Need some speed help

There are three ways to increase your average speed: (1) increase power, (2) more aerodynamic position and equipment and (3) draft. Your post rules out (1) and (2), so I'd say learn to draft.

RapDaddyo said:

There are three ways to increase your average speed: (1) increase power, (2) more aerodynamic position and equipment and (3) draft. Your post rules out (1) and (2), so I'd say learn to draft.

Sorry, Rapster, I disagree. I don't think anyone should take the risks inherent in drafting unless they're very serious amateurs or pros.

Pendejo said:

Sorry, Rapster, I disagree. I don't think anyone should take the risks inherent in drafting unless they're very serious amateurs or pros.

Then, that rules everything out. He said he doesn't want to know about thresholds and stuff, which rules out targeting adaptations by level of intensity. And, he said he doesn't want to change equipment. So, that rules out wheels, tires and other equipment changes that would result in more speed. And, in all likelihood he doesn't want to learn to ride in a more aero position. So, what's left? Nothing.

RapDaddyo said:

Then, that rules everything out. He said he doesn't want to know about thresholds and stuff, which rules out targeting adaptations by level of intensity. And, he said he doesn't want to change equipment. So, that rules out wheels, tires and other equipment changes that would result in more speed. And, in all likelihood he doesn't want to learn to ride in a more aero position. So, what's left? Nothing.

He could always take up jam making! 😄 Tyson

Sillyoldtwit said:

He could always take up jam making! 😄 Tyson

LOL. Why didn't I think of that?😄

john9215 said:

Ok, folks. Need your help. Am 55, male. Have been cycling since April. Have cycled 855 miles to date. Some hilly terrain, some flat. Average speed about 12.5 mph. Did a flat 75 miles on Saturday at 12.9 mph. Want to be able to do a relatively flat century in November but don't want to be the last one in. Also, would like to pick up some speed so I can feel more comfortable about doing group rides and not holding people up or being left. Sooo, how do I increase my speed? I am losing some weight in this process but I will not be buying high tech monitors or a new bike (by the way... (I ride a Raleigh Flat bar Road bike) I like it a lot and will not switch. I am NOT in to calculating various thresholds and all that stuff either. I just want some good advice on training from people in the know. Should I do more hills, some interval work drink less beer (not likely). I would like to average 14 mph. That's all. From where I am today that is only a 12% increase. Some (all) ideas are welcome and appreciated. But remember keep it simple. I have a real job and limited time. I usually can ride 2 -3 nights a week, for an hour or two and have most weekends available for longer rides. About once a week, I run (slow jog) 3-5 miles. If I can get up to 14.5 mph then I can do a century in 7 hours or so with breaks. That would make me happy. Looking forward to you responses. Thanks from the over the hill guy looking to be a kid again.

Honestly? Ride your bike. You obviously don't especially want to change what you're doing (not that that's a bad thing) so don't. If you've been riding for that short a time you will continue to see an increase through whatever you've been doing.

OK guys. Time for something constructive.

I'm 46 and just started riding last september. 1st time since I was 17.

I started doing 5 mile rides, 3 to 4 times a week. Was very winded and extremely stiff in the beginning. I was averaging 12mph. ( 30% flats, 30% hills, 40% comfortable inclined hills). This was on a 35 lb gary fisher Hybrid. I kept riding the same route and timing myself and slowly increased my average time, and when I felt I was ready I increased my distance to 10 miles. What I monitored during my ride was my current speed and my average speed. And what I tried for is whenever I crested the top of the hill I was on, I pushed to get my current speed over the average speed displayed for that ride.
I also checked out the other threads in this forum on how others take on the hills. Some are very aggressive and attack the hills. Others have tips on when to downshift to keep their cadence where they want it. I found that I did better on hills if I downshifted earlier than I was doing before.
My best suggestion is to ride more, read the threads. Try running the same route each time out and try one of the tips to see if it works for you. And go with what works for you, everyone is different.

Recently I was up to 20 miles rides with an ave speed of 14 mph and have lost 8 pounds. I'm still riding 3 to 4 times a week.

Now that I've stuck with it and continued to improve, I finally bought myself a new bike. TREK 2.1 spa. The New bike gave me another jump in average speed with it's light weight and better aerodynamics. And as soon as I can pack more water, I'll be increasing my distance again. probably between 25-30 miles.

Just don't give up.

46 and in New England hoping the cold and snow hold off as long as possible.

RussB said:

OK guys. Time for something constructive.

I'm 46 and just started riding last september. 1st time since I was 17.

I started doing 5 mile rides, 3 to 4 times a week. Was very winded and extremely stiff in the beginning. I was averaging 12mph. ( 30% flats, 30% hills, 40% comfortable inclined hills). This was on a 35 lb gary fisher Hybrid. I kept riding the same route and timing myself and slowly increased my average time, and when I felt I was ready I increased my distance to 10 miles. What I monitored during my ride was my current speed and my average speed. And what I tried for is whenever I crested the top of the hill I was on, I pushed to get my current speed over the average speed displayed for that ride.
I also checked out the other threads in this forum on how others take on the hills. Some are very aggressive and attack the hills. Others have tips on when to downshift to keep their cadence where they want it. I found that I did better on hills if I downshifted earlier than I was doing before.
My best suggestion is to ride more, read the threads. Try running the same route each time out and try one of the tips to see if it works for you. And go with what works for you, everyone is different.

Recently I was up to 20 miles rides with an ave speed of 14 mph and have lost 8 pounds. I'm still riding 3 to 4 times a week.

Now that I've stuck with it and continued to improve, I finally bought myself a new bike. TREK 2.1 spa. The New bike gave me another jump in average speed with it's light weight and better aerodynamics. And as soon as I can pack more water, I'll be increasing my distance again. probably between 25-30 miles.

Just don't give up.

46 and in New England hoping the cold and snow hold off as long as possible.

I agree with Russ. Just keep riding, improvements will come. I started riding in March on a Hybrid and now I have a road bike & averaged 14.28 mph this weekend on a 50 mile ride with hills. I've learned to get as much speed as possible on the downhills & allow it to carry me up the next & then I can pedal a little harder & faster up that hill. Stick with it. Speed will come.

If Saturday is your long ride day at 12.9mph avg 75 miles total distance then make Monday a tempo ride 25 to 40 miles at 15 mph or just the highest speed you can handle for 3 hours even if you don't actually do 3 hours that day just find that pace and hold it for 25 miles. Then Wednesday try intervals 2 minutes fast 2 minutes slow do 7 repititions or less. After three weeks change the interval to 4 minutes at five or six reps or what ever you can do then change again three weeks later.

FYI I'm not a cycling expert

I like what dude is saying here. It represents the natural progression of things. Start off just riding. When you want more speed, start some basic intervals, start some simplified tempo rides. Next year, you'll start in doing that and then you'll come back to the forums and say "hei, remember me? this training I'm doing is over simplified, what's the next step?" and even though there's a hundred posts that probably give you good advice, folks here will respond because when it's late at night and we can't be riding our bikes we like to think about it and read about it and share our thoughts with each other. ...we're just that geeky.🙄

Quoted post said:

FYI I'm not a cycling expert

...I'm no expert either

Here's what I recommend, assuming you have 1.5 hours to ride three times during the week and a total of 6 hours to ride on weekends:

Tuesday: Warm up 15 minutes; then ride at a steady pace for next hour but whenever you hit a small hill go as hard as you can go--really push it and don't be afraid to stand up for part of the hill; then cool down for 15 minutes.

Wednesday: Just ride nice and easy for an hour or so. Don't worry about your speed. Just have fun.

Thursday: Warm up 15 minutes; ride at a steady pace for next hour but every five minutes try to increase your speed by 25% for one minute for a total of 10 efforts; Cool down for 15 minutes.

Saturday: Ride 2 hours at a pace that is just below uncomfortable.

Sunday: Ride 3-4 hours at comfortable pace. Eat/drink plenty and enjoy yourself.

In all your rides, work for a cadence of 90-100 rpms on flats and 80-90 rpms going up hill (unless standing).

--Steve

john9215 said:

Ok, folks. Need your help. Am 55, male. Have been cycling since April. Have cycled 855 miles to date. Some hilly terrain, some flat. Average speed about 12.5 mph. Did a flat 75 miles on Saturday at 12.9 mph. Want to be able to do a relatively flat century in November but don't want to be the last one in. Also, would like to pick up some speed so I can feel more comfortable about doing group rides and not holding people up or being left. Sooo, how do I increase my speed? I am losing some weight in this process but I will not be buying high tech monitors or a new bike (by the way... (I ride a Raleigh Flat bar Road bike) I like it a lot and will not switch. I am NOT in to calculating various thresholds and all that stuff either. I just want some good advice on training from people in the know. Should I do more hills, some interval work drink less beer (not likely). I would like to average 14 mph. That's all. From where I am today that is only a 12% increase. Some (all) ideas are welcome and appreciated. But remember keep it simple. I have a real job and limited time. I usually can ride 2 -3 nights a week, for an hour or two and have most weekends available for longer rides. About once a week, I run (slow jog) 3-5 miles. If I can get up to 14.5 mph then I can do a century in 7 hours or so with breaks. That would make me happy. Looking forward to you responses. Thanks from the over the hill guy looking to be a kid again.

That 12% increase in average speed will require something like a 25-30% increase in your avg power output on the road, which is a major gain over the next 3 months.

The bigger question is why do you need to do your first century in 7 hours in order to be happy? I've seen plenty of first-time century riders finish in 8+ hours with huge grins on their faces. When you were a kid riding your bike, did you go out and train to achieve arbitrary goals, or just go have fun riding?

If you've been cultured in pass/fail quarterly planning objectives at work, it may seem natural for you to set milestones and measureable goals to achieve in your recreational activities. Suggest instead you force yourself to forget all that, and just learn to enjoy riding your bike again. Your enjoyment and overall fitness/wellness gains from cycling shouldn't be tied to the avg speed readouts on your bike computer. Have fun completing your first century, and you're likely to go on and do many more.

Nah... To ride faster you need to practice riding faster. HR monitors would help but even without that you can improve. Find a 10-12 mile course. Ride the course and time yourself. Go on with your regular rides but twice a week do your 10-12 mile route but ride harder than you do on longer rides. Ride hard enough so that you can still talk but not really comfortably. write down your time. In 2-4 weeks you'll start seeing improvement. Cutting down on the beers will help but get this... Have a cold one post ride on those hard days. Drink a glass of water too but those carbs help most when you need 'em.

Yea, it's interval training and you are working thresholds but who cares you can have a beer when you're done.

Good luck

dhk2 said:

That 12% increase in average speed will require something like a 25-30% increase in your avg power output on the road, which is a major gain over the next 3 months.

The bigger question is why do you need to do your first century in 7 hours in order to be happy? I've seen plenty of first-time century riders finish in 8+ hours with huge grins on their faces. When you were a kid riding your bike, did you go out and train to achieve arbitrary goals, or just go have fun riding?

If you've been cultured in pass/fail quarterly planning objectives at work, it may seem natural for you to set milestones and measureable goals to achieve in your recreational activities. Suggest instead you force yourself to forget all that, and just learn to enjoy riding your bike again. Your enjoyment and overall fitness/wellness gains from cycling shouldn't be tied to the avg speed readouts on your bike computer. Have fun completing your first century, and you're likely to go on and do many more.

Thank YOU! Biking is FUN! We don't need to clutter it up with a bunch of numbers! I got caught up in that "gotta pick up speed" trap. Now, I enjoy the ride.

I see you are from Huntsville. Any good road routes up there around Cedar Bluff? I'll be spending some time around Lake Weiss and want to know if I should haul my road bike up there or not. Still wishing for a mountain bike... sigh! 🙄

Topsi1208 said:

Thank YOU! Biking is FUN! We don't need to clutter it up with a bunch of numbers! I got caught up in that "gotta pick up speed" trap. Now, I enjoy the ride.

I see you are from Huntsville. Any good road routes up there around Cedar Bluff? I'll be spending some time around Lake Weiss and want to know if I should haul my road bike up there or not. Still wishing for a mountain bike... sigh! 🙄

Sorry haven't been down to Weiss Lake or Cedar Bluff (it's a long way from here), but I'm pretty sure you could find some good hilly backroads without a problem.

Thanks for the second on the speed-obsession thing. Believe we agree that riding the bike is the main thing. The speed comes naturally after you learn to enjoy the sport; trying to force it on a timetable is a prescription for burnout.

Pendejo said:

Sorry, Rapster, I disagree. I don't think anyone should take the risks inherent in drafting unless they're very serious amateurs or pros.

OMG, i draft!!! I'm no pro or amateur should i stop? get more life ins?

zaskar said:

OMG, i draft!!! I'm no pro or amateur should i stop? get more life ins?

Apparently you should slow down since riding slow is so much more fun. 😉