Whats a decent Average speed ?

In "]news:[email hidden],
Giant ATX 860 <[email hidden]> typed:

Quoted message said:

Hi guys, I am using my MTB to get fit and lose a few
Kilo's. I go for rides that say average around 60km's. I
use smooth roads, so no off road stuff. I have semi
slick tyres.

My question is, whats an average speed that I should
achieve to get maximum benifit.

I find about 100 smiles/hr gives me maximum benifit.

Mike - Toss the 'puter and ride.

Giant ATX 860 said:

Hi guys, I am using my MTB to get fit and lose a few
Kilo's. I go for rides that say average around 60km's. I
use smooth roads, so no off road stuff. I have semi
slick tyres.

My question is, whats an average speed that I should
achieve to get maximum benifit. This is the average
speed that you check at the end of the ride on the
computer. At present I am getting around 24.5 kmh
average speed. Seems slow compared to the " Tour De
France Riders who average 42kmh, but then again, they
are elite athletes, on road bikes.

I say this is pretty respectable for a mountain bike, am
I right ?
24.5kmh for a 60k ride.

Cheers,

I also do some distance rides on my MTB, on rail
trails(gravel, dirt), usually 100-165km rides. I averaged
about 25kmh last year(was my first year back biking), which
to me is good. This year, with a new, lighter bike, and
hopefully a longer season, I would hope to get up to, maybe,
30kmh avg. Can't imagine getting higher than that on any
ride of considerable distance.

Giant ATX 860 said:

My question is, whats an average speed that I should
achieve to get maximum benifit.

38.29km/h

--
a.m-b FAQ: j-harris.netambfaq.htmOpen ↗

b.bmx FAQ: t-online.debmx faq.htmOpen ↗

Giant ATX 860 said:

Hi guys, I am using my MTB to get fit and lose a few
Kilo's. I go for rides that say average around 60km's. I
use smooth roads, so no off road stuff. I have semi
slick tyres.

My question is, whats an average speed that I should
achieve to get maximum benifit. This is the average
speed that you check at the end of the ride on the
computer. At present I am getting around 24.5 kmh
average speed. Seems slow compared to the " Tour De
France Riders who average 42kmh, but then again, they
are elite athletes, on road bikes.

I say this is pretty respectable for a mountain bike, am
I right ?
24.5kmh for a 60k ride.

Cheers,

When you think about this, really think about this, you will
realise that what you're asking doesn't have a clearly
defined answer.

So you FEEL like you've been for a good ride, a real work-
out, eaten sensibly and pushed youself and done it a few
times a week? If so, then you've probably done enough to
loose weight.

If you don't feel like that then maybe you should look more
towards getting a road bike and training like an elite
athlete, using a heart rate monitor, defining your personal
optimum cardio levels and defining training goals, riding a
set and predefined route, compare times week after week and
train towards your goals.

The way I see it, reading too much in to average speed on a
mountainbike is virtually meaningless. And to ask to
compare it to other people's average speed is even worse
unless you are comparing it over a set course or distance.
This is because mountainbikes are designed to be ridden off-
road. Naturally off-road conditions vary - often from day
to day, and certainly from trail to trail and indeed even
from the lines you take on each trail and whether or not
you clean obstacles on those trails. Taking a difficult
section more slowly may result in you clearing the
obstacles - but it may slow down your overall average
speed. A good mountainbiker may not be a fast one in many
situations - and vice versa. And then one person's flat
road is another's slight downhill.

24.5km/hour seems to be a respectable average speed on an
average weight mountainbike on average flat roads. Head
wind or tail wind?

If you want to loose weight without obsessing about average
speed (or anything else for that matter), eat sensibly, and
get out and ride 3-4 times a week minimum.

Stop worrying about average speed and just ride as much
as you can.
--
Westie (Replace 'invalid' with 'yahoo' when replying.)

All this is good advice.What you should try is the time on
a given route.try and beat your time every so often .You
will gain fitness and fell better because you have
accomplished some time in beating that time.I have a 37mile
loop that I do from out my front door .When I started doing
it .The time was
2.5 hours now its down to 2 hours even .this is on a road
bike and fairly flat country roads .but you get the idea.
just remember to enjoy the ride.

--
J/O TrailBlazer at Large

"Giant ATX 860" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi guys, I am using my MTB to get fit and lose a few
Kilo's. I go for rides that say average around 60km's. I
use smooth roads, so no off road stuff. I have semi
slick tyres.

My question is, whats an average speed that I should
achieve to get

maximum

Quoted message said:

benifit. This is the average speed that you check at the
end of the ride on the computer. At present I am getting
around 24.5 kmh average speed. Seems slow compared to the
" Tour De France Riders who average 42kmh, but then again,
they are elite athletes, on road bikes.

I say this is pretty respectable for a mountain bike, am I
right ? 24.5kmh for a 60k ride.

Just my opinion here, but I feel that ninety-six
kilometers/hour would be 'decent'. After a few more
generations of doping cyclists, we should see this number.

Dave

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

My question is, whats an average speed that I should
achieve to get maximum benifit. This is the average
speed that you check at the end of the ride on the
computer. At present I am getting around 24.5 kmh
average speed.

[snip]

Quoted message said:

and whether or not you clean obstacles on those trails.

Yes, no doubt that this will greatly affect your average
speed. Cleaning always is time consuming.

When I have problems cleaning obstacles, I often elect to
just leave them filthy.

Westie gives good advice. Average speed is not a good
indicator, but average heart rate is.

evaD

onefred ran this through spell check:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

My question is, whats an average speed that I should
achieve to get maximum benifit. This is the average
speed that you check at the end of the ride on the
computer. At present I am getting around 24.5 kmh
average speed.

[snip]

Quoted message said:

and whether or not you clean obstacles on those trails.

Yes, no doubt that this will greatly affect your average
speed. Cleaning always is time consuming.

When I have problems cleaning obstacles, I often elect to
just leave them filthy.

Westie gives good advice. Average speed is not a good
indicator, but average heart rate is.

evaD

Where's Dr. Dan when he's needed?

;-)

Penny

Giant ATX 860 said:

Hi guys, I am using my MTB to get fit and lose a few
Kilo's. I go for rides that say average around 60km's. I
use smooth roads, so no off road stuff. I have semi
slick tyres.

My question is, whats an average speed that I should
achieve to get maximum benifit. This is the average
speed that you check at the end of the ride on the
computer. At present I am getting around 24.5 kmh
average speed. Seems slow compared to the " Tour De
France Riders who average 42kmh, but then again, they
are elite athletes, on road bikes.

I say this is pretty respectable for a mountain bike, am
I right ?
24.5kmh for a 60k ride.

If you go fast enough to make tears run down your cheeks,
then you're in the ballpark.

If your quads and lower back don't ache at all, then you're
a lazy lard-[censored].

Bill "simple, really" S.

--
The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory,
but progress.
- Joseph Joubert {BWAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHAHA}

bomba said:

Giant ATX 860 said:

My question is, whats an average speed that I should
achieve to get maximum benifit.

38.29km/h

Lol - why the rounding?

"Westie" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Giant ATX 860 said:

Hi guys, I am using my MTB to get fit and lose a few
Kilo's. I go for rides that say average around 60km's. I
use smooth roads, so no off road stuff. I have semi
slick tyres.

My question is, whats an average speed that I should
achieve to get maximum benifit. This is the average
speed that you check at the end of the ride on the
computer. At present I am getting around 24.5 kmh
average speed. Seems slow compared to the " Tour De
France Riders who average 42kmh, but then again, they
are elite athletes, on road bikes.

I say this is pretty respectable for a mountain bike, am
I right ?
24.5kmh for a 60k ride.

Cheers,

When you think about this, really think about this,

People don't do that any more. At least not here in
the States.

Greg

"Giant ATX 860" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi guys, I am using my MTB to get fit and lose a few
Kilo's. I go for rides that say average around 60km's. I
use smooth roads, so no off road stuff. I have semi
slick tyres.

My question is, whats an average speed that I should
achieve to get

maximum

Quoted message said:

benifit.

About 2% faster than you went last week. Adjust as
time goes on.

Pete

Westie wrote:

<snip the good advice>

Quoted message said:

Stop worrying about average speed and just ride as much as
you can.

Stop it, your skewing the this news group 🙂
--
Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado (remove ".nospam" to reply)

Westie said:

If you don't feel like that then maybe you should look
more towards getting a road bike and training like an
elite athlete, using a heart rate monitor, defining your
personal optimum cardio levels and defining training
goals, riding a set and predefined route, compare times
week after week and train towards your goals.

Man you are so out of touch with reality. HRMs are a thing
of the past. A real cyclist uses only a Powermeter and
nothing else. Watts/kilogram is what is interesting. When
you can produce over 6 W/Kg for an hour then you're in the
ballgame. A tailwind, your average speed goes up and your HR
goes down, or vice versa. But your Powermeter don't care
about heads or tails. It'll always show the same values for
the same efforts. Get with it man.

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

"Giant ATX 860" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>... <snip roadie jive>

This is a mountain bike newsgroup. Try rec.bicycles.racing
or some other roadie group.

JD

On 2004-03-17, Giant ATX 860 penned:

Quoted message said:

Hi guys, I am using my MTB to get fit and lose a few
Kilo's. I go for rides that say average around 60km's. I
use smooth roads, so no off road stuff. I have semi
slick tyres.

My question is, whats an average speed that I should
achieve to get maximum benifit. This is the average
speed that you check at the end of the ride on the
computer. At present I am getting around 24.5 kmh
average speed. Seems slow compared to the " Tour De
France Riders who average 42kmh, but then again, they
are elite athletes, on road bikes.

I say this is pretty respectable for a mountain bike, am
I right ?
24.5kmh for a 60k ride.

I actually just read a book about using exercise to become
fit / lose fat.

covertbailey.comproducts.aspOpen ↗

At $11, I think it's worth a peek. And the author is a fan
of mountain biking.

Anyway, based both on my experience and on this book, I
would say that your average speed doesn't matter one whit.
I'm going to paraphrase several chapters of the book:

You do not have the body of a TdF rider. Nor do you have the
body of a slug. You have your own body, and you can't use
others' performance to guage your own accomplishments. A
more athletic person will need a more intense workout to be
exercising aerobically; a less athletic person will need a
gentler workout.

There are two forms of exercise: aerobic and anaerobic.

According to the book, you can tell you're exercising
aerobically when you can speak a few words at a time while
exercising. You should not be able to recite the pledge of
the allegiance, but you should be able to get a few words
out without having to gasp in between. When you exercise
aerobically, you're burning the most calories.

Also according to the book, if you find it difficult to gasp
out a word or two, you've moved into the realm of anaerobic
exercise. The thing about anaerobic exercise is that, while
it's not the most efficient way to burn calories
immediately, your body will burn more calories than usual
for the next 48 hours as it repairs the muscles you've used.
If your thighs are burning, you are exercising
anaerobically.

His recommendation was to use a mix of both (actually, more
than that, but that's as much as I want to type about), but
with more of the aerobic stuff, because it's much more
efficient at burning calories than the anaerobic stuff is.

Anyway, just some ideas. Any mistakes are in my
interpretation, not the author's intent. Any feedback
is welcome.

--
monique

Monique Y. Herman said:

On 2004-03-17, Giant ATX 860 penned:

Quoted message said:

Hi guys, I am using my MTB to get fit and lose a few
Kilo's. I go for rides that say average around 60km's. I
use smooth roads, so no off road stuff. I have semi
slick tyres.

My question is, whats an average speed that I should
achieve to get maximum benifit. This is the average
speed that you check at the end of the ride on the
computer. At present I am getting around 24.5 kmh
average speed. Seems slow compared to the " Tour De
France Riders who average 42kmh, but then again, they
are elite athletes, on road bikes.

I say this is pretty respectable for a mountain bike, am
I right ?
24.5kmh for a 60k ride.

I actually just read a book about using exercise to become
fit / lose fat.

covertbailey.comproducts.aspOpen ↗

At $11, I think it's worth a peek. And the author is a fan
of mountain biking.

Anyway, based both on my experience and on this book, I
would say that your average speed doesn't matter one whit.
I'm going to paraphrase several chapters of the book:

You do not have the body of a TdF rider. Nor do you have
the body of a slug. You have your own body, and you can't
use others' performance to guage your own accomplishments.
A more athletic person will need a more intense workout to
be exercising aerobically; a less athletic person will
need a gentler workout.

There are two forms of exercise: aerobic and anaerobic.

According to the book, you can tell you're exercising
aerobically when you can speak a few words at a time while
exercising. You should not be able to recite the pledge of
the allegiance, but you should be able to get a few words
out without having to gasp in between. When you exercise
aerobically, you're burning the most calories.

Also according to the book, if you find it difficult to
gasp out a word or two, you've moved into the realm of
anaerobic exercise. The thing about anaerobic exercise is
that, while it's not the most efficient way to burn
calories immediately, your body will burn more calories
than usual for the next 48 hours as it repairs the muscles
you've used. If your thighs are burning, you are
exercising anaerobically.

His recommendation was to use a mix of both (actually,
more than that, but that's as much as I want to type
about), but with more of the aerobic stuff, because it's
much more efficient at burning calories than the anaerobic
stuff is.

Anyway, just some ideas. Any mistakes are in my
interpretation, not the author's intent. Any feedback is
welcome.

I see all these fat people in the gym on all those machines
working at the exactly right "Fat Burning Zone" Then I see
all those lean cyclists going all out with their tounges
hanging out. All of them might not be lean but to be
truthful they surely have lost a lot more fat than the ones
exercising in the correct "Zone"

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

On 2004-03-17, Per Elmsäter penned:

Quoted message said:

I see all these fat people in the gym on all those
machines working at the exactly right "Fat Burning Zone"
Then I see all those lean cyclists going all out with
their tounges hanging out. All of them might not be lean
but to be truthful they surely have lost a lot more fat
than the ones exercising in the correct "Zone"

You're not looking at all of the potential data. Do you
really think that the people in the gym spend nearly as much
time working out as do the cyclists?

I know that it's a lot easier for me to get on my bike or my
skis -- or to participate in a sport -- than it is to drag
myself to the gym. (The book recommends outdoor activities
for just this reason.) Heck, I'll drive 2 hours each way for
a few hours of skiing -- but I find it hard to drive 15
minutes to the gym.

--
monique

"Per Elmsäter" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I see all these fat people in the gym on all those
machines working at the exactly right "Fat Burning Zone"
Then I see all those lean cyclists going all out with
their tounges

hanging

Quoted message said:

out. All of them might not be lean but to be truthful they
surely have

lost

Quoted message said:

a lot more fat than the ones exercising in the
correct "Zone"

--
Perre

I think it has a lot more to do with the duration....If you
are training in the "fat burning zone", which is pretty
close to Zone 2 in HR monitor training, then doing 30
minutes or 1 hour will burn less calories for you than if
you were to ride near your aerobic limit ( top of zone 4)
for the 30 minutes to an hour. The zone 4 ride will burn
both more calories, and more fat....But, real cyclists,
unlike posers in the gym, will often do zone 2 rides which
can last 4 or 5 hours---this will not be possible for many
people to do in zone 4, but in zone 2 it is pretty easy. And
it will burn much more fat over this longer period, and the
large time in the aerobic zone will do more to create new
capillaries and a better vascular system than just short
bursts 30 minutes long can accomplish. Better vascular
system will allow more gas and nutrient exchange into the
muscles, and pretty soon you can ride faster and longer.

Dan V