This hurts. I feel like I’m trying to play catch up. 39 years old closing in on 40 quickly. Started lifting seriously last year. I’ve seen excellent results but kick myself for not doing it sooner. Shoulda, coulda, woulda I suppose. I’m here now and able to keep up with all my kids and their activities. I’ll keep pushing though. I look at some of the other dads of my kid’s friends and am glad I jumped on my fitness when I did. I want to be around for my grand kids and great grandkids.
Nice part of starting late is that you only see gains and upside, where as if you started younger, you begin to feel like you're treading water and working harder than ever to maintain.
I started not that long before you did, age-wise. Yep, we should have, absolutely, started earlier. But allow yourself this silver lining and let it serve as motivation: now you're going into it clear-eyed, knowing what's at stake, and with access to tons of info that will help you avoid injury and train smart. If you'd kind of stumbled into it when you were younger, you might not have had those things, and you might have messed up your body.
Cope? Yeah, a little. But it's motivation not only to keep going, but to keep going in the most safe and effective way.
I assumed that your VO2 max went down as you aged, not that it took X times longer to maintain. That's optimistic because we can do something about it. I feel like I hit the wall this year at 43, but I just have to put more effort in to maintain. Thanks Mike!
It goes down 10% a decade if you do nothing, and 2.5% - 5% a decade if you do something. Maybe you can preserve it if you really put the hours in, but it still fades as Joe Friel etc point out in their books and talks.
Turned 70 three years ago and age is no longer "just a number". Still doing fine, but it's all really different as I'd never before experienced that big a shift in body/mind. That drop off is real.
Great stuff, Cerno. This one resonated with this 40 year old. Lost a buddy a grade above me a few weeks ago. Similar story. Motivated to keep hitting it especially with a baby girl en route. Thank you as always for the insights, candor, and the balls to say what most “men” wont. Much appreciated, brother.
Great insight Mike. Have always loved these retrospectives from you.
As a long time reader was wondering if you ever reflect on your own desire to write. if we go allllll the way back seems like there are 1 to 2 year bursts followed by a break followed by a burst:
Seems like you always get the itch to go back to long form reading. Is it something you consciously take a break from or something that just calls to you every few years? Or other obviously...
As a soccer player my whole life, here's what I noticed... you can still do everything you used to do, skillwise, but you do everything real S-L-O-W... at 55, I just had to hang up my boots...it was humiliating!
Another good one I can relate to. I’ve been using Cerno’s “report card” analogy since I saw him use it on Twitter a few months back b/c it’s so true.
Much like an earlier comment I’m a “best shape of my life” guy only b/c I never pushed myself in my 20’s and 30’s. And I also tell myself “why didn’t you do this sooner!?”
Glad you started a substack; compliments your Twitter feed for longer more thoughtful posts, and also enabled followers like me to support you. Politics, mens health/bros, higher thought (religion, philosophy), and of course family Thank you.
I used to run way too hard.. then I switched to MAF after learning about it from you, thank you! But lately I did one of those LTHR tests to calculate my zones (supposedly) more accurately, and my zone 2 is in the 150s, whereas my maf zone is mid 130s-mid 140s. I don’t know which to aim for… anyone encounter this?
Did you get a test in a lab? That will be more accurate than a formula, which tries to provide an easier way to have a guideline HR without going to lab. Overall tho it seems that running slow is good for people, even the hybrid athlete studs like Nick Bare talk about this in videos.... how they wish they had discovered slow running sooner.
Thank you for taking time to answer! I’m slow either way but I appreciate the advice, I would never have discovered slow running at all on my own. I know I need lab testing done for this and other stuff now that I’m old, thank you
This hurts. I feel like I’m trying to play catch up. 39 years old closing in on 40 quickly. Started lifting seriously last year. I’ve seen excellent results but kick myself for not doing it sooner. Shoulda, coulda, woulda I suppose. I’m here now and able to keep up with all my kids and their activities. I’ll keep pushing though. I look at some of the other dads of my kid’s friends and am glad I jumped on my fitness when I did. I want to be around for my grand kids and great grandkids.
Nice part of starting late is that you only see gains and upside, where as if you started younger, you begin to feel like you're treading water and working harder than ever to maintain.
I started not that long before you did, age-wise. Yep, we should have, absolutely, started earlier. But allow yourself this silver lining and let it serve as motivation: now you're going into it clear-eyed, knowing what's at stake, and with access to tons of info that will help you avoid injury and train smart. If you'd kind of stumbled into it when you were younger, you might not have had those things, and you might have messed up your body.
Cope? Yeah, a little. But it's motivation not only to keep going, but to keep going in the most safe and effective way.
I assumed that your VO2 max went down as you aged, not that it took X times longer to maintain. That's optimistic because we can do something about it. I feel like I hit the wall this year at 43, but I just have to put more effort in to maintain. Thanks Mike!
It goes down 10% a decade if you do nothing, and 2.5% - 5% a decade if you do something. Maybe you can preserve it if you really put the hours in, but it still fades as Joe Friel etc point out in their books and talks.
Turned 70 three years ago and age is no longer "just a number". Still doing fine, but it's all really different as I'd never before experienced that big a shift in body/mind. That drop off is real.
Great stuff, Cerno. This one resonated with this 40 year old. Lost a buddy a grade above me a few weeks ago. Similar story. Motivated to keep hitting it especially with a baby girl en route. Thank you as always for the insights, candor, and the balls to say what most “men” wont. Much appreciated, brother.
Great insight Mike. Have always loved these retrospectives from you.
As a long time reader was wondering if you ever reflect on your own desire to write. if we go allllll the way back seems like there are 1 to 2 year bursts followed by a break followed by a burst:
Crime and Federalism
D and P
Juice website (lesser extent)
Gorilla Mind
Cerno.com
Now the sub
Seems like you always get the itch to go back to long form reading. Is it something you consciously take a break from or something that just calls to you every few years? Or other obviously...
As a soccer player my whole life, here's what I noticed... you can still do everything you used to do, skillwise, but you do everything real S-L-O-W... at 55, I just had to hang up my boots...it was humiliating!
Another good one I can relate to. I’ve been using Cerno’s “report card” analogy since I saw him use it on Twitter a few months back b/c it’s so true.
Much like an earlier comment I’m a “best shape of my life” guy only b/c I never pushed myself in my 20’s and 30’s. And I also tell myself “why didn’t you do this sooner!?”
Keep cranking these out, great stuff 👍
Thanks for sharing!
Glad you started a substack; compliments your Twitter feed for longer more thoughtful posts, and also enabled followers like me to support you. Politics, mens health/bros, higher thought (religion, philosophy), and of course family Thank you.
I used to run way too hard.. then I switched to MAF after learning about it from you, thank you! But lately I did one of those LTHR tests to calculate my zones (supposedly) more accurately, and my zone 2 is in the 150s, whereas my maf zone is mid 130s-mid 140s. I don’t know which to aim for… anyone encounter this?
Did you get a test in a lab? That will be more accurate than a formula, which tries to provide an easier way to have a guideline HR without going to lab. Overall tho it seems that running slow is good for people, even the hybrid athlete studs like Nick Bare talk about this in videos.... how they wish they had discovered slow running sooner.
Thank you for taking time to answer! I’m slow either way but I appreciate the advice, I would never have discovered slow running at all on my own. I know I need lab testing done for this and other stuff now that I’m old, thank you
how many times a week u do hard cardio?
Once every 5-8 days, otherwise only low end.