67 here. Crashed in August of last year resulting in a hip replacement. The day I crashed I was riding with the A group and was as strong as most of them. Fast forward to this past Sunday. I went out with the A group but I’m just not able to hang on their wheels like I used to. I think I have some muscle lost over the hip replacement recovery process. I also haven’t been doing the high HR interval riding like I used to do. Add to that getting a little older. While it’s tough not being able to ride like I used to I’m okay with it. I’m still able to ride the same amount of miles and do the longer rides I enjoy doing but at a slightly slower pace. It has made it a little more challenging finding groups I can ride with but most of my miles have been solo anyway.

I guess if I wanted to get stronger & faster I could???? It’s just pretty tough doing the work needed to regain some of that fitness and to date I haven’t been willing to make the effort.

Thanks for the kind words. Fact is a spirited ride with nice people is one of life’s great pleasures. We ride slow to warm up and wait for all to be together at lights and turns. Then....we hang at a local StarBucks and solve the world’s problems.

Sorry things have not come back. Don’t know much but do know we as humans are complicated. Docs say we know maybe 50% of all there is to know health wise. So when we don’t do what we used to do, we may not really know why. One thought. You said you ride mostly solo. Tough to push when alone. Find ride faster/harder/better when riding with others — even if only one other. It works, really.

The rest is what you know already. Ride long, do intervals, do recovery rides (12-14 MPH) for 10 miles. By mixing riding up we get stronger. If we aren’t as strong as before for whatever reason — who cares? Just do as best as we can and “enjoy the ride.”

1 more month and I can legally post in this thread.

I'd give anything to have a great bike route that included a Starbucks! All I have are cows, chicken houses and corn fields. However, that ain't so bad either.

I'm not a Starbucks fan. If you want a good coffee stop, get a Stanley Thermos and throw in a custom brew. I like a Kona blend mixed with about a third or less of coffee with Cinnamon.

No, not fond of wasting away. Training "a bit more" is obviously impossible. However it is possible to train perhaps harder, but less frequently. I call it training smarter, not harder. I use HRV, TrainingPeaks, a power meter, HRM, supplements, anything that will give me more information or a little faster recovery. Plus I research the hell out of training theory, etc. The biggest thing I've found to help is consistency and periodization. At 74, I'm very close to holding my own. There's a 154 mile, 10,000' event I've started doing every year again, just to have a goal and a marker. Over the past 4 years, I've gotten 20' slower. My last two years were same time. I'm finishing in about the same area in the pack these past 4 years, a little better than 300th out of 800. Thing is, one's peak power declines, but focusing on endurance events gives one a leg up, so to speak. Endurance fades slower than speed, and being retired I can be more consistent than most folks.

Good insights Carbon...I'll have to mull this over. In the meantime, I must joined a gym for three months to help a bit during the winter doldrums....yes, even in Georgia.
Tomorrow will be 64 so really planning on a ride to take advantage of that.

Your post sent me down a rabbit hole reading about HRV and checking the TrainingPeaks site. I wonder if you could share a little more about what your training routine looks like. Thanks - and congrats on your results in the 154 mile/10k event. Really impressive!

I'll try. Everyone is different and there are many different training programs which will produce good results. The main thing I do to get results is to walk the knife edge between useful training and overdoing it. That requires the tools I mentioned in my post and the experience to know what they are telling me. I track everything and adjust my schedule according to what I seem to be able to tolerate. The idea is to get faster. If you're getting slower, you're overdoing it. After taking some late summer time mostly off the bike, I usually start in September with a CTL of ~40 and very gradually build it up to 80 in July. Those numbers only apply to me but that's the concept. I can only hold 80 for a short time without going over the edge.

My routine is based around an all-out group ride once a week, 52 weeks/year if roads are safe. I do that ride to exhaustion. It is said that if you can walk at the finish, you could have gone harder. I don't care if I get dropped and do the whole thing solo. I usually am dropped because now I do these rides on a tandem with my wife, but I still chase. I like the tandem because it's much harder than riding my single. So that's one piece of advice: buy a tandem! These rides start at 40 miles in the fall and gradually ramp up to 70-100 miles in June/July and usually have 50'/mile of climbing. Nothing happens unless you challenge yourself.

Weekdays I mostly do endurance steady-state rides. In winter, these are all on my resistance rollers and almost always 1 hour rides. That's quicker that going out both in damage done and in pre and post ride time. Highly recommended. I do my endurance work at VT1 regardless of HR or power. I also do some intervals, FastPedal, low cadence, Z3, Z4, Z5, depending on the week, fitness, recovery, etc. Most of my high end work is the group ride. During rides up to ~60 miles, usually 45'-55' of zone 4 and a little Z5. Most of the climbs are thus in Z4-5.

I'm a big supporter of strength training for the aging athlete. I think it's a must. See: https://www.bikeforums.net/training-...e-athlete.html

For instrumentation, I use a Garmin Edge on my bikes, a PowerTap hub on my single but no power on the tandem (too expensive), and wear a HR transmitter chest strap. To record all off bike training, I use a Polar V800 (ebay) along with its chest strap transmitter. I upload everything to TrainingPeaks, Strava, and RideWithGPS, all premium accounts. I do my HRV using Elite HRV on my phone. I do my orthostatic test on my V800. Yes, those gizmos are expensive but so would be health care if I weren't such a nutcase about staying strong and healthy.

I take supplements, focusing on those which assist in creating a good gut biome, improve mitochondrial function, preserve joint function, and reduce inflammation. I don't supplement testosterone, believing it to be dangerous in the long run. I eat a Med diet and supplement with whey protein. To those who say we don't need supplements, only a good diet, I say that I'm supposed to be dead by now. Supplements replace those substances no longer provided in sufficient quantity by a body that's supposed to be shutting down.

Thanks very much for taking the time to lay this out. Agree about the individualized aspects, but, as you point out, there are some general principles that apply across the board. Most of my riding is gravel and any road riding I do is just to get to more gravel but I don’t think that that changes the training equation that much. Because of our long winters, what I do for fitness for a good chunk of the year takes place in the gym. I don’t use the instrumentation or analytics you mention, which I’m sure lead to better results. I use weights and kettlebells, do HIIT on a stationary bike or elliptical for anaerobic, and running or pedaling for aerobic fitness. Plus stretching/foam roller torture. Most of what I do is the result of reading and sessions with a trainer. I try to go through the cycle of workouts frequently enough, but with enough variety in routine and intensity from day to day to, as you say, “walk the knife edge between useful training and overdoing it.” Thanks again for passing along some additional info to look into.

Get out of here kid....you're not legal!

Hope Christmas was a 'success?' for all.
Laugh more in 2020.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9acf0039ce.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...14ed171169.jpg

Maybe I'm looking too fondly on the past, but looking at bikes lately it seems like, even adjusted for inflation, that bikes are much more expensive for the level of components which come stock. My wife's, and my, mtn.bikes came stock with all Shimano. Hers even came stock with LX rear der., and Avid v-brakes. The crank wasn't Shimano, but for the cost, even adjusted, was a real steal. Looked up a new road bike equipped similarly to my '06, and looked up the price compared to what I paid. Adjusted for inflation, the new road bike was over $300 more for the same components. Is my perspective caused by looking thru rose colored glasses at the past, or have you also noticed you seem to get less bike/buck these days?

No, you're right. Everybody has become stupid greedy. :( Look at the price of a new house or car?. Has everyone's wages kept up?

Tariffs. Inflation. Higher labor costs. It all adds up. Gas was 25cents a gallon when I learned to drive. The reality is you get less for your money and prices increase exponentially. But imagine being a young adult today and trying to buy a home, support a family, support parents, and pay off school debt. We really cannot complain. At least I can't. I wouldn't be a young one again for anything.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...bf2d2c6a1.jpeg
i got a replacement knee in may. i was back on back on a bike in about 4 months. the left knee is now the limiting factor, it makes riding more than a few miles impossible. i plan to get the left done later this year. meanwhile i got the old univega alpina uno out for use during the winter/bad weather. jan. thaw today with sun!. i had to swap the 26 for 27" wheels due to lack of vbakes that fit. the brake spring hole on the frame is on the wrong side for today's vbrakes.

My son the competitive triathlete is always harassing me to do HIIT and weights, and really focus on training. The easy excuse is that I'm too old and want to save whatever energy I have for actual riding. But it appears that among this group those are lame-ass excuses.

I had shoulder problems for so long that I let the inevitability of it get me to sell my drop bar bike and buy a nice carbon flat bar bike. But shoulder surgery and months of rehab has me back to 100% and while my flat bar bike is nice, now I wish I hadn't been so quick to lose my Roubaix.

My own goals are focused around distance -- used to ride centuries in my late 40s but now nearing 66 my sights are set on half and metric century. Centuries are not out of the question, but let's tackle 50 first. If I am successful in the 50/60 mile range then who knows, maybe a return to drop bars?

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You might want to try some of this , after the ride.

I`m not a coffee drinker, but I bought some of this over the Christmas Holiday`s and everyone I served it to went nut`s over it. Everyone really liked it.
I served it in a chilled glass with a couple of ice cubes.
It is PABST HARD COFFEE !

https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/k0...499f7f2e6134b1

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It`s not beer! So don`t think you`re buy coffee flavored beer. It`s not. It`s Hard Coffee.

Drink it ICE Cold .



https://onmilwaukee.com/images/artic...20190708215221

Never seen that before?

Pabst hard coffee
 

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...kZrfuw_MP6lw&s

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https://cdn-image.foodandwine.com/si...T-Blog0719.jpg

I think that first guy had a few of these before he hit "Record". Interesting.

holding on
 

Lets be honest, we all have the difficult task of trying to maximize performance and training to keep us active in our passion. Throw in everyones compromised joints, increased risk of injury and diminishing physical abilities, one has to straddle the fine line between expectation, awaress of ones physical potential and the reality of our increasing fraility. Not something we are likely to get help with( there are few trainers, pt-s available to help out)
Stay informed on nutrition, cross training, and maintain daily, varied activity( we lose condition, strength, flexibility in a few days instead of weeks). Its all about balance.

don't worry about it, it will get worse, speaking from experience at 75 yeas old, just keep on doing it

After a ride I don't worry about speed or miles I've ridden, and I'm just thankful I've gotten some exercise and didn't break anything.