Speed

depends on the distance you are going and the terrain, I'm a newbie again too, not to mention way out of shape, I did a 6 mile time trial(sorta) and I averaged 18.5mph. I thought that was decent, but my legs were rubber and i was light headed afterwards, i guess i need to spin more.

I try to do 7.5 miles a day on basically flat road. I usually average 15 the first half and then 18 the second. I'm setting a goal to be able to do 18 the whole way, but I didn't know if that was too low or too high of a speed.

scottmilk9 said:

depends on the distance you are going and the terrain, I'm a newbie again too, not to mention way out of shape, I did a 6 mile time trial(sorta) and I averaged 18.5mph. I thought that was decent, but my legs were rubber and i was light headed afterwards, i guess i need to spin more.

I have been riding about a month now and my average speed is usually around 12-13 mph. I ride at least 4 days a week and 10 miles a day... more miles on weekends because I have more time... The roads I ride are up and down with only a few steep hills, but the pavement is poor in places (south jersey's road systems suck).... About 3 miles of my ride is smooth bike trail with one steep hill...

I dont know if this is good, or average or what because I really have nothing to compare it to, but this is where I am at so far. I do want to have a higher average speed but my immediate goals are longer distances.

Hidden1229 said:

I try to do 7.5 miles a day on basically flat road. I usually average 15 the first half and then 18 the second. I'm setting a goal to be able to do 18 the whole way, but I didn't know if that was too low or too high of a speed.

Your goal seems reasonable. As long as you are not too ridiculous, any goal above what you currently do is good... then when you reach that goal, set another one... the new goal can be to improve to 19 mph, or eventually to maintain.

I share your goal driven view to some extent, but without the readers knowing a lot more, asking an anonymous audience on a forum isn't likely to be helpful. Are you 20 years old or 80? Do you weigh 140 pounds, or 340? Are you on a mountain bike or a road bike? Is your goal fitness or racing?

I think your speed is fine for just starting. I wish I had 7 miles of flats to see what my average speed would be. I was doing a 26 mile route where I hit about 2 miles of flats 20 miles into it. I would average arond 17mph on that section. Now I'm alternating between 30 & 50 mile routes. I only see about 1 mile stretches of flats. I live in New England and all roads are about 70% hills. My last 30 mile ride had an average of 14.8 mph, my last 50 mile ride was 14.4 mph. Bye the way, I'm 46 years old and just started riding last september. I hadn't riden since 1977.

When I started 10 miles at 10 mph required a 2 hours nap to recover. Now a 30 mile breakfast run wakes me up and gets me set for the rest of the day.

My average is running about 12 mph, partially becasue we have several mles of in town riding to do before hitting the roads, partially because the GF is still learning to ride and partially because some of the roads are so rough that high speed isn't real safe due to eyeballs bouncing and lack of focus!

I would say to set a goal that leaves you worked out, not exhausted. Up that goal a little, say, 1/2 mph. Hold that until it is comfortable then up it again.

Right now, we have this long, gradual ascent with a little steep bit at the top that I want to make at +10 mph all the way. Believe my legs can do it, need to work on my attention span, I find myself arriving at the steepish bit doing 9.5 which irritates me no end...

I'm 53 3/4, 22 lbs lighter than I started in March, 2006.

My current best ride was a 23 mile ride, non-stop with an average speed of 16.6 mph. This was not pushing as hard as I could either. I'm 53 and my ride is a wonderful paved bicycle trail out and back. I had been riding a 47 mile ride a few weeks prior to my current rides of around 25 miles. I've been mixing rides up. On my shorter rides I can push harder on the return leg, knowing I won't run out of steam having a long ride left to do. On the longer rides I'm careful to take it easy on the way out for it's a long ride back when one is out of energy.

brand new roadie - average around 30-35kmph for around a 15-20km commute.
not much older on the mtb - same run i average 25-30kmph...

scottmilk9 said:

depends on the distance you are going and the terrain, I'm a newbie again too, not to mention way out of shape, I did a 6 mile time trial(sorta) and I averaged 18.ph. I thought that was decent, but my legs were rubber and i was light headed afterwards, i guess i need to spin more.

My averages are well down on that,but I do live in a hilly area and my bikes are a 6yr old GT arrowhead mtb that I've fitted with semi sliks and a 34yr old 3spd Hercules,not excactly tour de France kit lol.
Despite having an average speed of only about 13mph(and please don't forget those pesky hills),I can quite often hit over 30mph with the 3spd and can cruise along quite comfortably at 22-24mph on the flat,not bad for a bike of that age and style I reckon.(and Iam 40yrs old after all lol)🙂

Hillbillybiker,
thats a very good avg for someone who has hills/old bike/old engine 🙂
I'm pushing 40 myself, my max speed was only 27mph on my little loop. I think i could have gone faster, but not for a sustained period of time. Im gonna start sprinting the last 100m or so, just to see how my top speed is.

hillibillybiker said:

My averages are well down on that,but I do live in a hilly area and my bikes are a 6yr old GT arrowhead mtb that I've fitted with semi sliks and a 34yr old 3spd Hercules,not excactly tour de France kit lol.
Despite having an average speed of only about 13mph(and please don't forget those pesky hills),I can quite often hit over 30mph with the 3spd and can cruise along quite comfortably at 22-24mph on the flat,not bad for a bike of that age and style I reckon.(and Iam 40yrs old after all lol)🙂

You can cruise comfortable at 22-24mph on the flats and yet average only 13mph? You must have live in the Alps... :eek:

PartisanRanger said:

You can cruise comfortable at 22-24mph on the flats and yet average only 13mph? You must have live in the Alps... :eek:

The only flat runs are to the east and to the west.If I head north I'm climbing,if I head south,I need a boat😄 Sometimes it really does feel like cycling in the alps and I'm afraid those elusive 22-24mph stretches can feel very few and far between!

scottmilk9 said:

Hillbillybiker,
thats a very good avg for someone who has hills/old bike/old engine 🙂
I'm pushing 40 myself, my max speed was only 27mph on my little loop. I think i could have gone faster, but not for a sustained period of time. Im gonna start sprinting the last 100m or so, just to see how my top speed is.

Cheers,I usually ride with my two sons,my eldest is 19 and my youngest 17.My eldest son hasn't been into cycling for very long and despite being a bit overweight, is already showing signs of being a strong cyclist.
My youngest son is an exceptionally strong rider with average speeds higher than my own.Mind you he's fitness mad,Judo,Kung fu,Rugby,Boxing Swimming and weighttraining and as if that's not enough,he's started distance running aswell!
I'll have to see if I can get him a decent racing bike,the speeds you guys attain never ceases to amaze me,it's too late for me,but for him,who knows🙂

PartisanRanger said:

You can cruise comfortable at 22-24mph on the flats and yet average only 13mph? You must have live in the Alps... :eek:

Reset my bike computer before setting off and did a prolonged relatively flat run to the east of my home today on my GT,hit up to 36mph going down a slight but lengthy gradient,popped along for a couple of miles at over 21mph,checked my comp approx halfway before the return trip as I was returning by a different and hillier route and my average was 17mph,final mileage on return home 14 miles.I feel much better now🙂

hillibillybiker said:

Reset my bike computer before setting off and did a prolonged relatively flat run to the east of my home today on my GT,hit up to 36mph going down a slight but lengthy gradient,popped along for a couple of miles at over 21mph,checked my comp approx halfway before the return trip as I was returning by a different and hillier route and my average was 17mph,final mileage on return home 14 miles.I feel much better now🙂

Great 🙂

On my morning ride today I had a avg speed of 13.1 mph... the ride out was fantastic never falling below 15 mph on the flats and hitting the climbs at 12 mph... the ride back I started getting a little worn out and hit a strong head wind on the final stretch when a storm started rolling in.....

I think once I get rid of my knobby mtb tires and get some road slicks, I will get a better speed going.

cycling_jedi said:

On my morning ride today I had a avg speed of 13.1 mph... the ride out was fantastic never falling below 15 mph on the flats and hitting the climbs at 12 mph... the ride back I started getting a little worn out and hit a strong head wind on the final stretch when a storm started rolling in.....

I think once I get rid of my knobby mtb tires and get some road slicks, I will get a better speed going.

The tyres will definitely make a big difference,I recently ditched my GT's 26x210 knobbys and fitted 26x175 semi sliks and the old gals flying on road now.Looks like you ran into the same situation as I did this morning,hills and head winds on the return trip🙂

I started riding in June and my average was about 9.5 to 10. One 3 mile hill on the way home that always had me down at 7-8 mph. Now I take that hill at 11-12 and average 15-18 on the rest of the 36 mile trip that I take when I'm too lazy to think of another route.

On my last 60 miler, I averaged 14mph total. 25 miles of that trail was crushed gravel that had me pedaling for 18 mph and getting 12-13. Gets me in shape though!

Good luck on your riding.
Ginny in Denver

imagesinthewind said:

I started riding in June and my average was about 9.5 to 10. One 3 mile hill on the way home that always had me down at 7-8 mph. Now I take that hill at 11-12 and average 15-18 on the rest of the 36 mile trip that I take when I'm too lazy to think of another route.

On my last 60 miler, I averaged 14mph total. 25 miles of that trail was crushed gravel that had me pedaling for 18 mph and getting 12-13. Gets me in shape though!

Good luck on your riding.
Ginny in Denver

It is amazing how quickly you can seen an improvement in speed if you ride a lot... I was the same way when I started about a month ago... avg 10mph and the hills really killed me, sometimes falling to 7-9 mph.... I always keep an eye on my speed and try to note any improvements on specific sections of my usual ride...

There is one hill specifically that is short and steep.. It usually killed my legs, but I would climb it at about 8 mph when I first started, now it is 12 mph and never below 11mph....

I think one key is to not try to make huge leaps in your improvement, but slowly and steadily strive for improvement.