Aging. How do you cope?

A light bike doesn't replace good fitness.

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nathanong87
Resident master of GIF
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Joined: Mon Jul 18, 2011 2:44 am
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by nathanong87

whenever im not riding im cyrostasis, this slows the aging down

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LouisN
Posts: 3510
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:44 am
Location: Canada

by LouisN

At age 45, I still think I'm improving :D. Lucky for me, I didn't ride seriously when I was younger. So I don't think I'm losing anything. Yet.

There's always time to achieve what you want to achieve, depending on your age:

http://cycling-passion.com/2012/11/02/m ... age-group/"

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/1 ... ark-33217/"
Louis :)
Last edited by LouisN on Tue Feb 12, 2013 2:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

by Weenie


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Geoff
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Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2003 2:25 am
Location: Canada

by Geoff

Calnago wrote:... so, in what order did all this occur...

It hasn't (knock-on-wood). The trick is to get them each on separate systems (i.e., wife on Campagnolo, GF on Shimano), that way, there's no fighting about wheelsets, SRM's, etc. :D

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PSM
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Joined: Tue Aug 28, 2012 2:45 pm
Location: Stockholm, The Arctic...

by PSM

I am 44. The best thing about being adult is that you can afford a premium bike. Or two. ;)

The rest is experience. I don't have to hurry either. Just riding along. :thumbup:

Foo
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2011 6:33 am
Location: Sunshine Coast QLD

by Foo

Curse and swear a lot about not being able to ride very often. When I can, recovery doesn't seem to be to bad or much different to 35yrs ago. :noidea:

Foo
So long as you have tried your best, then you should have no regrets!

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kac
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Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2010 5:31 pm

by kac

Buy a good bike. Have fun. Everything else will follow...right? If it doesn't, at least you've supported the economy!

KAC (age 59)

c50jim
Posts: 1015
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2006 4:42 am
Location: Calgary

by c50jim

At 62, I've gone through several stages of aging.

For one thing, about every nine or ten years, I have to eat less or put on weight. First time was 41, second was 52, third was 60. And I took up running, then triathlons, then mainly riding to control weight starting in 1976 or so.

As others have said, I also find that I need more rest and more recovery as I age. I quit racing at 59 (had been doing track and TTs until then) and my program has become just one of riding based on how I feel. I can still climb almost anything (e.g. Haleakala in September 2011, 58 km almost all uphill from sea level to 10.023 feet), it just takes me a long time. While I was riding today, I did try to push a bit on hills. Yes, I was faster than usual but I couldn't last the whole way up - a signal that I was pushing too hard for my old body.

Now that I'm semi-retired, my mileage is as high as it's ever been because I don't have a lot of work days to put that stress on my body. I love to get out into the world (although after a crash a few years ago, I'm a lot more cautious about snow and ice than I used to be and am doing a lot of winter running, riding indoors and riding from the edge of town on warmer, above freezing, days). I have a lifetime supply of C40s (five of them, two NOS just being built and a couple more that were NOS in summer 2011), my favourite bike, and a few other bikes for variety. I ride for enjoyment, not to race. It's nice when my kids who are in their mid to late 20s want to ride with me. I rode a bit in Italy last year, a week in France and a week in Hawaii. One of the joys of riding when you're old is that you can afford to travel a bit and try some different roads.

Unless you're heavily motivated to racing (and there's nothing wrong with that, just recognize that you won't be able to race as much at your highest level), I'd say just enjoy it.

claude274
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Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2011 5:38 pm

by claude274

Joe posted some articles recently which are really interesthing!

http://www.joefrielsblog.com/

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53x12
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Location: On the bike

by 53x12

I just tell myself, HTFU and also 'What would Jens do?'
"Marginal gains are the only gains when all that's left to gain is in the margins."

User Name
Posts: 611
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2005 3:32 pm

by User Name

I think it was Friel who said that the most important thing is to never take extended breaks (several months? More? I can't remember) after a 'certain' age (35? 40? Again, I can't remember :thumbup: ). He wrote in his book that some research suggests that the best case scenario for performance decline while aging is a drop-off of about 2% per decade, but only in those who never took extended layoffs.

His version of the book I have is getting old, so I dunno if the research has been updated.

I'm in my mid-forties (ish), and some of my observations about myself are:

1) It takes much longer to warm up.
2) It takes me a bit longer to recover. If I was being honest with myself, I can probably only properly handle 2 big/hard days a week, or 5 a fortnight, at the most, rather than 3-a-week.

3) I have many less good days on the bike than I used to; I'd be lucky to have one "really good legs day" a week. This might be due my lack of taking notice of my "observation #1". :mrgreen: In my 20s, I could pretty much guarantee myself that, after a 10 min warm-up, I could TT like Cancellara, 3 times a week. :lol: Well, at least that's what it felt like.

4) body weight is HEAPS harder to maintain. It seems as though I can only eat about 2/3 of what I could when I was in my late 20s/early 30s, but it's probably more like 3/4 to 80%.

erty65
Posts: 238
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 5:45 pm

by erty65

User Name wrote:I think it was Friel
http://joefriel.typepad.com/blog/

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