Hi folks! Welcome! Not a very upbeat subject today, cancer, but it is a thing we need to understand as we age. I read somewhere that 90% of cancers occur in people over 70 years of age, and that is only a couple of years out for yours truly. It is worse for my lovely cat, Alobar. He already has his cancer, an inoperable squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the pharynx. Trained as a pathologist, I have examined ... Read more
Blogging Reminds Me Of The Day That I Rescued A Seagull On The Outer Banks
Hi folks, I came to the USA for two reasons. One was a job, which worked out well, and other was a photo in a National Geographic magazine, showing a group of men surf fishing on the North Carolina Outer Banks. I thought, "Boy, that looks like great fun in a beautiful place. I'd like to go there and do that." I eventually did. I enjoyed surf fishing for a while, but gave it up because I couldn't stand the ... Read more
As The Boomers’ Older Brother
Hi folks, This whole baby boomer thing is fascinating, especially when you are looking for a market for your experience as an older athlete. Apparently there are about 75 million of them. Here is the birth rate graph from Wikipedia that determines whether you are a boomer or not. I was born in 1943, making me older than the oldest boomer. How about that! I don't feel old. Does that qualify me to ... Read more
The Evolution Of This Blog, Unlike Biological Evolution, Is Goal-Oriented
Hi folks, This morning I was completing a two hour run on the road, having ridden my bike for about 120 miles in the last 36 hours, with most of this training undertaken at >90°F and high humidity. The usual pre-taper stuff one does for Ironman training. My mind was wandering, maybe because of the relentless heat. I started to think about where my blog is going. Is it evolving, I wondered? I tried to ... Read more
Was Alistair Cooke Creating A Model For Blogging?
Hi folks, Whilst growing up in post-war England during the late 1940s to early 1950s, my impressions of the USA (America is an inappropriate but common abbreviation that I will use here for convenience) were molded by a number of factors, including my mother's vociferous opinion ("problem with them is that they're over sexed, over paid and over here"), Hollywood (we were all in love with American film stars), and ... Read more
Joe Friel’s Site Is Really Useful If You Are Undertaking Endurance Training – If You’re Not, I Can’t Imagine Why!
Hi folks! I'm always looking for websites that help my training, so recently I put Joe Friels' Blog on my Google desktop to see what came by. Good stuff came by, such as his recent article on the effect of missing workouts, which included this fascinating table: The styrofoam cup 'meditation' that I wrote about ages ago, also came from a comment in Joe's book, Going Long, which I highly recommend! Thanks ... Read more
Great First Book, Great First Marathon, Great First Open Heart Surgery – Book Review: ‘Barefoot in November’
Hi folks! A very fit Benjamin Carey, father of two and one on the way, at the ripe old age of 37, was diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm in 2009. This aneurysm was not quite so big as mine at the time of diagnosis (men will compete about anything!), but it was in a much more difficult place to treat, the ascending aorta close to the heart. Interestingly, in spite of our 30 year age difference, in many respects his ... Read more
Facebook AAA Support Site
Hi! Folks, I was just writing a post for the Chez Ollie, and then thought it might be good to provide the link here. For athletes with aneurysm issues, other great sites include The Cardiac Athlete and The Athletes Heart Blog. Keep talking! It helps! Cheers, Kevin ... Read more
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