Phil Cavell > Quotes

“• There is evidence that hormonal changes before and during menopause can result in more visceral or belly fat as women move away from their reproductive years and oestrogen and progesterone levels decline.”
― Phil Cavell, The Midlife Cyclist: The Road Map for the +40 Rider Who Wants to Train Hard, Ride Fast and Stay Healthy

“It’s hard to see a silver lining inside those congested coronary arteries, but there is one if we look carefully enough.”
― Phil Cavell, The Midlife Cyclist: The Road Map for the +40 Rider Who Wants to Train Hard, Ride Fast and Stay Healthy

“The study came to an unusually definitive conclusion: ‘The results indicate that aerobic exercise is more effective than any currently approved medication in forestalling Alzheimer’s disease.”
― Phil Cavell, The Midlife Cyclist: The Road Map for the +40 Rider Who Wants to Train Hard, Ride Fast and Stay Healthy

“Almost all the power is concentrated in the downstroke. The upstroke isn’t something that needs to be consciously worked on or thought about, and to do so is a waste of time. • The heel should stay positively angled all through the pedal stroke. If this isn’t the case, check saddle height, crank length, cadence, calf strength and technique. • Not everyone can, or should, pedal at 100rpm or more. Find the cadence that works for you. If you want to increase your cadence, improve your core/trunk conditioning, increase flexibility, shorten your cranks and review your bike position. • Use some pedalling paracetamol. If in doubt, unclip as both a diagnostic and retraining tool. It could change your life (well, at least your pedalling).”
― Phil Cavell, The Midlife Cyclist: The Road Map for the +40 Rider Who Wants to Train Hard, Ride Fast and Stay Healthy

“At 100km, you can see the curve turns positive as coronary calcification actually increases quite steeply as you cycle into and beyond 150km per week.”
― Phil Cavell, The Midlife Cyclist: The Road Map for the +40 Rider Who Wants to Train Hard, Ride Fast and Stay Healthy

“The hip and pelvis is, in effect, your bottom bracket.”
― Phil Cavell, The Midlife Cyclist: The Road Map for the +40 Rider Who Wants to Train Hard, Ride Fast and Stay Healthy

“I should point out that we don’t clip into pedals in cycling shoes in order to pull up – we clip in to keep the foot stable and in the most functional and comfortable position on the pedal.”
― Phil Cavell, The Midlife Cyclist: The Road Map for the +40 Rider Who Wants to Train Hard, Ride Fast and Stay Healthy

“Us older and less fit midlife cyclists are, as a group, riding harder and faster, relative to our maximum, than the top-ranked professionals in the world. And we’re holding down jobs, and trying to be great parents and partners.”
― Phil Cavell, The Midlife Cyclist: The Road Map for the +40 Rider Who Wants to Train Hard, Ride Fast and Stay Healthy

“right now speaks no wisdom to middle-aged men who enjoy being immoderate.”
― Phil Cavell, The Midlife Cyclist: The Road Map for the +40 Rider Who Wants to Train Hard, Ride Fast and Stay Healthy

“I’m more interested in the context of utilising the bicycle as a means to enhance your health, fitness and love of life.”
― Phil Cavell, The Midlife Cyclist: The Road Map for the +40 Rider Who Wants to Train Hard, Ride Fast and Stay Healthy

“Merghani even speculated to me, while we were talking, that the development of calcific atherosclerosis in veteran athletes may even be a protective process! That’s an astonishing thought – the very thing that has fuelled the hysterical media may be an adapted mechanism that’s protecting veteran sports people from damage. Add this to the list of unknowns, but I think it’s highly significant that a cardiologist like Dr Merghani would even float this out for debate. It’s a breathtaking thought.”
― Phil Cavell, The Midlife Cyclist: The Road Map for the +40 Rider Who Wants to Train Hard, Ride Fast and Stay Healthy

“Dr Baker’s data can’t lie, it’s just data. His amateur clients (that’s you and me) are closer to fatigue and nearer to being overtrained than the professionals who ride for a living and race nine months of the year all around the world!”
― Phil Cavell, The Midlife Cyclist: The Road Map for the +40 Rider Who Wants to Train Hard, Ride Fast and Stay Healthy

“Many amateurs perpetually train and ride in what Dr Baker calls a ‘whirlwind of doom’ where an overestimation and obsession with an FTP (an abstract number in itself) means that we tend to set our training levels too high and, as a consequence, are training the wrong systems and incrementally embedding fatigue that we then struggle to shake off if we’re older, because our hormonal responses are less responsive and dynamic – is this ringing any bells? Going”
― Phil Cavell, The Midlife Cyclist: The Road Map for the +40 Rider Who Wants to Train Hard, Ride Fast and Stay Healthy