Fun & Fitness over 50

I just finished Heft on Wheels:A Field Guide to Doing a 180 by Mike Magnuson.
The "180" Magnuson is referring to is turning himself around from an obese, alcoholic, chain smoking, chain junk-food eating couch potato into a lean and uber-healthy, booze and smoke free cycling enthusiast.
The picture on the cover is that of a very large naked man in profile riding a bicycle. It's so outrageous that I thought it to be a staged shot but it is in fact of Magnuson himself when he started riding seriously but before he gave up all his bad habits. The picture was taken to accompany an article he wrote for Gentleman's Quarterly.
The author's approach to training was an unconventional one. He started out, from the very first, at 255 pounds, riding with an experienced and fit group of riders that met at the local bike shop for rides 3 days a week. Even though he was hopelessly outclassed by the other riders he wouldn't give up and always finished the rides even if far behind the others.
He also chose the hardest endurance rides he could find, like the 110 mile Bridge to Bridge Incredible Cycling Challenge in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina with over 6,800 feet of climbing. As he says, he could have seriously injured himself doing these rides in the shape he was in but that's the way he does things; all or nothing.
As you can imagine there's a lot of humor in his account but a lot of wisdom too.
I found the book very inspiring, not that I want to do what Magnuson did, but that I can certainly work a lot harder than I do and not die. :-)
It also underscored to me the importance of group riding to spur me on to push myself harder than I do when riding alone.