Average Speed

LewisBricktop said:

I've been seriously riding for only about 3-4 months now and was wondering what a good average speed for my rides should be. I started riding about 15 miles at about 16 mph and now ride about 30 miles between 19-19.5 mph. Does this sound like decent progress, or should I even be worried about speed as I am still a beginner?

No matter how it compares now, simply try to improve your average speed all the time over the same courses. Be careful with the traffic though. Don't tolerate too many rides at the same avg. Push it up all the time.

Then you'll start looking for ways to ease the improvement process. And the avg will keep going up.

I few years from now, it should still be improving.

LewisBricktop said:

I've been seriously riding for only about 3-4 months now and was wondering what a good average speed for my rides should be. I started riding about 15 miles at about 16 mph and now ride about 30 miles between 19-19.5 mph. Does this sound like decent progress, or should I even be worried about speed as I am still a beginner?

It's progress so well done - but has this been measured across the same course, in similar conditions and what was the perceived effort? IMO, forget about ave speed over the total duration of your rides unless you do all your training/riding in an environment without wind, traffic or hills and all your rides are TT's. The problem is, measuring progress using speed alone is very difficult unless you can control the conditions such that you can meaningfully compare different rides. This is very difficult to do in 'real world' but can be done if you do, say, intervals in a controlled environment - eg on an indoor trainer, or on a hill with steady gradient (and relatively unaffected by wind) or on a velodrome. In which case, you could use time & distance (hence ave speed) to compare progress.

What may be more meaningful is to find a course where conditions are relatively the same and do say 5min, 10min, 15min, 20min, 30min intervals on them and compare ave speed for these durations to measure your progress over time. This could provide a better proxy for your true progress and also provide other benefits such as teach you how to pace your efforts.

That's a point I'm very aware of. I have had guys race me unexpectedly - you know the situation where someone comes hurtling past you all of a sudden. However, what strikes me is it isn't worth it. These are roads sometimes loaded with junctions, cars, buses and the possibility of kids running out e.t.c.
There are areas I don't go fast for common sense reasons. I've crashed twice this season and these crashes can set you back. I prefer to go flat out only in areas where I feel safer so I tend to go slower on descents but push myself going uphill where there is less danger of skidding and you can stop with gravity on your side.
However, in pro-cycling crashes are almost unavoidable.

SolarEnergy said:

No matter how it compares now, simply try to improve your average speed all the time over the same courses. Be careful with the traffic though. Don't tolerate too many rides at the same avg. Push it up all the time.

Then you'll start looking for ways to ease the improvement process. And the avg will keep going up.

I few years from now, it should still be improving.

Carrera said:

That's a point I'm very aware of. I have had guys race me unexpectedly - you know the situation where someone comes hurtling past you all of a sudden. However, what strikes me is it isn't worth it. These are roads sometimes loaded with junctions, cars, buses and the possibility of kids running out e.t.c.
There are areas I don't go fast for common sense reasons. I've crashed twice this season and these crashes can set you back. I prefer to go flat out only in areas where I feel safer so I tend to go slower on descents but push myself going uphill where there is less danger of skidding and you can stop with gravity on your side.
However, in pro-cycling crashes are almost unavoidable.

Hi, I have been cycling for about 5 years now, and have slowly increased my average speed. I currently ride a Specialized Allez Sport Triple, Love it.

My average speed is between 16 and 17 mph, however, I only ride about 100 miles a month.

I have a set 11 mile loop I ride and usually get round in about 40 minutes.

I want to improve on this I am 5'10, weight 196lbs, age 47.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thinking of going faster on urban street circuits? Try learning from these guys...

http://www.digave.com/videos/ :eek:

Join the club!!!! Up here I haven't found a lot of info on that either. Like you I am new to this(started Memorial Day week-end).O.K. Today I rode to Canadian and back. Average speed was way low. 25mph sidewind, with less tan 10 mile flatland, open country (no trees or wind break). My average speed was 17.5mph, my fastest was 36.4(downhill), slowest on road12.6(uphill).Like you ,is that good,bad, or what? That's O.K. though,I made the 72 miles round trip, by-my-self and feal good about it!

LewisBricktop said:

I've been seriously riding for only about 3-4 months now and was wondering what a good average speed for my rides should be. I started riding about 15 miles at about 16 mph and now ride about 30 miles between 19-19.5 mph. Does this sound like decent progress, or should I even be worried about speed as I am still a beginner?

I would say this is good progress but average speed is relative to terrain. Your 19-19.5 may be a good speed for the terrain that you are riding; but if you had 3,000 feet of climbing in your 30 miles and you didn’t maintain your 19-19.5 average are you digressing? HR, Intervals and other methods would be a better metric. If you are always going to ride the same course then average speed can be used to measure progress.

Carrera said:

That's a point I'm very aware of. I have had guys race me unexpectedly - you know the situation where someone comes hurtling past you all of a sudden. However, what strikes me is it isn't worth it. These are roads sometimes loaded with junctions, cars, buses and the possibility of kids running out e.t.c.
There are areas I don't go fast for common sense reasons. I've crashed twice this season and these crashes can set you back. I prefer to go flat out only in areas where I feel safer so I tend to go slower on descents but push myself going uphill where there is less danger of skidding and you can stop with gravity on your side.
However, in pro-cycling crashes are almost unavoidable.

Live life on the edge, take some risk, go fast, sign up with several insurancy agencies while you're at it. Earn money. Moral hazard.

LewisBricktop said:

I've been seriously riding for only about 3-4 months now and was wondering what a good average speed for my rides should be. I started riding about 15 miles at about 16 mph and now ride about 30 miles between 19-19.5 mph. Does this sound like decent progress, or should I even be worried about speed as I am still a beginner?

at what heart rate is taht average speed that is the important thin i can ride at 28 to 30 klm per hour on strong headwinds on my 3 klm circuit in park that around 1,2 klms head wind 1,2 klm tail wind, on tail wind i can go up to 35 on 70 to 80% max bmp i average 30 klms pero hour on 3 hours ride thats 90 klms bit more bit less