Building speed... Does it come naturally?

[Nigelnaturist]

@Big_Dave remember I don't work so its pretty easy, and it helps my condition, and I haven't done it often this year though my max in a month was 1013.9miles in May, just seems to have been one thing after another since then, shifters you know about, illness time needed else where ect.
Quick little table since I started.

 

[screenman]

Are you retired Nigel, somehow I had you as somebody younger.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Are you retired Nigel, somehow I had you as somebody younger.

Not retired I was 50 last Feb, I suffer from mental health issues that need to be kept an eye on, part of which is borderline personality disorder, not as bad as it sounds, leastwise not at others, but can be very destructive at oneself (load of other stuff as well), this is where cycling really helps me more so than any weight issues, I get a buzz from riding like nothing my life has given me before, and its an area that is often overlooked when cycling and health issues are mentioned, mind you that might be also in part many people don't understand mental health issues in the same way as physical one.

 

[The Mighty Boosh]

wow this thread has become soooo techincal, keep riding and it will come lol

 

[Nigelnaturist]

wow this thread has become soooo techincal, keep riding and it will come lol

Sorry, I forget the main point sometimes.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

@The Mighty Boosh mind you I think the table shows speed comes naturally all be it in my case not overly fast.

 

[bpsmith]

@Nigelnaturist You would be surprised how much cycling helps lots of people mentally, whether they realise it or not!

I used to get slightly obsessed with detailing my car. I would do multiple stages on each panel to get it looking amazing. People couldn't understand, but sometimes doing repetitive, non taxing, tasks lets your brain shut off for a while. It's not the task that you want to complete, but the time spent clearing yourself of thoughts. That has now translated into cycling for me, which is a much better use of time for obvious reasons. The bike is still spotless though!

I have an Autistic Son, who is now 8. They say it's not hereditary, but so much more makes sense now, from witnessing him as a child. I am certainly on the spectrum too, but embrace it nowadays. It's far more productive!

I don't get to do the mileage you get, but would like to sometimes. I have 1,150 for 2014 in total, not just May. Lol.

 

[dee.jay]

Allowing the brain to shut off is wonderful. I find cycling allows me to shut off from all my troubles and I'm focussing on the ride. I love it.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

@dee.jay
I don't have troubles in the way most people have in day to day life, and I understand there are many different forms of troubles, and whilst cycling does help and like this morning I was buzzing, it's getting to the stage even cycling, dark thoughts creep in, I suppose because I am at the level I am, hills and distance are not the problem they once were and I find I have more time to think apart from when there is more traffic, that doesn't mean I don't concentrate, but being a professional driver for most of the time I was working I have a quite a good understand of what other road users are likely to do (and on at least one occasion saved me for a possible serious injury) and can adjust my riding as needed.

 

[Studley]

Sorry, I forget the main point sometimes.

Slight understatement perhaps ?

Spent an hour reading this thread and the term 'off topic' doesn't come close.

 

[dee.jay]

I didn't mean troubles in any derogatory sense - we've all got our things in life we worry about

 

[puffinbilly]

As ever some excellent posts in this thread - I've done about 5000 miles in the past year on the bike and speed does pick up. I am looking to do 5000 miles this calendar year and because of commitments know I'll struggle to do much in the last three months so attempting my first 1000 mile month this month - on target hopefully with 600 miles so far. One benefit of this mileage is that my speed is increasing - having to push myself because of time constraints and currently using a hybrid because road bike stuck in the lakes and no time for 5 hour round trip to collect it.

Just seen that there is a Friday night ride from Carlisle to Newcastle tonight - would have loved to do this however only spotted this before eleven and they were meeting at Carlisle at eleven - oh well next year.

As ever @Nigelnaturist some excellent posts and great honesty about your situation that educates us - one question on the table you posted. You hsve average speed then snother field with maxavspd or something what's that?

 

[Nigelnaturist]

@dee.jay I know you weren't, it's difficult to phrase what I meant.
@puffinbilly its right the field header doesn't explain it clearly it is the max avg sp of any ride I did that month, for example my over all avg sp (based on total distance/total time not an avg of averages) might be say 15.8mph for the month but the max average speed, might be 16.5mph set on a ride say in the first or second week, does that explain it.
Its easy enough to do the same for max sp i.e. the avg max sp in a given time frame which would be lower than the max sp. Trust me there is so much you can do, I can play with it all day formatting tables forms making it work how I want even pivot tables (which unfortunately MS have dropped in the new version)
A monthly summery form or as you saw in table form.

Pivot table showing HR with Max HR, Avg Cad, gear inch avg distance per day ridden ( I may have more than one ride in a day) avg sp and the number of days I have ridden in a month, obviously the 208 max hr is a glitch.

 

[Big_Dave]

Slight understatement perhaps ?

Spent an hour reading this thread and the term 'off topic' doesn't come close.

In a way it has, things do go way off topic, but we're all new to each other (I've been on here 2 months) on here, people are getting to know each other and what makes them "tick" who does what etc etc, we're all making new friends, I have to say this is the friendliest forum I have ever been on and everyone plays nicely together, we are all in the same boat, cycling is one big learning curve, this forum is a great place for beginners, I consider myself to be an experienced cyclist as an MTB rider, earlier this year I moved to road cycling and it was a whole new experience for me and a totally different way of cycling, We are all eagerly sharing our experiences, all forums go off topic with general banter, sorry if we went miles off topic though

 

[Studley]

QUOTE="Big_Dave, post: 3289252, member: 37533"]In a way it has, things do go way off topic, but we're all new to each other (I've been on here 2 months) on here, people are getting to know each other and what makes them "tick" who does what etc etc, we're all making new friends, I have to say this is the friendliest forum I have ever been on and everyone plays nicely together, we are all in the same boat, cycling is one big learning curve, this forum is a great place for beginners, I consider myself to be an experienced cyclist as an MTB rider, earlier this year I moved to road cycling and it was a whole new experience for me and a totally different way of cycling, We are all eagerly sharing our experiences, all forums go off topic with general banter, sorry if we went miles off topic though [/QUOTE]

Sorry if I came across as a stick in the mud type of guy, I'm all for being friendly and sharing in our experiences. I just found it a bit frustrating having to read 145 posts just to get at the 7 or 8 posts that had relevance to the thread. But hey, if that's ok with the OP and site mods them who am I to say.

I've been cycling for around 3 months and in that time I've gone from doing an average of 9.5mph to an average of 11.5mph. The first 6 weeks I didn't really bother with my speeds or distance, I was concentrating purely on getting my cardiovascualr system functioning better and getting some strength back in my legs. This was the most painful and un-enjoyable part and was also the part where I could easily have chucked the bike in the shed and resigned it to a life of darkness. In the 10yrs prior to cycling I'd been spending ALL day and evening just sitting at home, working eating and smoking which led to me having 2 angioplasts in my groin as my calves were siezing up after walking more than 200yds.
After week 6 I started to plot my average speed, distance, max speed and time spent cycling using a cheapo cycle computer. I think it was this that really encouraged me to carry on cycling, seeing my average speed and distances rise showed me I was getting fitter, and even though they were small gains it was enough to make me want to push more when I came to the last 10% of the ride. The other 90% I try to enjoy the experience.
Still a complete novice in comparison to many on here but ya godda start somewhere.