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Leeway from Lloyd: Senior cyclist redefines aging
cycling outdoors at 108 due to hearing loss.
The secret to being physically competitive as we age could be increasing, maintaining, or slowing the decline of your V02 max.
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In a nutshell, V02 max is your PR for oxygen intake or the maximum amount of oxygen your body can take in and use during exercise at your 100-per cent intensity.
That certainly helped Frenchman Robert Marchand cycle and set records over the age of 100. He died in 2021 at 109 and only quit
I watched a YouTube feature about him as I stare at an entry for the Alberta 55-plus games in Brooks, Alta in August.
Should I dare to register and possibly win the 70-75 age group, I would punch a ticket to the nationals in Quebec in 2024 when I would be 75.
Marchand is certainly a great inspiration for us older cyclists to keep in the game.
I am doing an 80 km race the week before the Alberta seniors with that race just 40 km, so if I go, I should be able to recover.
Marchand though, has all of us dreamers beat. He holds the world record for cycling 100 km at ages 100, 104 and 105 age categories (who else would be in that category?!).
He set a world record in one-hour track cycling in the over-100 age group at 24.250 km in 2012 and bumped that up to 26.927 km two years later!
I thought I was doing good. Last week, I completed a 40 km training ride at 27 kilometres per hour speed. I hope I am gifted with performance-enhancing meds if I turn 100!
Marchand went on to set a world record in one-hour track cycling in the over-105 age group in 2017 covering 22.547 kilometres!!!
The super senior put his remarkable fitness and longevity down to a diet consisting of lots of fruit and vegetables, a little meat, not too much coffee – and an hour a day on the cycling home trainer. That’s how he kept up his V02 max.
Let’s face it, he was also lucky to have good health and a great attitude with the V02 max as his performance enabler. I’m out of breath just reading about this dude— but I set a new oxygen PR in the process!
