Month: October 2024

fitness

Don’t give me menopause benefits. Give everyone flex benefits.

Nicole P,

You’ve probably scanned past LinkedIn posts about ways to help employees deal with the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause (the combination of which can last for decades) in a way that doesn’t prevent them from functioning well in the workplace.

Catalyst Inc. shared this survey on their Instagram the other day:

I shared it with the blogger group and said, “When I see these kinds of posts/suggestions, my thought is that the best option would be to have flexibility without having to say what it’s for. Until we live in some kind of utopia where people don’t have to worry about stigma associated with the reason they are asking for things, I think the goal should be flex days (whether that means working from home for all or part of the day or taking time off) WITHOUT HAVING TO EXPLAIN what it’s for. I feel the same way about flex benefits.”

It’s great to see work being done to bring more awareness to C-suite and HR-types that people with uteruses are often dealing with hot flashes, brain fog and occasional feelings of despair. This awareness involves helping organizations understand why more understanding and support from employers can result in happier and more productive employees.

I am fortunate to work in a pretty diverse, open, environment, where in certain situations, I feel comfortable joking about being suddenly warm. I also don’t mind joking that I am one of the few people in the room who was old enough to be (a young adult) and attend the games when the Toronto Blue Jays were in the World Series in 1992.

I am still careful about how much I joke about my age. I don’t want the knowledge of my vintage to be a factor playing against me when I apply for a promotion. Knowledge of my fluctuating body temperature and moods shouldn’t be at the forefront when people are considering my ability to do a job.

There are many reasons for people to worry about sharing personal details about themselves in the workplace. New mom? Planning on having another? Mental health issues (any age), unexpected illnesses? Sick grandparent or dog? Individuals may feel that co-workers are sympathetic to their life circumstances, but that doesn’t always translate to feeling that sharing too much won’t hinder their attempts at advancement in the workplace.

In a modern workplace, as long as employees are completing their tasks, they should be able to ask to work from home or receive benefits for (psychologist, massage therapist, etc.) without baring their soul. Flex benefits are not a new thing. I have worked for companies where the flex benefits included access to $1500/year for any of the approved practitioners included in the insurance benefits. Also, time off was called it “Flex Time Off”. There was no difference between vacation, sick days, etc. It was all Flex. Employees shouldn’t feel the need to explain to their employers what the time is for and if the benefits are flex, employers are less likely to feel the need to know.

In response to my shared post with FIFI bloggers, Cate commented, “Cooling rooms is a ridiculous concept from my point of view but it would be helpful not to feel like it’s “unprofessional” to have bare arms.”

This comment reminded me of my other long-time beef about workplace policies. Can we all just agree in 2024 that dress codes are ridiculous and sexist? Also, they are rarely enforced, in my experience. There may be something in our dress code that women are not supposed to wear a dress that exposes their shoulders, but many of us where tank dresses and tops and no one says anything, thankfully. I don’t have the faintest idea why my shoulder may be considered unprofessional. I could see if I was wearing a tank top that said “Fuck Corporate Culture” but if the shoulder is peaking out of a tunic or a blouse, I just don’t get the concern.

At the law firm I worked at for decades, they had a “fashion show” (this was the late 90s), showing women what to wear and what not to wear. In those days, it was still considered unprofessional for women to go bare-legged. It was OK to have a sheer layer of constantly snagging fabric on your legs (that may even have a spot of clear nail polish dabbed on a snag to prevent it from running further) rather than expose bare skin between your ankles and the hem of your skirt. Nine times out of ten, dress codes focus heavily on what women should and should not wear. Dress codes are sexist and gender exclusionary. They can also be classist and have economic implications for people entering the workplace.

Whether we are talking about flex benefits or dress codes, a happy and comfortable employee, who feels as though they can navigate their health (mental, physical, relating to a myriad of causes, including menopause) and show up as their best self (either in a sleeveless blouse or a blazer with denim bottoms) without fear of reprisal for exposing too much of their personal life in a way that can impede their career goals, is a benefit to any organization’s success.

Let’s be aware of why people may be experiencing different challenges but, also, not require them to provide details every time they would like a reasonable accommodation in order to be able to get their work done. If these practices are the norm for everyone, then they won’t even be considered an accommodation. That’s the kind of sense of belonging I hope organizations aspire to.

How about you readers? How do you feel about Catalyst’s survey about menopause benefits?

Nicole P. enjoying an unseasonbly warm October Saturday morning before a Pilates class.

a goal chart with a large green 7 in the middle and stars surrounding it that are coloured in different ways to represent finished workouts Goals, flexibility, and getting to the actual point
ADHD · fitness · goals · habits

Goals, flexibility, and getting to the actual point

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

Once upon a time, I was very strict with myself about my goals – very all or nothing.

If I couldn’t complete a goal to the very letter of what I had set out in my initial plan, it was a complete failure and I might as well scrap it entirely.

Let me tell you, that was NOT a fun way to think about things AT ALL.

I’m not going to get into all the ways in which that type of thinking is counter-productive, unhelpful, and downright depressing, let’s accept that it is, and roll on from there.

After I got over that type of thinking (at least on a conscious level), I went through a time when it felt pointless to set any goals. After all, I couldn’t possibly factor in all the things I needed to factor in so how could I possibly know what made a good goal? How could I possibly create a goal that I could actually complete?

And, yes, of course, ADHD (pre and post diagnosis/medication) factors into this process in all kinds of ways. When you combine a murky sense of time, challenges around figuring out reasonable timeframes, struggles with identifying doable tasks with an inherent reluctance around task initiation, you are going to get a bucketload of frustration around the goal-setting process.

But now I have had a lot more practice with being kind to myself and I am much more forgiving of my challenges with the whole thing.

My exercise pattern over the last week has been a great example of this.

So, last Tuesday, I posted about my desire to intensify my exercise, to work a little harder while I was doing a workout, and I planned to do a 10 minute kickboxing workout each day for 7 days and to reward myself with a new book if I accomplished my goal.

I thought that the fact that my plan was short, straightforward, and clear would make it fairly easy to complete.

I forgot to account for days when I couldn’t follow the plan.

I diligently did my kickboxing workouts on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings and enjoyed myself in the process.

I had to do a few modifications, of course. Some of the movements were too complicated for me to pick up at that moment and some of them are kind of the opposite of my TKD training so I don’t want to pick up a movement that I will accidentally apply in class.

But, overall, it was a fun way to start my day and I thought it would be easy to complete the next four days.

On Friday, though, I had an early appointment and it messed with my routine so I planned to do my kickboxing in the early afternoon. But by that time I was working on a grant application and forgot all about my plan. I only remembered it when I was walking Khalee and I was afraid I would forget again by the time I got home (I’ve met me, I know what I’m like, and that was definitely possible.) So, I decided that I would go a slightly different route with an extra hill so I could push myself a little harder on my walk.

an outdoor photo of a medium-sized light-haired dog standing in some grass looking toward autumn coloured shrubs and plants.
image description: a photo of Khalee, a light-haired, medium-sized dog who is facing away from the camera. She is standing in some grass, facing bushes and shrubs that are in fall colours of red, orange, and gold with some green still mixed in. There are some evergreens and a red shed behind a wooden fence in the background.

And I was right to add that to my walk because the next time I thought about kickboxing, I was turning off the light to go to bed.

Back in the ‘all or nothing’ phase of things, I would have forced myself out of bed at that point and done my workout and then struggled to get to sleep. I don’t pull that kind of crap on myself any more.

Then, on Saturday, I had multiple events and activities scattered throughout the day and it was only during a midafternoon stroll back from our lunch break that I remembered my kickboxing goal. Again, having met me before, I knew there was a huge risk that I wouldn’t get to that workout (my events ended at 10pm so there was no ‘when I get home, I’ll exercise’ happening that day.) So, my friend and I rerouted a little so our stroll became a brisk walk and so we would have a hill and a steep set of steps on our way back.

Sunday, I had another event in the morning, and a tangle of bits and pieces of things to do in the afternoon. Once again, I had good intentions of doing that kickboxing ‘later’ but I again found myself upping the intensity of a walk instead of getting to my video.

On Monday though, I was back to my usual daily routine and I easily (and enjoyed!) my 10 minutes of kickboxing.

There was a time when I would have called that a failure and I would have been embarrassed to bring that information here.

After all, if I can’t even do something for a week, what does that say about me?

Years ago, I would have thought this past week was telling me that I didn’t want that goal enough, that I wasn’t willing to work hard enough, and my metaphorical inner voice would have been muttering about me being a disorganized and lazy person who would definitely NOT be getting a new book.

Now though?

My inner voice reminds me that while my stated goal was to do seven 10 minute kickboxing workouts, my ACTUAL goal was to improve my fitness level by working harder when I exercise.

My planned workouts were the METHOD not the outcome.

If I pay attention to my level of intensity and increase that in doable amounts over time, I am going to reach my actual goal of increasing my fitness level.

Checking off specific workouts is really just one of the things I can measure along the way.

By intensifying the kind of workout I could do on those days, I was still making progress towards my goal without getting bogged down in the details.

In that way of framing things, I was still doing what I intended to do.

I could still add those workouts to my tracking chart.

I could still claim my gold stars.

I can still get my new book.

And, as a bonus, my goal from last week gave me lots of good information about my approach to exercise:

1) Exercising earlier in the day is much easier for me and gives me a good feeling of accomplishment first thing.


2) Even three days of focused exercise in a row makes it easier to intensify any other exercises I am doing.


3) Just 7 days of increased exercise makes me feel a lot better overall and makes me more likely to add more movement throughout my day.


4) I can’t exercise early in the day, I spend way too much time trying to pick the ‘right’ time to exercise later. (I mentioned this in last week’s post as a problem of trying to optimize) What I really need to do is to explore how I can create a ‘container’ for exercise at different times of the day

5) Even though, in last week’s post, I mentioned that I didn’t want to do the ‘work harder at something you are already doing’ thing, this time, in practice, it felt purposeful instead of punitive. That *may* be because I told myself that I only needed to spend 10 minutes at a higher intensity instead of trying to make the whole thing harder.


6) While it was only a short section of it, increasing my efforts during my walk with Khalee puts the focus on our speed and intensity rather than on the walk itself. The walks are good for me, mentally and physically, but that time is really about giving her time to get all the news a good sniffing of the neighbourhood can deliver. It’s ok to change the focus every now and then but I don’t want to put ‘this has to be exercise’ pressure on her (or on me!) every time we go for a walk. (I knew this from earlier this year but this past week was a good reminder.*)

*****

I’m keeping a similar plan for the week ahead but I have far fewer morning activities this week so I am going to pay attention to the timing and to the effort it requires for me to get those 10 minutes in every morning.

Maybe by next week I’ll be looking to do longer kick-boxing workouts or to add some additional exercises to my days.

Let’s see how it goes.

*I did notice that that post comes to many of the same conclusions as this one, just in a different way. Gotta keep relearning the lessons until things become more automatic, right?

cycling · fitness

Sam’s surgeon checks out her new knees, all is good is except for this annoying form

Sam B1 Comment
Activity assessment form

I’ve just had a two year check up for my left knee. It went well.  All is good.  Except for the annoying form they have me fill every visit.

Why are bowling and golf ranked as more active than cycling?

Also,  don’t you think it’s an odd list? Acrobatics? Ballet.

It’s okay.  I add in my own comments each time.  I Just can’t let the categories go unchallenged.

And I’m on my own for two years.  Next check in is 2026. Wow.

sport alley ball game
Bowling

fitness

To listen, read, and watch this week, #ListenReadWatch

Sam B

LISTEN

Cougar Strong: Inside Sylvania Southview Girls Lacrosse Team


“Get an inside look at the grit and determination of the Sylvania Southview Cougars Girls Lacrosse team. Hear from players and coaches about their journey, challenges, and what fuels their success on and off the field.”

Women Got Game

READ

Team Canada Launches “It’s Time” Campaign, Championing Women’s Sport at First-Ever Puig Women’s America’s Cup

“Team Canada’s Women’s Team, led by Isabella Bertold, has launched the “It’s Time” campaign—a powerful rallying call to champion women’s sport and inspire support as they compete in the inaugural Puig Women’s America’s Cup in Barcelona this weekend. Team Canada’s first race is scheduled for Sunday, October 6th.

This milestone event marks the first time there has been a women’s competition in the America’s Cup, the world’s oldest international sporting trophy dating back to 1851.”

WATCH

Ximena Abogabir is the co-founder of a Chilean organization dedicated to changing attitudes about aging. She shares her Brief But Spectacular take on empowering people to live their best lives.

A fitness graph showing change over time in three colors. Do we need personalized training plans? New study says no
fitness · research

Do we need personalized training plans? New study says no

catherine w1 Comment

Everything in creation seems to be personalized now. I’m not just talking about monogrammed water bottles or customized sneakers. It seems we are all in search of our own secret sauce for fitness training, medical care, personal growth, career development, perhaps even creative endeavors. You name it, there’s a specialized 23-and-me-style approach to it. Forget one-size-fits-all. That’s out. Make way for precision medicine and personalized training, designed just for you.

Except that a new study came out saying that, at least for fitness training, personalized workout plans aren’t necessary. This article in Outside magazine offers a detailed summary, with graphs and everything.

So what’s the upshot here? I’ll break this down.

Once upon a time, there were standard training and exercise plans, designed to improve various areas of fitness– strength, endurance, agility, speed, etc. Some folks responded better than others on these plans. How to help those whose performance didn’t improve as much? Answer: personalized training. It seems intuitive. But is there evidence for this?

Researchers thought so until recently. So what happened to change their minds? Answer: a lot of studies, one of which is this cool and very carefully analyzed studies of variations on changes in VO2 max (a measure of aerobic fitness) over the course of a study for both exercise and control groups. Here’s a graph of what they found in a 2019 study:

Two graphs showing variation in response for control and exercise groups. The patterns are similar, which is surprising.

Here’s what the Outside article said about it:

We see exactly the same variation in response in the control and exercise groups. The only difference is that the exercise group is shifted upward by the average response of about 0.2 liters per minute. So the variation in response can’t be because some people “respond” to exercise (or to the specific workouts prescribed) while others don’t—because the subjects in the control group had a similar range of response and non-response to doing absolutely nothing.

Wow. That is very surprising and counterintuitive.

Fast forward to August 2024, when a new meta-analysis came out “to evaluate inter-individual differences in VO2max trainability across aerobic exercise training protocols utilizing non-exercising comparator groups.” They found that the variation for changes in VO2 max in the exercise groups were less than the variation in the control groups. That means that there’s just not evidence of variation in individual response in the exercise groups.

But but… it’s just a fact that some people are stronger responders than others to exercise and workout plans. Yes, this is true. What this (and a bunch of other) studies are saying is that the variation we see and experience may not be due to our individual training response (whatever that may be). There are lots of reasons for variability in response, both within an individual over time and between individuals in the same program. The Outside article explains:

If there is true variability in training response, though, it seems to be trivial compared to other sources of variability. One of the main ones is measurement error: if you’re measured slightly below your true value on the baseline test and slightly above on the final test, you’ll look like a strong responder—and vice versa. There’s also “within-subject variability”: changes in behavior or environment that have nothing to do with the exercise program being tested, like sleep, diet, or stress. These external factors might even be influenced by your genes…

So what does this mean for us, the pursuers of fitness and sport and improved performance? Science is not telling us to fire all personal trainers or stop focusing on specific areas in which we want to improve our responses. What these studies are saying is that training itself is good for all of us. There are decades-old, time-tested, reliable plans out there that have been shown to work for groups in large studies. We don’t need super-personalized, dialed-in, specialized workout plans just for us. We’re all individuals, but training is training, as the Outside article says at the end.

For me, this comes as a relief. Life is complicated, and if I can just make use of the standard workouts without having to go to a lab and get wired up for an extensive and expensive evaluation and detailed fitness plan, I am very happy to hear it.

Readers, what do you think about these new results? Are you relieved, annoyed, shocked? I’d love to hear from you.

This woman will be happy to hear that she doesn’t have to work up my DNA in addition to her other samples.
curling · fitness · Guest Post

Curling Rocks (Guest Post)

Sam B1 Comment

by Karen (Kéké) Houle

Here are some things to really, really love about curling:

  1. It’s ridiculously fun. I laugh until I almost pee, at least 4 times a game. A game is under 2 hours, so that’s a belly laugh / half hour. While sporting! Pretty good, hey?
  2. For a sport, it’s not very expensive. When I was a kid, our extremely modest-single income family of 5 meant we could only do some sports, and only up until a certain $$. For instance, I was actually a very promising figure skater. But my parents pulled me out of it when I got to the level where, to go further, I needed competitive skates and private lessons and (!) a twirly dress. And then, myself, as a graduate student + single, sole-support parent of twins, who did not own a car, all sports were out of our reach, financially. The only sports my kids were able to do were the ones through their school. Thank goodness! As an adult, I learned how to play golf and hockey (there was no hockey when I was a girl. See note about figure skating). But lordy! The fees for a round, and the fees for joining a league, let alone all the equipment, are very prohibitive. And that is for someone whose body is not growing a full new size every year (well, trying not to). I cannot imagine how parents of modest income are able to put their kids into most sports, and to continue to support them if they are talented. Curling, on the other hand, is pretty darned affordable. You really don’t need much equipment, and in fact, most clubs have brooms and shoes you can borrow for a game here and there. 
  3. When I’m playing a game, and I look around me, I see every single body shape, size, age. Very big women and very small men. Anything goes! (I often think of the work of Sam Brennan on this point). There are teams made up of a 16 year old, a 35 year old, a 66 year old and a 92 year old. I think when I first played, in Cochrane, I was in high school. My women’s “Wednesday Night Team” was exactly like that! There are smart adaptations that keep you in the game, even if your knees or hips are blown out. 
  4. You can play very competitively when you are very pregnant. (Um…Pregnancy can really get in the way of life. Not with curling…) What other sports are like this? 
  5. I am a very, very mediocre curler. And proud of that. That is also something I love about the game. You can be crappy, mediocre or Monsieur Brad Gushue or Madame Ice-in-her-Veins Rachel Homan, and still make a shot or miss a shot. Curling just has a pretty sweet spot of skill-luck built into it. That is super great for keeping people in the game (I remember trying to play soccer. Once. I am a very very not-good soccer player… the ball almost never came to me. I was cold and lonely and miserable. When it did, I flubbed it. Rather than everyone laughing in a friendly way, and me going back to play the next week, I had that awful awful shame-y feeling that so many kids and then adults have had, in sport. CRAP! Come curl! You can undo that shittiness, friends!)
  6. So: Last night, I had the most hilariously over-the-top Scotties-Level-Game of my life. I made a QUADRUBLE-RAISE take-out, and stuck the button. I then made a TRIPLE-RAISE take-out, and stuck the button. Then I made a double take-out and stayed in the house. Um, for those of you who curl, you know how wild that is. Basically unheard of. Maybe ONE of those shots wins your team the pennant. Not 3 of them! It would be like hitting 4 walk-off home runs with bases loaded, in a single game! Like hitting 16, 3-pointers in a single game (take that, Klay Thompson!). Like scoring 10 goals in a soccer match (hello Mr. Messi! hello Ms. Sinclair!!) Like making 5 very far-running touchdowns (okay, you caught me, I know nothing about football except that that popular singer now dates a football guy. Okay you caught me, I know nothing about Taylor Swift, either). The point is not to brag. (Though I feel like I am within my rights to brag, lol). The point is that there is something about this game, this sport, that is completely unlike others. You can’t just be a mediocre gymnast or an average figure-skater and then, one night, because you are wearing the right sox, you do 4 triple lutz-es. You can’t. You just cannot. But with curling you can. It’s a lovely magical mystery that made everyone laugh their heads off last night, me included. (Yes, I’m going to buy a lottery ticket today)
  7. I met my wunderbar life-partner Rob, there. We played 2 or 3 games against one another the first season we both joined independently…that was almost 16 years ago. We got to know each other casually but meaningfully, socially, without being in a drinky-bar or under the pressure that comes with on-line dating. Curling is so dorky, like an old timey square dance, or a Friday night Euchre club — you really do “mix” with everyone. Rob is almost 20 years younger than me, and can’t spell his way out of a paper bag. I’m almost 20 years older than him and wildly over-educated. Those facts alone would have told our “dating algorithms” that we were not “matchable.” You know what? We are very well matched. Sometimes you really need to be in old-timey scrambler social situations to meet new people, people in totally different lines of work, in totally different income brackets, etc… There is a lovely etiquette to the game, regardless of the level of competition (shake hands and introduce yourselves beforehand, and say: “Good Curling!”… and then after, the 8 of you sit around a round table and chat for a bit. Or just listen to convos about something other than what you spend most of your time thinking and talking about. This is so very not a “shop-talk” space.  (A side bar: I think I’m quasi-responsible for getting at least 4 other couples, coupled, on account of urging to curl!) People: as we all know from experience and from stats:  loneliness is prevalent and it is a killer disease. Curling clubs (even if you are not curling!) are places you can go that are warm, busy, friendly and are not trying to sell you something you don’t need. I wish Eleanor Rigby had had a curling club nearby….
  8. I admit: it is still a very white and cis-g game, and pretty straight straight, but not totally. What I can see, though, is that it is a social space & a deeply open social game that can and will become more diverse, very easily and very happily, for all! In fact, the Guelph Curling Club just renovated and installed all-gender single-stall accessible washrooms on the main floor. I clapped!! I was NOT expecting that, there. And you know what? The curling people are such a multitude that an accepting, inclusive attitude is the norm.

Seriously. It’s so good.

May be an image of 1 person, playing hockey and text
Background image: a curling rink with the blue and red rings.

Overlaid: a man and a woman with cartoon characters of curling attire.

Bio : Former professor of Philosophy at the U of G, currently full-time social-environmental activist (artofsoil.ca). And curler. 

Happy World Menopause Day!
menopause

Happy World Menopause Day!

Sam B

I didn’t even know menopause had a day.

I should have. Catherine blogged about it last year!

“World Menopause Day is held every year on 18th October. The purpose of the day is to raise awareness of the menopause and the support options available for improving health and well being. We encourage professionals and women to participate in this global awareness raising campaign by printing and sharing these materials, organising events to engage their communities, and sharing World Menopause Day social media posts.”

Here’s just a few of our past menopause posts:

I’m 53 and a half and I’m still menstruating: is this a good thing?
Menopause Manifesto Reviewed (Guest Post)
Book Review: What Fresh Hell Is This
Menopause, depleted estrogen and increased rolling of ankles
woman in orange tank top and pink leggings
I’m not sure what to make of this. It’s one of the images that comes up when you search for images of menopause on Pexels. Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.com
swimming

Time for a Second Career

Diane Harper1 Comment

I have written before about the possibility of becoming a swim instructor and it is finally happening!

I had to redo the fitness test that gave me so much trouble back in June but this time I was with three other people, which helped. They were all much younger and faster, but that spurred me to try and keep up during the sprint. I didn’t, but I did swim fast enough to meet the minimum time. The other tests were all fine.

It feels like a full circle moment, as I will be working at the pool where I returned to swimming in my 40s. At the time, it felt like a big deal to start an activity as an older adult. Now, I’m a much older adult and looking forward to sharing a lifetime’s worth of love for water with new generations.

Diane in a purple jacket and pink shirt, outside the Ottawa swimming pool complex where she will start work this week.

wine glass with yellow drink next to basket with lemons Food Moralizing, Good Eggs, and Evil OJ, #tbt
fitness

Food Moralizing, Good Eggs, and Evil OJ, #tbt

Sam B

So I’m teaching a class on philosophy of food and one of the subjects that comes up frequently is moralizing about food. We use the language of good and bad, and even, evil, when really what we are talking about are the nutritional and health values of certain foods. But then there’s a slide between that and then judging the people who eat those foods.

We’ve all done it, I think. There’s Halloween candy in the house again, and we talk about being “good” when really what we mean is “staying away from the candy” or “eating candy in moderate amounts.”

We confess to friends about “being so bad” at a party and we don’t mean that we murdered the guests. We might just mean that we ate too much guac and chips.

Moral language is all over the place when it comes to food, and we’ve blogged about it lots. So I’ve been directing the students (and now you) to some of our older posts about food and moral language.

See Catherine’s post (one of many actually) on the goodness or badness of eggs.

Are all eggs bad eggs? Blogging the controversy

In 2019 I asked, Has the evil of orange juice finally been established?

Has the evil of orange juice finally been established?

In the end, I like Tracy’s view, that food talk shouldn’t be moralized (except insofar as there are concerns about the way it’s produced. See Tracy’s practically vegan blog here.

Why Food Is Beyond “Good” and “Evil”

Catherine also wrote on this theme.

Beyond Good and Evil (Food)
makeup with horns
What I got when I searched pexels for “evil eggs.” Photo by Heber Vazquez on Pexels.com
Julie Lockhart at 73, in her stars and stripes national champion kit, smiling while straddling her cross bike. Remembering feminist cycling celebrity and friend: Julie Lockhart
aging · cycling · fitness

Remembering feminist cycling celebrity and friend: Julie Lockhart

catherine w5 Comments

On Friday, October 11, all of cycling, and especially women’s cycling, and particularly master’s women’s cycling, lost the one-of-a-kind Julie Lockhart. I knew her as a fellow Northeast Bike Club member, teammate, riding buddy and friend.

Julie Lockhart crossing the finish at Cyclocross Nationals (undated photo).

Julie Lockhart was famous in the cycling world. She wasn’t a pro racer. She wasn’t the fastest on the course. She was, however, a multiple cyclocross national champion in her age group (65+), and also a multi-time women’s world champion, the last time in 2019 at age 78. Julie made her mark on cycling, cyclocross racing and women’s racing by showing the world that:

  • It’s never too late to throw yourself into something new and challenging
  • being active and competitive in your 60s and 70s is doable and fun
  • Showing up isn’t half the battle; it’s the whole battle
  • if they don’t have a category for you, keep racing anyway– they’ll make one!

FYI: most amateur bike races (road, mountain and cyclocross) offer master’s categories– age groups like 30+, 40+, 50+, 60+. For men, there are loads of categories, but until recently, there was often only a women’s 40+ category. Julie helped change that. How? By showing up and competing in race after race, and then qualifying for nationals. Take a look at the categories for cross nationals in 2006:

Master’s category starters for women dropped off sharply after age 49. Julie was the one 65+ starter that year.

Let’s compare it to Julie’s last year of racing, 2019:

2019 women’s masters categories included 20 starters for 60-64, 3 for 65-69, 1 for 70-74, and 2 for 75-79 (Julie’s category, and she came in second).

Now, Julie didn’t manage this shift single-handedly, but she did inspire lots of folks to keep racing or come back out of race retirement and rejoin the weekend warriors. Someone has to be willing to be the first in a category of one. That was Julie. In so many ways.

Julie at the start line, in her stars and stripes national champion kit, ready to rock and roll.

If you want to know what Julie was like in a race, check out this 2010 story from Bicycling Magazine about the 2008 Cyclocross Nationals women’s 40+ race, where then 67-year-old Julie and her friend/rival Nancy Brown, 66, went head-to-head in the 65+ category. Even though she got injured during the race, she persisted and went on to win.

Cross racing isn’t easy. You don’t just ride your bike, you run with it, too. Julie’s shouldering hers in this pic.

Julie’s racing stats are prodigious: if you look here at her crossresults.com record, you’ll see that she was active from 2006 through 2019. And by active, I mean VERY active– she averaged 26 cross races a year. That’s a lot. I mean A LOT.

Back in the mid/late 2000s, I raced with Julie on the road, in the woods, and in a couple of cyclocross races. We were two of three women in a first-timer category for a mountain bike race in Brialee CT. I finished first (my one and only time, but hey — a win is a win) and Julie finished third. I must say, off-road riding was not her strongest suit. But Julie rode and raced all the time, and she had fitness for days.

However, what most of us who knew her remember and will miss is her enthusiasm for every part and every member of the cycling community. She cheered on the Cub juniors during their races, and was on a first-name and hugging basis with the elite riders. She was a sought-after interview subject, and happily talked with reporters, cycling newbies, indeed anyone who came her way.

In fact, once when I was with friends spectating at a cross race outside Northampton, MA, she stopped in the middle of her race to say hi to us and chat about the day! We assured her that we’d be there after she finished to catch up, so she resumed pedaling down the course.

Julie in mid-race, looking like she’s having fun. Because she is.

If Julie were here to tell me how to end this dedication to her, she’d say something like “just get out there and do it!” Pondering complexity, second-guessing oneself, waiting for conditions to be just right: none of these were spaces Julie inhabited as a cyclist. She embraced all the experiences (injuries and illnesses included) living and riding as her inimitable self. We will miss you, Julie. Godspeed, and keep the rubber side down.

Julie’s daughter Deirdre just posted this shot. Yes– let’s embrace moments of triumph whenever and however we find them.