When I was in my 30's I rode with a club, did charity fund raisers and other event rides. It made it easier and more interesting to ride 2k or more a season.Last year after many years of 500 or less miles total I jumped back into cycling and totaled around 1200 miles. This year I'm at 1200 and will probably total 1700 by seasons end. I would like to ride with others again but find I get passed by about every serious cyclist on the road both younger and older.

This year I've tried to train more and joy ride less but still have not dropped any weight. I'm 215-220lbs. now and used to be 170-190 in my thirties. I'm 55 now. I'm caring the equivalent of 2 bowling balls with me now as compared to 20 yrs. ago. I could join a club and ride with the newbies and slower riders but would not be happy with the 12-20 mile rides they schedule.

Just bought a brand new bike that is lighter and faster than my old road bike but only managed 13.2 mph average on a 34 mile flat ride.

Any advice or words of encouragement would be appreciated.

Thanks-Oldroadog

There's no easy solution.
Well, actually there is - just get out and ride.
You could ride with the slower riders as your recovery rides and do more intense rides as solo ones until you (re-)gain the speed you imply you've lost. Throw in a longer, slower ride to build your endurance and that could also help with your metabolism/weight loss desire.

I'm not a speed demon by any means. But I've gone from slug to acceptable via changing my routine. In my case, I only do one interval session a week because I'm so pain-averse. But I can ride all day long at a slowly increasing pace (compared to a year ago). FWIW, now 58, my mileage for the last 4 years of riding has been <500 (just got into cycling in the late fall), 6500, 1230 (injury-plagued), 2500 (not including a long tour) and 1500(this year, motivation-issue). Things change. Roll with it.

I'd suggest interval training but perhaps not at this stage. Instead I'll offer "fartleks"...these are similar to intervals without the rigid structure of intervals...used generally by runners but easily used by all sorts of activities.

Basically the principle is unstructured intervals. Use a known and often ridden loop, out and back, etc. ride of an hour to an hour and a half. Start with the usual warm up...I usually use 10 minutes of easy pedaling then 5 minutes at a higher level to start a "sweat". After that I will use 15 to 30 second "attacks" with full recovery between. I will go from a hay bale, telly pole, etc. anything...the spirit is unstructured intense, but not heart stopping, periods of activity with full recovery between. On an hour ride I use the middle 30 minutes for the fartleks followed by 15 minute cool down ride home. I would do this once a week.

This is not for race training by any stretch unless it is to get over staleness, over training, etc. This is more in line with beginning to increase overall speed.
Do this once a week and use a simple notebook to chart progress...more like...after two weeks do the "attacks" feel any easier?...do you recover faster between?...has your "attack" speed increased?...etc.

It may take 4 to 6 weeks to see an appreciable increase in overall speed.

Keep us posted if you try these and how they work out for you.

It looks to me like you're riding just enough to increase your appetite. If you can ride, say, 35 weeks out of the year, that's about 50 miles a week. You could get faster if most of that were high intensity intervals, but to lose weight I've found longer duration lower intensity is good for burning calories without making me ravenous. Maybe this winter you can set up a trainer and put in more time with a heart rate monitor. And use a calorie/exercise tracking phone app. If you burn more than you eat you WILL lose weight, but you have to find your own tipping point.

There are other considerations when it comes to building speed -- intervals, training blocks, recovery, nutrition timing -- but losing weight is low hanging fruit. And you'll feel better.

your are not going to loose weight riding. weight loss will be through a careful eating plan off the bike. get professional help for such plan. Ride as often as you can building up base miles such as 10% per week with a back off recovery week every 4th week. One long ride a week. don't worry about speed. just ride and eat less but eat well. It takes time and commitment. no easy short cuts. after a year or two of this with base up and weight down you can do intervals once or twice a week.

I find it helpful to forget about what I might have done in my 20's and 30's and focus realistically on what I have to deal with now. That helps me to set goals - if I have some illusions about what I think I should do, or could have in the past, that interferes with achieving concrete improvement.

It seems to me that you're asking two questions, related but still two questions. One is about weight, the other performance. Regarding the weight, we don't really expect that cycling without an intense training program will in and of itself result in weight loss. It's just not enough calories burned. Intense work, and aerobic to less degree, will help kick the metabolism into a higher burn rate but the gain or loss is more dependent on diet. Cycling is just a tool to help that along. I gained 20 pounds after taking up cycling at age 48, and another 5 pounds when I increased the intensity. It was deliberate, and a result of diet. Cycling 6000-7500 miles per year didn't result in weight loss; I gained weight.

The second question, as I see it, is about performance. Losing 30 pounds will help that, no doubt. But 1200 to 1700 miles isn't very much for making big gains in performance, and I think that's why people are suggesting intervals and fartleks. That's probably the fastest way to improve also. But I think we either need a structured training or more miles to see consistent improvement.

Hey-you have already identified one of the most major items..........that is having the desire to improve. You also have the experience on knowing what it felt like to ride faster and longer so you have that going with you as well.

Now it's just a matter of having a plan. I'm thinking the plan should include getting your weight down considerably. That can be done with a combination of increasing your exercise (more time in the saddle) in conjunction with reducing your overall caloric intake. As others have mentioned, you need to document what you're doing. You need to have a tool (whether electronic or manual) to document both categories.

I think the on bike performance improvements and confidence will come as you concentrate on the riding time.

If it helps any, I went from 225 lbs to 165 lbs over about 18 months and was able to aaccomplish what you're wanting to do so it is very "doable". Go for it and keep us posted on how your doing. As you know you'll take several steps forward but probably also will back track a little. It's just a part of the routine.

If you want to get faster, you need to ride more, and probably to introduce some more intensity into your riding. And certainly, riding at your current volume isn't going to cause you to lose weight unless you also cut back on calorie intake.

I got back into cycling just before I turned fifty, after maybe 15 years off the bike. I was fat - about 40 lbs overweight - and unfit. I started commuting by bike - it was about 16 miles each way. At first I had to stop and rest on inclines that these days I wouldn't even consider to be hills.

But I stuck with it. That was 32 miles per day, an average of four days per week, plus a longish ride at weekends. I was doing something around 750 miles per month, and paying a bit more (only a bit more) attention than I had previously to what I ate and drank. Within a year I was 20 lbs lighter. Within two years I was doing reasonably fast centuries ( around six hours, which is reasonably fast by my standards, anyway). I also got back into touring, which had been one of my great loves when I was younger.

After that I stayed pretty fit but didn't make much more progress or lose more weight until I decided to get into racing for the first time in my life. I was 57. To get into remotely competitive shape required a structured training plan with much greater intensity - various types of intervals, I won't bore you with the details.

The point of all this is that it can be done. You can do it with time - that was reasonably easy for me, because I rediscovered a great love of just being on the bike for hours on end - or with less time, but more intensity. If you're trying to do it on a couple of hundred miles a month, intensity will be key, you'll have to get a bit more focussed about how you use your time on the bike.

There are a lot of good responses here. I would add that you should be patient. I've found that if you limit food intake, eat real food and exercise every day you will improve. However, if my experience is typical, when you are older it takes longer to get to where you want to be.

I lost 25-30 lbs about 6 years ago when I started back into cycling. I basically took about 4 wks to get to around 10 hrs/wk of cycling and have been at that level more or less since. When I was dropping weight I was meticulous about counting calories as it's very easy to simply eat more than you burn while riding. It wasn't particularly difficult though while I was losing weight and the improvement in speed was encouraging along the way.

I think one of the most important things is to be consistent. It's better to ride 6 days/wk with shorter rides than 2-3 long rides. It makes it easier to manage your calories in if you can eat with a similar pattern every day.

Non medical opinion .. Worth what you paid for it.

Some where near to the bonking due to lack of energy from food , is probably where you shed weight drawn from your body to fuel your muscles .

It's a thin line .. You wouldn't want to pass out from lack of fuel ..

I, too, miss being part of a group. I just started in May after many years off the bike. I know it will take time before I can join others and keep up. At least this time there is an online community.

Take heart, winter cometh and with the season of cutting weight. Get a trainer and spin. Pounds will come off begrudgingly.

Ride with purpose in the meantime. Eat less but dont overdo it or you will stymie muscle development. Keep up the hard work.

Cannondales rock!

+1 for getting a trainer to ride. great for bad weather,and avoiding riding in the dark but also good for easy rides, and very hard intervals.

A lot of good replies that I learned from. I am 59 and 230 pounds. I average about 15-17 mph but I am way slow going up hills. I am fortunate that I have found a group that is in similar condition as me and who like to ride like me. I agree with you, riding with others is more enjoyable. I also do leg and lung burns when I can. These are stretches where I go just as hard as can for just as long as I can - usually about a minute. They've helped me build speed and stamina but I'm still no racer. I recently rode a 40-mile trip that was fairly hilly. I learned patience - shift into a quick cadence instead of a power cadence - it saved my legs and I didn't lose time. Have fun and keep going.

I'm 58 and from nearby Rochester. I have two things to add to the discussion.

I returned to cycling a few years ago. What was a real wake-up was how much harder I had to work compared to when I was young. Things change in our bodies as we age. Some things are obvious. Others are not.

In order to improve, I had to ride a lot more, ride a lot harder, ride more frequently and consistently, and pay serious attention to rest, recovery, and diet. (In other words, I had to work at it like an athlete.) But also, I had to be more patient. It takes more time for our bodies to respond when we're older, so give time time.

My improvement curve didn't really take off until my second or third year of 4,000 to 5,000 miles a year. Those miles are spread across all 12 months, BTW, although through January and February I drop down to 50 miles a week or so. I find that a lot easier than starting from zero in spring.

Second, there are lots and lots of different groups to ride with around Rochester. You don't say where in Western NY you are, but it may just be worth a drive to join us for a few rides. I'm a member of the Rochester Bicycling Club, a recreational club of mainly older adults, with rides every weekday, and your choice of several different rides on weekends and holidays. What are outlying rides to us may just be neighborhood rides for you. See the schedule, with maps and cuesheets, and ride leader phone numbers. You don't need to be a member to join our rides.

Several of the ski clubs do cycling in their "off season". A name I can remember off the top of my head is Huggers.

So you really have a choice:

1. If you are happy with the amount of cycling you do currently, you have to accept you'll remain at your current level.
2. If you are not happy with your current level, then you have make a greater committment.

Sadly, at our age, there is not a third choice that lets us both improve and remain an occasional cyclist.

On a plus note, if you can't make a greater committment now, just do what you can until you retire. The guys in my club who will rip your legs off--and those of riders decades younger--are the retirees. Joining those guys is what I look forward to in retirement. I'm greatly heartened by their example that you can be old and fast and climb like the dickens and do it several times a week.

Wow so many great tips, advice, encouragement and case histories I don't know where to start or who to reply too. I have read each post and haven't found one that doesn't have logic and good common sense at the heart of it.So:

>I'm going to start watching calories closer. I admit that the 80-90 miles I've been doing a week has given me a false sense of thinking I can eat more.

>I'm going to start doing intervals ,well fartleks to my weekly routine.

> Add another 20-40 miles a week.

> Post again with any progress as communicating with all you great folks helps immensely.

I too live in the Rochester area. Hilton to be exact. I rode for many years (in my single days) with the RBC and still have the huge packet of maps issued to members before it all went electronic. I had fun meeting people and even took trips with friends I had made outside of the club activities. I promised myself that by the start of the next season I would be a member again and once again enjoy group rides. Thanks for posting tsl

My wife is ordering me a new fluid trainer for my upcoming B-day. I plan to put my old road bike on it and keep training through the winter. I have also recently added a short weight training circuit that I do a couple times a week along with daily sit ups. I plan to step up the off bike exercise once cycling season is done around early November in these parts.

Hell's bells, Dog. There were several RBC rides out through Hilton and Hamlin just this week. The shortest, as I recall, was 41 miles, out to Sandy Creek.

Here's a personal invitation for you, and a goal for you to work towards.

The next RBC ride I lead is the Ten Parks Tour on Sunday October 12, leaving Cobb's Hill Park at the Culver Road exit off 490 at 10am.

You can get the official map, cuesheet and my home phone number from the club schedule I linked to above. I vary a little from the offical route--I need a lunch break at Sea Breeze for example. The map I made and use is here. (The cuesheet is also in over-50 large-print size.)

The ride combines city neighborhoods, suburban streets, and out through horse country in Mendon as we wind our way between ten parks on the east side of the county. In the closing miles, we take in all three falls in the Genesee River gorge, crossing the river on bike bridges twice, before cycling right through the heart of downtown. With my variations, there are 62.5 miles (100 km), about 2,000 feet of climbing (mainly in the first half), and two rest stops including lunch at Vic & Irv's in Sea Breeze.

It's too long to be considered one of the club's "Sweeps" rides, but I run it like one. This means I lead from the back, with no rider left behind. Historically, I've averaged between 13 and 15 mph on this ride, sweeping the rear. Plan on 5-6 hours including stops.

But, if 100 km is still a little much for you, at about mile 35, the route comes within one mile of the start. You can break off there. (I was sick when I last led this ride on Memorial Day, so I broke off there.)

So remember,

Sunday October 12, 10am
Cobb's Hill Park

See you there!

I accept. In fact I took a vacation day this coming friday to ride a metric century around my neck of the woods. It will be the longest ride for me this season.I, m planning a lunch and bio break back at the house after the first 40. Gonna start early morning and take it slow and steady. I'll be ready in October although hills eat me for lunch.
Thanks again!

Now, that's cool.