Ride tolerance decreasing with age.. Anyone else?

I avoid flat rides like the plague now at 44. One secret I have found with coasters is to exercise stomach muscles everyday, even daily sit ups help. Also, avoid Caffeine, sugar and red meat the day before and the day of any heavy riding. The less stress in your gut, the easier to withstand coaster Gs.

^^The heat is a deal breaker for me too. A friend of mine that works at Cedar Point called me earlier today to tell me there was hardly any lines for anything and all I could think of was how hot it is. The rides don't make me sick but sunny, over 85 and humidity just kills me. I've left the park several times with most rides being walk-ons because I just couldn't take the heat. This has gotten much worse as I get older.

At my age, I can no longer ride floorless coasters.... mainly because my balls drag on the track....

At the age of 34, I am thankfully doing allright with this, save for 2 exceptions: inverts, and stand up coasters.

With inverts I mostly have to sit in the front- I think there's some sort of nausea induced from seeing the car in front of me vs. all the motion around it. If I concentrate on the scenery flying by around me I'm okay, but that is hard to do from the back seat of an invert.

With stand up coasters it is not the restraints (as many would guess). I grew up riding Vortex at CGA and always do pretty well managing the restraints on the B&M stand ups. I usually have about 20 minutes of feeling queasy after getting off a stand up coaster, and I have no idea why.

sws said:

At my age, I can no longer ride floorless coasters.... mainly because my balls drag on the track....

/thread

It's a little inappropriate.

For me it's definitely a heat issue. The last time I had to stop riding was a hot day at Canada's Wonderland where I tried to get every credit and a few flats. I barely got the last credit (boomerang) at close and did not feel good afterwards. I can ride almost anything that isn't a centrifuge, as long as it's cool out, you give me 15 minutes to recover afterwards, and you don't make me ride it a second time.

I think this thread also interfaces in a really interesting way with the FoL thread. Most of us are saying that we can't even power ride, even if we wanted to and we're probably the among the most probably people to buy FoL access at a park.

Our group of friends noticed that we were all less gung-ho for the late night ERT at Holiday World than in years past. We would ride each ride dozens of times and time it so that we could be on the last Raven train of the night on our trips in the past. We marathoned Voyage in the rain a few times, because we could!

This year we rode everything a couple of times and headed back to the cabin for adult beverages and board games. I've not been able to ride flat rides for ages, but this was the first year where multiple laps wasn't in the cards. It was weird because last September was the Out in the Park event at SFGAm and we rode everything with no issues.

It's hell getting old.

I wrote a thread like this a fed years ago. I (At 57) am not the rider I was at...let's say...18.

I still enjoy and look forward to going to parks very much. Simply being around it just beckons good feelings and a combination of thrills / contentment / fun / (hopefully) good food / and a clearing of the mind.

Like Bigboy and Paisley, I am not a huge fan of high heat and humidity, and I combat that by hitting a water ride, mist-machine, shower or a run to a waterpark section if the park has one.

The other thing that is also high on my list is a nap. Nothing says "relaxation" like a nap in the shade or in one case, an air-conditioned sit down restaurant. It really re-charges me and makes the drive home much more barrable (and safer!)

People, mostly non-riders, ask me, "Why are you spending so much to go to a park only to nap?" Answer: Because I want to and because I can.

Also, there is a slower more experienced pace to my riding days. In the old days I would scope out which ride I would hit next based on the lines I would see from the ride I was currently on. On a good day, I could hit countless rides. Now, I savor the moment, talk to folks on line, and still look forward to "parking."

My ride counts are way down...but the fun is more appreciated and meaningful.

And I still like a good scrambler - but no to the tilt-a-whirl. I can't do them and I can't figure out why.

Richie Reflux said:

My ride counts are way down...but the fun is more appreciated and meaningful.

What he said. My days of power riding are behind me, but the sheer enjoyment of being on a roller coaster is still a wonderful thing.

Richie Reflux- I think the difference between a Tilt and a Scrambler is the path of direction and where your eyes go during the ride. Dancers and skaters use a technique called spotting, where even though their body is spinning their head and eyes stay pointed in one direction with a quick snap of the head to finally make the 360. It keeps them from feeling dizzy. On a Scrambler, which sends riders in a forward path, you automatically compensate for the rotational movement with the head. On a Tilt the spin is more around the rider himself and also the action is random- it’s difficult to spot on a ride like that and that plays with ones senses.

Thats my theory, anyway.

Yeah RCMAC,I think you nailed that one on the head. Someone posted a photo of the 1975 Monster crew at CP on Facebook. I'd say that 90% of them were on the '74 crew, who delighted in locking me on that beast for an hour or so at a time on slower nights. Never again will I ever be able to do that.

45 and I'll still ride what I can, but again like with many others... less frequently. It might just be because I've ridden these rides so many times over the years that I'm satisfied with just one lap and instead of getting right back on, I'll get back on in a week with the season pass.

Spinning rides are still a favorite of mine, but there were some spinners I don't really like and didn't like when I was younger, either, (Force 10, Hurricane, Ring of Fire) so I won't pursue them.

What I am liking MORE now is a leisure train or monorail ride and a trip on a skyride or carousel.

Update:

Taking the many pointers in mind, my fiancée and I had a wonderful trip to KI this past Sunday-tues. The heat + humidity was pretty rough on Sunday, but once I got my initial rides out of my system, we took the rest of the trip at a nice, chill pace.

I’m 6’2” and walk accordingly— always faster than anyone I’m with. Throw in the decades of anticipation for my first KI visit and it’s impossible to keep up with, ha. Reminding myself to slow down, stay in as much shade as possible (hard to come by in many parts of KI), wearing high-spf sunscreen and staying constantly hydrated between rides helped make it a perfect trip.

Thanks again to all who helped advise, it’s great to hear others’ experiences.

I’m thinking of doing a trip report, and the visit also inspired another thread idea, regarding rides being under-appreciated ..

I also found that Banshee, and even Flight of Fear were totally doable when pacing myself like this. I was able to do a couple of double-laps on Beast, Mystic and Diamondback without any issue.

I believe my initial problem with B:TR @ sfog was because I had been riding other coasters repeatedly, with no breaks, and not staying hydrated. I’m sure my tolerance will continue to decrease, but it’s really great hearing from all of the still-active enthusiasts in 50’s-60’s+.

Thanks again!

While many flat rides are nothing more than a memory for me now, I think the biggest thing truly is hydration. As long as I make sure to stay very hydrated, even intense multi loopers are ok for one lap. The big thing for me is to remember to drink as much water on a cool, cloudy day in the spring or Halloween season as I would on a 90 degree July day.

And anytime I hear someone talk about how thirsty they are and then go buy a soda, I cringe.

I went through a period of nausea-inducing vertigo in my mid-40s (am 50 now) but it was a combination of letting my health go plus anxiety.

The anxiety-induced bit: Maybe about 8 years ago, I was riding Soarin' in Epcot, and decided I wanted to look back at how the ride worked while it was in flight. I couldn't really see much, but as I turned my head back to the theater, I focused on the edge of the screen just long enough for one eye to see movement, and the other eye to see not-movement. My brain reacted by wanting to pull the rip-cord and I was hit by a wave of nausea. Thankfully, I did not hurl, but I came pretty close. From that point on, for a few years, every single time I sat down on that ride I was overcome with a cold sweat. Similar things happened on some lift hills, but it was hard to pin down exactly why. During this time, I was also significantly overweight, had high blood pressure, and was drinking way too much.

Fast-forward a few years. I've gotten a handle on my health: stopped drinking, am at a weight that my doctor is happy with, and have blood pressure that, if anything, is a little low. It's much easier to ride now (as well as do lots of other things).

And on the hydration/soda thing: I almost never bought soda, either sugared or diet. But, now that more parks have Freestyle machines I will often get a sparkling water. For some reason, I find that more refreshing than still.

I am 55 and have the opposite reaction when I started serious coaster riding i was in my early 30s every coaster made me nauseous .Still road them as i enjoyed them when on them.After I had to sit down and take it easy for a few minutes. I don't do that anymore ,Maybe my prescriptions (Blood Pressure) but i can ride multiple times and do not have to be careful anymore .Occasionally a pure spinning ride make me feel sick but not coasters anymore.

I Was @ SFOG on Sept 12 2001 Place was a ghost town joked with the ride ops they should just follow us from ride to ride to run them.

Well, as long as we're doing the "I'm THIS old!" thing -- 49 here. My riding has slowed down a LOT over the past ~10 years, which not so coincidentally is also how long I've been married to someone who can't ride anything (physically, not just "makes her sick"). I find that when I DO get to a park now I have as much fun as ever, but my ability to just camp on a ride seems to have vanished. That could be age, or it could be that I'm out of practice :)

(So sadly, I think gone are the days of 49 rides in a TV shoot with LoriU. Wait, that sounded wronger than I intended.)

I'm 47 and can't ride like I used to. I tend to get headaches easily. The coasters have to be smooth and fast. Nowadays I just pace myself.

-Tina