Someone Tell Me to Continue Cycling!

"Arfur" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

To persevere or retire? that is the question.Someone else must have
reached this point and come through it! Someone order me to carry on!

I haven't reached that point (long way to go...), but I hereby order you to
carry on!

(Once while commuting home about 4 years ago a guy passed me, saying 'I'm
getting too old for this' - he was 70, and doing a 25 mile TT faster than I
was commuting half that distance).

cheers,
clive

"Clive George" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I haven't reached that point (long way to go...), but I hereby order you
to
carry on!

Seconded. You're only as old as you behave (that's my excuse, anyway) - stop
and you'll regret it forever.

I always remember a line in Lances book where he says when he gets on his bike it makes him feel like a kid again.

I can honestly say that cycling is the only thing that makes me feel young again(I am 40)

Keep going it will get better.🙂

Simon D said:

"Clive George" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I haven't reached that point (long way to go...), but I hereby
order you to
carry on!

Seconded. You're only as old as you behave (that's my excuse,
anyway) - stop and you'll regret it forever.

Time for an old non pc joke.....

A woman is as old as she feels.
A man is as old as the woman he feels.....

pk

Arfur said:

I tried a fifty miler one afternoon a few months ago, but can't
really say I enjoyed it.

Just do less - whatever you feel comfortable with.

--
Kev

"PK" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Simon D said:

"Clive George" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I haven't reached that point (long way to go...), but I hereby
order you to
carry on!

Seconded. You're only as old as you behave (that's my excuse,
anyway) - stop and you'll regret it forever.

Time for an old non pc joke.....

A woman is as old as she feels.
A man is as old as the woman he feels.....

Oh, heck - yesterday I start the "half empty" business; today I get 'em
going on this one...To all the women out there - THIS IS NOT MY FAULT!!!

In article <[email hidden]>,

Arfur said:

To persevere or retire? that is the question.Someone else must have
reached this point and come through it! Someone order me to carry on!

Shame on you!

You lucky sods of pensionable age can take far more time to enjoy
yourselves than those of us who have the misfortune to be
unambiguously of working age. So get out there!

Some years back I was much stretched by a club run. One of the clubs
members was a former Olympic cyclist. But it was 60 years since his
Olympics, so I as a then-twenty-something at least stood a chance.

--
Nick Kew

in message <[email hidden]>, Arfur

(') said:

Ok, I have had a good run- bought my first bike in 1955, last did a
major hill tour in 2001,(Cornish Coast) but now at 60, feeling
distinctly old and painful.
I tried a fifty miler one afternoon a few months ago, but can't
really
say I enjoyed it.Did the outward 25 in a couple of hours and then
spent the whole afternoon struggling home and walking up a lot of
hills.
My 37 year old tandem club member son says that he rides out with
people far older than me, (74+)
To persevere or retire? that is the question.Someone else must
have
reached this point and come through it! Someone order me to carry on!

Well, I'm sure you know plenty of people in their eighties still
cycling. I've cycled fair distances with people in their nineties, and
I've just read about a woman who competes in triathlons at the age of
85. There's nothing about age in itself which is going to stop you;
indeed, cyclists seem to stay active into old age better than most
people.

If you continue cycling your heart and lungs will get exercise which
will keep them going and your leg joints will get nice smooth exercise
which will keep them going too.

If you don't feel like doing fifty milers don't do fifty milers. But
better still, set out with no particular target in mind but take a
mobile phone and allow yourself to phone for taxi if you're not
enjoying it.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; when in the [censored], the wise man plants courgettes

Quoted message said:

I tried a fifty miler one afternoon a few months ago, but can't really
say I enjoyed it.

I'm 23 and I'm not sure I'd enjoy a fifty miler either! IIRC you lose
fitness three times as fast as you put it on so I'm guessing the problem is
that you're just a bit out of practice. Do a few more huge rides and
you'll soon be able to whizz through them without breaking into a sweat.

Arfur said:

Ok, I have had a good run- bought my first bike in 1955, last did a major
hill tour in 2001,(Cornish Coast) but now at 60, feeling distinctly old and
painful.
I tried a fifty miler one afternoon a few months ago, but can't really
say I enjoyed it.Did the outward 25 in a couple of hours and then spent the
whole afternoon struggling home and walking up a lot of hills.
My 37 year old tandem club member son says that he rides out with
people far older than me, (74+)
To persevere or retire? that is the question.Someone else must have
reached this point and come through it! Someone order me to carry on!
(Please)
(Poor old sod!)

I'd suggest the middle ground. Cut back on the distance to what you
feel comfortable with - 50 miles is obviously too much at the moment.
Perhaps cycle less frequently. If you force yourself its likely that
you will turn yourself against it but if you start doing some short but
enjoyable rides you may just get your taste for cycling back and can
then build up again from there.

Good luck

Tony

"Arfur" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Ok, I have had a good run- bought my first bike in 1955, last did a major
hill tour in 2001,(Cornish Coast) but now at 60, feeling distinctly old
and
painful.
I tried a fifty miler one afternoon a few months ago, but can't really
say I enjoyed it.Did the outward 25 in a couple of hours and then spent
the
whole afternoon struggling home and walking up a lot of hills.
My 37 year old tandem club member son says that he rides out with
people far older than me, (74+)
To persevere or retire? that is the question.Someone else must have
reached this point and come through it! Someone order me to carry on!
(Please)
(Poor old sod!)

Give up and GET OUT OF MY WAY!

Just kidding, but I did hear older people saying in a group cycle recently
"they treat it like a race track" and "shouldn't they slow down". The answer
is no. Should you give up cycling? The answer is no.

At 32 I find it difficult finding people of my own age that enjoy what I do.
I have more fun with people 10 years older who are really giving it their
best. I could easily beat myself now than when I was 22.

More importantly, I'm starting to join clubs and meeting like minded people.
If I go on a run with regular cyclists who are, well, slow .. then I will
help by taking the pressure of the traffic off. If I'm slow, I don't mind
being dropped, but I want it done in a kind way. <grrr roadies>.

Just remember, how much *something else* is calling out (i.e. pub, nothing,
tv, computer) ... get out on your bike and go and enjoy yourself. And feel
sorry for all of us who have to commute on our bikes every day ;-)

Nick (who wants someone to kick him out of bed and onto his bike everyday).

"elyob" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I could easily beat myself now than when I was 22.

I'm trying to say that I was a [censored] cyclist/sporty-type person when I was
22. When I'm 42, I expect to be doing even more. Although, I do think I
wasted 22yo. Shame .. that could be me at the olympics. However skiing was
my game at 10-14yo .. now I'm rambling ...

Nick *The Eagle*

elyob said:

At 32 I find it difficult finding people of my own age that enjoy what I do.
I have more fun with people 10 years older who are really giving it their
best. I could easily beat myself now than when I was 22.

I'm in exactly the same position - at 31 I'm the youngest member of the
club by some margin. The two strongest riders in the club are well into
their 60s (one of them did the Surrey Hills with me last weekend and
finished much stronger than I did). The point is that I enjoy riding
with these people.

Quoted message said:

More importantly, I'm starting to join clubs and meeting like minded people.

It's important to find the right club. We have a club rule that the pace
is set by the slowest person - this doesn't mean we ride slowly, but we
don't drop anyone (though occasionally we might split into a fast group
and a slow group). But we ride on the fringes of club cycling - none of
us is into racing. A serious road-racing club is not going to be ideal
for the OP. I tried riding with a serious road-racing club once. They
might have been friendly but I couldn't keep up with them long enough to
find out.

Quoted message said:

Just remember, how much *something else* is calling out (i.e. pub, nothing,
tv, computer) ... get out on your bike and go and enjoy yourself.

Amen to that. In fact, that's exactly what I am going to do right now...

d.

elyob said:

I'm trying to say that I was a [censored] cyclist/sporty-type person when I was
22. When I'm 42, I expect to be doing even more. Although, I do think I
wasted 22yo. Shame .. that could be me at the olympics.

If it's any consolation, you're not the only one. When I was 15-16 I
used to ride my bike all the time. And I was fast. If I'd had the
presence of mind to join a club at that age, who knows what might have
happened... 🙁

d.

PK said:

A woman is as old as she feels.
A man is as old as the woman he feels.....

I've always used that one the other way around. Ex was 7 years younger
than me 🙂

Roos

Kevin Stone said:

"Arfur" wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I tried a fifty miler one afternoon a few months ago, but can't
really say I enjoyed it.

Quoted message said:

Just do less - whatever you feel comfortable with.

Or do less more often. Utility cycling is a good way to keep everything
moving and to keep you in shape for longer tours. Or keep you in shape in
general - too many older people stop moving alltogether because they can't
do the activity they use to do anymore and they don't replace it with
something else.

Maybe get a more comfortable bike, shorter distances, more breaks, new
friends?

Roos

Arfur said:

To persevere or retire? that is the question.Someone else must have
reached this point and come through it! Someone order me to carry on!

Consider yourself so ordered.

On my first outing with the CTC, I was surprised at the age of a
couple of the riders and thought to myself that I would have a decent
chance of keeping up.

Then I discovered that these two retired chaps cycle everywhere, all
day, every day. They were very kind and waited for me. I hope to
attain their levels of fitness when I too am in my 60s and 70s.
--

Cheers,

Al

Arfur said:

Ok, I have had a good run- bought my first bike in 1955, last did a major
hill tour in 2001,(Cornish Coast) but now at 60, feeling distinctly old and
painful.

What sort of pain is it? "I can't get up this hill" sort of pain, or "I
can't sit on this saddle all day" sort of pain?

For the latter, consider getting a more comfortable bike, by which I'm
thinking recumbent. If it's hill problems, make that recumbent a trike
with super-low grannies and slow it all down: you won't topple over with
three wheels and you can put insanely low gearing on. If you're feeling
it, just apply the parking brake and sit back in your comfy chair until
you feel like carrying on. And they'll tear up the tarmac too if you
want to do that: the Lands End -> John O'Groats record (41 hrs 4
minutes) is held on a recumbent trike so don't think of them as invalid
chairs!

Everyone slows down eventually, but slowing down need only mean slowing
down, rather than feeling inadequate at what you did a few years ago.
So keep on cycling, but just respect the calls from your nervous system
saying maybe not quite so quickly (or quite so far), and if things are
uncomfortable in the saddle consider trading up to cycling in a comfy chair!

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

in message <[email hidden]>, davek ([email hidden]'😉

Quoted message said:

elyob said:

I'm trying to say that I was a [censored] cyclist/sporty-type person when I
was 22. When I'm 42, I expect to be doing even more. Although, I do
think I wasted 22yo. Shame .. that could be me at the olympics.

If it's any consolation, you're not the only one. When I was 15-16 I
used to ride my bike all the time. And I was fast. If I'd had the
presence of mind to join a club at that age, who knows what might have
happened... 🙁

I'm beginning to realise that in my twenties I was probably really quite
a fit cyclist. I didn't realise it at the time, since I would never
join any clubs and thought the roadies in their lycra and oakleys were
poseurs. Now, of course, I wear lycra and oakleys - but I don't cycle
anything like so far or anything like so fast, and I ride much better
bikes than I did then.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; Women are from Venus. Men are from Mars. Lusers are from Uranus.