Master Your Masters Years

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It’s commonly assumed that as we age our performance wanes and we grow less competitive. Not so! More and more riders are recognising that it’s neither eccentric nor illadvised to remain a racer decades after our prime years have passed. Training for optimum performance should, of course, be adjusted to suit your age. The diffculty is, there is no one-size-fits-all advice: older riders are an especially diverse bunch, with a huge range of lifestyles, sporting backgrounds, goals, and states of health and fitness. The first question to ask yourself is, what kind of older rider are you?

As a coach specialising in maximising the performance of veteran riders (www. mccm.iwsi.ie), I am especially interested in human stories — every enquiry that comes my way has hopes and ambitions attached. It’s my job to find their best pathway towards better performance. To illustrate the diversity among older riders, I have depicted below four masters category archetypes — the main different types of older rider. Drawing on case studies — four CW readers — I’ll show how the route to peak performance depends on each individual’s unique set of traits and motivations. Of course, no rider fits a single ‘type’ perfectly — but we do have key themes in common. Let’s meet our willing participants and see what we can learn from them.

1 THE OLD DOG

Everyone knows an ‘old dog’: the type of rider who has been riding for years and is determined to stick to the same oldschool methods. They spin the small ring till spring and then gain form by training and racing hard — all the time. The old dog’s main measure of commitment is hours in the saddle per week and miles per year — as many as possible.