obsessed about my avg

[Funk-Meister]

This is great. Isnt it good to be anally retentive?????

 

[jimboalee]

This is great. Isnt it good to be anally retentive?????

After 4 50km rides around the same course on each bike, my Land Rover Tahora MTB/Hybrid is 1.002 mph slower ( on average ) than my Dawes Giro 500 sports tourer.

The Tahora is 32.5lb with a Cd of 1.12 and the Giro 500 is 24.5lb with a Cd of 0.96, and as a consequence, the calorific expenditure riding the Tahora is 14.45% greater.

 

[Chrisc]

After 4 50km rides around the same course on each bike, my Land Rover Tahora MTB/Hybrid is 1.002 mph slower ( on average ) than my Dawes Giro 500 sports tourer.

The Tahora is 32.5lb with a Cd of 1.12 and the Giro 500 is 24.5lb with a Cd of 0.96, and as a consequence, the calorific expenditure riding the Tahora is 14.45% greater.

Oh God. Now I want to know how to work out the Cd of my bike...pack it in!!!

 

[Simba]

After EVER commute I check my max and ave speed BEFORE anything else.

+1 as do I, I also check distance and time taken

I use the Cateye Micro Wireless and that has auto pause when stopped, doesn't stop below a certain speed though, that's why if I ever need to walk for a rest my average plummets, therefore I try not to walk.

 

[Chrisc]

Despite my efforts to stop being anal about all this I seem to have ordered myself a Cateye Strada thing.... HELP!

 

[moolarb]

for me the current/average speed on my computer is useful for pacing myself, not so much racing myself

e.g. you're going on a long training ride and want to crack 70 miles for the first time and you think that you can average 16mph, but know that you'll probably blow up if you average 18mph - I tend to speed up as the ride goes on so a computer helps me keep that in check

 

[Chrisc]

for me the current/average speed on my computer is useful for pacing myself, not so much racing myself

e.g. you're going on a long training ride and want to crack 70 miles for the first time and you think that you can average 16mph, but know that you'll probably blow up if you average 18mph - I tend to speed up as the ride goes on so a computer helps me keep that in check

Great idea, I now feel my purchase is fully justified. Ta!

 

[Funk-Meister]

Despite my efforts to stop being anal about all this I seem to have ordered myself a Cateye Strada thing.... HELP!

Welcome to the Dark Side. The force is strong in you.....i sense it.

 

[Hacienda71]

Watching my average speed when riding on my own i find can give me an incentive to push harder. If i am with a group it is not as important. I also find chasing down another rider makes me work harder when riding solo.

 

[Chrisc]

Welcome to the Dark Side. The force is strong in you.....i sense it.

 

[Rob3rt]

Watching my average speed when riding on my own i find can give me an incentive to push harder. If i am with a group it is not as important. I also find chasing down another rider makes me work harder when riding solo.

I find watching my average makes me reckless i.e. pushing me to ride less carefully in order to up the average a teensy bit. They payoff isnt worth the risk and hence I only really look at my average speed post ride.

During ride I look at HR, distance and time taken. Occasionally glance at my current speed and cadence.



Personally I find average speed to be a near useless figure for pacing myself, its way to dependant on external influences. I prefer to go by HR and my own perception of effort (combined I feel this gives a good indicator). It doesnt always work out, especially at the start, but its a learning curve.

 

[zacklaws]

Problem I find with average speed, is that on a long ride, once the die has been cast, it becomes very hard to raise the average speed in the last miles of a ride.

For instance, I did a 57 mile ride this week and was hoping for a 16mph average as a minimum for a forthcoming sportive, and with about 11 miles to go, I had only achieved an average of about 14.7mph, so I rode hard and recorded averages of 19.1, 17.1 and 17.2mph for each lap the Garmin was recording with maximums of between 25 to 29mph, but I only managed to finish with an average of 15.2mph, the damage had been done earlier crawling up hills. 11 miles of hard work, to just raise my average by about half a mile an hour.

As for using average speed to pace with, I have a VDO C4 computer, and based on your current average speed, it will tell you how far you will get in the time scale that you have programmed into the computer. Therefore I know if it is still worth pushing to try and do 100 miles in 6 hours for example. Sadly not many computers have that facility, as VDO have stopped making most of its range and I think they only make 1 or 2 now with that facility but they now call it "Time Trial clock" or somthing like that. Plus the timer does not have an autopause so you are racing the clock.

 

[Rob3rt]

I can see what you are saying, it can be good for seeing if its still possible to reach a target time.

But in general unless you know your average over a certain route pretty well, I cant imagine it being a good thing to base your pacing on. If you travel 10 mile and you averaged say 15mph, you can hazard a guess at where you wil be if the average continues at any point in time without any computer to tell you, If you average 15mph over 10 miles, it will take 6hr 40mins to do 100 mile, great but....... in reality you possibly went to hard for the 1st 10 mile and have an impressive average and think you will arrive at destination in no time, only to blow up 40 miles in because you arent in tune with your body enough to realise your pushing beyond your sustainable limit over the course. Or conditions change and your whole pacing strategy gets shaken up.

In all fairness, there are no pacing tools that work perfect and everyone is different, personally I wouldnt use average speed as a pacing tool unless on a very short course like a time trial, and even then I'd use it only to complement my own feelings and my HR reading (still not perfect measure but will have been used in training and trends noted and compared with a personal effort rating). Or maybe im looking at it all it wrong?

 

[Hacienda71]

On a short flat loop that I know well I find checking my average speed periodicaly is useful. If I have fallen behind what I expect to be doing then it just gives me that incentive to push. I wouldn't use average speed as an incentive on a busy ride or a long ride but say a ten mile flat out run when i know the course then it works for me. If you want to train for a TT then trying to maintain an average circa 20 mph over 10 miles is a good bench mark. You could equally rely on timing yourself but you would need to have some points of reference to make this work. As Rob3rt says everyone has their own techniques.

 

[Kablinsky]

I'm 'in between' cycle computers at the moment. Strangely I've just done my fastest time (on stopwatch) on a 10 mile loop. I'm guessing not knowing how fast I'm going just kept me pushing hard.