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.

One of my students this past semester turned in an opinion paper where she had intended to say, “From the get go, it was obvious that the speaker was going to tell it like it is with no holds barred.”

What she wrote, however, was, “From the gekko, it was obvious…”

I commented on her paper that the tiny animal that’s the central figure in the Geico insurance commercials has nothing to do with that phrase.
As many of us have over the years, she had fallen prey to a mondegreen, the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase.

These situations generally occur where we have been using a phrase orally but never have seen it in printed form nor have we ever committed it to printed form, or, if we have, no one has bothered to correct us.

My brother-in-law, who also teaches at the college level, contributed one he had received from a student who had complained about the amount of work she had to do. “Know a fence, Mr. Macaluso, but I think you are expecting too much work…” She meant, of course, “no offense.”

I remember with great embarrassment when I was in third grade and during a question-and-answer session, I asked my teacher, Miss Bogel, who is Richard Stands. I could see the puzzlement on her face. “How do you know this person?” she asked me. Now I was confused, because I figured this man must be a great statesman, maybe even more important than George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin. After all, we spoke his name every day when we said the Pledge of Allegiance.

Miss Bogel was really stumped now and asked me to recite the pledge, which I did happily and energetically. “…And to the Republic, for Richard Stands, one nation, indivisible…” My classmates and Miss Bogel burst out laughing, after which she set me straight: The line is “for which it stands,” not “for Richard Stands.”

I became a fan of mondegreens that very instant, even though I didn’t know that what I had done had a name. Here are some of my favorites that I have accumulated over the years:
• Another one from the Pledge: “I led the pigeons to the flag…” (I pledge allegiance to the flag…)
• And another: “With liver tea and justice for all.” (With liberty and justice for all.)
• From The Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father, Who art in heaven/Harold be Thy name.” (…hallowed be Thy name)
• From the 23rd Psalm: “Surely good Mrs. Murphy shall follow me all the days of my life.” (Surely goodness and mercy…)

The name mondegreen was introduced by author Sylvia Wright in a 1954 “Atlantic” magazine article. As a child, Wright had heard the lyrics of “The Bonny Earl of Murray,” a Scottish ballad. One line, she thought, says, “Thou have slain the Earl of Murray and Lady Mondegreen.”

There is no Lady Mondegreen, Wright found out. The line really is: “Thou have slain the Earl of Murray and laid him on the green.” But the Mondegreen label stuck.

When I was 8 years old, I heard my mother tell a friend that her brother had “very close veins.”(varicose veins)

Several years ago during the Christmas season, when she was 6, my granddaughter sang, “Fleas naughty dog.” (Feliz Navidad)

As a child, one of my sons sang, “Life is butter dream” as the last line of the round “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”

A middle school student, who was taking catechism instruction, referred to Christ as “Cheeses of Nazareth.” Did you know that Davy Crockett was “killed in a bar when he was only 3?” (“killed him a bar — bear — …)

And you thought Santa had only nine reindeer, counting Rudolph; well, how about, “Olive, the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names.”

I’ll never forget my classmate singing at the top of her lungs to the Laurie London recording, “He’s got the whole world in His pants. (hands)

Often when someone calls and asks what I’m doing, my response is, “I’m on the computer.”

I’d love to be able to say that I’m researching how to make the world a better place, but looking at my recent searches, it’s hard to make that claim.

If I tell you that on a Monday, I read three articles on the “pros and cons of spray tans” and then two days later read five articles on “how to get rid of a bad spray tan,” you can figure I’m not working on world peace.

I don’t know how I ever lived without a computer so I thought I’d tell you some of the other things I do on the Internet that might inspire you to join me in cyberspace. Then you can also have an excuse for not cleaning your house.

Or at least not have an excuse for getting a bad spray tan.

While I’m on the vanity track, let’s talk shopping. I have narrow feet and it is impossible to find shoes locally. For a while it seemed like my only choice would be sneakers in 10 different colors, including gold for evening. But between sites like Zappos and others that provide free shipping, I’m back in shoes.
I’m also allergic to a lot of beauty products (no wise guy comments here.) So before shopping, I check out ingredients in products I’m considering buying and read reviews that others who’ve tried the product have written.

I guess I didn’t read every single review because the most highly rated sunscreen that I ran out to buy recently had me in a rash for two weeks. I’m now back to the brand I buy online from Canada that makes my face so shiny you can see me a block away.

Before you think I’m totally shallow (a little shallow is OK) in the last two weeks, these are other things I’ve done online:

• Books: On county library sites, there are thousands of books, movies and audiobooks to review at your leisure and reserve online.An e-mail is sent when the books are in and you have a few days to pick them up. A new feature I love is the e-mail reminder when books are due, and that also gives the option to renew online.
• Googling: In the old days it used to be called snooping or being nosy, but now it’s called “doing research.”
• Flights: When planning travel, you can compare prices of flights on sites like Expedia or Cheap Flights, and look over flight time schedules. You can also track flights to see if they are on time, so if you’re picking someone up at the airport, you don’t drive all the way there only to find out the plane is late.
• Hotels: When I stay at a new hotel I’m able to view pictures of the rooms before I get there as well as see the fitness facilities, research restaurants nearby and, of course, check if there any shopping malls in the area.
Then I Mapquest the driving or walking routes between the different places I have to be to decide if I can walk or need to take a cab.
On a different note, I now have a wonderful app on my iPhone that has subway schedules and routes that is just invaluable in getting around big cities.
• Menus: Most restaurants now post their menus. That’s a great help in deciding where to eat and also what to eat when you get there.

And now, in no particular order, this is what else I’ve done online this month:
• Sent and received pictures of grandchildren
• Checked if I should brush my teeth before or after eating grapefruit
• Researched which muscles control the stomach and neck to avoid a sore neck when doing sit-ups
• What are the best times of day to take certain vitamins?
• Looked for meatloaf recipes
• Checked out prices of houses I saw for sale while on my walk around the neighborhood
• Ordered books on Amazon
• Read reviews of available movies and ordered on Netflix and RedBox
• Found articles on how to clean burned pots and how to get the smell of burned food to dissipate quicker. (Don’t ask.)
• Learned how to clean computer keyboards, tops of cabinets and lights in high ceilings (I’m at least thinking of cleaning.)
• Researched room darkening shades and how to measure (for visiting grandchildren who get up with the sun)
• Checked out hotels on Priceline and Expedia
• Checked out rumors on Snopes that friends send as “facts” in e-mails
• Went to weather.com for 10-day forecast, so I knew what to pack for travel
• How to transfer cassettes to DVDs
• Ten ways to marinate vegetables
• How to make quick pickles
• Do you have to soak Nori sheets to make sushi? (No, just the ends to keep them together)
• Checked the spelling of a word. Many words, actually
• How to clean a gilded picture frame
• How to make a pear martini
• How to treat a rash from sunscreen
• Hour-by-hour weather in Washington DC
• How many calories are in artichokes and in boneless Chinese spareribs? (Should have stuck with the artichokes)

COMMERCIAL BREAK: I just took a break from writing to make my fifth carrot/date/yogurt smoothie of the week, a recipe that turned up when reading “The New York Times” online.

Does that make me sound any less shallow, except, of course to people who think the NYT doesn’t count as serious reading?
• Is there a Groupon.com in this area?  No, but it’s a great idea.
• And much too much time spent on trying to find out if you can replace a color cartridge in the printer with a black one
• Is there any way to wear pantyhose with sandals and not look dorky? No!!!! (Not even if you’re desperate and trying to cover up a bad spray tan)
• Checked for recipes I saw on Food Network while on the treadmill
• Checked for events to attend with grandchildren to who are spending the weekend
• Tips on how to do a PowerPoint presentation
• Articles on prices for travel insurance (Learn to read the fine print.)
• How many calories in take-out foods?
• Why am I usually/always racing to get out of the house on time? (One article said it’s my “inner brat.” At least it’s someone to blame it on.)
• Looked at websites to buy practical gifts for older people (oh, all right, maybe for myself) and found Seniorstore.com for ages 50 and up and OvertheHillGifts.com for ages 30-100; and they are even locally owned websites
• Lest I forget, I am regularly checking meetup.com/communitydiningsyracuse. Meet us for dinner sometimes.
• And I could go on, but I’m afraid you’ll wonder just how dirty the house has to get before I get off the computer and clean it.

So when does the fall planting season technically start, and why is it touted as a great time to put your shovel in the ground once again?

Once the day lengths begin to shorten, and the soil temperature is still nice and warm while we start receiving the anticipated gentle rains that begin sometime in August, it’s time to begin the fall planting season.

Weed seed germination has really declined, which gives whatever we plant, including lawns, a fighting chance to become well established. The cooler evenings mean I can see what I am doing, as the sweat from my brow usually makes peering through my glasses to inspect my labor a chore during the heat and humidity of summer.

Basically, it’s a lot more fun to do something outside in the landscape at this time of year. It’s fun to be alive and working with the soil; it gives pleasure while burning calories.

You can improve your green outlook with little effort and small budget by fertilizing things that look a bit long in the tooth, and my favorite material right now is the organic Neptune’s Harvest Fish and Seaweed Tonic.

The Iroquois were here for thousands of years planting the “3 Sisters” (corn, beans, and squash) and they recognized the value that fish can add to the soil. It’s not too late to try to bring around stressed plants or even a section of turf with this product, used every two weeks right through the end of October.

I also like to take this opportunity to attract as many butterflies to my yard as possible. Knowing that butterflies need water, I like to take a group of old wine bottles and stick them in the ground upside down. My wife and I empty them one at a time, enjoying the contents while helping our landscape.

The raised area in the bottom of the bottle, called the “punt” and used to collect sediment as wine ages, is a perfect place to fill with water once the bottle is inverted. The edges of the bottle are a nice landing strip for butterflies to light upon as they gain a sip, and then these flying flowers are off again to collect nectar as their fluttering wings make the garden come alive.

It always works best if you have perennial plants to attract butterflies as well as these used bottles for a drinking station.

Hint: The more colorful plants that you have in your landscape, and the larger the colors and sizes of your wine bottles, the greater variety of butterflies you will attract. Plus your place looks interesting, and that alone is well worth the price of the products.

Until next time, keep planting until you are planted.

Jim Sollecito is the first lifetime senior certified landscape professional in NYS. He operates Sollecito Landscaping Nursery in Syracuse. Contact him at 468-1142 or by e-mail at jim@sollecito.com.

Hank owns a family operated ski resort in New Hampshire but spends his winters in Florida. Thirty years ago he had a ski accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down—he couldn’t even wiggle his fingers.

Gradually Hank regained control of his upper body and through the use of leg braces and a specially designed walker with tricycle wheels and handle bar, he has been able to escape the prison of a wheelchair.

Most any day you can see him awkwardly hobbling and lurching around the gym where we go, and working out on the machines that will strengthen his arms, legs and torso. His positive attitude and indomitable spirit lights up the place and serves as motivation for the rest of us (what do we have to complain about?)

When possible, he swims in the ocean buttressed on one side by his wife and on the other side by a friend. Although Hank’s exercise routine is not always comfortable, he absolutely refuses to give up and let life pass him by.

Charlie was 85 but he didn’t look a day over 60. He had been widowed for more than 20 years and would have been quite a catch for the many widows who also attend the gym.

However, he was content to live alone as long as he could socialize and exercise with his many acquaintances (not to mention a few girl friends). Just talking to him was a tonic for most. He had heart problems for many years and we lost him last year to a stroke. Most of us still feel the void. Still, he extended his life for years because of his exercising and daily visits to the gym.

Don, who never smoked, contracted throat cancer last summer “up north” (as us snowbirds refer to our summer sojourns to our homes).

He had a rough go with chemo and radiation and was a little late arriving at his Florida condo, but immediately after arrival Don resumed his daily exercise at the gym. He realizes that his exercise routine is even more important now in order to keep his immune system strong and fight off any cancer cells still floating around in his blood stream.

What you have here is a profile of an enlightened group of seniors who realize that in order to enjoy life in retirement, it is necessary to make an investment in daily exercise—every bit as important as our financial investments—in order to insure that we can continue to enjoy the golden years.
A study published in the Health Psychology journal states that seniors like to work out together. The study also states that people trying to change a lifetime of unhealthy habits need something more than will power. Joining a group helps. The study also indicates that after eight weeks of regular exercising many people can settle into a long-term habit of working out.

Incidentally, we interact with the young bulging biceps bunch very nicely—acting as a role model to them, as they act as a role model to us.

One of America’s greatest health problems—particularly among us 55-Plusers—is a sedentary life style. According to another study by Stanford University, only 48 percent of Americans say they meet the federal recommendation for exercising half an hour four to five times a week. Actually the number of people who meet the minimum requirement for daily exercise is probably far less then the reported numbers.

I hate to exercise! It is totally boring and an interruption to my busy schedule. However, I like active living much better than I hate working out at the gym, and exercising in general. After my bout with cancer I started chemotherapy but could not tolerate the poison that invaded my digestive track. The doctor told me that my only defense against the return of this horrid disease was to strengthen my immune system, and this required proper diet and a healthier lifestyle, including regular exercise.

Actually my favorite is swimming, which we do almost every day of the year since we live on Owasco Lake in the Finger Lakers region during the summer, and on the beach in Jupiter, Fla. during the winter season. Our second favorite exercise is bicycling, which we can also do almost every day of the year.

Health statistics show that regular exercise that raises your pulse rate will extend your active life by at least 10 years. Most of the group we hang out with are in the 75‑85 age group and I can tell you from personal experience that the formula works.
Old Chinese proverb: “The trip of 10,000 miles starts with the first step.”

She definitely needs the medicine because she had her thyroid gland removed years ago to treat a cancerous tumor. And her doctor has closely monitored her thyroid level for years.

I asked her how she can be sure that this medicine, which she has taken for over 30 years without problems, caused her arm to hurt?

She replied that she stopped the medicine for five days and now her arm feels better, so the medicine must have caused the pain. Right?

That’s what scientists call anecdotal evidence. It’s one story, or anecdote. But it’s not really proof that stopping the thyroid medicine made her arm stop hurting.

A lot of things can make arm pain disappear; perhaps the most likely explanation is that a minor sprain or strain went away with the passage of time.
To really determine whether a treatment works—whether it’s adding a medicine, stopping a medicine, performing an operation or something else—it’s necessary to study the treatment scientifically. One highly effective method is called a randomized controlled trial (RCT).

In that type of experiment, patients are randomly assigned to the treatments that are being compared. For example, one third of the patients might receive a low dose of a study medicine. Another third would take a higher dose of the study medication. And the last third might take a placebo, or might take a known effective treatment for comparison.

Whenever possible the study is “blinded.” In a double blind RCT, neither the treating doctor nor the patient knows what treatment the patient is receiving. In a single blind RCT, the doctor knows what treatment the patient is receiving, but the patient does not.

The blinding reduces bias.

For example, patients who know that they are receiving active medication might expect to feel better and report more improvement than the patients who know they are receiving placebo. Or the active medicine group may expect, and therefore report, more side effects.

But anecdotes are very appealing, and are often very persuasive, especially for people who haven’t been trained to think via the scientific method.
Anecdotes are stories, and the human brain evolved to learn from stories. We didn’t evolve to learn things by performing statistical analysis; it’s a learned art.

One reason anecdotes are so appealing is that we often identify with the person reporting the story. If your best friend swears that a particular cream prevented a cut from scarring, it’s hard not to believe it. You like your friend. You trust your friend. She wouldn’t lie to you. If you don’t believe her, the emotional part of your brain feels bad, as if you are accusing your friend of lying.

Even when the logical part of your brain tells you that your friend really can’t know whether her success was due to (1) the expected disease course (the initial cut and the patient’s skin type would have healed without scarring regardless of treatment) or (2) the placebo effect (your friend expected the cream to work and so overlooked minor scarring.)

Human beings are designed to be emotional creatures, and anecdotes, often in the form of testimonials, are often effective marketing ploys precisely because they appeal to our emotions.

There’s curiosity: what happened and how did it work? There’s vanity: it worked for me, and it might work for you, too, because you are special. There’s hope: the doctors say nothing can be done but someone tells the tale of something that worked for them. And fear: if I don’t try this, will I miss the one thing that might have worked?

Anecdotes are not bad. The problem arises when people fail to recognize that they aren’t sufficient proof of what works or doesn’t work. Anecdotes can be a valuable starting point for scientific inquiry. If 100 people all claim that a particular treatment successfully cured a medical problem, then maybe it’s worth scientific investigation.

Back to my relative with the arm pain. If she really wants to know whether the thyroid medicine made her arm hurt, she could restart it. If the pain comes back, she could stop the medicine and see if it goes away. And repeat this several times to see if it is a reproducible effect. But I wouldn’t recommend it in this case. Thyroid hormone is required for normal metabolic function, and a person with no thyroid simply cannot get it from taking vitamins or changing her diet. And there’s no plausible reason to expect thyroid hormone to start causing arm pain after 30 years.

Scientific studies aren’t perfect. That’s why new treatments seldom become the accepted standard after one study shows a favorable outcome. Most doctors and scientists prefer to wait until several different groups investigate new treatments and replicate favorable findings.

By Sandra Scott

Learn about life in the past lane by visiting one of New York’s recreated villages. Explore the 17th century French fort on Onondaga Lake, wander the pathways of a 19th century country village in Genesee County, and at the Erie Canal Village in Rome find out how the Erie Canal changed the United States forever.

St. Marie among the Iroquois

During the 17th century the French settled in Canada. The people of the powerful Iroquois Confederacy lived south of the French Canadian settlements. The Confederacy was comprised of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas. The French and Native Americans were interested in trading with one another. The Native Americans traded furs for glass beads, cloth, and metal tools. As part of a 1653 peace treaty the Iroquois invited the French to visit the land of the Onondagas.

Father Simon LeMoyne, a Jesuit priest, was chosen by the French governor to work with the Onondagas because of his previous experience with Native Americans. On Aug. 5, 1654, LeMoyne and his small party reached the main Onondaga village near present day Manlius. LeMoyne spent two weeks preaching peace and religion then returned to Quebec.The next year the Onondaga chief invited the “Black Robes” to return to build a mission and teach them about the Christian religion. In 1656 about 50 Frenchmen and their Iroquois guides left Quebec with 20 canoes loaded with supplies, tools, baby pigs and chickens along with other items they would need in their mission. They arrived on July 11, 1656 not far from the present location of St. Marie among the Iroquois, the living history museum and village in Liverpool. The mission only lasted 20 months. Troubles developed over trade and religion plus a new French governor lost interest in the project.

Constructed like the original mission, today’s St. Marie among the Iroquois is surrounded by a stockade with a lookout affording a great view of Onondaga Lake. In the museum life-size figures portray the 1653 peace treaty negotiations presenting varying attitudes to the treaty. The mission is a living history project with costumed interpreters on weekends during the summer that includes a blacksmith, cooks, woodworkers and other craftspeople.

Genesee Country Village

Experience a living, working 19th-century country village, complete with over 40 furnished buildings ranging from a pioneer homestead to a grand octagon house. Strolling through the village you will find costumed historic interpreters and a variety of live demonstrations that includes throwing pottery, cooking, and blacksmithing.

Typical of all country villages, Genesee County Village and Museum in Mumford, southwest of Rochester, has a blacksmith. The blacksmith shop was a place where people would gather to share local gossip and discuss world events. An amazing number of blacksmith phrases are still in use today. As blacksmith Jim Nicoll shares, “Blacksmithing is an art as well as a craft. It was important to ‘hit the nail on the head’ and to ‘strike while the iron is hot.’ And you should never ‘have too many irons in the fire.’” Nicoll explains that, “the word ‘brand’ comes from the smithy who, as far back as ancient Egypt, would use an iron firebrand with a distinctive design to mark his cattle. Merchants promoted the products they developed by using their ‘brand name’ and when they came out with a new product it was brand new.’”

Visit the mercantile, chat with the teacher in the one-room schoolhouse, watch the cooper fashion a barrel and learn about 19th century cooking techniques. The tinsmith will show visitors how to punch out their very own tin ornament. Genesee Country Village, one of the largest living history museums in the country, is also home to the John L. Wehle Art Gallery and the boyhood home of George Eastman, the founder of Eastman Kodak Company.

The Erie Canal Village

Erie Canal Village in Rome is the only place in New York state where people can ride on a horse-drawn canal boat. Truly it is a trip in the slow lane as the speed limit was five miles an hour. In the 1800s the canal was very busy with barges carrying people and products. There was often a waiting line to get through the locks. In its day it was state-of-the-art travel.

A video in the Orientation Building offers an excellent background on the construction of the Erie Canal, which has been compared to the building of pyramids. On July 4, 1817, construction started in Rome because it was considered the stretch with the least obstacles to overcome. The first stretch connected the Mohawk to Wood Creek and was busy from the moment it was opened. When the Erie Canal was completed in 1825 it was the longest canal in the world and became a significant factor in the development of the United States.

In the one-room schoolhouse  visitors will find seats that held students from 1856 to 1953. The lunch pails are lined up on the shelf by the window next to the water pail with a dipper that was shared by everyone. Miss Jones, the schoolteacher, shares information about the days when reading, and ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic were taught to the tune of the hickory stick.

The Erie Canal Village is home to three museums. The main focus is the canal museum. Besides the school and blacksmith shop there is a church, livery stable, Ft. Bull Railroad Station, a canal store, and a settler’s house. The Harden Museum displays horse-drawn vehicles of the era while the New York State Museum of Cheese explores the history of cheese making.

More Living History sites

Other living history villages in New York State include the Farmer’s Museum in Cooperstown, which explores rural heritage and farming history and Old Bethpage on Long Island, a recreated mid-19th-century American village that can trace its roots to Dutch and English settlements. At Fort Ontario, Fort Stanwix, and Old Fort Niagara visitors can learn about the various groups that defended what is New York State today.

Q. You’re 72 and just sold your business — how’s retirement?
A. I don’t have any down time because I’m just as busier than ever. For me, it’s just part of a natural evolution. I’ve owned and operated 11 companies, and have bought and sold companies, and each time I sold a company, I went on to other things.

I’ve been at the Syracuse New Times for 26 years. It was time for another change, not retirement, but just another change. My wife Shirley and I both remain active with the company as consultants.

Q. What are you doing with your free time?
A. Because I do have other business ventures, I don’t really have substantially more free time than I had before. I’m devoting more time to the Zimmer Motor Car Co., whereas before it was just a very limited, part-time thing because I was quite busy with the New Times. Of course, I’m spending time consulting with the new owner, but that will wind down over a period of time.

I also am a counselor for SCORE. We do counseling for people starting a new business and for people who are in business but need some help. I’ve always done volunteer counseling but now I am doing more of it.

Q. Do you plan to become a “snow bird?”
A. No. I love Central New York and am staying in Central New York. Of course, I’ve been an avid skier all my life, and many times have left to go somewhere else like Vermont or Colorado where there is more snow. My wife and I travel south during the winter for limited periods of time, but not long enough to be called a snowbird.

Q. Do you miss the excitement and energy of meeting a weekly deadline?
A. Being the owner and publisher of the New Times was a very fun and prestigious job. The New Times was the most popular of all newspapers in Central New York, and the publisher of the most popular newspaper was a very prestigious position in the community. So I’ll have to admit there’s a little bit of that which I miss. It’s not that I had grown tired of it. I’ve been in the spotlight for 26 years.

Q. What aspect of the business do you miss the most?
A. I think the day-to-day interaction with the staff. Because the New Times is such a unique and special type of business, we attracted a very unique and special type of employee. It was quite an exciting and fun day-to-day activity working with these people. Generally speaking, they were in their own ways very superior-type people, so working on a day-to-day basis with them was fun and exciting. I guess I do miss that.

Q. Are you still active from a managerial standpoint?
A. No. I’m totally out of it as far as management is concerned. Basically, what I do is meet quite regularly with the new owner and we just sit down and talk for several hours about every thing that is going on and the decisions he is making. He wants to know my input and what I would do if I were there based on my 26 years’ experience.

Q. How is the Zimmer Car Co. faring?
A. Slow, like all car companies. But actually I have seen in the last couple of months an up-tick in the interest and inquiries that I’ve been getting. I’ve got two or three deals cooking that look like they will probably be sales. When you do a Zimmer sale, we’re talking $150,000. It’s not like selling a $20,000 Chevy.

Q. What is your favorite car you own?
A. My favorite day-to-day drive is a Chrysler mini-van. It sounds pretty bad when you produce $150,000 luxury cars. But in the past when I was with the New Times, it was such a practical vehicle. You can use it as a truck or bus.

Q. You have been a huge influence on Syracuse theatre. Are you still active in producing plays? What is your favorite aspect of being involved in theatre?
A. I was producing the annual “Cruizin’ Thru the ‘50s and ‘60s,” and our final production this year was in June.
The “Cruizin’ Thru the ‘50s and ‘60s” franchise went with the New Times. It was owned by the New Times, so I turned it over to the new owner. Next spring when it’s time for the next “Cruizin’ Thru the ‘50s and ‘60s,” I won’t be producing but still will be consulting on it.