ride till you're old. then keep riding.

I went for a short bike ride this afternoon, an easy neighborhood loop that included a stop for coffee and a snack. It was very cold when I left and I hadn't really been excited about it; but Sweetie knew that if I went anyway, I'd get rid of some of the excess shpilkes (restlessness) I tend to store up by late in the weekend. Plus, I didn't have to ride downtown for my synagogue gig this morning -- they were closed for the President's Day holiday -- so I needed an excuse to ride. By the time I got home it had warmed up a little bit and I felt better for having gone out.

After a beautifully hot shower, I surfed the interwebs and found this.

It. Made. My. Day.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/02/news/centenarian-claims-hour-record_206632

Note his rather upright riding position on a drop-bar bike. He's entitled at his age to set his bars as high as he likes.

Reading the article over at otherwise-increasingly irrelevant Velo News/Velo, I was surprised to find that, with few exceptions, Marchand listens to his doctors. He carefully keeps his pulse at 110 or below when riding -- his resting pulse must be in the 40's! -- and now limits his longest rides to no more than 100km (62.5 mi). He's apparently in excellent shape for a fellow his age. His feat persuaded the UCI to create a new age category for the mile record (100+). And his story made me smile.