The Midlife Cyclist: The Road Map for the +40 Rider Who Wants to Train Hard, Ride Fast and Stay Healthy

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But “The Midlife Cyclist” is actually a thought-provoking exploration of something that has never before existed in human history: a great cohort of middle-aged athletes rewriting our knowledge of human health and performance. Cycling has seen a participation uplift unprecedented in any sport, especially in the 40, 50 and 60-year-old age groups. The knee is a big hinge joint in the middle of the leg and can only tolerate misalignment for so long before pain sets in. the author challenges the tenets of periodization, criticizing its ‘granularity’ and advocating for a reduction in training zones to three or even two.

Bluntly, in evolutionary terms we are not really meant to be alive at all, and almost certainly would not be at any other time in history. We have decades of experience about our own health and performance, and that’s invaluable and should never be underestimated. The more you cycle and the more you seek cycling performance, the more you probably need to cast your net a bit wider in terms of activity base. We also consider the big questions surrounding cycling as a fitness tool – is it fundamentally different to other forms of exercise?Exercise may well be the finest drug the pharmaceutical industry never invented, but can we also have too much of a good thing? His opposition derives from the unnaturalness of being fixed in one spot with a trainer and not being able to develop the skills you get out on the road from descending or climbing or turning. There is a lot of medical science to sift through, but Cavell makes it digestible, and there’s not so much that I felt overwhelmed by facts. Would I push myself to that brink of physical shutdown, either in training or competition, at my current age of 58?

They may raise your bars (no headwind offsetting upper body loading), review saddle choice, and give you postural tips to make sure you maintain good posture. If you do fall off, your injuries will often be no worse than a moment of embarrassment or cuts and bruises.I don’t like to be told what to do, and I don’t like to have my passion distilled into carefully measured units and fed back to me in the sterile fashion most how-tos adopt.