Originally Posted by
seypat
Nope, still in good shape and a decent athlete. Nothing holding me back now except for the occassional overuse injury. But, I was a college level athlete over multiple sports at the younger age. 172-173cm tall 83-84kgs, but could dunk. Mid 4 40s, etc, etc. Still was dunking in my 30s. That went away as did some of the speed and quickness. Eventually had to move away from those sports because of injuries and I couldn't compete with the younger crowd. Still would be an elite athlete in my age group. Well, not in endurance sports. Good in the other sports means you're not good in endurance sports. Someone posts the usual "I'm as good at 70 as I was at 25!" I'm saying that's BS. If you're as good at --- as you were at 25, it means you weren't very good at 25. You might be elite for your age group now, against your age peers, maybe even a few age groups below, but you aren't going to be able to hang with the young upper to elte level athletes in physical activities day in and day out, period. Whether that's bike racing, weight lifting, soccer matches, distance running, etc, etc. That's life. Just be the best you can be. That's all you can ask for.
Every year since 2013, I run 2 fall marathons. The same 2 events. I've run 3 before. And every year those times get a little slower. Same for the centuries/long bike rides. That's life, I'm happy I can still do it. One of these years that will end.
You have changed the goalposts now. You said that people claiming to be fitter in middle age than in their 20s and 30s are talking BS, even though many people in their 20s and 30s are not that focused on fitness or a healthy lifestyle. Of course in my mid-50s I can't compete with current elite 25 year old athletes. I couldn't compete with them when I was 25 either! So how about an elite 55 year old against an untrained 25 year old? Who is likely to win that contest?
People are also talking specifically about cycling fitness here and are mostly endurance focused. Of course I was better at football (soccer for you guys) in my 20s, with faster responses and agility etc and I could bounce back faster from injury. But my cycling endurance fitness is actually as good, if not better today and it certainly hasn't dropped off over the last decade. That's from a combination of better training and nutrition. Of course I had more potential in my 20s, but it was never fulfilled through lack of knowledge and many other distractions. That doesn't mean I was a couch potato back then, far from it. But I didn't ride as much as I do today and I didn't pay much attention to nutrition.
You say that you have lost performance every year since 2013. Is that really just because you got older? That would only be the case if you maximised your full potential in each previous year, but very few people (even elite athletes) actually do that. In most cases if you are slower this year than last year it is because you didn't train quite as effectively or you had some specific health issue. Mark Cavendish alluded to this in a recent interview. You don't lose your physical performance potential over a single year, but mentally you can lose a lot.
It just sounds to me like you have mentally accepted that you will be a little slower each year and then it simply comes true. I'm just not there yet on that journey. It gets a little harder every year but I'm probably still only hitting say 80% of my potential, so there is always some headroom to improve providing I don't lose 20% of my physical capacity. I have no doubt that at some point in the future I will get slower and I don't mind that. But I haven't reached that point yet at 56 and it isn't BS. I'm not that competitive either, it is just an observation. If I was getting slower it wouldn't change my outlook. I would just observe the decline like you have.