Older riders: Has your strength/fitness gradually declined or in noticeable steps?

[Jon George]

I'm 67. I've just completed my tenth year of the 50k challenge and have noticed over this year that my average time has dropped by twenty minutes. I'm not fussed about taking longer, it's simply a question as to why. Now, as I have mentioned on the Challenge Chat Thread, just over eighteen months ago I suffered my second known bout of Covid and have never felt completely 100% since. (I have a younger sister who has had her life turned upside down by Long Covid - to the extent that her and her husband are now looking to downsize to a bungalow - and believe this might be a genetic factor contributing to my increased fatigue.) That aside, I'm just curious as to whether others have - as the title of this post asks - noticed a gradual reduction as they age, or whether it's been in discrete steps.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Hard to say because in my 50s (pre covid) I was putting in a lot more miles than my 60s (post covid). I've always been slow but now I'm very slow and I find 100k rides just as hard as I used to find 100 milers. Is that age? Or just loss of fitness because I'm not cycling as much? Or a bit of both?

I stopped doing long distances during Covid and just never got back to the same level after. (NB, I'm just using Covid as a marker for a period of time. I've never actually had it, I don't think)

 

[Colin S]

Gradual for me.
I'm in my 70's now and my riding is slower than it has been. I find hills more of a struggle than when I was younger but so far I have resisted the lure of an ebike but its possible for the future

C

 

[matticus]

I'm a little younger than you (but old enough to have started slowing down); I do however know lots of older riders, due to being at the slow end of the spectrum! (plus folks in my Dad's peer group etc).
My perception is that it's almost always a gradual drift. The exceptions being illness, accidents etc. Sadly these things come along more often as we get older.

(My other observation is that I haven't noticed my speed dropping much, but i HAVE noticed my recovery rate becoming much slower - whether from a short race, or from a steady 600k weekend. I even think cuts and bruises take longer to heal now!)