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Advice for an Older Rider

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Fifty Plus (50+) Share the victories, challenges, successes and special concerns of bicyclists 50 and older. Especially useful for those entering or reentering bicycling.

Advice for an Older Rider

Old 01-31-21, 01:01 PM
  #26  
BlazingPedals
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Sounds like you're doing fine. There are 7-8 guys in my bike club that are 80 - this year I guess they'd be 81. They call themselves the "40 club" since they were all born in 1940. The slowest rides a TourEasy and averages maybe 14 mph, while the faster ones can still average 19 for an extended ride (30-50 miles) and a bit faster for short rides. All of these guys ride a LOT and most of them are 'snowbirds' and cycle in Michigan in the summer and AZ/FL/NM in the winter.
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Old 01-31-21, 07:02 PM
  #27  
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Average speed depends on many factors, so it's hard to compare.
Elevation gain on hills.
Headwinds.
Slowing for stop signs and lights.
Rough road surfaces.

And the power required goes up very fast as you ride at faster speeds.
It takes double the power to go from 13 mph to about 17 mph! That's just 30% faster.
So even slight increases in the average speed over the same course are a big win for your fitness.
Adding 20% to your power would only boost the speed from 13 mph to 14 mph.

~~~
This Covid year, I stopped riding larger groups and did shorter, but hillier rides. Our small groups were avoiding store stops and we were willing to drive a little farther to ride on quiet, scenic routes. We did our own pace instead of pushing to keep up with other faster riders. I'll likely keep doing this style, with some larger group riding as the virus gets under control.

I do like small group riding. It's safer: cars can see us better (and we run bright blinky lights even in daytime.) It's good to have others along if there's a bike problem, or if dogs run out on the road. And scheduling the rides gets me out riding regularly.

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Old 02-02-21, 06:37 PM
  #28  
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"... average speed to aspire to"

@63 or is it 64 already, typically I ride three times a week hour or hour and a half long rides at fast clip to keep just not out of breath and not sweating way too much, keeping the heart beat up but not too high. Health wise, biking for me is keeping aerobic fitness, beside the pleasure of being on a bike machine playing like a kid.

If younger guys pass me, it doesn't worry me (I can always make up an excuse, like if I had the fancy bike like them, if I was clad in lycra like them... ) but when it looks like someone my age bracket or (say) 40+, I like to be competitive or at least try to be. I still like the speed and even when it is not like any racers speed (it never was in my case at any point in life) it feels like I am going fast. At any rate, it is way faster than any casual bicyclist.

How fast one can go very much depends on everyone's life history. Where I grew up, we have the saying, that what you learned while young, in the old age as if you found it... and it is valid for fitness too. I find that my form doesn't improve much even if I take frequent rides, on the other hand, I don't bike in winter and it takes few rides to get where I left off last year.

When I was younger and pushed it, I got sore muscles next morning but now, I can push it and I don't get sore from it, at most I get cramps in legs at night, like someone said above and suggested solution - more drinking and feeding. I should drink more on my rides, my older bike has only one bottle cage but I got newer one now that comes with two bottles and I plan to fill both of them up, come spring. And with age, keeping hydrated is probably even more important then ever before.

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Old 02-03-21, 09:30 AM
  #29  
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I’m 72 and can sustain 20-25 mph on my light weight class 3 ebike for a few miles under the right conditions. I get passed by young men and women on road bikes as though I was walking. I stopped worrying about it. Your ability to ride at the speeds you’re attaining is admirable. I hope I’m able to continue at my current level of conditioning here in Northern Virginia where it gets cold and snows, preventing me from riding at all for weeks at a time. (I don’t really mind the cold, but I’m not as adventurous as I was in my youth.)
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Old 02-03-21, 09:55 AM
  #30  
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speed

Everybody has different inner rhythms no matter what the age.....find your cadence.....go for distance not speed.........slow and steady does it ...remember the tortoise and the hare........a rabbit lives about 3 years a turtle lives 100
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Old 02-04-21, 08:56 AM
  #31  
5teve
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It doesn't matter how old you are or how fast you are, there's always going to be someone faster. Always. My advice is to learn to not let being passed bother you and enjoy your ride.
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Old 02-11-21, 03:54 PM
  #32  
billmckay
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I have been taking the advice and working on distance and who cares what the average speed is. Funny thing is that as my distance has gone up, I actually feel less tired, get a bike 'High" most rides and lo and behold I am actually riding faster. (Maybe it is just the wind has been less severe these past few weeks.
Any, thanks for the right on suggestions.
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Old 03-04-21, 04:11 PM
  #33  
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I was active in local road races (running, not biking) for many years. Foolishly, I looked forward to reaching another age bracket which should of increased my chances to actually place. Guess what? There were always people, men and women, who were faster than I was. Some of them were at the top end of the age bracket I was just entering. Eventually I learned to run my own race and not worry about what others were doing or whether or not I got a $0.50 ribbon. It's a lesson carried over to my return to biking. I often note that the riders I meet who are going faster than I ever hope too often do not look as if they are enjoying the ride. At 76, I'm happy to be out and having a good day.
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