chasm54

It's both true and false. Big volumes, at low intensities, will help you adapt to fat-burning and therefore raise the point at which you resort to glycogen stores. While this is principally relevant to endurance, it is likely to keep you fresher, longer, which may mean you can cover big distances in faster times. Plus, long steady rides will give rise to some of the cardiovascular adaptations that more intense sessions promote, but obviously those adaptations will happen slower.

So riding slow for many hours will make you faster, at the same time as building a huge aerobic base. The old pros weren't entirely stupid. And my own experience of going on long tours bears this out. I am never as strong, and rarely as fast, as I am at the end of a multi-week tour. Of course, few people have the opportunity or desire to ride upwards of 30 hours per week.

However, if you want to ride as fast as you can you need to train fast as well as slow. Big volume, low intensity at some times of the year, lower volume, much higher intensity at others.

Shuffleman

After going 4-8, with a loss to Georgia Southern at home I see your point. Seeing as you are from Tallahassee I would ask that you don't kick a man when they are beyond down. Our threat level to you is about nil.

xuwol7

*Cycling is for young people (on my daily ride I see a couple in their 80's that cycle every day and probably put more miles in on their beach cruisers than most).
* Riding a bike will make you impotent.
* Cycling will give you tree trunk thighs
* You have to have a carbon fiber bike and wear spandex
* You have to be a snob and not wave...lol

My favorite--> pedaling in circles is indeed a myth, you can only push down on the pedals and your feet have no choice but to go in a circle.

let the flames begin...

auldgeunquers

+1

I have three distinctly different rides in mind.

I have recently acquired a couple of old road bikes. Their speed is thrilling and eye opening.

but ... it is not a "better" ride than puttering around trails and gravel paths on my mountain bike.

and ... my favourite ride is when I am off to the farmer's markets on my utility ride with my two kids and trailer in tow WHEN the kids are getting along. Riding along the waterfront here in Sault Ste. Marie with the soundtrack of two happily chattering ankle biters makes my slowest ride MY "best".

halfspeed

Does anybody actually espouse any of those?

laf

Myth : Tailwind

Still a myth for me. No matter which direction I go, I always have the wind in the face. If im into a headwind and I do a 180, I still have the wind in the face.

colnago62

This is oof topic. My bad: I was at Masters Track Nationals this year watching the 65 to 69 year Olds race. The velodrome had a radar *** or something. They were doing 37 mph at the line.

xuwol7

halfspeed, yes I have heard that before, mostly by young rich kids that have more $ than saddle time.

colnago62, I am either sleeping, working or on my bike and I have seen more elderly people putting in more miles than most of the serious roadies.
I know a few people in their 70's on their old bikes cruising at some high speeds passing the spandex crowd.
Apparently they have not heard of BF or the fact that you need CF and spandex to be fast...lol
I love it when they pass the young spandex crowd on their old heavy beach cruisers...lol
No myth there.

colnago62

They were fast for sure, but they were on pretty expensive equipment. A lot of carbon frames with carbon cockpits. Lots of carbon wheels and speed suits. A lot of these guys have been racing all their lives. Franz Hammer spent years riding in the senior ranks, even as a master. I hear he is in Arizona now, putting the hurt on master age riders down there. I am sure he is mid 70's. When I was in college in the early 80's a psychology teacher asked the class what we though we would be doing when we were 70, her point was that at that age, illness and other issues become the reality. I remember telling her I would be riding my bike (I was maybe 19 at the time). The only senior citizens I knew at that time, other than my grandparents were cyclists and they seemed to be doing fine. I remember she spent 10 minutes explaining to me why that was not realistic. I kept telling her that I see 60+ year old people riding all the time.

chasm54

The Masters road races I was competing in last season (55-59 age group) were much tougher than the non age-related Cat3/4 races. Much, much tougher. I didn't meet a single competitor who was training less than 12 hours per week, and most of them had been doing so for more than thirty years.