u/MaleficentFloor822

I heard someone phrase aging endurance sports in a way that stuck with me.

He said once you get past a certain age, the goal often isn’t getting faster anymore. It’s “slowing down more slowly.”

At first that sounded depressing butut the more I thought about it, the more honest it felt.

He was talking about how after 60 or 65, consistency becomes the whole game. Not because you’re still chasing some giant breakthrough, but because if you stop moving entirely, you usually don’t get all the way back.

What I found interesting is he wasn’t bitter about it at all. He still trains almost every day. Still races. Still spends huge days in the mountains. But the relationship to numbers changed.

Maybe this is obvious to older runners here, but I realized how much of my own motivation still assumes some future version of myself that keeps improving forever and I'm curious how people here think about this shift psychologically.

At what point did running stop being about progression and become more about continuity?

I've talked to a good number of people who've done incredible things at a young age and have kept doing them till late in life. Susan isn't one of them, in fact she told me that she felt that she only truly started living later in life.

Brief context, she smoked two packs a day until 30, didn't run, wouldn't dare think of herself as athletic, and didn't have any goals of doing anything remotely outside.

Then one day she watches Julie Moss crawling across the finish line of the Ironman and thinks that "Maybe I can do that too"

And that was her driving mantra, and what I think is deeply important as well.

The mental trap a lot of people can fall into is believing that the door closes much earlier than it actually does. That you're the "athletic type" or that you're not, that you can only be either adventurous or sedentary, or that you can't ever reinvent your life.

But Susan's life completely dismantles that idea, with each accomplishment turning her life around one by one. She started attaching new lables to herself such as triathlete, mountain biker, adventure racer, kayaker. Each new movement being a new identity.

What strikes me even more is that she never romanticized any of this. She admits how scared and how much catastrophizing she does in her head as she ages. She worries about injury and her greatest fear is losing autonomy.

Susan also said something I found riveting "There's nothing wrong with not growing up" which she meant as having the same childlike curiosity and room for play and adventure in your life and honestly, it's probably the spirit I see most often in people who age exceptionally well

I was speaking with someone recently who said something that landed pretty hard for me.

She said boys are often taught to explore first and figure things out as they go, while girls are more often taught to avoid danger first.

Not because parents are malicious obviously but usually it's because they want girls to be safe.

But her point was that if fear becomes the default lens for interacting with the world, it changes your relationship to risk, confidence, decision-making, and even your own body.

She was talking specifically about outdoor adventure and sports, but honestly it feels bigger than that.

I’m curious how many women here relate to this.

Did you grow up feeling encouraged to explore and take risks? Or mostly encouraged to avoid mistakes and stay safe?

I was speaking with Caroline Paul recently over a long conversation. She’s a pilot and writer, and she brought up something I hadn’t really thought about before.

Astronauts talk about the “overview effect” after seeing Earth from space. They come back describing this feeling of being more connected to people, more protective of the planet, more aware of how fragile everything is. In fact many of them come back and say come passionate environmentalists!

Caroline’s question was basically: do you have to go all the way to space to feel even a small version of that?

She flies small aircraft, including a gyrocopter, and was talking about how seeing the world from even a few thousand feet up can shift something. Not in the same cosmic way, obviously. But enough that the ground starts to feel different. Your problems look smaller. The place you live feels less like the center of everything.

I don’t fly planes, so I can’t relate to that exact version. But I’ve felt something similar looking out of a passenger plane window, or standing on a ridge, or being somewhere with a really dark night sky.

Curious if anyone else has had that kind of experience, just a moment where scale or perspective briefly knocked you out of your usual headspace?

I feel like the conversation around biohacking gets dominated by expensive gadgets, supplements, and optimization trends, but a lot of the strongest older athletes I’ve seen are doing surprisingly basic things consistently for decades like just sleeping well, eating enough protein and strength training.

What biohacks do you think are overrated vs underrated when it comes to staying athletic as you age?

Everybody has heard this phrase before, are you guys proud to say that you've proven it wrong?

What have you learned later in life that others thought impossible? Would love to hear your stories.

But the more time I spend on here the more I notice people quietly changing their lives at every age.

Like how someone starts walking every morning after 30 years of doing nothing, or someone who learns how to swim at 62, or someone who finally deals with their anger issues in their 50s or someone who decides they want to feel strong again at 70.

That honestly inspires me more than prodigies ever will.

There’s something beautiful about people who never fully give up on becoming better versions of themselves, no matter what the age.

I’ve been rotating through a lot of the bigger podcasts lately, but I’ve been trying to intentionally look for smaller, more under-the-radar shows too like ones that feel less polished but more personal, and sometimes more inspiring because of that.

For recovery and training, The Stronger Human Podcast has been a good find more conversations around sustainable training rather than chasing extremes. I also like The Pain-Free Athlete Podcast, which feels very clinician-led but still very practical if you deal with nagging injuries or just want to move better.

On the mindfulness / mental side, Meditative Story is a quieter, more narrative-driven listen that blends reflection with guided presence and it’s not your typical “how-to meditate” format. Another smaller one I’ve enjoyed is The Mindful Movement Podcast, which feels more intimate and less scripted than the big-name shows.

For exercise and performance, The Consistency Project Podcast stands out as it's less hype, more focus on building routines you can actually stick to. I’ve also been listening to Iron Culture here and there... it’s niche, slightly nerdy strength training talk, but in a good way if you like digging into details without mainstream noise.

What I’ve been enjoying most about these smaller podcasts is that they don’t feel like they’re performing for scale its like they're conversations that just happen to be recorded.

I’ve been going deep into mountaineering and alpine training content lately and I’m looking for more podcast recommendations.

Right now I’m really enjoying Uphill Athlete for the structured training and physiology side of things, and Afterglow for the more reflective, athlete-focused interviews and storytelling. Both hit that sweet spot of endurance mindset, expedition thinking, and real mountain experience without the fluff.

I’m trying to find more podcasts in that same lane especially ones that cover:
Alpine climbing / expeditions, high-altitude or 8000m experiences, endurance training for mountains and the mental side of suffering / risk / decision-making in the mountains

Less interested in super general “outdoor lifestyle” shows unless they go deep into actual climbing or expedition content.

What are you all listening to/watching?

I recently spoke with Amelia Boone on the ageless athlete pocast

We touched on her obstacle racing career and the “Queen of Pain” label, but the parts I found most interesting were about what it’s like to have so much of your identity tied up in being tough, disciplined, and able to push through.

A lot of the conversation felt relevant beyond obstacle racing: training through different seasons of life, learning when data is helpful versus when it starts to mess with your head, and trying to rebuild trust in your body after you've been stubbornly pushing it beyond 'safe' limits

I especially appreciated how candid she was about the less polished side of performance — not just winning or suffering, but recovery, self-image, and figuring out how to stay in sport in a healthier way.

Thought some folks here might appreciate it, especially anyone who’s dealt with burnout, injury, perfectionism, or complicated feelings around “toughness

I recently spoke with Amelia Boone on The Ageless Athlete. Some folks will remember her?

We talked a bit about her obstacle racing years and the “Queen of Pain” label, but a lot of the conversation ended up being about the quieter stuff around that: identity, recovery, tracking, and what it means to keep doing sport over the long run.

I especially liked her thoughts on wearables and metrics — how things like sleep scores and HRV can be helpful, but can also get in the way if you start trusting the number more than your own body.

Pretty thoughtful conversation about toughness, performance, and figuring out what still matters after the big wins. Rad gal!

I'd say Siddharta by Herman Hesse (Fiction), rather than reading Buddhist manuscripts, this book took the parable route and really changed my view on the world. This also inspired me to read further into Buddhist authors from different Asian countries. Which brought me to another favorite, The Courage to be Disliked.

As for Non-Fiction, I've changed my life financially by reading Ninja Selling by Larry Kendall
this book immediately shifted the way I thought about sales and has immeasurably improved my productivity in my job.

What books changed your life?

For me, more than just being knowledgeable, a great podcast host is someone who asks the questions I would ask, but an even better one would find questions I would never even think of asking.

I really like the format of Mythical Kitchen's Last Meals, Josh really knows how to transition even deeper while maintaining humor.

What sets great podcasters from the others?

Just heard Cedar Wright on a new podcast and it’s a good one. He gets into Yosemite / speed / decision-making, then pivots into why he got hooked on paragliding and how it compares to climbing (fear + flow)

I keep thinking of his reflection on almost getting seriously crippled from a freak accident at home, and how that messes with the whole “risk” conversation. Like… you can do everything “safe” and still get wrecked.

Also: woah, he drops this line about how Honnold basically ruined free soloing for the rest of us. It made kind of sense. Cedar is deep and funny at the same time in his own unique way

I went back to relisten to a podcast conversation with steve swenson who is still pushing hard in his 70s. He talked about some of his routines and mindset that have helped him stay high in the game. He shares some detail of his training routine that I found interesting, esp what he shared about stacking workouts the same day, and mixing strength training with climbing. Dude's focused and still totally in love with hit. This was on ageless athlete podcast

I went back to relisten to a podcast conversation with steve swenson who is still pushing hard in his 70s. He talked about some of his routines and mindset that have helped him stay high in the game. He shares some detail of his training routine that I found interesting, esp what he shared about stacking workouts the same day, and mixing strength training with climbing. Dude's focused and still totally in love with hit. This was on ageless athlete

It could be a product that doesn't exist anymore, and the alternatives just don't cut it

could be a chain of restaurants that just don't have that same quality

it could also be an activity that you used to enjoy but don't anymore as you've gotten older

For me, it's reading books like Catcher in the Rye, I've read it 3 times and each time I've gone through it the book changes. The words stay the same but I've changed and so the book changed for me. I used to hate it on my first read but later on I felt sorry for Holden and in turn for myself.