Cycling performance and Age.

[kingrollo]

What the biggest factor in the decline in your cycling speed as you age ?

For myself its the fact that I can't stay injury free enough to do regular training. Although this year Ive discovered the joy of dead lifts - so I am regularly riding right now - where as previous years its March/April before I start going out.

Is it lost muscle mass, ? decreased cardio performance, increased Fat/Weight ? - or other factors

Any experience/Views welcome ?

 

[fossyant]

How are you injuring yourself on a bike ? For me it's been external factors like working, but I'm correcting that with getting back to commuting. I lost about a month in November with a broken toe - no way could I get my feet into tight cycling shoes.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Who says it declines?

I stopped cycling in my late 20s/early 30s - in pre-GPS times - and started again just over 10 years ago. In pre GPS days I only had the vaguest notion of my speed. For planning purposes (ie overall, not moving average) I seem to remember I'd use 10mph as it made the sums easier, and built in an hour or so of contingency. So an 80 mile day was about 8 hours, including lunch/ getting lost/ random stops and some contingency time for unpredicted delays. These days it's about the same. I plan 10 hours for a 100 miler, and normally finish in 9 or thereabouts. And in the 10 years since I started again and have more data than you can shake a stick at it's stayed pretty much a constant 20 km/h moving average +/- an allowance for terrain.

So far so good ...

 

[kingrollo]

How are you injuring yourself on a bike ? For me it's been external factors like working, but I'm correcting that with getting back to commuting. I lost about a month in November with a broken toe - no way could I get my feet into tight cycling shoes.

Hip & spine arthritis - wear and tear injuries I suppose.

 

[fossyant]

Who says it declines?

I stopped cycling in my late 20s/early 30s - in pre-GPS times - and started again just over 10 years ago. In pre GPS days I only had the vaguest notion of my speed. For planning purposes (ie overall, not moving average) I seem to remember I'd use 10mph as it made the sums easier, and built in a decent bit of contingency. So an 80 mile day was about 8 hours, including lunch/ getting lost/ random stops and some contingency time for unpredicted delays. These days it's about the same. I plan 10 hours for a 100 miler, and normally finish in 9 or thereabouts. And in the 10 years since I started again and have more data than you can shake a stick at it's stayed pretty much a constant 20 km/h moving average +/- an allowance for terrain.

So far so good ...

Ah so you were slow even in your 20's !


👅

 

[fossyant]

Hip & spine arthritis - wear and tear injuries I suppose.

Ah, old age !!

My busted spine has slowed me down a bit - can't do big days on the bike

 

[derrick]

What the biggest factor in the decline in your cycling speed as you age ?

For myself its the fact that I can't stay injury free enough to do regular training. Although this year Ive discovered the joy of dead lifts - so I am regularly riding right now - where as previous years its March/April before I start going out.

Is it lost muscle mass, ? decreased cardio performance, increased Fat/Weight ? - or other factors

Any experience/Views welcome ?

Depends how old you think you are. I am now 70, but feel 50 ish. still very active. got lots of rides planned for this year.
Getting the all clear from the cancer treatment took years of me.
Just got to stay positive, age is only a number.

 

[ColinJ]

What the biggest factor in the decline in your cycling speed as you age ?

Currently, it is not riding my bike as much as I used to.

The damage done to my lungs and/or heart by blood clots in 2012/2013 is a huge limiting factor though. Many people think that I made a full recovery but I did NOT!

I am fine to what would have been (say) 75% effort pre-illness, but then I quickly run out of breath. It isn't the feeling that one gets from being unfit. It is like trying to make an effort when suffering from a heavy cold. Not only is the oxygen not getting through, but there is the feeling that any further effort could be very damaging.

If I ignore the warning signs and keep pushing my heart can go into atrial fibrillation.

I think the best I could hope for now would be about 80% of where I was at 11 or 12 years ago and then declining from that level.

I suppose the aim is to reduce the rate and degree of decline as much as possible.

If I can carry on doing hilly rides for another 10 years without feeling the need for an ebike, that would be great.

 

[dan_bo]

Ah so you were slow even in your 20's !


👅

Has @I like Skol hacked your account?

 

[fossyant]

Has @I like Skol hacked your account?

I've been taking notes !

 

[sleuthey]

What the biggest factor in the decline in your cycling speed as you age

The fact that every time I replace my cassette I seem to get one with larger rings.

 

[cyberknight]

i read as you get older your able to percieve you max effort better so you know how much harder you can push yourself comapared to young uns , so although you might have lost some of your max fitness you can push yourself closer to your max so it counteracts some of the decline.
I might have lost some of my max power output but i am turning more into a desiel that can chug along for long periods at a higher level than i used to be able to 10-15 years ago .
The only trouble is the muscles take longer to recover from efforts so i cant push the training load like i would have done in my 20-30s and need longer recovery times, longer warm up times and most importantly i dont bounce like i used too !

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Ah, old age !!

My busted spine has slowed me down a bit - can't do big days on the bike

shoot, what age will all our spines go bust?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

It’s generally down to you being less active and avoiding high intensity.

 

[fossyant]

shoot, what age will all our spines go bust?

When you get run over by a car. 👅