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!)

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

My sudden decline is the result of long covid.

Until October '22, aged 48, I was in my strongest shape since taking up recreational cycling in '17. Despite being up to ~7 Kg heavier at 80Kg, I was effectively able to do 4W/Kg for 20mins and regularly challenging/beating my best Strava segment times uphill. Was regularly switching between pens A and B in Zwift races under Category Enforcement. I thought nothing of regularly doing ~3 hour rides with max efforts up 3+ cat4 hills (263+ feet averaging 3%+).

I'm better than I was, but still limited to ~2.6W/Kg for 20mins at 91.5Kg (was 98Kg back in January). Fatigue and stamina are still massive issues, but the ebike bought around Easter has really helped getting me out for regular 1.5-2 hour rides until the usual autumn wet weather began in November. Under ZRS in Zwift, I'm on the pens D and E border for the first time.

Hopefully I will continue to lose weight and gain fitness.

 

[Psamathe]

I'm late 60s and gradual decline but difficult to analyse as I might head off travelling for 6 months with no cycling which is bound to cause a decline. Similarly I find I can be less motivated on local circular from home rides as I know the lanes very well and it can become for of a "go through the motions" - contrast to cycle touring in EU where I have no idea what's round the next corner, local from home rides I know exactly what's round every corner.

So definitely a speed decline, uncertain about distance as motivation might play a part in that.

Edit: No idea what this "50k challenge" is - a Garmin or Strave thing?

 

[ColinJ]

I am just about to turn 70 and I have definitely slowed down over the years. How much of that is due to age isn't clear though because I ride about half as much as I used to so I will have lost fitness due to that.

I have caught COVID a few times and it certainly knocked me back each time, but I don't think that it left lasting effects.

What has had a lasting effect though is suffering pulmonary embolisms (emboli? ) 2 years on the trot in my late 50s. After the first one I couldn't even walk 10 metres, let alone cycle. It took me 8 months to get back on my bike, and 3 months after that I was ill again. It has been a long struggle to get back to my current reasonable, but totally unspectacular level of fitness.

So, my answer to your question is... A slow decline due to ageing, an extra decline due to lack of mojo/laziness, and a significant stepped decline due to the ravages of blood clots.

 

[presta]

A bit of both, but mostly in steps. I have a choice: exercise too much, and suffer a sudden decline, or exercise less, and suffer a slow decline.

 

[Big John]

Aged 69 and a slow decline for me, up to now. However, I used to ride in a fast group but since the first COVID lockdown I've been riding solo. I don't have the carrot or the stick now to make me ride fast so I go at a more leisurely pace. I also ride a steel bike as opposed to a racing snake carbon one and I'm 100% sure that's made some speed difference. I actually stop on a ride now and take in the views lol. That was frowned upon in the group rides.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I find it is directly related to how many hours (plus how frequently) a week I am averaging on the bike. Most significant decline I saw, was the pandemic 2020-22 years. But I managed to recover the speed over 23-24, when I got back to more time on the bike.

If you’ve got full records it’d be worth plotting your average speeds vs. average cycling hours. Not as a comparison to others, that is pointless. Just to see how well it correlates for you.

On the other hand I don’t race, thus speed is hardly the be all and all. In fact it’s not important at all, other than needing to be fast enough (but no more) to complete the Audax events I enter without busting a gut.

 

[a.twiddler]

It seems quite likely that as you get older, a defined illness could be the significant event which sets back your fitness level. I've never been particularly fast but I have been able to continue with longer rides. I've been quite fortunate that I've actually been able to increase my distances recently. For years my cycling has declined in distance and frequency until I took up riding recumbents when I was 68. I'm in my 70s now and riding these things solo just seems to suit my temperament and abilities. Earlier this year I managed to push my daily mileage beyond the 100 mile mark for the first time in decades. This was after a setback last year when I had Covid then a month later pericarditis and a ban on "strenuous activity" for several weeks.

Fortunately I've been able to work myself back into the routine and hope to be able to keep up the longer rides next year when the daylight hours increase again. Taking photos and writing up the rides is a great motivator and helps to keep the brain cells active.

 

[Alex321]

Edit: No idea what this "50k challenge" is - a Garmin or Strave thing?

No, it is a this forum thing.

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/the-2025-half-century-50km-or-50-mile-a-month-challenge.300793/

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/the-2025-half-century-50km-or-50-mile-challenge-chatzone.300767/

 

[Alex321]

Mostly a slow decline for me, but after an accident in August last year that left me off the bike completely for a couple of months, there was a quite sgharp drop, and while I have recovered some of that, not back to what I was before.

 

[Saracenlad]

81 now and have gone Electric this year after a lot of deliberation and faffing. Years 79 to 81 were really tough, I could feel my body telling me to take it easy. Going up our local steep hill (My wife calls it "Killer Hill") I had to stop halfway up short of breath. It got slowly worse and worse.
Decided Electric assist is my next bike. Bought in spring this year and it is the best thing I ever did. Still take my Saracen and Raleigh out for a short ride and enjoy it so much. Anything over 5 miles and it's the Specialized E Bike. I enjoy that too!!

 

[MichaelW2]

My fitness plummeted after 2 back-to-back bouts of flue or something like it.