“Being older and having more life experience helps you mentally prepare for the challenge,” says Beudel. That life experience includes raising children and managing a career on a “precarious” income.
Charging
“There are really strong correlations with writing and toughness and big physical endurance events and toughness,” he says from his home in Canberra.
“Enduring mental suffering is more difficult than physical suffering. If you can get past the mental side, the physical side is quite manageable.”
As much as age can affect the psychological approach to cycling, he found that cycling can also affect the aging process, which is remarkable given the participation rate among adults over 50. is increasing significantly.
Research suggests that increased blood flow to the brain, derived from exercise, improves cognitive function and enhances the regeneration of brain cells, slowing down the aging process. Riding a bike outdoors and engaging with nature improves psychological well-being, which not only improves mood, but also has knock-on effects on cognition.
Cycling in old age can also improve balance, proprioception and fear of falling.
It is the therapeutic effects of cycling and its ability to transport the cyclist, not only physically but psychologically, that has captured Beudel’s interest.
His father suffered from PTSD from his experiences in World War II.
“So he had a long-standing interest in the long-term impacts of trauma,” says Beudel who, through his research for the book, discovered bicycle therapy programs for returning soldiers with PTSD.
“One of the many symptoms of PTSD is strong feelings of helplessness,” she says. Research suggests that riding a bike can provide a sense of self-determination and self-empowerment. “So just that simple act of deciding that you’re going to get on your bike and go out there and do it, there’s a kind of self-determination to that.”
Hyperarousal, in which a person experiences a heightened response to stress, is another key symptom of PTSD.
Exercise, by mimicking stress through increased heart rate and respiratory rate, can help people with PTSD desensitize to signals of hyperarousal.
Intense forms of exercise, like riding a bike, can also snap us out of negative thought patterns and plant us back in the present moment.
“There’s something very involving,” says Beudel. “There is a very meditative quality to cycling.”
Beudel had been, he says, “respectful of the preparation” required for a major challenge as big as Peaks. Longer training trips, in which he packed dried bananas, peanut butter crackers and caffeinated pills, would take up to eight hours.
Charging
As his skill level grew, so did his belief in his own abilities. This in itself has allowed him to deepen the experience.
The literature shows that when a high level of skill and a high level of challenge intersect, elusive flow states occur. Also described as “peak experiences” or transcendence, they are defined by smooth, precise performance with acute absorption in the task.
Although the event was somewhat more difficult than she expected, particularly with “the hardest and steepest climb” near the end when she was already exhausted, she focused on each pedal stroke and, in doing so, entered a state of flow .
“I was 100 percent focused. It was like the only way he was going to do it is to be completely focused on this moment and nothing else.”
Twelve hours after starting, she crossed the finish line, exhausted and elated and confident that, at any age, if we put in the hours and prepare, big goals are completely achievable.
“It’s kind of a hope that I’ve taken away from him,” he says, saying he’s hesitant about taking part in the Peaks Challenge again, but is looking for his next challenge.
“Whether it’s another event or refining some aspect of my technique or rediscovering the simplest kind of pleasure in activity, it’s been a very affirming undertaking.
“There’s a feeling that… you can set yourself this challenge and nothing can stand in your way of completing it.”
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