How To Train For Aging: The Ultimate Endurance Sport

By Kevin Morgan

WHY did the author interrupt his training to write this book? Because, at the age of 77, he can't stand watching most of his peers hobbling around like old people when there is no need for them to do so.

This book will inspire you to action. It will guide your training towards an enjoyable old age.

Cover image: The author completing the Lake Placid Ironman, at age 68, as the only person to undertake such a race with an abdominal aortic aneurysm stent graft. Nearly 10 years later, now with peripheral vascular disease, he's still training for Ironman, his beloved sport. Endurance training taught him how to fight the ravages of aging, by adapting to change.

There are both destructive and creative forces at work in your life, aka Entropy and Syntropy (life force). The author wants you to become an athlete soldier, fighting with the power of Syntropy, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, against Entropy-induced decay.

You are life!

Life is a fire that burns in a special way.

Life's fire makes stuff.

Life is a dancing fire, a dance of joy.

Life is a fiery song.

Life is a thoughtful fire.

Life is a naysayer of flames.

Life is a warrior, burning with the power of Syntropy.

Life is an athlete, an endurance athlete.

Life has been beating back Entropy for eons.

You are that warrior, life.

You are that athlete, life.

Train to fight your Internal Enemy, Entropy.

Train to fight your External Enemy, Entropy.

Laugh and cry and dance as you do battle, as you compete in your personal game of life, in your fight to the life against Entropy.


The author agrees with Darwin, that, "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, it's those most adaptable to change."

Aging will present you with many opportunities for change.

First comes, not being able read a d*amned thing without your glasses. This is followed by aches and pains in the morning on getting out of bed, surgeries, pills, slower recovery from exercise, and all sorts of other oldie fun!

This book will have you primed for adaptation to these adventures.

Can't wait? It's coming whether you are ready or not. Don't be a wimp. Take aging in your stride. See it as an opportunity, by being ready to bravely and wisely face the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual challenges.

"Aging is not lost youth, but a new stage of opportunity and strength." – Betty Friedan

This book will give you the courage and means to prepare your training plan for this toughest of all endurance sports. Yes! The author has found aging to be tougher, and more interesting, than any of the Ironman races he completed over the last 15 years.

He will help you get to know your enemy, Entropy, and to appreciate your friend and ally, Syntropy.

The author has overcome multiple health challenges, while remaining an avid athlete.

How does he do this?

As a veterinarian, the author has medical training, which helps. As a life-long athlete he is conditioned and experienced.

Does that mean that you have to have medical training and be an athlete to benefit from this book. No way! It is designed to inspire anyone into action, to get them off their butt, away from the TV and the next beer, to get them out there, ready to live their later life to the full.

You do have to do the work, which the author sees as play, as he provides you with the essential guideposts you will need to take you down a safe and effective road to better physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kevin Morgan
• Release date: Dec 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393995463

Kevin Morgan

Kevin Morgan is an author and entrepreneur who is also very active with many auxiliaries in his home church, including the singles ministry, where he served as its president for three years.  He holds an MBA from Indiana University, a BS from Fisk University and owns an art and framing business.  From his interactions with people and through his experiences, he has come to appreciate the unique challenges that African-American singles must deal with regularly.   Kevin resides in SC where he is currently working on his next book tentatively entitled, Songs of Singleness and plans on authoring more Christian related books.  This dynamic writer is available for speaking engagements and he welcomes your comments.  For more information, email him at: [e-mail].

Book preview

MY DAY

I wake up in my tiny house around 4:00 a.m. and put on the kettle for a cup of tea. Two cups of tea, in fact. I love this time of day. The stars fade as the chatter of insects dissolves into the dawn chorus.

I feed my ginger cat, Cat, and yellow lab, Willbe, and read for a while. Once it’s light, I check what needs doing in the vegetable garden, and collect some food for breakfast. After a tasty homegrown meal, I start my daily writing tasks. Mid-morning, Willbe and I take a walk to a coffee shop. Willbe gets a treat and I enjoy my daily cup of coffee, as I chat with the locals or read a book on my phone.

I do love to read, both fiction and non-fiction.

Sometime during the day, I’ll undertake one or two planned workouts. These often include a run with Willbe. If so, I head for the local running track. No need to change, as I live in running gear. It's an old habit that still works in my mid-70s. Wicking shirt, running shorts, light zero-rise shoes.

At the track, I adjust the settings of my sports watch to record distance, pace and heart rate. Then off we go for a run of several miles. Four laps of the track make a mile. Why the track, which many find boring? Because there’s a smooth running surface and few interruptions.

We run 100 yards, 200 yards, 250 and then we stop.

I stand immobile on my left leg, as pain surges through my right calf. Willbe sits patiently at my side. He knows the drill. I glance at my watch as it calculates average run pace. It grows from 9 minutes and 30 seconds per mile, through 10 minutes, 11 minutes and finally 18 minutes and 20 seconds per mile. This is not much better than a brisk walking pace.

Time was moving, but we were not.

As we wait that calf gradually relaxes, the pain subsides, and we run another 250 or 300 yards. Again, I’m forced to stop and repeat the calf pain procedure. This allows life-giving blood to flow through a partially blocked artery in my right leg, into oxygen-starved calf muscles.

As the mileage increases our mile time improves to 14 minutes and 12 seconds per mile. I’m getting closer to my goal of 13 minutes and 40 seconds per mile. If I can average 13 minutes and 40 seconds per mile for 26.2 miles, I will achieve a 6-hour marathon time. Then I’ll be ready to sign up for another Ironman race, which starts with a 2.4-mile swim, then a 112-mile bike ride, finishing with a full 26.2-mile marathon. Yep! It’s a long day, but I love it.

You have to complete such races in less than 17 hours. If I can run the marathon in six hours, I should be able to finish an Ironman race in under 15 hours. This would give me a chance to qualify for the World Ironman Championships in Kona, Hawaii, where I hope to take my friend Frits’s ashes along. Frits always wanted to qualify for Kona, before his untimely death two years ago.

If I can qualify, and there’s no guarantee, Frits will get to do the race in spirit. When I suggested this idea to his widow, Machteld, she said with a tear that she loved the idea, as a way of keeping Frits’s memory alive.

Furthermore, it won’t be all about me, and I like that.

To think that in 2009, I qualified for the Boston Marathon with a marathon time in Charlotte, North Carolina, of four hours and seven minutes. I had an average running pace of 9 minutes and 27 seconds per mile. Now I’m struggling to reach a 13:40 pace. But I’m a decade older, and a man has to know his limitations.

But that’s no damned reason not to try.

My ongoing training will slowly encourage the growth of new blood vessels around that partially blocked popliteal artery in my right leg. This blockage is due to hardening of my arteries, or arteriosclerosis, which is related to my genetically high blood fat levels. The muscle conditioning from my ongoing training, combined with modifying the way I run to spare those calf muscles as best I can, will also contribute to my progress.

Oddly enough, peripheral arterial disease in my legs has no impact on my cycling or swimming performance.

Ironman triathlon training in my 50s, which is no easy task, dramatically improved my genetically unhealthy blood fat profile. This endurance