Cycling Past 50 Book

Perhaps the real reason I didn't want to pick up this book was because if I did, I was outed as the target demographic. Truth hurts, as they say...but it doesn't hurt as bad as over-training injuries, and that might be one of the most important reasons to pick up this book.

The other truth is that 80% of this book applies to readers and riders of every age. Essentially, by making the first two chapters uber-focused on cyclists pedaling through their/our fifth decade, the author sets the stage to talk more broadly about physiology, the body's adaptation to stress (also known as regular exercise, interval training, and planning for peak performance) and more.

The only way someone would find real fault with this book is if she or he expected that every page would carry specific 50+ instruction. The good news is that the human machine isn't that fine-tuned; honestly, once your body stops growing (early to mid-twenties), maintaining your fitness level is paramount and very achievable for every age, all the way up to your seventies and eighties.

A second dollop of good news is that for cyclists (and the "cousin" activity of distance running), endurance performance can improve as you age.

So this book works great as a pat on the back for all readers: keep riding. It also provides a solid base of coaching guidelines, especially key if your riding is tied to a race in the not-so-distant future. Riding every chance you get is wonderful low-impact exercise...but if you are indeed looking to achieve a new PR, especially if you're over 50 and don't recover/recuperate as quickly as you did half your lifetime ago, then you are the reader who will benefit most.

Otherwise, Cycling Past 50 is filled with lots of reminders and other good-to-know info. I learned, for instance, that like many others benchmarks, my VO2 tapers off with age, just like decreases in heart rate max and fast twitch muscle. But endurance capability can be sapped more dramatically as blood volume decreases due to less liquid because when you're 50+ you have to pee more often. Who knew? But with this factoid now burned in my brain, keeping the water bottle handy is elevated to the same priority level as getting more sleep the night before any ride of 20+ miles because, as is also often said, there's just not enough in the tank to hang with the youngsters.