave up skiing.
I only have one caveat. Many of these calculators do not take into accounts the difference in body types. For example, one calculator tells me that I am overweight/almost obese (6'2-228lbs) and that my ideal weight should be 176 lbs.
I used to weigh 175 at age 15 and I was an athete in track & field training 5x a week and going to Nationals for my age group.
Truth is my weight should be more like 195-200 lbs since my bones are really big. In the past I made an attempt to bring myself down to 190lbs by swimming myself thin from 238lbs. I did it, in 4 months by swimming 2-3 miles a day (5 times a week). Results: I was slim and sick all the time. I do not believe in health defined by spreadsheet formulas. But being active is good.

Comment by Mary Hamel on May 6, 2009 at 9:23pm: You are all a wonderful inspiration to me. I almost felt embarrassed to try in line skating at almost 56 years of age. But I love alpine skiing having just finished a very nice ski season here in Oregon. I wanted to do something to keep my legs in shape and also something that is fun. I just bought some K2 skates, a set of crash pads and all the other padding I'll need. I'm going to the skating rink with my 14 y/o son this Sunday for Mother's Day -- that's all I want -- just hang out for a couple of hours. Oh -- I'm also waiting for Liz's books to come in the mail. I did have an hour of in line skating class at the rink -- so hopefully all of this will come together soon.

Again, glad to have found you all.

Comment by Ann Ledesma on March 4, 2009 at 5:35am: Thanks Liz, so much. Isnt Geoff wonderful??? Wouldnt it be great if we could organize a skate-in for this guy? Zephyr could arrange the tour and we could all skate together in support of him. Lodgings would be no problem since the town would probably be glad to offer us free accommodations behind bars, with some meals included but wouldnt it be worth it! (Ha ha all a harmless fantasy!) Have a lovely day, and yes, you will surely be doing all the stuff you love for the rest of your life!

Comment by Liz Miller on March 3, 2009 at 7:41pm: Ann, you are raising the bar for us all! This morning at the gym I was thinking, "And I'm going to be doing this for the rest of my life?" Yes I am, if I want to ski the black diamonds and skate the rail trails for the rest of my life. And be like you and Geoff!

Comment by Ann Ledesma on March 3, 2009 at 7:23am: Liz, you are and always will be my idol, bone spurs, extra 5 lb and all. Of course I have to chuckle at all you boomer "kids" and your comments on aging. As you know I've been at it since FDR was Prez and turn 75 next month. I was informed by my physical therapist that everything on my right side from the waist down is "fried." I skate anyway. If I dont I will be even more fried, also psychologically which is actually more of a problem than the physical in my case. I did want to let you know that I'm employing the heel brake tho not on the steep downhills, I swizzle those. I'm actually doing it righty! Why? Because my left hip is stronger and can support the "sit" in the ready position better. My advice to all of you is just keep on skating. The culture just wants to shove us down in those rockin chairs with duct tape over our mouths, tell 'em to put it where the sun dont shine. Google up Geoff Dornan, it will make your day!

Comment by Thomas Stergar, II on January 26, 2009 at 7:54pm: Liz/Robin, you both are an inspiration that's all there is to it. Those that keep pushing through ailments and pain (to put it lightly) are amazing people and that's you!

Comment by Liz Miller on January 26, 2009 at 7:31pm: Hey Robin, I didn't mean to skew your perspective with such a yank! I could have left out the dramatic part of my second sentence and you'd still get my expression of empathy. Still new at this Blogging thing...
Roger as you say, it's pretty hard to find anybody our own age who can keep up with Dan and me. That naturally leads to hanging out with younger playmates. (We're still blowing them away on the ski slopes-very gratifying indeed!) I call the level of competitive fitness that active middle aged folks build "mature fitness." I believe it takes several years of dedicated training to build the kind of overall toughness that so many people in this skating community have.

Comment by R(O)(O)(O)(O)ger-Photo by J.Kent on January 26, 2009 at 12:13pm: Another big influence for living LIFE fuller is to associate with younger active people with similar interests. The group of people I hang around are 6-20+ years younger, that helps ME stay young I believe for mentally, I think I am still in my 20's maybe 30's. When I happen to be around non active people near my age, they are talking about what heath issues they are having, who died and or just do not have any energy. I do not do well in those environments for sure. I enjoy hearing from my grandkids friends, "Did you have a lot of coffee today?" See, I am able to keep way ahead of my kids no problem, I have to stay fit to keep ahead of my grandkids, that's my goal. I must say my 12 year old grandson is closing the gap nicely but he is still only closing. He does thrown down the challenges from time to time to test just where he is in the gap. LOVE IT, LIVE IT. R(O)(O)(O)(O)ger