Are my times average or good

[brychan]

I am 62 this July and for past 4 years I have been fighting lung cancer.

20 months ago I started road cycling, starting with a mountain bike then a hybrid and for past year fully carbon road bikes mainly to lose weight get fit and keep healthy I’ve lost over 2 stone in weight and feel much fitter

To date I have cycled 3565 miles 90% flat 10% hills my average distances speed & heart rate are:

25 miles, maximum 46 miles
16.5 mph overall, maximum 25 mph short bursts
155 bpm maximum 166 bpm

Are there any experienced cyclists who could tell me if this is average or good for my age considering my health condition

Thanks Mike

[mnichols]

Just wanted to say good luck with your fight and congratulations on your progress and weight loss

You are faster than everyone sat on the couch....and I mean that in a positive way

I would focus on your progress rather than comparing yourself with anyone else

Sounds like you've doing well

Chapeau

[dim]

I am 62 this July and for past 4 years I have been fighting lung cancer.

20 months ago I started road cycling, starting with a mountain bike then a hybrid and for past year fully carbon road bikes mainly to lose weight get fit and keep healthy I’ve lost over 2 stone in weight and feel much fitter

To date I have cycled 3565 miles 90% flat 10% hills my average distances speed & heart rate are:

25 miles, maximum 46 miles
16.5 mph overall, maximum 25 mph short bursts
155 bpm maximum 166 bpm

Are there any experienced cyclists who could tell me if this is average or good for my age considering my health condition

Thanks Mike

good luck and hope you get well! .... have a look at polarized training (slow base miles in zone 2 most of the tme, and once every 4-5 days a bit of fast intervals) ...

here's a good thread that explains it

https://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=155915

[Debs]

Hi Mike,

If your average heart rate = 155 and your max heart rate = 166 then i'd say you must be riding too close you your anaerobic threshold.
Your times suggest you have some athletic ability, but; considering your age and medical condition you are working very hard at it, probably too hard.

I would suggest you ride your bike to build core fitness, for example try to ride around so your heart rate doesn't [ generally ] go above 140 bpm, this should be far more aerobic and a more sustainable pace, and can improve more efficient fat-burning.
Higher heart rates tend to burn off available sugars in the blood and simply quicken fatigue.

Try not to worry about average speed or max speed, simply cruse along and enjoy the ride, however if you like looking at telemetry [ Garmin? ] then consider a cadence sensor and get the feel for an efficient peddling rate, i would suggest around 90 rpm, but people differ here, some cyclists get away fine peddling at fairly slow rpm, but generally as you get older the higher cadence is kinder to your knee joints, and can be more efficient besides.

Sorry to hear you are fighting lung cancer, all credit to you for getting on your bike to improve your health, hope you get the all clear one day

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
I think his mention of max might be what he saw on a ride?

Meds may drive down or up heart rate.

Seek advise on your riding from gp.

Work on percentage of max (zones) for training.

Work on zones and time, miles and heart rate are just specific to you and what terrain you are riding.

Ignore age on this chart, as its unlikely you hit your max on a ride, just select say 50 years at 100% for a guide and decide what training you want to aim for.

[ANTONISH]

Hi,


Ignore age on this chart, as its unlikely you hit your max on a ride, just select say 50 years at 100% for a guide and decide what training you want to aim for.

I would ignore it but it's not on there

[Cugel]

I am 62 this July and for past 4 years I have been fighting lung cancer.

20 months ago I started road cycling, starting with a mountain bike then a hybrid and for past year fully carbon road bikes mainly to lose weight get fit and keep healthy I’ve lost over 2 stone in weight and feel much fitter

To date I have cycled 3565 miles 90% flat 10% hills my average distances speed & heart rate are:

25 miles, maximum 46 miles
16.5 mph overall, maximum 25 mph short bursts
155 bpm maximum 166 bpm

Are there any experienced cyclists who could tell me if this is average or good for my age considering my health condition

Thanks Mike

It seems a wrong tack to employ those standardised charts of heart rates et al unless you're either in training for some sort of competitive event or in the process of a serious recuperation. If you're just riding your bike to keep fit and help stave off the degradations of a cancer, it might be best just to .... ride your bike. Your body is quite a good gauge of "performance" and listening to it is greatly under-rated in this age of gizmos and their marketing hype.

One issue with the gizmos and all the data they churn out is that it becomes easy to be cowed by this data, or in some other fashion put-off because you don't measure up to some supposed ideal, norm or (as you mention yourself) average. Such benchmarks are of no utility unless you're competing with others. What can they tell you to do that you aren't already doing? If they did tell you to do something, does it really serve any of your needs?

Many will defend the gizmo and the data-rich measurement of life. Many enjoy measuring things - although it's surprising (perhaps not) how many do nothing at all with all their data except record and look at it. Personally I think it's just a distraction from reality, which is much nicer to be in than a datascape.

Cugel

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,


Ignore age on this chart, as its unlikely you hit your max on a ride, just select say 50 years at 100% for a guide and decide what training you want to aim for.

I would ignore it but it's not on there

I was just saying based on his readings that selecting 50 years on chart was close to his readings, him only.
if your age is not there and off the scale you probably don't need advise

[mattheus]

90% of cyclists are somewhere in the band where
- they can ride far/fast enough to keep them healthy and enjoy themselves; and
- they could never hope to make the podium at a national championships.

Does it matter where you fit in this range? What use is the information?

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
" Are my times average or good"
Your speed say yes, and without going further anyone would be happy with that.

[horizon]

Does it matter where you fit in this range? What use is the information?

I think that somewhere in the back of your mind you want to get a sense of how fit you are and whether the cycling is improving your fitness or not. Otherwise you've nothing to measure yourself against and this can be (maybe) demoralising - it is amazing how we are affected by seeing the line that has to be crossed.

I'm not in the slightest bit interested in the statistics of my cycling and yet sometimes I would just like to know how I compare in fitness terms to a person of my age (or younger ) or with how I was last year and give myself a pat on the back for effort (if it is deserved). For the OP I would have thought that that was even more important or at least desirable.

[mattheus]

Oh sure, I understand that urge - but it can very easily backfire, so I think it's unhealthy overall.

What if you find out you're in the bottom third? What if your genetics (or poor health) are going to pin you there forever? I think looking at statistics and the performance of others is just going to bring even more demoralisation. [and bragging about being the top 10% is just going to demoralise the people who read your social media posts] It's an ill wind, sadly ...

And how does looking at others tell you that you're improving? I fear it's just clichéd male competitiveness dressed up as something modern/high-tech. Not a good thing.

[mattsccm]

I would say that its not too bad really for the age, experience and medical history. I would also say keep at it. Worst that can happen is terminal but you have overcome close to that before. Your body will say when its overworked, keep going until then.
To extremes you can go out with a bang or a whimper. I know which I am aiming for. The world has too much of the take it easy syndrome. Knock your self out if its fun.

[fullupandslowingdown]

The figures you give, i.e 16.5 mph average and 25 max are typical of typical club cyclists in the 30 to 60 range, so given your recent history, I'd say you were doing OK :thumbs up:
I'd imagine that your heart rate is slightly limited by your lung function. Your pulmonologist is the better person to ask about whether interval training or longer duration steady state training will be safer to improve lung function.
You can usually tell whether one was is over training, by one's ease of recovery. If you were feeling too weak in the morning to do much, then go easier. No one makes improvements from a state of weakness.
Professionals now follow a complex cyclical training schedule. Training is structured on both a weekly, monthly and yearly cycle, so that training has enough rest built in to allow performance to improve.

[bazzo]

Good luck in your fight against cancer, you could join Strava and compare with similar aged people. Just enjoy riding though.