Sports Recovery for geezers

[rcannon100]

@PotomacCyclist 72886 wrote:

Or do you have old injuries from Ultimate or hockey? …

When it takes days to recover from a ride, you really should put more attention on recovery and set aside other fitness and activity goals temporarily.

Actually I think the old injury came from surfing. I think I repetitively blew a hamstring battling waves. Was having way too much fun.

The prob is that family and home come first, and cycling comes second. If something get set aside, the dogs get their hikes but the cycling is going to get curtailed.

Seriously, thanks for your words. I am reading and rereading this stuff. Unfortunately, this seems the pattern every break / vacation. I go from normal activity to basically doing double workouts and doing heavy chores. By the end, I am in a fatigue pit.

It wasnt that the ride was so long in mileage as it was all day. 6 hours on the bike meandering and wandering. It was fun, and not challenging. And the only reason I stopped was that it got dark (I rode 38 miles, found 8 geocaches, had good coffee). But again, I think the problem is cumulative fatigue that started with HP100 (I rode 28 miles which is about my normal limit before I feel it the next day).

What I am hearing and reading is that I need to be much more deliberate, have a plan, and really do a better job with rest cycles. It is a hard thing to do when there is a flower bed that needs to be rebuilt and dogs that want to do the Billy Goat trail (B&C).

[PotomacCyclist]

You could get one of those dog treadmills to use on days that you are sick. The dogs still get exercise while you get a chance to recover.

[Steve O]

@rcannon100 72844 wrote:

I used to play Ultimate Frisbee. ..

Hey, did we ever play against each other, I wonder? I was on the EPA team from 1995 to 2008, when I was also forced to retire by age and back issues.

[vvill]

The n+1 folding bike solution sounds good to me.

[Jason B]

Ailments are hitting me too. My knees have been bad since my wrestling days. However, I have found a properly placed bike seat to be the best medicine for bad knees.
I do need more time to recover, but I have found a recovery ride gets me back to real cranking than sitting around. If I do a long crank with hills, followed by a easy recovery ride the next day, I’m ready to ride on day three. It is when I stop, my body stops.
As for chores around the house, forget about it, they kill me. The thought of getting out the ladder to take down the lights has me reaching for an epidural.

[rcannon100]

@Steve O 72902 wrote:

Hey, did we ever play against each other, I wonder? I was on the EPA team from 1995 to 2008, when I was also forced to retire by age and back issues.

In that era I founded and played on Seven Dirty Words (the Ultimate team of the FCC/FCBA) and on WWF. Mainly I played pickup when I could (you know, where the rules are made up and the points dont matter).

[KLizotte]

@rcannon100 72891 wrote:

Actually I think the old injury came from surfing. I think I repetitively blew a hamstring battling waves. Was having way too much fun.

The prob is that family and home come first, and cycling comes second. If something get set aside, the dogs get their hikes but the cycling is going to get curtailed.

Seriously, thanks for your words. I am reading and rereading this stuff. Unfortunately, this seems the pattern every break / vacation. I go from normal activity to basically doing double workouts and doing heavy chores. By the end, I am in a fatigue pit.

It wasnt that the ride was so long in mileage as it was all day. 6 hours on the bike meandering and wandering. It was fun, and not challenging. And the only reason I stopped was that it got dark (I rode 38 miles, found 8 geocaches, had good coffee). But again, I think the problem is cumulative fatigue that started with HP100 (I rode 28 miles which is about my normal limit before I feel it the next day).

What I am hearing and reading is that I need to be much more deliberate, have a plan, and really do a better job with rest cycles. It is a hard thing to do when there is a flower bed that needs to be rebuilt and dogs that want to do the Billy Goat trail (B&C).

It definitely sounds like you were ramping up the activity too quickly without adequate rest periods, esp SLEEP!!! I’m younger than you and after a particularly long, hilly ride all I want to do is sleep and rest. I’m fortunate that I’m single so I can rest and do whatever I want most of the time. If I did not have that rest period, I’m sure I’d feel pretty beat up and fatigued too.

When I was working full time and studying for my Masters degree at night I was a wreck physically. I was always exhausted and constantly coming down with really nasty colds. My immune system was shot from simply working so much (I was getting little exercise). Now I hardly ever get sick (though I definitely short change myself when it comes to sleep).

I say some prioritizing in your life is in order. I say leave the flower beds alone and put yourself (and your family) first.

[Tim Kelley]

@rcannon100 72865 wrote:

OI am a 100% bicycle commuter. And then on the weekend I am hiking the dogs and doing the yard work. There is no off season. This does not lend to periodization. And to do strength training, I um, have to ride my bike to the gym. (I dont race and I dont really tour – altho I would like to extend my range and my endurance so that I can tour).

If you are commuting as training (I.E.–extremely hard efforts at the upper limits of your heart rate threshold) every ride that you do, then you won’t be able to do periodization. If you are, then dial back the efforts. Riding a couple miles to the gym should be a warm up for strength training. If it’s not then, then do bodyweight exercises at home, but as you ride more and more it should get easier.

But yeah, +1 for strength training.

[rcannon100]

Thanks for your comments.

One day you y’ungs will face the unpleasant reality of getting old. Someone in the thread referred to it as being sick. No, its getting old. And no, it doesnt get easier…. it get’s harder. That’s the point. And that’s why so many professional athletes who dont want to retire and are having what appears to be great years nevertheless retire. The body gets to the point that it just cant take the beating. I was the last of my peers to retire from Ultimate. We used to get together and the standard question was to see who was still playing. Unfortunately most of them just stopped being active. It is also why there is such a great market for selling magic potions and snake oil to 50+ people who feel there abilities diminish.

It doesnt get easier, and I think that’s the point I have to hear. When I was younger, I would just go. Now, I have to be more deliberate, and I have to be a hell of a lot more careful about more rest cycles.

Effects of age and gender on physical performance, Age (Dordr) NIH. 2007 September; 29(2-3): 77–85.

Our purpose was to examine the effects of age and gender on physical performance. We assessed a one-hour swimming performance and participation of 4,271 presumably healthy men and women, aged 19–91 years, from the 2001–2003 United States Masters Swimming long-distance (1 h) national competition. The decline in performance with increasing age was found to be quadratic rather than linear. The equation which best fit variation in 1 h swimming distance in meters (m) according to variations in age in years (y) in men was: distance (m) = 4058 + 2.18 age−0.29 age with the same equation for women except that 380 m needed to be subtracted from the calculated value at all ages (about a 10% difference). There was a large overlap in performance between men and women. The overall mean decline in performance with age was about 50% and was parallel in men and women. The mean difference in distance for a 1-year increment in age was −9.7 m at 21 y of age, −21.3 m at 40 y, and −44.5 m at 80 y. Far greater declines of about 96% in numbers participating with advanced age (80 y and over, 4% of peak numbers) were observed than in the 40–49 y age group. In conclusion, the declines in performance were parallel in men and women at all ages, and the 1-year age-related declines in performance were about twice as great at 40 y and more than four-times as great at 80 y than at 20 y of age, with even greater age-related declines in participation being noted for both men and women.

Getting old sucks. But then again, it dont mean you have to give into it – as a few of our mythical forum members regularly prove (I just wanna know how they are doing it).

[Fast Friendly Guy]

@rcannon100 73030 wrote:

Thanks for your comments.

One day you y’ungs will face the unpleasant reality of getting old. …Getting old sucks. But then again, it dont mean you have to give into it – .

R, I admire your outlook, especially that last bit.

For me, consolation comes from focusing on the benefits of aging:

1) get to forget tons of stuff
2) senior discounts (lifetime entrance to all national parks for $10, 5% off at Harris Teeter, cheaper movies, etc.
3) no kids in diapers
4) most or all your mortgage is paid off
5) can afford more bikes and gear
6) food we used to hate tastes okay now (cooked carrots, kale, brussel sprouts, etc.)
7) get to say, ‘been there done that’ a lot

Dave

[Geoff]

Here’s a book my doctor recommended to me: Younger Next Year by Chris Crowley and Dr. Harry Lodge. It is a practical guide to the benefits of regular vigorous exercise, among other things.

I also take heart from the guys in their 70s blasting past me on the WOD. It doesn’t have to be downhill from here!

[ejwillis62]

I like this thread as a women 50+ with LUPUS I know all about getting tired. I will say I cracked the code when my diet improved. I became vegetarian, mostly vegan (Sometimes when I am out I will eat something that isn’t strickly vegan, they mostly get me with cheese) I found that my diet made all the difference in my sleep cyles and in my ability to recover. I gave up a lot of good things but the rewards are fantastic. Also I have the distinct advantage of not really being concerned with speed. I run a nice comfortable 9-10 minute mile and when i bike I generally take my time and enjoy the sights. It is not very often that I push really hard on my daily rides or commutes. Occasionally at races I push a bit more but mostly I just enjoy the ride and marvel at the fact that I can do it and I enjoy it. Life is short so I try to enjoy the moments.

[PotomacCyclist]

I think contact sports and high-intensity stop-and-start sports should be left to the young (under 25 or 30, unless you’re a pro athlete). But for aerobic, non-contact sports, there’s no reason why people can’t keep enjoying them. Besides the many local examples, Sister Madonna Buder (who is actually a nun) finished an Ironman triathlon last year at the age of 80 or 81. She didn’t even start running until she was in her 30s or 40s. Ed Whitlock ran a marathon in 3:41 this past fall. Not that notable, except for the fact that he’s 82 years old! There are people in the 70+ age group at local 5Ks who post times in the sub-30:00 to 35:00 range. (While that won’t win the races, it’s better than what a lot of sedentary 25-year-olds are capable of these days.)

Dara Torres won a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the 50m freestyle swim at the age of 41. Some of the recent marathon record setters and Ironman champions have been in their mid to late 30s, so they continue to perform at a very high level close to the age of 40.

You should also look at Joe Friel’s training blog: http://www.joefrielsblog.com/

He just finished a series of posts about training, fitness and masters athletes. He has a keen interest in the subject since he is now in his 70s himself. He remains very active, mostly on the bike. (I don’t think he runs that much now.) He notes that there haven’t been many good longitudinal studies of fitness and aging. These are studies where the researchers follow the same individuals over a long period of time. Most studies compare current 20 somethings to current 50 somethings and current 70 somethings. The problem is that it doesn’t account for the activity levels and fitness experience of the different groups. Sure, a 20-yr-old college athlete will have much higher fitness indicators than a 70-yr-old who has been sedentary for decades and who may have never done much exercise ever. But that only shows that sedentary lifestyles and poor nutrition are bad for you. It doesn’t show anything about aging itself.

Even the studies of world records for various ages only show that peak performance declines. But that doesn’t say anything about general activity, health and aging.

Based on the limited amount of research and on his personal experience as an athlete and long-time coach, Friel thinks that most of the decline that we see among older individuals has far more to do with bad nutrition and sedentary lifestyles than it has to do with chronological age. Yes, there will be some decline of key fitness markers (like VO2 max), but that only matters for pro and competitive athletes. It doesn’t decline so much that it’s difficult to go for a casual one-hour bike ride. What is more important is the individual’s fitness experience and especially his/her current and recent nutrition and activity level. This includes both aerobic exercise and strength exercise. Strength exercise becomes more and more important as we age, for men and women. I think he has estimated that while sedentary individuals lose as much as 7-10% of muscle mass each decade after the age of 40 or 50, an active individual can limit the loss to as little as 1 or 2%, per decade. This would be significant for a pro athlete, which is why you don’t see 50-yr-olds dominating sports. But 1 or 2% should not affect most non-pro athletes in terms of basic enjoyment of aerobic exercise like cycling at a non-competitive level.

Friel recommends that masters athletes continue to add intensity to their training. In fact, he thinks that masters athletes should focus more on that intensity than a younger athlete would. (This only applies to experienced athletes. Beginners at any age should gradually ease into their sport or activity, until their muscles, ligaments, tendons and bones get a chance to adapt to the stress and challenge of the activity. This also gives the cardiovascular system a chance to improve and adapt. But then they can start to introduce intensity, in a managed approach later on.) Masters athletes who only do short and easy workouts tend to fade much more quickly than those who maintain more rigorous programs that include a smart amount of intensity. Intensity can come in the form of hill workouts, speed workouts and strength training. [Caution: If you don’t include that much intensity already, do not jump into such a program suddenly. You have to start off with shorter amounts of intensity, at lower levels, and give the body a chance to adapt. Never make sudden jumps in intensity or exercise volume. Take an incremental increase and hold until your body adapts. Then make another incremental increase and maintain, and so on. Schedule rest in to the overall program too, as noted in other posts.]

It’s possible to be quite fit into one’s 60s and 70s and even beyond. I would suggest cutting out contact sports and those involving sudden lateral moves like hockey, Ultimate, basketball and so on. (Getting checked or tackled, or making constant sharp lateral cuts will not benefit you.) I would really do a check-up of your nutrition. Is it really as good as you think it is? You don’t have to be 100% perfect with nutrition, but there will be huge differences between an 85% clean diet and a diet that is 50% junk. As already noted, strength training (not bodybuilding or powerlifting) is important. So is managing stress from all sources, whether it’s from cycling or from errands or home construction projects or stress from work, etc. Cut out optional and unimportant sources of stress. Manage stress from the other sources (family, work, etc.).

Listen to your body. This means that if you know you are burning the candle at both ends, don’t be afraid to take a day or two off from bike commuting and take Metro or drive instead. Or skip the weekend pick-up hockey or soccer game. Or ask a friend or your kids to walk the dogs that day.

I’ve been listening to some training podcasts that talk about the approach of Dr. Maffetone. He is known for coaching some top endurance athletes like 6-time Ironman champion Mark Allen. He focuses not just on performance but also on total health, and how exercise improves general health. I’m not sure I agree with everything he says, but he does seem to say good things about managing stress from all sources.

[PotomacCyclist]

This is a blog post and image that got some press last year.

http://theurbanathleteblog.com/2012/01/11/lifelong-exercise-and-strength-training-in-older-adults/

The image (MRI scans?) compares the body composition of the legs of a 40-yr-old triathlete, a sedentary 74-yr-old and a 70-yr-old triathlete. Although this only looks at a few individuals, it fits with what is known generally about the benefits of exercise. There isn’t much difference between the triathletes, despite a 30-year age difference. But there’s a massive difference between the sedentary person and the 70-yr-old triathlete.

The 70-yr-old triathlete can still kick some @$$ while the sedentary senior probably has to be worried about falling while walking and breaking his hip. That’s if he can walk at all. (Other studies have shown that many seniors are in wheelchairs because of inactivity, not age or disease. When nursing homes introduce age-appropriate strength programs, they have actually gotten some people out of their wheelchairs.)

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[rcannon100]

It is possible to point to aberrations to the data – a singular athlete who does tremendous things at an advanced age. But that athlete is pretty much just that – an aberration to the data.

Here is data from another study (Training for the over 50s)

What maximum efforts are possible at older ages? What effects are age-dependent, which depend upon training? To get to the root of this question researchers examined a very ambitious group – the world record holders. Here they ought to be able to find out the effects of ageing. The study, which was published in 2008 (Proc. R. Soc. Biological Sciences 276, S. 683) studied the Age world records in running up to 2007. It is easier to study running performance than cycling performance, because the times can be better translated into meaningful performance levels. The main results can be applied to cycling however. The following illustration shows the study on the age world record holders between 40 and 90 years old. Maximum power falls by 30% between 40 and 70 – both in aerobic (endurance) sports and in anaerobic (sprint) events. This supports our analysis of time trial results by older cyclists in St Johann. The fall is pretty linear to this point. Past 70, the power fall off process is accelerated.

What’s the punchline for this author?

Training Tips for Older Riders

– Reduce the amount of anaerobic training (very hard efforts over several minutes)
– Plan 2 rest days a week
– For optimum fitness and health load the body in moderation to the anaerobic threshold.
– Do compensating sport activity, strength training for the trunk

[Author]

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