Hi been on the darkside a few years now, i ride 3-4 times a week usually one long session 4h (mainly pure trials)and 2-3 small ones 1,5 hour(street+skatepark).. main problem is HARSH landings (2m drop to flat), hang up on dirtjumps ect...other than that i do some shoulder/leg/back streching 2-3 times a week about 30min per session... i have friends in the 50's still charging...:-) so no reason to stop anytime soon...The magic trick for me seems to be warming up/ light streeching before riding 5-10min.. and loads of Coffee...

Viewing for work tonight 

Thanks for that Andy. You definitely jump started my riding after we met. I need to do more in the stretching department. I have about a mile of a slow down hill to get to my usual riding spot so I try to stretch on the bike; calves for 30 sec and then way leaned back on the bike to stretch my back. I bought Ryan Leech's yoga for cyclist video years ago, but I've never actually watched it. I was once good about stretching on my off days, but I've gotten far less regimented about it lately.  The heart rate monitor has been pretty illuminating. I raced XC MTB all through college in the late 90s and also used an HR monitor and would regularly see 210 bpm on sprint climbs; boy those days are gone! Now, because of my usual time limits on how long I can ride, I feel like I've sort of trained my body to peak for about an hour. If I rest between sections, I'll return to between 70-90 bpms. One Saturday that I was able to ride for a little over 3 hours, the HR monitor said I had burned 2400 calories! Pretty sure I had a large green tea milkshake after that ride! I used to take alpha lipoic acid after my rides to mitigate soreness and I've recently tried one of the CBD derived recovery drops that really helps with soreness, but I think adequate water before and after a ride plays a huge role in soreness too. 

Skillz    

There’s only two comp riders I enjoy watching and that’s Joacim and Carthy. Both massively impressive but I still prefer Watson’s style.   As  above I’d love to see him on a Maestro carbon and see what he could do.