Reduced tolerance for rides as you get older?

As a kid obsessed with Cedar Point, I figured I'd one day be in my 80's, marathoning roller coasters like this lady:

http://www.wlwt.com/news/24290542/detail.html

However, now at 26, I've already begun to notice changes. Up through my teens, I could marathon rides all day without any discomfort or sickness. But over the last few years, I've found myself commonly experiencing a "ride hangover" (motion sickness) by the late afternoon.

While I was never a huge fan of "spinny" rides, there were several tamer ones I rode for many years, like Monster, Wave Swinger, Ocean Motion, Cedar Downs, and Maxair. To reduce the motion sickness, my first step was to eliminate these types of rides, and it seemed to help for awhile.

As a few more years have passed, even roller coasters like Raptor, Mantis, & Wicked Twister are starting to become unpleasant (the thought of riding Raptor 7 times in a row like I did in the mid 90s makes me cringe). I've started taking Dramamine in my most recent visits to curb the motion sickness, but I'm still feeling the ride hangover after 6-8 hours.

So, I'm curious if other people here have noticed reduced tolerance for rides as they get older, or is there a plateau at some point (especially concerning motion sickness)? Whether it's motion sickness, pain, tiredness, or general discomfort, is it causing your trips to get shorter with age? Are you having to add in breaks from riding throughout the day? If you have noticed this trend with yourself, have you been able to do anything to reverse the process? At my rate, I'll be making trips to ride Paddlewheel Excursions by 40! ;)

Absolutely. I'm 34 and used to marathon coasters at the park. Now We'll ride a few and it's "Gee... maybe we should catch a show and get a drink or something."

I actually was chaperoning a school trip last spring and we decided to try to hit all of the adult coasters in succession - starting with Corkscrew and working our way around the park to Wicked Twister. We did this loop in just over 4 hours.... and I forgot my dramamine. In hindsight putting Mantis and WT so close to the end wasn't a good idea - Suffice it to say that I ended up in the bathroom after WT, and it wasn't pretty.....

I certainly have. Like you, as a kid I could ride anything, over and over to infinity, and feel nothing but pleasantly dizzy for a few minutes.

Fast forward to today, and, again like you, I have to meter my rides on certain coasters, especially during ERT sessions (particularly BooBuzz), even with Dramamine and ginger. In order from most-to-least troublesome for me are Wicked Twister, Raptor and Maverick. When I ride WT, I need about a half hour or so before I feel "right" again. With Raptor, I'm usually ready to re-ride by the time I get back to the station, but can only handle maybe 3 laps in a row. And even on Maverick, I sometimes feel quite a bit woozy on the brake run, but can typically re-ride 6-8 times before I need to call it quits.

I've found that taking Dramamine at the recommended intervals (4-6 hrs I think) helps a great deal, though it does make me tired. I take ginger before I eat, which helps with digestion. And there's another herb that helps immensely as well.

Generally, we power ride in the early part of the day when the lines are shortest, and I can handle that pretty well, though I am ready for a long break around 12 or 1-ish. As the day wears on the park (usually) gets more crowded, we ride less frequently and take in more of the rest of the park.

I'm with DJ on all counts. :)

I discovered that I'm not as tolerant anymore when I rode a spinny ride at a fair a few years back, and didn't feel right afterward. Now, pretty much every time I get on something that spins, I feel like crap for a bit after the fact, so I just try and avoid them.

Fortunately I can still ride the spinners. I'm dizzy when I get off of them, but not nauseous or queasy. I really enjoy the spinners, from MaXair on down to Calypso, I hope I can stay tolerant.

Maybe if I make sure to always ride one or two while at CP and spin around a lot in my living room during the winter I can keep a high tolerance ;)

Apparently, conditioning is supposed to work. I've not tried it, though.

I'm usually good for A ride on maXair, SkyHawk or Wicked Twister. More than 1 at a time and I'll need a few minutes.

I can get 4-6 on Raptor before I feel the need to calm down.

Beyond that though and I'm good.

In my, late, cough, cough, 30's, I had to start taking, unfortunately, Blood Pressure Medicine, and Cholesterol medicine.

As soon as I started taking medicine, I couldn't even make it until 2:00pm starting at 9:00 in the morning.

What I found out, is all my motion sickness was from lack of water...

As long as I keep drinking water, and I mean a lot of water. I keep a small bottle in line with me, sip it thoughout the wait, hit a drinking fountain, fill it back up, go to the bathroom between every single ride. I can actually tolerate the rides. But my day still usually ends by 8pm.

Early on, before I figured out the water problem, small rides, even Mine Ride, and Disaster Transport would make me sick, or gray out.

Maybe as you get older, your body requires more water. You never know.

You're only as old as you "think" you are. I'm 55 this year and still prefer to go to the park alone because I haven't found anyone who can keep up with me. An "ok" day at the park is 25 to 30 BIG coasters. A GREAT day at thepark is 50 rides (I've had a couple of these early in the season mid week - I only count Millie, TTD, Maverick, Raptor, etc as big rides).

However, I do have to watch the spinning rides. I can only handle about 7 rides in a row on Raptor. If I follow immediately with Maxxair and Wicked Twister - I can only handle one or two rides on each of these and then have to switch back to straight out coasters for the rest of the day. I think they made a mistake by situating these 3 rides all in the front of the park. I think they should have put one in the middle of the park and one in the back so we could space out the spinning ride effect.

I can ride Maverick non-stop. I don't really consider it a spinning ride like Raptor even though it does have several inversions.

Well, I feel like I'm doing pretty well for 42. I may not care to run an open-to-close marathon like I did when I was 25, but that's okay. I don't feel like my endurance level has dropped off precipitously, and I still seem to handle the flats very well. If anything, I've acquired wisdom about my riding practices and listen to my body better. I sit down a little more often, rehydrate frequently, and don't run as much as I used to. The results at the end of the day are satisfying.

Same here. As a kid I could ride any ride all day long. Now at 27 I have no problems with the coasters but rides like Maxair really make me dizzy. You won't see me on anything that spins like that in the near future.
It could have a lot to do with the fact that as a kid I lived 20mins away and went 20 times in the summer. Now I live 3hrs away and have been going to the park once a summer for the last 10yrs or so.
Or maybe its just the effects of all the beers in the last 10years.

Ensign, I think our age shows the day after you get home from a long day at the point. Being there we feel fine, its the morning after, all the aches and pains show after waking up the next day. :)

I tried going to Cedar Point 2 days in a row once. I ended the second day at noon. I couldn't walk the next day.

But I spent 8 days in a row at Walt Disney World, walking/riding every day. Cedar Point takes a lot more out of you

That's true. The next day I definitely feel more beat up that I used to. Here in a couple weeks, I'm planning on taking my daughter on a KI/Holiday World/Indiana Beach tour. We'll see how my body handles that!

In my experience, there was something to the 'conditioning' argument. I moved up to Cleveland for law school, and I only got out to Cedar Point once a year. In 2005, I was there in July, and while I didn't feel sick, I was really fatigued by all the coasters. In 2006, the summer that I spent studying for the Bar, I only went once, and that was late in the fall. That time, I felt sick on Mean Streak, and nearly threw up after riding Skyhawk and Wicked Twister. I really thought my days at the park were nearing an end, and it was depressing.

In 2007, I went early in the year with a friend who grew up going to Kings Island with me. Once again, although we only stayed for 5 hours, we both felt sick after riding things like Raptor.

I went in July of that year as well, expecting the same depressing result, and found that I tolerated it much better. I went twice more that year, and felt stronger each time, up to the point that I was hopping on the spinning rides, which I had sworn off during college. In 2008, I got a pass, and I've had one since. I'm 34 now, so my trouble started at around 29-30.

I have to say though, that these days I have the ride endurance I had in my late teens. Now if it were only that way in every regard...

I'm 42 and have noticed no change...other than walking up to the platforms can be a bit of a chore sometimes, I can still marathon most coasters. Personal best was 12 times in a row on Millennium Force last season before the park opened to the public, 9 times in a row on Mean Streak last season. 5 tines in a row on Wicked Twister in the back this season. But I never tire of the actual rides, I don't feel like they beat me up

I've noticed no change in my endurance to ride. Like jkbarnes128 said, I think you're only as old as you feel. The years may say I'm 42, my brian stopped at the age of 23 :)

Kudos to that 88 year old Diamondback fan ;) I remmber in the 90s there was another grannie who was a big fan of Mean Streak. Good for them...it gives me hope I'll be riding at that age.

Jax R. said:
5 tines in a row on Wicked Twister in the back this season.

Oh MAN that must've hurt! ;)

I have no issues riding the rides, it's the long lines that I am sick of waiting in. I just went to timbers fest, and rode shivering timbers 12 times in a row. Sure I was a little sore the next day, but even if I was younger, I would still be sore.

Now if cedar point could only come up with a way to bypass the lines........

Yeah, like some kind of hand stamp, or fast pass system. :)

Or some kind of promotion that lets the important people skip the line.

I'd love a flash pass system, but it's not like that is a process they have forgotten to research.