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Wednesday, October 5, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
The Nugget Newspaper Crossword
Sisters man rides
border-to-border
By Jim Cornelius
News Editor
If you’re thinking you’re
getting a little too old to pursue
your passions with vigor, Clark
Brody will tell you different.
The 67-year-old Sisters
man recently completed a
cycling trip from the Cana-
dian border to the Mexican
border — and he trained so
thoroughly that the trip itself
didn’t push him as hard as his
local rides.
There were many take-
aways from the epic journey,
of course, but one thing really
stands out for an athlete “of a
certain age”: Yes, you CAN
do it.
“People older than I am
inspire me,” Brody told The
Nugget last week. “Probably
the only limits I have are the
ones I put on myself.”
Brody isn’t arguing that
a 67-year-old athlete can do
anything a 27-year-old can
do … exactly. But with the
right approach and attitude,
that 67-year-old can do pretty
much what he wants to do.
The proper approach and
attitude comes down to a fun-
damental principle: An older
athlete needs more recovery
time. You can put in the miles,
but you don’t bounce back as
quickly, so you need to work
in the rest, too. Rest with
intent.
“The rest is every bit as
important as the intensity or
the duration of you’re work-
ing-out,” Brody says.
To monitor his training
regime, Brody used the Strava
running and cycling app. The
app provided all kinds of data
on duration and intensity of
workouts, rest periods, and
fatigue and fitness levels. And
it provided more than data.
“I was surprised at how
well it kept me motivated,”
Brody said.
That’s a common result of
collecting exercise data. See-
ing your progress mapped out
in a visual manner makes you
hungry to keep that progress
going.
The cyclist said that hav-
ing a specific adventure in
the plans is key to motivation
By Jacqueline E. Mathews, Tribune News Service
for him.
“I’m personally some-
body who needs a goal,” he
said. “I’d have never trained
like this over the summer if I
didn’t have a goal.”
That training amounted to
about 3,000 miles of riding
before he put his tires on the
border-to-border route start-
ing at the Canadian border on
August 22 and finishing up at
the Mexican border on Sep-
tember 18. And it paid off.
He traveled with two other
men — Bob Knott and Dave
Anderson — and he believes
he held up well.
“I don’t think I got as
fatigued as the other two,
because I trained differently,”
he said.
Brody is no stranger to
long-distance cycling. A few
years ago, he rode his bike
across the United States as
part of a touring group. His
motivation for such trips goes
well beyond the challenge of
simply grinding out the miles.
He rode across the coun-
try to see and learn about the
country — and “that’s still my
biggest interest,” he says.
He also noted that, as a
traveler, you’re more engaged
when you see the country
from a bike, and “things are
more vivid in your mind.”
Brody’s wife, Barbara, pro-
vided key support, finding res-
taurants at which to eat each
night and providing recovery
food and drink when the riders
came in off the road.
In order to keep friends
abreast of the action, Brody
sent out a nightly email
newsletter — which quickly
became anticipated reading.
“I was surprised at
how interested people had
become,” he said.
Perhaps that’s because
many of us have ambitions
of heading out on the road
for a great adventure. Brody
encourages that spirit, no mat-
ter your age.
“Whatever their passions
— just go do it,” he says.
“Don’t self-limit.”
Brody is going to take
some time off from adventure
… but there is that idea for a
ride around the Great Lakes…
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