Having read through the ‘how old are you?’ thread, there seem to be a lot of forumites who credit mountain biking with making them fitter now than they were 10 or 15 or whatever years ago.

Is this because you are doing something rather than nothing? Or has cycling become a useful addition to people’s already busy exercise regimes?

I’m very interested to know how people have held onto their fitness, or improved it, whilst also juggling careers and family lives.

fitness

This is going to be a rip-roaring thread.

I’m sure there’s someone on here is fit.

Yes, I’ve held onto my fitness through juggling

This is going to be a rip-roaring thread.

How can one so cuddly, be so cynical?

He’s not cuddly though, is he!

He’s an ideal contributor to this thread but holds back from telling us how he does it.

My back was a fraction of a second away from core meltdown this morning – but I rode to work anyway. What does that say?

You have a weak back and need to work on your core?

I’ve held my fitness through my good looks.

You don’t have a car?

Core’s strong, I guess, but there’s a niggling long-term back issue going on. ‘Ping’ and the back is gone.

I have no idea if I am fitter now than 15 years ago. My endurance is much better, but I dunno if I could’ve time trialled better back then than now.

cuddly

🙁

Always the nastiness with you Jimmers.

Serious answers?

It’s just about priorities and choices (and an understanding partner)

I turned down higher stress / further travelled jobs at work in order to ensure I had time to myself and for my family.

I realised that being a parent isn’t a short-term thing and it was my responsibility to be around for my daughter in the longer-term too. That meant maintaining a degree of fitness into my 50s/60s.

I only really got into biking around 2005, but I was a keen hillwalker/mountaineer before that. I’d also got well into the gym habit. Gyms are great for being able to do the maximum amount of exercise in the minimum time, so that could be fitted around work/family time and the occasional weekend was OK for the further away stuff. I’d say that there was a period of around 2-3 years when my daughter was just born that I didn’t get out very much.

Darcy.. give me a hug and come clean about your fitness secrets.

Molly… I’m sure someone has told me that you were a lot lighter 15 years ago… were you training with the same intensity.

keeping in mind that being faster than a fat man riding a BSO up a hill on a bike doesnt mean i’m fit… just more ‘cycling fit’ than i used to be…. i cant run, i cant swim and so on..

no i’m not fit. maybe if i actively partook in other sports that would help me be fitter over all, but i dont, i like cycling ad thats the only thing i’ve become fitter in over the past year and a half

45 and mountain biking for 25 years in September and I’ve done my 3 longest off road rides in the last 3 months, 40, 44 and 84 miles so it must be doing something good. I haven’t got any faster or braver or more skilled in all those years but if I can still do 84 miles of the South Downs Way in 9 hours 59 minutes, get the train back to Brighton, ride a further 7 miles home, have a shower then go out for the night without falling asleep in my dinner then I reckon It’s keeping me pretty fit. I put it down to riding everyday to work off road for the last 3 years and extended the ride whenever it’s nice weather.

Thank you Druidh… I was hoping for serious answers like that. Great deal of wisdom there and pertinent to where I am at the moment.

there seem to be a lot of forumites who credit mountain biking with making them fitter now than they were 10 or 15 or whatever years ago.

Uh? 😕 is this folk who have only been riding for a relatively short time?
having been mountainbiking for 20years now (rode BMX/road before that) and still riding pretty much every day, I’d love to be even close to how fit I was 15years back but simply CBA to put the effort in, the fitness/training side of riding is incredibly dull IMO.

Serious answers?

this is an interwebs. there’s no place for ‘serious’ here.

pertinent to where I am at the moment.

😯 *missing out on the gossip yet again* 😛

Oh, and I’m fitter now than i was 15 years ago – but then i was only 16 and (mostly) a dancer then! I didn’t really discover many of the sports i now do – road riding, mtb’ing, climbing, running, yoga – until my 20s, due to my upbringing – my mum was all about me dancing!

I was definitely fitter 15 years ago.
If I didn’t commute 30+ miles a day and play football these days I’d be a blob.
MTBing is a bit scarce these days and I’ve definitely lost fitness cos of that.
Sorry, was that a bit too serious?

there seem to be a lot of forumites who credit mountain biking with making them fitter now than they were 10 or 15 or whatever years ago.

When I was MTB’ing, it was my running and playing football that kept me fit. MTB, seemed easy in comparison.

I’m very interested to know how people have held onto their fitness, or improved it, whilst also juggling careers and family lives

Interestingly I am fitter and faster than I was last year and significantly more than the year before that and i’ve only been doing 50% of the cycling this year.

10 – 15 years ago my biking consisted of dirt jumps & downhill so not relevent.

I agree with that as well, but a lot of people have said they wish they’d found it earlier… it’s made them fitter etc etc.

For me mtb is the fun bit. Other training means I can ride an mtb further and faster so therefore more fun.

Molly… I’m sure someone has told me that you were a lot lighter 15 years ago… were you training with the same intensity

Er.. well when I was 20 I was indeed light, 68kg at one point. But I clearly had far less muscle. I didn’t really train or race back then so I don’t know how fit I was. I remember at age 16 or so doing 10 miles to and from my mate’s house in 29 and 25 minutes there and back (it’s uphill) on my dad’s hybrid, on flat pedals and wearing trainers. Not sure if I could manage that now, but then again when I did XC races I was knackered after the first lap. However then I could run 200m in 23s, which I probably could not do now.

The Southern Yeti – Member
I agree with that as well, but a lot of people have said they wish they’d found it earlier…

I often think this. Not getting into biking until I was in my 40s means that there’s lots of stuff I might have done but now wouldn’t consider. However, I did lots of other stuff in my 20s and 30s, including several European tours by motorbike, big hill expeditions, loads of swimming and squash, being in a band. Trying to retrospectively weigh up what one missed with what one did is a mugs game. I’m pretty sure that when I’m lying on my death-bed I’ll be thankful I was into more than one hobby over all those years.

Trying to retrospectively weigh up what one missed with what one did is a mugs game

Indeed!

Although if I’s spent my teens rolling around on a bmx rather than a skateboard at least the skills would be transferable to mtb.
Having said that I was a way better skater than I am at anything.

It all relative though, anyone who cycles regularly will be in at least the 90th percentile fitness wise compared to the general public

But of course you can always be fitter

My CV is about as good as it’s ever been if not better.
As a teen i was playing a lot of county standard badminton and doing athletics at the same level, 100, 200 and 400m. These were both high intensity exercises but for short durations only.

Back then for me cycling was just a means to get places, then once i left school it became a means to get to and from college/work.

Somewhere along the line my body craved what i believe to be a chemical release, meaning i needed to ride bike, so by the time i got into my early 20’s, i’d be riding after work, to work, and over the weekends..Nowhere specific, just places, random ones, but as i now know, that’s me!

During the 90’s i was at my most physical fittest, i’d bulked out by intense efforts on building sites, but around this time my partying life style had increased therefore cycling lessened a little. Then i fell into a mind warping marriage where the cycling ended and work increased so i looked very fit but wasn’t as fit in terms of CV.

At around october 2004, i was introduced to mountainbikes and once again i felt that chemical release, i needed to ride and ride lots i did. I’d leave work and grab a couple hos intense riding, i’d get out before work if necessary just for that kick, the more i rode the less i wanted to be with mrs mindwarp, so whenever she was about i’d clear off out, meaning us splitting, hoorah! However, i was burning more calories than i was taking on board, and with no fat reserves, my upper body bulk was absorbed reducing me to a now svelte racing machine, or scrawny **** depending on your own thoughts.

I was now free to ride everyday and that i pretty much did for 4 years, sometimes just a couple hours, but mostly for 4 or more. I was barely eating, not drinking enough fluids but still i charged around like a mindless, crazed biking machine, running on empty became normal for me.

My life style isn’t exactly great for sustained cycling efforts, but somehow i feel i’m better than ever now, stronger in the legs, good recovery rate and heart rate in a safe area. Yes the body aches from time to time, mostly the damaged areas knee, shoulder, but at 39yrs old, i do feel fitter than i did 10 15 years ago?

Yes, but could i party and chase women every night? Maybe..

About 14years ago when i thought i was fit.

Last summer when i was fit but not feeling it at times.

However, i think fitness is within. For me cycling plays a big part in maintaining my fitness, that and a healthy outlook on life and of course a healthy diet.

Compared to 8 years ago I have the fitness of a sloth. But then again 8 years ago I was climbing a munro, and doing 10 hours of heavy manual labour at the top every day.

Sharki… you look a lot younger than 25 in the first pic.

I was fittest in 2007 when racing in the NPS. I started training seriously (15+ hours a week on the bike) in 2006 at the age of 35 and made enormous gains (as you’d expect with that much effort). After coming top 10 in Sport, I came down with a viscous prostate / kidney infection at the end of 2007 and rather than race Expert in 2008, I spent 6 months banned from exercise and on antibiotics. Never got back into serious racing since and just ride occasionally now…

Needless to say I’m not as fit as I was, about a stone heavier and have a 2″ wider waist; but I blame that on being the wrong side of 40 – everything starts to loose its form a bit…

I am less fit than I was 20yrs ago as I no longer spend all weekend dancing my t1ts off! 🙂

(or moobs as they are now known)

I was the taller of the two in that pic. Summer 98, so i was around 26.

…but I blame that on being the wrong side of 40 – everything starts to loose its form a bit…

I’m 42 and still the same shape and weight I was when I was 22, if not a couple of kg lighter.

Fitness has stayed pretty much the same. Probably got slightly better endurance these days, speed still pretty much the same as it was 20yrs ago too. definitely more flexible now than I ever have been and feel I’m stronger in the core, probably down to yoga. Never trained specifically for anything, just do what I enjoy doing.

Kev

Ahhh.. now it makes sense Sharki 😀

Keva.. this year I’ve started doing a lot of yoga too… all the old yoga dudes are in amazing shape.

Having taken up mtbing 20 years ago (at the age of 13), it’s always been part of my life. What I’ve found in recent years, is that my endurance has improved considerably. I suspect this is normal as you get older (up to a point). The thing that’s made the biggest improvement to my fitness is road riding.

tsy… I’m learning Indonesian Satria yoga

http://www.woma.tv/movies/3K/indonesian-yoga.html

it may not look it but it’s a serious sweat on, really hard work.

Kev

Nice one Keva… I can imagine that is knackering.
Do you go to classes for that?
Stupid yoga question… what do you wear on your bottom half??