Riding with Will last night, he mentioned how much his fitness has improved over last year. Just riding and lowering my fastfood grease intake helped me loose 30 lbs when I started riding consistently.
Over the last 3 weeks, I stopped taking my daily 100% multivitamin, fish oil, and glucosomine pills. I've had problems sleeping this year so I thought maybe one of those were part of the cause. I've had a sore shoulder and muscles that I attributed to some hard riding. Last night my knees had a couple twinges so I took a glucosomine tab last night and 6 hrs of sleep was all could muster, but my joints feel better this morning. Maybe it's mostly mental since I don't think one dose should make a big difference, or I haven't been active enough this morning to trigger the soreness. 8-)
I've read the older one gets, the more muscle mass we loose, and the importance of year round weight training increases. My plan is to lift weights a couple times a week. This should improve muscle balance and mass, strengthen joints and ligaments. I hope this will also limit the soreness from torquing on the bars and pedals beyond my norm. Previous weight training seemed to lower my cycling ability but Doug has mentioned he lifts weights in and out of season.
Do you just ride when you can? Adopt a routine for consistency? Try to choose a balanced diet? Cross-training? Other things?
Tuesday, July 29
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4 comments:
The best cure is a full suspension bike with gears for us old guys.
i second that! but if gears are not your thing, then I recommend a regimen of stretching and core work. I had a lot of back pain a couple years ago after I started ramping up my training. By the end of the summer I couldn't walk without my back going into spasms. After both a chiropractor and a physical therapist came to the conclusion that I was out of balance muscularly, it was time to add an element to my training: stretching and yoga. What that did for me was measurable. Yoga, if you commit to it, can tax your muscles in a different way than riding. It was important for me to contract leg and back muscles that opposed how I used them on the bike. Also, I can't say enough about the balance ball. I sit on it at work and use it for core strength and balance. I highly recommend that tool. It can cut down your work out time and volume. Everyone's different but this has worked for me for the most part. I still have pain after a lot of riding but I recover faster!
Oh and after hard workouts or races, I walk for a half hour a few hours after the work out.
As far as supplements, I use SportLegs. Check out www.sportlegs.com.
Commute, you gotta go to work anyways, why not ride your bike?
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