First ride of the year!

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Mick F
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First ride of the year!

Post by Mick F »

I rode out yesterday for a hilly 15mile circuit. I've not turned a pedal since early December, and that was only 5miles.
Hardly rode far in November or October, so yesterday was hard work! :oops:

My plan is to do that same ride on Friday, and then twice a week for the whole of February. By then, I should have my cycle-fitness back.

Wish me luck, but having turned 70, my distance riding is a thing of the past methinks.
Mick F. Cornwall
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Audax67
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Re: First ride of the year!

Post by Audax67 »

Good luck (and weather) to you, Mick!

Re long-distance, it depends what you call long. I did a couple of leg-power-only 200k rides when I was 70, plus a good few 150+ rides, and that was with a couple of mild heart attacks under my belt. With your cycling history you should manage that easily. Dunno about multi-day rides, though: my recovery time gets longer as the years go by.
Have we got time for another cuppa?
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Paulatic
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Re: First ride of the year!

Post by Paulatic »

You’ll get there Mick just pace your effort.
I’ve been in a similar position falling ill at the start of November, six weeks laid in bed or sitting in a chair didn’t feel like starting exercise until the new year.
My RHR had risen from 44 to 60 whenever nurses took my pulse I told them it was high but they wouldn’t have it :lol: I’ve been making my recovery on an indoor trainer as I was worried I might not get home if I’d gone out on the road. Four weeks later and my RHR is down to 45 and I’m confident to hit the tarmac again.
70 is just a number and you’ll be 71 before you know it. :D
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Re: First ride of the year!

Post by PH »

Enjoy being back in the saddle Mick.
I'm also back riding after a break, though unlike you, I can ease myself in with some flat ones before heading North into the Peaks.
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Cugel
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Re: First ride of the year!

Post by Cugel »

Audax67 wrote: 1 Feb 2023, 9:39am Good luck (and weather) to you, Mick!

Re long-distance, it depends what you call long. I did a couple of leg-power-only 200k rides when I was 70, plus a good few 150+ rides, and that was with a couple of mild heart attacks under my belt. With your cycling history you should manage that easily. Dunno about multi-day rides, though: my recovery time gets longer as the years go by.
Yes, that's my experience - longer rides still possible in one's 70s but everyday long rides with no rest day(s) are very taxing.

On the other hand, I have friends back in NW England who are in their 70s (one in his early 80s) who regularly go on foreign cycling holidays of the Mallorca training camp kind and cycle every day for 10 days or a fortnight. They don't do 200K rides but they do significant distances of +/- 100k each day.

Unless there's a significant health issue to stop us, it's certainly possible for we oldpharts to keep up our cycling distances and stamina, even if our average speed capabilities go down a bit. But do you want to? There are many other pleasurable pursuits possible when retired. One may also become a pootling tourist rather than a rather degraded mile-eater. :-) Tourists get to see more than the back wheel or pothole-strewn road in front, see?

Cugel
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Re: First ride of the year!

Post by simonineaston »

Good Luck Mick - hope you enjoyed the ride! I'm sure "long distance" is all relative!
S
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Re: First ride of the year!

Post by Audax67 »

Paulatic wrote: 1 Feb 2023, 9:43am 70 is just a number and you’ll be 71 before you know it. :D
It's after 75 that the rot really sets in, at least that's what my wife tells me and she reads Books about it. At 77 she still does the odd half-marathon, though it's more walking than running these days.
Have we got time for another cuppa?
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Mick F
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Re: First ride of the year!

Post by Mick F »

:D
Good afternoon guys!
Considering riding tomorrow rather than Friday. Same 15mile route, and it will be interesting if the time to do it, is different.

Did a screenshot of my rides history month-by-month from when I got back in the saddle after a seven year layoff after leaving the RN and stopping my 34mile a day commute to Devonport and back.
First ride in seven years was October of 2004 and I had to stop within a mile or two for a breather!

Hopefully it'll come out ok. Click to peruse it.
Screenshot 2023-02-01 at 13.32.25.png
Mick F. Cornwall
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Re: First ride of the year!

Post by fastpedaller »

I've not done my first ride yet :( , so good on you Mick. I went out for a brisk walk of just a couple of miles earlier. We all had Covid on 2nd Jan, and it has lingered until now. It will (hopefully) be brighter/warmer weather in a few weeks :D
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Re: First ride of the year!

Post by Cowsham »

Audax67 wrote: 1 Feb 2023, 9:39am Good luck (and weather) to you, Mick!

Re long-distance, it depends what you call long. I did a couple of leg-power-only 200k rides when I was 70, plus a good few 150+ rides, and that was with a couple of mild heart attacks under my belt. With your cycling history you should manage that easily. Dunno about multi-day rides, though: my recovery time gets longer as the years go by.
Mild heart attacks ! When did you take up cycling ? ( and you don't have to answer this one -- or any ) what age are you now ?
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Re: First ride of the year!

Post by gbnz »

Mick F wrote: 1 Feb 2023, 9:25am
Wish me luck, but having turned 70, my distance riding is a thing of the past methinks.
As you know, do any miles and enjoy it! Due to broken bones recovery, had my first "token" ride on Sunday; even including yesterdays shopping on the bike, it only amounted to 7.3 miles (Nb. More a case of stretching muscles & obtaining a range of movements). But loved the ride and great to know bit's like a knee still works.

Can see the mileage returning to a normal level, no later than March 30th
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Mick F
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Re: First ride of the year!

Post by Mick F »

Started cycling as a child at secondary school.
Cycled to school five miles there and five miles back. Not every day, but lots of them.

Joined the RN at 16, and after marrying and having a job in Scotland, I cycled to work and back when my ship was in port. Only a couple of miles each way. Later, in a shore base there, same distance every day.

Was posted to Plymouth in my 20s, and having a long training course for the radar/computer system on the ship I was due to join in Portsmouth. Six months in Portsmouth, and rode out in the evenings and weekends and been all over Hampshire and into West Sussex and Dorset too.

Moved out to Scotland again, and rode 7miles each way, then when we bought a house further away and rode 14miles each way.
Moved to here - Gunnislake - in 1985 - and rode 17miles each way to work to Plymouth, and when my ship(s) was/were away I took my bike with me. I've cycled lots of foreign countries .......... search my posts! :lol:
My last ship was in Scotland (1994) and I was due leave, so took the train the JOG and rode to LE.

Left the RN in 1996 and put my Mercian away and only getting it out every now and again when I felt guilty about it.
Finally got to grips in Oct 2004, and eventually people got onto me about doing E2E again. :wink:

............ the rest is history.
Mick F. Cornwall
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Re: First ride of the year!

Post by Tim Holman »

Good to hear! May the wind be always at your back,
Tim
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Re: First ride of the year!

Post by Audax67 »

Cowsham wrote: 1 Feb 2023, 4:03pm
Audax67 wrote: 1 Feb 2023, 9:39am Good luck (and weather) to you, Mick!

Re long-distance, it depends what you call long. I did a couple of leg-power-only 200k rides when I was 70, plus a good few 150+ rides, and that was with a couple of mild heart attacks under my belt. With your cycling history you should manage that easily. Dunno about multi-day rides, though: my recovery time gets longer as the years go by.
Mild heart attacks ! When did you take up cycling ? ( and you don't have to answer this one -- or any ) what age are you now ?
To take it backwards, I'm 76 now. I used to cycle to school but dropped it when I went to uni, did a bit in my late 30s then got an MTB in my 40s. Switched back to road and did my first 100k at 50, first PBP at 60 and had my first coronary woes a few months later and again, funnily enough, a few months after pbp 2015. Only lost 2% of muscle function, though: they weren't clutch-chest-and-collapse affairs. Pushing my heart too much these days leaves me tired for two or three days, but going electric has reduced that considerably, as well as extending my range again. I managed a 240k last year(!)
Have we got time for another cuppa?
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Re: First ride of the year!

Post by Audax67 »

Mick F wrote: 1 Feb 2023, 6:30pm ............ the rest is history.
I reckon you've still got a chunk of history to make, Mick. Keep 'er lit!
Have we got time for another cuppa?
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