How to Ride Closer to the Wheel Without Panicking
Leaving a three-foot gap feels safe, but it means you're doing far more work than everyone else in the group, and you'll be the one cooked when the surge comes. The draft is free speed, and closing that gap is a skill you can build on purpose in three rides.
How to Stop Getting Dropped on Climbs After 40
Getting dropped on the club-ride climb is rarely a fitness problem, it's a tactics problem. Fix where you start the climb, how hard you hit the first surge, add two targeted weekly sessions, and learn to surf the terrain, and the group that used to ride away from you stops disappearing.
Your Lower Back Hurts After Two Hours. Stretching Probably Isn’t the Fix.
Lower back pain is the most common reason riders over 45 cut rides short, and most of them reach for a stretch that doesn't help. The research points to a different culprit: weak, undertrained trunk endurance, made worse by a handlebar that's too low.
Looking the part did not mean they could switch fueling systems
Same VO2max. Same body fat. Only the insulin-sensitive men could switch fuels when more fat hit the bloodstream. Fasting insulin split them, not fitness. Mine went from 6.3 to 2.5 after I quit the nightly Mint Explosion pints.
Your VO2max Decline Is a Range, Not a Rate
Masters riders lose anywhere from 5% to 46% of VO2max per decade. The spread has almost nothing to do with age and almost everything to do with training. That is why Rollfast anchors zones to a VO2 ceiling, not a 20-minute FTP test.
The Pint and the Saddle
On Monday 17 August I donated a pint of blood after a hematocrit of 60 percent, and I moved my saddle forward the same day. Claude went through the Strava files. Same speed. Heart-rate cost per watt down 5.8 percent on the steady laps. Here is the method, including the parts that did not work.
Everybody can hit 1000 watts!
Most men never hold 1,000 watts for a real sprint — and after 40, far fewer do. TrainerRoad's data kills the myth. Here's what Masters riders should train instead of chasing a vanity number.
There Is No Carb Number. The UCI’s Own Data Ranges From 41 to 106 Grams an Hour.
The "90 to 120 grams of carbohydrate per hour" rule that dominates cycling nutrition advice comes from the top of a Grand Tour range, not the middle of the peloton. The UCI's own data spans 41 to 106 grams per hour across professional road cycling, and that spread is the point: there is no single carb number.
Deep Sleep Is a Training Zone, and You’re Getting Locked Out of It
You track power and intervals. The training zone you are probably not protecting is deep sleep. After 50, slow-wave sleep shrinks, growth hormone drops, and Tuesday's hard work stops sticking the way it should.
The Summer Scale Lie
I came home from a hot week in Florida heavier, and my Garmin insisted my body fat had jumped from 10 to 13 percent in five days. Then the heat took my watts too. None of it is what it looks like. Here is what the summer scale and your power meter are really measuring, why cutting calories is the worst move you can make,
