Originally Posted by
MulliganAl
You all have been a great help. I started with what stapfam suggested and e-mailed one of the guys I met from the riding group; he's a young guy that is on the college riding team so I think he could be very helpful.
He's unlikely to be of any use unfortunately.
Why?
He's young for starters. He has no comprehension of what age does to a body and while you may not feel old, there is no way you'll be as fit or as flexible as you were in your twenties unless you've worked hard at maintaining it.
He's a racer. You aren't doing racing ... yet. Training for racing is a subset of cycling, yet too many young people consider it the be all and end all. It's not, if anything, it's an aberation, though many old timers get drawn into racing. However, for them, it's different to the resilient body of the youth.
He's a racer and hence understands racing bikes. In all probability, a racing bike is the last thing you need to inflict upon yourself. Many road bikes share many attributes of racing bikes and indeed, look the same, but are different animals and the 'racer crowd' don't understand that.
Get thee in with a mob of old pharts of similar vintage and similar physical condition. Their choice of mount may horrify you (as it would the young man you refer to), but they've usually made their choices based on what works as opposed to amount of flame they'll cop in roadie forums. Maybe a full on, carbon fibre racing machine is the brute for you, but it's more likely it's not. The young have a lot of knowledge, but they lack the experience of their body falling short of their aspirations.
Richard