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

[matticus]

Try to avoid doing what I did when very tired and trying to remove a tight, damp arm warmer from my right arm. It suddenly came loose, resulting in me punching myself in the face!

Don't worry - I've done that more than once ...

 

[matticus]

Maybe the young uns just don't want to converse with a load of old guffers, so they stay away, lol.

Hang on a sec: who did you expect to reply to a thread whose title starts:

Older riders:​

???

 

[oxoman]

Try removing fizik winter boots regardless of Age. 🤐😂

 

[yello]

Try removing fizik winter boots regardless of Age. 🤐😂

Ditto NorthWave. Tires me out just getting the darned things on, and then a 30 minute after ride recovery before attempting to get them off again.

I can't be objective here about my decline and what it might be due to. There are a number of factors. Motivation declined around 5 or 6 years back (no idea why) and so the mileage dropped. As a consequence, fitness obviously declines. Now, at 65, I doubt I'm capable of doing longer rides (100km +) but then fortunately neither do I have the desire. That may change, I don't rule it out.

I'm not sure I ever had stamina tbh though. It was more like bloody mindedness; I didn't give up, rode myself dog tired. I'm less headstrong these days. So - point is - changes are also mental; not just aging, physical decline and motivation. I could probably even say that I have less need of cycling these days due to being a more chilled person.

 

[bulldoze]

Good list, @Dogtrousers . You've missed the specifically flexibility / suppleness things like yoga and pilates and similar, which I think contribute to overall fitness very considerably. I mean 'fitness' in the broad sense, not just the cardiovascular aspect, which people to tend to use as a shorthand for 'being fit'. Personally, I've had an almost unbroken, 40+ year gym (resistance training) habit and I'd rate that as massively important. Adding cycling to that for the cardiovascular fitness, and yoga for flexibility seems nicely comprehensive to me. What I'm getting at is there really isn't one activity which covers all the areas of 'general fitness'. If I was only allowed to do one then it would be resistance exercise, but the others are almost as important, and the cycling is the most fun aspect, by far!

Good post.

I have often pondered what I would I choose if I could only do one fitness activity and I think it always comes down to some form of bodyweight circuit training interspersed with sprints. These things have been called all sorts of things over the years. Last summer I went to a workout on holiday that was described as a WOD which turned out to be Crossfit parlance for what we used to call circuit training in the Army - It was largely similar, just much, much easier

 

[nagden]

I turned 70 this and have been a lifelong recreational cyclist. This year I completed my first 100km without any problems. It wasn’t fast but I recovered very well. I have noticed some changes. I cannot handle too much intensity. I live in a hilly area and have changed my gearing to allow me to climb at a sensible effort. I generally ride everyday at a low intensity and rarely go above 115 bpm my average heart rate is usually around the 100 mark. Gone are the days of no pain no gain. One or two days a week I do efforts depending how I feel. I do notice it takes me longer to warm up. But I will keep riding for health as long as possible and next year all being well I shall try a few Audax rides.

 

[GarthW]

I'm 65. I think I have a little less top-end power than I did, but I can still climb the roads in the local hills and mountains as fast as I did 45 years ago, mainly from knowing more about training and nutrition. I also have less weight to haul up the hill. When I graduated from high school, I weighed 10-15 pounds more than I do now, and none of it was fat. It doesn't hurt that my current bike is five pounds lighter too, but on the other hand, I carry a lot more water than I used to. Back then, dehydration often got me in trouble. I peaked at age 48, when I was doing a lot of time-trial efforts from home to the beach and back, parking my heart rate 10bpm higher than a man my age could supposedly achieve, and keeping it there for 45 minutes at a time. I quit doing that when I read that it causes a lot of oxidative stress, and speeds aging. As a layman, I've studied health (not medicine, but actual health) thousands of hours; and as a result of practicing and applying what I've learned, I don't have any of the health problems a man of my age is expected to have, and I enjoy helping others with their health too.

 

[palinurus]

It would be difficult for me to notice. Perhaps if I'd kept doing time trials I'd be able to plot the decline, certainly it would be expected after 40 - as far as I know the data is from sports cyclists, I didn't start racing until 37-- I improved in my 40s because I was riding more and trying to go faster. Since I'm no longer doing that the likelihood is I'm considerably slower but I have no data. Riding feels similar- I suppose it never gets more difficult; you just get slower.

In any case my bikes are slower! (I have the option of a singlespeed and and a relatively heavy steel road bike, both with tough tyres)

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Gradual decline over a couple of decades for me. Apart from this year when leukaemia has taken its toll.

Cycling and hiking has been great for cardio and certain muscle groups as has regular use of a multigym for resistance training - especially of muscles above the waistline.

Nonetheless, a bag of sand is still much harder to lift than when I was a much younger man. 🤷‍♂️

 

[Vapin' Joe]

In my latter years of cycling I went from seeking out hills to challenge myself to avoiding them like the plague.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

Is cycling a dying thing with the young or are the younger ones just concentrating on other social media as opposed to forums? I wouldn't have thought that cycling was unpopular with the young because you just need to look at the conveyor belt of elite young riders coming through in the pro cycling world.

Maybe the young uns just don't want to converse with a load of old guffers, so they stay away, lol.

I am younger by the standards of this forum, but not general population standards! You will find young men in particular on forums, just not cycling related ones. I think you are right that younger riders are growing in numbers, but they are focussed on racing and working towards becoming elite, rather than an enjoyment in recreational cycling like most forum members on here.

I am fitter and more powerful in my 40's than 20's/30's but that is because I ride a fair bit more and do a decent amount of fairly structured training in order to maximise my fitness. Whilst my fitness has increased, age certainly plays a factor in recovery. Hard rides generally feel like hard rides the next day when walking up stairs! I would also struggle to do a big week of maybe 5-6 full on training days now, whereas 10 years ago that would have been a breeze. I am not sure when the decline will start to appear but I am just happy riding my bike so hopefully if I am an older chap I can still get out and about regularly.