Nifty nifty, look who’s 50: Lessons, goals, and gratitude

Photo from Birthday Ride in Leadville on March 9

On March 9 I hit a personal milestone — I turned 50. And this event has brought all sorts of thoughts and emotions along with it. I struggled a bit with this last year and the idea of wondering what would be next? Ten years ago I celebrated a similar milestone with racing in the Race Across America (RAAM) with 3 special women and an incredible crew, and we crossed the country in 7 days, 7 hours, and 15 minutes. We raced as Team PHenomenal Hope in partnership with the pulmonary hypertension community and PHA, and it was one of the greatest moments I have experienced in my life. Doing RAAM and co-creating Team PHenomenal Hope also changed my life, helping me visualize a new path, and led me to Denver, Colorado in 2016, a place where I feel fortunate to truly be able to thrive, grow, and work to contribute to my small piece of this world.

Lessons

Reflecting on lessons I have learned in the last 10 years, I think the biggest lessons are:

1. The trail will always change. You just have to keep going. These words from bikepacking legend, Fat Pursuit Camp head coach and race organizer, Jay Petervary, are words that instantly resonated with me on and off the bike. You can be going through the roughest patch, where you have to even walk and push your bike, whether into a frigid headwind on snow chopped up by snow machines, or up a long steep climb out of Durango on the Colorado Trail that a challenge even for pushing one’s bike. But if you make it to the next junction, or just to the next summit, the trail will change. Smooth, freshly groomed trail awaits. A sweet descent on flowy single track will be there. You just have to keep peddling.
2. The power of belief and putting a hand on someone’s back. Sometimes our greatest role in lives of others — whether the doctor/patient relationship, mentor/mentee relationship, or in the lives of our families and friends — is to be able to really see that person and believe in their ability even at times when they can’t quite see it themself. As Peloton instructor, Christine d’Ercole, says, it’s like when you’re riding outside and you ride side-by-side with someone and just put a hand on their back, you’re not really pushing them, you’re just gently helping get them over the steep part of the climb. I have felt so many hands on my back over the years, and I have felt the power of someone reminding me of the spark within when it was hard for me to see it myself. Kindness is everything.
3. Stack up the W’s. This was advice I learned from Steve, veteran ultra racer, who has completed many winter ultra races, including 1000 miles to Nome in the Iditarod Trail Invitational in Alaska. On the last day of Fat Pursuit Camp, he reminded us of the power of positive self talk, and talked about how when he races he’ll remind himself when he does something the right way, even the small things. When you do that enough, in an hour or so you feel like you can conquer the world.
4. Grateful to be alive and be living. The Fat Pursuit 2024 reminded me of the absolute thrill of being not only alive, but also to be living, to be expressing your true passion and living absolutely in the moment. Working to ride and survive in -35 degree temperatures makes one acutely aware of the present moment, and what happened to me that day definitely helped me feel grateful to be alive. It felt like having done something to really step outside my comfort zone — an acute stressor that I chose to take on, train and prepare for — served as a neurologic or psychologic reset. For a while the little things that bothered me no longer bothered me due to the perspective of an extreme event. When the little things creep in to bother me, I remind myself I’m alive and I’m living, and I also realize it may be time to really plan and embrace the next challenge.
5. Recovery is essential. I hired a coach last year to help me as I worked to get back into the shape of my life. And one of the first things Coach Jason said to on day one was, what day will be your recovery day? This meant a complete day off for recovery. It was something I had but really put into practice when I had been doing my own training for quite sometime. I’ve come to realize we also need to build recovery into our work life and our social lives, as all of it requires bursts of energy and also time for rest and rejuvenation. My tendency is to work and work and fill my “stuff sack of life” until my body tells me I have to take a break through fatigue, loss of focus, and exhaustion. I think that being able to truly appreciate this and put into place a process to avoid it is the key to overcome overextension, overtraining, and burnout. And this is still a process.
6. Make it your best decade yet. I recently saw a patient of mine outside of clinic, and when I asked how she was doing she said, “Dr. George, I’m feeling so good. I just turned 70 and this is going to be my best decade yet.” Her positive energy hit me so forcefully, and reminded me that no matter where we are right now, we can make this next phase our best yet. As George Mumford, Performance and Mindfulness Expert and mental coach of athletes such Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and others, says, it’s all about unlocking the masterpiece within. Seeking that and how to unlock it is a large part of why I ride my bike and put myself in extreme situations.
7. I’m not done yet. In the movie, Nyad, about Diana Nyad’s amazing quest to swim from Cuba from Florida, one of the most moving moments to me was when Bonnie questions her safety and continuing to do this, and Diana tells her, “I’m not done yet.” Diana Nyad achieved her dream of swimming from Cuba to Florida at age 64.

Goals

So over the past year I’ve been pondering, and this next decade I have 5 major goals/categories of goals:

1. To become the healthiest and strongest version of myself. This boils down to “doctor, heal thyself,” and setting boundaries so I can implement my own pillars of health: Sleep, nutrition, exercise, and mental health.
2. Big goals on the bike. My “A race” this year is to bikepack the Colorado Trail, a special place with which I am obsessed. Next year I will finish the Fat Pursuit. And in this next decade I will ride the Tour Divide , and ride from Anchorage to McGrath in the Iditarod Trail Invitational ITI 350.
3. To continue to grow and build Team PHenomenal Hope and enable more people to feel truly empowered by hope. As my teammate, Nicole Phillips, says, “Team PH is love in action,” and building community between athletes and those who live with pulmonary hypertension is something I am truly passionate about. It brings so much fun and meaning to the training and racing, and this year I’m striving to recruit 50 athletes to our team (and we’d love to have you if you are not already on Team PH! — join today at letmebeyourlungs.org).
4. To transform how we view healthcare. I want to further explore the role of improving metabolic health in those who live with pulmonary hypertension and other lung diseases. Numerous respiratory diseases including pulmonary hypertension, COPD, ILD, lung transplantation, asthma and others, are associated with increased severity or worse outcomes in those who have insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome (Khateeb, Rev Diabet Stud, 2019 ). We have tools to reverse insulin resistance — through lifestyle changes as well as medical therapies — and I believe that, in addition to cutting edge medications specific to the various lung diseases, focusing on a pillars of health approach will be key step to helping people with these chronic respiratory conditions live and breathe their best. We have many success stories, and early research findings, that support this. I am dedicating this next phase of my academic career to truly studying the role of improving metabolic health as a critical supportive therapy in chronic respiratory disease.
5. To do what I can to support my friends, family, colleagues and teammates so they are able to truly express themselves and their talents in the world. Building and strengthening community, not just on Team PHenomenal Hope, but also in the field of medicine, is critical to enabling us to meet our greatest challenges. Creating a space where all people can thrive and feel a sense of belonging is how we will solve the greatest challenges before us. However I can achieve this, to help others feel that support and freedom to realize their potential, is something I’ll continue to work toward doing.

Yeah, this next decade is going to be the best decade yet.

Gratitude

Last but not least, I want to thank everyone for their well wishes, messages, cards, text messages and phone calls, not just for my birthday, but throughout my life.

And thank you to all who have supported Team PHenomeanl Hope over the years. We exist because of you.

I know I would not be here without the love, support and inspiration I have received from so many wonderful people. Kindness is everything. Thank you for your love and kindness. I am truly grateful for all of you.

Many adventures with special people over the past 10 years…. Looking forward to the next 10!