going nowhere in 2 years!!

Ride four to five days per week and do so for many months and you will see progress.

It's very hard to move forward if you're detraining more days than you're actually training. A day or two per week isn't gonna cut it.

Thanks for the reply. Ok, I'll try 5 days per week. Was thinking maybe one of the 5 rides doing intervals. Is that a good idea?

What results would you expect in, say, 2 months? (getting a bit disheartened at the mo with lack of progress)

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by preston32 [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

Thanks for the reply. Ok, I'll try 5 days per week. Was thinking maybe one of the 5 rides doing intervals. Is that a good idea?

What results would you expect in, say, 2 months? (getting a bit disheartened at the mo with lack of progress)

Start by just making cycling a normal part of your life, get on the bike more days than not and ride as much or as little as you have time to ride.

So basically:

- Get on the bike most days and try not to go more than one or two days without riding when possible
- Ride longer on some days when you have time and explore new routes
- Ride faster on some rides when you feel good but focus on sustained quicker riding, not big lung bursting sprints, think in terms of raising your average speed and tempo a bit but not destroying yourself, deep steady breathing is good, feeling awful and gasping for breath, not so much
- Ride easier and shorter on days when you don't have much time or are more tired, listen to your body and be smart

Do that for a couple of months and you should start to see a difference in your average speeds and how you feel on the bike. Do it for a couple of years and you may become quite fast on the bike. This stuff takes time but enjoy the journey as much as the outcome. Make cycling a part of your normal everyday life and it doesn't always have to feel like training.

If you do all that for a while and develop specific cycling goals then certain interval routines might make sense but for now just ride more.

-Dave

Thanks very much.

I'll give it a try and hopefully get some significant improvement.

I'm still 13 stone so at 6ft tall could do with losing a stone or 2 as well which will make things easier.

Ride more days than you rest and make your routes fun. Weight is an issue but more so on the hills. On the flat getting into a reasonably tucked position will be fairly quick regardless of whether you weigh 13 or 11 stone if you're fit. On the hills, that 2 stone will make big difference. I'm guessing from the 'stones' reference to weight that you're in the UK where the hills are a little steeper and shorter - weight makes a very big difference on the steeper hills.

Whatever Swampy Americans gots plenty of stones! 😜 Preston, this really can't be stressed enough 1-2 days per week is not enough to improve performance. 4-5 days of riding would be a huge boost!

Still not much progress. The last 6 weeks I've been cycling 4-5 times a week. But if I try cycling at 17mph I get burnt out very quickly!

Is it worth getting a heart monitor? I've read it helps loads if I did my most my rides at 65%-75% of my max HR?

Average speed is not always a good indicator of cycling fitness. Road conditions, course choice, weather, elevation and bicycle type come into play. I have a few questions that, if answered, I believe the group can give more specific advice.

What are your goals?

What kind of bike are you riding on right now?
Is it in good working order and well maintained?
Are you riding on mostly flat courses?
How is your health?
What do you feel is holding you back, is it your legs, lungs, heart or other?

Using a HRM can be helpful, its an imperfect tool but a step in the right direction. As the others have stated, ride lots, challenge yourself and get a lot of quality rest.

Quote: Originally Posted by maydog [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]
Average speed is not always a good indicator of cycling fitness. Road conditions, course choice, weather, elevation and bicycle type come into play. I have a few questions that, if answered, I believe the group can give more specific advice.

What are your goals?

What kind of bike are you riding on right now?
Is it in good working order and well maintained?
Are you riding on mostly flat courses?
How is your health?
What do you feel is holding you back, is it your legs, lungs, heart or other?

Using a HRM can be helpful, its an imperfect tool but a step in the right direction. As the others have stated, ride lots, challenge yourself and get a lot of quality rest.

Goals are to be able to cycle for 2 hours+ on a mainly flat course at a decent pace (20mph+) so I'm not getting overtaken by 70 year old bikers with their shopping!

It's a £400 road bike, only a couple of years old.
It's in decent working order - nothing about it ie wheels/chain that would be slowing me down much.
Yes mainly flat courses.
Health is ok - it's the only thing that's improved significantly - my resting pulse used to be 65, now I've measured it at 46 at it's lowest - also recovery time after rides is much shorter than it used to be.
Legs are holding me back I think - they feel drained sometimes. Sometimes even walking up 2 flights of stairs they're drained which they didn't used to be.
Sounds like maybe I need to rest for a week?

Quote: Originally Posted by preston32 [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

Sounds like maybe I need to rest for a week?

Rest for a week? Nah, not unless you are ill. Rest = Ride like you don't want to drop your grandmother (really). But DO ride unless you are hurting from a really long hard ride.
There is a saying that the difference between pros and amateurs is that "amateurs don't ride hard enough on their hard rides and too hard on their easy rides."
Good Luck

Quote: Originally Posted by preston32 [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

Goals are to be able to cycle for 2 hours+ on a mainly flat course at a decent pace (20mph+)

Riding at 20mph for a couple hours on a road bike is not as easy as it looks.

Quote: Originally Posted by preston32 [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

Goals are to be able to cycle for 2 hours+ on a mainly flat course at a decent pace (20mph+) so I'm not getting overtaken by 70 year old bikers with their shopping!

Where did you get the idea that it takes 20 mph avg for 2 hours to represent a "decent pace"? I'd say a "decent pace" for a strong club rider over two hours of "mainly flat" roads is more like 16-18 mph. If you ride at 16-18 mph, you'll not be overtaken by any 70 yr old that I know....ok, maybe one or two, but they'll be on road or TT bikes, not with shopping bags. The vast majority of recreational riders that I know never approach 20 mph avg speeds, regardless of how long they've been riding.

Reality is that if you can average 15.4 mph now for a 22 mile ride, you ought to be able to get into that 16-18 mph range with just more riding. But I'd advise you forget about setting arbitrary speed goals of any sort. Concentrate on putting in miles of enjoyable rides, fairly low stress, so you can ride 5 or 6 times a week. Increase weekly mileage slowly, focus on enjoying rides and keeping them low-stress for now. Once you've trained up to the point you can put in 100-125 miles per week without suffering, then you might start doing one "speed day" per week, where you do focus on pushing that ride speed a bit, or adding hill or sprint intervals, etc.

Maybe your goal should be annual mileage. If you start putting in 5000 mile years on the bike, you'll find improvement just comes on it's own. After a couple of years of this kind of mileage, if you still feel the need to get faster, you could likely find a group of racers to join for weekly training rides. Either way, enjoy riding the bike.....that's what the sport's all about in the end.

Ok

dhk2 said:

Where did you get the idea that it takes 20 mph avg for 2 hours to represent a "decent pace"?  I'd say a "decent pace" for a strong club rider over two hours of "mainly flat" roads is more like 16-18 mph. If you ride at 16-18 mph, you'll not be overtaken by any 70 yr old that I know....ok, maybe one or two, but they'll be on road or TT bikes, not with shopping bags.   The vast majority of recreational riders that I know never approach 20 mph avg speeds, regardless of how long they've been riding.    Reality is that if you can average 15.4 mph now for a 22 mile ride, you ought to be able to get into that 16-18 mph range with just more riding.  But I'd advise you forget about setting arbitrary speed goals of any sort.   Concentrate on putting in miles of enjoyable rides, fairly low stress, so you can ride 5 or 6 times a week.  Increase weekly mileage slowly, focus on enjoying rides and keeping them low-stress for now.  Once you've trained up to the point you can put in 100-125 miles per week without suffering, then you might start doing one "speed day" per week, where you do focus on pushing that ride speed a bit, or adding hill or sprint intervals, etc. Maybe your goal should be annual mileage.  If you start putting in 5000 mile years on the bike, you'll find improvement just comes on it's own.  After a couple of years of this kind of mileage, if you still feel the need to get faster, you could likely find a group of racers to join for weekly training rides.  Either way, enjoy riding the bike.....that's what the sport's all about in the end.Â

Ok I'll give that a try thanks for the advice. Almost Every time someone overtakes me and I've tried to keep up with them for a bit they've been going 19-20 mph. Anyway ill try going slow and not get tempted to keep up with anyone.

Quote: Originally Posted by preston32 [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

Ok
Ok I'll give that a try thanks for the advice.

Almost Every time someone overtakes me and I've tried to keep up with them for a bit they've been going 19-20 mph.

Anyway ill try going slow and not get tempted to keep up with anyone.

Didn't mean to say you need to ride slow all the time. That's boring. It's fun to chase riders, but that doesn't mean you have to chase everyone. My key point was that there will always be faster riders, no matter who you are. Anyone who's averaging over 15 mph for an hour or more isn't slow, in fact, sounds right in the avg speed range of most club riders. Sure, there are many faster riders, as well as many younger, thinner, more athletic, but there are many slower and less fit than you as well.

Another thing to remember is that often riders will overtake and pass you going a lot faster than their average speed. I do this all the time for a couple of reasons. First, it's fun to blow by someone, make a strong pass, even for us non-racers. Second, it discourages them from jumping on my wheel. I don't like strangers who jump on my wheel and chase to see if they can stay in my draft. I know the chasing response is something most of us have, but it's annoying just the same when I'm on a solo ride.

I agree with the fact that your improvement is tiny but it is really important for you if you want to reach a higher level. It will definitely be tiny at first but if you keep practicing, it will pay off. It will definitely increase your skills. You just have to be patience. Without patience, you can't achieve anything in this world. I hope your performance and skills would improve a lot within few years.

preston32 said:

Hi,

I started cycling 2 years ago when I was 36.

After 3 or 4 bike rides I did a 22 mile trip at an average pace of 14.7 mph.

My best average speed now is only 15.4 mph, a TINY improvement over 2 years!!!

In the 1st 18 months I didn't cycle much, BUT in the last 6 months I've been going out once a week, and twice a week on average in the last 2 months, always cycling about 15-25 miles.

Has anyone any suggestions? Can't understand what I need to do!!! HELP!!!!!

The most obvious thing, at least to me, is to ride more often. Twice a week isn't really that often if you want to increase your speed since the more you practice, the better you'll get.

dhk2 said:

Where did you get the idea that it takes 20 mph avg for 2 hours to represent a "decent pace"? I'd say a "decent pace" for a strong club rider over two hours of "mainly flat" roads is more like 16-18 mph. If you ride at 16-18 mph, you'll not be overtaken by any 70 yr old that I know....ok, maybe one or two, but they'll be on road or TT bikes, not with shopping bags. The vast majority of recreational riders that I know never approach 20 mph avg speeds, regardless of how long they've been riding.

That's a pretty slow club ride. For a flat metric, ~1.3k elevation gain, our fast guys are doing 21-22+, B group 19-20, and C group 17-19. I sit in on the A group and periodically join in on the rotation.

OP, you need more time on the bike. I'm on year two after a 25 hiatus. From June to December of 2014 after getting back on the bike, I road 2k (127 hours). Last year, 7k (410 hours). So far this year, 3.7k (222 hours). I can average around 19 mph on my own for two or more hours. 25 years ago, yes but I had a base of several years with over 7k per year.

Well my first suggestion is to relax and not put too much into the numbers. You cannot get down on yourself for not meeting a specific goal when you are out there trying and riding and being healthy. It is easy to get caught up, but as long as you can remind yourself of all of the positives then you can justify those minor negative things that really do not matter much in the long run.

Hey there! I totally get where you're coming from. It's easy to get caught up in the numbers and beat ourselves up when we don't meet certain goals. But you know what? As long as you're out there doing what you love and staying healthy, that's what really matters. It's all about enjoying the ride and focusing on the positives. So don't let those minor setbacks bring you down. Keep reminding yourself of all the good things cycling brings to your life. And remember, the numbers don't define you. Keep pedaling and keep that positive mindset going!