Cycling Over Sixty

Fitness By Donna

• Tom Butler • Season 3 • Episode 3

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Join host Tom Butler as he continues his journey to full recovery and getting back on the saddle. In this episode, Tom shares his latest progress, his hopes for a pain-free ride this weekend, and something new he's trying to help him handle the miles he needs to meet his 2024 goals.

Special guest Donna Meier, a seasoned personal trainer and cyclist, joins the podcast to offer her unique perspective. With over 25 years of experience training clients, Donna shares her passion for cycling and the insights she's gained from helping countless individuals achieve their fitness goals. Listen in as she discusses common challenges and strategies for staying motivated and making progress.

Links
Donna’s Instagram: instagram.com/fitnessbydonna/

Argon 18 Website: argon18.com

Thanks for Joining Me! Follow and comment on Cycling Over Sixty on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cyclingoversixty/

Consider becoming a member of the Cycling Over Sixty Strava Club! www.strava.com/clubs/CyclingOverSixty

Please send comments, questions and especially content suggestions to me at tom.butler@teleiomedia.com

Show music is "Come On Out" by Dan Lebowitz. Find him here : lebomusic.com

Tom Butler:

This is the Cycling Over 60 podcast, season three, episode three Fitness by Donna, and I'm your host, tom Butler. Thanks for joining me for this week's podcast. Here's a brief update before this week's conversation. I spent a lot of time on the exercise bike this week and started ramping up my road riding. I'm still having some very light residual pain in my left knee, but I feel pretty confident that I'm good to go. Every little pain I get right now triggers concern for me, but I'm recovering well after my rides.

Tom Butler:

Currently I am very motivated to keep up with my flexibility exercises. I need to somehow have it etched in my brain that I have to keep up with the stretching. As I mentioned last week, I do 52 miles this weekend and I'm confident that I will know how my knees will hold up around the 40 mile mark. I'm going to be very disappointed if I'm feeling pain at 40 miles, because I know the smart thing would be to call it quits then. The problem is that this is the first group ride that we're doing as a whole family and I definitely want to finish it. I'm not going to want to admit any pain during the ride, because then I will have both my wife and daughter pushing me to make a safe decision.

Tom Butler:

Part of the motivation to err on the safe side is that I can't take much more time off the bike and still make my 2024 goals. I was banking on my goals being met with the miles and elevation from a ride across Washington. Now that I didn't complete that ride, I don't have much flexibility. I still need 1,215 miles to complete my mileage goal. That means I probably have around 93 hours of riding to get in before the end of the year. I can't plan on the weather being decent in December, so I need to do the majority of that in two months. I don't think I can make it unless I put in some long rides on the weekends. I also still have 30,600 feet of climbing to do. I'm going to try and change my main training route to be 2,000 feet of elevation. That way I should be able to reach that elevation goal if I do that right twice a week.

Tom Butler:

I have become convinced that the metabolic dysfunction that led to my insulin resistance also meant that I have negatively impacted how my muscles utilize energy. This season of the podcast, I'm on a journey to confirm that this is true and, through personalized medicine, find ways to improve it if it is the case. I recently watched a video done by Global Cycling Network, also known as GCN, focused on creatine. I have to admit I've had preconceived notions about what creatine is for. As I listened to Connor Dunn, one of GCN's hosts and former Irish national champion, discuss creatine, I got more interested in it. So I did some research and I've started taking it.

Tom Butler:

I want to make it clear that I am not recommending creatine for anyone, but I will share my opinion about it with you. You should always consult a health professional before adding supplements to your routine. The creatine supplement I found also contains HMB. Again, I'm not recommending HMB to you. I did find the information on HMB to be really interesting. So my plan is to try these supplements for 30 days.

Tom Butler:

I have a quarter mile climb that is 14% grade that I will be riding regularly. I think that climb will help me assess whether or not these supplements are useful. Of course, it's really hard to factor out a placebo effect because I will obviously know that I'm taking the supplements. I guess I will just have to face the whole experiment with a healthy dose of skepticism. What I hope that creatine will do is increase the effectiveness of GLUT4 to fuel my muscles. Glut4 is one of the family of glucose transport proteins. Glut4 is in the cell and helps to transport glucose into skeletal muscle. I believe that there is some evidence that I'm having a hard time getting glucose from my blood into my muscle during intense exercise. After I checked out if there were potential problems with taking creatine, I decided to give it a shot to see if it might make a difference. Hopefully creatine or something else will help me, because I need to burn a lot of glucose over the next three months if I'm going to make my 2024 goals.

Tom Butler:

Before I move on to the conversation this week, I want to again plug the Cycling Over 60 Strava Club. It's a great place to interact with other cyclists and see the rides people are doing from really interesting places. Thanks everyone currently in the club for sharing your journey. I get a lot of content about cycling on my Instagram feed and I am happy about that, because I don't always like what I get. For some reason, at one point Instagram thought I wanted to see traffic accidents. I hated that content, but I really like the brief videos from Donna Meyer on her channel Fitness by Donna. She does a lot of cycling and I just really enjoy her positivity. I reached out and Donna joined me for this week's discussion. I am joined today by someone who I've gotten to know through Instagram. Thank you, donna Meyer, for coming on Cycling Over 60.

Donna Meier:

Thank you.

Tom Butler:

Over 60 sounds really old by the way, I don't know, it seems to me like it gets younger all the time.

Donna Meier:

Yeah, if you stay in shape. My question is why not over 50? When did you start this? I'm going to interview you for a minute.

Tom Butler:

That's fine. So a couple years ago I was in pretty bad health and I decided to turn it around and I had set a goal to do a 206 mile ride. Today, 206 miles after I turned 60 years old. So that's kind of cycling. Over 60 came out of that, but I believe that you should be cycling over 40, over 50, and over 60.

Donna Meier:

What was the ride you did or that you planned on doing?

Tom Butler:

It's called Seattle to Portland and I did complete that. Yeah, it's a fantastic ride.

Donna Meier:

That'd be pretty. My son lived in seattle for a while okay, it's.

Tom Butler:

There's a lot of great places to ride around here, but that's a classic ride here and super fun. Now you're a fitness coach and I believe you have your own studio, is that right?

Donna Meier:

I do. That's what's behind me okay, my studio this is my student, my training studio and my spinning studio. I'm also a spinning instructor.

Tom Butler:

My small studio actually it's a studio, a fitness studio okay, and you're on instagram, where you share a lot, and I'm inspired by the sharing that you do, by the way, and I believe you're an avid cyclist from what I see yeah, kind of avid, bordering on obsessed. Okay, nice. So I'm really looking forward to getting your perspective on staying active and fit later in life. But first off, what is your earliest memory of the bicycle?

Donna Meier:

Wow. Well, I grew up in a neighborhood here in South Miami, south Florida. I have a twin sister and an older sister and there was one, two, three, four, five other girls about our age in the neighborhood and our only mode of transportation at the time was our bikes. So we used to ride to the store and we rode to school and I've always had a bike. And then, by middle school and high school, those days were gone riding to school because the fashion choices had changed, the shoes had changed, we didn't want to get sweaty, so pretty much the bike was out of my life until I started. When I was 40. I bought a bike, but that's a whole other story, because I started running in my 20s and then I had kids and then I bought a bike. In my 40s I bought a mountain bike actually.

Tom Butler:

Did you grow up in a family that was focused on fitness?

Donna Meier:

I'm going to say no because my generation and it makes me feel really old.

Donna Meier:

But, no, no, I mean my parents. No, I think my dad started jogging. I don't know if you remember when Jim Vicks came out with the Joy of Running or something. It was a book. I think it was the Joy of Running or something. It was a book, I think it was the Joy of Running. Anyway, I think he dropped dead of a heart attack, by the way. But my father tried jogging for about a nanosecond. My mother played tennis a little bit, but no, no, no. We lived on Burger King. We played outside all day with our friends, we swam, we were on little football teams. We didn't watch a lot of TV because there was only four TV stations. So it wasn't fitness per se. We had to do it on purpose. That was just our life. We didn't sit on our butts all day.

Tom Butler:

So you mentioned that you got into running in your 20s.

Donna Meier:

Talk about that.

Tom Butler:

How did you get attracted to running?

Donna Meier:

How did I get attracted to running? Well, just trying to find a way to stay in shape, Not that I ever really had like a big problem, but it also made me feel good. So I started running when I met my husband. He was he's really athletic. He used to play. He played high school football, he played momentarily for University of Miami, but he was super athletic and he was a runner. So I started running with him for about 10 years and into my thirties, and then I started doing 5Ks, 10Ks.

Donna Meier:

I did a half marathon and I didn't like it. I found it and plus I was busy, I was trying to have kids and one thing led to another and I realized that the people that were riding by me on the bikes looked like they were having way more fun than I was running. So after my half marathon I ran a little bit more. But then I decided to buy a bike because my husband was doing a adventure race. He did one in Australia, one up the Appalachian Trail and one in China. So he was training, doing some serious adventure race training, and I was busy raising the kids and I was kind of jealous and I started thinking you know, I could do that I could do that because they had one female on the team, especially the one in the Eco Challenge in Australia, that I felt like I could do that.

Donna Meier:

But you know, my kids were young and I just couldn't do that. So anyway, when he got back from Australia he said you should buy a mountain bike and we'll start riding together. So I bought a mountain bike and I was not good at it at all. So that was the end of the mountain bike, because once I saw the Tour de France in about 1999, I realized that's the kind of bike I wanted and that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to ride far and I wanted to ride fast. So I sold the mountain bike and bought my first bike road bike and joined a team.

Tom Butler:

Oh nice. So can you talk about that first bike? Do you remember it?

Donna Meier:

Sure, yeah, it was a Trek 1500. It was pretty heavy. I think it was aluminum, if I remember correctly. Yeah, and I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't know how to work the gears and I decided I was going to do my first century and I did, and it was horrible and I was all by myself but I learned. But I learned everything kind of the hard way. Nobody ever sat me down and said this is how you work this gear and this is how you work this gear and this is how you change this. So anyway, long story short, I joined one team and then I joined another team and another team. I mean, you know, for the past 25 years I've kind of ridden early on mostly with all male teams Because, you know, back in the day there wasn't a lot of women on the road.

Donna Meier:

There wasn't even women female cycling clothes I had to wear like junior size 16. Yeah, there was a lot of women out there now, but I rode with mostly men. So I started kind of writing and mostly South American men, all from Columbia and and whatever. So I started kind of writing. I've learned how to write like a, like a guy. I know that sounds weird, but I wasn't scared of anything and I just I just went and I was, you know, I was fearless, you know, until I had a couple of good crashes.

Donna Meier:

Okay, how did your family feel about that? Were they pretty supportive of your racing? Yeah, well, I didn't. I mean, we, I didn't race anything, I thought. I thought if I raced cause, a lot of people said you know, you really should race, cause this might be your thing, and I thought it would take the fun out of it. So I didn't know if you understand what that means, but here in Miami the cycling community is extremely passionate. So, yeah, every ride was a race.

Donna Meier:

But my family, I mean, you know, I couldn't be gone too long on Saturday and Sunday. Actually, I only rode on Sundays because I taught spin class Saturday and I didn't ride during the week at all. So they were okay until I got started crashing and breaking bones. That's when, when, you know, my daughter was like, could you find another hobby, mom? And even my own mom was like could you, you think you could find another hobby. So, anyway, there's been some crashes and some broken bones, but for the most part it's been it's, it's been good and it's, you know, it's been healthy, it's been really good for my mental state and it's good for my, my business, because you know, spinning, writing, training, it's all, it all feeds into it's. You know one another. So it's been, it's just been really good.

Tom Butler:

Well, you might find it interesting that I have a Trek 1500 hanging in my garage Do? You really yeah that was a bike that I got early on and then I stepped away from cycling for a long time, but it fondly sets in my garage and I can get it out every once in a while.

Donna Meier:

Do you ride it? You should.

Tom Butler:

I have ridden it a few times. It just doesn't compare in so many ways to the Specialized Rebate that I have. But it's a fun kind of nostalgic ride to get out on it.

Donna Meier:

Okay, my question is how many bikes do you have?

Tom Butler:

Well.

Donna Meier:

Come on.

Tom Butler:

Are you saying as a family, or me as a person?

Donna Meier:

No, you personally.

Tom Butler:

Okay, so I only have three bikes only yeah.

Donna Meier:

Well, so I have one I have one and a couple months ago I had to take it into the shop and they had to. I have the shimano um uh. Cranks that had that were recalled, oh right right so they had to send the cranks away.

Donna Meier:

It took about a week, but I nearly lost my mind, because I only have one bike and when the bike is down I'm down. So but I, this is, I'm on my fourth bike. I had a trek. I had a um, a felt, and I had a canondale. That that you know, I sorely missed. But the frame I got a crash on the frame cracked in places that they couldn't fix, so I had to get rid of that. Right now I ride a um, an argon, 18 gallium, which and no bells and whistles, no di2, no, you know, no disc brakes, it's just, you know, bottom of the barrel bike. But I've had it for four years and I figure you know at my at this stage of the game, I mean, there might be one more bike left in me, but I'm not sure.

Donna Meier:

Now I'm curious if you tackle your bike maintenance or if you prefer to take it to someone else. Well, it depends on the severity of the issue. I keep my chain and my drive train as clean as I can. I can change my own flats, I can take my wheels on and off, but anything more complicated than that, trying to think what I did last, and that's about it.

Donna Meier:

The crank. The crank recall was a big deal. And then we had to replace which I couldn't do obviously the rear bearings in the back wheel. But other than that I can't. I mean, I wish I could do more of my own maintenance. We can put my husband and I put on a new chain, which wasn't too difficult, but other than that it's just hard to find a good mechanic, number one. And it's also hard to get rid of your bike because, like I said, I only have one bike, so I wait to the very last minute to repair it and even then I kind of push a little bit. I don't like to be without my bike.

Tom Butler:

You mentioned the spinning class and you do personal training and coaching. How did you get into that?

Donna Meier:

wow. Well, I had my last child when I was 35 and I had always been working out, but after I had him I gained a lot of weight and he was a gigantic baby. He was almost 10 pounds. And I couldn't after I, after I had him, I just could not lose the weight. So I figured, you know what, it's time for me to change the way I work out and change the way I eat. And I started watching. There was like there used to be these exercise shows on ESPN. So I started doing them and, you know, changed my eating and I really, after some months, you know, I started taking my, my youngest one, the 50, the one I gained 50 pounds with. I started taking her to preschool and all the mothers used to look at me and go, god, how'd you get in such good shape? And I'm like, well, you know, I started calling around the gyms. I thought I'm not going to give this information away for free. So I called around the gyms to see who certified their personal trainers. And they told me I got certified and and, just by luck, we had a gym on our property that we we had we had built after Hurricane Andrew in the early 90s I think it was in the early 90s yeah, 92 was Hurricane Andrew we built a gym and the gym was just sitting there and so I thought you know what, I can bring people here and work them out and charge them. So I put an ad in a local community paper and I got a bunch of phone calls and I started training people like a week later and I and, I have to say, most of the people I started training 25 years ago and spinning and coaching I still have 25 years later. So it's been, it's been a really I mean it's been, it's been a really interesting journey.

Donna Meier:

But I didn't start. I started training and then about a year later I started. I bought two spin bikes just to give my clients another option for cardio. And then one of my clients is like you know, you should buy more spin bikes because people come here for spring classes. I'm like I don't think people come here anyway. Fast forward, I eventually had 12 spin bikes. I had waiting list classes only, and then COVID hit. I mean we're talking years later. And then COVID hit I mean we're talking years later. And that pretty much thinned out my clientele, on top of which we sold that house and we moved about a mile away, but my gym is much smaller now I only have five spin bikes. I only work part-time now but for 20, 20 something years and like even working part-time, I still have most of the same clients I started with. So it's been a really interesting um evolution training and spinning and and coaching.

Tom Butler:

It sounds like a really fun thing to kind of follow people's progress and it is and it's, it's, it is and it isn't.

Donna Meier:

because you know, years ago I was a bartender and I kinda I kinda liken it to bartending without the alcohol, because you know, everybody wants to. You know they train, but while they're training they're talking about their life and their problems. And I mean I've been through births, marriages, deaths, divorces, babies. I've been, and I listen and I, you know, we and and you know, so while they're training they're getting their therapy session kind of. So I liken it to, like I said, bartending with no alcohol. It's fun, but sometimes, every once in a while, you get a client. That it's just you can tell it's not going to work, they're just too impossible, they're too cranky, they're just too difficult and those. I think I've had to fire three clients in 25 years.

Tom Butler:

Well, that's not terrible. Three in 25 years. What makes for a good spin class?

Donna Meier:

Well, let me, can I just preface this by saying I'll tell you what makes for a bad spin class.

Tom Butler:

Okay, gotcha.

Donna Meier:

Because I've been to many spin classes not just mine and I've been to spin classes where they jump up and down with their hair on fire and yell and scream and some of them take the seat off and you have to stand the whole time and they do the craziest stuff. I was certified in spinning by you know. I don't know if you know who Johnny G is. He basically invented the spinning bike. Spinning is, you know, is a copyrighted name. He was a South African endurance racer. He used to do races across the United States on his road bike and then his wife got pregnant and so he couldn't do that, he couldn't train far, so he built like a prototype of his bike to sit in a garage. Anyway, that became the first spin bike. So I was certified in spinning, which means you wear a heart rate monitor, you. So I was certified in spinning, which means you wear a heart rate monitor.

Donna Meier:

You don't jump up and down, you don't do stuff that you don't do on the road bike, and safety is paramount. And so that's how I was certified and that's still how I teach today. We don't jump up and down, we don't do crazy stuff to destroy our knees. And now I see spin classes where they take their hands off the handlebars and do all these weird things with their arms and they lift weights while they're spinning. I have one spin class where we do lift weights but we stop pedaling, we sit or get off the bike, lift the weights, put the weights down and get back on the bike or continue spinning. No, I think a safe spin class is one where you're, you're just we. We go on flat roads, we climb standing, we climb seated and really that's what we do. We don't do crazy stuff. So for me, a good spin class means a safe spin class and that doesn't mean you're not getting your heart rate up, by the way.

Tom Butler:

I was interested one of the Instagram posts that you put out. You talked about how things have changed a bit as you've gotten older, and you talked about like staying up late at night or maybe staying up and having a little bit too much wine, that you can't do that anymore without consequences. So it seems like there are those things that we need to take in consideration as we age. How do you think about that in?

Donna Meier:

consideration. As we age, how do you think about that? I think, as obviously, as you get older, your body changes, but I also think your brain changes. And I'm not saying that in a bad way. I'm saying there's a lot of things that I do on the bike now that I wouldn't have done before. I ride. I ride a lot by myself, I. I go out and get my. It's all about the workout Now, it's not about racing around the city of Miami, but no, I go to.

Donna Meier:

I'm usually in bed between eight and nine o'clock because I wake up early. But yeah, if I have that extra glass of wine my superpower used to be, you know, I could wake up, I could get three hours of sleep, I could have had a couple of glasses of wine and I get on my bike and I ride like a crazy woman. Well, I can't do that anymore. It, you know, my body doesn't metabolize alcohol like it used to. So I have to be, you know, much more mindful of that and try and, you know, keep, you know drink lots of water, hydrate, but also, I don't, I just don't, I don't want to feel like that. I want to. I want to feel good when I wake up.

Donna Meier:

So yeah, I mean things definitely. I mean, after 25 years things have changed, but it doesn't mean that I still don't enjoy it. But I don't enjoy going out and having that extra glass of wine and feeling like crap the next day anyway. So it all works together. I don't. I don't, I'm not missing anything.

Donna Meier:

So, yeah, I mean, and you have to keep your diet pretty clean and I try and keep my weight where I'm comfortable on the bike. You know, I guess if my bike is, they say the best way to get a faster bike is to be lighter on the bike, because I'm not going to go and buy a new bike right now, so I'll get lighter on the bike instead of getting a lighter bike. So you know all those things. And then you know in your sixties, things and it's okay, it's really, I'm fine with all of it, really, as long as I can keep riding my bike and doing and my body performs and I have no injuries, knock on wood, and I stretch and I feel good and I'm 45, until I look in the mirror and I go oh yeah, you know, it's the skin that's the worst, because you're out in the sun and you're, you know, here in Miami. You probably don't have that problem up in, are you in?

Donna Meier:

Seattle outside of Seattle.

Tom Butler:

Just yeah, south of Seattle a little bit yeah.

Donna Meier:

You probably don't have that, but here it's, you know, hot and sunny. So so yeah, no, that extra glass of wine doesn't happen that often anymore.

Tom Butler:

Now you've benefited from something that is about consistency. You've kind of stayed with it, I think, since you were in your 40s. I think that's fair to say. And can you talk about the?

Donna Meier:

importance of that consistency. Well, I'll just say when I rode on a team, an all-male team, a Colombian team for about seven years, and every year we would have an awards banquet and guess who won best attendance.

Tom Butler:

Me Nice.

Donna Meier:

Always, rain or shine, donna is there, unless there's a hurricane or lightning, and I ride more now than I did 10 years ago. I ride Tuesday, thursday, saturday and Sunday. So I'm riding more now than ever, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It's the best way to start my day and it makes me feel good, it makes me feel strong, it makes me feel accomplished. It's a great habit. It makes me sleep good at night. I mean it keeps everything healthy. I don't know. I will be consistent. I'd be the first one to get kidnapped because somebody knows where to find me, because they know where I am all the time, because I do the same thing week in and week out on my bike. So, yeah, I'm very consistent, I'm very disciplined, I'm very dedicated and it's a it's the best habit that I'm glad I found.

Tom Butler:

Do you think that consistency has kept things in shape so you're less likely to be injured, or something like that?

Donna Meier:

Well, consistency with a couple of things. I mean I weight train, which helps keep your joints strong, keep your strength up, but I also stretch. I mean I'm not great at it but I do stretch and I've had some injuries, but nothing that just happened. It was because of crashes, broken collarbones, ribs, pelvis, but never injuries just from like. I mean I have a, I have a little bit of a issue with my meniscus in my right knee, but it comes and goes and I've been taking some supplements for it. It seems to be helping. But yeah, that's really about it.

Tom Butler:

Well, a broken pelvis is not a small thing.

Donna Meier:

That must've been broken in two places. No, it wasn't a small thing, that must have been. Yes, you have. I said really, and I think I did it hiking, I think I remember when I did it, but I just kind of kept going. But this one was a little worse.

Donna Meier:

This one was I was on the treadmill. She said the best thing to do is to. I mean, I had to watch my. I broke three ribs and my left collarbone at the same time, but I had to watch what I did because it hurt to walk. But she said the best thing you can do is is do weight bearing exercises to start the pelvis. You know, re, re, I forgot the word regrowing, basically. So I started, I still taught spin class, but I walked on the treadmill at 1.1 miles an hour, no, 0.01 miles an hour.

Donna Meier:

I hobbled on the treadmill and each week I'd go a little bit faster. But my clients know what to do during spin class. I just tell them and play the music and they know what to do. But within four weeks of breaking my pelvis I was back on my spin bike and that was weird. And then, I think after about six weeks, I got back on my road bike. I stayed away from a lot of people, I was very nervous and the crash really, I hit a pothole, which is the stupidest thing on the planet, but I went down like a ton of bricks at 20 miles an hour. So anyway, so I don't have a lot of injuries. It's just from crashes, not just from, not from weakness. I mean weak muscles or weak joints or anything like that.

Tom Butler:

And again it seems like you know that's. That's something that comes with consistency. You're keeping things strong, something that comes with consistency, you're keeping things strong and also maybe just being consistent with technique and really being disciplined as far as how you're doing things. Is that?

Donna Meier:

well there, I mean, there is such thing as overuse, which you know I probably could be, could be accused of overusing my joints, but they're all doing good.

Donna Meier:

I mean, you know, my hips don't hurt, my knees don't hurt. I'm a little tired sometimes and my body feels tight sometimes. But yeah, I think overall if I quit for I mean, there was another time I got injured. I think I was off the bike for almost two months three months because I got a frozen shoulder after I broke my collarbone. It was horrible. That took a while to come back from, but I was younger, I was in my early fifties, so I was younger. No, I hope for no more injuries and I'm just like I said, I do the same thing week in and week out and I listened to my body and I and I try, and you know, if I'm tired one day I go a little bit slower, you know, like a recovery ride, if there's ever such thing. But yeah, I just kind of listen to it. But I think you're right, consistency has probably been key.

Tom Butler:

You talked about weight training and I'm wondering how you speak about the role of weight training to clients.

Donna Meier:

Well, since I train only women and you know they're getting older as I'm getting older because they've been with me for so many years, muscle mass is imperative as you get older, especially as a menopausal woman, imperative, I mean. You need to keep your bones strong, you need to keep your joints strong. The muscle that you build will help you burn the calories that you know they talk about that menopausal weight gain, whatever I mean between the cardio and building the muscle and eating plenty of lean protein. That's, you know. That's that's my mantra now for my clients, because you know most of my clients.

Donna Meier:

I have clients maybe the youngest ones in their mid fifties. My oldest clients just turned 80. She's 86. She's been working out for 21 years, yeah. So as women, we need to keep our muscle mass, and it's very hard for women to keep muscle mass after menopause. So the weights have to get heavier, the diet has to get cleaner and the protein has to get lean and you got to eat it at every meal. I don't know what else to say about that. It's just imperative to work out.

Tom Butler:

When you're talking about eating lean and quality and everything that's not the typical American diet.

Donna Meier:

No, it's not. Ultra processed food is the typical American diet, which is why there's so much obesity obesity, diabetes, cholesterol issues, heart issues. Oh yeah, no, no, the cheap food out there is the way to go for a lot of people. But you know, eating lean doesn't mean you know, I eat a lot of. I eat lean turkey, lean chicken, lean fish. I eat a lot of hard boiled eggs. I eat a lot of hummus and salads and vegetables and don't, don't get me wrong, I like my French fries. But you know, I try and do the 80-20 thing and keep my diet as clean as I can, but I can't eat that. That crap doesn't make me feel good. That fast, ultra-processed food does not make me feel good and it doesn't make most people feel good. But I don't really think that they understand how good they can feel if they just switched up their diet and just started putting on some sneakers and start walking. It's really that simple. Maybe not, maybe it's not that simple.

Tom Butler:

Maybe that's why we have a problem. Well, I'm imagining that you do still get asked a lot about how you stay fit. Am I right about that?

Donna Meier:

I get asked but I think people go, oh, you're lucky, you're just skinny. And I'm like, yeah, I, I put a lot of effort into into what I do, and not to be skinny but to be healthy. No, I just you know people. That's a very interesting subject because you know, a lot of people don't want to hear the truth about how to eat healthy and how to exercise healthy, because it really, when I explain it, it really sounds pretty easy. But it's not because people get in, they have it's a lifestyle choice and some people don't want to change their lifestyle, you know. So it can get very, especially for the women that I've worked out in the past. It can be a very emotional issue eating and weight gain and making excuses and never having enough time to take care of themselves because they're taking care of everybody. It's just, uh, it's.

Tom Butler:

It's a very complicated issue, especially with women and maybe with men, but I work men out, so well, I think it is a important observation that there is an emotional component component to it, there is a cultural component to it. There is a cultural component to it and it does get complicated.

Donna Meier:

Very. I mean, I live in Miami and it's, you know, there's a very Latin, obviously, influence here in Miami and the Latin diet is, you know, lots of white rice. I have a client who buys a 20-pound bag of white rice once a month and they eat it all. I can't demonize white rice because you can have a little bit. I mean, I eat sushi. It has white rice, but 20 pounds a month. No, the, the, the, the culture here is definitely the. The diet is not the most healthy on the planet. But you know, there's a lot of information out there for people. There's really no excuse to not learn how to eat somewhat properly. You know, you just do your research and start learning and teaching yourself. You know, it's, it's all out there, you just have to. You have to just go get it.

Tom Butler:

You have made staying fit a priority in your life, but I'm guessing, like anybody, like everybody, that that was a choice that you had to make. Do you have any thoughts about what has been successful for you in making a priority? You talked about having kids and there's school and there's activities and all that. How is it that you were able to prioritize that over the years?

Donna Meier:

Well, when the kids were my kids are little, they're on their thirties now but when they were little, like I said I only that's when I only rode once a week. I rode on Sundays, but I spun. Probably I taught like six or seven spin classes a week. So that was enough cardio for me. But as I got older I was able to ride a little bit more, and then they they all, you know went off to college and now they all have their own lives. So it's a priority. But it's also a priority not just physically. But you know, there's been times in my life where I've definitely struggled with depression and let me tell you, there's nothing better than exercise for depression. It's better for you than meds and the lasting effect is far better. And the byproduct of getting in shape is the reward of all that. So it's definitely mentally and physically important to me to this day.

Tom Butler:

It's an interesting thing for me, because those times when I'm feeling down or I'm feeling kind of, you know, maybe out of it or whatever a little bit tired, like, the hardest thing is to actually get out the door. Once I get out the door and start pedaling, there's this real transformation.

Donna Meier:

Right, it's like you're one workout away from a good mood. You got to fit it till you make it. Just, I don't care, unless you have COVID, which that's one time I didn't ride, even if I've had felt like I was kind of getting the flu or I had kind of a migraine. You think, come on, I tell you, I get on the bike and get home within two hours and I feel like a new person. There's something about the hormones and the endorphins and everything getting your blood moving.

Tom Butler:

It's just it's. It's to me it's the best medicine. I mean, I wouldn't advise that to everybody, but for me it works. How is the cycling environment in Miami you talked about? There's a bit of a cultural element there, is it. Is Miami working on creating safe spaces for cyclists? How do you feel about that?

Donna Meier:

Yeah, I mean the place I ride. If you Google it it's called Key Biscayne and it's a little Island off downtown Miami and there's, you know, bike paths, you know painted green. They're trying. I mean several people have been killed. I mean it's pretty sad, but I think they're trying.

Donna Meier:

But the problem is there's so many little cities attached to each other and they all have different, they all make different decisions. So you can be on a bike path in one place and now all of a sudden it disappears because suddenly it's another, like little municipality or whatever. So I think they're working on it. But Saturday and Sunday, I mean I can't tell you the amount of cyclists in Miami and in the past 20 years it's just become more and more and more crowds. I mean when I go out on Tuesday and Thursday morning, out on Key Biscayne, which is about 30 minutes from my house, there's pelotons and pelotons full of people riding at six o'clock in the morning.

Donna Meier:

I mean, it's just, the cycling community is very strong in Miami, but there's a lot of drivers here that they all have their own rule book and you have to be very defensive and very careful. And it's funny because this morning I was riding and it's pitch black. When I leave my house at 6am, the sun doesn't come up till about 7.15. So it's pitch black. I have two white lights on the front of my bike and two blinking red lights on the back of my bike. There's so many people out there riding with no lights on their bike. I'm like I almost ran into a guy on a bike because he had no lights and I came up on him. But you know people have to also. You know they can complain about the cars off all they want, but if the car can't see you, what are they supposed to do, you know? So there's also the cyclists have to be just as responsible as the drivers here in Miami, and that's probably the biggest issue, because there's been some really bad cycling accidents here. You know, really bad.

Tom Butler:

It's always tough to see something like that. You know I love supporting efforts to raise awareness and to get protected lanes and everything.

Donna Meier:

We have none of that. Our lanes are right next to the cars that fling their doors open. It's surprising, because Miami is so international. You would think that by now we would have some great cycling infrastructure and we do, like I said, in some places, but it's not continuous through each city, so it's kind of sad. So it'll be a while. I mean, they have plans to do something on Key Biscayne, where I ride, but these are 10, 15 years off. But Miami's grown so fast and it's so crowded and the traffic is so bad. You just have to be really careful.

Tom Butler:

Now, when you're working with an older audience, it sounds like that's a lot of your clients. What have you learned about the importance of recovery? You know either from a hard workout or from injury as we age.

Donna Meier:

Well, you know, I just to preface it by saying I don't work out, I don't train athletes or older athletes. The people that I work out and train are just everyday people. I don't know if that sounds weird, but I do not train athletes. So as far as my clients go, their workouts aren't really hard enough to warrant some sort of recovery and none of them have ever been injured that I can recall. But as far as taking rest days, I mean for me I haven't, it's an impossible task taking a rest day.

Donna Meier:

Recovery, I mean I'm definitely more tired than I used to be, but I'm also I used to ride much harder than I ride now. I mean I still ride hard. When I want to, I'll jump in the back of a group or whatever, but I mean I used to ride, we used to ride three hours nonstop, 25 miles an hour and faster. I mean it was just crazy. So recovery, I mean I, I, I don't know I get on my bike, I recover. Sometimes I ride slow. I get on my spin. My spin bike is actually when I teach my five classes a week. That actually is my active recovery.

Donna Meier:

Um, so, as far as recovery goes, my clients don't really need recovery, recovery goes. My clients don't really need recovery. They don't work out enough to warrant it as far as I'm concerned. I mean, they, you know, they lift their weights and they do their cardio and they go home and they live their lives and that's really the bottom line. They just, you know, want to get their activity in. But but as far as an athletic view on recovery, that's that's a whole nother story. Yeah, and you know, an injury, that's a whole other story, and injury, that's a whole other story. But, like I said, I haven't had any injuries, except for the ones from crashes, and those heal themselves over time.

Tom Butler:

One thing that you've shared on Instagram is your interactions with your mom.

Donna Meier:

And.

Tom Butler:

I'm wondering if you could talk a bit about that, if you feel comfortable talking about that a bit, and and maybe kind of what perspective that has given you as far as health is concerned.

Donna Meier:

Well, um, I, as a matter of fact, I went and saw her today. She's 86 years old, she has Alzheimer's, she's in a assisted living facility. She's been bedridden for four years. I mean she it was. It's been a slowly, slow, 13 year downspin for her and not realizing the dementia and the Alzheimer's was going to get so bad. But she doesn't even know who I am now. But she never really really ate healthy. She ate a lot of sugar. She never worked out like as a rule.

Donna Meier:

My father died from Parkinson's, my mother will die from Alzheimer's and the neurologist years ago looked at me and basically said you're kind of screwed. You got Alzheimer's on one side and Parkinson's on the other. He said take, he said to stay hydrated and keep working out. And that's not really the reason I work out, but it certainly is part of my motivation. I'm going to keep my brain as healthy as I can.

Donna Meier:

And who knows? I mean the lady that, my 86-year-old client that's been training with me for 21 years, when she wasn't working out with me, she was walking, you know, five miles a day and about two years ago dementia set in. So I either, you, just you don't know what you're going to get. I mean I'm hoping that what I'm doing can help my later years. I don't know. I have an identical twin sister that doesn't work out like I do, doesn't ride, and she has different kind of different health issues than I do. But being that we're identical twins, it'll be interesting to see what happens because our DNA is 99.9% identical, so there's a science experiment right there. But yeah, the brain disease is, I think about it a lot.

Tom Butler:

Do you have any thoughts about what are some common misconceptions about staying fit later in life or or starting a fitness program after 60?

Donna Meier:

Yeah, uh, yeah, people think you know you're too old. I don't know what old is and I can't even believe I'm 64. You know, I used to. I, you know, I say it to myself I'll be on Medicare in what? Nine months, eight months, I feel. I feel this.

Donna Meier:

I tell people I said you know, there there's no reason not to do something and it couldn't be easier than putting sneakers on your feet and going out for a walk cleaning up your diet a little bit. But the more you move, the better you're going to feel, and I don't care when you start. It's never too late, ever, yeah, I just it's never too late. I mean, I'm baffled by people who sit all day and don't feel good and then they don't understand how good, as I said before, they don't understand how good, as I said before, they don't understand how good they can feel because they think working out is such a horrible thing that it makes them feel yucky. But if they started working out they realized they'd feel they would just feel so much better.

Donna Meier:

But it takes a while. I mean, rome wasn't built in a day. If you've been sitting around for 10 years, it's going to take some time to start feeling a little bit better. But you know, every day you get up and you have to just kind of commit to just doing something. And it doesn't have to be complicated or a big deal. It's just people don't know where to start and they think it's very complicated.

Tom Butler:

I've talked to so many people that have started getting fit later in life and you know those first miles are they're tough and you know it takes some persistence to get through that. You do have to have a vision that you know that there is something down the road that is better, for sure.

Donna Meier:

Well, yes, and and and it takes it. I mean, if they're consistent it can take. Like when I get a new client they're fairly consistent. I mean consistent I'm talking about they see me maybe two days a week, sometimes three days a week, but they have to do something on their own and if they're consistent, within about four to six weeks they're going to start. They might start noticing something. Maybe their pants get looser.

Donna Meier:

I have a client who she doesn't work out hard, but her she just got her bone density back and it was 9% better in her hips than it was a year ago. And she's been working out and went out with me for about a year and she doesn't do a lot. So I said, imagine if you did more. You know so little things can happen inside, or at the cellular level or with your bones, or things that you can't like automatically see, like a bicep or a flat stomach or tight thighs, whatever. You may not see that right away, that that takes longer, but the internal stuff and what's happening to your brain, you know these are things that you know.

Donna Meier:

I always say if there was a little window to your heart and you could look in there and see it getting healthier. You know, with the weight lifting and cardio you would be so much more motivated. But you know, that's why I guess people get blood work and they can see the cholesterol come down, Maybe their blood pressure come down, Maybe the blood sugar come down. I had a client her A1C came down. She lost 20 something pounds. Her A1C came down. She's kept it off for 20 something years the way no, 15 years the with her, you know, to get her a1c done. So these things happen, people. You can exercise your way away from your medical, away from medications and away from feeling like crap.

Tom Butler:

In my opinion, yeah, I can testify that that's happened with me. So yeah, yay, yeah, congratulations thank you yeah, see, see you're, you can bear witness to what I'm saying yes, for sure I mean I I definitely feel like one of the really strong messages that I try to get out there is that I believe that I'm younger today than I was two year, two years ago, and well, chronologically maybe, maybe not, but physically yes. Yeah, for sure.

Donna Meier:

How old are you?

Tom Butler:

I'm 61 right now.

Donna Meier:

You're 61?.

Tom Butler:

Yeah.

Donna Meier:

Well, you're just a baby, that's right.

Tom Butler:

That is true. I'm just beginning the journey, so that's fine.

Donna Meier:

That's right.

Tom Butler:

I mentioned before that I discovered you on Instagram and I really like your Instagram posts and I find them inspiring and motivational and just fun. But I think it's really interesting to me, or puzzling to me, that you get criticism for for posting, and I'm wondering what goes on in your mind when you get some of these negative comments. I saw one where someone called you a narcissist and so I'm just curious like what is that like?

Donna Meier:

it's. You know what, at first it took it, it took me by surprise. I'm like, you know, because nobody likes to be called names and I tried to like because if I get, you know, 500, you know fantastically positive comments and one negative. The one you remember is the negative one and you know it eats away at you. But I responded a couple of times and then I realized that and sometimes I try, and you know, comment back to them, but their, their profiles are private so they can put it out there. They'll lob bombs but they won't take comments back. They're just a bunch of cowards. But yeah, I sometimes it bothers me and it takes me a while to get over. And then I realize don't they have something better to do? You'll get a life. Maybe they should start riding a bike or they should start working out. No, so I try not to let it bother me.

Donna Meier:

But the first couple, I got zinged a couple of times Like wow, I didn't, I kind of didn't expect that. But that's when you put yourself out there, which I am doing and I'm enjoying it, because I didn't, certainly didn't start my Instagram. It was just like a picture here and a picture there, and then one thing led to another and I thought, okay, I'll start talking, even though I don't really want to watch myself on video. I started enjoying it. And then I started getting ideas and ideas and ideas, and I always have something to say and I always have stories. So it just kind of caught on. But, like I said, every in a while I get zinged, and that's okay, I'm okay with it.

Tom Butler:

Now I think one of the most humorous comments is aren't you too old to bike?

Donna Meier:

I mean, yeah, to me it's like, and I invited him to come ride with me I love that yeah yeah it to me.

Tom Butler:

It's so funny because here you are obviously biking, you're boasting about your biking. It's so funny because here you are obviously biking, you're boasting about your biking. So it's almost like can't you see that?

Donna Meier:

I'm not too old to bike, right, right.

Tom Butler:

I'm just really, you know, to me it says something about their concept of biking. Do you know what I mean?

Donna Meier:

Yeah, their concept of biking and possibly their concept of fitness, because they're probably sitting behind a keyboard somewhere, you know. Miserable, but um no, and you know, sometimes it's funny because I get more nasty comments from men than I do from women. Women are so supportive. It's certain men that just don't want to see a woman out there possibly doing something that they can't do or doing something better that they can do, or just even having an opinion or a voice. I've never gotten a negative comment from a female, ever, and I get a lot of comments. It's just, it's one of my observations and, you know, and I'm finding it more and more true as the weeks go by.

Tom Butler:

Talk about women's professional cycling. I think that you follow it and can you share your perspective on it?

Donna Meier:

I do, but I, you know I'm I feel a little guilty that I don't follow it as close as I should. I I started riding a bike because I saw the tour, a road bike because I saw the Tour de France in 1999. And it's when Lance was like a big deal and it was. You know, america was watching and that's why I bought a Trek and you know, I went out there and I rode like a maniac. But I'm addicted to watching the tour every year and I saw, I watched the, the, the FEMS, the Tour de France FEMS, but not as faithfully as I watch the Tour de France femmes, but not as faithfully as I watch the Tour de France. And I even got to see the Tour de France in 2015.

Donna Meier:

I was on Alpe d'Huez, in the French Alps. So I don't know. I got to say I should support women's cycling more. It's just it's hard to find on TV right now Because you know I changed to YouTube TV and whatever it's hard to find. But I know I changed to YouTube TV and whatever it's hard to find, but I know when the tour is on, I know where to find it. At the Olympics, I followed the women's cycling for sure.

Tom Butler:

I think it's an important thing that women's cycling, women's professional cycling gets more attention. You look at stories like Christian Faulkner and there's really yeah, it's not really what a great story right.

Donna Meier:

Oh what a great story, yeah.

Tom Butler:

And you know you're not going to. You don't find any better stories than that.

Donna Meier:

And.

Tom Butler:

I'm imagining most people have heard of Christian Faulkner but if you haven't, just go kind of look up her story and her olympics and everything.

Donna Meier:

It was just I think she went from riding, taking road bike classes in central park to being a pro and winning the olympics her gold medal in the olympics within six years. I want to say, yeah, something like that, it's amazing.

Tom Butler:

It is amazing and she did have you know she was an athlete, so she did have some good foundation to it. But I mean, that's some very technical writing and the you know yes. And she seems like a super bright person based on her academic accomplishments and everything but smart racer fit and uh, you know it's.

Donna Meier:

Uh, yeah, I think the the stars all aligned for her that day, because I think I can't remember who crashed. I think she crashed her. She got a flat so kristen faulkner was able to get ahead and then she was like she was. You know like she was, you know like lightning she just went. You know she was hell bent on getting to the finish line. So it was, it was. That was, to me, the best part of the Olympics.

Tom Butler:

Really good. Yes, do you have any cycling adventures coming up?

Donna Meier:

Well, no, I, you know. Every time I ride, which is, like I said, four days a week, it's an adventure. I saw a shark this morning.

Tom Butler:

Oh, wow.

Donna Meier:

Yeah, I saw a shark feeding when the sun was coming up this morning. Yeah, every time I ride, it's an adventure, but I have done many events in my past. Many events even rode through Tuscany, then, like I said, through the French Alps. I climbed Alpe d'Huez twice while following the tour to France in 2015. So I've been on a, I've done a lot of cycling, cycling things, but no, it's just uh, the, the. The adventures are Tuesday, thursday, saturday and Sunday.

Tom Butler:

Right, and if I?

Donna Meier:

can get on on Friday those are my adventures. And I do the same route all the time and let me tell you, each ride is completely different depending on you know, the weather, the wind, what I see there's always. There's always something interesting out there every day, but, like I said, today I saw a shark.

Tom Butler:

So, Donna, how do people follow you in in your adventures?

Donna Meier:

On Instagram at fitness by Donna.

Tom Butler:

Okay, I will put a link in the show notes of that, by the way, so people can.

Donna Meier:

I mean, I have a website but it's you know, I don't. I don't put a lot on it. That's more for for a business, but no, at fitness. By Donna on Instagram. Um, I think it transfers to Facebook, but I don't really go on Facebook, so Instagram is where all the adventures go.

Tom Butler:

Perfect, Donna. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I just really enjoyed getting to know you and hearing about your cycling and about training and everything. I really appreciate it.

Donna Meier:

Well, thank you, I appreciate it too. You know, I always like to, uh, to impart my, my cycling wisdom, my old wisdom, and, you know, as you get in your sixties you just suddenly feel like you have a little bit more wisdom you can share, even to, you know, for younger cyclists, but even to. I mean, I don't know if younger cyclists are interested in listening to a podcast called cycling over 60, but maybe they're thinking it's over 60 miles an hour to a podcast called Cycling Over 60, but maybe they think it's over 60 miles an hour.

Tom Butler:

I like it.

Donna Meier:

Over 60 miles an hour, then they would listen. But no, I like to impart my wisdom, you know. So thank you for reaching out to me.

Tom Butler:

Well, have fun with all your cycling and take care.

Donna Meier:

Thank you, you too.

Tom Butler:

Bye. I can't imagine what it's like to train someone for 25 years. The fact that she keeps clients that long is a testament that Donna is able to really connect with people and meet their needs. How fun it must be to see someone start out and get stronger and then see them keeping with it over time. Good for her that she is having that kind of impact on others.

Tom Butler:

I will put a link to Donna's Instagram in the show notes. I'm also going to put a link to the bike company she mentioned, aragon 18. I had never heard of it and looked it up, so I thought I would drop the link in for anyone else who is interested. As the days get colder and wetter here in the Northwest, I find myself thinking about how nice it would be to escape to New Zealand and ride there for a few months. It looks like November and December can be really nice in New Zealand. Maybe someday I will make it there for a cycling trip. Whether you are dealing with days getting colder here in the Northern Hemisphere or the opposite, in the Southern Hemisphere, I hope you are having some fantastic experiences on the bike, maybe even seeing a shark, and remember age is just a gear change. Bye.

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Tom Butler

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