I agree on the 7 years. I'm 2 1/2 years into my training regime...mostly 14-20 miles per ride with a hard (interval ride), a recovery ride. and a mid paced ride (focusing on 90 rpm) per week. I've lost about 20 pounds and reapportioned the remaining weight, I'm 5'10", 190 pounds and 58 YO. The last 10-15 pounds is the hardest to lose....I might get to 180 (doc says thats my ideal weight for my age...170 would be better) by next spring. My max heart rate is 170.


Using bike calculator and studying my rides over the years: I've gone from sub 100 watts to about 155 watts steady state (a pace ~ 17 mph). My long term goal in the next two years is 225 watts steady state to put me at/near 20 mph and a 7 mph pace on a 6% grade. What is a problem is that I'm riding a 53:39 with a 13-28 casssette and that bike gearing is very hard on hills as I can't spin efficiently at 85-90 rpm as that puts me at 9.0- 9.8 mph on 6% which is like 250-290 watts steady output. And that would be 3.6 watts per kg.


it just takes time to get there, steady improvement month by month. The positive side is that even though I'm an older cyclist, the steady improvement is a great reinforcer and when I replace my crankset...I'll go triple or compact to get those efficient low gears. In the meantime...I include 3%-4% grades and headwinds into my training and watch the lower cadences to protect the knees.