Life begins at 50, one step at a time

John Kindred, owner of Right at Home, completes his first triathlon at age 58

When John was younger, he always thought “middle age” meant life was half over and your body was half used up; life was on a downhill slide. Boy was he wrong. Middle age is just the beginning of life! Or it could be…

There is a caveat. One needs to maintain their health. John was doing “okay” at age 58, but he was leading a sedentary job and only exercised occasionally. He was getting by. John saw his home care business clients in their 80s and 90s who had been farmers maintaining their health.  “Farmer strong” as Tim Tebow called it. Typing at a computer and talking on the phone was not going to help John enjoy the golden years, so he needed change if he was going to enjoy the golden years. His peers were not taking care of themselves and he was determined to not fall into that category.

Enter the triathlon. After losing 20 pounds due to life’s events, John decided to start running again. He was thinking it was going to be a grind, just like it always was when you lay off then start again. But it wasn’t. Running was actually fun and easy. Twenty pounds made a big difference in his fitness. With his newly found fitness program, he did not want to fall off the exercise bandwagon again so he decided to set some goals and tell people about his goals so he would have to meet his goals. His goals? An Olympic triathlon.

Why not an Olympic triathlon – a 6.2-mile bike race, a 25-mile bike ride and a 0.93-mile swim?  A seven-time Tour de France champion, Lance Armstrong, in his “old age,” was reverting back to his roots, the triathlon. It had been years since John had swum and he had never really biked, but why not! He knew that taking one step at a time, he could do anything. And he told everyone about it. No, not bragging; just letting everyone hold him accountable for his new goals. He HAD to do the triathlon because he told everyone about it.

And it worked. Running was easy. He never was fast, but he could run. Swimming and biking were different stories. He swam 50 meters and was exhausted. So he took one step at a time. He swam 50 meters, rested until he could do another 50 meters. Weeks later, he was swimming 200 meters, then resting. Two months later, he was swimming 1500 meters, his triathlon swim distance. There were “breakthrough” moments that kept him going. Breakthrough. All of a sudden, you can easily do something that you could not do before. John had never been a biker, so this was going to take some work at 58 years of age. Since it was winter, he started spinning classes at the LA Fitness center. Multiple one-hour sessions led him to believe that he was doing well, but when he was finally able to bike outside, he found out how woefully behind he was.  One step at a time. Put in LOTS of biking miles. And it worked.

So he did it. A 1500-meter swim, a 25-mile bike ride and a 6.2-mile run. From sedentary job to Olympic triathlon in five months. And you can do it. You need to do it to enjoy the golden years, and not barely make it.

Just in case you wondered, John’s next goal is a half-ironman triathlon. Almost double the distances, but he is going to take one step at a time. Make sure you ask John about it.