Speed

Well improvement will just come with cycling.

After all, if you ride 10 miles away from home, you gotta ride 10 miles back, even if it is slower. You're forced to keep going even if you're dead tired.

Ginny

To answer your questions I am 26 but feel like I'm going on 50 (not to dis the older folks here). Due to my job I beat the hell out of my legs and back all day. I weigh 210, trying to get down to 160, which is hard because of my job as well. I am female, I ride a road bike. My ultimate goal for right now is to beable to ride to work (15 miles one way) in under an hour and not feel exhausted afterwards. Last summer I was doing 25 miles every friday with an average speed of 12 mph. During the week I would do about 10-12 miles 3-4 days with the same average speed. Saturday morning I felt like I was dead. So I decided to start over small and try to get my speed and stamina up. I'd like to start riding to work next spring. Think I'm on the right track?

dgregory57 said:

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've always found that the more you ride, the faster you'll be too. After one month of no cigarettes and no beer and riding between 15 - 50 mile daily jaunts, my AVS has increased from 11.8 mph on the first ride to almost 16 mph on a quick 15 miler last Friday. I was even able to do an entire 40 miler at 15.1 mph last Wednesday! Of course, switching from my Trek 7500 to my Trek 5900 with new Race X Lite Carbon Aero wheels (tubulars) probably helped a little too. I try to better each previous day's time/AVS which helps keep me motivated (I'm very competitive). When I can comfortably maintain a +16 mph speed, I'm going to start riding the 16.5 miles to work and back each day (a near perfect commute distance). About 15 years ago, I used to ride to work and back and I miss being able to relax and do that while getting my daily exercise/ride in at the same time.

I could have achieved some amazing avs's lately,if i had attached a sail to my bike.😄

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:

I never have more than 2 miles of flat in rides from 15 to 40 miles. On the flats, I can easily go 22 mph, but my best average on any ride longer than 15 miles has been 15.5 mph. Usually I average between 13.5 and 14.5 mph, but each ride is getting a little faster.

I am so looking forward to the MS 150 in New Bern, NC. The closest thing to a hill on the 75 mile routes is the bridge over the Trent river. On the other hand, I have heard that the headwinds on the coast can be as bad as the hills.

RickF said:

I never have more than 2 miles of flat in rides from 15 to 40 miles. On the flats, I can easily go 22 mph, but my best average on any ride longer than 15 miles has been 15.5 mph. Usually I average between 13.5 and 14.5 mph, but each ride is getting a little faster.

I am so looking forward to the MS 150 in New Bern, NC. The closest thing to a hill on the 75 mile routes is the bridge over the Trent river. On the other hand, I have heard that the headwinds on the coast can be as bad as the hills.

My problem is stop lights. when I get in rythm i can easily have a 19-21 avg on my garmin. but with all the stops etc and I get home and record it it's much lower. more like 15-16.5. Sometimes i get bumbed but then again I figure if i can raise my average with all those stops as well then I think Im getting alot better. Also i love training and stoping and going i read helps. . . as for on flats and no stops I often catch myself cruising @ about 21 mph. Not bad I guess since I've only been riding for 3 months. When I started I weighed 182-185 and right now I am 177.5. My goal is 166 lbs. I'm 29amd 6'1. very lanky body build. Where I tend to suck right now is the hills. that is why with the weight loss and constant climbing I've been doing lately i hope to improve greatly.

RickF said:

I never have more than 2 miles of flat in rides from 15 to 40 miles. On the flats, I can easily go 22 mph, but my best average on any ride longer than 15 miles has been 15.5 mph. Usually I average between 13.5 and 14.5 mph, but each ride is getting a little faster.

I don't know... admittedly I'm not familiar with the regions you guys are riding in but I'm skeptical about the large discrepancy between flat avgs and overall avgs. The area I ride in is exceptionally hilly yet I've never encountered a discrepancy that large.

PartisanRanger said:

I don't know... admittedly I'm not familiar with the regions you guys are riding in but I'm skeptical about the large discrepancy between flat avgs and overall avgs. The area I ride in is exceptionally hilly yet I've never encountered a discrepancy that large.

i guess it depends on how much huevos you have on the descents huh.
every hill has a downhill.

so, that would probably even out the average, but thats short term. Hills definately take more out of you than flats...as far as fatigue, and lactic-ness, which is definately long term.
you know youre on a hilly route when all of the road names have the words 'ridge' or 'hill' or 'creek' or 'valley' in them.

PartisanRanger said:

I don't know... admittedly I'm not familiar with the regions you guys are riding in but I'm skeptical about the large discrepancy between flat avgs and overall avgs. The area I ride in is exceptionally hilly yet I've never encountered a discrepancy that large.

Last night I lead a beginner ride for my LBS. While I could have gone faster, my job was to lead the group as fast as we could go without dropping the slowest rider. I averaged 14.5 mph for a 15 mile ride. While I did not touch my breaks on the decents, I never went into the large chainring, either, so my top speed on the downhills was only 32 mph.

There is a two mile flat stretch from mile 8 to mile 10 on this route. Over that stretch we had a paceline going that was able to maintain 22 to 24 mph. On the longest hill, I managed to stay above 11 mph the entire distance, and when I got to the top, I waited for everyone to regroup. My 14.5 mph average, therefore, was faster than the average of those who were going 5 mph up that hill, yet even the slowest rider kept up with the paceline on the flat portion.

Darkhorse85 said:

i guess it depends on how much huevos you have on the descents huh.
every hill has a downhill.

so, that would probably even out the average, but thats short term. Hills definately take more out of you than flats...as far as fatigue, and lactic-ness, which is definately long term.
you know youre on a hilly route when all of the road names have the words 'ridge' or 'hill' or 'creek' or 'valley' in them.

Yes! One of my first attempts at a ride longer than 30 miles was from Hillsborough to Chapel Hill and back, which went in and out of the Eno River valley several times. That was when I was riding a hybrid without clipless pedals. On my way home I bought new shoes and clipless pedals.

The problem with ascents and descents is that even though the distance going up and the distance going down might be the same, the average speed is not the average of the fastest and slowest speed. For example, if I can ascend a 1 mile hill at 10 mph and descend that same mile at 30 mph, The average speed is not 20 mph. The average speed is 2 miles divided by the total amount of time. In the example, it would take 6 minutes to ascend the hill and 2 minutes to descend, so the average speed would be 15 mph (2 miles/8 minutes * 60 minutes/1 hour).

i've got a diamondback "comfort" bike. i guess its a hybrid but most people think its a mountain bike.

on a flat surface with no wind, i'm usually around 17 - 19 mph.

my trips are 13 - 30 miles. when i started several months ago, my goal was to average 15 mph. my rides are relatively flat with a few long, not-steep inclines. there is one route i take that has a very long, somewhat steep, loose gravel hill.

last week, i shattered my best avg mph (which included the steep gravel hill) on a 26 mile ride. i averaged 15.7 mpg. i was ecstatic! my dw didn't quite see the big deal. my next ride was 19 miles and i averaged 15.2 mph (again it included the steep gravel hill).

today, i averaged 15.6 mph on a 13 mile ride. again i went up the steep gravel hill. there was a very stiff wind that helped on the way out. the way back...well that was rough. i did my best to stay around 14 mph.

RickF said:

Last night I lead a beginner ride for my LBS. While I could have gone faster, my job was to lead the group as fast as we could go without dropping the slowest rider. I averaged 14.5 mph for a 15 mile ride. While I did not touch my breaks on the decents, I never went into the large chainring, either, so my top speed on the downhills was only 32 mph.

There is a two mile flat stretch from mile 8 to mile 10 on this route. Over that stretch we had a paceline going that was able to maintain 22 to 24 mph. On the longest hill, I managed to stay above 11 mph the entire distance, and when I got to the top, I waited for everyone to regroup. My 14.5 mph average, therefore, was faster than the average of those who were going 5 mph up that hill, yet even the slowest rider kept up with the paceline on the flat portion.

The speed of your paceline isn't indicative of the individual flat avg capacities of those in your group.
I do have to give you props for leading a beginner's group, though. I'm always pretty terrible when trying this, I either slow down way too much or drop everyone.