He makes the point that people like me (65 y+ triathletes) are the first large cohort of oldies doing excessive exercise and that over the next couple of decades, we will learn more about the benefits and disadvantages and consequently be able to design better strategies to avoid the latter and optimise the former. Let's hope so! Weight-lifting can also help female cyclists manage the perimenopause. “Lower oestrogen can cause insulin resistance, and weight gain,” explains Roberts. Watch out for weight gain, too, which will make life harder for you on climbs: our fasted glucose levels rise after the age of 50. This is possibly because we are less efficient at metabolising glucose. What changes should I make? The first assumption for us to test is on the subject of ageing, and more specifically: are we young people who occasioned to get old or are we fundamentally altered on a cellular level by the maturing process? A recent study by BioMed Central found that just over a third of UK adults in their forties had two or more underlying and chronic health issues, such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, arthritis and so on. In their forties! These people are so young they barely make it into the ‘midlife’ group. Lifestyle obviously plays a big role in such statistics but we also cannot escape the destiny contained in our genes and their unbroken links to our ancestors. I have had the pleasure of knowing Phil for a bit over a decade. We collaborated on hundreds of custom bikes for Cyclefit clients, and during that time he shared volumes of experience with me. When he told me he was writing a book, I was eager to read it.

I wanted to read this book because I thought I might identity with the author and her story but I was sadly disappointed. I struggled a bit to complete it if I'm honest, which made it take way longer than necessary, because oooh! Tetris! Ooh new TV episode! Oooh! Staring into the distance! I didn’t fall victim to coming to the defense of virtual cycling when thoroughly enjoying Mr. Cavell’s book, either. As I enter my 6th decade of ‘Midlife’ I have evolved, finding greater merit in the virtues of education over instigation. Resistance training also supports testosterone production, as does eating zinc-rich food such as red meat, poultry, beans, nuts and seafood, and topping up your Vitamin D levels. Is there a difference between those who've exercised their whole life and those who come to retirement to take up cycling? Are there different challenges and different problems?

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Pluses of the book are Mr. Cavell knows bicycling and what it takes to both race or just ride as we get older. This is shown repeatedly as he talks about his experience and brings in knowledge from experts in the field (sports medicine and doctors in general). There’s also his own personal knowledge base as a bike fitter who’s done it at upper levels. This is stuff to be respected and readers should pay attention to what’s discussed. Interesting discussion points included the myth of power when you pulling up with your legs while pedaling, use of power meters, what type of riding you should do regularly, and the use of indoor trainers (for the record I feel Mr. Cavell is light in this information and needs to reassess things given the different types of trainers and the use of virtual training aides). These items were driving me to a 4-5 star rating for this book, I have to say it they’ve influenced my riding and training. If you're going to exercise immoderately after certain ages, is cycling worse or better for you than something like running or swimming, or are there different advantages? physician or nutritionist, for example. We will meet all of these people in future columns. Exercise may well be the finest drug the pharmaceutical industry never invented, but can we also have too much of a good thing? Should the ideal prescription dose change as we age? And is the advice different for new and returning exercisers compared to lifelong athletes? These questions will be examined next issue. As a last word on data, I’ll leave you with this thought: we may well demand ever more accurate ways to record, slice and dice our training metrics, but every data set is just an abstract house of cards without the solid foundations provided by a deep understanding of biology and psychology, how it is changing over time and how that relates to you and your life.

I was surprised how much is still not known medically about the midlife athletic body. Longitudinal studies are being conducted. I wanted binary answers to binary questions much of the time, and sometimes this was not possible. To be honest, I would answer, “Absolutely. Better.” I am able to race with family members and friends watching the entire event on Livestream or standing beside me. Feeling everything I feel. I can let them know what I am thinking, feeling, my passion. In the beginning, running helped Rachel gain mental strength and she thought she was healing fine. But her depression kept increasing, she tried to come out of it by winning races and collecting medals at Marathons. Phil and Julian co-founded Cyclefit in Central London over twenty years ago. It was the first company dedicated to dynamic bike-fitting in Europe.

Increasing your calcium intake, through milk, cheese, Greek yoghurt, eggs and leafy greens, can protect your bone health. Extra fruit and veg will aid your immunity. I agree that the majority of training should be endurance and that should be Z1 in a 3 zone model or Z2 in the 7 zone model and going above this can lead to fatigue so that may leave you too tired to carry out the HIIT intervals on another day in the week. Highly successful Spanish ex-pro rider Alejandro Valverde, who retired recently aged 42. Tim de Waele/Getty Images A must-read... this brilliant book shows you that getting older doesn't mean getting slower! ― Alan Murchison, The Cycling chef and masters cycling champion

Phil's book can help you be as good today as you always said you were ― Carlton Kirby, Eurosport commentator If some exercise is good for you is a lot better or worse? The popular press is happy to run stories about the hazards of exercise, or age-group marathoners dropping dead at events, recounting the tale of runner Jim Fixx, who got America running yet died at only 52 (while running). “The Midlife Cyclist” quotes from studies of hard-core athletes and it seems that male elite athletes have a higher incidence of heart issues than non-exercisers and, interestingly, elite women. While the jury is out on what all of this means, Cavell’s experts (including doctors who are themselves immoderate exercisers) offer some speculative views. At Cycle Fit in London, Phil Cavell – author of The Midlife Cyclist – and Nichola Roberts – owner of Velophysio – have been helping ambitious cyclists navigate the ageing process for years. Remember, Dr Baker is going out of his way to point out that if you feel good, you should not increase the intensity, meaning no more watts or a higher heart rate, but instead add in a rep or two. Going too deep or too hard will increase the required recovery time and may lead to fatigue. If you assume your real (not inflated) FTP is 250, then your hard sessions using the Dr Baker algorithm will be 250 x 105-110% x 4-6 (8-10 minute) reps. This means that you'll be working at between 262 and 275 watts during those 8-10 minute reps. This isn’t going bonkers and sending your systems haywire — it’s a controlled elevation of training stimulus. T he Midlife Cyclist is entertaining, insightful, well researched and vital reading for all youngsters over forty who have a love affair with the bike ― Norman FosterHip surgeons and physios love cycling and always prescribe it because it's not traumatic on your body if your bike is set up properly. But actually, your body needs a bit of trauma. It needs a bit of micro tear to try and generate it to heal stronger. So cycling, in some senses, when you get to my age, is too kind. You need to do your base with cycling and then challenge your body a little bit differently. There's a slightly philosophical almost New-Age final chapter about 'mindfulness' which also didn't quite work for me. They opened Cyclefit bike-fitting classes in 2009 and went on to work with Trek Bicycles a little while later to help create their worldwide bike-fitting educational program. Cyclefit’s educational DNA is in almost every fitting studio in the UK and many around the world. They worked with Trek’s professional racing teams for many years.

Time's arrow traditionally plots an incremental path into declining strength and speed for all of us. But we are different to every other generation of cyclists in human history. An ever-growing number of us are determined to scale the highest peaks of elite physical fitness into middle-age and beyond. Can the emerging medical and scientific research help us achieve the holy triumvirate of speed and health with age? Your muscle mass, bone density and hormone levels will have seriously dipped. You might also begin to lose your sense of balance, which can cause problems on a bike. Human growth hormone (HGH) – which supports muscle mass and aerobic capacity – also drops, contributing to a decline in muscle mass of 3 to 8 per cent, per decade.

Exercise is an antidote to some of that,” says Roberts. Riding your bike is arguably now more important than ever. “We need to keep going, but just be more intelligent in the way we do it,” advises Cavell. Female riders also face big changes. “Perimenopause is becoming menopause, so you’ve got that steep decline in oestrogen, which has effects on muscle strength and bone loss,” says Roberts. You can still perform at a very high level as you get older,” insists Cavell. “You just need to compensate for any deficiencies.”