Question for the older riders

Don1

Don1

Guru
I ride occasionally with a dude who's 80. Just bought a pro level bike. Still rides 200km a week. He's just a little slower in the hills but he still can fang allong pretty good and plans to for many years. So I reckon just enjoy it while we can.
 
trplay

trplay

Zen MBB Master
Last nights Coyote Team consisted of 4 riders over 60 and one over 50. Needless to say, you won't find the Coyotes anywhere near the top. The old adage of "there's always someone faster" is gospel. Not sure you can also say, "there's always someone slower". At least for me, they are becoming harder and harder to find.
 
3bs

3bs

whereabouts unknown
well, amusingly everyone here cumulatively covered most of the conclusions of the studies on the issue. congratulations. i am also concerned about how many of this group fall in the 50-70 category including myself. (it sounds however like i am the only one with teenage kids. some of you having teenage grand kids.)

15% seems to be a magic target for fit over 50 in males. i think there seems to be an interesting trend of first having trouble getting down to that level and then with advanced age holding that much fat. i am still in the former camp.

decreased hormone amounts, decreased hormone production and thyroid and other glandular issues, even minor, contribute to less muscle mass, and more fat. oh and least i forget my constant companion, stress.

the real difference in the game is rest and recovery. most trainers who understand cycling and aging is to reduce seat time frequency and increse recovery time, which generally allows ride quality to remain high, be it speed or distance or both per ride. and sleep. hormone production requires sleep.
 
E

ed72

Zen MBB Master
Interesting blast from the past. I met my goal this year and at 60, I'd say my aerobic power levels are equal or better to where they were 3-5 years ago. I don't know about sprinting. I have found it harder to get really lean. I used to be able to get to 10% body fat without too much trouble but only hit 13% (using the same skinfold calipers). So, there is extra weight, maybe lead in my bones.

I could see where older riders have an injury and never get it back. It certainly takes more for me to gain fitness than in the past because recovery isn't so fast or as fast. One of my lessons has been to sometimes take a recovery day or not ride a day to recovery from a hard one.
 
hurri47

hurri47

Well-Known Member
Up through age 70 I only got faster and went farther. At 71, that trend stopped pretty dramatically. Now at 72 I can barely get up the shallowest hill, and speed is a distant memory.

I suspect most of us have a wall and I clearly just hit mine.

-Dan
 
E

ed72

Zen MBB Master
Something to share with other oldies. I found out the hard way that recovery is also directly tied to sleep quality in a big way. Long story short, I was falling asleep in the middle of the day and an abnormal ecg got me the ticket to all sort of testing this Spring and Summer including CTs, xrays, sleep studies, ecgs, blood work, high zoot cpcp machine, and 8 weeks of 24/7 heart monitoring.

When my sleep was impaired, recovery and performance was deeply impaired. When sleep was more normal, there was a world of difference.

With impaired sleep, I get zero stage 3 sleep.....this is when all the repair work is done. Now, my concern personally is no so much athletic performance but health. Big drops in performance could be due to many factors but don't overlook sleep issues as a cause. In my case, I don't snore but do get a lot of so called central apneas meaning I stop breathing and then my heart stops for 6 seconds about 4-6 times per night. Most people with apnea can get this fixed with a CPAP machine or a dental device. Two Cardiologists and a Pulmonologists can't figure my issue out but they are convinced that my heart is fine and that I am in remarkable condition. So, no worries. I'm getting a third opinion.

Waking up tired and wanting to fall asleep mid-day is sign to talk to your MD. I suspect part of the recovery issue with age could be related to sleep impairment. Worth checking out if suspected a problem.
 
3WHELZ

3WHELZ

Guru
All that I can say is that I was riding a Century a few weeks ago and mid-way through significant a climb, a gentleman on RB passed me wearing an "Old Fart's" jersey. If I recall correctly from a conversation with the founder of the group, you must be at least 70 years of age to wear the jersey. All I could do was smile as he passed me by!
 
Jeffrey Ritter

Jeffrey Ritter

Well-Known Member
Structured training all year (just turned 65) and am riding at my peak in power, w/kg, etc. It takes discipline to be sure. My coach said that, generally, its hard to improve cardio output past age 70, but maintenance remains very much sustainable.
 
Opik

Opik

Well-Known Member
me at 30 reading all this feel left out.

although my asthma and skin allergy which is flared by sweat is my wall
 
jond

jond

Zen MBB Master
ed72 said:
The second law of thermodynamics is absolute; nevertheless, I'm fighting it til the end.
Click to expand...

lol on a really good day I’m sure reversal happens even if it’s downhill.

keep on fighting the good fight. We ride bikes.
 
jond

jond

Zen MBB Master
Opik said:
me at 30 reading all this feel left out.

although my asthma and skin allergy which is flared by sweat is my wall
Click to expand...

looking forward to sixty and summer no doubt. You need to get out of Sydney taufik
 
DavidCH

DavidCH

In thought; expanding the paradigm of traversity
I have to mix mountain biking in with the upright df and the vendetta as I get shoulder and neck pain if I do too much of the other riding. When riding the Vendetta; I seem to be constantly lifting my head to check my mirrors due to edge of glasses effecting the field of site.

Mountain biking is better for strengthening the bones :D
 
E

ed72

Zen MBB Master
Six months chasing chest pain and my heart stopping half a dozen times per night, waking me up and making me tired and grouchy, I saw the 5th Doctor. The new Doc specialises in sports cardiology. So here is a funny one.

He tells me that older ultra marathoners and some older Ironmen get this pain in the left side that is not a heart attack and it is arthritis of the ribs from the heart and lungs banging into them for years. It just feels like a heart attack. What a relief.

The heart stopping in the middle of the night, he said no worries......30% of Tour de France riders' hearts stop during sleep, too. I said, but I suck. He tells me not to worry, I am not going to die. (It just feels that way). I am going to see a 6th doctor on that one.

To the original question about when does age really get you? I suspect nagging orthopedic issues start to make training harder and once you lose fitness and muscle, it is more difficult to regain prior fitness when older.

Arguably the ultimate study on VO2max and ageing was performed by (and on) the legendary exercise physiologist David Bruce Dill, who was one of the principal researchers in the Harvard study described above. Dill was the research director of the Harvard lab from the time it opened in 1927 until it closed in 1947, and his classic textbook, Life, Heat, and Altitude, was an enormously important early contribution to the field of exercise physiology. Dill tested himself regularly in the laboratory from the age of 37 until he died, aged 93; in this 56-year span his VO2max went south at an average rate of only 0.23 ml/kg/min per year – an amazingly slow decline(3). Dr Dill was noted for his incredible level of regular physical activity, which included – as he grew older – prolonged bouts of fast-paced desert hiking!

In 1987, a year after Dill’s death, Dr Michael Pollock and co-investigators at the Mt Sinai Medical Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, reported an astonishing finding which lent further credence to the idea that very strenuous exercise was a VO2max preserver: well-trained, competitive endurance athletes with an average initial age of 52 were able to totally maintain VO2max values over a 10-year period(4)!

In the full group of 24 athletes studied by Pollock and crew, VO2max went into a tailspin averaging 9% during the decade of study. However, Pollock learned that some of the 24 athletes had continued to train vigorously and be competitive during the 10-year study, while others had become quite sedentary; and when he split the analysis, he found that the more active athletes had absolutely maintained their average VO2max at a steady 54 ml/kg/min – despite decreases in their maximal heart rates – while the less active ones had seen their VO2max values plummet by 12%.
Click to expand...

https://www.peakendurancesport.com/...an-athletes-prevent-decline-aerobic-capacity/
 
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