GamblerGORD53

Nope. Haven't skied since 1980, tennis since 1992 near Green Bay. LOL. Only hiked a couple times for an hour in Utah.
I live on the 4th floor, so I walk the stairs if not carrying groceries. There's a gym here, but I never use it. One smoker neighbor does and can do handstand pushups against the wall.
I lift my bikes for a minute for weight lifting. LOL.
I still have 6 shovels in my closet. I go out and clear some of the street along the curb and around drains for 2 of the blocks I walk to the DQ.
Also chopped ice and helped the puddles move along. I'm lucky if my hand bones only hurt a few days.

rsbob 

Jenn is not the only one dropped like a rock since this has happened to almost all of us. Just recently I was feeling strong and tooling along on a relatively flat road doing about 20, when a 30-40 YO blasts by me like I was standing still. He was going so fast, that even if I had got out of the saddle and sprinted to catch him, he would have lost me anyway. I consider myself relatively fit, but am also resigned that there are far younger, far faster people that can clean my clock regularly. - and that goes for many women too. I may be able to get a few ‘fastest for my age group’ on Strava but there is no way I can even dream of getting even a top 100 in many segments. Just have to be happy with what I can do relative to my age group and against myself. Of course I keep training and watch my diet, since excess lbs are the enemy when climbing.

Broctoon

I am really pleased to find that I’m not stiff at all today. After yesterday’s 104 miles, I was really exhausted. I expected to be sore today, and maybe even through tomorrow. Surprisingly, I’m fine and could ride again today if I wanted to.

Edit: Sorry, just realized I put this in the wrong thread. I meant to comment in the “How fer did you ride…”

GhostRider62

You need realistic expectations

A bike that weighs 5 pounds more is going to slow you down very little on a 3% climb. If you weigh 150 pounds working at 200 watts, adding 5 pounds to the bike will slow you down by about 0.2 mph oe around one linear foot every 3 seconds. So, you might lose 1/4 mile on a longer climb and sure, when you get to the top they are gone. I say good riddance. Ride at a pace that you can handle. This is your challenge.....pacing.

I would never pace myself against another rider, especially someone I did not know. For instance, I did 200km yesterday with nearly 10,000 feet of climbing. I enjoyed the first hour riding with a younger and much stronger rider. At the base of a very difficult climb, I thanked him for the chat and said I know my limits and rode the climb at a power level that worked for me. If I tried to keep up with him, I might have barely been able to stay in touch. If you do not have a power meter, a heart rate monitor works fairly well once you are really into the climb (slow component delay). If you want to go faster on climbs, increase power, lose weight, and master pacing and there will still be hundreds of riders faster than the new you.

VegasJen

The weight of the bike is not a factor. The weight of the rider is.

Maelochs

I do not even know what that means.

Since the thread has be revived .... if not quite reanimated ..... my take is that @VegasJen is not as strong as she thought, but I don't think she will never be at some level of fitness ... it is a mater of determination, and of priority.

If I decided my whole life was focused on a single goal, I might achieve some amazing thing ,.... on the other hand, I might wreck my whole life in pursuit of that goal.

My life is more than cycling ... it is more than any one thing. I can achieve a lot more than i have been with discipline and determination ... and in fact after a winter's illness, I am in the process of doing that ... but I realize that by and large I am never going to reach the highest possible achievement in a Lot of fields ... because I like comfort, I like balance, a like a lot of things. I am improving as a musician but i will never be very good. I getting stronger but probably I will never be as strong as I used to be ... I Could be, but it would take total dedication and the abandonment of too many other enjoyments. I will probably never be as strong ro quick a rider as I used to be .... I could, but frankly I am would be satisfied to just be a lot better than I am Now ...

I have learned a lot, and I can make better use of my time, use better practice and training methods ... but most days i don't Want to do intervals or hill repeats. I am satisfied just to be out on the bike and making an effort. ... and some days, just happy to be out on the bike.

VegasJen can probably reach cycling proficiency way beyond what she imagines ... but would it be worth it to her?

At a certain point in life, the body starts voting for more rest and relaxation, more recovery .... at that point it might be necessary to re-evaluate goals.

As for myself ... I am Not a "cyclist." I am a person who enjoys cycling. I am not a musician or an athlete. I live a varied and interesting life, and if I make an effort not to get sedentary, i can do a lot of enjoyable things each day, I can make some progress in some areas each day .... and I don't have to set some scale of performance based on lives which are Not mine.

Everything I do contributes to overall quality of life .... I might not be 99.9% in any one field, but i don't only live ion one field ... I am a wide-ranging citizen of the cosmos ......

At some point it becomes clear that platitudes and slogans and messages form inspirational posters ... are not real and look a little silly. "Pain is weakness leaving the body" sounds good until you tear a rotator cuff need a knee replacement. Balance and reason seem to be a lot more important as life progresses.

88ss

Genetics is a huge factor in athletic ability, it sets every human at a different level and there is nothing that can be done about it, we all can not be olympic athletes or pros. Also unless you know the age etc. of others you are riding with, then it is silly to feel bad about them outpacing you. I am retirement age, so there are lots and lots on road bikes I will never be able to keep up with, so I just am happy with being able to go as fast as I did last year, Father Time and Myself are my only real opponents. If I switch bikes it can make some little difference, so that is another opportunity to have fun, setting PRs on specific bikes, how fast you can do a familiar ride on this bike or that. Winter is setting in now and with all the baggy clothing and dense wet air the season for PRs is over, and I have to face the fact that next season when it warms up I will be another year older and slower, but as long as I can still ride then I am already a winner, lots can't do it no matter what for various reasons. Lucky us.....

terrymorse 

Humid air is less dense than dry air, and cooler temperatures reduce the demand for blood flow. Before that summer fitness wanes, it’s an ideal time to try for some new PRs.

ofajen

I forget who was on as the guest, but Inside Exercise has an episode discussing how time trialists can actually do quite well riding in hot temps because the hot air is less dense and reduces air drag.

Otto

terrymorse 

Oh yes. I think RChung said he did some analysis for competitors going for a record, maybe the hour record. IIRC, better air conditions were in the afternoon, when the temperatures were higher.

Diminishing returns, probably, as high temperatures put a bigger strain on the circulatory system.

ofajen

If I recall, when your body temp gets to about 41C, you are pretty much done. Done exercising, that is. 😊

Otto

88ss

Let's see, take dry air, add water to it, and it weighs less according to you. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

And you are wrong about temperature too, please don't come back; https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/p...success-175720

spelger

i get that humid air is less dense, adding water to the air displaces other heavier molecules. but as temp increases density decreases. ride in dry hot air, like here in nevada.

asgelle

Maybe a 2015 article isn’t the best thing to cite in 2023 for the last word on temperature (cf. latest Performance Process podcast with Jonny Wale).

As to the first paragraph, well let’s just refer to the first rule of holes.

terrymorse 

H₂O is less dense than N2 or O2. This is one of the reasons why the barometer drops when wet weather approaches: the column of air is lighter. Moist air density graph:





Wrong about temperature? As an expert in the thermal sciences, I kind of doubt that.

Someone here is out of their element, and I’m going out on a limb to suggest it is not yours truly.

Maelochs

I am so old I can remember when this thread was about @VegasJen riding her bicycle .......

88ss

Here you go; https://www.outsideonline.com/health...research-2022/

terrymorse 

Great, they studied the effects of temperature on performance and came to conclusions that are well established: performance drops off above ~75F and below ~50F.

I do have questions about your handle "88ss". What does it signify? I'm hoping "1988 single speed", or something similar.

ofajen

The CW article about the hour record notes that higher temps are favored for time trialists:

“Here we take a look at some of the other tech details, that were crucial to his record. Climate is crucial for the Hour, with hotter air enabling riders to go faster.”

Note also that for men studied in the Outside article, there was no significant power effect in the 26C-30C range and a 3-5% drop off in the 31C-35C range. Each 5 degree increase at these temps reduces wind drag about 1.6%.

Sounds like 30C is just about optimum for a time trial if you can finish before your body temp gets much above 40C. As I recall, that is consistent with the discussion on Inside Exercise with the scientists studying the effects of heat on cycling.

Note also the CW article comment about managing temperature:

“Wiggins's support team had a tough task of getting the temperature just right. They had to account for the temperature rising when 6000 spectators enter the velodrome, with the temperature reported to settle at a stifling 30ºC.”

Otto

genejockey 

The effect of temperature on air density dwarfs the effect of humidity at any temperature consistent with human life, however.

SpedFast

And all this time I thought it was the weight of the water pushing the gauge down. I feel like an idiot

Reynolds 

Same here, but I hoped it had to do with Oldsmobile 88...

terrymorse 

True. But, you know, “marginal gains”.

88ss

This is interesting;

oneclick 

No, it's according to the facts.

Dry air is 80% N2 and 20% O2 (I rounded the figures).

Both have a molecular weight higher than water vapour (28 and 32 versus 18).

All gasses have the same number of molecules per unit volume - and this includes mixtures of gasses.

So the density of a mixture of N2 and O2 and H2O is less than a mixture of just N2 and O2.