Fun & Fitness over 50

When I started cycling last year, I had knee pain (tweaky knees I called it) in either or both knees when I'd start out on a ride.

I found that if I took it easy, spinning moderately fast, I could warm them up and relieve the pain eventually. Some rides, it never went away, so I didn't ride too hard at all at those times.

I've hardly had any knee pain at all lately except for today. I had a little twinge on the downstroke on my left knee this AM when I went out for a ride.

So I followed procedure and was careful not to strain it, pedaled easy and fast but not too fast and it finally went away after about 25 minutes. Wonderful! It really works!

It's very important to listen to your body. As a young man, I subscribed, as many do, to the belief that you push through the pain. That's true if it's the pain of muscular exertion but not joint or cartilage pain.

Not always easy to tell the difference. That's how I got golfer's elbow (tendonitis) a few years back.

I was doing bicep curls on my own in my basement probably with incorrect form and when I experienced pain I kept going, pushing. Eventually, I couldn't even hold a coffee cup with my right hand. Took years to get rid of that and I still have to be careful.

So after that knee "tweak" went away I had a fabulous ride. Fall is my favorite time and this route was a very scenic and peaceful one, almost no traffic. I got out in the countryside before the kids started going to school and came back into town when everybody was already at work and kids were in school. Nice. I went 35 miles and just enjoyed it.
No specific agenda. Not too worried about cadence, heart rate, speed, etc.

My main goal is to lose some more weight, specifically fat and not so much improve my riding performance. So as long as a big chunk of my ride is in heart rate zone 3 (70-80%MHR), I'm happy. That's the "fat burning zone".

I have also been doing push-ups and sit-ups to improve my upper body strength and tighten up the tum-tum. Would like to get a chin-up bar too although I can't even do one without assist!

I moved the cleats on my shoes all the way back too and that's worked out OK. Nothing negative from it anyway. I'd have to go 60 or more miles to really see if that relieves the "burning foot" syndrome.

So, on this ride, my cadence and speed were down a bit. Just enjoying the ride and the scenery.

Here's the route!