How do I make peace with getting slower every year?
Question: I’ve kept a riding log since 1998, and I can tell you the exact problem: my average speed has dropped five years in a row. Nothing dramatic, a couple tenths here, a couple tenths there, but the direction never changes. I still love the riding itself. What I’ve come to dread is the download afterward, watching a number I spent decades building slip away a little at a time. I’m not looking for a miracle training plan. I’m asking a different question: How do longtime riders stop measuring themselves by a number that’s only going one way? What do you measure instead? —Steve H.
RBR’S STAN PURDUM REPLIES: If I understand correctly, you still enjoy riding, and afterward, you come home happy, only to see that pleasure evaporate when you read your average speed numbers. Dare I suggest you just skip the download?
Tracking personal metrics has its place, especially in competitive cycling, and to a degree in personal cycling improvement. But there’s a point at which all the record keeping and performance feedback can obscure the joy of cycling, and we become blinded by our measurement devices. It’s not unlike the way modern lighting technology in heavily populated areas prevents us from seeing the starry glory of the night sky. (According to a 2016 article in Science Advances, 80% of the US population can no longer see the Milky Way from where they live, because of light pollution.)
Some drop in average speed from aging is normal, but whether it drops or not, that average is not a measure of health benefits and enjoyment from cycling, and it has nothing to do with the flow of the feel-good endorphins a ride can generate.
So unless you are involved in competitive cycling, better measurements at this point are how you feel both on and off the bike, how well you recover and what the cycling does for your overall outlook on life — all things you don’t need an electronic gadget to confirm.
If you want to record something, consider keeping a record of ride frequency and distance — primarily as a way to push yourself to get out on your bike with some regularity. Other than those numbers, bypass the dreaded post-ride download and instead, savor the ride experience.
Stan Purdum has ridden several long-distance bike trips, including an across-America ride recounted in his book Roll Around Heaven All Day, and a trek on U.S. 62, from Niagara Falls, New York, to El Paso, Texas, the subject of his book Playing in Traffic. Stan, a freelance writer and editor, lives in Ohio. See more at www.StanPurdum.com.
