Originally Posted by
Bald Paul
After a year of almost no riding (only about 250 miles total) I'm now able to start up again.
At my age (70) a year off takes more of a toll on your conditioning than it used to.
I've finding that even the club "C" pace rides (15-16 MPH average) are too fast for me. I started riding in Zwift, trying to increase my speed. Not a good idea. My bad knee (rebuilt in 1976, re-injured in my auto/bike accident 3 years ago) is having no part of pushing the watts anymore.
Time for Plan B.
Plan B is basically riding at a comfortable cadence while keeping an eye on the power meter readings and using the gears to keep the watts below the "you're not listening, and I'm not going to let you walk tomorrow" threshold. Whatever speed that averages out to (currently around 14.4 MPH) is fine with me.
Oddly enough, I've been contacted by several of the 'more distinguished' (older) club members that, like me, join every year, but seldom are able to participate in the club rides, which are either too fast, too long, or too steep (or a combination thereof.) I've been looking at several of the usual club ride routes with RWGPS, and have determined that, in many cases, the routes can be modified to both reduce the distance and eliminate some of the steeper climbing sections. That way, we can all start at the same place and time, but the "D Group" will take the shorter route at a more relaxed pace, and probably arrive at the finish around the same time as the younger, faster crowd.
I like Plan B.
My 3.5 yrs of mostly 'off' anything physically difficult ('difficult' being what was my 'normal' SOP) proved many facets of 'loss'. Some of that loss was also due to 3.5 yrs of further aging. Going from 69 to 73 was tough, both because of health issues and just plain aging.
Where impacted... aerobic fitness, muscle mass loss and loss of power, chemical induced symptoms/conditions. All of these issues were heightened and caused to an extent, by loss of vascularization/capillarization, lean mass loss, and again, the deteriorating aerobic fitness cycle.
Both 'muscle/power' and 'aerobic' fitness are either compounding 'gain' or compounding 'loss'. Lose aerobic fitness and that slide increases BECAUSE of loss to that point.
So. with everything that happens, whether due to health or age, the strong interrelationships keep one from 'countering/improving' one area without improving ALL.
I had to find a way to work on it all - as much as that really is impossible.
...just getting out riding... (or strong hiking/walking, skating, swimming, gym work, etc...) is the foundation of recovery/improvement.
I did and DO something for at least 90 min, every day.
ZONE 2 to 3 is the sweet spot for a lot of this. It works aerobic and power. At the moment short climbs (under 3 mi.) are great. They 'work' me, but not into massive anaerobic state.
I have been doing occasional weights/resistemce for the upper body as well - but plan to step up to real weight work in the coming days.
It's taken 8 months to get to where 'rriding with effort' seems again normal.
And since Mid Sept, riding with a strong group every week (end) has given me that unstructured stress and 'effort' which builds a mental strength.
The early months don;t show much improvement, but that should be expected - and setbacks happen, that's normal.
Steady, regular commitment, every day, I believe is the foundation of any constructive and successful plan.
That said, Sarcopenia is the 800 lb gorilla for all of us... It a big, ugly monkey we don't want to face off with, but you're not goin anywhere without taking the monkey on...
Keep at it !
Ride On
Yuri