Question for the older riders

[Osiris]

On another cycling forum, someone recently complained that his top speed was down by about 1 mph from the previous year, and expressed his concern that he was getting "too old" to ride. This provoked howls of laughter from riders much older than him who are still racing competitively. I've been monitoring my performance numbers since 2011, and I seem to be stronger than ever at the ripe old age of 58. Larry Oz is my age and he's still killing it out there, as are even older bent riders like Kent Polk and John Schlitter, both of whom are in their early 60's.

Genetics obviously plays a part in all this, so I'm wondering if other "over the hill" riders here have experienced any serious slowdowns as a result of age. Surely it's bound to catch up to us eventually, but when?

 

[cranky cyclist]

I am 69. A few years ago, when I was still riding my DF bike, I improved my time on a very hilly circuit. Also a one hundred and three year old cyclist improved on his hour record of 15.1 mph to 16.3 mph with training. So yes it is possible to improve even if you are over the hill. However, it does take longer to recover from hard efforts. So you must adapt accordingly. I do not buy I am too old to ride. If I live to one hundred I want to break the hour record for one hundred year olds.

 

[Bill K]

I'm 66 and have almost 10 years of power data: IBike, then PowerTap, then Stages, and now Power2Max.
Same "old" FTP so far...
And I'm pretty sure I can bump it up a notch by replacing some of my beloved "junk miles" with structured training (and recovery) this winter.

 

[Osiris]

I am 69. A few years ago, when I was still riding my DF bike, I improved my time on a very hilly circuit. Also a one hundred and three year old cyclist improved on his hour record of 15.1 mph to 16.3 mph with training. So yes it is possible to improve even if you are over the hill. However, it does take longer to recover from hard efforts. So you must adapt accordingly. I do not buy I am too old to ride. If I live to one hundred I want to break the hour record for one hundred year olds.

I was very impressed a couple of weeks ago when I came across a cyclist riding his DF solo doing 22 mph. It's rare that I have to work hard to pass a DF rider, so I was surprised to see that he was quite old and had white hair. It turned out he was 70 years old, and raced for many years, which explains why he's faster than almost all the riders I know who are young enough to be his grandchildren.

In my own case, I know for a fact that I'm a much stronger rider today than at at other time in my life. I'm originally from upstate NY, where we have nothing but steep hills. Though I would ride almost every day as a teenager, there were three hills that I just could not climb. Nor could any of my friends. When I attended my 35th high school reunion, I brought my DF with me. Much to my surprise, I was able to climb all three of those hills, despite weighing 50 lbs more than I did as a teenager.

 

[paco1961]

57 yo, not sure if that qualifies as over the hill. But similar to some comments above, compared to 10 years ago I now climb better, cruise with similar efficiency but need an extra day or so between hard rides in order to recover. But I am also now much better about thorough warm up and cool down on each ride. I have found this to be the biggest change over the years. Once sufficiently warmed up I can hold my own as I always have but hopping out of the car and jumping right into a fast ride ends very badly. And skimping on the post-ride cool down means at least an extra recovery day . . . If not 2!

 

[bazzawill]

I feel older than all of you at soon to be 35 however that is due to my twin 18 month old boys and reduced training time.

 

[bladderhead]

55 years old, but it is the COPD that slows me down. Still, I am going to go on and on. I enjoy it and I think it keeps me fit.

 

[trplay]

I feel older than all of you at soon to be 35 however that is due to my twin 18 month old boys and reduced training time.

You might take note there is a huge team in Zwift (nearing 700 members) called Dads Inside Riding Trainers (DIRT). They have some very unique ways of getting the fitness job accomplished. There is a spin-off group now forming called GRIT (Grandparents Riding Inside on Trainers).

 

[Osiris]

57 yo, not sure if that qualifies as over the hill. But similar to some comments above, compared to 10 years ago I now climb better, cruise with similar efficiency but need an extra day or so between hard rides in order to recover. But I am also now much better about thorough warm up and cool down on each ride. I have found this to be the biggest change over the years. Once sufficiently warmed up I can hold my own as I always have but hopping out of the car and jumping right into a fast ride ends very badly. And skimping on the post-ride cool down means at least an extra recovery day . . . If not 2!

That's an interesting point. When I was young, I would ride hard every day without taking a break. Now I find that I have to recover for at least one day after a hard ride, some times two days. If I keep it down to more modest speeds, I can still ride every day though.

 

[scabinetguy]

At 67 years I’m better looking than I was at 57 but definitely slower. Something I use with great success is electronic muscle stimulation. I average 1 mph faster at the same heart rate. It seems to help muscle fatigue more than strength and you notice the effect in only a couple of sessions.

 

[RAR]

When I ride multiple days in a row I need equal multiple days off to recover. I'll be 65 in two months.

 

[ed72]

I have clearly gotten slower over the past 40 years due to less power and more weight. I believe it is harder or maybe impossible to get to the same body fat percentage as a 60 year old as a 20-30 year old. I think visceral fat increases as we age and it just does not like to come off or out. I know that I got my fat about as low as I could in 2015 and I was 182 pounds. Back in my younger racing days, 182 was my winter weight and I would race at 170-172 dropping into the high 160's at peak season. Throw in lower power and W/Kg starts to make hills more of a chore. Get on a bent and it gets worse. Joe Friel has written extensively on keeping aging effects checked. Essentially, he says it is better to keep the intensity up and cut back volume to ensure adequate rest and recovery. I do have to say it is pretty rare for me to get passed unless it is a long hill and the rider is fit. My long hill climbing Strava segments are pretty mediocre, usually in the top 1/3 but not much better although I can own pretty much any rolling or flat segment if I want.

I was returning from 50+ mile ride today coming over the top of a longish climb with howling wind on a bumpy windy goat path of a road probably build in colonial times when a local young female racer all kitted out came by me. So, I put it up on the big dog and thrashed with all I had. Every time she would go over a ridge or short hill, up and out of the saddle she would hammer. She'd look back to see if she dropped me. She'd tuck the descents. (I had to brake due to my weight and aero advantage). Over and over. I managed three all time personal bests on some technically challenging hilly roads that I had done right 3 years ago on a DF when I was really fit. In my younger days on a proper racing bike, I would have had no trouble keeping pace to frank and my personal bests would have been much better; but, I would like to think I still have some game down deep somewhere inside me.

 

[Osiris]

I have clearly gotten slower over the past 40 years due to less power and more weight. I believe it is harder or maybe impossible to get to the same body fat percentage as a 60 year old as a 20-30 year old. I think visceral fat increases as we age and it just does not like to come off or out.

Funny you should mention that. For some reason my weight has been dropping steadily over the past few months. When I resumed riding back in 2011, I weighed 180 lbs. Now I'm down to 170 lbs, and judging by the fact that I've had to tighten all my belts one notch, most or all of that weight loss has been fat. Still, I was disappointed to see that my body fat content was in the 19% range. I told the trainer at my gym that I was aiming for 12%. He strongly discouraged that, saying that 12% would be fine if I were in my 20's, but would actually be unhealthy for a 58 year old male. There was some reason for this, but I can't recall his explanation. He suggested I shoot for no less than 16%, so I'm cutting back on the pizza and soda and see what happens. Fortunately my power output not only hasn't suffered due to my weight loss, but it's actually risen. On my favorite hill climb today, I averaged about 60 watts more than I did back in 2014, which came as quite a surprise. My times have also been improving on other familiar segments, so today's result doesn't appear to be a fluke.

I was returning from 50+ mile ride today coming over the top of a longish climb with howling wind on a bumpy windy goat path of a road probably build in colonial times when a local young female racer all kitted out came by me. So, I put it up on the big dog and thrashed with all I had. Every time she would go over a ridge or short hill, up and out of the saddle she would hammer. She'd look back to see if she dropped me. She'd tuck the descents. (I had to brake due to my weight and aero advantage). Over and over. I managed three all time personal bests on some technically challenging hilly roads that I had done right 3 years ago on a DF when I was really fit. In my younger days on a proper racing bike, I would have had no trouble keeping pace to frank and my personal bests would have been much better; but, I would like to think I still have some game down deep somewhere inside me.

I have people trying to race me all the time. They probably look at my graying beard and conclude it must be some old geezer who can't ride a "real bike" any more, so they have to show me what they've got on the hills where they think they'll have a big advantage. It never turns out that way. What they call a "hill" here in Florida is nothing compared to the hills I used to climb in upstate NY. Down here I can maintain enough speed to capitalize on the Vendetta's superior aerodynamics, even when going uphill. All I have to do is make it to the top first, and it's game over for the DF rider. That's what happened this afternoon. I'm thinking the adrenaline rush from competition may be partly responsible for my 60 watt power increase.

 

[ed72]

I am also relatively less heat tolerant than when younger. I ride in the heat all the time but I overheat easier than when younger.

Is it body fat? Less sweat? Lower plasma volume?

I'm 18-19% BF using skin fold calipers now and was 9-10% in 2015 and there was really no way I could have gone lower. I'm a little chubby right now. I actually intentionally put some fat on to 15% before the TransAm bike race and was back down to 10% but I also put muscle on. My power is similar but putting out a very long and hard effort gets me overheated and lower power as the hours go by. I think it is the winter coat aka body fat. I definitely perform better in cooler temps. I'm going to lose weight again. Top speed is hard. Acceleration over 20-30 seconds isn't helped with extra baggage. I don't track top speed and can't say it has gotten worse.

The best data on performance changes as we age probably comes from competitive runners where lots of good data going back many decades exists. I don't have the study off hand to link. By memory... It looks like aerobic power can be held until the early 30's and it then drops much less than 1% per year (0.2-0.5% per year) until age 50 and the curve gets a bit worse until the mid 60's. That is if the runners continued life long high intensity training. Sedentary do lose the often quoted 1% per year or 10% per decade. Masters racers in Southern Cali gain 10% per decade.

It takes at least 5 years of hard work to approach one's genetic potential, so, many of us who return to training later in life may see improvements year after year.

I have two speed goals in 2019. 31 mph for 10 miles and 15.5 mph for 2 days. More power and less weight is my ticket. Why not have silly unachievable goals. We kids always wanted to see if we could jump over the pool on Stingrays. Wanting it is key and not taking time off is the other.

 

[Bill K]

Here is some interesting data on the Trainer Road forum:
https://forum.trainerroad.com/t/the-bell-curve-of-cylists-how-fast-are-the-average-tr-users/5840/124

 

[ed72]

Bill's linked TR data shows the huge drop in W/Kg for the 60-80 year old crowd. The Bell curve for older riders not only shifts lower in power but the standard deviation appears to narrow.

The 60-80 year old group normal distribution curve is a dash of cold water. My goal has been to exceed 3.5 w/kg, which is very modest for a young rider but the curves tell me that I am probably not going to get there.

I don't think one is ever too old to ride. One of my favorite cycling memories is meeting a couple touring France on a tandem. We were at the youth hostel in Bordeaux. They were 76 and 78. She said something like we can only do 50 or 60 miles a day now and we do have to take rest days here and there.

1 mph top speed can be easily bought with better kit or just test on a hot and humid day......"Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance" and if that doesn't work, wait for a hurricane.

 

[DavidCH]

I'll be 58 in 3 weeks time. I'm still beating my Strava personal bests. Never really been into racing and competition. The only one time I went, was racing at Sebring . Quite a rookie but I was surprised how I responded through unknown supporters giving me a clap and cheer ... that was so unbelievably uplifting ... first century ever done. Impossible for me to ride a DF every day ... however with the cruzbike and DF it can be every day. But I like to take 2 lazy days each week with my legs up.

 

[Tuloose]

My Vendetta has made me a faster rider at age 73 than I was 30 years ago on my Italian road bike.

 

[Osiris]

I've been looking over my power data for the last two months, and I've noticed very sizable and consistent increases on all of my Strava test segments. The same bumps in power output show up on both my V20 and my road bike, using two different power meters. This weekend I managed to break two records on my favorite 30 mile loop, winning back one of my KOM's in grand style, and bagging another as an added bonus. The V20 deserves credit for these due to its superior handling. Horsepower alone won't win here; you have to be riding something that can negotiate several sharp turns without a major drop in speed, and the V20 is the only bent I've ridden that's capable of that. I don't know what I could be doing differently that accounts for the power increases, but it's nice to see that at the ripe old age of 58, I've still got more in me. Maybe this whole aging thing is just a hoax after all.

 

[cranky cyclist]

It has been pretty much proven that a rolling stone gathers no moss. You can continue to improve even with the loss of VO2 max. You can also continue to get stronger by lifting weights into old age. However, sit on your ass and lose physical ability.