Originally Posted by
jppe
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.
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.”