A question, Is she using the gears correctly? I see many people trying to mash a big gear, going along at a slowish pace but struggling to turn the pedals, when using a lower gear and spinning the pedals might lead to a higher speed. I see that she can do good distances , Just a thought.
Slow cycling wife
- Thread starter dirkthedaring71
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
twobiker
New Member
- Location
- South Hams Devon
We are all different so your wife may just be more comfortable at 12mph, thinking she may be ill just because she is not so fast seems a bit extreme, I averaged 12mph for 100 miles on a solo ride, and that was quite restful, the difference may be between the Hare and the tortoise.
byegad
Legendary Member
- Location
- NE England
My wife is slower than me. I found out one day, when I heard her talking to a friend, that she doesn't like to go too fast so eases back when she reaches 'her' speed. This made sense of the fact that she descends like a slow thing going slow.
Can she learn to draft you? My boyfriend is a faster cyclist than me but one of the things we do when we cycle together is I draft fairly tightly off him which saves my energy - this is a particularly good arrangement into a headwind. He's faster than me up hills - or I have to put in a lot more effort to climb at the same pace as he does - but our biggest problem is actually downhill as I'm a hopeless descender while he loves descending - he just has to wait for me at the bottom...
To get better at cycling up hills, you have to cycle up hills... so get her to pick a hill and do hill reps on it. And if she's just sitting on the turbo spinning away, get her to do reps on that as well - put it into a big gear/turn up the resistance and hammer it for a bit - a minute, say, or 5 minutes - and then spin easy for a bit, and repeat. This should hurt. (When my boyfriend or I use the turbo we put something underneath to catch the sweat. Someone on the triathlon forums was complaining that they had to turbo in an unheated garage and their sweat was freezing onto the floor...)
My other thought is, does she know the best strategy for riding hills? I used to change down to my lowest gear the minute I hit the hill, but that isn't the way to do it. Instead, you carry as much speed as you can into the hill, maybe go down one gear just before it starts to bite, then keep going down another gear while keeping your cadence up until you run out of gears!
Finally, and very respectfully, a good power to weight ratio is helpful...
Apologies if any of this is teaching you to suck eggs.
To get better at cycling up hills, you have to cycle up hills... so get her to pick a hill and do hill reps on it. And if she's just sitting on the turbo spinning away, get her to do reps on that as well - put it into a big gear/turn up the resistance and hammer it for a bit - a minute, say, or 5 minutes - and then spin easy for a bit, and repeat. This should hurt. (When my boyfriend or I use the turbo we put something underneath to catch the sweat. Someone on the triathlon forums was complaining that they had to turbo in an unheated garage and their sweat was freezing onto the floor...)
My other thought is, does she know the best strategy for riding hills? I used to change down to my lowest gear the minute I hit the hill, but that isn't the way to do it. Instead, you carry as much speed as you can into the hill, maybe go down one gear just before it starts to bite, then keep going down another gear while keeping your cadence up until you run out of gears!
Finally, and very respectfully, a good power to weight ratio is helpful...
Apologies if any of this is teaching you to suck eggs.
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
There is also the added pain of going faster, and some folk just can't get through it/don't like it when the legs start to burn.
Becs
Veteran
- Location
- Old Hatfield (it's nice honest!)
Perhaps a little harsh! Have you ever tried to cycle with lady lumps?
On an exercise induced asthma note, it is real and often manifests as coughing after exercise. I have conventional asthma and it is a killer up hill or into a head wind but it doesn't really affect me on the flat unless I'm trying to hit mid-20s mph. It is worse when my hayfever is bad or when I have a cold and is better if I cycle outside of London (as long as it's not oil seed rape season!). If that sounds similar it might be worth her getting her peak flow rate checked with the GP. I didn't realise how bad mine was until I started taking a preventer inhaler and my cycling and running ability improved dramatically.
Wankelschrauben
Guest
Well done Zoiders, great input.
Wankelschrauben
Guest
My GF is really slow, I freewheel with minimal effort faster than she moves pedalling, she uses a pretty decent Marin hybrid.
She is getting faster though, and she is learning that to climb steep hills she needs to employ a gear by which she can spin.
We both know that if she had a decent road bike she'd be a lot faster.
She is getting faster though, and she is learning that to climb steep hills she needs to employ a gear by which she can spin.
We both know that if she had a decent road bike she'd be a lot faster.
gary in derby
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Derby
Wish I had a cycling wife. Struggle to get her out for a 3mile ride.
Simba
Specialized Allez 24 Rider
- Location
- Tottington - Lancashire
Wish my missus cycled too, but she would never go on the roads as she thinks there are too many lunatics.
totallyfixed
Veteran
- Location
- The only county without a McDonalds
I think this is a difficult one, I have to disagree when comparing cycling to running, over the years I have seen probably hundreds of people take up cycling with clubs and I don't honestly recall anyone "failing". Yes, there are those who just prefer cycling at a more genteel pace, and nothing wrong with that. However if someone is determined to go quicker then they will barring what I said in my last post [thanks Becs for saving an explanation]. Motivation is also very important and more often than not the fairer sex respond much better to advice from one of their own.
I coach my better half and being my intellectual superior, she listens, analyses and if it makes sense will then do it, the point I am making here is that she has to trust who is telling her what to do, we all know it's not always a good idea to teach your partner to drive. We have a very fit female friend who is a triathlete, good bike, looks the part but when she starts riding looks like a bag of spanners and more energy is lost to the ether than transferred through the pedals. To cut a long story short we sorted that out and now she is flying. I really hope you resolve this because it does make cycling a more satisfying experience.
I coach my better half and being my intellectual superior, she listens, analyses and if it makes sense will then do it, the point I am making here is that she has to trust who is telling her what to do, we all know it's not always a good idea to teach your partner to drive. We have a very fit female friend who is a triathlete, good bike, looks the part but when she starts riding looks like a bag of spanners and more energy is lost to the ether than transferred through the pedals. To cut a long story short we sorted that out and now she is flying. I really hope you resolve this because it does make cycling a more satisfying experience.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I think it is great to have a partner who does 70 mile rides with you but if she really does want to ride faster, then you have to work out why she can't ride faster than that now.
What kind of terrain is that 12 mph achieved on?
Since I got unfit and put a lot of weight on, my average speed on my forum rides has dropped to about 8 mph! I used to do more like 12-13 mph which I consider reasonable for rides including 6,000-7,000 of vicious Pennine hills. Even at my fittest, I was only doing about 15-16 mph on long rides in these hills. So, if you live somewhere as hilly as this, I'd say that her 12 mph is actually already pretty good.
If you live somewhere flat, then, okay, 12 mph is pretty slow, but not annoyingly so. It would just take a long time to do long rides. She certainly wouldn't be riding particularly far in daylight in the winter.
If her speed is okay on the flat, but it is hills that cause her to slow down, then her power-to-weight ratio is the problem. She would have to lose weight, increase her power or both. If she isn't slim, then losing weight would be the obvious way to get faster uphill and doing 70 mile rides (including some hills) at 12 mph is bound to help with that.
What kind of terrain is that 12 mph achieved on?
Since I got unfit and put a lot of weight on, my average speed on my forum rides has dropped to about 8 mph! I used to do more like 12-13 mph which I consider reasonable for rides including 6,000-7,000 of vicious Pennine hills. Even at my fittest, I was only doing about 15-16 mph on long rides in these hills. So, if you live somewhere as hilly as this, I'd say that her 12 mph is actually already pretty good.
If you live somewhere flat, then, okay, 12 mph is pretty slow, but not annoyingly so. It would just take a long time to do long rides. She certainly wouldn't be riding particularly far in daylight in the winter.
If her speed is okay on the flat, but it is hills that cause her to slow down, then her power-to-weight ratio is the problem. She would have to lose weight, increase her power or both. If she isn't slim, then losing weight would be the obvious way to get faster uphill and doing 70 mile rides (including some hills) at 12 mph is bound to help with that.
carolonabike
Senior Member
- Location
- Boldon
This is very interesting, I'm in the same position as Mrs Dirkthedaring71. My average speed is usually about 13mph no matter how hard I try. Mr Carolonabike is a fast triathlete and has to make a concious effort to slow down when he's out with me. I too have no problem with distance, on a weekend we normally do a 50 - 60 mile ride and I did a 100 a few weeks ago.
The way we've got around it is when he's out with me he treats it as sort of equivalent to a long slow run, a way of increasing his endurance - hours in the saddle. He goes out during the week on his own doing TT's and such like. He says it has worked, and his bike times in races have come down.
As others have mentioned there's the power to weight ratio to consider, is she quite small? I'm in my early fifties and less than 9 stone, From my point of view I am beginning to accept that although I would like to go faster I don't want it enough to do anything much about it and even if I did I probably would not improve by a huge margin. If she wants to go faster then there's some useful advice on here how to improve.
Emphasise to her what a marvellous way it is to spend a few hours over the weekend, and how lucky you both are to be able to spend time together doing something you both love, you're in a tiny minority, many couples spend the weekend doing entirely different things, which makes me a bit sad.
The way we've got around it is when he's out with me he treats it as sort of equivalent to a long slow run, a way of increasing his endurance - hours in the saddle. He goes out during the week on his own doing TT's and such like. He says it has worked, and his bike times in races have come down.
As others have mentioned there's the power to weight ratio to consider, is she quite small? I'm in my early fifties and less than 9 stone, From my point of view I am beginning to accept that although I would like to go faster I don't want it enough to do anything much about it and even if I did I probably would not improve by a huge margin. If she wants to go faster then there's some useful advice on here how to improve.
Emphasise to her what a marvellous way it is to spend a few hours over the weekend, and how lucky you both are to be able to spend time together doing something you both love, you're in a tiny minority, many couples spend the weekend doing entirely different things, which makes me a bit sad.
amaferanga
Veteran
- Location
- Bolton
If your wife rides everywhere at a comfortable speed then she'll simply get good at riding around at that speed. Upping distance is much easier than upping speed since to up distance all you need to do is ride regularly and a bit further every week or two. To up speed once you reach the plateau ib going from unfit cyclist to fit cyclist you need to train. Contrary to what another poster has advised, doing sprints isn't the best way to increase your cruising speed - threshold intervals are. Since your wife uses a turbo then these are probably best done there. The good old 2x20min session ridden around threshold a couple of times a week and your wife will soon see speed gains on the road.
Thing is though, 2x20 sessions done properly aren't fun so your wife will have to really want to improve. But there's no way she'll be at her physiological limit riding at 12mph average so with some proper training she will get faster.
Thing is though, 2x20 sessions done properly aren't fun so your wife will have to really want to improve. But there's no way she'll be at her physiological limit riding at 12mph average so with some proper training she will get faster.