Bio: Bruce Strand, 63, is semi-retired from careers in the airline industry and the military. He sold his aviation consulting business last year but maintains the title of chairman, and still works and travels for the company. Closer to home he serves on community boards in Genesee and is an avid cyclist, often traveling to Europe with his wife, Pat. Strand was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes 15 years ago, and despite several health challenges he started exercising and lost 50 pounds.
Challenge: Strand has spent the past year training for the Triple Bypass, a grueling bike event that on Saturday took riders 122 miles over three mountain passes and an elevation gain of 10,310 feet from Bergen Park to Avon. While most riders were half Strand’s age, he says he decided to tackle it because, “I guess I’m crazy enough to prove something at this stage in my life. People in their 60s don’t have to give up. They can turn their lives around.”
He says he entered the race to raise awareness and contributions for the detection, treatment and cure of diabetes, and the American Diabetes Association is still taking donations in his name at diabetes.org/secure/donation/ Donate.do?action=Honor.
How he’s doing it: Strand started cycling and lifting weights 11 years ago at the suggestion of his daughter and wife. He went from 230 to 180 pounds, cut his cholesterol in half, lowered his blood pressure and keeps his diabetes under control without insulin.
A couple of setbacks might have made him quit, but Strand persevered. In 2001, he had a diabetes-related illness that affected one of his legs, and two years later, he was in a bike accident that landed him in the hospital and required a two-month recovery. While training for a trip to Italy, he had a tire blowout when going downhill. “I went head over heels and was threatened with pneumonia, kidney failure, broken ribs and a punctured lung. Everything shut down,” he says.
He says the accident caused him to do two things: “Decide what I wanted to do with the last third of my life, and to get back on the bike.”
When training for a charity ride, Strand works out five or six days a week, spending about two-thirds of his exercise time on the bike and the rest at the gym. Other times, he’ll exercise three to five days a week, dividing his time equally between riding and working out at the gym.
Motivation: “When I wake up feeling good, I think about what else I could be doing,” Strand says. “Somebody needs to serve on the water board. I’m not going to sit in the corner, or go play golf.”
Still working on: “I’m still a cookie snatcher,” Strand says of his occasional diet lapses. “But I believe in taking everything in moderation and sticking with it. It’s like the rhythm of the pedals going around and around – cycling is the rhythm of good health.”
Best advice: “As corny as it sounds, be like ‘The Little Engine That Could’ in the children’s story,” Strand says. “If you keep telling yourself you think you can do it, you will.
“My daughter tells me to ‘Young it up, Dad,’ and why not?”
– Suzanne S. Brown
Do you know someone who has lost a lot of weight, rebounded after an illness or made a healthful lifestyle change? Send a name, daytime phone number, a description and photo to Fitness, The Denver Post, 1560 Broadway, Denver, CO 80202, or e-mail to living@denverpost.com.
