July 4th 1920 is all that is written on the back of this photograph. The writing reveals her characteristically angular lines and speaks to me through all these 94 years. She gave it to me in 1975 when I rode up on my first new motorcycle. I was then the same age as they were when she snapped the […]
Continue Reading...Author: That Strong Old Guy
Road Forever: Harley’s Young Old Guys
I can recall going back at least 15 years ago and reading about the coming demographic disaster for Harley- Davidson. For at least that long Wall Street and pundit-types have been on the Motor Company concerning the fact that they rode guys of the Baby Boomer Generation (born 1946-1964) to sales growth that finally peaked in […]
Continue Reading...Good Sport
This all started with a reference to what might have been just a throw away line by Laurence Meade of Althouse: We have a chinning bar here in Madison. Any man or woman (over 40) who wants to challenge me to a pull-up competition, just email me. Well, not being one to pass on a […]
Continue Reading...Running: Still trying
This last Saturday I ran in my first “fun run,” the 5K at The Trailbreaker in Waukesha, WI. I had finally agreed to run with my wife….you know, just to be sociable. It might have felt a little romantic, or at least a little cute for Grandma and Grandpa to come across the finish line […]
Continue Reading...Treking
Treking is simply having fun on a Trek Bicycle. It doesn’t make any difference if you are riding to work on a commuter bike, blasting through the trails on a mountain bike, cruising through the country on your road bike, or racing; it is all fun. We bought our first Treks twenty years ago […]
Continue Reading...Updates: Bench and Running
A few days ago, on my 58th birthday, I got the notion to bench press. I had only done it once in the last 2 or 3 years and wanted to see how far I had fallen off, especially since I had dropped weight from about 205 to 189. Given that I had been doing only […]
Continue Reading...Learning to Run Again
Running: I finally figured out a way to get back at it. As described in “Who is That Strong Old Guy?” I had given it up for the gym because I kept getting horrible shin splints. I recently started checking out so-called “natural” running, especially Chi Running as championed by Danny Dreyer. Last night I went and bought a pair […]
Continue Reading...Followup Comments on Squating With Weight
Yesterday I learned of a high school student who is a wrestler and is out for at least this season because of spinal fractures per this report. He said that the coaches had them doing power lifts (squat, bench press, and dead lift) as well as the olympic lifts (snatch and clean and jerk) until they were exhausted. He definitely […]
Continue Reading...Take Care When Squating With Weight
Often heard in strength training circles: “If you ain’t squatin’ you ain’t nothin’.” Indeed, the squat is considered to be critical to the foundation of any strength program. Many football programs document the degree to which their players are in the gym squatting. If they fail to participate, they are not on the team; period. Therefore, this […]
Continue Reading...The Most Excellent Wrestling Adventure, Part III: Turning the Corner
(Note: The Most Excellent Wrestling Adventure Series originally appears at Wisconsin Wrestling Online. They do a great job there; please visit for all things in Wisconsin Wrestling.) I suspect that it came in the mail, but somewhere toward the end of his fifth grade school year, Jason (Jay) came up with this flyer for some […]
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