rsbob 

Group rides make going the distance for me quite easy since time speeds up so dramatically. Solo, after 40 miles it starts to become drudgery unless exploring some place new, which doesn’t happen much these days.

AFAIAC, the ride your age thing is backwards. And cudos to those who can or like the gentleman above still banging out centuries. I agree with going metric after age 60. I used to do centuries and doubles in my 30s and 40s but usually with friends, but solo - no mo.

Now if I could find a comfortable seat I would be inclined to ride more miles, if it would accommodate my gentleman parts AND be comfy - not an issue when a young buck.

andrewclaus

Until now I had no idea RYA was a "thing." The small group of friends I ride with think I'm a little nuts when I do it every year, and my wife is a little tired of hearing about it.

I'm also surprised to hear that group rides decreased because of COVID. The small group I now ride with started because of COVID, when the non-profit bike shop we volunteer for reduced its public hours. We all had extra time on our hands, found out we were compatible as a cycling group, and knew how to keep our distancing. Until then my wife and I were largely solitary cyclists, accustomed to weeks out alone on tours, and daily commuting. We did rides no one else really wanted to do.

At 64, I still ride my age pretty much once a week, with shorter trips filling out 100 to 150 mile weeks most of the year. It's a way of life, literally. I hope to continue the trend to age 70 and realistically expect it to ebb then. Perhaps then it'll be once a year rather than weekly.

An annual event more important to me than my birthday is my epic ride up Mt Evans, CO from my home in Golden, a 98 mile day with 11,000' vertical feet. I keep expecting every year to be the last year I make it, but this year was one of the best years I've had up there, and hope to do it at least once more at age 65. Here at my new home in Tucson, I've been cycling Mt Lemmon twice a month for 7,700' of gain in 70 miles. If I can keep that up this winter, I'll have a shot at Mt Evans this summer. But I know Old Man Time will pop his head in one of this days and tell me to stop that foolishness.

Biker395 

I say if you want to ride your age, then by all means do it. Until recently, I used to ride insanely long distances and thought nothing of it. Riding "my age" was no challenge because I rode 2/3 of my age virtually every day. I had ridden 48 doubles and thought it to be only a matter of where and when I would do my 50th.

Then a nasty crash. Then a chronic condition. Then COVID. Then something else. Later, rinse, repeat.

And on my most recent birthday, I found myself with a nasty intestinal bug (nothing like raw hamburger in a foreign country to make you feel alive) that meant I couldn't ride at all, let alone my age. Yea, I'm better and could certainly do it now, and I soon hope to be back on the double century circuit again. But the point is do it if you can while you can.

PS: For all the worry about riding in the COVID age, I still haven't even heard of a single person who became infected that way.

jppe

My local riding group picked up Covid…….but it was because they all went together to a local brewery after a ride. 6 of them came down with Covid……Crazy!!!

MinnMan

Yow.

I also haven't heard of any covid transmission between cyclists in group rides. But several of the groups I know socialize after rides at breweries and the like. I just wave and ride on home, rather than joining in the fun. It makes it easier that, being celiac, I can't drink the beer anyway.

But also my group stops at coffee shops in the winter, and around here, coffee shops are full of maskless people. And Minnesota has a very high incidence rate. This makes me pretty uncomfortable, but that's a topi for a different thread.

rsbob 

It might be easy to RYA during the non-winter months, but my birthday is in December and here it is rainy, cold with some days like today bordering on rain-snow mix. I did ride 30 in some grapple and that was enough. I was warm enough but having rain running off my helmet and off my chin is not what I would call something I would like to expand to another 37 miles. Sorry but RYA is not for me in my birth month up here.

More power to those that do, and if you do it during the winter months in crappy conditions, 10 times more power to you. Must be getting soft or wiser - your pick.

jaxgtr

yea, getting a little tougher each year. I did 57 this year, but had to wait a couple of days as my knee started to hurt a couple of days prior.

BlazingPedals

I always read the riding-your-age thing as being *at least* your age. So a metric century was fine in my 50s. It's getting a little harder now - my next one will be *at least* 67 miles. Eventually that's going to get too hard and I'll allow myself to divide by the age of my bike or something.

TomM

Each year I take a “what’s your real age” quiz on the internets which reports back 10. Problem solved!

tigat

In year's past, the Ride Across Wisconsin fell on my birthday weekend, so I always considered it to be my birthday ride, having learned of this RYA thing from being on this forum. At its original 175 mile routing, I figured that every completed ride was banking a couple years worth of birthdays. It moved north in 2019 and became a 225 mile route, staged 3 weeks earlier to preserve some daylight time. I missed it in 2019 (crash) and 2020 (cancelled), but I rode it this year to the tune of 228 miles. On my actual birthday, I did a 30 mile ride with my daughter and called it good.


FWIW, I think that for many of us, having markers like being able to ride one's age is something that keeps us engaged in the sport. I am not going to be setting a ton of PRs on my climbing rides, but I am determined to maintain a baseline level of riding fitness because it makes riding and life better for me.

TiHabanero

Tigat, thanks for explaining the ride your age thing as a marker to shoot for to maintain interest in the hobby of cycling. Never made sense to me and kinda cultish in its own way. I get it now.

BlazingPedals

Well, yeah, it's not a requirement for riding a bike, it's just a personal challenge. Take it or leave it, or modify as desired.

HookUp

I honestly do not believe age is a factor in how long or far one rides.

I'm old and work a desk. My Cuz is 7 years younger than me and has worked construction all his life.

We lumped did a ton of pellets for a stove in his basement yesterday. 50 40# bags. At bag 12 he pooped out. I got to lump the rest.

Everyone's level is different. Ride the length you feel comfortable. My back usually tells me when I've gone to far

jppe

I rode my age plus a few again yesterday. It rained a good bit but with a rain jacket temperatures were comfortable. It was supposed to be a group ride but I was tge only one willing to ride in wet conditions. It was slow but I’m still in recovery mode after a couple weeks of battling a sinus infection. I still enjoy doing longish rides, even though I’m not riding as much. Last year my average distance was around 60 miles per ride. But lately I need a reason to go out and ride. Eating lunch somewhere usually works these days.

N2deep

Normally I RMA on my birthday but skipped it this year due to the heat. I rode 67 miles and decided to skip the extra miles due to dehydration and exhaustion. Sometimes you just need to know when to call the game and to do it another time.

big john

You still have a regular group to ride with most of the time?

_ForceD_

Just pointing out that this task is about 38% easier for the metric world.

Dan

jppe

On weekends when weather is cooperative. But it’s a younger crowd!

big john

I know about that! I joined the road club here in 1989. Older guys have left and younger ones join. Or the older guys still around are still faster than I am. I don't go to the club rides very often these days but sometimes I have a great time when I do, especially if I'm not the slowest.

A couple years back I found a different, smaller road club with more casual type riders. They still go fast sometimes but it's less competitive. And I have some other retired friends to ride with on Tuesdays.

jppe

Very similar here as well. I’m probably the oldest by quite a few years with my regular group. But we have a good number of newbies and females and I’m enjoying a more casual pace with them. We also have a few whom I got started riding 4-5 years ago. They’ve progressed to riding in the fast group and I’m tickled to see their progression. A few really got the riding bug and are doing a lot of the longer hillier rides I used to do. I’ve really become a rider doing more solo riding and searching for new places to visit and eat!!

OldTryGuy

I enjoy riding my age

djm1834 

Since my birthday is in November, I'm fortunate to be living in Tucson. This year on my birthday it was in the low 70s and I rode my age -- 73 miles. It was hard, but by next year I will have forgotten how hard it was and will more than likely try to ride my age again.

rydabent

Instead of miles ridden for your age, you could convert to metric miles for your age.

Nachoman

It DOES get harder every year to ride my age.
In the last year or two, I've basically stuck to my sweet spot which is about 30 to 45 miles.

OldTryGuy

One can certainly do that --

This year I was unable to complete the typical Birthday Ride that I've been doing for some years. With Age Ride Distance completion being *no sweat* thanks to it being flat and only hot, humid with wind here in SW FL it was over a decade ago I decided to up the distance to 100 miles for my birthday. After a number of years I then decided on the *Double Age + 1 mile for good measure* that worked wonderfully since I would begin after midnight for a leisurely 60 to 80 miles then join the GUYS and ride with them drafting to completion. In 2020 it was a bit more difficult since the entire distance was SOLO and thus very time consuming thanks to more years and cancer issues but completion was achieved. This past July I planned on and completed a pre-Birthday warm up ride of 102 miles BUT 2 miles from home a glitch occurred and down I went onto my left shoulder resulting in a minor Rotator Cuff tear. It was 6 days later I started my Birthday Ride under the stars and was feeling fairly good until the shoulder started to *talk smack to me.* The pain increased to the point of being intolerable so I stopped back at home at 115 miles figuring a shower and some food/rest would allow me to head back out to complete the 28 miles I needed to make the 142 +1 mile for good measure. Never made it back out.

The shoulder has not yet healed but I did ride 63 miles today and still hoping that by next July I'll be back closer to 100% to complete the 145 mile distance since as I posted earlier >>> I enjoy riding my age and a bit extra.