Had a lovely, if slightly depressing ride today. Out around the local trails, they’re riding lovely at the moment.
Great things, the Parkwood is brilliant. Really love it, it does everything really well and is way less harsh than the Charge Cooker was.
Depressing things, well, my speed and times. Over an 11min climb I was 1 min 10 off my best. On Streatley gravel hill I was 1min 40 off my best and 35 off my respectable times I’d expect to see.

The question is, why. Hmmm.

The Parkwood is running big slow heavy rubber both ends, I’m sitting at about 1st over my 2013 weight, my fitness.

I guess its a combination of all 3. 6kg possibly 7kg is quite a chunk extra to carry up the hill of Weeksy weight, so I’m still working on that. Today I almost saw a 15 on the scales but at 16st 0.8 I just missed out. I’ve not seen a 15 for a fair while now. Mostly creeping up nearer 16 7 truth be known. But the last 3-4 weeks I’ve been trying to get it down and just about winning.

I’ll also try and throw a bit of blame on the ribs and man flu recently stopping my training. So, it gives me something to work at, something to strive for. To hit my old average times by the end of winter. If I can manage that and manage to get to the mid 15s by then, I won’t be too upset.

Having a baby last October (not me personally) has left me probably the most unfit I have been for 25 years…..

No time to get out on the bike or do any kind of exercise really, in a consistent manner.
I can’t run as my IT band on my left leg doesn’t like it. This would be my chosen activity for maintaining fitness as it is so effective & doesn’t take very long, but need to sort out my IT band first.

I was pretty unfit last year, but then didn’t ride at all from September to March this year…..started doing a bit, perhaps 3 rides/month up to the Twentyfour12 in July and only ridden twice since then…..

Everything seems like an effort, which is how I know how unfit I am & my legs are getting skinny like little twigs……where once they were medium sized twigs…..

One day I’ll find time to start again, but I don’t know when….

rubbish, got pretty fit earlier in the year then work knackered it

was commuting about 200km a week but being busy means I’m rarely in my local depot over the last couple of moths, staying in hotels etc.

Weight’s gone up, endurance and sprinting speed gone down

I have purposely chosen to not ride bikes as much this year, do other stuff y’no.

However, I planned to not let my fitness drop below 70% of my best. This I’m sticking to, it means I’m able to still go for a long hack (on either bike) and track my fitness by using loops I already have and monitored in the past to gauge fitness via my Garmin 1000.

I don’t want to stop riding at all, that would be silly, I still want to keep a certain level because I’m still doing events on the bikes, just fancied doing more surfing and stuff.

I’m awesum and I just get more and more awesum. It’s called the STW effect.

How’s your current levels of fitness ?

Currently unknown – i’m carrying a monster pile of fatigue from 6 back to back centuries round Corsica 10 days back. However I was on great form for the holiday.

How do you gauge it?

Some cocktail of average speed vs feeling powerful on hard efforts vs perceived effort vs known segment times.
Also had fitness/freshness chart on Strava premium, but that is now cancelled – useful, but tended to believe what my body told me rather than the chart.

What changes ?

When i’m going well my average speed of Z2 rides tends to go up, and HR tends to edge towards the bottom of Z2 despite the increased pace.
When making efforts, feels like i’m pushing strongly on the pedals (for me) and threshold efforts somehow seem just a bit easier.

I try not to worry too much.

I asked recently about average speeds as I was seeing other people claiming faster speeds but mine never seemed to increase much, pretty much ended up with some good advice from the more sporty types where that kind of focus matters and a few people saying if you enjoy it then just ride.

My fitness is probably better than a lot of the population but worse than someone who commutes by bike or someone who rides for competitive sport. Had a few set backs but overall I’m happy I can get out and pedal.

Only bit that still niggles is winter fitness, not a fan of night rides, hate turbo trainers and don’t want to have to start from scratch next spring.

It’s been a funny year because of so many work trips: I’ve kept up short regular rides (mtb/road), but I’m deffo 10% off the pace. Not sure if this is inclination, being a bit “lazy” and simply enjoying the ride, or fitness. Probably both.

OTOH, I’ve started doing a lot of running. Overall health probably better.

I regularly ride with a group that are younger than me so if i can keep up and chat I think I’m doing well and am in shape. If I’m dragging my arse at the back then I know it’s time to do something. That’s about it, It’s about feeling

Difficult to judge. Over the course of the year I’ll be grabbing a festival Strava PRs but that only really accounts for shorter efforts. Stamina is another thing entirely and I’m probably at an all-time peak as I’ve been putting in some longer rides (16 – 29 hour things).

Oh – and what leffeboy says about going out with younger riders.

By what standards? Compared to most 55 yr olds I’m bloody fit, compared to even a decent club racer I’m a couch potato. Having said that – pretty fit by my standards. Lightest I’ve been for 25 years, tough commute to work and getting out a fair bit. Definitely endurance tho not speed

Had a lovely, if slightly depressing ride today. Out around the local trails, they’re riding lovely at the moment.
Great things, the Parkwood is brilliant. Really love it, it does everything really well and is way less harsh than the Charge Cooker was.
Depressing things, well, my speed and times. Over an 11min climb I was 1 min 10 off my best. On Streatley gravel hill I was 1min 40 off my best and 35 off my respectable times I’d expect to see.

The question is, why. Hmmm.

The question is maybe why it matters? Are you racing? Are you a Strava freak? Mostly it doesn’t really matter. What counts is whether you enjoy the ride and if worrying about relative fitness is tainting it. Just go ride your bike, enjoy it, ride more, enjoy it and you’ll get fitter naturally.

Or you could get into the dark world of HIIT, turbos, hill repeats and the like, but really?

Ok-ish, but not fantastic.

I gauge it on some local xc-race-course-like loops. Although if I have endurance races coming up, then I measure it in miles and hours instead.

Currently have a cold, so that’s knocked things back for a while. Other things that affect me – injuries, although i’m trying to improve that through yoga. Weight can fluctuate a bit, but if it goes on, it can damn well come off again.

I class myself as reasonably fit, but it does not take much to tip me off the fit-cart and onto lardsville. As a frame of reference, I can do a 5k in 23 minutes and will run a mile in 6 minutes on a regular basis.

Case in point was the Cotswold Jennride at the weekend. Got there, felt a bit sniffy and rough with a suspected cold, but thought I would be good to go. Come the first climb, I realised that I was going to suffer. I barely made it round and was constantly dropping behind.

Anyway, I’ve just got back into the office from two days in bed and still feel weak. Colds just wipe me out. By the tie I get back to the gym, it will be a week or more since I last went and I would expect to see a significant drop in my performance.

ps; my fitness is relatively rubbish. I nearly died on yesterday’s night ride off the back of four days of consecutive riding, none of it particularly hard or fast. But there was good company and we rode some cracking local Peak trails including a few I’ve not done for a while. And as a bonus the new Rekon+ 2.8 rear tyre didn’t explode on the first contact with a rock, which makes a change…

My fitness levels are by far the best they have been this year, possibly even the last ~2.75 years, albeit there is still some room for improvement. For me, I think it has been a combination of losing ~8Kg (now ~82Kg) by resisting carb cravings much more often, plus having discovered Strava recently I now attack my routes much more aggressively.

The question is maybe why it matters? Are you racing? Are you a Strava freak? Mostly it doesn’t really matter. What counts is whether you enjoy the ride and if worrying about relative fitness is tainting it.

this.

For me, measuring everything is the fastest way to suck the fun out of it. Some days I feel good and spring up the climbs, some days it’s a struggle. That’s about as much gauging as I want to do!

Even if you’re not racing, being fitter can make riding more enjoyable. Don’t discount the ability to go further, faster, higher, feel less knackered and carry more kit.

fitness is a large part of MTB plus skills and experience ofc. But if you have good fitness you can ride better.

One thing about fitness/speed/ability is your weight which you can control, requires no new bike or tyres

Why does it matter… well just because i want to feel that even though MTBing is a pleasure, i’m also getting some form of physical benefit from the training/effort. I want to think over time i’ve improved as a rider and as a level of fitness….

I only use Strava about once every 6 months or so, just to see where i am against myself, so i’m not sucking the fun out of it.

I was able to run around a pitch keeping up with 16 year olds for 1hr 10mins on Sunday morning. That was good enough for me! 🙂

How’s your current levels of fitness ?

Poor (relatively speaking)

How do you gauge it ?

By judging how far off the climbing pace I am with the local cycling club; currently waaayyyyy off the back. My Strava times are also a good measure but – mostly – I can just “feel” when I’m in bad shape.

What changes ?

I feel like I’m expending a good effort on my bike, but everyone else is disappearing into the distance! Having that peer-comparison is really handy I think.

Even if you’re not racing, being fitter can make riding more enjoyable. Don’t discount the ability to go further, faster, higher, feel less knackered and carry more kit.

Yep, that’s my main reaason for that bit of extra effort, just have to make sure I don’t go too far and lose the fun, which is what seems to happen if I’m not careful.

Even if you’re not racing, being fitter can make riding more enjoyable. Don’t discount the ability to go further, faster, higher, feel less knackered and carry more kit.

So much this.
I’ve often wondered at people that find even the smallest incline exhausting, and a moderate ride leaves them totally obliterated – how can they actually be enjoying themselves?
Being a little fitter just makes everything a bit more accessible and enjoyable.

I did a DH race this time last year and the pedally linking sections wiped me out. I thought I was fit but it turned out I wasn’t and I was eating the wrong stuff so I cut out sugar, started doing yoga and core exercises and it’s loads better than it was this time last year but my motivation to keep it there is at rock bottom at the minute 😐 I gauge it by what gear I need to use to get up a certain climb on a local loop- anything lower than 5th (1×10, 34/11-36) and I know I need to get my act together. Swapping to singlespeed helps with my motivation to get off my arse (less to wear/clean/maintain) so I’ll be doing that this week. The shite weather up here over the last few days and fitting mudguards to my lovely bike hasn’t done anything to lift my mood either 😡

Being fitter and a year’s worth of core exercises has helped to make riding a bike even more fun though 😀

level of fitness is currently sufficient for what I want to do. Although I still record with Strava, I’m pretty much just using it a catalogue of my runs and rides. I could probably do more to get fitter, but I’m not racing, I’m not the last up the hill, and more importantly I don’t, for the first time in a long time, really care overly much.

My saving grace in the last 4 years has been a 15-mile round commute by bike, which I do about 3 times per week (varies from once to 4 times p/w). I’m 36.

This is a good counterweight to national travel with my job, being a dad to 2 young kids and generally having a life. It means that I have a reasonable base of fitness to help with evening / weekend MTB’ing and road rides.

I’ve been able to maintain a weight of around 68-71kg in the last few years. I do less MTB’ing than I’d like, but I’m happy overall. I gauge my fitness without using the likes of Strava – it’s less scientific (e.g. how I “feel” or seem to be performing on certain rides), but I don’t want to have any more quantification in case I start chasing PB’s etc.

Singlespeeding both my MTB and wet weather commuter helps a lot during the winter.

I don’t think I could take a job that didn’t involve some bike commuting now.

scotroutes – Member
Even if you’re not racing, being fitter can make riding more enjoyable. Don’t discount the ability to go further, faster, higher, feel less knackered and carry more kit.

+1, though I am a firm non-user of Strava, for the simple reason that I know I’d become obsessed with it 🙂 A load of folk in our MTB club get back in after ride and spend first 20 mins of tea and cakes with phones out comparing their stats on various sections, which for me, is detracting from the fun and banter.

On the road I use a Garmin 500 and look at cadence, which I hold around 90 – 92 average and overall ride time, but only general comparisons and rarely upload them.

I am probably a luddite 🙂

GPS/HRM is a good way to measure fitness, do the same climb/loop etc at a similar intensity/heart rate and compare. It is easy to become too obsessed with it though, and there are always off days etc and I try to remind myself it is important to focus on positive goals rather than negative comparisons.

I was considering starting a thread about fitness/age actually. My best guesstimate based on powermeter readings is that my cycling FTP currently 75% of what it was 15yrs ago when I was 20 years old, I am hoping that the lions share of the difference is due to me doing much less training now than I did back then but I wonder how much is due to age vs training – the only reference I could find on the internet was one indicating a 0.5% drop in ftp for every year over age of 35. I would appreciate any other experiences/info on this

I did back then but I wonder how much is due to age vs training – the only reference I could find on the internet was one indicating a 0.5% drop in ftp for every year over age of 35. I would appreciate any other experiences/info on this

That is indeed interesting, but unless very highly trained to begin with, i’d suggest it shouldn’t be much of a concern. For the vast majority of us, we have so much potential to unlock by improving our training/diet etc we can improve at a faster rate than we decline.
My dad’s turned 60 this year, getting into his 6th year on the bike, and still improving.

For the vast majority of us, we have so much potential to unlock by improving our training/diet etc we can improve at a faster rate than we decline

Would have to agree really. Unless we’re at the peak of fitness, there can and should always be an increase in things like FTP if you suddenly start training a lot harder.

Currently depressingly unfit. In my pomp (about 5 years ago) I used to run and ride as much as I pleased. Half marathon distances a couple of times a week, bike rides as long as the time I had available, would take my rigid singlespeed round the monkey at Cannock in about 1 hr 40. Since then, chronic metatarsalgia, various house moves and doing up where we’re in now, a wee baby and a decline in eating habits has left me seriously unfit. In 2014 I did the Notts half marathon on crutches in 2 hrs 14. Now jogging 500 yards has me panting. Last week I took my trigger round the monkey. Gears, suspension, all that fancy stuff. 2hrs 30. I was broken.

Oh yeah, and that included missing out lower cliff and the bits between kitbag hill and tackeroo. I truly look the embodiment of all the gear and no idea.

A load of folk in our MTB club get back in after ride and spend first 20 mins of tea and cakes with phones out comparing their stats on various sections, which for me, is detracting from the fun and banter.

Maybe they just have a different idea of what fun and banter is than you 🙂

^^^^ that is indeed, very possible … 🙂

scotroutes – Member

Even if you’re not racing, being fitter can make riding more enjoyable. Don’t discount the ability to go further, faster, higher, feel less knackered and carry more kit.

+1. I don’t find it fun wheezing around a ride that you once positively bounded around…..when you are fitter, you can make so much more of the ride.

DezB – Member

I was able to run around a pitch keeping up with 16 year olds for 1hr 10mins on Sunday morning.

Were you supposed to be?? 😆

My fitness level is fuelled and therefore dictated by how angry I am unfortunately.
It`s pretty damned good at the moment,so watch this space for the inevitable stroke (hopefully somewhere scenic rather than sat at my desk)

I really struggled on a hill whilst on holiday recently, that I remember doing 3 years ago. It was the realisation that I hadn’t found it nearly as hard previously, that told me I’m not as fit as I was. 🙁

The number of people that overtake me on bikes; 20 years ago, it never happened. Fortunately, I still don’t get overtaken by people on cycle hire bikes. When that happens, I’ll give up. 😆

I’m 56, I can easily run a half marathon, but I can’t do it as fast as I was when i was 46. I can easily pedal a 60m road ride, but again I’m probably not as fast as I was 10 years ago.
At 56, I can still run and cycle and I feel I do ok at it. I’m never going to be on a winners podium but I can get round a route.
So what do I gauge it on? Well compared to a decade ago then I’m not as good, as I was but compared to the lardy, smoking, drinking couch potatoes I see around and about then I guess I’m doing ok!

I was 52 last week but have ridden 8,500 km year to date and am on track for 10,000 km for the year.

I can also ride all day, 150 miles/250 km and will average 15mph/23kph or can ride Cat 1 or HC mountains in France.

Over the last couple of years I have noticed that my fitness has definite peaks and troughs so it’s just about identifying whether I’m at a peak and maintaining that or in a trough and how to manage that.

I’m happy enough

No fitness at all here,get out of breath talking :D,hopefully fitness will return once treatment is finished,then on the road of recovery.