What makes you old? Your age or your attitude toward it?
I've noticed as I've got older, I'm now 53, that the rhetoric for cyclists heading in that direction is less than positive and it's making me quite sad, no, not sad, that's not right, it's pissing me off.
When you look at science, as we get older it takes us 24 to 48 hours longer to recover from hard or longer training sessions however, it also shows us that we recover to the SAME LEVEL as our younger counterparts which means with the right training, recovery and nutrition we can continue to see improvements with our cycling and physical self as we age. We do NOT have to subscribe to the "I'm getting old and slow" mantra unless we decide not to work at it. The choice is yours!
This is why I'm determined to get the message across. Start and work on your physical health NOW, surround yourself with people and cyclists who inspire you and challenge you. The impact on your future well-being, healthspan, and enjoyment of cycling depends on it.
Looking at the research on the Psychology of older athletes (not much has been done on this population) the physical benefits of a positive growth mindset are fascinating for future performance, longevity in sport, and health span. (I'll put links to studies at the bottom of this post)
I'm a firm believer that how we age is driven by how we see and view ourselves and is heavily impacted by the attitudes of the people around us. It's clear that maintaining a strong positive outlook counteracts the typical age-related decline.
All too often I hear " Yeah, but as we get older it's harder to...." or "Don’t you think you should slow down a bit" Have you ever noticed that these comments come from people who have slowed down and are NOT in the best shape or health?
A great mate (52) just ran the Bob Graham challenge solo in under 24 hours. This may not mean anything to you as a cyclist but let me assure you fell-running 66 miles with 26,900ft of climbing is hard. He does not subscribe to the societal dogma that age is holding me back.
Just recently I was talking to a cyclist of similar age who had nothing but a negative chat. He just couldn't get out of his own way. Every problem had dead ends and roadblocks. I genuinely felt saddened listening to him. But here's the thing HE was his own problem. He had convinced himself it was impossible.
But it's not impossible to be in great shape and competitive as recreational cyclists. Let me blow my own 53-year-old trumpet. A few weekends ago I won the solo category of the two-day stage race Inferno Swiss. Two things surprised the organisers 1: A cyclist from the UK could climb. 2: I was 53, most thought I was 10 years younger!
Was it hard? Yes! I won't lie to you. I had to dig deep to keep in contact with other riders and at times I questioned my ability to stick with them. But I had trained, I knew I could hold the power numbers, I knew I'd done the work and I was damned if all my consistent hard work was going to come to nothing.
Velo Performance is not about winning. It's about being the best you can with the time you have to put into your training to be the best version of yourself on and off the bike. It's about giving you the tools to train effectively on the bike and in the gym to be strong, fit healthy, and fast on your bike. It's about education and guiding cyclists to eat in a way that supports training and recovery as master cyclists and gives them the freedom NOT to have to follow restrictive mainstream diets. It's a community of cyclists at different points of their journey pulling each other in the right direction. Winning is a cherry, not the goal.
Why tell you that? Because as much as FTP and one minute power can be a focus. It's not THE focus for us at VPCC. Yeah, we will improve those numbers for you but our coaching is all about making you better so you can take on any challenge you set yourself in the future and it's focused mainly on cyclists hitting 40+ to give them an avenue to KNOW with the right training and support its IS POSSIBLE to continue to improve as you age.
So my question to you is "What do you feel is possible?" and "What are you doing about it NOW!?"
Thanks for reading
Simon
2 X Winner of Gym Based PT
Level 2 British Triathlon Coach
Performance & Nutrition Director
and founder of VPCC
www.veloperformance.club
Everything good comes downstream of what you do now!
Links to articles and studies
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322014856_Sport_and_ageing_A_systematic_review_of_the_determinants_and_trends_of_participation_in_sport_for_older_adults
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6304477/
Want to see how tough Bob Graham and Inferno Swiss were? Open the links in a new tab
https://bcycletinferno.ch/the-race/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Graham_Round