55-plussers challenge their body, spirit

By Lou Sorendo

How can taking a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a marathon run of 26.1 miles be fun?

Throw in the fact that you are 58 years old.

For even the youngest and most athletic, it’s a challenge of a lifetime.

Chris Read of Baldwinsville is 58 and has done “Iron Man” competitions that involve those daunting distances.

And get this: He does them for fun.

Read said his only challenge is to “go out there and make sure I have fun.”

“My only goal is keep doing it as long as I can and as long as I enjoy it. When I get to the point when it is not fun, I wouldn’t do it anymore,” he said.
Read started doing triathlons in the late 1990s, and has done all the different distances that are featured, from “sprint” versions to full “Iron Man” competitions that stretch the boundaries of human endurance.

Read averages about five triathlons per year.

While he is having “fun,” he’s also competitive. He is no stranger to placing high in his age group, which is now 55–59. In the last Ithaca-based Cayuga Lake Triathlon he competed in, he placed second in his age group.

“I had been a runner for many years and come from a running background,” he said. “I wanted to try something different. A couple of friends were doing them, and back then they were not as popular as they are now. They are really popular today. I thought I’d give it a try and went from there.”

Read is 5-foot-8 and weighs 172 pounds. When he is training hard for a big race, he will get down to 167.

He considers running his strongest suit. In triathlons, the swimming segment is first and running is last.

“Even though I’m weaker in the other two, I tend to gain and pick up on people and do better,” he said. “Psychologically it helps me out because at that point in time, you are gaining steam whereas others are losing steam.”

Read does not see age as a barrier to competing. “As far as training, whether you are 25 or 55, you get out of it what you put into it.”

He said younger people in their 20s are the ones most impressed when they find out he is a tri-athlete.

“They say, ‘Wow, that is cool, I could never do that,’” he said.

Read does training sessions solo as well as with other tri-athletes.

He tries to do all three components during the week. He will swim a couple of times and run three or four times a week. During good weather, he will bike outside three days a week and rely on an indoor trainer during the winter months.

He is also a spinning instructor at the downtown Syracuse YMCA, which helps his own conditioning.

“Spinning” is exercising on a stationary bike.

Off and running — Read didn’t begin running until 1991.

He said running helps him stay in shape, keep his weight down and resting heart rate low.

Read has also done about 14 marathon runs, which consist of the same 26.1 mile jaunts that “Iron Man” triathlons end with.

He also participated in a Green Lakes’ trail run last year that was 31 miles.

He derives enjoyment from getting his body in shape, the social networking that takes place while participating in training groups, and challenging his body and himself.

Read said rest is critical as part of the training regimen. “I hate to say it, but it’s more important as you get older,” he noted.

He said the rule of thumb for younger people is work hard for a week, harder the next week, and hardest the third week before backing off for a week.

“As you get older, you have to learn to back off a little bit more,” he said. “Your body just doesn’t repair itself as fast as when you were younger.”

Read said many people have special diets for training, but he keeps the same diet whether he is training or not.

“The important thing is to eat balanced throughout the day. Just don’t eat once a day. Have breakfast, lunch and dinner. Metabolism is big. Once you change your dietary habits, it can mess you up a little bit,” he said.

He said some people are “really into diets” but he tries to simply eat nutritionally. He credits his wife Susan with helping him achieve that. Susan is an athlete herself and is into rowing.

Read said half of training and participating in triathlons is mental.

“Once you are in shape, you can do it,” he said.

Originally from Little Falls, Read has resided in Baldwinsville since 1978. He retired recently from National Grid.

He is a member of the Onondaga Cycling Club, the CNY Triathlon Club, and the Syracuse Track Club, of which he is on the board of directors.

He is a former board member of the CNY Triathlon Club as well.

He and Susan have two children, Matthew and Kerry.

He has also been involved in the Boy Scouts as a scoutmaster.

“I like to set a good example for younger people. When they see older people doing things, they say, ‘Hey, I can do that for the rest of my life,’” he said.
‘More for the fun’ — Joan Deyle, 65, of Central Square, did a few triathlons in the mid-1980s, than backed off after not being very successful at a sport that was new at that time.

In the late 1990s, Joan and her husband Bill began volunteering at the “Iron Man” in Lake Placid.

“We got the bug again and decided to try it,” she said. “We’ve been doing it every year since.”

Bill is also a tri-athlete at 69.

She does two or three triathlons every year.

Deyle oftentimes wins because she is the only female in her age group.

“Not so much lately though because there’s more people coming out to do it,” she said. “But at least I’m out there doing it.”

“I’m really there for the fun of it and to change up my activity so I don’t get shin splints from doing just one activity like running all the time,” she noted.

“It’s really more for the fun then accomplishing first place.”

“My personal goal is to get through it and not freak out in the water, quite frankly,” she said. Deyle resides on Oneida Lake and takes the opportunity to swim a lot. “But when I get around those other people, I kind of freak out,” she said.

“If I can get through the swim, then I feel pretty good on the bike and run,” she said.

Deyle competes in the 65‑70 age group.

She looks for people in front of her with their age group posted on the back of their legs.

“If they are my age or older, I try to get by them. That doesn’t always work,” she said.

Deyle was a physical education teacher for 33 years and also teaches fitness classes at the North Area YMCA on Wetzel Road in Clay.

“I’ve always done a lot of activities to some extent; just a lot of different things, nothing spectacular. I like to play. That’s what it’s all about,” she said.

Deyle said her most enjoyable component of the triathlon is running “probably because I’m on solid ground.”

“When you look around and don’t see a lot of people my age doing stuff, and I’m still able to do it, that’s a pretty good accomplishment,” she said.

“If you put your mind to it, you can do almost anything,” she said.

Train, train, train — Deyle said people are surprised when they discover she is a tri-athlete.

“They are somewhat excited for me,” she said. “They say, ‘Oh, I wish I could do that,’ and I tell them to just get out there and start training.”

Deyle said she generally trains alone, although sometimes she will join her husband on a bike ride together.

“I train right from the house,” she said. “I just kind of go out when I have time.”

In her college days, there were not specific sports for women. In her high school years, there were “play days” where anyone could participate on any given team.

“I did what I felt was fun. I also was a cheerleader through high school and college,” she said.

It’s open water swimming that presents the greatest challenge for Deyle.

“I’ve heard of people getting their goggles kicked off. But if you stop and look around, you probably won’t get injured,” she said.

Deyle said she is not a big meat eater and goes heavy on fruits and vegetables.

“I think for the most part I eat fairly healthy,” she said.

Deyle said if she were training for a longer triathlon, she would be more serious with her diet.

Her training schedule depends on the weather, but she generally tries to get three to four runs and the same amount of bike rides in per week. She also swims as much as possible. She said there is a mental aspect to being a tri-athlete.

“Like any race you go into, you can over-psyche yourself up,” she said. “It’s all in what you are looking for and have to prepare for.”

Energy plus — Even at 65, Deyle maintains a high energy level.

“My husband tells me I’m hyper, so maybe that’s it,” she said.

“I just seem to have a lot of energy. I’m always doing something physical. My body is in tune with it,” said Deyle, who is 5-foot-5 and weighs about 118

pounds.
Deyle enjoys trying to better her time if competing in a triathlon she has done before. She does have a time in mind when competing, but doesn’t approach it on a serious basis.

“I try to do it to the best of my ability on that particular day,” she said. “Wind or something can come up to make it not as enjoyable as other times.”
Deyle has participated in the North Area YMCA’s triathlon program, taking in talks and activities that she finds helpful.

Originally from Cicero, Deyle and her husband have a son Greg who is renown as an athlete. He was a ski racer in college and a tri-athlete today in Utah.
She teaches yoga and Pilates, but also works with active older adults.

“I let them know that you are never too old to start exercising and feeling better and healthier, both physically and mentally,” she said.

Going the Distance

66-year-old North Syracuse woman taking on challenges as she trains for first triathlon

She is arthritic, and has a profound fear of water. So why is 66-year-old Waynetta Donzella training for her first triathlon?

Because she can, that’s why.

Donzella, of North Syracuse, will take her first shot at the Aflac Iron Girl Triathlon competition to be held at Oneida Shores Park on Aug. 7.

The “sprint” triathlon is the least demanding of the various types of triathlons. The run segment is five kilometers (3.1 miles) while the swim is a half-mile and the biking segment is 18 miles.

Nonetheless, the experience will be a challenging one for a woman who started to work out at the age of 50. She was well over 200 pounds at that stage in her life.

“I’ve worked myself into a much stronger person,” the native of northeast Maine said.

“It’s harder and harder as I get older and older to maintain,” she said.

“I think from year to year if I can still do what I did before, I’m doing very well,” she said. “But I’m still trying to get better.”

Her family has a history of arthritis, and her father and aunt with crippled with the malady.

“I realized as we get older, our muscles are depleted by the lack of estrogen and the aging process,” she said.

She was determined to stave off deterioration, and started step aerobics. However, the arthritis in her knees made that unbearable, so she overcame her fear of water and started swimming.

She was up to swimming a mile per outing when she broke her wrist while roller skating outside.

Her husband Ben and daughter Bonny, both veteran bicyclists, then advised her to “spin” at the North Area Family YMCA on Wetzel Road in Clay so as not to lose her aerobic conditioning. Spinning is a form of high-intensity exercise that involves using a stationary exercise bicycle indoors.

She kept spinning once out of her cast and then purchased her own bike for outside enjoyment. Donzella would also participate in time trials on Tuesday nights at the YMCA.

Donzella revealed her fiery disposition when asked if she sought physician approval to train for a triathlon.

“I don’t care if anyone approves of it or not,” she said.

New fad — Donzella said training and participating in triathlons has become a fad in the Syracuse area.

Women considerably younger began talking up training for triathlons, and “went from pretending to work hard to really working hard,” Donzella said.
“I asked myself, ‘Wouldn’t that motivate me?’ so I signed up,” she said.

Donzella has been practicing race walking instead of running because of the pain from arthritis in her right knee. “It’s deteriorated to the point of being bone on bone,” she said.

Donzella does not look for medical relief regarding her knee. “I’m kind of opposed to pumping a bunch of that stuff into my body,” she said.

Triathlons normally set “time out” parameters that limit each competitor to a specified amount of time per component. That will hardly discourage Donzella.

“I have my own time and equipment and there’s no timing out on my time and equipment,” she quipped. “However long it takes me, I will finish.”

Her biggest fear is open water, and she has only swum in a pool. She didn’t learn how to swim until she was 50.

“That’s a big hurdle for me to cross,” she said. She got herself a wet suit and intends on joining and practicing with the CNY Triathlon Club.

“I have to get over that ‘Oh my God, there might be something alive in the water’ thing,” she said.

She does not see her age as a barrier to training. “I wish I had started sooner, but I didn’t,” she said.

“I don’t see it as a barrier. I see it as an incentive,” she said. “Each year, it gets harder to be able to maintain the pace I did last year. That motivates me to try harder and to keep my conditioning.”

“A lot of people have asked, ‘Are you really training (to be a tri-athlete) at your age’?” she said.

“Age doesn’t have anything to do with it. It’s more about determination,” she said.

Donzella rubs elbows with several tri-athletes who train with the Onondaga Cycling Club and time trials with others affiliated with the CNY Triathlon Club.

Sam Sampere, who runs the time trials, has offered his encouragement.

Spinning instructor Kelly Colvert, a tri-athlete who Donzella watched compete in a triathlon in Geneva last summer, has also been a source of inspiration.

Colvert is a USAT Level 1 triathlon coach and a YMCA employee who oversees its triathlon program. Sampere is president of the CNY Triathlon Club.
“I don’t think you can make yourself do something that hard unless you know you can,” she said.

Adrenaline junkie — Donzella said there is nothing like “getting hooked on adrenaline.”

“It gives you such a great feeling of being tired and depleted and having accomplished a goal you set out to do, whether it’s biking 30 miles, doing a triathlon or swimming a mile,” she said.

“When you do it, it makes your body feel tired and exhausted in a way that the stress of normal life doesn’t make you do,” she said. “You gain satisfaction that you can accomplish a goal you set for yourself. It’s such a private thing, this kind of goal.”

“This is just you,” she noted.

Donzella’s career was as an office worker.

“I skied in my 20s and 30s and was a really good roller skater. I always did something physical but not in an athletic kind of way. It was just a fun, social thing to do,” she said.

Now that Donzella has successfully raised her child and is retired from work, she doesn’t have the type of pressures that other competitors do.

“All the other people doing this from the Y are younger and have families, husbands, kids, school, work, and a house,” she said. “My life is so simple now that I can concentrate on me.”

“Anytime you can alter your movement in space and time, to me that’s an enjoyable thing,” she said.

“I can get to quite a fast pace on that bike and go a long way, and it feels like I’m moving through space and time at a speed that is supernatural,” she said.

Her arthritis prevents her from going out when it is below 72 degrees and damp, conditions that make her joints ache after riding through it.

Earlier in the season, she would stay indoors and spin and swim on alternate days.

“Now I prefer to ride outside. It’s so much more real,” she said.

Donzella hasn’t changed her eating habits for the triathlon, but did when she started to work out. “I try to put fuel in my body, not junk,” she said.

She places an emphasis on vegetables, meat, and granola and protein bars.