63 year old, 160 bpm, 100 miles, 2x/week ?!?

So, I was reading the October issue of Aventure magazine (National
Geographic spin-off), and they had a brief article on Mike Melville, the
pilot of Rutan's Spaceship One.

He said he prepared for the flight by using a road bike for six months
before the flight, cycling twice a week for 100 miles, always above 160 bpm
heartrate, _and_ he's 63 years old! I know everyone's VO2 max is different,
but this seems pretty amazing. Almost unbelieveable?

Harry

Harry Shin wrote:
|| So, I was reading the October issue of Aventure magazine (National
|| Geographic spin-off), and they had a brief article on Mike Melville,
|| the pilot of Rutan's Spaceship One.
||
|| He said he prepared for the flight by using a road bike for six
|| months before the flight, cycling twice a week for 100 miles, always
|| above 160 bpm heartrate, _and_ he's 63 years old! I know everyone's
|| VO2 max is different, but this seems pretty amazing. Almost
|| unbelieveable?

The intensity seems pretty amazing to me, but not necessarily the distance.

Harry Shin wrote:

He said he prepared for the flight by using a road bike for six months
before the flight, cycling twice a week for 100 miles, always above 160 bpm
heartrate, _and_ he's 63 years old! I know everyone's VO2 max is different,
but this seems pretty amazing. Almost unbelieveable?

Not unbelievable, but that's a really dumb way to train.

A buddy of mine is 65 and has a tested VO2max of 66. That's off the
charts for someone his age. He can keep up with me on climbs--for a
few minutes.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/

"Roger Zoul" writes:

Harry Shin wrote:
|| So, I was reading the October issue of Aventure magazine (National
|| Geographic spin-off), and they had a brief article on Mike Melville,
|| the pilot of Rutan's Spaceship One.
||
|| He said he prepared for the flight by using a road bike for six
|| months before the flight, cycling twice a week for 100 miles, always
|| above 160 bpm heartrate, _and_ he's 63 years old! I know everyone's
|| VO2 max is different, but this seems pretty amazing. Almost
|| unbelieveable?

The intensity seems pretty amazing to me, but not necessarily the distance.

Without knowing this individual's lactate threshold or maximum heart
rate, we have no way of knowing how intense 160bpm is for him.
Formulae such as HRmax = 220 - age give averages for populations,
but individuals can vary greatly from the mean. It's possible that
this person is on the far right-hand side of the scale, and that
160bpm is merely a moderate effort.

--
Michael Fuhr
http://www.fuhr.org/~mfuhr/

"Terry Morse" wrote in message
...
A buddy of mine is 65 and has a tested VO2max of 66. That's off the
charts for someone his age. He can keep up with me on climbs--for a
few minutes.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA

VO2max of 66? I wonder what his resting HR is... ;-)

Harry

Michael Fuhr wrote:
:: "Roger Zoul" writes:
::
::: Harry Shin wrote:
::::: So, I was reading the October issue of Aventure magazine (National
::::: Geographic spin-off), and they had a brief article on Mike
::::: Melville, the pilot of Rutan's Spaceship One.
:::::
::::: He said he prepared for the flight by using a road bike for six
::::: months before the flight, cycling twice a week for 100 miles,
::::: always above 160 bpm heartrate, _and_ he's 63 years old! I know
::::: everyone's VO2 max is different, but this seems pretty amazing.
::::: Almost unbelieveable?
:::
::: The intensity seems pretty amazing to me, but not necessarily the
::: distance.
::
:: Without knowing this individual's lactate threshold or maximum heart
:: rate, we have no way of knowing how intense 160bpm is for him.
:: Formulae such as HRmax = 220 - age give averages for populations,
:: but individuals can vary greatly from the mean. It's possible that
:: this person is on the far right-hand side of the scale, and that
:: 160bpm is merely a moderate effort.
::

I doubt he's that far to the right, though I agree that he could be and
likely is, to the right.

220-63 = 157. I could see his max being 170 which would put in at 94%.
Even 180 would put him at 89%.

"Harry Shin" wrote in message ...
So, I was reading the October issue of Aventure magazine (National
Geographic spin-off), and they had a brief article on Mike Melville, the
pilot of Rutan's Spaceship One.

He said he prepared for the flight by using a road bike for six months
before the flight, cycling twice a week for 100 miles, always above 160 bpm
heartrate, _and_ he's 63 years old! I know everyone's VO2 max is different,
but this seems pretty amazing. Almost unbelieveable?

Harry

I'd delete the "almost" from your last comment.

dirtylitterboxofferingstospammers wrote:
::: He said he prepared for the flight by using a road bike for six
::: months before the flight, cycling twice a week for 100 miles,
::: always above 160 bpm heartrate, _and_ he's 63 years old! I know
::: everyone's VO2 max is different, but this seems pretty amazing.
::: Almost unbelieveable?
:::
::: Harry
::
:: Not really. In my locality there's a guy who is well into his 70s
:: who time trials every week during the season and in the winter
:: months he does cyclocross and he cycles for leisure. I kid you not.
:: Then we have a 90 year-old doing time trials too. Loads of people in
:: their sixties do TTs where I live.

I can time trial. I just won't be that fast and it is doubtful that I'd be
very close to my max HR the entire time.

Harry Shin wrote:
So, I was reading the October issue of Aventure magazine (National
Geographic spin-off), and they had a brief article on Mike Melville,
the pilot of Rutan's Spaceship One.

He said he prepared for the flight by using a road bike for six months
before the flight, cycling twice a week for 100 miles, always above
160 bpm heartrate, _and_ he's 63 years old! I know everyone's VO2
max is different, but this seems pretty amazing. Almost
unbelieveable?

Harry

Quit this nonsense children. I'm 54 and always between 170-175 bpm when I
time trial. When climbing hard I'm often in the high 180s. I see no reason
why these numbers should decrease more than maybe 5 bpm in the next ten
years.
There are several 60+ cyclists in my club that make me eat their dust
consistently.

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

"Per Elmsäter" wrote in message ...
Harry Shin wrote:
So, I was reading the October issue of Aventure magazine (National
Geographic spin-off), and they had a brief article on Mike Melville,
the pilot of Rutan's Spaceship One.

He said he prepared for the flight by using a road bike for six months
before the flight, cycling twice a week for 100 miles, always above
160 bpm heartrate, _and_ he's 63 years old! I know everyone's VO2
max is different, but this seems pretty amazing. Almost
unbelieveable?

Harry

Quit this nonsense children. I'm 54 and always between 170-175 bpm when I
time trial. When climbing hard I'm often in the high 180s. I see no reason
why these numbers should decrease more than maybe 5 bpm in the next ten
years.
There are several 60+ cyclists in my club that make me eat their dust
consistently.

I think the reaction is to the HR or level of intensity being that
high all of the time. I'm 60 and TT at a HR of 170+ as well. But I
certainly do not stay above 160 all the time. I don't think the
argument is about hte spcific number of 160 but the order of magnitude
and the idea that the preson does only long rides at high intensity
and only 2x per week. This does not sound like a trianing program that
will work.