I presently take two days off of the bike - Sat and Sun. Harder/longer on Monday (1 1/2 hours), base ride on Tue (1 hour), easy ride on Wed (1 hour +), long ride on Thurs (2 1/2 - ? hours increasing weekly), 1 1/2 hours on Friday at comfortable pace (depends on how I feel).
I would like to be able to ride a 74 miler at the beginning of April and not get whipped by a 70 year old gal - we all have personal goals, don't we. Then, I plan to ride the Bike Virginia in June - 250 miles in 5 days - I would like to be able to survive.
Hey Jim, I'm a little your junior (62), but FWIW I'll share with you my experience in the past 10 months. I got on my bike after a 30+ year layoff on 3/15/05. I used to train and race in the early 1970s, but I'm not sure there were any remnants of my prior fitness left over. I had fattened up to 212 lbs (from a race weight of 160 in the 1970s). I had not done any significant exercise for at least 10 years when I got on my bike (not counting a couple of rounds of golf per week). So, I was a walking definition of out of shape and overweight. I started with 2 hrs/day at an easy pace (what I call conversational pace -- I could carry on a conversation at any time without huffing and puffing between words). I did not measure my intensity of effort with anything but feel -- i.e., never above a conversational pace. I was pretty slow. It took me a month to get my seat toughened up, but otherwise I had no ill effects. I dropped weight like crazy and was <200 lbs in less than a month. I started doing some harder efforts after two months but basically kept up my 2hrs/day regimen until late July. I rode a century in July and had plenty of endurance for the distance. I have continued my training and increased my hard efforts (intervals) and have recently resumed racing on a limited basis. My goal now is to be fully race fit on 5/1/06. I'd love to have a power meter file from one of my races in the 1970s so that I could race myself on 5/1, but alas we didn't even have computers of any kind on our bikes back then. Note that I'm not necessarily advocating my training program and our bodies are no doubt different. What I am saying is that my age has not held me back in the slightest. Good luck.
Hey Jim, I'm a little your junior (62), but FWIW I'll share with you my experience in the past 10 months. I got on my bike after a 30+ year layoff on 3/15/05. I used to train and race in the early 1970s, but I'm not sure there were any remnants of my prior fitness left over. I had fattened up to 212 lbs (from a race weight of 160 in the 1970s). I had not done any significant exercise for at least 10 years when I got on my bike (not counting a couple of rounds of golf per week). So, I was a walking definition of out of shape and overweight. I started with 2 hrs/day at an easy pace (what I call conversational pace -- I could carry on a conversation at any time without huffing and puffing between words). I did not measure my intensity of effort with anything but feel -- i.e., never above a conversational pace. I was pretty slow. It took me a month to get my seat toughened up, but otherwise I had no ill effects. I dropped weight like crazy and was <200 lbs in less than a month. I started doing some harder efforts after two months but basically kept up my 2hrs/day regimen until late July. I rode a century in July and had plenty of endurance for the distance. I have continued my training and increased my hard efforts (intervals) and have recently resumed racing on a limited basis. My goal now is to be fully race fit on 5/1/06. I'd love to have a power meter file from one of my races in the 1970s so that I could race myself on 5/1, but alas we didn't even have computers of any kind on our bikes back then. Note that I'm not necessarily advocating my training program and our bodies are no doubt different. What I am saying is that my age has not held me back in the slightest. Good luck.
I presently take two days off of the bike - Sat and Sun. Harder/longer on Monday (1 1/2 hours), base ride on Tue (1 hour), easy ride on Wed (1 hour +), long ride on Thurs (2 1/2 - ? hours increasing weekly), 1 1/2 hours on Friday at comfortable pace (depends on how I feel).
I would like to be able to ride a 74 miler at the beginning of April and not get whipped by a 70 year old gal - we all have personal goals, don't we. Then, I plan to ride the Bike Virginia in June - 250 miles in 5 days - I would like to be able to survive.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Jim
Jim, your schedule sounds great to me. I'd suggest you focus on building up that longer Thurs ride until you're up to at least 60 miles, and then just do an easy spin on Friday, 30 minutes or so would be plenty.
You can relax knowing you'll do fine on the 74 miler and Bike Virginia with this kind of dedicated preparation. Hope you enjoy your training and make steady progress.
dhk - thanks for the comments. I think that I need to rethink my Friday - will definitely make this an easier day. My Thursday mileage is increasing by 10% a week and expected to hit 66 two weeks before the 74 miler and a taper to 40 miles 10 days before the event.
