How to increase my speed & overall fitness

[chipmonster]

I am 38 yrs old and have been cycling for about 5 years. I have always struggled to put weight on and I am 5ft 8 weighing 62 kg.

Presently, I cycle 3 days a week on my commute (6 miles each way, downhill in the morning and up hill the way home) and go to gisburn mountain bike once a week (been doing this for about 2 months now). Prior to this it was a casual cycle twice a week (say 8 miles) Going to get back to playing squash once a week.

However, even though I have improved and can do hills without stopping etc, I find that on my commute, nearly everyone over takes me when I am going flat out. I ride a carbon bike (Cannodale carbon six) but often get passed by people on mountain bike and roadies leave me standing.

I average about 13 miles hours on the roadie with a carbon bike with my commute and I got beat on a flat by my younger brother today (he's 25).

What do I need to do to increased that speed!

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Ride more,ride harder,go up a few gears

 

[accountantpete]

You need to practice and eat - take a look at the thighs on a professional cyclist as that (to a lesser extent) is what you need.

Firstly you need to practice at going 18mph - doing 13mph won't help. I'd recommend a turbo for anaerobic strength and cadence work and then use the road sessions for stamina. These work-outs need to be full-on!

Ideally you should be looking at a cadence of 80 - 90rpm so get that sorted and then start turning bigger gears.

For the muscles - look at getting around 60g of protein minimum per day (eggs are recommended).

Don't expect results overnight - this can be a slow and labourious process.

 

[johnpembo73]

Increase your cadence in the gear your comfortable in now. Then when you can average 95+ over the 6 miles go up another gear and do the same.

 

[amaferanga]

For the muscles - look at getting around 60g of protein minimum per day (eggs are recommended).

10 eggs a day?

 

[amaferanga]

Long ride at weekends, upping distance gradually. No reason why you can't be doing 50-60 miles quite comfortably by the end of the summer.

One or two 1-2hr long rides through the week ridden as hard as you can go for the planned distance/duration in addition to your regular commute. City roads aren't ideal for this as they're usually too stop-start.

With the miles you're doing at the moment, diet is unlikely to be the problem. Unless you have a weird diet then you'll probably be getting more than enough protein already.

My guess if that you're spending most of your time riding at a comfortable pace so you're not stressing your system enough to trigger the adaptions needed to get quicker. An HR monitor (used in combination with common sense ) might help you get to know how hard you can actually go for a given time.

 

[172traindriver]

You are certainly blessed regarding your weight, but as others have said you need to up your speed progressively, so need to start riding in a higher gear and upping your work load. Intervals would be good to get your speed and strength up and what about joining a local cycling club. There is another one to help to get average speed up and also up endurance with longer rides. That is also great for improving bike riding and handling skills.

 

[chipmonster]

Going to start my squash again and going to go for it every time. I live in Blackburn so going to hit them hills (no shortage of them in Blackburn). Additionally, need to get a turbo training tyre and hit that turbo.

Thanks for all your advice

 

[johnpembo73]

Chipmonster a good hill to do hill repeats will be Brantfell Road at the back of Corporation park. Its nice and steep and sectioned off from cars.

 

[berty bassett]

be careful before you go nuts and buy turbo trainers and so on - you sweat like a pig and they can be ultra boring compared to the road . personally i would see how you got on with interval training - going hard for say 2 phone poles then slacking for 7-8 then hard again and just keep repeating - take mental notes of what you do first time and try to beat it alittle each time - it works and is so much better than sitting in a shed . hate to say it but think you will only get faster by working harder but you will be amazed how quick you can turn it round if you really want to - get your own back on your brother

 

[HLaB]

Practice is the only real answer to the original question but riding harder. Beyond that you need to find the optimum cadence for you; spinning too fast IMO just tires you out too quickly, your spinning too fast in relation to forward momentum but spinning too slowly probably means you are spinning to high a gear, which will also tire you out and will probably hurt your knees.

 

[lukesdad]

There s a lot being taken for granted here, he could be flat out in too higher gear. At 5' 8 and 62 kg I d have a look at your crank length, anything over 170 is probably too long.

 

[WorcesteRob]

Could tyre pressures and type of tyre be a contributing factor?

 

[lukesdad]

Could tyre pressures and type of tyre be a contributing factor?

It could.

 

[edindave]

Am I reading this correctly? OP has done 36 miles a week for two months prior to that 8 miles twice a week, and been MTB 8 times...

Forget crank length and protein, just ride the bike more!