I’m 55 now and have been a serious roadie since I was 13 when I got my first good bike. My commitment has been on and off over the years but I’ve always considered myself a serious cyclist.
In my mid-late 20s I raced for 7 years and then quit after I was burned out. Spending 10 hours per week training, getting the occasional top 10 in cat 4 and then spending another 5+ hours per week driving to races just all seemed pointless.
After I stopped racing I always felt like an “athlete” even though I wasn’t training. It’s weird.
I really wish I had transitioned to staying very fit but not racing. Just do some club rides and a fondo or century and call it good.
I always found it hard to have been at a high level and then go back to riding, even consistently, at a much lower level.
Now, I’m 56 and around 6 years ago I got the bug again to train. I just wanted to see how fast I could get again. It’s been a challenge and seriously depressing at times because I’m not exceptionally fast. I’m decently fast because I train but there are guys in my club that are really fast. They are often the former cat 1s that still ride a ton, race occasionally but don’t take it that seriously. But they have so much natural talent and have basically never stopped riding that they are still really fast. It’s frustrating that I’ll never catch them no matter how much structured training or optimization I do. On top of it, at 56, I’m riding with young guys that ride 4-5 hours per week and are pretty fast. I put in 8-10-12 hours per week and I don’t get faster than them. The young guys in my club also do it all “wrong”. I see them on Strava doing an hour of sweet spot on Zwift a few times a week - that’s it - no SIT, VO2max, or FTP progressions.