RockiesDad

My wife always reminds me to not go out and kill myself trying to get a Personal Best (PB) when going out for a ride. I always laugh and do it anyway. But this week I thought about it and decided to pass going up a 8% four mile hill with this in mind.

At our age do you guys think about when to stop pushing yourself and knowing when to back off? We grew up being competitive and always challenge ourselves but then again I don't want to have a heart attack doing what we love. Anyone else knows where their limit is and try not to go pass it in fear of what could happen?

jdcowboy

I don't know how old you are or your fitness. I'm 63 and do a century a month. I live near lots of beautiful hills and love climbing them. My max HR is 190--I know because I hit it every once in a while. I listen to my body more now than when I was younger. I will sleep in 5-6 times a year and change a hard morning ride for an easier one if the body says so. I have no heart or health issues but I ask the same question you do. I still train hard and push myself to the limit because I'm afraid if I don't, the limit will decrease. I've heard of fit cyclists having heart attacks. I say listen to your body, but don't be afraid to tell it to shut up every once in a while because some of my best rides have been when I thought I was tired and I surprised myself.

WNCGoater

I guess it depends on mindset and your personal goals. I ride for fun, stress release, and exercise. I've never been an athlete, never played team sports, and so I don't have that "competitive" drive. I don't go out to "train". My rides are my training. I could stand to lose 20lbs and I don't have a beach body, but I also don't care any more. I DO take satisfaction when I finish a ride and found I've set a PR on strava, or I'm say, #14 out of 400 for a particular segment, especially when athletic 20 somethings are setting the bar.
But that doesn't drive me.
I have a fun, and steep, 2+ mile downhill near my home, which I start out most of my rides going down. It's almost 600 ft. of elevation drop. It's like riding a roller coaster. I started trying to constantly get a PR on it. But it requires maintaining +25-30 mph going down and a peak of around 40 MPH. I started questioning why I was doing this. What was the purpose to set a personal record? I just don't need a crash at 40 MPH. I reached my limit.

As far as how hard to push, I'm 56, almost 57 and as mentioned above, I listen to my body and let it dictate how hard I push. Some days, the energy just isn't there. Some days I can climb the mtn back up to my house and feel like a million bucks, other days I have to stop and take a rest going up. Some days 50 miles is easy, other days 30 is difficult.
As I mentioned, I don't have many goals beyond fun and exercise with the added benefit of stress relief and better health.

Reynolds 

My main concern about pushing myself is not an heart attack, sudden death, etc. Maybe I'm delusional, but I worry more about torn muscles, knee damage and the like. Also I think if I fall it would take me much more time to recover than when I was young.

berner

At almost 80 Y.O. I still like to push myself a bit. Wisdom is knowing when you are approaching your limit.

Barrettscv 

I would consult a doctor to be sure. Generally, incremental increases in speed and distance works for me. I'll also cut back a little depending on heat or if my body needs a rest for any reason.

Bob Ross

No we didn't. Not all of us, at least. :::dancing banana:::

I have no idea where my physical limit is, because I reach my limit of tolerance for low-reward behaviors long before too much discomfort ever sets in. If you don't have a deeply ingrained "competitive instinct" chasing after milestones that are defined by time spent in the pain cave can seem like a waste of an otherwise perfectly fun bike ride.

gl98115

Personally, I would rather drop dead healthy during exercise than waste away to death from lack of exercise. As Friel concludes in "Fast after 50", if you stop pushing yourself, you will lose the ability to push yourself.

justtrying

I have been thinking about that lately too. I just turned 64 last month & had my yearly physical & thankfully all the " numbers" were better then last year when I started cycling. I found that I continuely push myself to ride with my average heart
rate into the the high threshold area.For Sept. I decides to stay as much as possible in the aerobic area. So far I found that I am fresher vat the end of the ride and for the most part surprisingly no decrease in speed or length of ride.

canklecat

I avoided most stressful bicycling until this summer when I was frustrated by a plateau in conditioning. I just couldn't seem to get past a 14 mph average on a couple of familiar routes I ride often. Just a lot of moderate roller coaster hills, but those little climbs thwarted me.

So I got a road bike and started high intensity interval training on the road. I don't have an indoor trainer so I picked a route with lots of half mile long 2% grades that happened to suit the recommended timing for hard effort followed by easy pedaling, then repeats.

Each month I improved a little. Now, on a good day, I can manage 17 mph.

But I'm slacking off a bit this month. Felt like I was overdoing it, getting burned out. More knee twinges, back and neck pain.

Had to remind myself I got back into cycling in 2015, after a 30 year layoff, to find a relaxing way to get exercise. Not to burn myself up on every ride.

TimothyH

Pushing myself is one thing.

Suffering through some death march ride is quite another. Done with that.

Bandera

I still follow a seasonal program that builds endurance which allows the load bearing efforts of power work in the hills, short time trials and speed work intervals as the season progresses. Rest days and easy recovery rides are integrated into the schedule, and are just as important as the hard work to build all around cycling fitness and avoid injury.

"I always laugh and do it anyway" is a recipe for achieving and remaining at a plateau of fitness and/or eventual burnout or injury.

Get a copy of "Fast After 50" by Friel for a detailed explanation on how & why HIIT and rest/recovery go hand in hand for improved fitness.

-Bandera

elocs

Not having a car, I ride my bike for transportation, for hauling what I need to haul and it has nothing to do with fitness although riding for transportation does help keep me fit. So I have never had any use for a "personal best" or pushing limits and I didn't grow up being competitive. But in the wisdom of age I now refuse to go faster than I am willing to fall. So there it is--everybody is not the same.

wphamilton

At 57, my "pushing it" is what used to be my loafing, but relatively speaking no I don't think about backing off from trying to improve. BUT, I recognize that going hard, or even briskly, all the time is not the optimal way to go about it.

Plateaus are hard to overcome and I think that they get even harder when doubt starts to creep in, doubts about our limits, our age, whether something might break down and so on. I try to monitor things more closely and just keep going.

BigAura

A quest for personal-best means...you're always-the-loser.

Stay fit, chill, & enjoy and you're always the winner.

downtube42

I think avoiding injury isn't about avoiding limits, but about taking care of yourself as those limits are approached, and indeed as those limits are moved to another level. Training, bike fit, pedaling technique, recognizing and responding to warning signs, staying hydrated, staying warm in the cold, cool enough in the heat, being rational about increases in mileage... these are how to stay out of trouble. Sure, physical limits will come down with age but I don't think it's necessary to avoid limits.

Machka 

When my heart does a really weird, strong, painful, fast double-beat ... I usually back off.

canklecat

Well, after posting earlier today I ignored my intention to take it a bit easier. Rode a quick errand to the LBS to pick up a tool. It's only a mile but all uphill, which is always a tough warm up ride.

By the time I finished at the LBS the weather was looking ominous, so rather than the 20-30 mile ride I'd intended I decided to tackle a couple of nearby Strava segments to see if I could improve my time.

I beat my own KOM by 2 mph. Felt good, after I caught my breath again.

That lure of speed and rush of blood to the brain after a hard sprint... it's almost addictive.

But tomorrow... tomorrow I'm gonna try to make it a casual ride.

Try.

catgita

Still young myself at 52. I can't cruse at 30mph like I could in my 20s. Nor have I done a 65mph decent in 20 years. It seems like inflammation takes longer to go away, so I treat it more carefully. Then I don't slam into radical extremes any more, but ratchet it up over several rides. I haven't hit the ground but once in 20 years, but I tore a muscle in my ribs, which never happened before.

Mainly, I ride a much more comfortable bike. The same riding position, just bigger tires, better saddle, shoes etc. And I am back to riding steel.

Machka 

50 here ... and happily Rowan (who is in his 60s) and I did a 500 km weekend over Easter, last Easter.

In brief ...

300 km ride on Good Friday.

Supporting a 300 km ride on Saturday.

200 km ride on Easter Sunday.

The full story here:
https://www.bikeforums.net/19521294-post22.html
https://www.bikeforums.net/19528866-post23.html


And then, at the end of June/beginning of July, Rowan and I rode one of the most challenging 200Ks I've ever done one weekend, and a 150 km + 10 km on July 1 (Canada Day)

The stories of those rides are on this page:
https://www.bikeforums.net/long-dist...donnees-2.html


Last year we rode a 400km ... then I came down with measles, followed up by the flu, and almost the second I was feeling better, we attempted a 600 km, but unfortunately the lack of cycling caught up with me, in particular, and we only managed about 400 km of the 600 km.


But I'm so pleased that we're back into the long distance stuff again. We're not letting age be an excuse.

revchuck 

I like the way the lady says "only 400 km...".

I think the issue is less "knowing your limits" than "accepting what others tell you your limits are." While it's steadily getting better, there's still the attitude that we seniors should always take it easy and not exert ourselves. Most of us are aware of our present limits but also know that we can extend them with proper training and recovery. Many of us don't care about extending them and that's fine, since they're still way ahead of our sedentary brethren.

My goal event for next year is LOTOJA, a sportive from Logan, Utah to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. 206 miles, which for me is a stretch goal, but for Machka and Rowan is probably just a pleasant recovery ride.

OldTryGuy

Machka 

LOTOJA is a great goal!


Just before I turned 48, I went through a short time where I figured I'd peaked and that I'd never do long distance riding again. I was overweight and couldn't climb the hills here in Tasmania. I had tried a couple rides, just as test rides - not official events, but didn't come anywhere close to finishing them within the time limit. I though that was that.

And then, all of a sudden I decided that wasn't that. I lost the weight, and started increasing my distance and working on hill climbing.

Now I figure I'll aim to be as fit as I can for as long as I can ... and we're even tossing about the idea of another Paris-Brest-Paris!!! Little scary because I haven't done a 1200 in a decade, but what's life without challenge!

bruce19

My history includes being a college QB and SS. I can't deny that I'm competitive even at age 71. These days it's mostly with myself. I enjoy striving for improvement but I also like just going out for a ride. My feeling is that I'm doing the right thing when, at the end of a ride, I want to ride the next day.

Insidious C. 

I enjoy testing my fitness but I do it on rare occasions, preferring to moderate my pace and accumulate mileage. I would have been more successful in racing if I had that mindset in my youth. I realize now how important the team training rides were.