Porschefan

I'll try to keep this short and to the point, but I'm not sure that I know enough to ask the right questions or supply the best information--so I'll be happy if I get some directions to try out.

Me: 71 years old and cycling for about 3 years as part of an effort to get in shape and improve health. Went from ~225 lbs. to 170 lbs. over a of about 8 months and from being able to ride about 10-12 miles to doing a 68-mile ride with a local cycling club. A few major ups/downs due to poor bike handling skills with resultant injuries. I'm much better handling the bike now, but at this age, it "feels like" that's a really rough area to improve--reaction time, balance, motor skills just not what I remember them to be.

I had a cycling "coach" to oversee most of this improvement. He had me doing 1-hour training sessions at his studio and I would supplement this doing recreational rides with the local club 2-3X/week. Usually 25-40 miles a trip.

The last injury was a broken arm about two months ago (May 14) and I've been off the bike until the last week or so, but have done a couple of short test rides and I'm ready to get going again. But I'm pretty sure I don't want to just go back to my former routine. I actually had decided to explore some other options a couple of weeks before the injury, so the two are not directly related.

I actually really like the person I was working with, but I was getting very burnt-out with the training sessions which seemed to me a bit haphazard--although I could very well be wrong about that. AFAIK, he is probably the best in this area and I'm not unappreciative of what he's helped me with in the past. But I really would like to get a more structured plan and help with some of my goals and I'm not very confident that continuing working with him is going to change much. I could be wrong and I may end up discussing things with him (again) and trying to work something out. But at this point I'm thinking that maybe educating myself more, getting my own indoor trainer (Wahoo KickR, probably) and finding some kind of affordable online program and following it might help.

My goals:

I'd like to explore what is POSSIBLE for me at; this age. As mentioned, I worked myself up to a 68-mile ride. On group rides I was faster than the slow groups and not able to hang for long with "fast" groups. I probably can ride about 24-27 mph on the flats, but not for long. I've never done a real FTP test, but when I started it was probably around 120. Judging from efforts on the Computrainer I think I was up to about 170 watts or so. I don't know what's a realistic goal on that front, but I'm thinking 200-220??

I'd like to work on bike-handling skills--don't know how much online stuff there is on that. This is one of the areas where my guy really helped me. Educated me on some really BASIC stuff that helped quite a lot. I'd actually like to find a way to learn more about riding in a group, but most of the local club rides are strictly recreational and I've never found much interest from others about working together on rides. (Maybe the guys I can't quite keep up with are doing that ;-)....although I don't think so.)

I'm not sure what goals are realistic in the area of "racing" but I think I would enjoy competing with other old guys on endurance rides and maybe time-trial kind of things.

I've thought that maybe part of the problem with my guy has been that he just doesn't want to sit me down and give me the facts of life talk about what's actually realistic for me! But I would like to get as good as I can.

So I'm open to thoughts and suggestions, especially as it relates to doing some kind of online-based programs.

STP

Heathpack 

I'm not sure on-line canned training would be your best move. You're a real outlier compared to the typical cyclist and no canned training would likely be designed for you.

You should probably consider a coach. He/she could be local to you or remote. If you have a remote coach, your best bet would be to get a power meter rather than a trainer with virtual power. (Quite honestly whether your coach is local OR remote, you'd be more precise in your training with a PM, and precise is important for someone of your age.). A remote coach does not have to be web-based, there are other ways to communicate- phone, email, text etc. A local coach would be a bonus to you because of the bike handling side of things.

It's not highly likely that any coach will tell you your limits because honestly they don't know. Everyone is different. What can you do? They'd have to work with you awhile to know. Maybe you could really rock it for your age group, lots of people have given up cycling by the time you started.

You don't mention financial limitations, so I'm not sure if that's an issue. Most coaches are $125-$200/mo. Some are more expensive. Power meters are not cheap. But I have a remote coach and it's the best thing that ever happened to my cycling. He has whipped me into shape and I started racing TTs a year ago. Love it, it's totally fun to me.

sprince

Get your self a 29r (or any sacrificial bike), take it off road, over curbs, down steps, up steps, basically everywhere. It won't take long. Bike handling comes through practice and failure, make sure the failures are somewhere with a soft landing.

Are you retired? If yes, why are you wasting your time in a studio? Riding indoors is for people that have to train at midnight because of their jobs. Find a friend of similar age and riding abilities, younger and faster if you are really serious, and challenge each other.

My advice would be get out and do some races and enjoy yourself. You will never know what you can do until you try.

Carbonfiberboy 

If you feel your handling skills are sub-par, more riding will help, but be careful. Don't kill the descents. Stay a foot off the next wheel for every 10 mph. It's probably good to ride with a group, though it needs to be a good one. One gets better by riding with skilled cyclists.

I'm a talentless 71. Always the slow guy, but maybe that's because I'm always riding with guys 5-15 years younger. Today I rode 66 miles and 6000', mostly 2 pass climbs. Averaged 14.7, climbing watts were ~150 at 146 lbs., VAM ~620 according to Strava. FTP is somewhere around 200. I was climbing at 124-128 HR, no power meter. LTHR is 138. I was tired at the end but not shattered. Weather was dry and cool.

I do a lot of riding on my rollers, which have a resistance unit. Highly recommended. When I want to do a particular program and don't want to drive somewhere special to do it, I ride the rollers. I do all my recovery rides on the rollers. Outdoors, my options around here are limited. It's 25 miles to the only 1000' climb in the area. Decent interval hills are at least 10 miles away and high traffic, etc. Sprints and efforts on the flat are easy to get as long as it's not raining. I'm not big on spending a lot of time cleaning my bike, so I only ride in the rain once a week. Rollers are great for improving bike handling at pretty much zero injury potential. Learn to ride them in a doorway. My roller bike odometer says 5325. I think I changed the battery 3 years ago.

Remember that you are fragile now. I probably don't have to say that. Any injury blows your whole season and you only have a few really good seasons left. Don't do anything dangerous like racing or MTB. I am now the oldest rider in a 20 y.o. group. Everyone older than I got injured or their heart went blewy. I'm still riding with them because I'm careful, though I admit to descending well. I'm now called The Demented. Carbonfiberboy was 15 years ago.

I'm self-coached, though it took me 20 years to learn how to do it. I have used online training plans, which have worked for me, though I always modify them. Not every coach is good at making them up. Even with a bought training plan, I'm still self-coached.