Good article. I’m in my mid-50s and have been riding as an adult since my mid-20s. I’ve never been a competitive cyclist. I just like to ride! So, the physical decline has been mostly offset by my maturity as a cyclist. I ride more now than I did 10 or 20 years ago.
The piece of advice in the article that really rang true was “Accept that you need more rest and recovery as you get older.” My Dad was a recreational runner from his 30s until his 60s and continued to hit the gym and golf regularly until his late 70s. He said the biggest thing he noticed when he aged was that he needed more recovery and that recovery from a given level of effort took longer. I’m sure that plays a role in our declining performance; as you need more recovery you also get less training in for a given block of time. It’s just something we need to work with as we get older.
I tend to do a three week block of ‘normal for me’ riding, then take an easy week. I can usually tell if I’m pushing too hard – if I get irritable for a couple of days and don’t look forward to riding, that’s usually a sign I need to back off – either take a day or two off or ease off on the intensity. Since we all get ‘less’ intense training time as we get older (as we need more recovery than younger folks) it’s important that what we do get is of good quality – that we’re rested and ready to rock. I still do find the notion of ‘recovering to get better’ makes a ton of sense intellectually, but I still have that pull to just ‘push through’. But, experience tells me that this just doesn’t work for me, at least, not at this stage of life. Pushing through just makes me tired, grumpy – and slower!
I love the feeling of just being on the bike and hope to extend it for as many years as I can – even if its inevitable that eventually the rides will get shorter and slower!
