Originally Posted by
FlashBazbo
That's kind of where I am now . . . or where I would like to be. I still work as hard as I did five years ago, but I'm not as fast as I was five years ago. Training hard, good weather and bad, is worth it when you're getting even slightly faster. But when training hard doesn't quite keep you as fast . . . it becomes a chore. Even though I've worked my hardest to stay ahead of it, age has caught up.
Exactly my experience, even though my "racing" was being the ride leader for the fast group ride. I was hollering at them from the end of the line on the hills. Like I said, I switched to the Dark Side, randoing, where I was age-group reasonably fast. When that got hard, I took up a new challenge: tandeming with my wife. We're still doing that and I'm ride leader again, though we don't ride anywhere near the front. I just have a vast route library and am good with weather predictions.
There are new challenges out there which don't require 14 hours a week. This fall I've been very gradually ramping up my CTL to the tune of about 400 TSS and 6:30/week. Some of that is gym time for which the hrTSS doesn't accurately reflect the damage done.