Biking question for those 50 and up.

[violette]

How do you ride now compared to when you were a teenager? I'm 40 and remember being able to ride in a strong wind with no problem. Now, just a breeze slows me down. I could ride all day everyday, now I get tired after a couple of hours. I read we can ride the same, but as we get older, our bodies don't recover as quickly as they did.

[violette]

Sorry, I just noticed the thread with the same subject. Just diregard...

[mimitabby]

Violette, I can ride farther in headwinds than i could when i was in my 20's.
It is not your age, but your conditioning.
I could barely ride 5 miles when i was in my 20's. now I can ride 50 without training for it.

the difference is that I was able to sleep and rest/recover better in my 20's than i can do now at age 56.

I rode a double century (120 miles one day, 80 the next) a few years ago. Instead of being so tired i went right to sleep, i could hardly sleep. That affected my recovery to be sure, but also my resolve. I was going to finish that ride if it killed me. I was not near that tough in my 20's

[Crankin]

Same here. I could have never done what I do now on my bike in my 20's, unless I trained. I did nothing athletic until I was 24 and 25 pounds overweight. When I did ride, it was slowly and never more than 10 miles. I do need more recovery time as every year passes, but I am much tougher mentally. I just finished a 4 day tour of 150 miles, with each day having at least 2 climbs of 10-15%. None of it was flat. Now, I might not be as fast as others, but I just keep thinking that there's only about 5% or less of the women my age who do what I do.
Keep working at it!

[chicago]

I am 46... and hope to be doing this and more come 50yo!!!

I have always been athletic, but I've never had this good of time at it I am having some good biking fun this year... met a good biking guy who has made the summer a blast

[li10up]

I don't think I even rode a bike in my 20s or 30s. I think I put the bike away when I turned 18 and went off to college. Didn't climb back on a bike until 3 years ago. So I'm better now than when I was in my 20s!!