(re) building mileage after winter.......hard work innit :)

[tommaguzzi]

I don't ride in winter anymore after i came off on black ice and broke my pelvis. just got going again last month and hoping to have 500 pluss peak District climby type miles in before Llandudno cc ride. 260 so far.
As i approach 60 years getting back to cycling fittness is definitely getting harder.
Having said that today's 33 miler is the best I've felt
https://www.strava.com/activities/924760702

 

[cyberknight]

1st "fast " club run for me today , i only went on the front for maybe 2 miles and i was farked , i need to build it back up again .

 

[Reynard]

363 miles for me so far this year...

It's perhaps not so much fitness that's the issue here, but simply time available for riding. I've been getting out little and often, but as I now have a little more time on my hands, I've been able to stick in rides longer than my standard 14 mile loop.

 

[Accy cyclist]

I don't know if i'm imagining it but my legs feel stronger after doing more turbo trainer and exercise bike cycling than the real thing,over the last 7 months. I usually average around 13 mph on the road, I've been averaging only 9 or 10 mph indoors as i've had the things turned up to near maximum resistance quite a lot of the time.

 

[gbb]

I suspect age isn't making life any easier myself and this almost certainly applies to most of us. Peak fitness 5 years ago, illness and off the bike for two years and the problem is, I want to get near my old self...but FFS, I'm 5 years older, getting close to 60...what the heck am I expecting, it's going to be harder and maybe impossible to get back to where I was.
I am getting reasonable miles in, not as many as I hoped but I still push along albeit not as fast as I used to and nowhere near as far as I used to...but I still feel some accomplishment.
Winter was always hard for me, the only bonus was commuting, even although it was only 5 miles a day.
Winters gone, put that behind you and enjoy the warmer weather and get out there

 

[steveindenmark]

I did really well through the back end of last year and then was knocked back for TCR and didnt even get onto the site for LEL and so my "Sod it" head came on.

So instead of riding at least 40km every day, I have done the occasional ride and goyt my CC Half Centurys in.

I will start again properly when the mornings get a little lighter and am planning to ride down to Belgium from Denmark to watch the start of the TCR. Getting the mileage back will be easy enough as I only stopped a couple of months ago.

Age has got nothing to do with it. Paul Ardill is 74 and he was riding the IndiePac last week.

 

[Bazzer]

Participating in one of the challenges on the forum might help.
I suppose it depends on your nature, but being on a ride knowing that if I make the effort to ride a little further, it gets me a qualifying ride, helps.

 

[Dave7]

You did better than I did over the winter, I had to have a month off due to a heart attack, now I can do the miles but they take a little longer, but I'm enjoying my pedalling again and thats the main thing.

Yes............each year they seem to take a little longer but, as you say, so long as we can keep enjoying it.
A heart attack must have scared you ?

 

[Dave7]

I don't ride in winter anymore after i came off on black ice and broke my pelvis. just got going again last month and hoping to have 500 pluss peak District climby type miles in before Llandudno cc ride. 260 so far.
As i approach 60 years getting back to cycling fittness is definitely getting harder.
Having said that today's 33 miler is the best I've felt
https://www.strava.com/activities/924760702

Nasty fall that.........and quite a shock I imagine.
I choose my days over winter.....just enough to keep my legs fit and (more importantly for me) keep my bum saddle friendly.
I am going for another 30 miler this afternoon as it is quite pleasant.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Yes............each year they seem to take a little longer but, as you say, so long as we can keep enjoying it.
A heart attack must have scared you ?

It was a bit of a shock to the system, as was the angina attacks in 2008, I'm getting quite a good collection of stents, 5 so far.

 

[tommaguzzi]

Dave7 yes it was. Happed at about 11.00 on a glorious sunny morning in October 2011. Some melt water was still frozen across the road where it was still in shadow. It was so quick i was still holding he bars and never had a chance to get my hand down first. I hit the tarmac hip first, driving the ball into the socket and was 6 months off the bike. I have to say morphine is very nice though! After that i stopped riding in winter. I usually start in march but there has to be absolutely no frost reports.
I try to do a bit of spinning and gym rowing instead but it is so so boring even with AC\DC belting away