# 16 MPH wall



## earth (15 Mar 2010)

I have been road riding now since 2007. I've got my base miles up, my average over short distances like 20 miles. But I just cannot break through 16 MPH average over longer distances of same 50+ miles.

Riding into a head wind seems to be the sticking point.

What can I do do break though this barrier?


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## HLaB (15 Mar 2010)

With more training you'll break it.

For some reason, when I seen the title I pictured a cyclist riding into a brick wall a 16mph and thought to myself, that it going to hurt!


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## mr Mag00 (15 Mar 2010)

v v similar to me would be intereested to see answers....


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## iLB (15 Mar 2010)

pedal faster?

on a more serious note it will depend on the amount of climbing on a route, i can average 18-20mph on a flat(ish) route around Kent without to much difficulty, but to achieve 16-17mph avg in the peak district where there are far more unavoidable hills will require alot more effort, but most importantly keep going


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## earth (15 Mar 2010)

Well of course if I pedal faster then, yes, I will go faster. But I have not increased my average in 3 years! Maybe it's just psychological. When I think I am about to be sick with exhaustion I should just get up and sprint some more!!


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## iLB (15 Mar 2010)

oh, and i forgot to mention the single best way to go faster, go on group rides with people that are faster than you, it will take a few rides but eventually you will be able to keep up with them if you work at it, so join a local club


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## Bill Gates (15 Mar 2010)

earth said:


> But I just cannot break through 16 MPH average over longer distances of same 50+ miles.
> 
> Riding into a head wind seems to be the sticking point.
> 
> What can I do do break though this barrier?



Not that old chestnut? 

If you always set out to ride at a pace to beat your previous best then you are not training to progress as you will not be recovering sufficiently.

I used to ride the same training route which was fairly lumpy and in the days before computers could only estimate distance from the rding time. I used to apply an 18 mph average for recording purposes but it was a guess. The ride in the winter and early spring took about 2 hours and it was always undertaken at a briskish pace.

My racing programme started around beginning of April and come June and July I would be regulalry knocking out times of 1 hour 40/45 minutes on the same ride at the same RPE. 

Things that affected my average speed were: 

Warmer temperatures
Less restrictive clothing
Fitter

The improved fitness came down to prolonged efforts at LT through racing and interval training @ LT threshold (85-95% MHR). Riding more will help but include faster and harder efforts and ease down to recover on the same ride and have some other rides at easy pace for recovery purposes.

If you do that the you can see why your average speed over the ride is meaningless. Easing down means riding at tourist pace until you've recovered.

This is better for improving speed than continously riding at tempo (75-85% MHR), which is OK for base work but not speed. 

The same training principles apply if you don't race.


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## Bill Gates (15 Mar 2010)

I've not done much riding recently through the bad weather and other problems. On Saturday I rode for one hour @ easy/moderate pace and then on Sunday did 34 hilly miles @ tempo pace. The weather wasn't too cold but there was a sharp Northerly wind and my average speed was 17.8 mph. Today I rode for 30 minutes very easy. 

Each ride has a purpose.


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## addictfreak (15 Mar 2010)

earth said:


> I have been road riding now since 2007. I've got my base miles up, my average over short distances like 20 miles. But I just cannot break through 16 MPH average over longer distances of same 50+ miles.
> 
> Riding into a head wind seems to be the sticking point.
> 
> What can I do do break though this barrier?



To be honest I would get to hung up about it. 16 mph average over 50+ is not to bad at all. 
As others have said the route obvisously has a lot to do with it.
Im doing the Northern rock cyclone 104 miler and if i average 15-16 I will be a very happy chap indeed.


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## ianrauk (15 Mar 2010)

I can only dream of getting a 16mph average over 50 miles lol


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## zacklaws (15 Mar 2010)

One of the biggest problems to mess your average up is when your on the open roads, having to slow down and give way at junctions etc and other traffic problems. If your unlucky and get stopped quite a lot, it can soon have an accumulative effect on your average speed and the further you get into your ride the harder it becomes to make time up. It is on the longer rides that it gets hard to alter an average speed if your slightly behind. Set your computer to display average speed and in about the last 10 miles of a long ride you try and raise it substantially, as I have found it creeps up painfully slow, sometimes about a tenth of a mile every 2 miles. In effect if you plan on doing a 60 mile ride in 4 hours at an average of 15mph, if you do the first 2 hours at 12mph average, it then means that for 36 miles you have to rocket along at 18mph just to raise that average to 15mph, and how many rural roads can you go for 36 miles without some form of delay, which means having to travel more than 18mph to make up for these delays. And also can you keep 18+ mph up for 36 miles? Imagine a 60 mile ride hoping to achieve 18mph average? the speeds that you then need to cover delays etc 

It took me a long while to do a sub 3 hour, 50 mile ride, despite being able to keep up a speed that can achieve it, I would always be a minute or two out, till one day by accident, I did it with just over 10 minutes to spare but when I looked at the route, 28 miles there and back, there was only about 4 roundabouts to negotiate and luck had been with me at them.

Careful route planning should help, by minimising, towns, junctions etc and always try and plan your route anticlockwise so that when you get to a junction you only have to worry about traffic from the right as a rule and if its a good open junction you can plan ahead to filter in.


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## Bill Gates (15 Mar 2010)

zacklaws said:


> One of the biggest problems to mess your average up is when your on the open roads, having to slow down and give way at junctions etc and other traffic problems. If your unlucky and get stopped quite a lot, it can soon have an accumulative effect on your average speed and the further you get into your ride the harder it becomes to make time up. It is on the longer rides that it gets hard to alter an average speed if your slightly behind. Set your computer to display average speed and in about the last 10 miles of a long ride you try and raise it substantially, as I have found it creeps up painfully slow, sometimes about a tenth of a mile every 2 miles. In effect if you plan on doing a 60 mile ride in 4 hours at an average of 15mph, if you do the first 2 hours at 12mph average, it then means that for 36 miles you have to rocket along at 18mph just to raise that average to 15mph, and how many rural roads can you go for 36 miles without some form of delay, which means having to travel more than 18mph to make up for these delays. And also can you keep 18+ mph up for 36 miles? Imagine a 60 mile ride hoping to achieve 18mph average? the speeds that you then need to cover delays etc
> 
> It took me a long while to do a sub 50 mile ride, despite being able to keep up a speed that can achieve it, I would always be a minute or two out, till one day by accident, I did it with just over 10 minutes to spare but when I looked at the route, 28 miles there and back, there was only about 4 roundabouts to negotiate and luck had been with me at them.
> 
> Careful route planning should help, by minimising, towns, junctions etc and always try and plan your route anticlockwise so that when you get to a junction you only have to worry about traffic from the right as a rule and if its a good open junction you can plan ahead to filter in.



What is the point though?

Why not go on a busy dual carriageway and get dragged along by the traffic? Or get someone to pace you on a motorbike? Planning a route so as to improve your average speed is a bit silly IMO. It doesn't prove anything. 

What is it with you guys and average speed? 

If you're really that bothered then enter a 50 mile TT and then see how you go. Beat 3 hours 7 minutes and 30 seconds and bingo, you've done it. A true test of you and machine against the elements on a measured course with marshalls and timekeepers.


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## lukesdad (15 Mar 2010)

earth said:


> I have been road riding now since 2007. I've got my base miles up, my average over short distances like 20 miles. But I just cannot break through 16 MPH average over longer distances of same 50+ miles.
> 
> Riding into a head wind seems to be the sticking point.
> 
> What can I do do break though this barrier?



Youve reached a plateau. You need to instigate a new regime without knowing all the details its hard to say what. I understand what your trying to say but don t get hung up with average speed.


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## Bill Gates (16 Mar 2010)

lukesdad said:


> Youve reached a plateau. You need to instigate a new regime without knowing all the details its hard to say what. I understand what your trying to say but don t get hung up with average speed.



Agreed. I trust your applying the same to your mile gobbling commutes. Easy rides to work and LT efforts at the weekend will do the job nicely.


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## lukesdad (16 Mar 2010)

Almost. Doing a bit of moutain biking on track at home which is short sharp climbs at weekends not pure LT training yet. First race is in june. Although doing a couple of sportives first.


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## Garz (20 Mar 2010)

Agreed on the plateau. If you want to take it a notch up you have to either adjust your routine and stick with it, or train effectively for say six weeks to get in better shape. The problem with this is as soon as you go back to old ways you will eventually go back to your old plateau.

I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. Breaking the average for say a competition or event will be worth the efforts over the short term. I always find that if your trying to get too competitive it takes a lot of the fun element of cycling.


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## earth (20 Mar 2010)

I've certainly hit a plateau. I reached it about 3 years ago though.

My training consists of:

Commute to work 8 miles per day round trip. I do this at a brisk pace on a flat bar 700C bike, to be replaced within 6 months with a fixi/single speed.
Apart from after I got knocked off this month I have not been commuting but I will solve this problem today by buying a new wheel.


Currently in the evenings I do an hour on a turbo a few nights per week. I do this mainly to keep the weight under control. I tried a training DVD last year but could hardly make it through the warm up. In the end I decided I would get better use from the turbo if I did an hour at 70-80% maxHR rather than 30 mins of effectively sprinting at 90-100% maxHR.

Weekends are longer rides 50 miles+. I don't really follow a regime on longer rides. Tend to go fast quick as possible with a tail wind and then get hit on the way back from the head wind. I'm going to try intervals when I have a head wind. Sprint until exhaustion then recover and sprint again.

As the evenings get lighter I move off the turbo and do hour rides in the evening which are normally about 20 miles. These I can do faster so I think I might increase them to 30 mile rides.


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## lukesdad (20 Mar 2010)

Yep ! Id say thats a plateau alright  Sounds like it could do with abit of spicing Up.


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## The Jogger (20 Mar 2010)

Do you do interval training?


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## lukesdad (21 Mar 2010)

Do you always ride alone ?


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## accountantpete (21 Mar 2010)

With headwinds you really need to be on the drops and I find getting the cadence up a bit and using a lower gear helps.

Otherwise,from past experience,there's nothing like getting a better bike that is more responsive - the feedback encourages you to do more!


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## earth (22 Mar 2010)

I do generally ride alone. Up to now I have only found riders who are far quicker or quite a bit slower. A friend at work is getting a road bike this year so I may ride with him in the evenings or weekends. He commutes so it shouldn't take him long to get up to speed.


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## earth (22 Mar 2010)

I might find when the wind dies down later in the year that I am quicker than I thought. I did a 50 mile loop on Sunday. Although I averaged even less (about 15.5 mph) I had a head wind for about 2/3rds the route! Strange on a loop you would expect to only have a head wind for 50%, but no... Despite this I feel fitter than this time last year and if I average that with so much head wind then I should be faster when the wind drops.


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## lukesdad (22 Mar 2010)

The contours of the terrain have a large effect on wind direction. Where I live it tends to funnel along the valleys or miss them completly depending on where its comming from not unusual to experience what you have described.


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## lukesdad (22 Mar 2010)

earth said:


> I do generally ride alone. Up to now I have only found riders who are far quicker or quite a bit slower. A friend at work is getting a road bike this year so I may ride with him in the evenings or weekends. He commutes so it shouldn't take him long to get up to speed.



Try it could help a lot to ride with him.


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## PpPete (22 Mar 2010)

Certainly worth trying a fixed - so long as not too many steep hills (up or down)
I'm definitely a spinner rather than a grinder, usually ride a triple and mostly in middle ring. After a few weeks of even just short rides on fixed when I went back to the triple I found I spent much more time on big ring. I don't think it's so much that it builds strength (although it does that too) but more that your legs have to keep turning - there is no let up.

+ You just get out of the habit of freewheeling, which can only help.


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