PRs?
 

Has Personal Record now become Personal Regression for you? I'm still beating some old PRs but at 58, it's getting harder and harder with a lot less time cut off as well. There's stuff I know I'll never beat, let alone get near again. It's better that not being able to ride at all!

Nope.
I've maintained my long distance stamina and actually gotten a little better at climbing but I get slower every year.

maybe it's time to introduce new types of riding? this Fall I inadvertently achieved a PR, longest unpaved trail ride. not as long as longest road ride of course, but I was like: "hmmm, how about that"

Low 50's here. Long term riding, but mileage has increased significantly in last 3 years, with 2018 over 1000 miles more than 2017.

For the most part I run Strava in the background for ride logging, although I am aware of a few segments.

Only been recording on Strava heavily for about 3 1/2 years now.

Last year (2018) I logged 201 PRs, mostly "JRA PRs". Some on regular routes, many on infrequent routes, so perhaps they don't count as much. But, I am still periodically picking up local PRs.

Overall, not feeling like pounding hard on a lot of my heavy hitting segments that I know about, but I did hit a couple of them.

I think I lost a KOM, and picked up a different KOM last year :giver: Not one of the fastest local KOM's.... but nonetheless...

I also logged my fastest descent speed ever last year at 54.1...

"The older I get, the faster I was"

But I'm riding much longer distances and annual miles that I did when I was in my 20s.

For my 50th year I took most of a year Touring Ireland & Scotland,,, at a slow pace ~10mph seeking Pub Sessions to sit in on..
(came back , 3 years later both my parents, in sequence , died)

now 71,
I don't own a car, now, so I don't really leave the town , here..






....

I haven't been driving, at least not my own vehicle. :)

But, I do get out of town. :commute:

Still tentatively planning to do a coast ride this spring/summer. Slowly getting things thrown together for it.

I'm just happy to be out there putting in the miles.

Oh, there is the other thing...

I NEED MORE GADGETS!!! :)

Faster frame
Faster wheels
Faster tires

:giver:

I just posted my fastest speed and hope to get my total mileage up also. The speed is because of the new bike with its road bike gearing. The total mileage will be fun but also easier as I am retired so now I will have the time to ride. At 70 I am also just happy to just be on the bikes.
Frank.

I'm actually pretty happy with my aging so far. I'm on Strava and have a favorite segment, flat 7.3 mile segment, no stops. I test myself while riding alone.

At 32 years old I was struggling to hold a 20 average on that segment (pre strava). At 55, I crushed it with a new PR of a 22.9 average speed. Both good quality road bikes, same wheels.

I'm doing OK and still set some PR's here and there. :D

OK I lied, I was 53 at the time. These years are flying by faster than I thought.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0aee103912.jpg

At 63 I've twice tied my KOM for a last-mile segment on our T-Th club ride. I may not be breaking it, but dagnabbit nobody else is, either.

Not yet.

This is one of the reasons I don't Strava. I know I'm gonna get slower as I age (all things equal) ... why have it rubbed in my face? I guess I prefer blissful ignorance so irrelevant numerical realities don't ruin a perfectly good day on the bike.

PRs were easy to come by in mid to late 2017. I'd just gotten a good old school road bike, my first drop bar bike since the 1970s. Compared with my 30 lb hybrid it was quite a bit easier with the 25 lb road bike and more aero drop bar.

And that continued through the first week of May 2018. New PRs fairly regularly. Even a KOM on a lightly contested segment. Then a few top tens on heavily contested segments -- mostly wind assisted.

Then I was hit by a car in May, and later found to have thyroid cancer. So the rest of the year was mostly a struggle just to maintain some fitness so that getting back into proper shape wouldn't take so long. The busted up shoulder healed, more or less. Surgery got the cancerish bit of thyroid. So far, so good.

Not many PRs the past couple of months, other than on new-to-me segments. But I did manage one Sunday on a familiar route I've ridden many times. Well, four segments, technically, but actually the same segment split up to suit the whims of previous cyclists who created the segments. It was on a long-ish, tough-ish mild climb, followed by a steep downhill, finishing with another climb. Usually I'm thwarted by headwinds or I misjudge the sustained effort and either gas out on the final climb, or ride too cautiously and finish with gas left in the tank but no PR. Sunday it mostly came together, although I forget where the longest segment actually ended and I eased up a couple hundred yards short of the finish, so I got only three of four possible PRs.

That was satisfying. At 6 minutes, still far short of the KOM -- two minutes behind the KOM, all of the top ten just over four minutes. But at least I'm back where I left off in May.

Chasing PRs and even KOMs is an amusing diversion for now. But at 61 the window of opportunity is closing. Pretty soon I'll be slower from age no matter how good my conditioning. I'm already seeing limits in my stamina and endurance. I have to ease up and loaf between segments, save some gas for sprints, so my overall average speed is nothing special.

I may have a couplafew more years of possible increases in conditioning and speed before the inevitable. After that I'll have to settle for "fast within my age group" or "not too slow for a gimp".

But that's why I didn't start biking until I was 58 yrs old...this past May. It's all up from here!

So far, I'm still setting new PRs.

Good job! For me, it depends on the segment (usually a climb). I still PR some, but others are just brutal and hard to get past.

I think I'm climbing better now in spite of being heavier. It's hard to say though since hills around me are typically so short that by the time my heart rate notices I'm climbing, it's done; they're too short to settle down in the pain zone and grit it out. I just know I'm dropping the group harder lately.

Total waste of time, and stress you dont need. Just ride for the fun of it, and you will be far happier.

Oldies setting personal bests just weren't trying hard enough when they were younger.

Stress?? It's fun to see them, and a decent indication that one is one the track toward avoiding senescence. So far, so good. Markers and goals are good things, not to be shunned. Those Buddhist priests don't get so good at martial arts by just sitting and chanting. It's all about noticing what's going on. Awareness, if you please, another word for concentration.

Implying some of us don't actually enjoy pushing our limits and challenging ourselves.

Yeah, I also take leisurely rides just for fun, mostly with friends.

But besides the challenge of pushing ourselves, the body and brain also respond in interesting ways in response to pushing ourselves to the threshold of discomfort or even pain. The brain and body can produce some pretty effective pain relievers and anti-anxiety chemicals when pushed the right way. The trick is to learn our personal threshold between discomfort and injury level effort.