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Change in plans (getting back into shape)

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Change in plans (getting back into shape)

Old 11-22-22, 09:42 AM
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Bald Paul
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Change in plans (getting back into shape)

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.
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Old 11-22-22, 03:31 PM
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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.



Plan C for ME. Ride SOLO beginning after midnight and until this 72yo's broken, worn out, cancer issue body says enough. Last Thursday - 8.38 miles. Last Friday - 20.02 miles. Last Saturday - 23.32 miles. Last Sunday - 11.11 miles. Monday was resting and today I had a 7AM appointment for a MRI of left leg since issues still hanging around from a Wild Hog T-bone hit on 7/26.
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Old 11-23-22, 04:18 AM
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Plan B sounds good to me. I rarely ride these days, but when do it’s not about numbers.
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Old 11-23-22, 04:20 AM
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Sounds like you would be a good candidate for an e-road-bike

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Old 11-23-22, 08:31 AM
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For plan B you could also use different start or finish points. Also you could start earlier or finish later. One problem you might find is that you and other riders won't stay at the same ability level.

Also if there are enough of you you cou just organize some rides within the club at an easier pace. Most non racing clubs that I have known of have such rides. When I was active in the bike club "scene" there were two road oriented clubs in my city one was racing oriented. and the other was more casual riding. The latter had rides in all categories including "casual", 10-13 mph, 13=15 mph, 16 and over.

An ebike could be an answer for staying with the faster riders if that is allowed on club rides.
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Old 11-23-22, 09:47 AM
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Originally Posted by PeteHski
Sounds like you would be a good candidate for an e-road-bike
Originally Posted by staehpj1
An ebike could be an answer for staying with the faster riders if that is allowed on club rides.
One of my neighbors whom I ride with regularly has an e-bike (Trek.) I keep up with him just fine, although he does pull me on the climbs. There seems to be enough interest in forming a relaxed ride group, and (if my math is correct) the faster group on the longer route should finish right around the same time as the slower group on the shorter. I'm going to see how things work out in the spring when the outdoor riding starts up again. There are still those in the club that ride in the dark and cold, but that's not for me.
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Old 11-26-22, 03:29 AM
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Plan “B” for the win. Have fun and take care.
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Old 11-26-22, 04:57 AM
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One of the strongest of the several wunderkind riders who have been outrageously successful over the last few seasons of pro racing follows a training program that's easy for even us older folk to adapt for our use. Simply put: he does 80% of his rides at moderate effort and 20% at high intensity.

For me, at age 71, with my racing career decades behind me, I did most (90% to 95%) of my rides this year at moderate effort, with the occasional effortful climb thrown in. I feel great, I'm as strong on the bike as I've been for the last 10 years, and I've lost most of what little fat I had ("moderate effort" is also known as the "fat-burning" zone).

I don't use a power meter, but I do have a smart trainer for indoor riding, so I know that my "Zone 2" (moderate effort) range is about 120 to 145 watts (pretty good for my age, height of 5 feet 8 inches, and weight of 115 pounds). The smart trainer shows a bpm readout, too, of course. Based on the correlation between watts and bpm I see for steady-state smart trainer workouts, I know that riding such that my heart rate stays between about 125 and 140 keeps me in Zone 2.

Riding almost exclusively in that watt/bpm range was psychologically difficult for the first several weeks---I had spent decades routinely doing harder training efforts, so this approach initially felt like a waste of training time. But then I noticed that I was gradually getting faster while staying in that zone. After several months, I'm faster for a given heart rate and have increased endurance at higher efforts.

[Edit: I should mention that I'm retired and live alone, so I have few demands on my time, enabling me to ride between 3 and 4 hours a day, with the occasional 5-plus-hour ride and day off every couple of weeks. Still, even those without so much time on their hands would likely benefit from the 80/20 training method.]

Last edited by Trakhak; 11-26-22 at 05:04 AM.
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Old 11-27-22, 12:07 PM
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Absolutely. Our group has been riding 3 different routes, same start and finish point, for I don't remember how long . . . We have names for the groups: Rabbits, Goldilocks, and Laughers. This is a social group, so I try to figure out how long each route should be from expected average speeds, and build the routes in an attempt to have them all finish at the same time, so we all have beer together. Of course we start and finish near a brewpub. That perfect location can be a little hard to find.

A long time ago, I took a winter off and then vowed to never do that again. However, this past year for some reason just didn't go well for me. I spent a good bit of time going over my records and decided that I'd made some training mistakes which led me to not do the hard rides because it all just hurt too much. I'm trying to reverse that this fall. I'm in the gym 3X week, 1-1.5 hours each time, working 3 sets of everything to exhaustion on the 3rd set. Then I go home and ride my rollers. What I was missing was plain old strength, muscular strength.

Last season, I thought I was worst on aerobic ability, so I focused on that. Wrong. I wasn't allowing for loss of muscle mass which gets worse every year after say 70. When I started trying to deep squat, I cramped up doing 60 lbs. Six weeks later, my 1 RM is 170% bodyweight. Now I'm decreasing strength training to twice a week and doing more aerobic. The pedals feel light but my HR is too high for my effort level. I think it'll come down. I'll stay with strength training twice a week until early summer.

I don't ride in the dark and cold anymore either, maybe not even in the rain anymore. I'd rather ride my rollers. I've taken an oath to never get an ebike, at least not until my heart completely gives out. Even then, I'd rather just walk.
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Old 11-28-22, 09:13 AM
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Originally Posted by Bald Paul
Plan B is basically riding at a comfortable cadence while keeping an eye on the power meter readings ...[snip]...Whatever speed that averages out to (currently around 14.4 MPH) is fine with me.
You have a power meter?!?! Plan B definitely sounds like a winner...and frankly, sounds like what every cyclist, irrespective of their current conditioning, should consider.
Remember: "Average Speed is for Average People." But a ride over varied terrain with a uniform, consistent power output -- regardless of what that power number actually is -- is a thing of beauty.

And as Ornette Coleman sagaciously noted, "Beauty is a Rare Thing."
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Old 11-28-22, 10:21 AM
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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
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Old 11-28-22, 11:04 AM
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Originally Posted by Bald Paul
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.

,,, I like Plan B.
I'm a "Plan B" sort, myself. Old injuries can be insistent, with how hard to push. (I'm in the 9-10mph [avg] neighborhood, at the moment, and I don't foresee it getting much faster. Is what it is. The old bones're in the driver's seat, so to speak.)
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Old 11-29-22, 09:08 AM
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Excellent recommendations.
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Old 12-07-22, 10:06 AM
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For a different perspective...
Plan B, but lose the powermeter. Powermeters are for interval training and pacing while racing. For your situation, you should ride based on perceived exertion. You need to listen to your body. Oh, and have fun. That's it.
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Old 12-07-22, 05:43 PM
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Doing moderate rides around here, I now also use a powermeter. I think it'd kinda fun trying to keep it in a narrow range, much harder than I would have thought. You know, anything to hold one's attention while trying to ride moderate. It's also interesting to note one's HR response over time. The idea is that, holding the same power, HR will also stay about the same over a couple hours. It if does, you're in great shape and have achieved your aim of aerobic fitness.

Around here, one can't ride far without hills. I can't keep my power that low on hills - I'd get bored stupid - so I let it go up quite a bit, but put a hard limit on it so I don't wind up breathing hard. The thing about "ignore power and listen to your body" is that stress trails power by a lot, going up and going down. It's better to be proactive IME.
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Old 12-07-22, 07:23 PM
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I wish I had a good info for you, Paul. Here is my take. I am a little younger and had a bad accident on the bike about a year ago. It seems to me that consistency is the most important training attribute as we age. It isn't that we cannot improve a bit, just that it takes so much longer to improve than when we were younger. I still have not gotten completely back to where I was but am not giving up. What has helped me is patience and making sure I am recovered well before any hard workouts. I also think it is important to go really hard once in a while and even to sprint hard now and then. How often? For me, nowhere near as often as when I was younger.

Interestingly, I have not been using a power meter for the past several weeks because the new bike does not have one. Drives me crazy.
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