Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 130 total)
  • what happens when you get old?
  • philconsequence
    Free Member

    What’s it like to get old? I’m not just asking about what its like choosing your first zimmer frame or what tyres for your mobility scooter… but just getting old in general.

    Do you feel old?

    When I was 10, 16 seemed like a lifetime away…
    When I was 16, 21 seemed a lifetime away…
    But as I’ve got older the years just keep rolling by and the thought of 5 years ahead might as well be next Tuesday. When you’re 45 does 50 seem ages away?

    At what age do you think you became a grown-up… not in the eyes of society but in your own mind? Or do you still feel like a kid at heart.. but find yourself judging people younger than you as “pesky kids? 😆

    So many questions but when it comes down to it… what’s your experience of growing older? 🙂

    TheSouthernYeti
    Free Member

    *wonders if I seem like a grown up*

    cinnamon_girl
    Full Member

    phil – in answer to your first question, I haven’t a clue! It’s a number, that’s all.

    I embraced my mid-life crisis by buying a Ti bike and one or two other things. 🙄

    On a serious note, I feel comfortable with myself and the world. 8)

    Auntie C_G
    (over 50 apparently)

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    rOcKeTdOg
    Full Member

    i don’t feel old, people tell me i am, but then they are in their 20’s and couldn’t walk 10 miles let alone do any distance on a bike, it’s all relative, i do find i’m doing more now incase i can’t manage it in the future, lifes too short etc etc

    GlitterGary
    Free Member

    You buy Singletrack magazine.

    D28boy
    Free Member

    Your body starts to fail you!

    Drac
    Full Member

    You buy a Tandem and argue about helmets.

    Ah Sorry TJ but someone had to do it.

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    Grumble mutter mummble

    where’s my werthers!

    philconsequence
    Free Member

    i do find i’m doing more now incase i can’t manage it in the future, lifes too short etc etc

    yup

    You buy Singletrack magazine.

    yup

    Your body starts to fail you!

    yup

    I’m old! 😯 that must mean you’re all REALLY old 😆

    cinnamon_girl
    Full Member

    phil – you need to stop crashing! How are your bruises now?

    MulletusMaximus
    Free Member

    Still feel the same inside as I did when I was 19, just look slightly different on the outside.

    As you get older you don’t worry as much about your age. As c_g says, it’s just a number. It is true when older people tell you that the older you get, the faster time seems to go. 😥

    I certainly wouldn’t want to be younger again though, as I’m a lot more content with who I am as a person.

    Yours,

    A very young 39 year old.

    neilsonwheels
    Free Member

    I am definitely looking old around the eyes. Watching my daughter grow up puts things into perspective. She is growing FAST.! I still don’t feel that grown up inside and feel I have a hell of a lot to learn. As a male it is a well known fact that I will never grow up.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    The trick to not feeling old is to hang around with people older than you. I felt old when I left uni then I got a job working with people who were mostly mid to late 20s. That made me feel young. If that happened now I’d feel really old, so by some stroke of luck my colleages have always ended up being slightly older than me. Last long job my closest workmate was mid to late 40s and still had a strong social life and did loads of active stuff. That helped 🙂

    Andy-R
    Full Member

    rOcKeTdOg – Member
    i don’t feel old, people tell me i am, but then they are in their 20’s and couldn’t walk 10 miles let alone do any distance on a bike, it’s all relative, i do find i’m doing more now incase i can’t manage it in the future, lifes too short etc etc

    Exactly like this ^^^^ except that I sometimes feel old too (I’m 59).
    Ironically, I’m probably riding better than at any time over the last ten years, but since I’m another of these “glass half empty” people I worry about some sort of sh!t happening to change all the good things that I’m lucky enough to have in my life.
    Sometimes I feel too lucky, if that makes any sense?

    Hohum
    Free Member

    You generally become wiser.
    You learn to do things that you have to out of a sense of responsibility.
    You value the good things in life more.
    You realise that you are not immortal and tend to change your lifestyle accordingly.
    You generally become happier with your lot.

    On the whole I would say I am more content now at the age of 40 than I was when 30 or 20.

    totalshell
    Full Member

    as the five O looms i cant quite do what i did when i was 25 but i can come close, the ladies dont stop and stare anymore, i lost my name when i had kids you just become ‘Lauryns dad’ etc i ve got more money than ever had, no mortgage, all the boys toys i ve ever wanted.. down side.. health, more visits to the gp than nights out clubbing and the nagging awareness that somewhere theres a pair of slippers with my name on em..

    http://pre65trials.blogspot.com/

    we few, we happy few

    SaxonRider
    Full Member

    I find that having kids simultaneously makes me feel young and old. Young because I could never have imagined playing with Nerf guns, and being excited for Christmas again; old because, after a year of injury, I look at them and realise I am mortal.

    Otherwise, I work with people whose ages I don’t generally know, but take comfort in the fact that they all act like extremely wound up old people – too old, I imagine – for their real ages, while I’m generally seen as young and entirely able to laugh at things the way a slightly wise teenager might.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Having kids definitely makes you feel young again, cos you’re no longer a very old teenager, just a young parent 🙂

    And they do things that trigger your own memories of far off times.. and you start thinking of your own parents in a slightly different light.

    ourmaninthenorth
    Full Member

    I started my midlife crisis early (or possibly late; I don’t know when I will die). It was as a result of the rapid mental ageing brought on by an extremely stressful job.

    It made me want to do stuff right now and not wait until retirement.

    So, weirdly, I feel as young as I ever have, but older than my years.

    ourmaninthenorth
    Full Member

    And they do things that trigger your own memories of far off times.. and you start thinking of your own parents in a slightly different light.

    Seconded.

    DezB
    Free Member

    When you need to pee, you NEED TO PEE NOW!

    (Oh and you only listen to old music and think none of today’s musicians are as talented as “they used to be” 😉 )

    MrWoppit
    Free Member

    About to step around the corner into 60.

    Things I miss:

    A good night’s sleep.
    A body that doesn’t hurt in different places all the time.
    Inexhaustable supplies of energy.
    A waistline.

    And so on and so on….

    EDIT: Decent modern music 😆

    Moses
    Full Member

    You wish you’d learned to surf / wheelie / snowboard before you were 50 becasue you notice strength going a bit. And your hair goes a bit, too.

    (But you listen to new music because the kids have got fire if not always skill, and you’ve heard the old stuff 100 times before)

    And since you’ve had so much “stuff” in the past, new toys don’t do it in quite the same way as they used to.
    And you remember lost opportunities with regret rather than anger.

    lazybike
    Free Member

    Seems to me that the majority of problems in the world are caused by ” grown ups” , hold on to that inner child… 😀

    DezB
    Free Member

    Moses = wise 🙂

    alexathome
    Free Member

    My hip hurts (all the time) and i ‘tut’ quite a lot.

    I’m 37. Where do I collect my 5 bob?

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    What happens – your 6 pack becomes party seven

    ratadog
    Full Member

    You buy Singletrack magazine.

    Probably you subscribe to Singletrack magazine rather than simply buying it. Pedant mode off.

    Also judging by the results in the local MTBO league, you seem to get considerably more competitive. I go up an age category next year and I definitely need to raise my game simply to stay at my current level of uncompetitiveness.

    ART
    Full Member

    I ponder this kind of stuff a lot too… 🙄

    I don’t feel old – although like OMITN, I reckon I midlifed early through a stressful job and spent most of my early 30s wondering ‘what’s it all about’. I’m 40 now, and the things are notice most are:
    – the years go fast, really fast
    – I don’t think there are endless years ahead like I did and am conscious that if I want to do stuff now is the time
    – when I smile there’s a growing host of wrinkles
    – I worried when I started listening to radio 2 but now that Jo Whiley is on there I’m defo on 6music full time

    As for being ‘grown up’ really, I’ve no idea. I still spend all my spare time on a bike … 😉

    Interestingly I do feel more empathy towards older people (parents excepted 👿 ) and young people annoy me less then they used to – they’re young – what do they know!

    xiphon
    Free Member

    You die.

    slowoldgit
    Free Member

    Some time around 35 you realize the ground is getting harder and comes up faster. And then a bit later you accept you don’t want to do quite so much, but the fun is still there. All the old dents and scrapes remind you where your limits are, and you won’t make those mistakes again.

    Later still you let your son do all the work on the front of the tandem.

    philconsequence
    Free Member

    any early/mid thirties people care to comment?

    comparing myself to friends of the same age i’m like an old old man… but i’ve always been that way – upbringing, IQ level, job, health problems and nearly always ‘getting on’ better with people about 5-10 years older than me in social circles.

    physically i feel old, mentally i feel old… but i’m not old. riding a bike makes me feel young, the attitudes and opinions on STW make me feel young. perception is a funny thing!

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Top tip to make the years slow down is variety.

    Become self employed, take time off, become a traveller etc etc.

    I’m 35 btw Phil. It’s hard for me to say I feel young, because I have 20 more years of experience and wisdom than I did 20 years ago, and that’s a big part of who I am. I would rather be ageless than simply young 🙂

    Physically, I feel fit but I found I couldn’t take fitness for granted, but then again I used to do a greater variety of sport back then.

    However iDave and some general excercises have rolled the years back nicely.

    philconsequence
    Free Member

    the most comforting thing i’ve learnt recently is that yeti only started riding at the same age as i did… but he’s about 6 years older than me, so that gives me 6 years to get to his fitness/radness level 8)

    MrWoppit
    Free Member

    Also, you have to start making that noise after you’ve bent down to pick things up. It’s in the contract…

    philconsequence
    Free Member

    i make that noise on the way down and back up!

    cinnamon_girl
    Full Member

    phil- you’re worrying yourself unnecessarily!

    DezB
    Free Member

    the most comforting thing i’ve learnt recently is that yeti only started riding at the same age as i did… but he’s about 6 years older than me, so that gives me 6 years to get to his fitness/radness level

    Ah, but then the downslide…

    McHamish
    Free Member

    I can remember as an 18 year old trying to get into an over 25’s night in nightclubs. Everyone else looked really old and past it.

    I’m 35 next month, and in the past few years I’ve been looking back rather than forward if you know what I mean…there are things I’d do differently. I’m too old now to compete seriously in muay thai…many of the younger people in the gym are getting a lot of fights and moving towards title shots. The fight team managers can probably see a lot more reward from pushing them forward rather than me.

    I’ve realised I’m getting old because I’m looking back.

    But I don’t feel like a grown up…I’m still a child inside. I’d like to be like Peter Griffin I think…immature forever. But eventually you’ve got to be an adult.

    My Dad’s 66…he said he still feels the same inside as he did in his early 20s. On my graduation day at University I went out in the evening with Uni friends and he stayed at the hotel, but he said he really wanted to come out with us and re-live his uni days!

    molgrips
    Free Member

    If you are worried about age and fitness, go and watch a Masters MTB race.

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