Intervals -- and perspective

I haven't gotten back on the bike since the last post -- weather and various distractions, including a welcome visit from my 84-year-old mother -- but I've been reading back issues of Bicycling magazine as I walk the treadmill -- two miles a morning, interval speeds, at a 5 percent incline. A good cardio workout, my doc says, and one I hope helps translate into some biking strength. I'm also planning to do some core exercises, again courtesy of Bicycling. I think the reading is helping me get into the proper frame of mind, though I'm getting tired of all the Lance stuff. But now I'm recognizing bikes on the street again, noticing whose riding what, and recalling the difference between a driving commute and the wind in one's hair.
Still, speaking of Lance, he did do a comeback, and that's sort of what I'm up to, in my own small way, though I'm neither coming back as far or trying to reach as high. The other day I read an interview with Burke Swindlehurst, a "veteran and aging" bicyclist, in which he talked about acknowledging his age and making adaptations. Called himself "an older athlete" and learning to ride wiser. I was uh-huhing along until I realized he is turning all of 35 -- an age 25 years into my rearview mirror. I've got cycling shorts older than him. They no longer fit, but I remember when they did. I'm not sure he and I have much in common after all. That was a bit of a downer, sort of like stopping at a red light in high gear at the foot of a hill.
Then, in a later issue, I read Selene Yeager's column (already some of these writers are becoming old friends) about resolving to, and then completing, her first Ironman competition. Reminded me that what I'm trying to do -- my first century, at age 60 -- is not an unreachable goal. The interval is not so great, depends on one's perspective. I've got five months, a training plan, a good bike, and every reason to believe I can ride 100 miles in a day. I did 95 once, after all. And that was only ten years ago.
Back to the bike, boy.