Build The Life You Want To Keep
Protecting the capacities that allow you to keep doing what you love.
We need a new way of thinking about aging.
Healthy aging is not about simply adding years to our lifespan. It is about protecting our capacity to stay engaged in life. That means protecting all three spans that shape how we live.
What is a span? A span is the length of time a capacity stays available to you.
Lifespan is how long you live.
Healthspan is how long you live in good health.
Strengthspan is how long you maintain the strength and physical capacity to function well.
If we want to keep doing the things we love, we have to take the actions that preserve strength, mobility, energy, and independence.
These spans do not take care of themselves. They must be trained, maintained, and protected.
Quality of life is not something we hope to keep. It is something we build through the daily choices we make about what and when we eat, how much we eat, and how much we move.
The goal is not just a longer life.
The goal is a life you are still strong enough to live.
Why Challenge Matters More as We Age
Do not blame age for what disuse created.
One of the worst messages people absorb about aging is that the goal is to become more careful, more comfortable, and less demanding of ourselves.
I think that messaging is incorrect.
As we age, it becomes even more important to take on challenging adventures and demanding activities, not because we have something to prove, but because challenge helps preserve what matters most: strength, confidence, adaptability, resilience, and engagement with life.
A hard ride, a long hike, a new goal, a demanding training plan, a bold trip, a physical challenge that asks more of you than your routine does, these things give your body and mind a reason to stay alive and responsive. They call on you to keep practicing effort. They make you train balance, endurance, problem-solving, courage, and recovery in real time.
Without challenges, life gets smaller. And when life gets smaller, people often mistake that shrinking for normal aging.
Much of what we think of as aging is often the gradual loss of conditioning that comes from less movement, less exercise, and fewer physical demands on the body.
Challenge and adventures interrupt that decline. It pushes back against hesitation, fragility, and withdrawal. It reminds you that you are still capable of learning, adapting, enduring, and expanding. It gives structure to your days and purpose to your effort. It creates a future you want to grow toward.
That is one of the hidden gifts of adventure.
It keeps you from quietly disappearing into comfort.
You do not take on challenges as you age to prove you are still alive. You take them on because challenge is one of the things that helps keep you alive, physically, mentally, and spiritually.
Age loudly. Adventure boldly.
What’s My Next Adventure
I presented a training session titled “Habits That Keep You Capable” on March 18, 2026 for AARP Senior Planet
Strides and Rides
Warrior Expeditions and Riding the Great American Rail Trail
Warrior Expeditions is a nonprofit that helps combat veterans transition from military service by providing “long healing journeys” like cross-country bicycle rides, hikes, and paddling trips—along with training, gear support, and a supportive community—to build purpose, resilience, and connection.
Click on the Warrior Expeditions link in the menu to learn more about this organization.
Top Five Reasons Why I’m Riding Great American Rail-Trail 2026
1. To Prove That Decline Is a Choice, Not a Sentence
This ride is a living rebuttal to the cultural lie that aging equals decline. Riding coast to coast in later life isn’t about bravado, it’s about agency. Strength is trainable. Capacity is expandable. Vitality is built, not granted. This journey demonstrates that decline is not inevitable; it is optional.
2. To Become More Anti-Fragile Through Real Stress, Not Comfort
Anti-fragility isn’t an idea, it’s something that’s earned. Long days, unpredictable conditions, fatigue, weather, logistics, and solitude create the kind of stress that forces you to adapt. Each challenge becomes an upgrade. This ride sharpens resilience, patience, and confidence in uncertainty, qualities that matter long after the ride ends.
3. Living the Philosophy I Believe, Not Just Talk About It
Strides & Rides is not a slogan, it’s a way of moving through the world. Movement is identity. Lifestyle creates a trajectory. Meaning is built through action. This journey isn’t a message I’m promoting; it’s one I’m demonstrating. Credibility comes from lived experience, and this ride deepens that truth.
4. To Reclaim Awe, Wonder, and Aliveness
A transcontinental ride strips life down to essentials: wake, ride, eat, recover, repeat. In that simplicity, presence returns. Screens fade. The body speaks. Landscapes replace noise. Time is measured by effort and attention, not urgency. This ride is not escape, it’s remembering what it feels like to be fully alive.
5. To Honor Vietnam Veterans Who Were Never Less Than Warriors
They chose to serve and sacrifice. They returned to hostility, not parades. Yet they endured, flourished, and built full lives. They are proud, not defeated. This ride carries that truth across the country—mile by mile—affirming that resilience, dignity, and strength are not erased by history or hardship. They were never less than warriors
What is Strides and Rides?
Strides represent the steps we take on foot—walking, hiking, training, or simply choosing to move with intention. It’s about progress, effort, and the commitment to keep moving forward even when the pace is slow. It’s symbolic of personal growth, fitness, and momentum.
Rides speak to the journeys we take on wheels—biking across a state, exploring new trails, or embracing the freedom and joy of movement. It’s about adventure, exploration, and pushing your limits.
Together, Strides and Rides is a metaphor for how we live:
It’s not just about covering ground—it’s about choosing how and why we move.
Whether you’re walking a neighborhood trail or riding across the state, Strides and Rides is about moving through life with purpose, power, and joy.
The Privilege of Still Being Able
Everyone likes easy and quick fixes. The truth is this: if you want results, you have to put in the work. Otherwise, nothing changes.
Not for a day. Not for a week. Not even for a month. You have to keep showing up, consistently, likely for a year or more.
During that time, you will be tired. It will not always feel rewarding. Most days, it may not even feel like progress. But no one can do it for you. This is yours to own.
And here is what makes it worth the effort:
The ability to move, train, and exercise is a privilege. It is a reminder that your body still works, still adapts, and still matters.
You do not need the perfect workout, the perfect equipment, or perfect conditions. You just need to begin and keep showing up.
Every step, every rep, every breath counts. It all adds up. Especially now. Especially as you age.
Put in the work. Respect the process. Honor your body. It pays off.
My next big adventure runs from April 2026 through March 2027 — and it is a challenge all you bikepacking fans can join.
The mission: complete one overnight bikepacking trip each month for 12 straight months.
That’s it. One trip a month. April 2026 through March 2027.
The goal is simple: give ourselves a reason to break away from the routines of everyday life, however briefly, and experience the simplicity, freedom, and joy of camping by bike.
Take part, stay consistent, and you might even win some rad prizes along the way.
