Bigger is Not Always Better But ...

... I just added one more day of intervals per week. The new schedule is one hour of light weights Mondays and Thursdays, one hour of bike aerobics Tuesdays and Fridays, and one hour of bike aerobics with intervals Wednesdays and Saturdays. Hope it does the body good. The point is to send the body springtime signals in all caps. It's to similar hunter mode. It's to boost circulation and boost the metabolism to red-hot levels. Now I just have to listen to my body and make sure I don't overdo it and get burnt out. As it says in the "Younger Next Year" book, consistency trumps intensity every time.

Spitting into the Wind

Ah, the lunchtime bike ride. Ah, the twitchy spring breezes. Going south on Foothill Road today, I made about 5 mph. Going north, on the return ride, I made about 25 mph. The wind, no matter which direction it blows, is my friend. It provides power. Puts fuel in my energy tank.

It was a little bumpy here and there, good practice for Crater Lake National Park roads, I hear.

Peak Experience

Ah, the joys of playing Buffalo Peak Golf Course in Union. For one, the view from the heights is among the finest views in Oregon. Thursday evening cloud formations were playing the game Battleship in the sky. Playing partner Ernie and I kept one eye on our games and another eye on the sky show.

Golf reinforces the notion that play is good for the soul. As the "Younger Next Year" authors contend, play is one of mammals' finest achievements and we should do it whenever we can.

Of course, as the stress book says, we need to do our work first. Then play becomes a reward for a job well done. Whether we get a birdie on the golf course is immaterial. The main thing is we are out there, having a blast.

Look out, birdies!

The Younger Next Year weightlifting program — mine is two days a week, one hour a time — pays off in all sorts of ways. First, it is a self-help form of physical therapy. You reduce joint pain, arthritis and many other complaints of growing older. Second, it helps with other sports you might pursue. In my case, the weightlifting has helped my golf game. Last evening I went to Buffalo Peak Golf Course with my minister friend, Ernie, and played nine holes. Several times I had short birdie putts. Of course, I missed all of them — and made all my bogey putts. That's golf. The birdies are safe with me.

Risks and Rewards

It would be nice if good behavior had immediate rewards and bad behavior immediate punishments. Such is not the case, whether at work in job number one, newspaper editing, or in job number two, Younger Next Year. This week I had my cake and ate it too, and still weighed 176.9. What's up? Who knows? Maybe, like my Grandma Petersen always said when I was growing up, I have a hollow leg.

I had to work myself all week at the newspaper like a rented mule, yet we learned through good detective work, and not an announcement from corporate headquarters as should have been the case, that we are being given two unpaid days off a month, not just one. Even though our incomes are modest, this makes a big difference in how easily we can pay our bills. It is further punishment for good behavior.

The powers that be say that when the economy improves, we might get our days back. Might. However, I like the days off work, even if the workload is not reduced and can be overwhelming at times. Americans work too much. Americans play too little. One of the main things men in particular say on their death bed is they wish they wouldn't have worked so much.

The Serengeti of Oregon

Ever see those coffee table books that show the Serengeti Plains with flocks of wildlife stretching to the horizon? Sometimes Buffalo Peak Golf Course is like that. Of course, the wildlife is more often deer than such exotic species as zebras, giraffes or elephants. Still, seeing the deer in their semi-natural habitat is a joy. It adds to the pleasure of chasing a little white ball around the course. And, on those days when shots alternate from fabulous to smells like the hind end of a mule, seeing the deer cavorting is like a healing balm.

No, golfing is not aerobics. But walking the course and carrying your own bag is good exercise. Too bad walkers are in such a minority.

Flex Pay

I have done well in incorporating aerobics and strength training into my Younger Next Year repertoire, which I began in earnest in August 2009. Sure, I am not as fast on the bicycle as I used to be. When I was in my 20s, and doing a tin man triathlon, I averaged 18 mph for the bicycle. Now I am lucky to hit 15 when I am pushing it, hard. And my weights are not terribly heavy. I am training to be an endurance athlete, not Charles Atlas or Mike Tyson.

My efforts toward gaining flexibility, however, have been more haphazard. Every hour at work I would get up to do some stretching. That was mostly designed to improve my golf game, and worked predominantly on the arms while neglecting the legs.

Now I am adding an hour-long routine of stretching to my Sunday rest day in hopes of getting some true flex pay.

As a person gets older, he naturally tends to get stiffer. I want to counteract that with an aggressive stretching campaign that targets arms and legs in a more even steven manner. Even if my work does not pay me much, I can become more rich in spirit if I give myself some serious flex pay.