Slow and low.
 

Ride today: 4.2 MPH, speed, very slow. Condition: whooped.

I’ve been on this site intermittently for >15 years, first as the evil troll Weak Link and then (by mod permission) Dudelsack. I was a decent rider who became totally seduced by the eternal Internet games, resulting in a very depressing weight gain and deconditioning. Now I am recently (semi)retired and am dividing my life between Kentucky and Florida. Furthermore I sustained a medial meniscus tear, right knee, and am trying to rehabilitate it nonoperatively. I’m trying to get back in the game. It’s going to be low, slow and painful.

I saw someone else post that they had slipped and it seemed to me that a few posters were a bit unkind to him. Please feel free to post your thoughts and rides here. Rides ideally should be less than 10 miles and the speed should be no faster than one calendar day.

Myself , I would totally forget about the numbers. Get rid of the computer Strava, etc. Just spin the crank.

I went for a ride yesterday, about 15 miles, about 10 or 11 average speed, all flat. I enjoyed it, actually. I have a comfortable bike, no maintenance except airing the tires, don't wear Spandex, just cruise along. I stop if there's something interesting. My bike:
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3153212d2d.jpg
It has an 8 speed Shimano hub, hydraulic disc brakes and belt drive. Plus the bars are higher and the saddle is a bit more cushy than it's original parts.

I too had the ever popular meniscus tear. Although, I went the surgery route. Welcome back and take care.

I experienced a meniscus tear from running some years back. While the medical people weren’t optimistic about my recovery, a trainer I went to was. It took some time, but I eventually got back to running (on a much more sensible basis) and along the way got serious about biking. At 72, I ride mostly gravel in hilly Vermont. With patience and work (and not too much pain), you can regain your fitness and meet your riding goals. Retirement is a great opportunity. Good luck!

Meniscus tear here as well, running induced. I felt the tear on a run and limped back to the gym. I was 40 at the time. Chose to scope it because it didn’t seem like rehab was going to work. Now I fully admit I was impatient and wanted to get back on the road so who knows if rehab may have worked. Fast forward almost 30 years, I’ll be 70 in November. By the time 50 rolled around my running days were over, it is a self selecting sport after all. Went back to the gym and started to to row on an erg and pretty much stayed in that mode till COVID hit. I had a 12 year old entry level hybrid only used summers and just very casually. Had the bike tuned and started to ride, 5-8 miles at first but now pretty comfortable with 20+ rides 3 or more times a week. Waiting on a new Trek that I hope to have before winter shows up here in New England. I have really fallen for cycling and have been pushing myself with both speed and fitness being goals. I have arthritis in both knees and have been putting off replacement surgery. Cycling seems to be helping and at this point I’m just grateful to be able to do what I can do. On this heavy old cruiser of a bike I am able to get 13-15 mph average on a 21 mile loop I ride on a bike path here on Cape Cod and have shaved close 20 mins off my ride since May. So much of all this is attitude for me. Just keep moving forward and stay present, what happened yesterday and what may happen tomorrow aren’t important. You’ve already taken the toughest step, the first one.
good luck and let us know how you’re making out
JTMav

That's a good looking bike! The steerer extension would scare me but I'm more risk averse than many....

Another meniscus tear from running here. Mine was about 10 years ago. There is no way to rehab a tear. You either deal with it or get it fixed. It won't just fix itself. Mine turned out to be a blessing in disguise because after the surgery I was sent to rehab. In the rehab waiting room was a cycling magazine. That's what got me interested in cycling. My therapist encouraged me to start cycling (and stop running).
Like all exercise, you gotta do you. Work at your own pace....but the secret is consistency. Three 20 minute rides per week is better than one one-hour ride on Saturday. If 4mph is all you can do this week, try to bump it up to 4.5 or 5mph next week. If your body says "no", then back off. It's not a linear path. There will be good days and bad days. But the key is to keep at it. However, if that knee hurts, go see a doctor. Torn ligaments do not repair themselves and you could make it worse by trying to power through the pain. Good luck!

Don't know what the operation was, but a friend in his early 80's had a knee op. a 3 or 4 years ago. He rides a Giant Escape (don't know the model-one with rim brakes). He was riding even before he got the knee brace off. Now he's riding at a 10-12mph pace, on relatively flat terrain, and climbing some hills that I've seen people much younger walk! and his bike isn't light! I'm not close to his age, but hope to still be riding as good when I get there. Now, he was always physically active, in many different "hobbies", so sure that has something to do with it. He does have a cyclometer on his bike, but seems to only use it to see how far he's ridden--most are 16 to 20+ miles-did a 32 miler with him once, but that was a bit long for him. Keep at it, no telling what you might accomplish!

Good luck on your rehab. I've been trying to rehab too for nearly 3 years. My best advice is that your diet plays a larger role than you likely realize. Look into autophagy for huge benefits in both inflammation reduction and growth hormone production.

Diet is absolutely more important than exercise for weight loss. Many cyclists unintentionally sabotage their weight loss goals by overeating (pre-ride carbo loading, sugary "energy" gels and drinks during the ride, then the post-ride pizza and beer binge). You gotta watch your calories. You will never lose weight, no matter how much your exercise, if your calories in is greater than your calories used.

Retirement is the greatest thing ever invented and it has helped my cycling and mental health. Just keep having fun and you will look forward to riding. I was also quite shocked at how hard it is to make gains at this age, compared to 15 years ago.
I also lost some weight after retirement because I am no longer "stress eating". Other than that I have no control whatsoever of my diet and eat whatever I want whenever I want it.

go, Go, GO!

Your relaxed riding routine is similar to mine. No "kit", no clocks, no computers, no concerns about fitness metrics. Just riding for pleasure.

My Bike Direct version Motobecane also has an 8 speed Shimano hub, but conventional brakes and chain drive. The replacement saddle is a Brooks B-66 which I took off my retired Vaterland bicycle. It has a cloth cover fabricated by my wife .
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7e19f488ce.jpg

When it comes to speed, if you are slowly making your way up a steep hill, and an old guy with a walker yells------------on your left------------you are getting old and slow. :)

I have the opposite reaction to stress. When I'm stressed I don't eat. The two times that I was my leanest was when I was unemployed and desperately looking for work. At one point I used to intentionally eat fast food just to try to keep the weight on so my suits fit properly. After the stress passes, the weight jumps back up.

Unless you are in a race, you may be getting foolish if you fret about who or what passes you while cycling (or walking or driving.)

Diet is about 90% and exercise about 10%. Believe me because between age 50-53 I lost 160lbs down to a fit 6'2 and 180lbs. The old thinking was simply calories in VS calories used. Since the Nobel prize was awarded for Autophagy research around 2016,many doctors and researchers have revaluated thinking weight loss is only about calories. I'll not get going on the subject too much but only say that our SAD, standard American diet, of high sugar and highly processed foods is the leading cause of most disease and obesity. It's nearly impossible to lose weight without going into starvation with high insulin levels or insulin resistance caused by constant release of insulin.

it's not just about weight loss however. Autophagy is a way to repair old tissues and increase human growth hormone levels up to about 400%

I'm not a fan of metrics, because most metrics are indirect measures of the thing you're actually trying to increase. People focus on the metric, missing the actual point. That happens in business, engineering, and life.

Distance ridden, weight, time, are things easily measured. Happiness and joy are hard to measure. So we measured the things we can, improve then, and hope that improves the things we can't measure. It's a silly way to go about things.

Ride for joy.

I have been intermittent fasting for over 8 years now and because of that lifestyle change I dropped around 30 lbs and have maintained the same weight, within a few pounds, for that time. Always fought weight, since puberty, some due to the gene pool I was swimming in. Like many of us yo yo diet and weight loss and gain, Atkins, low fat on and on. Fasting is the only way I have been able to maintain my weight at a time (69 years old) that many of my peers are gaining weight. I also believe the fasting has had a positive impact on my overall health with all my vitals In proper range. I also gave up alcohol 5 years ago when I retired. Alcohol can be insidious, especially in early retirement. I saw so many guys moving 5 o’clock earlier and earlier and I was slowly drifting from a glass of wine or beer to a lot more. It was personal for me and I never question others in their choices nor am I suggesting any of this as being “right”. It just works for me YMMV.
Jtmav

Interesting. I have known others who don't want to eat when there is stress or high emotions but nothing stops me. I have been as high as 260 pounds and rode for years at 220. I am now under 200 for the first time in decades and the biggest change has been junk food stress eating at work is no more.
This spring I rode with a friend for the first time in a while and I could see he had lost weight and is now quite lean. I asked how he did it and he said it happened when he retired, same as me.
Incidentally I was 240-250 in high school and lifted weights 10 hours per week.

When I was in the Marines, my fighting weight was 180lbs. Then I retired and struggled to find my first civilian job. Got down to 166lbs unintentionally (the lightest and leanest I've been since HS). Wasn't even working out. Now I'm back up to 200lbs and really having a hard time losing any weight. I don't think I really eat too much, but the drinking has definitely taken it's toll. Pretty sure I could drop 20lbs pretty quickly if I stopped drinking beer. But what fun would that be?

Check out Dr. Jason Fung. Recent research has shown restricted time eating to work much better than restricted calorie eating. People lost weight and had better blood work under lab conditions using time restriction compared to multiple meals during the day...GET THIS>> EVEN EATING THE EXACT SAME DIET!

I was doing century rides, and even double centuries a couple of years ago.

Then a lot less riding lately.

So the first few recent rides were pretty minimal. But, it is coming back quickly!!!

Just keep at it!!!

What type of results did you have, might I ask?