Bike Cardiovascular improvement in fit runner / new cyclist
martincashman
Posts: 116
My Dad and Myself became Rodies about a year ago and have steadily improved, he's 63 and I'm 33. I came from a baseline of no exercise since I was 17 and he has been a fairly intense runner for the last 30 years up to representing Ireland in his age category on a few occasions. Anyway we've done a few Sportives this year and the main bunch seems to average around 32kph over 160km distance which I can now comfortably stay up with, my Dad has been keeping up too but has to go into his red zone to stay on some of the hills which I'm worried will cause too much strain. He tired a bit on the last one but I was able to drop back and bring him up to the group, but again he had to dig deep.
I know when I'm running red and will back off to save myself but my dad has always been able to push himself to exhaustion and beyond and I'm concerned that he'll push himself too far. See with my baseline of no exercise for 15years and 1 year of cycling done I figure I still have scope for significant Cardiovascular improvement but my dad was already very fit so I wondering does this translate directly to the bike and that maybe he's already at his limit of improvement after a year or if the systems are different enough from running that he should still see marked improvement in the next year, to the stage that the 32kph pace become more comfortable, so I don't need to worry about him pushing too hard at his age.
I know when I'm running red and will back off to save myself but my dad has always been able to push himself to exhaustion and beyond and I'm concerned that he'll push himself too far. See with my baseline of no exercise for 15years and 1 year of cycling done I figure I still have scope for significant Cardiovascular improvement but my dad was already very fit so I wondering does this translate directly to the bike and that maybe he's already at his limit of improvement after a year or if the systems are different enough from running that he should still see marked improvement in the next year, to the stage that the 32kph pace become more comfortable, so I don't need to worry about him pushing too hard at his age.
MTB HardTail: GT Aggressor XC2 '09
Road Summer(s): Kuota Kharma '10
Road Winter(w): Carrera Virtuoso '10
Full Suspension: Trek Fuel Ex 8 '11
http://app.strava.com/athletes/130161
Road Summer(s): Kuota Kharma '10
Road Winter(w): Carrera Virtuoso '10
Full Suspension: Trek Fuel Ex 8 '11
http://app.strava.com/athletes/130161
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Comments
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If you've only been riding for 12 months, there's almost certainly still room for improvement with regard to pedalling efficiency if not in cardiovascular fitness itself.
With regard to pushing yourself too hard too soon, provided you increase training volume steadily rather than having big jumps (<10% per week as a rough guide), you should both be fine. The human body has inherent safeguards to stop you doing yourself permanent mischief and provided you listen to your body (ie taking a rest day when really tired) there shouldn't be any ill effects from pushing to the limit.0
