Originally Posted by
Jay Turberville
There is no doubt that peak performance declines with age. If you look at that records page in the Masters categories this is obvious. But any individual's decline will depend a lot on what their best peak ever was. And I bet a lot of people here (like me) started at moderate levels. So the decline may not be obvious or even actual - depending on how they trained and are now training. Further, even among elite athletes the falloff isn't dramatic - if they continue to train at high levels. It is enough to take them out of elite competition though. Because even small differences mean an awfully lot there.
https://usacycling.org/resources/nat...tional-records
This was the point I was trying to make. Thank you!
Through a combination of mediocrity, improved training methods and nutrition I have been able to comfortably maintain and even improve my modest cycling performance with age. Any age-related drop in potential has been shallow enough to not be the dominant factor so far (at age 56).
Partly as a result of this and partly because I still like to learn new things, I don’t feel old yet.