Cycling over 60 is a Facebook page for folks 60 years and older. We call ourselves “cyclists” There is one line at the beginning of the page that reads, “60 is just a number” and for the majority of us that enjoy the challenge of the road and what is in front of us, we don’t hesitate and don’t look back and most of all we do not stop and turn around. Yes it is true we are all 60 years old and older but it is just a number. Cyclist here ride anywhere from around the corner to over 7-10 k miles a year. as there are some very serious cyclists, the majority here that enjoy cycling for the pure pleasure of being outdoors riding anywhere from 25- 250 miles a week. There are over 14,000 members, below are just a few and one individual’s story on his solo 100 mile ride.
Tom Sutter
I started cycling about a year and a half ago. Since then my life has changed. Cycling has become a big part of my life. It makes me feel young and alive at 66 years old in May and retirement shortly after that. I’m always looking for new areas to ride. I’m blessed to have my health. It can only get better from here.
Larry Brenize
I came to Cycling in Sept 1992 after an injury an a botched surgery ended my running days. 1s ride was a 100 miler on a heavy Trek 540 touring bike. I got lost 2 miles from the finish line and have been lost on a bike ever since. Finished 4x RAAM Team Cyclonauts 2006/Furnace Creek 508 2x 2004 Team Mahi Mahi/Cascades 1200k/Rocky Mountain 1200k/best 1 day ride 301 miles in 22 hrs. 24 hrs. of Booty Columbia MD./my Eddington # is 102 rides over 100 miles. New gig is gravel bike riding/racing
Chris Marshall
I started riding again at the age of 59, after 27years of scuba diving, I started out riding MTBikes now I ride MTB gravel and road I(we) have completed 2 coast to coast rides and planning a ride from Edinburgh to Newcastle at the age of 66.
John Muzio
This segment of this article is about a cyclist and his quest for that 100 mile ride. It is well known with cyclists this particular goal is so very illusive and many cyclist who start out the day to attempt it never complete it. John Muzio, however completed his attempt of a 100 mile ride and completed it solo. Which requires a lot of determination and soul searching.
John Muzio grew up in a typical blue-collar neighborhood in Northern, NJ. His parents were not very influential in the sports arena but his friends he grew up with were, so he played a lot of different sports growing up. Some of the sports he was very good at while others he had to learn to become better. He played everything, tackle or 2 hand touch football, street hockey, softball, stick ball, basketball etc. After graduating from a 3 speed to a new 10 speed bike, he rode all over the place and into different towns. Back then he did not have anything to track how far he was riding but he would guess rides around 5-10 miles. Once he started to drive however, he stopped cycling all together. It was when he was in his early 40’s he was at a police bike auction and purchased a hard tail trek mountain bike for $50.00. That was his second beginning for cycling. He got into road cycling about 5-6 years later. In addition to mountain and road biking, he enjoys hiking, walks in the woods , kayaking & photography. As long as he is outdoors, he is happy, even in the winter, though he does not ski anymore due to his bad knees.
- What motivates you to ride?
I have always enjoyed cycling. I guess part of it is being outside and seeing areas that I would not normally see in a car since I am on less traveled roads. I like challenging myself to see how well I can do and increase my training to get even better.
In writing this I remember when I was in my late teens or early twenties and a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to do a 50 mile MS ride. I only had a mountain bike at the time, but he had a road bike. I was up for the challenge despite never riding more than say 15 miles at any one time previously. At about 30 miles into the ride there was this long and steep accent. Most people were conquering this hill but there were some that had stopped and walked the remaining part to get to the top. By this point I was getting tired as I had not ridden long distances like this in the past and on a mountain, that was just more challenging than road bike. I stopped and thought twice going up that hill but refused to walk any part of that hill. I was determined no matter how many times I needed to rest I was going the ride the entire length of that hill. The hill was approximately 1/2 a mile with a 6-7% grade but to me it was like Mount Everest, at the time.
2. Why did you ride 100 miles?
After I began road cycling there were organized rides that I began participating in. Generally, the distances were 25, 40, 50, 62 & 100 miles. i always wondered what it would be like to ride 100 miles but at that time it was just a thought.
3. When did you decide to ride?
Eventually I began looking into the training necessary to ride a Century (100 miles) and my thoughts starting to take hold. A few years ago, I had looked at my weekly training and realized that I had not knowingly trained for a Century. It was at this point that I was determined to ride a Century sometime within the next few years.
4. Did you train? if so how much?
I found slightly different mileage requirements for Century training but all of them had an 8 week plan. I rode 100-150 miles on a weekly basis, increasing my longest ride from 35 miles on week one to 65 miles on week 6 The week prior to your Century ride you are to reduce your longest ride to around 50 miles and also reduce your total for the week prior to the Century.
5. Was there anyone who could have ridden with you? Or was it a solo ride from the beginning?
I would have liked to have done either an organized ride, but it was too early in the season for that. I would have like to have ridden with friends of mine as well, but they were not ready for a ride this long yet. So I knew once I decided that I would do my Century in April that it would be a solo ride., and likely be a little harder since there would be nobody to help with motivation during the ride if I needed it, since this was my first one I did not know what to expect during the last 30 miles or so.
6. Was there any time you could have given up?
For my route, I had a 50 mile loop south of my house. The northern part would be the more difficult as there were a lot more hills that the southern half of my ride. I had ridden both sections during my training so I could calculate where I could stop at a store to get more drinks. When I started out on my ride I did not realize how windy it was, since I was climbing a lot and I really had not noticed it being that windy. Well there were 10 mph + at the time. I did not feel as strong at the beginning of my ride as i would have thought considering all of my training, but that may all of had to do with the wind. There were a number of times during the first 20-30 miles when i thought that the wind was too much, and I should try another day. After going though my head all the training that I had done, and the last 50 miles would be a lot less hilly I convinced myself to keep going. Besides what would be the worst that would happen, I would bonk out at 75-80 miles and that would still be an achievement since my longest ride previously was 70 miles.
7. What did you feel when you finally realized you accomplished this amazing goal?
That is a great question. I guess in the back of my head I thought I could ride a Century so after completing it I did not think too much of it at the time, but as the days passed the accomplishment became greater and greater to me, if that makes any sense. When I arrived home my family came outside and greeted me as I rode into the driveway and that was a special moment. I guess since it was a solo it took away some of the fanfare that there would have been if there was with friends or in a group ride. I will ride more Centuries, including this same one again to see if I can learn anything from this one and if the ride is any easier after my learnings.
8. Tell us about the overall experience, What time did you start? did you take breaks? did you have lunch? How long did it take?
If there is one thing, I can take from my first Century ride is that I may not have eaten enough and drank too much of the drinks with sugar and not enough plain water. I say that because I had a slight headache at about 75 miles and when I finished my ride, my stomach was a little unsettled. I will need to read up on the nutritional side prior to my next Century. For me it was a little hard to gage how much to eat and drink since when I ride 50-60 miles, I eat very little. Overall, I found my first Century to be very rewarding. The plan for my Century I estimated that I would ride with an average pace of 15.5 mph and calculated that with rests stops my total time would be 7-8 hours. So my plan was start out around 9 am so my return time would be 5 pm. That would also give me more day light in case I went over the 8 hour estimated time. I had planned stops to get me fluids, at miles 33 and 77 and these were my 2 rest stops. In thinking back now I originally planed to rest around miles 50, 65 & 80 so maybe I could have planned my resting points a little better as 33 miles in was a little too soon for my first rest, as well as only stopping twice to rest was maybe not the best idea either. As far as eating there were times that I would just eat while riding and other times i stopped for say 5 minutes to eat something and then got back on my bike. So I started out around 9:15 in the morning and the temperature was 55*f and it was 68-70*f when my ride ended. My total moving time 6:56 and the total time including rests was 7:39. My overall pace was 14.9 mph so not that far from what my goal was.
I myself ride with my wife and we are still looking forward in riding the 100 mile ride. We will attempt it this year and let everyone know how we do.
Happy cycling everyone
Salvador Esparza
