Average Speed!

[MaxInc]

I guess the more important aspect is for how long you've been training and not how old you are. If you've been cycling all your life, your body will be perfetcly adapted to it and even at 60 can still perform well. If you are starting up at 60 you have a physiologic disadvantage since the changes in the body occur at a slower rate and even with intense training, especially in areas such as muscle growth and cardiovascular fitness.

 

[Mo1959]

I guess the more important aspect is for how long you've been training and not how old you are. If you've been cycling all your life, your body will be perfetcly adapted to it and even at 60 can still perform well. If you are starting up at 60 you have a physiologic disadvantage since the changes in the body occur at a slower rate and even with intense training, especially in areas such as muscle growth and cardiovascular fitness.

That's what I was getting at but you have put it so much better.

 

[themosquitoking]

I can go quite fast but my average speed lways suffers because of traffic lights and i'm a nosey bastard who stops and stares at stuff too often for his own good.

 

[Pikey]

I guess it's all relative to each individual as to what's fast, long, acceptable, useless etc.

In all seriousness I am happy just footling along on my bike. I like to see my distance and average speed slowly climb but I'm not fixated on it. I get off more on the sheep, hills and other sights I see along the way.

I do marvel at some of the mileages some of the guys knock out on here.

Personally I think 80 miles a week or 4000 a year is absolutely huge - I'll come in at about 11--1200 in this my first full year since I restarted cycling and in all honesty I don't see it ever getting much beyond that in subsequent years.

Even a semi (nearly fully) retired working life of 10 weeks holiday and 16 hours a week the rest of year just does not give me the time to get out that much.

Maybe its simply because I lack the drive and ambition that I had in my let's call them.....more frenetic years.

Or maybe its because I get my kicks in the mountains more than on a bike.

I should watch that, you can get put on a register for it...

 

[doog]

. But it is not a case of mind over mater.

In my case it is. Mentally as a youngster I could never had done some of the stuff I have done in the last 10 years. That mental attribute is actually what separates elite sports people so how can you can just brush it aside is rather confusing.

 

[malcermie]

Been riding regularly now for five months and have seen my average speed rise from 11mph to 13.5mph on rides of about 50 miles, but more important for me my cadence has risen from 60 to 75. Get a slight clicking from my right knee, but seeing as I have been using the same pair of legs for 68 years can't complain

 

[Rob3rt]

In my case it is. Mentally as a youngster I could never had done some of the stuff I have done in the last 10 years. That mental attribute is actually what separates elite sports people so how can you can just brush it aside is rather confusing.

The mental side of sport is a very large part of it, I did not brush this aside. I stated that the reason athletes enjoy longer careers in endurance sports vs explosive sports is not due to mental attributes, it is physiological!

In elite sports, athletes will generally be mentally tough regardless of the discipline, it is an attribute of the elite sports person and almost all of them will be able to push themselves to the absolute limit. However, you can not overcome physiology, the body will do what it can do and no more. You can't decide to do more than you are able to do, when you hit the limit, you hit the limit, try as you might through sheer determination to exceed the limit and you will just wake up in the first aid tent!

 

[doog]

Take two blokes with the same physical capacity but differing mental capacity . You said above its not 'mind over matter' after I said it was probably was, however the mentally stronger guy will win so I am correct

Anyway, you clearly like a good debate and having retired from the commuting section Ive also retired from pointless arguments- so I bid you good night.

 

[Rob3rt]

Take two blokes with the same physical capacity but differing mental capacity . You said above its not 'mind over matter' after I said it was probably was, however the mentally stronger guy will win so I am correct

Anyway, you clearly like a good debate and having retired from the commuting section Ive also retired from pointless arguments- so I bid you good night.

Not necessarily, there is this thing called strategy, some people may refer to it as race craft, other might call it, trying your luck, it can have quite the effect on how things conspire, or are you now going to claim being crafty is the same as being mentally hard?

Also, that is not what you initially said, what you said was:

I have personally found that my endurance capacity has increased with age. I dont think this is unusual but probably a case of mind over matter. I think you get mentally harder as you get older, something them nippers lack.

This may hold true for yourself, but in the general sense, the physiological attributes that are associated with or have most influence in explosive sports decline at a different rate to those that limit endurance, and also can not be "resisted" in quite the same ways.

Good night!

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Crikey - I'm useless.

80 miles a week is "not a lot" and 17.5mph av' needs improving on!

Are you chaps young by any chance?

You and me both then.

 

[Nosaj]

Lets settle this age thing here are some veteran age records from our club, the firts number you see is the age, then time then the year the record was set:
10 mile TT:
46 20:41 1991
47 20:56 1988
56 21:01 1994
57 21:14 1990
58 21:21 1991
65 22:12 2006
66 22:28 2007
67 22:45 2008
68 22:49 2009
70 - 23:16 2011
71 - 23:46 2012
72 - 24:47 1999
73 - 28:53 2003
75 - 29:15 2005
76 - 29:20 2006
79 - 30:49 2009
80 - 30:49 2010
81 - 30:55 2011
82 - 31:03 2012

25 mile TT
45 - 52:16 1991
56 - 53:03 1994
59 - 54:50 1992
60 - 56:00 1993
61 - 57:15 1994
65 - 58:02 2006
71 - 59:50 2005 - This is over 25mph average speed for 25 miles
72 - 1:11:52 2003
73 - 1:14:36 2003
76 - 1:16:09 2006
79 - 1:17:09 2009

50 mile TT set in 2012 of 1:59:30 by a 65 year old, over 25 mph average speed
In 1997 a 70 year old set a time of 4:44:16 for a 100 mile TT

I agree that age can play a factor when the guy hit 73 he slowed down a little but was still breaking evens in a 10 up to the age of 76....quite humbling....

 

[Andrew_P]

To be honest age is not the factor in these TT times being posted. The factor is that they were probably cracking riders when they were in their twenties and have probably been riding for a large part of their adult life. I think the point people are making about age is the age you come in to cycling and this will make a huge difference. Someone getting on a bike for the first time in 30 years and have never had any aerobic and muscle fitness is going to be slower getting up to speed than someone who has had it and let it slip.

I have gone through stages in my life of being fairly fit, very fit and very unfit. I spent a lot of my life riding bikes up until I was 18. The fact I had been fit in the past made it more possible to get that fitness back quicker and thus increase my speeds quicker, but it was never easy and has at times been fairly painful.

 

[Rob3rt]

To be honest age is not the factor in these TT times being posted. The factor is that they were probably cracking riders when they were in their twenties and have probably been riding for a large part of their adult life. I think the point people are making about age is the age you come in to cycling and this will make a huge difference. Someone getting on a bike for the first time in 30 years and have never had any aerobic and muscle fitness is going to be slower getting up to speed than someone who has had it and let it slip.

I have gone through stages in my life of being fairly fit, very fit and very unfit. I spent a lot of my life riding bikes up until I was 18. The fact I had been fit in the past made it more possible to get that fitness back quicker and thus increase my speeds quicker, but it was never easy and has at times been fairly painful.

Agree, if you are ageing and are coming from a state of being unfit, you will unlikely reach the same height of fitness, ever, most certainly not at the same rate as someone much younger. But you can make considerable gains and can still become relatively speaking, very fit.

Given that lots of the people who comment on age limiting them are in their 30's and 40's, they are hardly old! They are just whining!

 

[Andrew_P]

Given that lots of the people who comment on age limiting them are in their 30's and 40's, they are hardly old! They are just whining!

like I said it has been at times pretty painful. I think there is the mental aspect that some people enjoy the pain of pushing up that long slow incline when your body is telling you to back off and some people do as their brain tells them.

I have been searching Dr Google to find an interesting research paper I read which was basically when you first start exercise after a long lay off the brain senses all this new exertion and caps off how far it will let you go by as much of a limit as 25% from max. It is self protecting and will gradually raise this limit as the new exertion become the norm. I just cannot remember where I read it or how long it takes to raise the limits.

 

[Mile195]

I've only just come across this thread, and the topic's moved on a bit, but I'll put in my two cents anyway.

Personally I find that average speed, although a good general indicator of how hard you have worked, can be a bit arbitrary.

My average speed can vary by up to 3mph on my daily commute (40 mile round trip), and it's not necessarily because I'm not working as hard. It often comes down to weight of traffic, how many red lights I come across, whether I've got a head or tail wind (because the air is rarely entirely still - you'll often have one or the other). There's lots of things that can slow me down that are out of my control. It's also difficult to compare to other people because you might ride on hills, while they ride on the flat.

Personally I wouldn't get too hung up on it. If you want to improve your fitness, I'd forget largely about your average speed, and focus on keeping your heart-rate at a certain level if you have a monitor. That's a much truer indication of the work you're doing.