Cycling UK Forum

arnsider wrote: ↑8 Feb 2024, 6:28am Over reaching yourself regularly must be a red line.
Competition drives people beyond their capacity and vanity often drives competitiveness.

Ayseven wrote: ↑20 Jan 2024, 2:56pm Cycling is always hard on you. Very hard to do it "moderately"!

arnsider wrote: ↑8 Feb 2024, 6:28am Over reaching yourself regularly must be a red line. Anecdotal evidence suggests that performance athletes live no longer or better than others. TDF winner Jacques Anquetil died aged only 53 and Runner James Fixx only managed 52 years, dying from a heart attack whilst running!
Competition drives people beyond their capacity and vanity often drives competitiveness.

I've been examined and treated by half a dozen cardiologists since and they've all said to keep up the cycling - and not a single medic of any stamp has said anything to the contrary.

ANTONISH wrote: ↑7 Feb 2024, 10:13am It seems to me that endurance exercise as such is probably good for ones health.
One aspect of long distance cycling (audax) is that for most participants at distances over 400k there is inevitably some sleep loss.
Some keen "audaxers" participate in such events ( and longer) on a weekly basis and some complete "permanents" as well as "calendar" events even more frequently - I'm not sure if the inevitable sleep deprivation is not harmful - similarly to shift work.
I can remember a desultory conversation on this at a control in the early morning hours when riding a 400k - basically "is what we are doing good for us ?" - the answer being "no" - not that it made any difference - I saw the same faces often in the following years.

Nearholmer wrote: ↑8 Feb 2024, 11:00am Isn’t it simply something like this?

IMG_3133.jpeg


There seems to be a lot of evidence now that doing even very small amounts makes a very significant positive difference, plus strong suggestions that in terms of direct physical benefits the law of diminishing returns sets in once you reach a given, actually surprisingly low level, of exercise.

I guess most keen cyclists are on the flattish bit of the curve, and deriving lots of mental benefits, even if the physical benefit doesn’t noticeably increase between (randomly picking numbers from the air) doing three hours cycling a week, and doing six hours.

The discussion seems to have moved-on to the right hand side of the curve, where either the sheer intensity, or the sheer quantity is harmful, and probably to more bits of the body than just the heart.

My guess would be that this general curve is calibrated differently each individual, and given that it could be scaled by intensity (fixed duration, increasing intensity) or duration (fixed intensity, increasing duration), it needs to be thought of in both dimensions.

The trick is probably to find a family of “sweet spots” that work for you. Personally, I know that I most benefit from, and most enjoy, two different sorts of rides: a couple of hours of fairly high intensity, with some real “puff you out” sections in it; or, a long trundle, maybe six to eight hours out, with a half hour lunch break), where I’m going at very moderate intensity for the vast majority of the time.

arnsider wrote: ↑8 Feb 2024, 6:28am Over reaching yourself regularly must be a red line. Anecdotal evidence suggests that performance athletes live no longer or better than others. TDF winner Jacques Anquetil died aged only 53 and Runner James Fixx only managed 52 years, dying from a heart attack whilst running!
Competition drives people beyond their capacity and vanity often drives competitiveness.

, the sweetspot for maximum benefit from exercise is a sharper peak, equivalent to about 120 minutes of moderate exercise per week

TrevA wrote: ↑8 Feb 2024, 3:30pm

arnsider wrote: ↑8 Feb 2024, 6:28am Over reaching yourself regularly must be a red line. Anecdotal evidence suggests that performance athletes live no longer or better than others. TDF winner Jacques Anquetil died aged only 53 and Runner James Fixx only managed 52 years, dying from a heart attack whilst running!
Competition drives people beyond their capacity and vanity often drives competitiveness.

And yet, Raymond Poulidor lived until he was 83. He had a long career as a racer, retiring at the age of 41. Eddy Merckx is 78. Anquetil died of cancer, not heart problems.