Originally Posted by
daneh
... and some power meters ..
My wife is a bit older than you. Due to safety and how many group rides behave, she rides rec only.
I have noticed a drop in both our power over the last 30-40 years (duh). At older ages what is lost in power can often be made up in just getting more slippery for a new rider. You did this before, so maybe you are slippery. But rather than focus on increasing power, I'd focus on using less.
A fun thing to do is take that PM and see how little power it takes to maintain 20mph both ways (eliminating wind).
I sometimes read how a rider averages this speed and this power and look at it and think that is way too much power for that speed. PMs do vary and we use hub ones, so they measure lower.
Anyway, your body cannot rebuild naturally at the same rate as 30 years ago. So while you maybe can do a 30 year old workout, I doubt it benefits you as much as backing off a bit and focusing on getting faster through means other than increased fitness.
Finding 60+ women's races might prove to be difficult in most areas.