Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

.............I follow a 10 week published training schedule for a Century, even if I’ve been riding my bike a lot to commute..................

Originally Posted by TimothyH

Its one thing to push yourself but another to jump in over your head knowing you will likely get injury. Injuring yourself does no one any good and if the less hilly metric beat you up badly then you might want to reconsider.

The older I get the less pride I have. When it comes down to it I'd rather ride in the SAG wagon then be miserable and in pain or off the bike for weeks with some kind of injury.

Originally Posted by Maelochs

I am in a similar situation (though not so fit as you.)

There is no question but that you could make it ... the only question would be, could you keep ahead of the Sag Wagon? If you slowed down enough to keep your HR in a safe range, you might get so far behind that the support truck would have to pass you .. and then you would have no choice but to grind it out in ultra-slow motion all the way to the end (don't ask how I know.)

The next question would be, if you finished an hour after everyone else, would yo then be stranded with no way home except to ride back---which would probably be way too much?

I'd say, if you think ti is too much for your current condition, either go for it planning to stop when you couldn't keep up with the group, or try it on your own and just go partway and ride back, and keep going until you felt you had increased your fitness level to the point where you could hang with the group.

Either option offers benefits. The group ride can be a great motivator, so long as you know when to quit (if you need to.) The solo ride allows you to tailor your pace to your fitness level on that specific day, so that you can actually make better training gains than going hard, burning out, and riding the bus might offer.

No matter what, riding the bus back is in now way a shameful option. If you are riding for yourself to begin with, then when you no longer feel like riding ... why keep riding? You have nothing to prove to others, except maybe that you are smart enough not to hurt yourself trying to prove things to others.

Personally, I would ride the route solo, in sections, and see if I could work up to the whole distance over time ... but maybe that is not the right approach for anyone else.

(By the way, for those discussing "injury": When I push my heart too hard for too long, I feel pretty sick inside, sometimes for several hours afterwards. I have read people postulating that in that case, what I have done is done minor damage to my heart, actually caused muscle tearing and scarring on a very small level, and each time I do that, I lower my overall heart functionality.

I am not sure, but that is a really serious thing to gamble with. I try to back off before I do potential harm. I still push---at my last spin class, according to my HRM, i spent about 20 minutes over 200 bpm (this was an exception--I had an extra cup of coffee which really hurts me if I work out after)---but I am not at all sure that if I push that much, that I might not be hurting myself, so I try to back off and let my HR drop to a reasonable level.

Normally (when I don't OD on caffeine) I keep my HR just below the point where I know i will feel bad afterwards---and if that means parking the bike halfway up a hill or whatever, to me that makes a Lot more sense than trying to macho my way through it.

Anyone who has had that most joyous experience of feeling his heart stop beating---and start again---will certainly never want to go there twice. A torn ligament can be repaired. An entire knee can be replaced---I ride with several people (in the old folks' club) with replacement knees who can outride me with ease. I don't know anyone who can still ride after a major heart attack and after a pacemaker implant.

Yoda is a fictional character, by the way.

Originally Posted by jtaylor996

Um, about that second part... you should see a cardiologist before you do any more workouts. There are no nerves in the heart (not like in your other muscles or skin), so there's nothing to "feel bad" like you say. If you feel bad it's because of something more serious. That, combined with a HR over 200, leads me to guess you may be inducing some fibrillation (electrical abnormalities) in the heart, leading to what you feel. When's the last time you got this stuff checked out (echo, stress test, etc)?

Originally Posted by spdracr39

If you predict failure you will fail. Be positive, get prepared, and finish proudly.

Originally Posted by Maelochs

Actually, there are nerves in the heart ... the ones that fire the heart. About half of mine are gone,--an attempt by doctors to control my ridiculously high heartbeat (resting rate 145-150 pre-surgery.)

Since then I have been able to ride and still survive ... I just need to be careful. I got a little sick in Feb and only rode twice in March (too much work) and I got a coffee mug twice as large as my last one. I think I need to cut back on the caffeine and ease back into exercise.

I am not interested in spending the rest of my life on the couch trying to prolong a miserable life. I am interested in learning how to regain lost fitness without killing myself.

My arteries aren't clogged, all my blood work came back excellent at last test ... Sometimes I get to riding and want to push a little more than I know I should, but I refuse to lay down and die ... unless lay down and die halfway up a hard hill I just refused to walk up---and I hope I never get that stupid.

Which is why I suggest that this guy not try to push too hard ... I know how it is when your HRM decides your output, when you think the rest of you could go farther. This guy really could hurt himself trying to fight his way up a hill too far.

BTW, thanks for the concern and the sensible advice. A pleasant change from the "HTFU" norm.

Originally Posted by jtaylor996

It sounds like you already have regular visits with your cardio, so for sure take his advice over mine... I just wanted to make sure weren't pushing through something undiagnosed that could kill you.

Originally Posted by jtaylor996

What I have is different. The risk is left ventral fibrillation for me (AKA sudden cardiac death), and the odds of that happening go up quite a bit when I get over 90% of my (perfectly normal) max HR. Mine has no symptoms that I would be able to detect at all.

Originally Posted by banerjek

Rather than ask a bunch of dorks on the internet, <snip>