Speed and effort

[WychwoodTrev]

As outhers have said speed is not the be all and end all cycling is about Fun and Enjoying yourself the more you enjoy it the more likely you are to stick at it, And keeping up cycling and getting fit/fitter and staying healthy is the main reason for doing it. with practice you will get fitter/faster

Good luck keep up the good work and most of all Fun Fun Fun

 

[Wednesday]

Oh, yeah, I wouldn't normally worry about other people being better at a hobby than me. Two things have made it bother me; first that I thought I'd see some improvement just by riding regularly and didn't. At that point I thought oh well, I suppose that's my speed, but then I came here and saw "we averaged 20mph which sounds slow" and "14mph is all right for a beginner" and thought WTF's wrong with me?

Even so I'd be happy to just ride around and enjoy myself if I wasn't training for a six day ride next May. It's 80 miles a day average and I don't want to be coming into camp three hours later than everyone else. I was also hoping to do a century before the end of summer, but I'd rather not do it in the dark! So I'm wondering if I can expect to see improvements by just doing what I'm doing? If I'm missing something? How long does it take?

I know I've improved a bit because I found 50 miles yesterday no more tiring than I used to find 27, there's just no extra speed!

What I'm riding; that's another thing! I thought switching from from a heavy old Apollo that was too big for me with tires at 21psi (it had never occurred to me to get a track pump until I came here) to a proper modern bike that fits and has properly inflated tyres would make a noticeable difference. I can spin up hills I couldn't contemplate before, but overall speed is just as slow.

Anyway I'm riding a Ridgeback Cyclone now, a "sports hybrid", with the tyres it came with which are slick in the middle with knobbles on the outside (I figured I'd get more roady tires for the big ride, but at the moment it's nice to have flexibility). They haven't been pumped since I bought the bike three weeks ago so it's probably time to top them up. I cycled very little (1.5 miles into town and the odd 14 mile round trip) until the beginning of spring, when I started doing a 27 mile round trip once a week, then three or four weeks ago I signed up for 480 miles and have been trying to do more since then. I'm not very organised though so it hasn't amounted to much.

Gears I've sort of worked out; if I feel like my legs are working hard I switch down and see if it feels better. I haven't properly tried high cadence yet (need to get the monitor working). I'm good at making sure I eat enough because I get low blood sugar in day to day life if I let it slide, but I'm still learning what will keep me going without weighing me down. I was surprised that I felt ok cycling between 11 and 4 yesterday with just cereal for breakfast and a Trek bar on the way.

 

[Norm]

Unless you're into TTs or road-racing there's no relevance in comparing yourself against others.

This.

The bike and the route have a huge effect, Ii
struggle on the road on my MTB to hit a speed which I'd consider a slow cruise on the road bike. And changing the tyres on one bike made me nearly 20% faster... etc.

 

[monnet]

20mph isn't slow at all. It's bloody hard work. Don't be put off by people saying things like that. It's only recently that I've been able to a ride at 20mph without feeling like I'm putting in a massive effort - and that's because I'm racing alot more than I used to. Bearing in mind that I'm doing that after an awful lot of training, on a road bike I wouldn't worry.

As everyone else has said, ride at the speed that you need to. If your race/TT you'll nedd to be able to ride at 25mph. No one else has any need to do anywhere near that. And frankly, when you're concentrating on speed, it rather takes the enjoyment out of cycling. I often like to do the slower ride (12-ish mph) on my clubruns just to rekindle my love of simply riding a bike.

 

[aberal]

Anyway I'm riding a Ridgeback Cyclone now, a "sports hybrid", with the tyres it came with which are slick in the middle with knobbles on the outside (I figured I'd get more roady tires for the big ride, but at the moment it's nice to have flexibility). They haven't been pumped since I bought the bike three weeks ago so it's probably time to top them up. I cycled very little (1.5 miles into town and the odd 14 mile round trip) until the beginning of spring, when I started doing a 27 mile round trip once a week, then three or four weeks ago I signed up for 480 miles and have been trying to do more since then. I'm not very organised though so it hasn't amounted to much.

You will typically go around 1/3 or so slower on a bike like that compared to a lightweight "racing type" road bike. The factors are riding postion (upright) bike weight, tyre thickness and type and tyre pressure. A racing road bike will have tyres around 21-28mm thick pumped up to around 100psi. You are likely to have 35mm tyres and by the sounds of things, underinflated as well. So your speed of around 10mph is understandable. Swap that bike for a lightweight road bike, put in the exact same effort and I'd guess your average speed would increase to around 13-14mph, which isn't a bad speed at all.

 

[Norm]

20mph isn't slow at all. It's bloody hard work. Don't be put off by people saying things like that. It's only recently that I've been able to a ride at 20mph without feeling like I'm putting in a massive effort...

20!?!? We were talking about 10mph. I'm not sure that bringing 20 into it does anything other than prove the OP's point.

 

[GrasB]

Oh, yeah, I wouldn't normally worry about other people being better at a hobby than me. Two things have made it bother me; first that I thought I'd see some improvement just by riding regularly and didn't. At that point I thought oh well, I suppose that's my speed, but then I came here and saw "we averaged 20mph which sounds slow" and "14mph is all right for a beginner" and thought WTF's wrong with me?

As people have said the bike does make a difference. From someone who does go fast a lot of the time - going fast hurts. There's no getting around that & it's that simple. If you're riding along at a reasonably leisurely pace then you're not going to see the near-20mph averages. Also in group rides you can easily be averaging 20-30% faster for the same effort level per-rider.

Even so I'd be happy to just ride around and enjoy myself if I wasn't training for a six day ride next May. It's 80 miles a day average and I don't want to be coming into camp three hours later than everyone else. I was also hoping to do a century before the end of summer, but I'd rather not do it in the dark! So I'm wondering if I can expect to see improvements by just doing what I'm doing? If I'm missing something? How long does it take?

I know I've improved a bit because I found 50 miles yesterday no more tiring than I used to find 27, there's just no extra speed!

Just putting in the miles builds up endurance so you'll be able to go for longer & at the same speed. This is what you've done & it has been effective. However to go faster over the same distance just going at the same pace doesn't work, to get faster you have to ride faster! This means putting your legs under extreme stress with short high intensity rides where you completely exhaust your self over 20 minuets maybe less & doing interval training alternating between bursts of anaerobic power production & recovery periods of low power recuperation. Doing this will see an average speed increase on the same bike.

 

[lulubel]

However to go faster over the same distance just going at the same pace doesn't work, to get faster you have to ride faster!

This is what I was going to say after reading your first post. If you want to get faster, the only thing to do is to push yourself harder. After a while, as your body adapts, the new speed will become natural, and will require a lot less effort.

One other thing I would mention about working hard is that, in my experience, the fitter you are, the more comfortable you are with working hard. I used to be much fitter than I am now. I just came back to cycling about 8 weeks ago, and I'm gradually building up my fitness again. I'm really looking forward to the time - which I know will come - when I enjoy the feeling of breathing hard as my legs power the bike up hills that I can barely manage at walking pace at the moment!

Is the ride you're training for an organised group ride? If it is, why don't you contact the organisers and ask what kind of speeds they expect the group to be doing? Then you'll know what you're aiming for.

 

[Wednesday]

20!?!? We were talking about 10mph. I'm not sure that bringing 20 into it does anything other than prove the OP's point.

It's ok, monnet was just responding to something in my last post.

I wasn't properly considering the difference a road bike makes so yeah, need to bear that in mind. I don't want to get one myself (too cheap and no extra space), but hopefully there'll be some other hybrids around in May and I can find some people at the same level as me to ride with for a bit of extra speed. I haven't really noticed a difference with tyre pressure as I said, except when I pumped the ones on the Apollo to 65psi and the potholes in town seemed twice as bumpy, but I'll keep inflating them.

For high intensity work, is it ok to start now or do I need to work on base fitness some more first? (I guess it's something to ease into a bit when you start, but I'm not prone to pushing myself so don't think I'd overdo it.)

 

[Wednesday]

Is the ride you're training for an organised group ride? If it is, why don't you contact the organisers and ask what kind of speeds they expect the group to be doing? Then you'll know what you're aiming for.

It's a charity ride so should be a variety of levels and I've assumed that people will go at different speeds, but I'm not sure if that's actually the case or if the idea is to ride together. I don't know if they're sure themselves yet since it's still the early-bird sign up phase, but I should ask them.

 

[kedab]

in my newbie's experience i'd have to say to remember to keep it fun & enjoyable unless you're training - i started out a little over 3 months or so ago and my average cruising speed has increased from about 10/11 to about 14 - i rarely push unless i feel like testing myself - most important of all, i still love being on the bike and i'm so much fitter after just this short period of time it's quite incredible

 

[PK99]

Has anyone else ever had an average of speed of 10mph-ish? This is what I've heard as a beginner's speed elsewhere, but here it seems unheard of to go that slow even if you've just bought your first bike. Anyway, that's where I am, 10 point something. Maybe 11 if I was recording moving time only.

I log all my rides, and the long term average of averages is:

mtb : 10.2mph
Tricross: 11.9
Van nicolas yukon: 13.5

Todays ride on the Yukon was 14.5mph, but that included 20 mins warm up though traffic avg 10 mph and 10 mins of the same home. with the middle 20 mile section rarely below16mph with a level ground max of 27, all of which makes the overall 14.5mph average pretty meaningless!

 

[ClichéGuevara]

If you average 10 mph over your 80 mile ride, I'd be fairly certain you'll be in a decent sized group getting to the other end.

 

[soulful dog]

I've been cycling for about 3 years now, my average speed is still only about 12mph, I've not lost loads of weight and I've still never ridden further than the roughly 45-50 miles I did last summer... so, reading some of the posts on this forum can be a bit disheartening at times!

However, why worry, as has been mentioned everyone is different, and the key is keep it fun & enjoyable. If you want to push it and go faster, that's great, but if you don't find that enjoyable, just keep doing what you are doing. I probably averaged about 10mph for the 1st year or so, and didn't lose any weight at all, but in the last year my speed and weight loss has shown a gradual improvement. I've probably upped my mileage a bit in that time, and if you keep at it, you are pretty likely to improve.

 

[Red Light]

Couple of suggestions.

I often find that the thing holding my speed down is my gears. I often find myself riding along comfortably in a gear but if I change up I find myself going a lot faster for almost the same effort. So it might be worth playing around and seeing if you can go one gear bigger. If not it's easy to change back down.

The second is that when I cam back to cycling once I got over the initial hurdle of cycling at all, it took me about 3 years of cycling three times a week and at weekends to get significantly fitter and faster. So six months of one day a week might be slower and don't expect big results soon.