He Bikes, She Bikes, at 72/92
British retiree (’pensioner” in Britspeak) Bert Brett logs 250 miles a week on the bike–or so he claimed in a recent media report. Even if he exaggerates the mileage (I do, when I’m in brag mode) it sounds like he’s got a bad case of OCGBE (ob/com geezer bike disorder). Anyway, he’s 73, and in perpetual training for time-trial races. His wife Elsie pedals at home on a stationary bike. As of this post, she’s 90-plus.
At 20 years her junior, Bert’s the boy toy. He took up cycling a decade or so ago; does he bike to avoid things? Avoidance is a big part of the geriathletic revolution–endorphins make us feel good and compulsion takes us away from grim subjects. Anyway during the day he bikes to Cardiff and back home to Merthyr; then walks four miles and lifts weights. “I don’t see age as much of a barrier”, he said. “I sometimes beat men in time trials who are half my age, but we don’t tend to dwell much on how old anybody is.” He credits a vegetarian diet and his spartan regimen for “still feeling as though I’m 18 or 19 in my mind.”
