RBR Reader Eli asks, “I have a local route where I have an option at one point to take #1 a continuous long climb or #2 a series of short steeper hills with flat sections between. The hills in option #2 are steeper than the continuous climb in option #1. I find option #1 wears me out and I have to dismount. I don’t know what to make of this. Currently option #1 is under construction.
Coach Hughes, I suspect pacing is the reason the sustained climb wears you out more than the multiple steep hills. There is a very slow pace at which you could do the sustained climb without stopping. Try riding at an easy conversational pace. Of course you have to ride fast enough you don’t fall over!
Eli follows up, “Yesterday my son Alex (who is an accomplished cyclist) and I rode the detour route around option #1, which unfortunately has a much longer climb than my customary option #1 route! Previously I couldn’t do that climb on the detour. After about 1/4 mile I had to get off the bike and I walked until the road flattened out. I attributed this to declining capacity due to age.
“But no! Yesterday I was triumphant and rode the entire stretch of that climb without dismounting.
“Here is my take on why I succeeded yesterday after several prior failures. First, riding with someone else I was less willing to give up and tried harder despite the feeling of slowing and tipping over. Perhaps more important, I followed my son up the hill and he went very slow, slower than I thought possible, and not within my ride experience. To be clear I don’t try to scoot up the hill, but I pedal as hard as I can to deal with the grade. At Alex’s suggestion I went slower then I thought possible without falling over. This conserved energy and did not wear me down to the breaking point.”
“So I learned a new riding strategy, but don’t know if it will serve me if I try that route alone. In any case, it was a very good day.”
Coach Hughes Any day you can ride with your son is a good day! And mastering the climb made it a very good day!
You mastered the climb using mental skills and our mental skills don’t decline with age. You used a new riding strategy. You learned a mental skill of pacing. You changed your motivation. You were “less willing to give up and tried harder.” You performed better riding with your son rather than alone— psychologists call this the group effect. You changed your belief about how slowly you could ride — this belief is what defeated you previously. After riding with your son, you know you can do the climb. This should increase your confidence — don’t be skeptical about whether you can do it again. Use your new mental skill of pacing.
I wrote my eBook Gaining a Mental Edge: Using Sports Psychology to Improve Your Cycling because most cyclists can get greater improvement from investing some time each week in practicing mental skills than they could investing the same amount of time in training! This is especially true after age 40. In the eBook I demonstrate how sports psychology can be another tool in your toolbox to help you improve your cycling, just like effective training, good equipment and healthy nutrition. Gaining a Mental Edge is set up as a workbook with a progressive set of skills to practice and master. Just you can practice specific cycling skills you can also practice and learn specific mental skills. Winter when you are riding less is an opportunity to gain a mental edge. The 17-page Gaining a Mental Edge: Using Sports Psychology to Improve Your Cycling is just $4.99.
My eBook Anti-Aging: 12 Ways You Can Slow the Aging Process includes chapters on how to meet the ACSM’s recommendations on aerobic, high intensity aerobic, strength training, weight-bearing exercises, balance and flexibility. I include sample weeks and months for different types and amounts of exercise. I give you plans to build up to 100 km and 100 mile rides. I include a plan to increase over two years your annual riding from around 4,000 miles (6,500 km) to over 5,000 miles (8,000 km) a year. You can easily modify the plans for different annual amounts of riding. I discuss the importance of recovery and how to gauge if you are getting enough recovery. I combine the different kinds of training into programs that balance training and recovery. The 106-page Anti-Aging: 12 Ways You Can Slow the Aging Process is $14.99.
Coach John Hughes earned coaching certifications from USA Cycling and the National Strength and Conditioning Association. John’s cycling career includes course records in the Boston-Montreal-Boston 1200-km randonnée and the Furnace Creek 508, a Race Across AMerica (RAAM) qualifier. He has ridden solo RAAM twice and is a 5-time finisher of the 1200-km Paris-Brest-Paris. He has written over 40 eBooks and eArticles on cycling training and nutrition, available in RBR’s eBookstore at Coach John Hughes. Click to read John’s full bio.
Several weeks ago, we rode over the 11,000 foot Beartooth Pass from Cooke City Wyoming to Red Lodge Montana.. We had an 82 year old gentleman complete the 24 mile climb and “he didn’t need no stinkin’ e-bike”. I’ll bet that John is the oldest person to ever cycle over the Beartooth Pass.
I don’t think anyone is denying weather or not anyone can ride up any hill if they set their mind to it. I ride a “stinking” ebike because to me it’s a lot more “fun” to ride up with a little assist than to torture myself just to prove I could do it. Everyone has different ideas of cycling.
I agree with you. I love my e bike but also use my conventional bike as well just to get myself stronger. I have enough low gears so it’s a matter of pacing my self. When I use the e bike I try and stay in assist level 1 or 2 on a hard climb.
Don’t forget the strategy of simple off-the-bike carbohydrate restriction. If I skip a meal or avoid the sweet snacks in the days prior to a long or shorter-but-fast ride I can feel the ease of quicker accelerations and sprints. It is a small thing but just eat less often. Learn to skip a meal or two on a regular weekly pattern. Soon you will not miss those meals, your body will be lighter, and the hills will be easier. Also just get a consistent good night sleep and don’t eat after 8:00 pm or three hours before you go to bed. Look at your gut and say “Is this helping me climb?”. I am 62 and hope to ride as you do in twenty one years.
Good to see so many old guys still riding. I just turned 84 and try to get out 2 to 3 times a week for 20 to 50 mile rides. When I turn 80 that’s when I noticed the hills getting harder. Just get bigger granny gears. Most of my ride buddies are 20 to 30 years younger than me. They keep me going with their encouragement.
I just got back from a hilly 30 mile mid-week ride. At 72, everyone I ride with is younger than me, but I feel like the youngster in this conversation!
Surprised that only one reader mentioned granny gears. I’m 82, still riding metric centuries – and struggling to keep up with the crowd on hills. I recently changed to a bike with an 11 speed 11-42 tooth cassette and mountain derailleur (against normal 50/34 chairings). Hills that used to have me standing I now ride sitting down. I think it’s about being able to stay in my cadence sweet spot.
God bless all of you!
I am a young 68, and I love climbing. I ride a Giant TCR with a 52/36 front and an 11/34 in the back. It gets me up 20+% grades with no problem. I also hit the gym 5 days a week, row and swim a couple days a week, and I still hold down a full time job. Not bragging. Just saying there is no reason we can’t be physically challenging ourselves when we hit the golden years. We should also not be considered the exception. Staying healthy till the end should be the rule. You guys and gals in your 80’s who are not afraid to challenge yourselves inspire me. Rock on!
Reading a few of the above emails just motivated me to do better. I am a recently retired 68 year old who can’t keep up with the crowd any longer. I too have switched out my rear chainring to an 11-36 to help. I just have to get out there more and I hope to be riding into my 80s as well. Thanks
Yep. A lot of good replies to this issue concerning aging and cycling.
I often have heard if it’s really hard to pedal, you are probably in the wrong “gear.”
If you can’t find the combination of gearing that you want/need, then go to your LBS and buy what you need, front and/or rear, to get what you want/need to keep on turning those pedals.
Certainly don’t let the terrain keep you from doing what you want to do on your bike.
RIDE ON!