# Great advert for middle age



## Ming the Merciless (14 Jul 2019)

Roger Federer what a great advert for middle age,


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## Slick (14 Jul 2019)

I thought he'd done enough. Ce la vie.


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## Ming the Merciless (14 Jul 2019)

Yes, I thought he had it, serving 40-0 up at 8-7 final set.


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## Venod (14 Jul 2019)

YukonBoy said:


> Roger Federer what a great advert for middle age,



He is only 37

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_age


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## Ming the Merciless (14 Jul 2019)

Afnug said:


> He is only 37
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_age



How can 45 be the start of middle age when that is greater than half your life expectancy? That makes no sense.

If age is divided into youth, middle age, old age; then it makes sense to divide those into thirds of life expectancy. So roughly 0-30, 31-60, 61-89. Otherwise it is based on waving your hands in the air.


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## cyberknight (14 Jul 2019)

YukonBoy said:


> How can 45 be the start of middle age when that is greater than half your life expectancy? That makes no sense.
> 
> If age is divided into youth, middle age, old age; then it makes sense to divide those into thirds of life expectancy. So roughly 0-30, 31-60, 61-89. Otherwise it is based on waving your hands in the air.


i thought federer did that though , with bat in his hand ?


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## Globalti (19 Jul 2019)

I'm 63 and I think I'm somewhere in the middle of middle age. Ask me again when I'm 85, if you can get me to stop as I whizz past on my bike.


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## PaulSB (19 Jul 2019)

YukonBoy said:


> Roger Federer what a great advert for middle age,



Middle age?? He's 37! I'm 65 and feel I'm in middle age. My local GP surgery regards 80+ as old.

I'd suggest you need to think quite hard about middle age or you're in danger of getting old far too soon!


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## stephec (19 Jul 2019)

I'm 50 but act like a 10 year old.


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## Drago (19 Jul 2019)

Since when was 37 middle age? Perhaps in the 1600s, but these days...?


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## Ming the Merciless (19 Jul 2019)

Drago said:


> Since when was 37 middle age? Perhaps in the 1600s, but these days...?



Yes mid 30's to about 59. Then old age 60 years onwards. Remember these periods do not mark any particular physical or mental state and are just dividing up life expectancy.


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## Drago (19 Jul 2019)

Mid 30s is the start of middle age? Some folk that age still aren't potty trained!


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## Ming the Merciless (19 Jul 2019)

Drago said:


> Mid 30s is the start of middle age? Some folk that age still aren't potty trained!



Nevertheless they are no longer young.


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## Drago (19 Jul 2019)

I'm 50, and I'm younger than, erm, a young thing.


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## sheddy (19 Jul 2019)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9gMSCPiCYU


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## Milzy (19 Jul 2019)

Drago said:


> Since when was 37 middle age? Perhaps in the 1600s, but these days...?


I know a fair few people who’ve all died around 70. So to me 37 is middle aged. I’m 37 & I’m Middle Aged. You just can’t argue with the fact. If a man can make 80 he’s done really well.


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## Rusty Nails (19 Jul 2019)

I've known quite a few people who were middle-aged in their teens. Like William Hague.


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## Grant Fondo (19 Jul 2019)

Rusty Nails said:


> I've known quite a few people who were middle-aged in their teens. Like William Hague.


Quite right. No doubt he will live to 120 peddling his young tory manyra. What a robot.


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## Grant Fondo (19 Jul 2019)

Grant Fondo said:


> Quite right. No doubt he will live to 120 peddling his young tory manyra. What a robot.


*mantra*


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## PaulSB (20 Jul 2019)

For many people age is a state of mind. Yes those of us who are 60+ know most of the years have gone by. We are though young and often having the best time of our lives. 

Divide 80 by 2 and call the answer midlife if you like but not middle aged - it makes me feel like my parents, who got old far too early.

If I make 80 I'll concede to getting old. While my body works and my mind is open I'm young.

As the man said "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now"


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## Ming the Merciless (20 Jul 2019)

Drago said:


> I'm 50, and I'm younger than, erm, a young thing.



Time lords don't count


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## SpokeyDokey (22 Jul 2019)

YukonBoy said:


> How can 45 be the start of middle age when that is greater than half your life expectancy? That makes no sense.
> 
> If age is divided into youth, middle age, old age; then it makes sense to divide those into thirds of life expectancy. So roughly 0-30, 31-60, 61-89. Otherwise it is based on waving your hands in the air.



Quick Google shows most authoritative sources indicate 45-ish to be the _start_ of middle age.

Chopping 90 into 3 parts not only ignores early adulthood (starts at around 18-ish) but also assumes that the stages of life are of more or less of equal length - they aren't.

Some interesting survey stat's (particularly the variance in perception of middle age by age group surveyed - the younger you are the earlier you think middle age starts). Most popular age for being middle aged is 55:

https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.n...35n689y/InternalResults_MiddleAge_Feb18_w.pdf

As @PaulSB indicates GP's have a different frame of reference.

My GP considers me, at 62 going on 63, to be relatively young with old age being somewhere in the late 70's upwards.


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## Speicher (22 Jul 2019)

PaulSB said:


> For many people age is a state of mind. Yes those of us who are 60+ know most of the years have gone by. We are though young and often having the best time of our lives.
> 
> Divide 80 by 2 and call the answer midlife if you like but not middle aged - it makes me feel like my parents, who got old far too early.
> 
> ...



The Byrds


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## ColinJ (22 Jul 2019)

I caught a few minutes of a documentary about Park Runs last night. Dame Kelly Holmes was walking along chatting to a woman who was 91 (or was it 93?) who had done 50+ of them. Suddenly the old dear broke into a trot because they were getting close to the finish and she didn't want to walk across the line!

@Littgull and I are well into our 60s and have had younger people chat to us on several cafe stops recently. They ask how far we have ridden and they look shocked when we tell them "_about 50 miles_". They look even more shocked when we say that we are only halfway through our ride!


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## PaulSB (23 Jul 2019)

Speicher said:


> The Byrds



Yes, though I was thinking of a certain Mr Dylan.


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## PaulSB (23 Jul 2019)

ColinJ said:


> @Littgull and I are well into our 60s and have had younger people chat to us on several cafe stops recently. They ask how far we have ridden and they look shocked when we tell them "_about 50 miles_". They look even more shocked when we say that we are only halfway through our ride!



This is a reaction I often get. For most people a bike ride is, well, just that but for cyclists it's a very different thought. 

On Sunday my son's new GF asked how far I had ridden? 68 miles I replied and she said "Is that normal?" somewhat incredulously.

She had run 12 miles that morning, something I couldn't conceive doing nor have ever come close to.


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## mudsticks (23 Jul 2019)

stephec said:


> I'm 50 but act like a 10 year old.



Me too. 

Maybe we were twins -

- separated at birth


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## ColinJ (23 Jul 2019)

PaulSB said:


> This is a reaction I often get. For most people a bike ride is, well, just that but for cyclists it's a very different thought.
> 
> On Sunday my son's new GF asked how far I had ridden? 68 miles I replied and she said "Is that normal?" somewhat incredulously.
> 
> *She had run 12 miles that morning, something I couldn't conceive doing nor have ever come close to.*


Yes, a 12 mile run would feel considerably harder than most 68 mile bike rides to me! The furthest I ever ran was the day I left work before getting ready to go to university. I celebrated by running back from the factory in Kenilworth to our family home on the north side of Coventry. That was probably 6-7 miles; half killed me!

I gave up running because my hips were aching but I might try the local Park Run if I get my weight down to below 80 kgs (~12.5 stone).


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## stephec (23 Jul 2019)

mudsticks said:


> Me too.
> 
> Maybe we were twins -
> 
> - separated at birth


I suspect that we're not alone.


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## roadrash (23 Jul 2019)

stephec said:


> I suspect that we're not alone.




you're not


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## SpokeyDokey (23 Jul 2019)

stephec said:


> I suspect that we're not alone.



Has this morphed into a SETI thread?


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## Blue Hills (23 Jul 2019)

Years ago I moved to Nottingham for a while and rode many a weekend with some pretty middle-aged and more folk from the CTC.

I found them inspiring (as I struggled to climb a hill in the Peak District behind them)


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## Ming the Merciless (23 Jul 2019)

SpokeyDokey said:


> Quick Google shows most authoritative sources indicate 45-ish to be the _start_ of middle age.
> 
> Chopping 90 into 3 parts not only ignores early adulthood (starts at around 18-ish) but also assumes that the stages of life are of more or less of equal length - they aren't.
> 
> ...



Then I must ask what you mean by the stages of life and how they are defined. For it seems 45 is rather arbitrary and not based on any physical or mental change. Middle age seems such a woolly and ill defined stage in life. Other than to say it not youth, neither is it old age.


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## Drago (23 Jul 2019)

Theres a period between middle ate and old age called "awesome". That's where I'm at


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## david k (29 Jul 2019)

40 plus is probably middle age
I accept the sentiments of the OP
Middle age is still middle age, you just don't have to feel or act it


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## david k (29 Jul 2019)

Drago said:


> Theres a period between middle ate and old age called "awesome". That's where I'm at


Middle/old, your in mold age


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## Accy cyclist (2 Aug 2019)

YukonBoy said:


> Then old age 60 years onwards.


Old at 60?! Yes,some might look and act 'old' at 60,but i'd say being old starts about 80.


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