3940dxer said:
Thought I’d follow up again with my conclusion, which is train harder and hang in there.
I enjoyed reading through this thread. I rarely move out of the ultra-distance cycling forum here. But sometimes I check out other areas here, too. I was a little disappointed when I got to the end and saw that you think you need to train harder and simply hang in there. And I hate to break it to you, but that book you like,
Cycling Past 50, is not worth much. It wants you to believe it can tell you how to get faster after 50. But instead, all it does it tell fast riders at age 50 how to continue to be fast. It's a lot easier to keep something going than to make it better as you age. Bummer.
One thing that I did not see mentioned in this thread was anything about diet, fuel source, and mitochondria. There is something called being fat-adapted. And there is something called being overly carbohydrate reliant. A healthy metabolism will burn fat when not exerting effort to extreme. When exerting to extreme a healthy metabolism will burn carbohydrate (sugar). A healthy metabolism will switch back and forth depending on the exertion level.
Sadly, in today's society, a poor diet on and off the bike which is comprised of mainly carbohydrate will cause the mitochondria become dysfunctional. Dysfunctional mitochondria make up an unhealthy metabolism. And the mitochondria are the powerhouses of the muscle cells. When they don't work correctly, then you don't perform on the bike optimally. And guess what, as you age chances are pretty good your mitochondria are dysfunctional. Training harder will not fix them. Training harder will just overwork the dysfunctional mitochondria. Think of a broken down car. Will it go faster by revving the engine? No. Will it go faster if you take it to a mechanic and have the engine rebuilt? Yes.
How do you rebuild your mitochondria? You need to change your diet so the only carbs you eat are veggies high in vitamins and minerals - broccoli and cauliflower, etc. Eat one meal a day while getting rid of your dysfunctional mitochondria. The intermittent fasting and the 4 to 5 hour Z2 bike rides while fasted will get rid of your bad mitochondria. Do 3 (or maybe 4) long slow bike rides a week. The body will form new undamaged mitochondria during this process. Do this for 6 months. Once you've gotten rid of the bad mitochondria, then start eating more and doing higher intensity workouts. Sugar consumption is OK on the really high intensity workouts. You'd be stupid to do more than one of these in 2 weeks. This will cause your new mitochondria to become more robust. After about 3 months of this you won't feel 70 any longer. You should be ready to bang elbows with the young guns.
If you are a person who has to take a rest stop every 25 or 30 miles on your bike rides to get a sugar fix, then what I say herein above definitely applies to you. For more discussion on this topic take a look at the following link to my blog. See
https://jlippinbike.wordpress.com/?s=mitochondria. Training harder is not the answer. Training SMARTER is. Good luck to you.