Old Bloke can't get any fitter!

FOGcp

I cycle regularly both on and off the road and am really making an effort to get a bit more competitive so as not to burden my Trailquest teammate too much but I don't seem to be making much progress. I am in my late 50s and have always cycled but have only got serious in the last 5 years. I try and eat the right things and ride as much as possible, probably only 50-100 miles per week in the summer with little visible improvement.
Have I left it too late in life? There are obviously lots of fit oldsters out there but is there any point in me trying to train, should I just accept what I can do now?
One of my problems is that the blokes I ride with are all mega fit and always have been despite their similar age.

Bronzie

Do you do any interval training? If not, that is the way to go.

FOGcp

No not really .What would be involved?

beatsystem

I just started again after a 33 year lay off I am 60 and am starting to improve and do quite well.You need to forget this age stuff get stuck in to your training and get plenty of rest and good nutrition.Lots of advice on here about training but basically you need lots of miles and some hard rides like club 10's to get you going .Good Luck

Bronzie

FOGcp wrote:

No not really .What would be involved?

Loads of old threads in this section on various interval training sessions - they can be as structured (ie 2x20's on the turbo) or as unstructured (sprinting up hills or for lampposts when you are out on a ride) as you like.

The best mix of intervals for you will depend on exactly what you want to get faster for - ie sessions for improving in time trials would be different to those used for road racing.

The bottom line is that if your training rides are just steady potters without ever really taking you to your limit, you will never get any quicker. Stronger maybe, but not quicker.

ut_och_cykla

Its easier to get somewhere if you know where you'd like to be. Pick some kind of goal towards teh end of the summer and ' train' for that. The kind of goal you have will decide teh kind of training you should include.
It's never too late but it will take longer - recovery & repair is slower as you get older so plenty of 'structured brisk pootling' is good for you and maiantainable whilst hard interval efforts run teh chance of blowing a gasket or at least leaving you knackered for a few days. Build slowly towards your goa and be prepared to suffer a bit without killing yourself!

Tom Butcher

Even some of the older riders will be doing double your mileage or even more. If you look at the LVRC site it has interviews with some of the top veteran road racers where they talk about their training and without exception they are doing fairly high mileage.

I don't really think interval training for someone doing 75 miles a week average and not racing is that approriate unless they really enjoy doing it - some more miles and some faster or hillier miles would be more what I'd recommend.

Bronzie

Yeah - Tom is probably right here - you going to have to up your base mileage first before intervals will make a difference or be sustainable.

Swannie

Bronzie wrote:

Yeah - Tom is probably right here - you going to have to up your base mileage first before intervals will make a difference or be sustainable.

On a bit of a shakey knowledge base, I'd disagree.

I think what you might be trying to say is:
- given the current number of miles, you can see improvements in speed by upping your miles.

However, someone with basic fitness can benefit a lot from interval work. I'd say that they'd probably gain more benefit from intervals with a lower base speed, than higher. Whether they are sustainable or not depends on recovery rates. I'd agree that a greater mileage base will tend to faster recovery, and you don't want to overdo the intervals. I'd be inclined to say, do intervals at the intensity suggested, just build up the length of the intervals.

Certainly when reading running training books, most recent ones I have read have said, if you must drop a training session (and you will), make it a distance one, and get a interval/fartlek/tempo in instead.

Bronzie

Swannie wrote:

I think what you might be trying to say is:
- given the current number of miles, you can see improvements in speed by upping your miles.

What I was trying to get at in a roundabout way is that to get most benefit from hard interval sessions, you need a good base. 100 miles a week isn't going to cut it in my opinion.

That's not to say that less intense sessions won't still provide benefits, but maybe you wont get so much out of them.

I think the OP would see his speed increase if he upped his base mileage first, and then added intensity in place of distance sessions later on.

Just my opinion - I'm not a coach or anything like it.

andy_wrx

I guess it depends what you're training for.
If you were simply doing 10 TT's then you could do a lot of high intensity but short duration stuff because thet would be specific for what you were doing - 10 miles in 20-something minutes.

I'm not doing much running at the moment, only 10 miles a week so it doesn't get in the way of my cycling, but that involves a track intervals session of 400m/800m/1200m/etc reps and a 7-mile tempo run.
I set a 5K PB last week, faster than 4 years ago when I was doing 40-50 miles a week.
But I wouldn't care to run a Half Marathon on my current training...I'll do them in November to February when my cycling mileage goes down and I switch-over to longer runs


Back to this topic, the OP talks about 'not burdening my Trailquest teammate too much' so he's training for long-distance MTB-orienteering type stuff.

I don't know how long (hours) or far (distance you cover in that time) Trailquest is, but I did a few Polaris events a few years ago and they were definite endurance stuff, out all day (I remember 7 hours ?), cross-country on tracks and bridlepaths occasional bit of road, on-off riding & navigating, deciding which controls you could get easily and which would take you out of time, whether it was quicker to go the long way on the easy track or the short way straight up the hillside...
Basically the MTB equivalent of KIMM or LAMM

I'd go for training for that being lots of miles with the difficulty coming from going up every hill you can find, get endurance and strength rather than short fast high-intensity stuff or even steady-state stuff on a turbo.

Mettan

FOGcp wrote:

I cycle regularly both on and off the road and am really making an effort to get a bit more competitive so as not to burden my Trailquest teammate too much but I don't seem to be making much progress. I am in my late 50s and have always cycled but have only got serious in the last 5 years. I try and eat the right things and ride as much as possible, probably only 50-100 miles per week in the summer with little visible improvement.
Have I left it too late in life? There are obviously lots of fit oldsters out there but is there any point in me trying to train, should I just accept what I can do now?
One of my problems is that the blokes I ride with are all mega fit and always have been despite their similar age.

For a "late 50s" bloke you're probably already doing extremely well (by the sounds of it) - it might not be realistic to compete/"beat" a highly trained regional-level 26 year old rider (but how many can) - having said that, with commitment and training you'll probably still be a ble to compete (if that's what you want to do?) quite effectively with many in their 20s 30s 40s 50s etc. Just keep the riding up, keep the training up and you'll get the best out of yourself come Rides/Sportives"Races" etc etc.