raise average speed?

get as much time on the bike as you can and your speed will come

a good thing to learn when riding with a group as a fun activity is just try to stay in the pack, keep in the draft of someone else and take very short pulls if any....that will make a huge difference

do some extended hard efforts on your own, I generally once a week do 6 sets of 4 minutes where I time trial basically...run my km/h up to 40 and hold it for the entire 4 minutes, then take an 8 minutes break going very easy, then repeat....workouts like this will help but the big thing is keep riding and getting as much time as you can on the bike each week and your average speed will increase

if you ride 5 times a week I don't see any reason why you won't up your average speed to what you want by the end of the summer...I increased my average speed roughly by that same amount over the course of 3 months last year

Definitely get more time on the bike. Whether you feel like it, or not, just get out there and do it and you'll get better. Remember to pay attention to building a cardiovascular foundation, and get to know yourself. Pay attention to pedalling mechanics, body positioning, and bike fit... make sure you have all these in line, and research them all. Also, pay attention to nutrition... eat plenty complex carbs before and immediately after rides, and get enough rest. Start increasing your mileage 10 percent a week until you start getting comfortable riding 20+ miles at a time, and then work your way up to 30+ in another 3 months or so at least 5 days a week. Start throwing in variation like hills, intervals, and learn how to increase your efficiency. This is exactly what I did, and now my average speed for 40 mile rides is over 20mph (including warmup, cooldown, traffic stops, 10 freeway overpasses, and suburban jogging trail warfare). You can do it!

baileyj said:

im new to road cycling and this is the first year of being in a club (I bought my bike in August of last year and rode for august and september). So this year, I want to improve my average speed from the 29 km/h that I'm doing now to around 35 km/h to keep up with the group. Will this be possible over the course of the summer? We ride monday, wednesday, friday and saturday with the group.
Should I also get involved in some of the TT's as well?

Thanks alot for the help.

I'd just keep riding with the group. Practice drafting towards the back of the pack, and learning to conserve your energy by keeping the power spikes down. Use others to help keep you in the group, and stay relaxed on little accels and climbs so you can finish strong. I've seen new riders who are pretty fit, but waste a ton of energy.

Since these club rides are basically a road-race for you, you may be getting too much hard training by going out four times a week. If you start feeling tired, skip a day or two a week and learn to really recover. You need to be fresh to do your best; overtraining can kill your speed.

Nutrition is huge. I'm no racer, just a weekend recreational cyclist, so I never paid any attention to what I ate. I would go out on weekends and attempt 4-6 hour rides on nothing but water, be miserable for half the time, and end up with a 10mph average. Now I try to eat the right things the night before and day of a big ride, and carry some decent snacks (usually bananas), and try to eat regularly during rides. This step alone improves my average speed over long rides by 50%. (Nowhere to go but up from a 10mph average, I guess.)