Spoke with Jeremiah Bishop – one of my all time heros – recently to understand his training routine and strategies -and he dropped some wisdom on continuing to excel.
I'd say the biggest takeaways were to focus on power training. Next would be to not give in to aging. Sounds simplistic but true.
What have been some of your strategies with adapting training with age?
by Ageless_Athlete
9 Comments
Monitoring sleep hours per night and actively scheduling rest days between hard periodization cycles. Yoga every morning to keep joints in their respective ROM, weight training to maintain muscle mass, and supplements to top up the tank daily. I’m 50, ride 9k per year, race Unbound, SBT, Gravel Nats, and others… all singlespeed.
Aging like what?
Everyone should be going to the gym, but not for cycling power, for injury prevention. Cycling isn’t really a power sport, it’s a repetitions sport.
Then just train consistently.
I’m turning 56 in less than two weeks and literally in the best shape of my life…great shape for any age, really. Great numbers all around and there’s still guys my age that will smoke me.
You have to get older, but you don’t have to get old.
A friend asked me yesterday if I’m getting faster or just maintaining as I age. The answer is complicated.
I’ve been a moderately hardcore cyclist for most of the last 30 years. My 5 second power is way down, I haven’t 1000 watts in a few years, and my ability to recover between efforts is much worse. On the other hand, my 5 minute power is probably better than it was 15 years ago, and my FTP has gone up about 5% in the last 5 years.
I feel like a lot of it is that my riding style has changed. I now will hammer a climb, but stop to take pictures along the way. I spend way more time searching out adventurous routes & underbiking. I still want to be fast, but it’s no longer as important as experiencing the world & the peace riding my bike provides.
Aren’t we all aging cyclists
What does “not to give into aging” even mean?
I am whopping 47 and I cycle very lightly so as not to hurt my heart
I’m 73, have been riding for 50; stopped racing as a 50 year oldCat2. Im still riding 3+ hours a day and can hang in most group rides. To me, “not giving in” means not giving up, although one has to be more thoughtful about taking rest days, working on core, nutrition, etc.
I got a power meter when I was 55… I can see my average power dropping about 3% a year… impossible to stop. Having said that, i think my overall efficiency has improved slightly. I don’t have the ability to hit the peak HR that I used to, but I can still hold a decent average HR and have learned to use any extra effort than needed to peddle.
As a 33 (soon to be 34) year old.. don’t give in to aging, and don’t let an injury linger. It’ll only get worse if you don’t look after it now. /s but also not /s