Youth Vrs Experience

milese

I basically want to discuss when the benefits of youth exceed the benefits of experience.

I'm 24, and am fairly new to any kind of decent exercise (I've just started training for a Sportive, and am doing 30 fairly hilly miles in less than 2 hours).

My Dad is 56, has been doing decent amounts of exercise for the last 40 years, used to be in the British triathalon team and is still commuting 35 miles a day. He sounds pretty confident that if he starts racing again, he could be pretty competitive in his class.

My question basically is, how hard or realistic will it be for me to get faster than him? I've got youth on my side, but his body (and mind!) are used to serious exercise and mine isn't!

When or where will my improvements meet his presumed decline?

ut_och_cykla

My Dad was still beating me after he turned 70 on the flat but hills were an absolut b*gger (his words!). Mind you I was and am still not teh fastest cyclist on the road...

Mike Willcox

Youth definitely.

Improvement as opposed to decline is a much greater motivator. My last memories of riding a bike before I stopped in 1982 was kicking arse. I expected to be able to train for 3 or 4 months and then pick up from where I left off.

There I was apologising to the other riders in a group for pushing too hard and them looking at me as if I was touched in the head. Before, with that level of effort they would have been off the back or struggling like mad to hold my wheel.

These days there are more veterans racing and I think that's great but all things being equal we are never going to be able to reproduce the performances of our youth.

Experience will outdo youth for a couple of years but then with 2 years experience and CV improvement youth should prevail unless the old man is bloody good and bloody minded.

ColinJ

Mike Willcox wrote:

Experience will outdo youth for a couple of years but then with 2 years experience and CV improvement youth should prevail unless the old man is bloody good and bloody minded.

I agree - that's how it should be, in the natural order of things.

Having said that... I was just reading articles in today's Cycling Weekly on 47 year old Malcolm Elliot and 58 year old Dave Lloyd and how they are giving younger riders a whupping. They obviously fit your description of bloody good and bloody minded but it does tend to make me think that some of the young riders aren't training hard enough! Either that, or they are working hard but doing the wrong kind of training...

Mike Willcox

ColinJ wrote:

Mike Willcox wrote:

Experience will outdo youth for a couple of years but then with 2 years experience and CV improvement youth should prevail unless the old man is bloody good and bloody minded.

I agree - that's how it should be, in the natural order of things.

Having said that... I was just reading articles in today's Cycling Weekly on 47 year old Malcolm Elliot and 58 year old Dave Lloyd and how they are giving younger riders a whupping. They obviously fit your description of bloody good and bloody minded but it does tend to make me think that some of the young riders aren't training hard enough! Either that, or they are working hard but doing the wrong kind of training...

These guys were world class performers when they were younger. That takes ability, dedication and application. If you look after yourself (diet, lifestyle etc.) it just goes to show what can be achieved.

Personally I find that recovery is slower and less power can be generated as you get older (59 years old). On the other hand endurance and strength is pretty good.

milese

Whats the difference between power and strength?

Mike Willcox

Milese wrote:

Whats the difference between power and strength?

In a nutshell

Strength is the capacity for a rider to exert muscular force. The amount depends on the chemical structure of the muscle itself (number of fibres available to do work, number of capillaries arteries and veins etc.) and how other muscles contribute as a combination acting together in exerting that force.

So your muscles exert force on the pedals to accelerate the bike and you move along. When you stop you have covered a certain distance in a certain time. The time taken is determined by how much power you have generated and is measured in watts. You can only maintain high power outputs for short periods of time.

Power output is the best way to quantify a rider's capability. Some riders are good at high power of short periods (track) and others at lower power for much longer (road).

milese

Thanks Mike, thats useful.

I think he is bloody good and bloody minded. He reckons that age hasn't caught up with him yet and he's still going strong. Reckons there are few around that could drop him on the hills.

I remember a conversation we had when I was 15, he thought that I'll get stronger and he'll get weaker, and we'll be the same when I'm about 18. I then got a moped, and he has been proved very wrong!

It seems like I've got a lot of work to do!