Back and ready for new season

[Roadtrip]

Shannon,

I think this is more about learning to ride at age 51 than anything...more fears and phobias.

This I agree with!!! I started riding about three years ago after just having turned thirty-five and bought my very first bike as my birthday present to myself. I would commute to work if I could do that on quiet streets, but I live in Cincinnati where most of the streets are congested and not Ike friendly at all, not to mention the distances would be more then what I could handle at this point. Is changing here but very slowly.

I work as an IT consultant and could be placed anywhere in the greater Cincinnati area with any number of our clients. I basically go where I'm needed. It's also one of the reasons why I'm not happy as I'm never in one place for long. Just as soon as I make friends and feel like I "fit" in I'm off to another assignment. I'm currently evaluating my options so I can make the right decisions for my future.

Tanks again!!
Shannon

[Catrin]

I think we need an "started riding > "n" age club" It really is about the increased fears and phobias than it is the physical side of things. That being said, for many of us there are certainly increased physical issues at our age as well, especially if we've not a long athletic history. Flexibility and mobility issues are part of it, not to mention core strength and muscular imbalances. Then again, nothing says we STILL wouldn't have all of this if we had been athletic for a longer % of our lives

I am in the "learned to ride for my 50th birthday" club. I was obese and had spent many decades putting a lot of energy in pursuits that I could only do seated...(needlework and computing). Shannon - sending you lots of positive energy as you examine your options!

[Crankin]

I started riding at 47, almost 48. I did ride a lot as a kid, though, until I moved to Florida at age 16. Although I was fit and was a fitness instructor for 10 years before I started riding, I had never really done any outdoor activity, at least any more than taking a stroll in the woods or sitting on a beach chair. And I definitely have some coordination issues. I wish I had started seriously riding at a younger age, as I think i might have had the potential to be really fast! I've had my ups and downs since I started riding, with illness and chronic muscular things, but I am a lot more confident now. I think I would have had a lot more fears in my 20s/30s, as what I am doing now was so far out of my frame of reference; when I actually started both my DH and one of my kids had been riding/racing for a couple of years, so I had some familiarity with the stuff.

[shootingstar]

I seem to only join group rides maybe once or twice annually and they are never competitive. Either long (50-100 km.) or short social rides.

Otherwise I just ride with my partner or with a friend and often solo. I've been riding after returning to cycling at 32 yrs. I'm 54 now. We are car-free and so sometimes, cycling truly is a necessity for us as a means of transportation.

The most important thing about cycling well and enjoying it also, is once you have mastered some hills that you like (and you will like a few. No one is asking you to like all of them), can ride in moderate car traffic and know all the bike paths/routes in your area, is to become freer, more confident and stronger within yourself. Become so confident that you will jump onto your bike yourself and just go. And not wait/rely on a friend to motivate you. That will be the signal that you love cycling for what it is and what it gives to you. A gift to yourself over and over.