How is it that you're sometimes faster at the end of a decent ride?

[ColinJ]

I take a long time to warm up so I often feel better in the second half of a ride. (Mind you, half the time I am going straight up a whacking big hill from a cold start, which never helps!)

For example - Cross Stone Road out of Todmorden. Try following it up on Street view and you will get the idea. You can bear right at the top of the first section to get some respite, but then it rears up again. If you go left up Hey Head Lane instead it just keeps on climbing, with some steep sections on the way.

 

[NorthernDave]

I live near the top of a hill, so I'm rarely faster at the end of a ride...

But I do know what you mean.

 

[mustang1]

I don't feel this after a long ride but usually feel it on the following day.

 

[HLaB]

Motivation ? Sometimes being close to the end is a target you can focus on.

 

[Joshua Plumtree]

I was definitely faster during the last two miles of yesterday's ride; so much so that I managed to grab only my second ever Strava KOM. The fact that it was nearly all downhill and with the benefit of a 50 mile per hour tail wind had nothing to do with it!

 

[User16625]

Last 3.5 to 4 miles of a journey and I seen a TT cyclist pass the junction I was about to pull out of. Just thought I would see how long I could keep up with this guy. I was blowin out my ass despite a tail wind. Cycling up some gradients I was still doing close to 20mph. I only wish I could breath in through one lung and out through the other simultaneously to keep a constant intake of air rather than the huffin and puffin thing. Probably the hardest I cycled ever and although it did feel pretty good, was way too much hard work to make a regular thing of. TTing isn't for me.

Pushing harder at the end of a ride makes more sense because if you over do it, you don't have far to go before you can chill out.