Sitting on the backside of a lot of sports, I’m in a position that gives me perspective and which everyone soon also experiences: being old.
Back in the day…
Training was anathema. Cool sports people didn’t train. That was cheating. We just did sports. And we had fun and played with our friends. That’s all that was allowed. Working at it was gauche. Trying — pah! Just DO.
(So was any kind of hiding — which meant that we were pissed when folks first started wearing mirrored sunglasses (Greg Lemond) — how can you see the whites of their eyes?)
Well, I eventually gave up on the anti-training since I wanted to actually get faster. I got into periodization. …But not heart-rate monitors! That’s a level of geekery not to be seen near. Heck, not even speedometers.
What a buncha kooks we were!
Panache and style — that’s what we were about! Heck, even singing and pranks while doing things like bike rides were far cooler than a “plan.”
So I would go out and hang out with various pals doing different things and as a result could win a bike race or triathlon quite readily. And that’s about all it was: just going out and chatting with friends while doing things. Some friends I’d meet for a run, others for a ride, others for a canoe paddle, some at a skinny dipping pond for a swim. (Ha! My early tri efforts were built around skinny dipping!) I’d go to the Detroit Dorais velodrome to learn those skills. …But not for “training”! Motorpacing…was that training? No! It was being a crazy daredevil to draft 50mph behind a Chevette with its hatchback up and rock’n’roll blaring while a friend sat in a trunk and helped me communicate with the driver. There were no weights yet, nothing “boring.”
The upshot of this kind of stuff was winning 3 tri’s in 3 weekends. Also on a roadtrip out west just hopping into a century ride called the Hardscrabble on my crit bike with a straight block (18 tooth biggest cog) and blazing up an 18-mile canyon with some fast people, into a tornado headwind, blazing past people walking their bikes. Or back home coming across the fastest club ride while out doing a grocery run on my Varsity w upright bars and front basket and joining in the front pack for the rotating paceline and hanging in for miles until the final city limits sprint. Or entering my first and only half Ironman and betting bored of the run 2 miles from the finish and quitting because I was only in the top 10, not winning, and was passing the parking lot where my girlfriend was impatiently waiting, so what diff would it make. …What the heck?
Then I got serious and started periodizing and training up to 2 hours at a time. Still not much, eh? I got 2nd in Wave 2 of my first Birkie ski race and an “old” guy asked me how old I was. I said 29. He said, Good, keep at it, you
‘re almost there, a couple more years and you’ll be flying. A COUPLE MORE YEARS? Who has time for that?
I never did run a marathon. I’d do 20 mile runs just to put in some miles. I figured I could do 6 min miles forever. What’s the interest in a 3 hr marathon? I’d rather add arms in and ski.
Then I turned 30 and moved to Lansing instead of Traverse City and so decided to get more serious about work and just did casual daily outings as part of my commute and stopped racing all the time. But I thought I’d still keep my hand in.
So I was riding in town again, after years of being away, and realized it was the fast club ride day and time so heck why not go join them. I had a big Carradice saddlebag loaded with magazines. I thought Heck a little resistance training. Doesn’t affect much. But HEY that was hard! Suddenly I wasn’t able to go with the moves. There was a LAG. What the heck? I’d never felt that before. Whew, I better not try hauling magazines anymore. Jeez, I didn’t know that weight mattered like that!
Then that winter a friend said she was going to the UP to visit family and I realized it was also the time for the Tahquamenon 50k Ski Marathon. So why not tag along and also do the race? My first race in over a year. Heck, what did I learn at the end of my previous fast racing? “Don’t go hard in marathons. Don’t use ‘pedal.’ Don’t hit it on climbs. Don’t dip into the reserves. Just ride’n’glide. Keep the effort steady.” That really paid off with top finishes. So I thought I can still cruise along. I’ll just hang out. Heck, I’ll just do half of it — one of two big laps. So… The starting gun went off and I cruised off with the lead group of my usual pals and … they all skied away from me like I was standing still within the first quarter mile! Hey! The heck! I settled in with some folks. We were cruising along having fun. The time came along to start on lap two or not. I was starting to want to catch people and duke it out so Let’s do the whole thing! I have a lot of chasing to do! …Ha! A ways into that the wheels fell off. I’d been TRYING (and enjoying) the effort to go fast. That didn’t last too long! So the last 15k were a bit painful. Yeah, I was kinda bonked and baked. Overall, I hadn’t been working out as much but I could still jam along just fine. So the big drop-off I experienced then was an eye-opener.
Then I found a mint Schwinn Super Sport at a garage sale and thought it would be funny to go to the fast club ride and put the kickstand down in the parking lot. …It WAS funny! I got some quality side-eye. On the ride, it ended up near the end to be just me and a fast young guy and a guy on a super-aero bike. I did feel like I was at my limit, though, and not leaving THEM behind which was quite a feeling. It was weird to be riding at my total max with people who weren’t. But we were still off the front, on the sharp end.
I wasn’t doing specific training anymore but on sprint night I could go out with the fast club and contend for 1st – 3rd for a dozen yellow signs around Lake Lansing. Those were fun rides.
So that was my 30’s.
Then we had kids and I’d ride them both around in a trailer. We’d go on family rides with other families. Mostly it was friends on single bikes and me pulling the kids. Also I was doing a lot of errands for groceries and book orders going to the post office with heavy boxes in the trailer.
My butt got too painful to do fast club rides on my race bike. So I bought a fully-faired HPV and was enjoying riding around at 30mph average. It was a 60-lb bike, though. Recumbents in general had an interesting adaption-curve. I suffered the first year then adapted and could suddenly ride fine up hills. I learned to manage the acceleration with the heavier bikes. It was clearly a kind of weight training.
Then I figured out to drill out the center area of my upright bike saddles and suddenly my butt stopped hurting. I made the first ergonomic saddle I’d ever seen or heard of! I regained my regular bike race experience.
Things felt steady until age 40.
Then I started doing an annual hilly bike road race at Kensington Park. I had the best chances with a course that had big climbs and that was the only one so I enjoyed trying to get ready for the Cat 5 race there.
That was when, after a few tries, I realized a new rule for myself: If I trained a lot but weighed 10 pounds too much, I was off the back. If I stayed at the right weight but didn’t train, I could enter and do well at will. Amazing. Weight was more important than fitness.
…And every time I did a deer season in a tree-stand and also brewed a 5-gallon batch of beer in the autumn I would gain that 10 pounds. And it would be a pain to lose it. But if I paid attention, I could do it.
I noticed in various races that when I was blazing I could average 180bpm heart-rate for an hour. …Yeah, I started using a HRM. Because I also discovered that if I got excited and went over 185bpm at any point that I would pay dearly, but I could mess around at 182 any time I liked. Interesting! I think my max was about 190.
Then I started trying to ride with the fastest club dudes again. I would just join in with them on any old bike at first then I realized I was really suffering unless I used my fast stuff. Then another year would go by and I realized that I didn’t have the option of using my race wheels: I had to or I’d just be miserable on the ride. Then I found I had to use aero wheels as well. Then I had to use every trick in the book. It was still fun, but it was getting comical. I would be happy on 70deg rides when half the fast guys would show up wearing leggings, gloves and jackets. …Whew, thank heavens they’re wearing an extra 5 pounds of gear! I would only ride in the bare minimum shorts and SS. On a hot summer day, I’d be happy to see them with 2 full large water bottles at the start. …Coz I’d drink a half bottle at the start and ride with just half of a small bottle to whet my whistle if my throat got dry. …I almost got so desperate that I’d skip my repair kit and pump. Heck, I did do that a couple times if I felt my edge was truly in jeopardy.
At this point, each year by September I’d be fast enough to contend for the sprints and jams on the fastest rides.
In the winter, I just got bored of ski races on anything but challenging courses. I could still get in the top 10 rarely or the top 20 locally. But the races just felt like doublepole hammerfests based on waxing. I discovered backcountry trail skiing and a couple dozen yahoos who love it. We have a blast.
I also realized that I could ski all day long, from dark to dark, 35 miles, while feeling good. Then want to do it again the next day. That was neat: I lost my top end but found this diesel. My friends and I started looking for epics.
Then I discovered cyclocross. I stopped doing much rollerskiing or deer-hunting. What fun I now have in the mud, slush and rain! When I started it I could still average 180bpm. I did immediately use as many tricks that I could. I felt dog slow using clinchers and average tires. So I accepted cast-off’s of tubular CX tires and wheels from folks getting out of it. So smooth and fast! What a sweet feel! …It’s been a few years now. What fun! It was a chance to play with the top end but it only lasted a half hour. It was all about skill, too. Cool! I’ve been getting better at it so that I’m looking for peers now in the better classes and have been lured into 45-minute events. Yikes! That really does hurt quite a bit more. Like 15 whole minutes more. I accidentally tried a top-level 1-hour event: it was TWICE as long as the others! My knees started swelling. Dang! I’ll stay with 45 minutes, thank you. (My new idea this coming season: To go all out the first lap and then see what happens. No pacing at all. This might be a bad idea since I’ve already been getting delirious and sometimes going off course — on a course lined 100% by yellow tape on both sides.)
A couple years ago I had another “cute” old racer experience. I was just feeling good doing cyclocross. I was riding with a fast local bunch. I got a bit faster each week during the club workout. Then, dang, I kept up with one of the hot shots for a whole minute! It felt great. I looked at the schedule: hey a race is coming up! I was feeling great so I thought I’d back off a touch then hit the race at max. Race day came along and I was a bit tired in the race. Fun but a bit flat. Then I was a bit more tired for the next week. Then it hit me and I had to laugh: that point a couple weeks ago midweek when I was riding fast with my pals WAS MY PEAK! …I had to revise expectations after that. But it was funny. Obviously from here on out if I want to partake of the training worldview I’d need to accept that my peaks will be shorter, lower and less frequent. Sure, I could still get some thrills, but times change!
I also used to be able to go fairly hard most days and throw in a couple harder outings to brush up on the high end. 2 hard, 2 medium, 2 light each week: no sweat. Well, I better revise that, too!
Sure, when you do more work, you can do more work. But there comes a time when you just gotta reduce the workload.
Just like I used to be able to whip off all my driveway snow removal and then go skiing. Now I need to make sure the snow removal isn’t too strenuous if I want to be able to ski afterward. (Yeah, long periods of heavy snowfall have always been lame, but they’re getting more so. Like I used to track in all my local trails to keep them skiing good. But I’ve also sometimes waited until evening in the hopes that others have done that work. I’m guessing this will happen more often in coming years.)
Now I’m 56 and I’ve just been having fun doing the clever riding and haven’t worn a HRM in years so who knows what’s happening there.
I used to canoe paddle a few times a year in our local river or up north when we kept a trailer up there. I would also do seakayaking in late summer every year and practice my rolls so I could do a no-charge crossing to Mackinac Island to visit friends. We sold the trailer land and I just haven’t been paddling in recent years.
I’ve kept doing XC skiing on homestyle trails with my pals. I used to be able to thrash the youngtsers on long uphills. …This past year I got trounced a few times for the first time. Oh oh!
I also started doing more Telemark BC skiing, which I haven’t done in decades. It’s fun getting a bit of a feel back there, but there’s a long way to go and I do feel more brittle and lacking in punch. Still… it’s fun to bop.
Speaking of bop, I’ve been doing Swing Dancing for the past year and not going on the fast club rides. I notice that Swing uses all sorts of motions like the sports I love. And it’s around fun music, fun fashion, fun people. (Tho the nerd quotient in a period music scene is noticeable. A touch of the re-enactor, eh?)
I’ve also noticed that our Bike Party rides have a wide variety of young guys and gals and fun people and that the fast club rides are, um, just old dudes and all we do is hammer each other. There is ONE fun club ride, though, so I’ve been doing that. But it’s an easy ride, so I better start riding my tour bike on it for resistance.
I recall finishing a hot club ride and seeing the co-ed beach volleyballs players in the grass next to the parking lot. Hmmm… But then they didn’t even have a lawn-sprinkler. I need water if I can’t have a breeze.
A couple years ago I would do daily calisthenics that included sets of 25 pushups and 3 repeats of 5 pull-ups. Then I broke my arm. Healed in a few months and since then I’ve been “building up” my push-ups again. But somehow I’m at 15 and 3 pull-ups. Hmmm…
And I’ve been 10 pounds up for a year now…
A couple years ago I would run our yard trail and blaze the thing, flying. It’s one mile. It was a blast. I guess I’d be red-lining it. It must’ve hurt but was way fun. I put a challenge to our teens to beat me for $100. I stayed ahead of them. Then in my cyclocross training I would get sore knees from doing the little occasional runs and so I just dropped them and only did the riding. Heck, there isn’t any running in the races anyway.
Now our daughter is doing her own running. She dropped me when we went out recently! …But she hit it with no warm-up. Jeez! A couple tries later I kept up fine. I’ve since been building up on the trail again. Hmmm, I can still get a flying feeling. But not for the whole thing. Can’t attack the whole thing. Did I used to? I have the times written somewhere. I’ve started timing again and have been improving about 15 seconds a week. I’ll keep at it and see if the girl can beat me.
…That will tell me something.
When we first moved back here 25 years ago I did a run on my old home dirt road and used my biking cadence to wind up my aerobics and tapped out a 5:15 mile. Still got it, I thought. I had to search for uphills since I couldn’t get my aerobics going on the flats. I did runs around where we lived just to see what was out there in the way of trails — like 10-mile runs just to check out all the local park trails in one shot.
…A couple weeks ago, at age 56, I tried seeing what my fastest run on that same stretch of dirt road would be like. I’d see about uncorking it a bit for just a half-mile. See if I could keep my flying feeling. It didn’t feel terrible. Kinda long. I was hoofin’ it. …The first was about 4 mins, the second 3:45. Hmmm…
Well, there’s nowhere to go but up!
…Or, well, I guess maybe the other could also happen.
We’ll see! I’m gonna keep giving it a try. Gotta see if I can stay ahead of the teen. For at least a little bit.
