Fuel for the Ride, Nutrition for Recovery
Somewhere along the way, I heard a simple idea about long-distance cycling that turns out to be remarkably true:
What you eat on the bike is fuel.
What you eat off the bike is nutrition.
When you’re riding hour after hour, your muscles are not asking for perfect nutrition. They’re asking for available energy. A steady stream of carbohydrates and glucose to keep the engine running.
On the bike, food becomes functional.
Bananas. Bars. Peanut butter sandwiches. Pretzels. Electrolytes. Whatever keeps energy steady and the pedals turning.
Because on a long-distance ride, one lesson becomes clear very quickly:
You can’t wait until empty to start fueling.
Once you’re deeply in an energy deficit on the bike, catching back up is like trying to fill a moving gas tank while driving down the highway. It’s much easier to stay topped off than recover from empty.
Cyclists call it bonking, and once you’re there, recovery takes time. The better strategy is simple:
Fuel early. Fuel consistently.
Eat before you feel hungry. Drink before you feel thirsty. Replace glucose stores before they disappear.
Then, once the ride is over, the job changes.
Recovery begins.
Now food becomes nutrition. Restoration. Repair.
This is when nutrient-dense meals matter most. Protein to rebuild. Carbohydrates to replenish glycogen stores. Whole foods to support recovery, reduce inflammation, and help your body get ready to do it all again tomorrow.
Here’s my riding strategy:
Fuel the effort.
Nourish the recovery.
Because on a long-distance ride, energy isn’t something you leave to chance.
It’s something you manage, one bite and one pedal stroke at a time.
The ride runs on glucose.
Recovery runs on nutrition.
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.
