Yup, precisely my experience as well. You need to be knowledgable enough to spot bs and to give it proper inputs.
I have a loop with two hills that I’ve done almost 200 times in the last 10 years. Most of my fastest efforts had been in 2017 until this year I’ve lowered my time on multiple occasions. Sometimes I push just the hills, sometimes the whole loop. I like the terrain and it keeps me motivated.
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What did you do that was different, if anything?
Well, mostly running actually. I ran a marathon in 2017 and then again December 2024. Plus strength training and a few more miles on the bike. General fitness, body composition.
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Consistency is king for me. If I’m consistent I get better no matter the volume or intensity. If I do the others first (the usual mistake I make) then my fitness is a roller coaster.
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I would strongly suggest you read the book The Midlife Cyclist by Phil Cavell.
In short, we are the test dummies, as we are the first people in history to be looking to be not just active, but to perform, beyond forty years old (by which I mean only in that last 50-80 years have humans been lucky enough to have the time, money and health to do this), and therefore research is still quite limited. For example, scar tissue on the heart is seemingly very common in masters male athletes, and it’s not clear why, or whether that’s an indicator of future problems or not. i.e. we need to be careful.
As a result of reading that book, I’m no longer going out and chasing CRs/PBs every ride, and instead doing mainly Zone 2, and only doing higher intensity if/when the terrain gives me no choice. It’s been quite an interesting mental shift that I’m really enjoying, in no small part because I’m looking around me more and soaking in much more everything I’m riding through/past.
It’s also quite nice knowing that zone 2 is what the pro athletes do most of the time, so maybe I’ll actually get fitter despite going easier.
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Just try a few of the different platforms (TR, Join, Xert etc) on their free trials. You’ll figure out if structured training is for you, or their adaptive plans, or if actually you don’t need an app telling you what intervals to do.
Thank you for the book recommendation. I will read it! My personal situation is I haven’t raced in years and probably won’t again — so while I enjoy an interval or a sprint at the end of a group ride now and again for fun, I also do not see see my objective as maximizing performance and do not see myself pushing hard all, or even most of the time. Goal one for me is feeling good on the bike on a well-paced ~50 mile ride, without feeling like trash afterwards. Which I suspect is very achievable.
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Feeling good after 50 miles is a matter of riding the bike:
- Riding the bike at least 3x a week and ideally more often, even if only a 20 minute ride to work
- Distance: regularly doing at least a 30 mile ride every week then 50+ miles monthly
- Pacing it appropriately - this is your longest ride so stick to Z1/2 and maybe a bit of 3/4 on the hills. For this distance, on this training, this IS time trial pace as trying to go faster will result in pain/ blowing up.
- Fueling adequately - drink some fruit squash /eat a couple of supermarket cereal bars
Prep doesn’t need to be perfect. If you do three of these you’ll be fine.