Cycling Over Sixty

Launching Season Four

• Tom Butler • Season 4 • Episode 1

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In this special episode of Cycling Over Sixty, the tables are turned as a guest host puts Tom Butler on the hot seat for an honest and revealing season retrospective. Tom opens up about the highs and lows of Season 3, sharing insights about what worked and what fell short of expectations.

Join us for an intimate conversation where Tom reflects on his favorite moments from the past season. He doesn't shy away from discussing the challenges either, addressing areas where Cycling Over Sixty can improve and grow.

Looking ahead to Season 4, Tom shares his vision for the podcast's evolution and the new directions he's excited to explore. Whether it's discovering new adventures, exploring new cycling topics, or expanding the conversation around fitness after sixty, you'll get a preview of what's coming next.

This episode offers a perspective from an average cyclist who's committed to documenting his journey while helping others discover the transformative power of cycling later in life. Tom's authentic approach and dedication to continuous improvement make this a must-listen for anyone who's been following along or is curious about starting their own cycling journey after sixty.

Perfect for long-time listeners wanting behind-the-scenes insights and newcomers looking to understand what Cycling Over Sixty is all about.

LINK

Cycling Over Sixty Tour de Cure Team: tour.diabetes.org/teams/CO60

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

McKenna Miler:

This is the Cycling Over 60 Podcast, season four episode one, launching season four, and this is your host, McKenna Myler. It's time to look back at season three and look forward into season four, so we get to put Tom Butler on the hot seat as a guest. So, Tom, you've done this before, but what is it like for you to be a guest on your podcast?

Tom Butler:

Yeah, it's never that comfortable for me. You know, there's like a natural flow for me. I'm naturally curious. And so, like asking questions and engaging with people that way, I'm I'm comfortable with that, but trying to answer questions and get stuff out of my brain, that's a different thing. And I'm not very comfortable in this place. At the same time, I do think it's a good way to think about things that I might not think about otherwise.

McKenna Miler:

So you've just finished up season three, and now you're going into season four. And so it's been three seasons now. And as your daughter, I look back to when you first started this podcast, and it was really exciting for me. I've kind of heard my whole life, and and I feel this way too, about how you have such a great voice. People always say, like, man, you have such a good speaking voice. And that's that's kind of funny to say, like, you know, your dad's voice is kind of soothing for you to think when you're growing up. And it's been really fun just to see, like you said, that natural curiosity side of you to be able to interact with these people to kind of have an excuse to talk to these people that you think are super cool, but but bring this information to people that you love and that that interests you. It's been really fun to see.

Tom Butler:

You know, it's interesting that you say that. I several people have told me that I've got a good voice for the podcast. And I think this is like with everybody, you know, but I hear my voice and it sounds so different to me, you know, and I feel like I sound kind of slow, kind of like I don't know what the word for everybody kind of just uh dopey. I don't know what the right word is, but so but it is interesting, and I'm glad that it works out that I found something that can utilize that side of me, I guess, is the right way to look at it.

McKenna Miler:

Yeah, it's really cool to see.

Tom Butler:

Nice.

McKenna Miler:

All right. Well, let's get into some questions.

Tom Butler:

Okay.

McKenna Miler:

Are you getting tired of doing the podcast?

Tom Butler:

When I launched the podcast, I uh only thought it was gonna be like a few months that was you know just about reporting on this journey of trying to get to do the STP. I was just trying to see how far I could go. So after that was done, just never felt like work or anything. It always felt like fun, and there was always more experts that I wanted their opinion, always more people that I was interested in talking to. People started reaching out and giving their story, or they'd tell something about somebody that they knew. And it's just always interesting to me. And so it's never gotten old. And in fact, this summer I didn't do that many podcasts. It was a really crazy summer, and I missed it and I missed the conversations. I'm not tired of it, and it doesn't feel like I will be because if I would run out of interesting things, maybe, but I just don't see that happening.

McKenna Miler:

Yeah, definitely there's not gonna be an end to your curiosity.

Tom Butler:

Yes, I think that's true, and I'm glad.

McKenna Miler:

You kicked off season three with goals across three areas writing goals, health goals, and community goals. As you look back now at 116 episodes total, which of those three goals surprised you most in terms of how it actually unfolded?

Tom Butler:

Uh, yeah, that's an interesting question. I guess I'd have to say the community piece. Specifically, how my role with Tacoma Washington Bicycle Club emerged. I see the bicycle club as an important component of a cycling over 60 community. And so as we're building this first community in Tacoma, which is taking longer than I than I had hoped. But as I'm building it, I I did take on this role of community and government relations director at Tacoma Washington Bicycle Club. And that has been such a massive education for me as far as advocacy is currently concerned, as far as what happens to make bike infrastructure move forward. The president of the club, Bob Meirich, is such a you know, 40 years of bike advocacy. And it's just been awesome being able to hear from him about how things happen. That's been a really different kind of role that I that I'm truly enjoying. Yeah, and actually getting revved up about. I can get revved up about stuff, you know, like social justice stuff and all kinds of stuff, I can get revved up about. So bike infrastructure is something that I can get really passionate about. So it's it's been surprising how that has unfolded.

McKenna Miler:

In seeing how these goals have unfurled, you set a goal to do seven organized rides with at least three outside of Washington State. How did that pan out? And what was your favorite experience?

Tom Butler:

It ended up being a lot harder to do seven rides than I thought. And hoping that that's just this summer. We did have a really crazy summer. And I'm hoping that I'll be able to do more in the future. So I did six. I only did one ride that was technically outside of Washington, but it was interesting because I took my bike along on some trips that we did as a family. I rode with the Eugene Bicycle Club gears down in Oregon. And also on July 4th, I rode in Idaho. I also rode in Lebanon, Oregon, which was really cool because I got to experience some back roads, and it was a like a different environment that I was used to. So even though I didn't do a lot of organized rides out of Washington, I did experience a lot of really cool environments because I took my bike along.

McKenna Miler:

So would you say that was your your favorite ride experience was experiencing those back roads?

Tom Butler:

No, that's a really good experience. But definitely, I would have to say, doing the tour to Victoria. That was something that I did with Kelly with your mom. And it was just a really fun trip. And just the way that they organized that ride, even though we got soaked in the first half of the ride, the weather cleared up and it was just a fantastic ride. And I really look forward to doing it again. There are two different things going on. One, like being out on these back roads that I hadn't experienced ever before. And the the ride that I did in Oregon, uh, that we went to the wedding. Where did we enterprise? You stayed in Enterprise, right?

McKenna Miler:

Yeah. Yeah.

Tom Butler:

What's that little town on the way to the mountains? Joseph.

McKenna Miler:

Where I got engaged. Continue. That little town in the mountains where I got engaged. Minor detail about your daughter.

Tom Butler:

Yeah. So that very significant town in Oregon. You know, riding around out there, that was pretty magical. I talked about that in another podcast. So if you can find it, but so you might want to go back and listen to that. That was really cool, but there was something really just special about riding that Tour de Victoria with Kelly and just how well of a job they did with it. And of course, it was a weekend trip and we had a lot of fun. Well, yeah, that had to be the highlight of season three.

McKenna Miler:

Yeah, Garen and I missed out on that bike ride. And after seeing those pictures and videos that you guys had, man, that was one to miss. I wish we could have been there for that.

Tom Butler:

You guys need to do that. And you didn't miss the half day of rain of getting soaked. So if you do it in the future, you got a chance of weather being better, and that would even make it more awesome. But yeah, you guys, you guys have to do that.

McKenna Miler:

I mean, we bike all year round. We're in Seattle. We know, we know how to do that.

Tom Butler:

And that was the thing obvious about that ride is that you're with a bunch of people from the Pacific Northwest. Yeah, we're getting a little bit of cat chatter, but that's okay. You're with people used to riding the Pacific Northwest. So the rain didn't shut things down. And then again, it cleared up and it was really pretty.

McKenna Miler:

I know that ride was something that you really were looking forward to. Another thing that you were also looking forward to was joining the Cascade Bicycle Club Petal Relief Project. And you wanted to do that to give back to the community by delivering food by bike. Did you make that happen?

Tom Butler:

I did not make that happen. That is still one of those things that I want to do, that I really want to experience. The thing that we did, and and we did that together was Cranksgiving. That's going to be coming up again. I really want to do that again.

McKenna Miler:

Yeah.

Tom Butler:

That was a lot of fun. So there was that element of like a pedal relief kind of activity. And I love that. I still want to do pedal relief, but I know for sure that I want to keep doing Cranksgiving.

McKenna Miler:

Awesome. I think that's just such a great way to give back to the community and get involved. Bikepacking was another major area that you wanted to explore in season three. How did your first bikepacking experiences go? And how did they compare to your expectations?

Tom Butler:

Unfortunately, there wasn't bikepacking experiences. There was a bikepacking experience. I definitely wanted to do more. The experience that we had was great as far as like first trip to do. Ended up changing a bit. And take we took a ferry over, and then the ferry coming back, just the trying to make the ferries work interrupted it a bit, but it was just a really good taste of what bikepacking was, and then without a lot of risk. So you had driven the car over, and we did have the car there, and that changed it a bit, but still the bike and the you know, the gear and everything got to experience it enough to know that I gotta do it more. I'm still looking for a time to go out, even though it's gonna start getting cold. I I want to go out again before the weather gets really bad here. But uh I think there's an issue with my bike. So we might talk about that more. I'm not sure that I have the perfect bike for bike camping. I I know that I don't have the perfect bike for bike camping, so we'll just have to see how that, what happens with that.

McKenna Miler:

That would be really funny to see another bike come through this podcast.

Tom Butler:

Yeah. So Judson, you know, he's he laughs at the fact that I've been milking the podcast for bikes. Like he uses it uh almost as a weapon against his wife. I think Judson, I know you'll hear this. You know, it's like, look how many bikes Kelly's letting Tom get. I I don't know. I can't, I can't justify it, really. It's like, yeah. So there's uh because the podcast, I'm getting more bikes, but there's an element of it, like it almost has to happen. It just has to happen. I can't control it.

McKenna Miler:

Can't do anything about it. Maybe you need to start uh petitioning for for new bikes, making sure you're getting signatures from the appropriate people before you're have the bike purchase council.

unknown:

Yeah, okay.

Tom Butler:

You'll have to get it. It's like a research committee. You have to run by your plan for a new bike with the bike purchase committee to get approved. I might need something like that.

McKenna Miler:

Another application that you might need a different bike for is gravel riding, which was also something that you wanted to pursue, partly to ride more with my mom, Kelly. How has your gravel journey progressed? And how has it impacted your relationship and cycling with my mom?

Tom Butler:

It really has turned out not to be what we had hoped it would be. It's kind of a disappointing thing because Kelly doesn't like being on the road. And so being on gravel really sounded like a winning idea. At this point, with the bike she has, it's just not a comfortable thing. So we have not gone for a gravel ride this whole season. There's still a possibility that we could find something that would work for her to do that, and there's still, I think, logic that gravel riding could be really good for us. But it definitely did not pan out to what we had hoped because it's just gravel roads are kind of bumpy, and we haven't found smooth enough gravel trails to make it great. In addition to that, though, we're pretty comfortable on trails. So we did a 60-mile ride on a trail, and that was great. You know, we're not going to go farther than 50 miles, and there's a lot of good trails to do that. So I think trail riding right now is more interesting than gravel riding. However, going back to bike camping, I think that we would be more likely to do bike camping together on a gravel road than on a trail. But that might just be finding the right trails that have campsites, like the Olympic Discovery Trail. So we'll see. But it definitely did not pan out to be what we had hoped it to be so far.

McKenna Miler:

Yeah, I feel like we have growth as a family. We really want cycling to be this thing that we can do all together. And it seems like we haven't quite found that piece that we can all do together. And True to Victoria may have been that, but it'd be really cool to find whether it's bikepacking or gravel riding or whatever it is that that really brings us together on weekends. And I mean, Garen and I have stabilized and in our location a bit more recently. So I'm really looking forward to kind of this next season and how we can really come together as a family.

Tom Butler:

We jumped on this idea of being a cycling family at one point. And I feel like that was a little bit premature. I mean, you and Garen, you're in a new place now. You're gonna be starting a new job pretty soon. And I think you're still figuring out what's your rec recreation gonna look like. I want to reserve at least a couple trips, you know. Let's put that on there. And I think we had a great trip when we went to the Olympic Discovery Trail and we spent the night together at a really funky little campground place, and that was super fun. So I do want to reserve a couple things. Maybe next year we can look at Tour de Victoria together. But yeah, I I still want that to be one of those things that we do as a family.

McKenna Miler:

Yeah, absolutely. On August 2nd, 2024, you interviewed Dr. Jeffrey Gladden. He mentioned needing an exponential strategy for the exponential problem of aging. In season three, you wanted to pursue that idea more. Did that happen?

Tom Butler:

I didn't do as much of that as I wanted to. I really want to get into individualized medicine more and looking at longevity and longevity science and really dig in deep into that. On September 22nd, I did a podcast episode with the excellent people at Physician Coach. And I see Physician Coach and the people that they have there as really a perfect resource for digging into this deeper. And I'm going to be doing that with them, kind of for me personally. And then also I think the connections that they have are going to be good for me to find people. And then part of it was that I didn't do as many episodes this summer as I wanted. And so I just missed the opportunity to do some of the things I wanted to do, but it still remains a huge focus for me.

McKenna Miler:

Yeah, the longevity focus was central to season three. After all the conversations with experts this season, how has your understanding of what it takes to have a long and healthy life evolved?

Tom Butler:

I I have three things right now, and I feel like I'm still really adding to my knowledge about this, and I really want to add to my knowledge about this. But for me, consistency is number one. And then unfortunately, weight training is number two. I mean, the more I listen and read about rate training, it is just essential. And everybody who's listening to this, if you're not doing weight training, you need to go do weight training. And I'm saying that as someone that doesn't like it. And especially because weight training, you need to lift weights to the point where your muscles are stressed and it's uncomfortable, at least for me. Now, some people who I envy, they like that. They like pushing hard and their muscles failing and everything, and they're like, ah, that was awesome. I don't like that. Cycling is different for me. If I'm climbing up a hill and everything, I'm hurting. I get to the top of the hill. It's like, yay, but weight training, there's no yay to me with rate training. And every time I think about doing it, I'm like, oh, this is just uncomfortable. I wish it wasn't this way, but my upper body will atrophy if I don't do weight training and I'm still in that place. And I proved that in season three by doing 25 weeks in a row of two days a week lifting, that I'm able to change my muscle strength, my physique, everything by lifting. And that's just a functional thing to do. There's a whole bunch of things that I hope to have people speak to more that happens even for brain health, how lifting is attached to the brain health. There's just a lot that makes weight training essential. And the final thing is I'm still learning how to eat. I did an episode with Russ Youngberg and talked about blood glucose and managing blood glucose and insulin resistance, and all that stuff is at the core of my personal journey for longevity, is figuring that out. What I eat, how to eat to manage my blood glucose is number one. There's also this really interesting thing, and hopefully I'll be able to get into this in an episode, but I need to do some more investigation of it. And this is one of those things where I talk about don't do what I do. You know, I'm different than you, you know, don't do what I do. I am really curious about a concept of eating differently in the winter time than I do in the summer, because for most of our development as humans, we ate differently in the wintertime than we did in the summer. And so I'm thinking there might be something to do that. But that's a really wild thing that I'm gonna be looking at trying out. I mean, I'm still gonna do a lot of experimentation on myself. And I should point out that I experimented with something changing my diet, and it failed miserably. And that was, you know, really limiting the fat that I took in. And I'll talk about that more in some episode here coming up. Yeah, there's still a lot for me to learn about how I'm fueling myself.

McKenna Miler:

You wanted to optimize the cycling over 60 Strava Club and explore live events. What worked, what didn't, and how has the community grown?

Tom Butler:

I like Strava and I like having the Strava Club. I like posting to Strava. It is a place that I communicate with anybody that's part of the Strava Club. I know that not everybody is going to be on Strava. It's not the perfect way of communicating. And I'm super disappointed because I reached out to Strava. One of the things that I wanted to do in season three was to figure out a way to communicate, have some communication with Strava. I don't think that's possible. I think Strava is just really, don't they communicate with you unless you're like REI or some big entity like that. And I even reached out and asked for cycling over 60 to be considered an official club or whatever, but to get a check mark by the club's name because that would give me more options as far as posting is concerned. And they're like, you need to request it, and then you'll never hear back from us. You'll either see a check or you won't. And I didn't see a check. So I'm pretty disappointed with Strava as a community building tool, although I did use it a lot to reach out to people to let them know things going on. I can reach out to different clubs in the area and post on their Strava clubs, and that that was helpful, but it's not the perfect resource. So I'm still looking for something that's a better community organization tool than that. Or maybe it's even figuring out how to create a cycling number 60 app that would be helpful. That would be a big project, but that would be kind of cool.

McKenna Miler:

I've been pretty surprised recently hearing about people starting out in their early careers learning how to make new apps and how there's a lot of resources about how to make an app that's it's not too difficult to set up.

Tom Butler:

Yeah, I have used Claude to do some stuff, and I think it's possible that building an app would be something that Claude could be helpful with. If I get some spare time, I'm gonna play around with that. It'd be awesome to have more feedback from people about what they'd like to see in an app. So reach out and let me know. You can find my email in the show notes. But again, I'm still on the search for something to communicate better as a community. I do want to say a shout out to everybody that posts their pictures with their eyes because I love it. I love seeing your pictures. I said that before, but it's true.

McKenna Miler:

Yeah, I don't I don't think you can say that enough. How much you appreciate the people that support your community. Yeah. Let's shift now. Looking forward to season four. You floated the idea of a cycling over 60 group ride in September 2025. We're now past that date. What's the story there? And is a group ride still something that you want to pursue in season four?

Tom Butler:

Absolutely, yes. I want to do the group ride. So I think I did the episode on season three and what we were looking forward to, like about this same time, a year ago. Over season three, there was a lot of planning, things got interrupted a little bit for what we were gonna do. But I think everything that I wanted to accomplish with the event, it happened on September 14th. Everything that I wanted to accomplish for that event, I accomplished. And I'm really happy to be looking forward to growing that. I think one of the biggest things was having a really fun ride and having different rides for different people of different abilities and really supporting that, but then also having it be more of an event, just a celebration. So a celebration of cycling later in life. And I really am optimistic that it can be like maybe the best celebration of older cyclists in the nation, you know. Why not? And so I'm having really good conversations with people, and I'm really confident in September of 2026, it will start emerging as a real awesome event.

McKenna Miler:

That was really fun to be part of.

Tom Butler:

I do want to look at getting you special cycling over 60 support jerseys. You know, people look at you and go, You're here, you know, but you're definitely not over 60. But you know, cycling over 60 is about embracing cycling later in life, no matter what age you are. So, really, you know, we're looking at people that are 55, people are maybe looking at retirement, but at the same time, to have younger people there, you know, and seeing, I it's inspirational, right? When you see people that are older cycling, staying fit, and everything, I think that's an inspiration to everybody.

McKenna Miler:

Oh, absolutely. I mean, I routinely say that, and I said it at the event, you know, I'm really looking forward to my 50s and 60s. I think there's a lot of cool milestones that you hit. And especially as a woman, I'm just really looking forward to that freedom and that part of my life.

Tom Butler:

And cycling can be a huge part of that. So, yeah.

McKenna Miler:

Absolutely. At 116 episodes in, you've interviewed dozens of experts and everyday cyclists. How has hosting this podcast changed you as a person beyond just your fitness level?

Tom Butler:

It's a really interesting question because obviously there were changes going on in me throughout the first three seasons. Like I said, I didn't plan on it lasting this long, but it has kept going. So anything that that's like a weekly thing for that long a time has an impact. The thing that I think about is I've gotten a lot of feedback about the questions that I ask and also the tone that I set, that's kind of a conversational tone. I like that. And I'm finding that I want to focus more on that ability. And I think that can't help but change me and have me grow. You know, being interested in what others have to say, being interested in creating a conversation, thinking, how do I take my curiosity, put it in a form of a question, and draw out things with people. I think that's a a wonderful thing uh to be developing. I don't know how much I can develop as like a professional podcaster. I have to edit myself a lot, as much as anybody that's a guest. I have to edit me. And one thing about that is I don't think I could ever do video. I would have to grow so much to be able to do video or to do live. Because I find it's more difficult now for me at my age to think on the fly. I don't think I'm gonna be able to do something like video, but it's something for me to work towards. One thing that I would say that my mind has just been blown over and over again is what can be shaped later on in life. Our brains are not set in stone at 60 years old. So I can't look at myself and go, you can't teach old dogs new tricks. I have to be open that maybe I can polish what I do up enough that it would be good for video or something. Again, I think that shaping of me as someone that can really create a space to have good conversations and increasing that ability, uh that's obviously been changed over time.

McKenna Miler:

The change that I've seen you make in your fitness level since you started this podcast and first set out to do the Seattle to Portland bike ride with Garen. I mean, it's been absolutely phenomenal to witness. I certainly have felt myself that's like, okay, I can set myself on a path now to really help me be successful later in life, but also it's never too late to start. And I really appreciate that.

Tom Butler:

That is the message that I want to pass on to you. I want to be a father that you look at and you go, okay, when you're older, you can be fit. And it's wonderful that that you see that.

McKenna Miler:

Yeah. I have both parents to look up to for sure.

Tom Butler:

Nice.

McKenna Miler:

What's one cycling experience or adventure that you've never mentioned on the podcast that you're secretly dreaming about for season four?

Tom Butler:

It's hard to think of something because I pretty much whatever comes to my mind, I share on the podcast. So if I'm thinking about something exciting about something, I share it. So I'd have to like really I have to look at kind of the fringes of stuff. And there is one thing I can think of. We interestingly have quite a few podcasts that have been listened to by people in Limerick, Ireland. And also there's some in Dublin as well. I would love to pull this off. And maybe season four, it's too optimistic to think we could do this in season four, but to do a bike ride from Limerick to Dublin, that would be absolutely fantastic. And this is kind of some insight the way that my brain works. I have all these things parked in my brain, thousands of ideas in my brain. If I notice something like, oh, here's a company that does bike rides in Ireland, I kind of add that to my file in my brain about doing Limerick to Dublin. So that's probably the thing that I haven't shared that's on my list of things I'd like to do.

McKenna Miler:

Garen and I call that the idea bookshelf. Okay. When you have an idea. And it honestly helps because you can say this is for the idea bookshelf. And so it's like, okay, I don't have to base my next steps on this idea. This is just something we say and we can park it up there on the bookshelf.

Tom Butler:

Right. And it's interesting because you guys are 25. And so if you think I'd like to do a bike ride from Limerick to Dublin someday, you've got a long time to make that happen. I'm tempted to say, oh my goodness, at my age, this has to happen. And that was like with SDP, when I was like, well, I missed the opportunity to do SDP. But the truth of the matter is, I have to look at things and say, if this doesn't happen for 10 years, it still can happen. But I surely want to make it happen sooner than that.

McKenna Miler:

That would just be so much fun. I think we have to get those official support jerseys because you're not doing that without me.

Tom Butler:

Yeah, we we will definitely need two support riders.

McKenna Miler:

I have to ask, how far would that bike ride be?

Tom Butler:

I don't know, but I think of Ireland as not being that huge. I mean, riding from Seattle to Portland is 206 miles. That's a long way. The spaces, especially in the western part of the US, are so far. I don't think Ireland will be that far. Maybe you should look that up.

McKenna Miler:

Okay, so it looks like from Dublin to Limerick, 238 kilometers.

Tom Butler:

Okay, so 100 kilometers is about 63 miles. So it's like 120. What was it? What 200 and what?

McKenna Miler:

238.

Tom Butler:

238. So to do a two-day trip, 70 miles a day, 75 miles a day, or something like that, you know, 120 kilometers in a day, or may we do a three-day trip? I the thing is going over there, I don't want to buzz through, you know, but if we made it a three-day trip, that would be a great three-day trip. Perfect. Okay, so if you live in Limerick, let me know. Is there a good route? You know, a good bike route from Limerick to Dublin, or better yet, is there a tour company or is there a group? You know, is there a Limerick bike club that would want to do a ride from Limerick to Dublin? I'd love to make that happen.

McKenna Miler:

That'd be way too cool. Bringing it back in, looking at the three focus areas from season three: longevity, community expansion, and bigger cycling adventures. Which one needs the most attention in season four?

Tom Butler:

The ideal would be to elevate all of them, right? But I do want to go deeper into longevity. I talked about the bicycle as a medical device. I do want to dig deeper into that. And I do want to get more into how important activity is and what's happening when you're active. And what happens if you haven't been active, you're 55 or 60, and you haven't been active, and you start getting active. What impact can exercise have at that point? I do you want to get deeper into science about that? I just finished a book, that it's an older book called Younger Next Year. And there are a bunch of concepts from that book that I'd like to explore further. One thing that comes out of that book, and I've heard it in other places too, but really emphasized in that book is that there is no standing still. You are either decaying or you're growing. So to grow, you have to be active. Understanding that more, why is that? Why is there no I can stop and stay at a place? Why do I have to be active in order to not decay? I think I want to really dig deep into that in season four.

McKenna Miler:

Are there any new areas that you want to focus on in season four?

Tom Butler:

I did an episode on November 9th last year about cyclocross. And I did my first cyclocross race. I did that. You know, I talked about that a bit last episode. I want to explore cyclocross more in season four because it's an interesting experience for cycling, as far as I'm concerned. I'd like to bring some listeners along on the cyclocross journey with me. That's one of those new areas that I want to focus on.

McKenna Miler:

You said you did your first cyclocross race. You also won your first cycle cross race, which I think is just fantastic.

Tom Butler:

Well, that has to be taken in context, which was that there was no one else my age in my category.

McKenna Miler:

But that itself is a testament to you going out there and doing that. I mean, it's awesome.

Tom Butler:

I think more of a testament is that I didn't walk off the course. I mean, I stayed with it, but I was slow. I was really slow. This is another one of these things. Like, I need another bike. I mean, I'm just sorry, but I need another bike. I need a bike, and this is definitely a possibility. I need a cycle cross bike that is also a bike camping bike that's also a gravel bike. You see, one bike, all of them right.

McKenna Miler:

So convince the committee.

Tom Butler:

Yes, I need to I need to get the proposal to committee. Okay.

McKenna Miler:

Sail to Portland has also been a big part of all three seasons. Do you plan on it being part of season four?

Tom Butler:

Yes, I do.

McKenna Miler:

Good.

Tom Butler:

Are you planning on SDP being a part of your season four?

McKenna Miler:

Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. We kind of mentioned that I'm gett getting settled into this new place with Garen, and one of those things is that we have a really nice gym in the building that we're in now. And I'm really excited to start utilizing that to help me get to my fullest potential.

Tom Butler:

Yeah. I think last year it was so interesting doing the STP the way that we did it last year. I mean, we went faster by a lot than we had done the other two years. I'm looking forward to having a different experience next year. I'm looking forward to you doing it for the first time and us all focusing on you having a great STP. I do think you want to go into it fit.

McKenna Miler:

Yeah.

Tom Butler:

If you go into it at like peak fitness, I will have a heck of a time keeping up with you. I know that that's true. Although I am increasing my functional threshold power, maybe I'll be okay. But if you go into peak fitness, I think you're really gonna enjoy it.

McKenna Miler:

In order to get there, I have to figure out how to be on a bike consistently. And that is something that is hard for me in the wintertime in Seattle because it gets dark and I get home and it's dark. So that's gonna be a real challenge for me. I mean, I've been committed. I did STP in 2024. I got through that first day, but I think it was because my body was really pushing for that. Like I can push my body to do it, but I got sick. So I know that I need to be at a higher level of fitness in order to not just push my body over the edge.

Tom Butler:

And I'm really hoping that it's not as hot as it's been. That's a problem being that hot.

McKenna Miler:

It's probably less of a problem for me than it is for you, but it's definitely something that contributed.

Tom Butler:

Yeah. I think it's so interesting because I'm a different place. Psyching over 60 has really become like a mission for me. And my focus on being an inspiration to others when I can be, finding the information that people need to be cycling later on in life. It's really become like my life's focus right now. It's different for me when I'm out on the bike. I'm doing my mission. It's part of my mission. Even at that, it's hard for me. I mean, in the last couple weeks, it's been hard for me to find the time to get out. For you guys at 25, the culture, the world, everything is not pushing you to go out and go for a bike ride. You have to push against the culture. You have to push against what is considered how to live your life in order to find the time to be out on the bike. You know, Garen has a little bit of an easier time because he can commute by bike, but it's tough. I don't know how you do it. You have to fight for it.

McKenna Miler:

The thing I think about is do I need to get a bike trainer put up down in our gym in our building?

Tom Butler:

I would say yes, because I'm selfish. Because if you could get on Zwift, then we could ride together, and it's a really good way to kind of see what's happening with your fitness.

McKenna Miler:

Yeah.

Tom Butler:

I'd say yes. You need to get a trainer.

McKenna Miler:

Maybe an even bigger part of our family for you when it comes to your upcoming adventures is mom. She's been a part of your journey in these past three seasons. What role do you see her playing in your season four adventures?

Tom Butler:

Definitely her encouragement has been massive. It has been essential. That's a big role that she will continue to play, I know. And I'm not really sure, to be honest. She has had this kind of crazy period in her life, and it got really complicated with the passing of her father. That created a whole bunch of demands on her time. I think things might be stabilizing a bit. There's been some changes, and I think maybe they can get stabilized, but I don't know for sure. When we went up and did the ride in Victoria, that was something she needed. She had stuff that she had to do. And I don't think we would have done that trip if we hadn't already paid to do the tour and everything. But it fed her on a really important emotional level, physical level, everything. It was really important. And if we don't force those times, she will just be overloaded with all the things she has to do. I really want to make sure that active recreation is a part of our lives. And I think that the bikes are great for that. And we have a bike that works real well for her. If we're on trails, we're not in traffic. I anticipate that us riding together will continue to be part of the story of season four.

McKenna Miler:

And obviously, if her daughter is going along, that can be a little bit more of a motivating factor for her to get out there.

Tom Butler:

Yeah. I mean, that whenever I can say we're gonna go for a bike ride with McKenna and Garen, she's there. So yes, that's for sure the case.

McKenna Miler:

After 116 episodes of sharing your journey publicly, what is the hardest part about being this transparent about your struggles and your setbacks?

Tom Butler:

I don't like letting people down. I know that's part of the process. When I didn't make it across the state of Washington, that was a big deal for me. And when I say things like, I want to do this or I want to do that, and I don't make it, I feel like I'm letting people down. Now, part of that's good because, you know, if like I didn't do a lot of cycling this week, and people are watching. I want people to see me going out there and getting on the bike. I want to be really clear though, I don't get negative feedback from people from the podcast. I only get positive feedback. The only time I got negative feedback was when someone felt like I pushed your mom too much, which was fun, you know, that like they're watching out for Kelly. Yeah, people are super supportive, and that's really cool. So I shouldn't feel nervous about that, but there is that thing about being so transparent about things that I want to do and then not make it or failing or whatever. That that's kind of difficult.

McKenna Miler:

You can have a strong inner critic. So I'm I'm honestly very happy to hear that you've gotten really good positive feedback, and your family does try to uplift you as much as we can.

Tom Butler:

You guys are fantastic. You guys are too generous with your like, yay, just like we said about me winning that thing. You guys are really generous. I I love you guys so much for how much you've been supporting me. It's just awesome.

McKenna Miler:

Well, it's super fun to watch you and super fun to cheer you on.

Tom Butler:

Cool, cool.

McKenna Miler:

If someone discovers the podcast for the first time with this season four premiere, what's the one lesson from all your episodes that you'd want them to take away?

Tom Butler:

Beyond a doubt, I want people to be able to look at my progress and see that at 62 I'm still getting stronger. I recently posted a picture on the Cycling Over 60 Instagram. People really responded to it. It was of me doing the cycle cross race and I'm jumping over these barriers. I'm laughing because I'm being so slow, but people said that they felt inspired by that picture. It doesn't get better than that. I want people to be inspired. You know, if you're 55 and you've not been active, to know that when you get active, you can get stronger. When I did 25 weeks in a row of two days a week of weightlifting, I changed my shape. I changed my strength. I changed how I was able to function. There's going to be a point where I'm not getting stronger. But I think that's still a decade away. Even if I maintain that's fantastic. So, yeah, this is the first time listening to Cycle Number 60. What you're gonna hear here is that you can get stronger later in life. Season four, you're gonna hear more about just all the ways that being consistently active helps you step back in time. I'm younger now than I was when I was 55, you know, maybe even 50. It's really worth taking it on.

McKenna Miler:

I mean, that photo is easily one of my top five favorite photos now. So I'm so glad that you got such a great response from it.

Tom Butler:

Yeah, it's so funny to think about that. I was having a good time. You know, you can say that picture I was having a good time, but I got lapped by everybody. I was the oldest person in that round. Uh I got lapped by everybody, but it really wasn't, you know, that's not what it was about. It really was about that was my first time. I made a decision like two days before to do it. I hadn't really done all of the training that I had planned to do before I did my first cycle across race. I was on a bike that's not that fast of a bike. Callback to getting a new bike. It was it was a fun time, you know. But also in that picture, you see somebody that is in better shape than they were, you know, like a decade ago. I want that to be the kind of inspiration that my journey gives people.

McKenna Miler:

Absolutely. I still hug you sometimes, and it is a different form than I was used to for 20 years of my life.

Tom Butler:

Yeah, what a statement. I mean, that's so cool.

McKenna Miler:

Let's finish up with this. Give one specific bold goal for season four that makes you a little nervous to say out loud, something that will really push you to the next level.

Tom Butler:

So you're asking that question after I had said, you know, that I'm kind of afraid of failing. And now you're saying, okay, make a bold prediction. I'm gonna try to do that. I mentioned this book that I have been reading, and they stress that you have to do six days a week of activity. Doing six days a week is the thing that keeps you from decaying, it's a thing that triggers growth. And I'm really bought into that concept, and so that's what I want to do to make sure that I'm doing activity six days a week, every single week for season four. That's what I'll throw out there that I want to have that level of consistency. What that means is two days a week of lifting, four days a week of cycling, and it needs to be at least 20 minutes. I think it's not a qualifying level activity if it's less than 20 minutes. So at least 20 minutes, four times a week of cycling, lifting two times a week, and that has to also include, which I'm not happy about, but it has to also include like squats or something that works my lower body because I'm not doing that kind of stress when I'm on the bike. When I'm climbing a steep hill, I feel like I am doing that kind of stress. So I don't know, but I'm convinced that I I need to do some some kind of lower body lifting. I'll tack on. This isn't new. I still might need to work on flexibility. What I still might need just a little bit more focus on flexibility.

McKenna Miler:

I'd be happy to see that.

Tom Butler:

I know you would.

McKenna Miler:

I love hearing that. I love hearing that you have these goals. They don't seem like super stretch goals to me, but I'm I'm really excited to hear how you're pushing yourself. It's always fun to watch you on this journey. And it's been really fun to host this episode and to talk with you and to ask you these questions.

Tom Butler:

Well, I think you did a great job. Uh, I think you could probably take over my job as a host if you were over 60. But uh I yeah, this has been fun. You this made this really fun. So thank you.

McKenna Miler:

Absolutely. I'm I'm more than happy to pass the hosting baton back to you.

Tom Butler:

Okay, well, I'll take it. And I'll see you later.

McKenna Miler:

Sounds good.

Tom Butler:

Bye. I kind of thought that six days a week, with two of them being upper body workouts, is not that big of a goal. But I know that I haven't been that consistent. I was hoping to find a quick way to see how many weeks I did six sessions a week last season, but I wasn't able to find that data. But starting next week, that will be my goal. I don't currently log my upper body workouts, so that will be something that I will be adding to Strava. And I'll be really interested to see how this goes. I do think there'll be some really good lessons to bring to the podcast. I want to remind people that I'm working to take a big cycling over 60 team to the Tour to Cure Pacific Northwest next spring. Although it seems early, it isn't too early to make plans and to join the team. November is National Diabetes Awareness Month, so it's a really good time to join the team. You can find the team link in the show notes or go to the Tour to Cure webpage and find the search button. Put in Cycling Over 60, all spelled out, and you will see who is currently signed up. You can find a link to the team page there, and if you navigate to the page, you can sign up for the team. If you're already here in the area or if it's possible for you to travel to the area next spring, I would love to have you join us for the ride. I hope, like me, you are seeing the huge benefits of being consistently active. And remember, age is just a gear change.

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Tom Butler

Host