Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in Sound Publishing’s The Time of Your Life, Spring 2015.

No one can accuse Robert Jones of standing still. In fact, he hardly ever does.

The 65-year-old Indianola resident is up most weekdays by 4:30 a.m. and at his spin class at 5:30 a.m. If he feels like it, he sticks around for another cycling class at 6:15 a.m. Then he lifts weights at the gym.

On Saturdays and Sundays he often takes a nice outdoor bike ride of some 25 to 50 miles.

“I like to say that you shouldn’t stop moving, or else someone will think you’re dead,” Jones quipped. “For me, being fit and being active is a way to not invoke the health care system.”

But it wasn’t always that way for him.

“I stayed pretty fit until I was about 50,” he said. “It was when my friends gave me a surprise birthday party when I turned 50 that I looked at myself and thought I was really looking old.”

For the previous six years he’d had more of an office job, as director of operations at Heronswood, the nursery that his husband, Dan Hinkley, owned.

“I’d been sitting a lot and it showed,” he said. “I’d gained about 10 or 15 pounds and I didn’t like that.”

At that time, in 2006, the nursery was sold and Jones found himself without a job. He saw Dan going off to a spin class every morning, but just didn’t think that was for him.

“When he said spin, I thought it was something like weaving,” he said. “When he told me what it was, I just thought it was something trendy.”

But toward the end of that year, he decided to take better control of his life and tried spinning.

“It just stuck,” Jones said. “I found out I loved it.”

In the first month, with also watching what he ate, be lost 15 pounds. He began to feel better and fitness has been a part of his day ever since.

After about a year of doing the indoor spin classes, he decided to branch out. He bought a bike and began biking with Dan.

“I wondered if I could do that,” he said. “I hadn’t been on a real bike in a long while.”

Soon he was riding 20 to 30 miles every weekend. He found his husband’s speed to be too leisurely, so he began riding with other friends. And within several months, he rode the STP — Seattle to Portland race, 200 miles in two days.

Two years later, he rode that same race in one day.

Because biking requires core body strength, Jones works all muscle groups, especially the upper body, with weights in the gym.

He thinks biking and staying fit is what’s kept him from being sick and having to go see the doctor.

“Health care costs are so high,” he said. “I like to try to not invoke the health care system at all. When you’re fit you can actually reduce your dependence on health care.”

And, for the most part, he’s done that. In all the years he’s been riding, he’s only taken one major spill last December.

“I crashed into a biker in front of me,” he said. “ I had sore joints, but nothing broken.”

Then, a few weeks ago, he had another minor crash.

“Neither of those were a reason not to go out,” he said. “Safety is important. But by being in reasonable shape and by being careful, I’m not concerned about falls.”

Falling at an older age means more chance of injury and a longer recovery time, he added, and that’s another reason to build your strength up in the first place.

While he likes speed, he doesn’t consider himself anything of a dare devil. And he says others should pick a fitness routine that they like.

“If you do something you really like, you’ll keep at it,” he said. “Back between 2006 and 2010, I was running a lot. But I have decided that’s not ideal for me as I grow older.”

So, he said, he sticks to cycling.

He’s still working part time as an architect and takes on a couple of projects at a time. He and Dan have also opened another nursery named Windcliff.

“When I’m not working or riding, I’m taking care of my portion of the nursery and garden,” he said. “I don’t think retirement is a concept I understand.”