[QUOTE=speedlever;6909511]From roadbikerider.com
http://www.roadbikerider.com/currentissue.htm#stent
Thought I'd post the article this time instead of just the link. Relative to this article, sometimes it's hard for me to tell the difference between just getting older (aches and pains) and real problems. It helps to know what to look for to differentiate between the two.
Another problem for me is that oftentimes my riding comes in spurts with gaps between. So it becomes difficult to discern body ailments from training issues.
Anyway, here's the article:
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It's been quite easy to tell the difference between age and other problems. To do that however, you need a far better understanding of the related physiology than you can get on a forum. You also need to experiment to focus-in on the actual cause if it's a tricky one. At 69, the only age related issue that I have or have had, is it takes longer to recover, so it's more important to keep up with the fitness program and to build up slowly when changing performance levels. In other words you lose fitness more quickly and it's easier to over train the older you get.
As long as I don't sluff-off on the weight training, there are literally no aches and pains. Exception of course are crashes on the mountain bike. If I do sluff off-on the weights, the aches and pains will start.
If you do a lot of sitting for a few days rather than staying active, you'll feel it after the next ride. You won't necessarily be slower, but recovering from the ride will take longer.
On the article, the key point here is that doctors are not trained/educated in physical fitness and nutrition. Mine thinks (or used too) that I'm killing myself by running my heart rate above 80% max for up to 75 minutes and actually hitting my max occasionally. He's slowly coming around after a few years of doing a bunch of tests to see if I'm self destructing. He's also bought some books I recommended on the subject.
You can in fact reduce the risk of death by a factor of 5 over a sedentary person with adequate fitness (quantified in one of the books). Consuming less processed food (best would be zero), more plant based food and reducing animal derived food has to help in that regard as well, especially concerning the cardio system. That's in comparison to the typical American fare.
The ageing decay process is now becoming far better understood as are the requirements to counter it. I lucked out and have had a fitness program for about 44 years that comes fairly close to that now recommended to counter that age related decay. We are apparently genetically programmed to start decaying at around age 40.
If your interested, I'll list the books.
Al