iPedal

Hello to all. I'm a 67 year old man in pretty good health and a former recreational roadie(Bianchi Eros) who switched to casual mtn biking after my wife's two road accidents. We now live in SoCal and I've just purchased a Felt Z100 in order to lose a little weight and improve my aerobic capacity/fitness. I would like to establish a gradual/reasonable training regimen to accomplish the above. Any suggestions/resources/links would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much; it's a great forum here.

chasm54

I'd suggest that you get a copy of Joe Friel's book "cycling past 50". Friel is perhaps the best-known author on cycling training. Inevitably, he is principally focused on competitive athletes who are training to race, but the principles he lays down are useful to anyone who is trying to get as fit as they can.

It's interesting you mention aerobic fitness because Friel would say that they key to reducing the decline in athletic performance as we age is training at high intensity to maintain our aerobic capacity. However, it is not a good idea to jump straight into high-intensity interval training aged 67 (or 57, for that matter) unless one is confident one has a big base and is already aerobically quite fit. So I'd suggest that step one is to ride for several hours per week at a level of effort that you find slightly challenging, but readily manageable. You should be able to talk in sentences while riding, though not to recite the whole of the Gettysburg Address. You get the idea. After three or four months of this you should be in a position gradually to introduce greater levels of intensity.

A heart rate monitor is a useful training aid. It is not essential, it's perfectly possible to train on the basis of perceived exertion, but you'll find that a lot of the training resources talk in terms of HR zones, and it does make it easier to be specific about the levels of effort being discussed.

iPedal

Thanks so much for your advice, chasm. It makes sense to establish a good base which I've read elsewhere as well. Fortunately it will be very pleasurable to do year round here in SoCal. Btw, I'm a huge Newcastle United fan! Go Magpies!

chasm54

I, however, follow Sunderland. But I won't hold your misplaced loyalties against you.

iPedal

I'm so sorry to hear that. Howay the lads!

late

There are more ways to do this than you can shake a stick at.

Back in the 70s or 80s they came up with a basic periodised training schedule before
heart rate monitors took over.

These plans are incredibly effective, and gentle on the body.
Get a cheap HRM, and you can easily nail the training zones.

Here is a description of the situation.
https://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/art...routine-22232/

The thing to do is get a coach. There are internet coaching services that will give you a training program
that roughly corresponds to where you are, and where you want to get. It's the way to go if you can afford it.
CTS and Cycling Peaks are a couple of them, there are others.

There are different companies that do this, you'll have to look into the differences, and the prices, to see what might
work for you. A lot of them want you to use a fancy HRM.

The old school approach is simpler, and cheaper. I imagine you could set one up using Friels's book.
I've seen that book. Actually, I think I bought it ( I have a lot of books, no telling what box it's in).
But I didn't find it easy to set one up. Which may be why it's in a box.

In the past I have used the really old school pre-HRM approach. I will warn you, it's quite boring, with
a lot of long slow rides. But the results are undeniable. One of the problems with any method is following
the program. It's far too easy to overshoot or undershoot and wind up scratvhing your head wondering what to do
next.

This is so gradual and simple, even an idiot can do it.

A coaching service can set you up on one. If all else fails, I might have a copy of one lying around.
Problem is, it's an old magazine article, and it leaves a few things out. And that assumes I can find which box it's in.

One last thing. There is a Suunto HRM with a very clever program built into it. It figures out how hard you've worked,
and then tells you how long to rest, and then how hard to work out next time.

It's really quite clever. The problem with that is you really have to get their top of the line,
I got one of the cheaper models. It is crippled in a couple of important ways, the worst being
that it can't talk to a computer. The watch is quite expensive. But for a non-competive athlete that
wants really good feedback on how things are going, it will get the job done.

iPedal

Thanks for the advice Late. Btw, we used to do a lot of kayaking off the Maine coast. You can't beat it. Take care.