Thanks Simon, great information for us older athletes!

I really enjoy your videos. Age 66 and if Apple makes it, I use it. Dropped from 225 to 165 now trying to live and improve at this weight. Thanks!

Excellent as usual thanks. I agree totally on trying to do a couple of high intensity rides each week. Because of their intensity they are short workouts of one hour or less, which means that I can usually find a spot to squeeze them in.

I've been in the fitness industry for 20 years and still find this easy to understand film very informative. Thank you and keep them coming.

Thank you for posting this once again. Your comment of watching the VO2 and looking to catch it if it is dropping is easier said than done. 2020 came in , I had a good 1 week skiing hard and always clears me after the run up and Christmas itself …. My watch had my vo2 at about 45-46 when I came back . Covid got me , not bad but certainly did my vo2 dropped to 35 after this …. And it took me 6 months to claw this back ….. Then the vaccines came into play each time again my vo2 would drop into the 30,s and again I would claw it back the cycle continued after each Jab … My Apple Watch has now after two years of wallowing in the high 39’s , come back to 45.4 after months and years of working out , it has slowly come back up… being 69 now I know it is better I can ride faster on my road bike without getting fatigued…. Walking fast I’d easy again. Also would like to mention when working in the 3/4/5 range takes me two days to recover ….as I have aged it takes longer to recover….. so anyone looking to put in a daily session needs zone 2 training for two days before going back to the higher levels , stops injury and total fatigue…

The older you get the more your max heart rate and zones descend, yet the hills don't get any lower nor the slopes less steep so the effort required, and thus your BPM, remain the same. Eventually every ride is in zone 4 or 5. That's where I am now. I can still have fun but recovery is usually slow. I do a lot of flat rides these days.

Always Another Amazing Video. Thank you.

👍 Yes, listen to your body is always the most important thing. Every day is different. When I start my morning run I always have a plan, but the first 1-3 km tell me if I can/should follow it.

I was a solo RAAM finisher at 50. At 72 I do 16mph group rides 3X a week, with a heart monitor. These videos are a great source of information.

Thank you Simon. I watch your videos as much for the stunning locations you ride in as the technical content. I really appreciate both of these

Good stuff, Simon. This has been a really good series of videos and I can't wait to see what other gems you offer us. Thanks to you I have been refreshing my knowledge of Zone Training and paying more attention to my own performance on the bike. I am a bit more structured over the winter (thank you, Turbo) but during the summer I just push a little bit further over the weeks and months. I've been trying to stay a little bit more on Z2 instead of Z3 than I used to but my talk test puts my Z2 well into Z3 territory according to my heart rate so don't worry about it too much. But I did a sportive the other week at a considerably higher average pace than most of my solo rides and noted that I was smack bang in the middle of Z3 for most of it. That was tiring but doable for four hours and I know myself well enough to know if I am 'burning my matches' at a sustainable rate or not. Yesterday's club ride was rather similar except with the added Z4 & Z5 as we incorporated some steep climbs! (There were no matches left by the end of that 50 miles.) The point being that, for me the occasional event or hard club ride is something I treat a bit like a race, (though I have never raced and never will). ie. I am willing to push myself harder than normal (and take the time to recover from afterwards) whereas my regular weekly rides (including club evenings) are 'training rides' and therefore the purpose is not to always push myself to my limits but to build capacity over time. But conversations I have with riders older than me makes me aware that some seem a bit scared of pushing themselves to their limits at all. OK, some will have medical reasons for not doing so but for others fear is holding them back. Pushing yourself hard keeps your body 'young' even if pushing yourself too hard takes too much out of you. For some, doing a session or two of Z4 each week is good and sustainable whereas others might find that once every two weeks or so is better for them. But pushing hard is a necessity for as long as you can do so.

Many thanks Simon, this is the first time ever I have seen the comparisons between a Lab measurement v smartwatch results for V02. It’s very encouraging and I appreciate your promise to upload this.

I have been very zone-conscious since your series started and have been aiming to incorporate plenty of zone 2 work. It does seem to have many very beneficial effects - mainly, I do feel much better placed on the weekly harder ride with club mates. As I have also adopted some weight training into my programme its hard to know which is having the bigger impact but I am guessing that zone 2 on the bike is best.....since typing that I took 10 seconds to check Strava and see that most of my gym work is zones 1 and 2 so perhaps there is the answer! Sticking in the zone 4/5 Zwift workout on a weekly basis is the icing on the cake.

Thanks again Simon. Superb easy to follow and understand content, as ever 👍

I’m 59 and like many people who just cycle my ‘training’ isn’t very structured. I usually ride between min 8 hours/week sometimes 10 and 12 hours in a bigger week. But big chunks of that are group rides of minimum two hours on our regular route. That includes a mix of zones 2, 3, 4 and 5 just depending on how hard the group is pushing it. One group pushes quite hard for the 2 hrs. There are Hills & Sprint sections. On a Sunday in a different group we might do three or four hours and that will be a mix of zones. Until the last couple of years I’ve never heard of zone 2 training. I just ride my bike And when you’re in a group, you don’t necessarily get to choose to stay in zone two for extended periods of time as is recommended. I like the social aspect of group rides and I think that’s important, at any age. But I’m wondering if I’m missing out by not doing specific zone 2 on my own or with a mate who agrees to stick at the pace. I’m in Australia there riding conditions are good all year round except summer can be oppressively hot so we ride early, I’m out the door no later than 5am most of the time.

Thanks Simon, another valuable video. You certainly do some work, to not only research the latest knowledge, but then communicate it in laymen's terms for us.

A very informative couple of videos, thanks. I sneak in some Z5 through 'micro-dosing', spinning a very low gear, very quickly for 15 secs, 15 seconds rest x4, 1 min rest, repeat. It gets the heart pumping and the lactate rising but with minmal metabolic cost

Thanks Simon, very interesting, always good for us older athletes to stretch well after exercise 👍

Wonderful video. Thank you.

I'm 64 years old and in much the same head space as you. I'll never win (or even be in) the TdF, but would like to extend my active years. This is a very intelligent and well presented series. What I stuggle with more as an older athlete is when to back off and when to push thru not feeling great. We've all had days where the first interval felt like rubbish, but then the overall session was quite good. Do you talk about HRV?

After decades in the military with endless ego to fullfil and after retirement I took up Ultra. I also put the ego in the bin Common in cycling hence the drug addictions so common. I took the advice of female ultra riders who knew they could not compete on pure strength and ego, but in cunning and guile and planning and preparation and do rather well. The training advice was ride the bike and don’t get off unless you have something to do. When that something is done the ride the bike. All the advice I needed. Ride the bike do fairly well and watch people go home early because they went to hard to fast or it rained.

Excellent as always. Perhaps you've talked about this in other videos but for folks like me who experience occasional AFib events venturing into zones 4 and 5 can be a bit of a problem and from my experience may trigger an AFib event. As my electrocardiologist said, do what you do but you should dial down the intensity

As an aside, have you thought about doing a video on the benefits of stretching as we get older? As we lose muscle mass, our ability to rely on our muscular system to generate power on the bike obviously reduces and therefore we rely on our cardiovascular system to a greater extent. The limiting factor in my experience is the reduction in flexibility as we age, which in my case was leading to increasing discomfort on the bike. For this reason, I have taken up yin yoga with the aim of increasing deep tissue flexibility. It has had a huge effect on my comfort on the bike and I am now able to do VO2max interval sessions again that felt out of reach. Interestingly my average cadence on my last high intensity sessions was over 100 compared to my previous average of around 85.

Curious. How long does it take for the mitochondria to lose benefits from zone 2?

Any advice on strengthening knees for cycling ?

Its interesting, and rather convenient, that the two strongest predictors for a healthy longer life and athletic ability are the same : Mitochondrial efficiency and VO2 max. And if you need a better example of polarised training then look no further than Tadej Pogacar (although I'm never sure about comparing the training regimes of pro's to that of us mere mortals!)

Great series of videos. My issue is I far prefer to cycle outdoors than on the trainer, especially if weather is good so trying to keep to an estimated/perceived zone is nigh on impossible as virtually all of my rides will involve some steep hills. Mostly I just "go for a ride" which is fun but I'm not doing specific training efforts which perhaps I should. I am guilty of what a lot do which is go all out too often. As you rightly say, most of us do our easy sessions too hard and hard sessions too easy. I think more discipline required on my part, I exercise a lot with a combination of cycling and heavy weight training but I probably need to focus on structured workouts on bike.

Zones 2 3 and 5 now you are talking!

Excellent description. Zone 2 training best done for 45 min+?

Thanks. I was curious how good my Apple watch was at estimating my vo2 max.

As ever excellent info for us "oldies" (I've just turned 60). Cheers.

After listening to all these stats I'm disappointed with my self, my Garmin is still in its box after 5 years. I tend to just run and use a cheap wrist watch to keep track and listen to my body in order to avoid injuries. I'm pretty quick for my age over most distances but clearly could do better. Thanks for this, I will try to be more scientific.

Oh ye !!!! Vo2 Max and life expectancy ? I have not looked this up but I wonder if the issue is Comorbidity and if the other illness is the significant factor of anyone’s crappy Vo2Max result. Asking for a friend aged 98.

👏👏

Zone 4: "shit! Zone 5: "mother f*cker!"

Simon, please tell us your age

Use it or lose it. A cyclist is not done until he cannot mount the bike. Some of us simply ride for 100 years in the easy zones.