In Shape at 50

One sign of panic about advancing age is the desperate attempt to prove you're still young.

I knew 1989 was the year when I would reach the half-century mark. In January I designed an adventurous and somewhat idiotic plan to do a triath- lon—a single event that includes a swim race, a bike race, and a foot race, back-to-back, without any break.

After 30 years, I had resumed bike riding only two years before —and was still shaky just riding the thing. Though I swam on the team in high school and in freshman year at Dartmouth, swimming was an off-again, on-again activity. Only running was a daily ritual for me, and I have averaged eight races a year since 1978.

How do you prepare? I started in January on the electronic exercise bikes at the Y, and found 24 minutes at level one to be quite difficult. But soon I was improving, reaching level five in early spring, just in time for my firstever biathlon (run and bike) on April 1. I finished, but the temperature at race time was 38°, with a 15 mile-an-hour wind. That was quite comfortable for the 10K but I had no idea how cold riding a bike is in the wind! I nearly froze over the 25-mile course.

Nonetheless, within two weeks of the biathlon, I began preparation for the triathlon. On April 9, I added workouts on the universal gym, a weight machine that works on a variety of muscles. Again, I started virtually at the bottom, since my upper body was extremely weak. But after working out three times a week on the universal, and a steady climb up the weights, I was ready to head back to the water on May 15. My first half-mile swim took almost 22 minutes!

I began swimming often, sometimes twice a day. My times began improving. By June 3, I was under 20 minutes. By mid-June, 18 minutes-plus was more normal for half-miles, and 36-37 minutes for a mile. Not good, but an improvement. I ran out of training time for the Charlotte Bud Light Triathlon at Latta Plantation Park on Tune 17.

There were other surprises as well. The "40K" bike ride turned out to be 27.7 miles, not 25, a fact they announced in a last-minute mailing. No big deal, but that much extra effort.

The run turned out to be the easiest part. Somehow, after all the swimming and biking, I found the 10K most to my liking, and passed a bunch of people (though of course all of us were back-of-the-packers). Some had numbers indicating they had started in earlier heats.

That's two weeks after I turn 50.