Hi David, welcome to the Bike Forum.


I just started back riding my bike two years ago, I was age 60. First year I dabbled a bit but managed a 65 mile ride on a very flat course. It took me about 5 days to get back to normal LOL! That was July of 2019. Most of my rides then were 20-25 miles. In fall of 2019 I was in treatment for Lyme Disease, so I think for my first year 2019 I managed a total of about 700 miles.


Like you David I had in my head that I wanted to do long rides as I did them when I was in my 30s. Since I live in NE PA and hate the cold weather I decided to go the trainer route. Once I finished my Lime Disease treatment I started riding my indoor fluid trainer in the evenings as I still now work full time. The trainer allowed me to build up a level of fitness that I'm not sure how I would have established otherwise.


My first ride or workout on my trainer I used Zwift and did a freeride. For all of winter 2019-2020 I did freerides or social group rides in Zwift. Over the past summer with my fitness vastly improved from the previous year, I did a lot of riding outside. Just two years into this I can now do 50-60 mile rides without any real prep, just get on the bike and go. The longest ride I did last summer was 75 miles but it was time not physical constraints that limited me to just 75 miles.


This winter I'm using Zwift training programs. There are many to choose from, the one I'm doing has interval training 3 or 4 times/week. I'm in week 5 (of 12) weeks, too soon to say it's working but I'm a firm believer in using a trainer and Zwift. I put in the time but at 62, two years into this, last weekend I passed the 6000 mile mark, ascended 404,951 feet of climbing for year 2020. My goal for 2021 is to do a the same 65 mile flat course as in 2019 but do it with at most 1 water bottle refill stop of 5 minutes, completing the ride under 4 hours, actually as close to 3 hours as possible. So yes I'm training hard for this.

There is an indoor trainer sub-forum here that might be worth your time if you are interested. Trainers are boring but Zwift makes it less boring. A wheel on trainer at the low end of the price point is about $400 you can buy less expensive ones but if you think Zwift or the others Trainer Road or Sufferfest might interest you then consider spending the money.

As others have said get a physical exam and ramp up slowly. Still once you get your Drs ok riding even on a trainer will help you control your weight but expect it to take some time. In other words don't over do it but all the while do it. You are going to visit the hurt locker from time to time. At first I was shocked at just how out of shape I was, now I'm quite pleased.