Potential for late starters

Velo Jayhawk said:

Simple question - how many of you know someone who became a Cat 3 after starting cycling in their late forties?

I met one fellow who races locally and is in his 60's. He started in his early 50's but he was a runner up until then. It is kinda late but not impossible. Make sure that you get a physical to make sure that you are physcally well enough to train and race, and then find an open minded coach if you can afford one. The coach is optional (lots of knowledge and motivation when things get rough), but the physical is mandatory for guys our age.

Velo Jayhawk said:

Simple question - how many of you know someone who became a Cat 3 after starting cycling in their late forties?

I know several riders who've done that and even a few who've taken it farther and made it into the 2's in their 50's.

-Dave

I don't know anyone personally who started late, but I know a couple handfuls of guys in their 50s and 60s that are current Cat 3s.

With your late start, it will help if you're working with some good genetic material. Hopefully you have an endurance sport background (indicative of a relatively high percentage of slow twitch muscle) and you're relatively lightweight.

Definitely doable...

I agree it's is likely that you can do it if
1 You have the time to train
2 You have been somewhat active previously(prefefably athletic)
3 You have the type of body to be a good cyclist (thin)
4 You have the drive and passion

5 Most important, you enjoy racing

Hey, thanks everyone - good to hear that it is not that unreasonable.

I was a fairly serious runner for about 25 years or so until ITB issues caused me to give it up about 5 years ago. Got a bike couple years later and have wanted to give racing a try but time commitments have made it unrealistic to think about doing any focused training.

I tend to be a very goal focused person, so having a stretch target like that will be very motivating to me over the next couple years. If I did actually make it to a Cat 3 I would likely do more racing in the Master's class, but I would like to only do that after earning my stripes moving up the Cat ranks.

Cheers!

Here's a story to inspire you. Not as much a "late start" as a "return engagement":
http://bit.ly/8s7cg6

On a related note (re late starts, not re cycling), my sister-in-law, who swam "OK" but not great in high school and then moved on to have 3 kids and as normal a life as is possible living in Brazil (where, if you have the means, "normal" takes on a whole new dimension), started swimming again for exercise in her early 40's. A swimmer in an adjacent lane, who was in training for the 1996 World Masters Championship in London asked her to be her training partner. So she started training. And swimming fast...really fast.....faster than by far than she'd ever swum before. Long story short, she qualified for and finaled in the 100 back at Worlds. Has qualified again since, but stayed home in Sao Paulo to see her daughter off the the prom instead (has her priorities in order!). She's planning on competing at Worlds again in 2010.

I'm in my 60's. Ran for many years with limited success. Gave it up in my 40's after two back surgeries and bad knees took their toll. Weight ballooned to 215 (I'm 5'8"😉. Took up cycling @ 58. Had to walk the toughest hill on my first group ride. Improved enough in a couple of years to race respectably in the 60+ at Battenkill last April--with a grade 5 shoulder separation suffered in a crash during a crit a few weeks earlier. (For the record, crash was unavoidable and wasn't my fault.)

Life is what you make of it.