Road Cycling · Public discussion

20.3 MPH... STUCK!...SUCK!

JimmyBubble · 2013-10-09T10:29:39+00:00

Any help on breaking this mental/ physical 20-ish MPH barrier? Any training suggestions would be greatly appreciated- No matter my mileage on solo training rides, I always seem to cough up a 20-20.5 MPH overall average (20-40 miles). I'm looking for something closer to 22.5 to 23. It's frustrating to also be cognizant of trying to maintain a higher overall speed on a specific ride and look down at the speedo and see that stinkin' 20.4 staring back at me! My PR for my 20 mile loop is 21.6 Background- 46 years old male, former Cat 3 from 20 years ago. Been back in it for a little over a year. I know the obvious answer is more miles and intervals, but here's the problem- TIME. 2 kids under 8 and 60-70 hour work weeks. I'm stuck with usually 2-3 rides per week, and usually nothing over 40 miles, with an occasional group ride of 50-60 miles. I feel pretty solid on the cardio side, but when I push it on solo training rides, it seems like muscle fatigue is my first noticeable weakness. Strangely, I can usually hold stronger pulls and maintain higher speeds/ HR AFTER I have 10 miles on the Garmin. I'm not looking to start racing again (yet) but would love to be a part time boss on some of these group rides and Grande Fondos. If anyone has any tips or insight to help break this barrier, besides the Livestrong Supplement Pack from GNC, I would greatly appreciate your time! Thanks, Jim Go fast- take chances!

Started by JimmyBubble · 9 October 2013 · Last activity 30 November 2013 · 13 posts · 2,165 views

← Back to Road Cycling

Thread navigation

Jump through the discussion

Go to the original post, the replies on this page, or the latest preserved contribution.

01 / Original post20.3 MPH... STUCK!...SUCK!JimmyBubble · 9 Oct 2013 02 / This pagePosts 1–13Page 1 of 1 · chronological order 03 / Latest replyPost #13swampy1970 · 30 Nov 2013

Thread details

What we know about this thread

Original section: Road Cycling
Published: 9 October 2013
Last activity: 30 November 2013
Original author: JimmyBubble
Posts: 13
Discussion status: Public discussion
Total views: 2,165
Views / 30 days: 0
Topics: Group riding Classics racing Indoor trainers Time trials

The navigation and discussion metadata provide context. Posts remain in their original chronological order.

Original post
JimmyBubble
Archived post

9 October 2013, 10:29 UTC #1

Any help on breaking this mental/ physical 20-ish MPH barrier?
Any training suggestions would be greatly appreciated- No matter my mileage on solo training rides, I always seem to cough up a 20-20.5 MPH overall average (20-40 miles). I'm looking for something closer to 22.5 to 23. It's frustrating to also be cognizant of trying to maintain a higher overall speed on a specific ride and look down at the speedo and see that stinkin' 20.4 staring back at me! My PR for my 20 mile loop is 21.6
Background- 46 years old male, former Cat 3 from 20 years ago. Been back in it for a little over a year. I know the obvious answer is more miles and intervals, but here's the problem- TIME. 2 kids under 8 and 60-70 hour work weeks. I'm stuck with usually 2-3 rides per week, and usually nothing over 40 miles, with an occasional group ride of 50-60 miles. I feel pretty solid on the cardio side, but when I push it on solo training rides, it seems like muscle fatigue is my first noticeable weakness. Strangely, I can usually hold stronger pulls and maintain higher speeds/ HR AFTER I have 10 miles on the Garmin.
I'm not looking to start racing again (yet) but would love to be a part time boss on some of these group rides and Grande Fondos. If anyone has any tips or insight to help break this barrier, besides the Livestrong Supplement Pack from GNC, I would greatly appreciate your time!
Thanks,
Jim
Go fast- take chances!

Report
CAMPYBOB
Archived post

9 October 2013, 11:36 UTC #2

"besides the Livestrong Supplement Pack from GNC, I would greatly appreciate your time!"
GNC? I'ld be shopping from Lance, direct! EPO...T...Hgh...you should be roaring 23-25 MPH averages in no time on your next ride!
"Strangely, I can usually hold stronger pulls and maintain higher speeds/ HR AFTER I have 10 miles on the Garmin."
What's so strange about that?
Two young kids and 60-70 hours of work per week is a hard schedule. Despite what the cyber-Nibabi's say, 20-21 as an average is decent Watts, IMO. You're heading in the right direction and already answered your own question. More miles. More speed work. More time in the saddle. And keep riding with the young bucks.
Time management is, obviously, going to be your biggest challenge. Keeping the wife happy, the kids well raised, the boss suitably impressed AND increasing your training is never easy. What type of terrain are you training in when you record your 20-21 MPH rides? Pan flat with winds? Rollers and light climbs? Some real hills? As an ex-3 your position should be OK, but you never know. Hill intervals?
The 'muscle fatigue' comment after a year of training...I'll let the coaches address that.

Report
alfeng
Archived post

9 October 2013, 12:50 UTC #3

Quote:Originally Posted by JimmyBubble [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]Any help on breaking this mental/ physical 20-ish MPH barrier?
.... I'm not looking to start racing again (yet) but would love to be a part time boss on some of these group rides and Grande Fondos. If anyone has any tips or insight to help break this barrier, besides the Livestrong Supplement Pack from GNC, I would greatly appreciate your time!
FWIW. LOWER your handlebars ... DON'T ride with your hands on the hoods ... LOSE 5 lbs.

Report
maydog
Archived post

9 October 2013, 22:00 UTC #4

Do a nice long warm up before your timed interval.
Caffiene
Get aero. A 22 -23 mph average is a pretty decent bike split in a triathlon, and they are riding TT rigs.
Anyone who can hold a 20's average by themselves on the flat is boss in any non or semi competive event around here.

Report
CAMPYBOB
Archived post

10 October 2013, 02:20 UTC #5

"Caffiene"
And gels with caffeine!

Report
JimmyBubble
Archived post

19 October 2013, 11:10 UTC #6

Thanks all- great suggestions! Getting off the hoods and losing weight are the no brainers that won't seem to sink in to this brain. My first ride out after reading this I forced myself to stay on the drops and saw immediate improvement. You can literally watch the mph increase while making this move. Losing weight- another great one. I live in FL, so it's flat flat flat. We have a 100 mph grande fondo next month with 6000 ft of climbs, so I've definitely put down the ice cream! Thanks again all- much appreciated!

Report
maydog
Archived post

21 October 2013, 14:53 UTC #7

How do you get 6000 feet of climb in Florida?

Report
alienator
Archived post

21 October 2013, 17:28 UTC #8

maydog said:
How do you get 6000 feet of climb in Florida?
500 laps over the highway overpass?

Report
damosneeze
Archived post

20 November 2013, 19:35 UTC #9

Quoted post said:
Originally Posted by alienator
500 laps over the highway overpass?
ha! [IMG]files.cyclingforums.combig smile.png[/IMG]

Report
J-Boogie
Archived post

26 November 2013, 02:51 UTC #10

Horrible Hundred?

Report
ambal
Archived post

26 November 2013, 20:07 UTC #11

When my time is limited, i live on a diet of high intensity intervals and racing every weekend.
One session I do is; Find the steepest bit of road you can, I use a short section that takes about 30 seconds to climb it's about 23% gradient. Hit it at max effort 10 times with a max 1:30 rest between. Did 2 sets of 10 yesterday and was a complete and utter mess by the end with only an hour on the bike.
Another session I feel like I get good value from is 30m TT efforts, will be doing 2 today.
Lastly thursdays I usually hit the small steep climbs that take 4-5 minutes to get up @ close to max effort. I usually fit 7 or 8 of these in in a little over an hour.
On the weekends when i'm not time limited I do some longer rides, usually some TT efforts mixed in with a ~ 80-100km on saturday and sundays if the race is within 50km of home, i usualy ride to it and then home afterwards.
The key is to train hard and rest as well as you can.

Report
needmoreair
Archived post

29 November 2013, 21:07 UTC #12

You might have a bit of luck by varying your routine a bit more (assuming you're essentially doing a time trial to try and average 20+ every day).
By that I mean that one day you may go out and ride for 3-4x 15 mins really, really hard with 5 mins of easy spinning in between. Then the next day you go ride a bit easier to recover. Then two- three days out you go and try to ride 5-6x 5mins flat out with 5 mins easy spinning in between, etc.
Workouts like that where you have an actual "hard" part of the ride to push you above what you're currently doing.

Report
swampy1970
Archived post
30 November 2013, 10:47 UTC #13
Quoted post said:
Originally Posted by alfeng
Quote: Originally Posted by JimmyBubble [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]
Any help on breaking this mental/ physical 20-ish MPH barrier?
....
I'm not looking to start racing again (yet) but would love to be a part time boss on some of these group rides and Grande Fondos. If anyone has any tips or insight to help break this barrier, besides the Livestrong Supplement Pack from GNC, I would greatly appreciate your time!

FWIW. LOWER your handlebars ...
- DON'T ride with your hands on the hoods ...
  LOSE 5 lbs.
I'm sure Mr Paris Roubaix would have something to say about your hand placement comments, Alf.
Being that Roger isn't one to mince his words I think he'd tell you to just f**k off.
[IMG]cyclingforums.com700[/IMG]
[IMG]cyclingforums.com700[/IMG]
Ol' Moser might disagree too.
[IMG]cyclingforums.com700[/IMG]
Report

Active in the last 60 minutes

Active in this thread

0 users · 0 guests ·0 bots ·0 total

No signed-in users are active right now.

No known search crawlers active right now.

Jump through the discussion

What we know about this thread

Continue through CyclingForums

Active in this thread