Think 40, 50, 60, 70, or 80 is too old to climb a mountain? Think again! In this post, we'll talk about why so many people start mountaineering around midlife, the benefits of endurance training after 40, and how to adapt your mountaineering training to prevent injury and allow for more recovery time. At the end of this post, you still might have some doubts and challenges around climbing your mountain. But I promise you, age won't be one of them!

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

Transcript

(Working on cleaning this up!)

My heart sinks every time I see this question in my inbox. A few times a week, I'll get an email that says something like:

“I've always dreamed of climbing Kilimanjaro or Mount Rainier, but I've put it off, and now I'm 52. Is there hope for me?

Child I am here to tell you that 52 is a baby. In mountaineering years, you're still pooping your diapers okay?

Believe it or not, 52 is actually the perfect age to start climbing mountains. So in today's episode, I'm going to share some encouragement for all of you aspiring mountaineers in your 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and beyond, and also share some health and training tips.

And by the way, if you're in your 20s or 30s, you may want to have a listen and tuck some of these pearls away. Because as impossible as it is to imagine, you will be 52 one day. And as we'll discuss, there are actually some things you can do while you're young that will help you when you're older.

mountaineering after midlife is transformative

So welcome to the pod. It's Sarah, your host, and I'm so excited about today's topic. I feel like this is a topic that has the potential to change lives. We all live life, we kind of cruise through the 20s the 30s, and then midlife hits and we're like, oh gosh, what more is there?

Maybe for you, there's mountaineering, there's adventure. There's fun, there's new friends. There's discovering you can do things that you didn't even know you were capable of. Maybe you're going to get in the best shape of your life.

This is the time when magic happens, I think. And the transformative change comes along. So if you're in midlife not feeling great about it, give that mindset a little bit of a shift.

Stupid stuff our culture teaches us about age

So why is the thought of climbing a mountain so anxiety provoking or challenging for people that are getting started at a later age? I think a lot of it has to do with our culture. And to some degree, it has a lot to do with where you live.

So a story to illustrate: when I was 42, I attempted to climb a mountain called Orizaba. It's in Mexico. It's actually the tallest mountain in Mexico. It's about 18,000 feet tall.

And I'm not sure what happened. It just wasn't my day. I was feeling crappy pretty much the whole way up. I'm not sure if it was the altitude or something I ate, or, you know, sometimes it's just not your day in mountaineering. It happens all the time.

So you know, I was kind of disappointed, but I turned around and came down with the guide. A bunch of people in our party, all of whom are older than me in their 50s and 60s, went on to summit Orizaba. But yeah, I came down to the hut.

And later on I came back to the States and called my parents to tell them about it, and I was kind of bummed. And my dad says to me, “Well, honey, you're 42. You're kind of getting up there. You're not a spring chicken anymore. You know, maybe it's time to find out basically find other hobbies.”

Which was really interesting to me, because to me, 42 is quite young, as we'll talk about in a minute. I was the youngest one in that group by far. I was not the strongest one by any means.

And I think it's interesting, because my parents happen to live in Cleveland. And not to bash on Cleveland. It's a great place. I lived there for 18 years. But it's definitely not a place culturally where people In their 40s, 50s, 60s, and even older are out climbing mountains, running marathons, doing these endurance training type sports.

Certainly some people are. But it's not something that's popular within the culture. In fact, if you do that, people maybe look at you a little funny like, what you doin’?

Contrast that with living in Colorado. Like I said, our group was from Colorado. I was the youngest but by no means the strongest. This is actually pretty common. Whenever we go on mountaineering trips, I will often be the youngest in my 40s. I'll be with people in their 50s and 60s. Everybody will do great. Many of them will do better than me.

And I feel really lucky and blessed that I have all these role models in Colorado that are mountaineering, rock climbing, ice climbing, up into their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and even beyond. It's amazing to see every weekend out on trail.

However, if you are from a place where you don't have those kind of role models, where the culture is a little bit different, I want to put it to you that that is still available to you.

Just because you don't see it happening around you doesn't mean it's impossible, doesn't mean it's impossible for you.

And, yeah, if you live in a place like Cleveland, and you announced that at 55, 60, you're going to start training to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, people might look at you a little bit funny. But it's just because they don't know. It doesn't mean that it's impossible by any means.

So definitely, I think a lot of athletic ability around age is in our mindset. So the first step is really to decide that it's possible for you.

Why so many mountaineers are older

And really, once you take that first step, it gets so much easier, because you're gonna get out there, you're gonna see who's actually on your mountain. I think before we actually attempt to do mountaineering, we imagine that it's mostly like 20- and 30-year-olds. But you'll see when you get out there, there are 20 and 30 year olds, but there are also a huge number of people who are over 40.

And if you think about it, that totally makes sense. Because these sports are somewhat expensive. They require some time to travel to actually do the trip. They require time to train. It's not something that is always available to 20 and 30 year olds who are starting their careers, who are balancing a career with small children, like raising small children and families.

So it's very common that people actually start mountaineering in their 40s, 50s, 60s, just whenever life starts opening up and feeling a bit more spacious.

So if you if you imagine that you're going to be like the grandma or grandpa on the trip, I would start to challenge that thought. Because A, there's a good chance that you're not going to be as old as you think compared to everybody else.

And B, you're gonna realize as you start getting out there that someone older than you has already climbed your mountain, or is climbing it right now. It's totally true.

Stories by older mountaineers

And if you want some inspiring stories about older athletes, I actually have a couple of guest blog posts from older mountaineers. One is my climbing partner Gale, who was on that Orizaba trip, and she did summit, and she wrote a really delightful blog post about it. So I'll put a link to that in the show notes.

I also have a guest blog post from Jenna, who is someone I know that's lived in Colorado for a long time. She's been climbing for a long time, and she is just keeping on going into her 60s and 70s. Last year she attempted the Mountaineer’s Route on Mount Whitney, which is pretty technical. And she almost made it. It was the weather that turned them around.

So her post is not about that, but it's actually a very good post about climbing in Colorado, climbing after surviving cancer. So I will definitely put a link to that up. She's a very inspiring woman as well. You'll want to check it out. So check the show notes if you want to read those two posts, they're really great.

Benefits of endurance training for older athletes

And I think next what we'll do is just cover some common questions about older athletes and training, clear up some concerns that you might have.

One thing that comes up a lot is, Is endurance training safe for older athletes?

And if you really want to dive into the research around older endurance athletes, I definitely recommend a book by a guy named Joe Friel. It's called Fast After 50. And it's an awesome book. He goes very deep into the research on all the different studies.

What's really interesting, just to kind of summarize what he talks about in the book, is that we don't know a ton about older endurance athletes. Because until pretty recently, we didn't have a whole lot of them. We studied younger athletes. When we studied exercise in older people, we tended to study (when I say “we,” I'm talking about scientists, research teams) tended to study the general population. Which is very different than you and I who are into endurance training, right?

So it's only been in recent decades that they have really had a large enough sample size to start looking at these things. And what they're learning is very, very encouraging.

Whereas we thought that athletic performance declined really rapidly after age 50, that's generally not the case. And it's especially true that people who are have been endurance athletes all their lives and continue to train into their 50s, 60s. 70s, they actually maintain a lot of that fitness, and their bodies appear to age a lot slower. Age related decline actually slows down in them, which is amazing.

So if you are someone in your 20s and 30s right now, this is one thing I want you to tuck away. Definitely keep going. Keep being consistent. Keep doing the training, it's gonna benefit you for your entire life if you keep on going. And it's much easier to continue into your 40s and 50s than to start in your 40s and 50s.

And I realize a lot of you are probably in that boat where maybe you have not done endurance training before. And you're just getting started. So what does the research say about that?

We don't know as much, but the anecdotal evidence suggests that people do just fine. They can become excellent athletes, even starting late.

And even if you're not one of those people who’s destined to become an amazing athlete, you can still be pretty good. You can still get out there and climb mountains. It's still okay for you.

So I'll put a link to Joe Friel’s book, Fast After 50, in the show notes. Definitely check it out if this is a topic close to your your heart.

I love Joe's work. A lot of what I teach is very much inspired by Joe. And he also created my favorite endurance training app, which is called Training Peaks. We’ll probably have an episode on that at some point.

But if you enjoy apps and technology and stats and analytics, definitely check out Training Peaks. It’s really good for runners and cyclists, but also good for mountaineers. The same principles that are built into that app work for us as well. So definitely check it out.

Is endurance training safe for older athletes?

So the question I kind of skipped over before is: Is endurance training safe for athletes over 50?

And the answer is, for the most part, yes.

If you listen to Episode 1, where we talk about the classic endurance training model, one thing that's great about endurance training is that most of your workouts are going to be at moderate intensity. So that's generally pretty safe for most people, especially if you're already fairly active.

Now, if you are just starting an exercise program, especially if you've been sedentary, it's really important that you check in with a doctor before you start exercising. And this is actually true at any age, but it's more important as you get older, just because your risk of cardiovascular events, of heart attack and stroke, increases with age. That's just common sense, right?

Definitely, if you're new to exercise check in with your doctor.

Another time you maybe want to get some guidance and check in is if you're going to do a maximal exercise. So what that means is basically exercising as hard as you can. RPE 8, 9, and 10 put more strain on your system, and statistically, they’re more likely to be associated with cardiovascular events. The absolute risk is still pretty small, but you know, you still want to check in with your doctor.

A couple things to check on. If you have any chronic conditions that could be affected by exercise, you definitely want to ask about those.

If you take any medications, for example, blood pressure medications … some blood pressure medications can actually cause your blood pressure to make rapid changes while you're exercising. So make sure you understand what to look for and if there's anything you need to be careful of.

Often, even if you have some chronic conditions or are taking some medications, you can still do endurance training. But you want to just be aware of some modifications that you need to make and some things you need to be aware of.

If you have any chronic injuries, say you have bad knees that have been aggravated by exercise in the past, it's also a good idea to check in with either a sports medicine doctor, or physical therapist, sports acupuncturist, whoever your provider is for aches and pains.

Get some assessments, make sure your mobility and everything is ready to go. And sometimes they can give you some things that will strengthen that area. For example, if you have a bad knee, you can actually strengthen the muscles around your knee. You can also change some of your movement patterns in such a way that you won't put as much pressure on your knees.

So it's a good idea if you're starting late in life and you're not currently active or if you haven't chronic conditions to go see your providers get a tune up.

But is it safe for you in general? It really is pretty safe for most people. And the benefits generally outweigh the risks.

So don't let fear of … you hear these horrible stories of people exercising and just experiencing sudden death, like during their first marathon. And while it does happen, it's actually very, very rare. So don't let it scare you away if this is something that you really want to do.

Do older athletes train differently?

So another question that comes up a lot is do older athletes have to train differently?

And my answer is, really, as long as you're otherwise healthy, you're medically cleared by your doctor, your program is going to look very similar to a younger person — with the exception of a couple key differences that I'll share right here.

And I'm not going to get super deep into training modalities or training programs in this episode. What I will do is I'll put a link to a blog post I wrote about Training after 50. (I think it's training after 40. But yeah, applies to 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s).

I'll put that in the show notes if you want to get a bit granular and see what your training program will look like and how it might look a little bit different from a younger person.

But really, there's only two big modifications that you need to think about.

Older athletes need more recovery time.

The first one is as you get older, and the older you get, the more this will be true, you need more recovery time.

If you listened to Episode 1, where we talked about the training effect, the way training works is you're actually stressing your body, stressing your muscles, and you're forcing it to repair. And as it repairs, it gets stronger.

And then once you're stronger, you're ready for a harder workout, and you can get harder and harder and harder. And that's the training effect. Over time, you can actually do things that you couldn't do before through this process of breaking yourself down and healing yourself.

And the thing to be aware of is that it’s exactly the same and older people, except that the healing process takes a bit longer. You just need to keep that in mind as you're building your training program.

So some things you might do differently… First and foremost, you're probably going to have a longer training season. So a 35 year old who wants to train for Mount Rainier can probably do it in four months. If you're 55, you might plan to do it in six months, just because you're going to be taking more rest days, you're going to be ramping up the intensity and volume of your training more slowly.

If you know what training cycles are, your cycles might be shorter. Instead of doing three weeks build and one week easy, you might do one week of build, then one week of easy, and then do another week of build.

So you can kind of imagine, it does take more time, and that's okay. You're still going to get the same effects. You just need to take more time for recovery.

And there's really unfortunately no magic formula to tell you how to program this. Really, the best thing to do is to tune into your body. Listen to it and just make adjustments as you go.

I think one pitfall people fall into is they find a training program online or in a book and they decide that they're basically going to follow it into the grave and do it perfectly.

And that is not okay at any age, and it's especially not okay, if you're a bit of an older athlete. You definitely want to always be adjusting that program to make it work for you.

So for example, if the program says you do five workouts in seven days, and you just feel like you're not getting enough recovery — you're still sore and tired after seven days — maybe you're gonna do those five workouts in eight days or nine days so that you have more recovery time. That is totally okay.

And really, the only way to find out what works for you is to just start doing stuff. Just pay very careful attention to your body and how it's feeling. There are some apps and tools that can help you.

Training Peaks is a really good one to keep track of fatigue. But even that can be misleading for a given individual. What's a high fatigue score for you and for me and for Betty Jo, who's 75, might look totally different.

So even if you're using an app, you still need to listen to your body. Listening to your body always trumps everything else: the training plan the app, everything else.

Quality sleep aids recovery

Another way that you can ensure that you promote good recovery is by getting enough sleep. Training takes a lot of time. So often we borrow that time from our sleep, unfortunately.

And that's actually one of the worst things that you can do at any age, and you absolutely will have a harder time getting away with it as you get older.

It's really important at any age, but especially as you get older, that you get at least eight hours of sleep a night during training. And some people get 10 or 11 in. It might vary a bit depending on how hard you worked out that day or that week.

But eight to 11 hours is really important, because sleep is the time that your body actually rebuilds itself. It gets stronger. It releases human growth hormone, sex hormones like testosterone, that really help you heal.

If you read my blog, you'll see my climbing partner Gale, who's in her 60s, is just amazing. She's climbed all this big stuff. And I think one of her superpowers — she has several, but I think one of them — is the ability to just sleep, like so well.

And I always enjoy going places with her, because it'll be eight o'clock, and she'll be like, “Hey, it's time for me to get a bed. You can stay up.”

And I'm like, “No, I'm gonna go to bed.”

Whenever she's around, I actually get to bed early, and it feels amazing. So if you've never tried going to bed really early, and just seeing what that does for your body, I definitely recommend it.

In our last episode, we talked a little bit about sleep. Another thing you can do to promote recovery that's really important, is make sure you wake up naturally. Give your body all the time it needs to go through all the sleep cycles.

It's during early morning sleep where you're releasing most of the hormones that actually do the repair work. So don't skimp on that by waking yourself up up with an alarm.

And especially as you get older, you release less hormones. So you want to soak up all the hormones that you possibly can. And the best way to do that is just to sleep until you wake up naturally.

So recovery, so much more important. Number one thing to think about as an older athletes.

A lot of this stuff is just common sense, right? You’ve got to sleep, you’ve got to recover. You’ve got to listen to your body.

It's good advice at any age. And I feel like as you get older, all the the truisms become truer for sure.

Older athletes and injury prevention

The number two thing I really want you to pay attention to as an older athlete is injury prevention.

As we get older, we get more prone to injury. That's just the way it is. We're not as flexible. Our connective tissue is tighter. Our joints tend to be a little bit tighter, so we are more prone to injury.

We just can't get away with beating ourselves up the way we could when we were young.

So how do you prevent injury? There are a few things.

First, just like we talked about in the first tip, you really need to listen to your body. Ramp up slowly, rest when you need to.

Definitely, you don't want to push yourself to ramp up faster than your body can handle it. And one of the ways that you can really prevent that is by giving yourself just luxurious time to train. So like I mentioned, if maybe when you were 35, you trained for Mount Rainier in four months, when you're 55, it's six months or even longer.

Just take all the time that you need so that you don't feel rushed, so that you don't start pushing yourself faster than you can go and hurt yourself. Hurting yourself will never get you to the top faster. In fact, it's probably going to make it much harder and might make it not happen at all.

Another key way that you can prevent injury is to engage in strength training. We talked about strength training and Episode 2. I talked about some of the benefits of it, some of the mistakes that people make.

While strength training timewise isn't a huge part of your classic endurance training program that we use for mountaineering, it is still an indispensable part. I definitely don't want you to skip it.

Strength training actually is one of the best ways to prevent injuries. Case in point: I have a knee that's really messed up. My left knee has been sprained really badly twice. I've actually broken the end of the femur on that side. I had a compression fracture. So that knee is a mess.

And I'm a human who does strength training all the time pretty steadily. There's very rarely a lapse. But when there is, I can feel it when I'm hiking.

That's the only time that knee ever really complains to me. It's like, “Hey, you're making me work here. I don't have all those strong muscles around me protecting me. I don't have the range of motion and movement that I need to be healthy.

That's what it says to me, if I'm ever skimping on my strength training and then attempting to go for a long hike.

And that's true for knees, hips, backs, all the things that tend to hurt, shin splints. So strength training … very, very important.

In addition to strength training, there's something called functional training that may be helpful for you. That's a combination of strength training, but also with a focus on movement — making sure your movements are healthy.

You can also do exercises that promote flexibility, range of motion. So learning about functional training as you get older is something that is really helpful.

A good way to learn about it: do some yoga. Yoga is very, very functional. It's one of the reasons that people really love it. It'll help with your flexibility, your range of motion. It really helps you just tune into your body, which is, as I was saying, what of the most important things you can do as you're feeling your way into your training season.

So focusing on function very important.

I talked in the last episode a little bit about my passion for foam rolling, which has really, really been amazing.

Foam rolling, for those of you who missed it, is basically using a foam roller to work out muscle tension and contractures in your connective tissue.

It kind of hurts when you're doing it, especially in the first few sessions. You can expect it to be a little bit painful. You don't have to roll for very long, if that's the case. Just give it a couple good rolls and move on.

But definitely, the more you do it, the better it's gonna feel. It feels like a great massage all over your whole body. And I've just noticed like a huge improvement in my comfort as I'm going on long hikes, climbs. It really seems to help me a lot.

So I'll put a link to a video, one of my favorite foam rolling videos by Caroline Jordan, in the show notes. Definitely check her out. She really shows you how to do it in a way that makes sense and doesn't feel too awkward. She won't torture you too much with the foam rolling. So definitely check that out if you think it's something that might be helpful.

In summary

So friends, that is really what I have for you today. If you are in your 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, hundreds … if you have had a dream to try to climb a mountain, I definitely encourage you to go for it.

Like I said, someone older than you has already done it. So what's your excuse?

And if you go into it with the right mindset, I think it's also going to bring so much joy and abundance to your life. You're just going to challenge yourself, surprise yourself, get healthier, meet new people, see beautiful natural places, and these are all things that just make life better, I think we can all agree. And they are available to you at any age.

So I definitely hope this program if nothing else has convinced you that you can do it. There may be other barriers to climbing the mountain, but age should not be one of them.

It should be one you can just kind of peel off and throw over your shoulder. And then deal with the other stuff that's that's underneath, whether that's anxiety, or just doubting yourself. That's the stuff you really need to work on.

The age, it's just a number. It's exactly what you decide it is.

So thank you so much for listening this week. I have so enjoyed talking to you. If you have topic suggestions, things you want to hear about on the pod, definitely hit me up, and I will talk to you next week. Take care.