Speed timing : how do you eat yours?

[HaloJ]

Curious question for you all. I've recently moved from a cateye strada to a garmin edge 705. The edge seems to track both speed over distance and also speed whilst riding. The strada had an autopause whilst stationary and the Nokia Sports Tracker could do either.

So for you speeds what do you use?

Speed whilst moving or speed over total time/distance?

 

[GrasB]

With mine you get distance, rolling time & total time. From there it's the software that works out the average speeds. Both are useful but I find that the rolling average is more useful than the door to door.

 

[Norm]

It depends what you want to use it for. If you are timing the commute, then I think the total time and therefore, the door-to-door average may be more useful.

 

[HaloJ]

It depends what you want to use it for. If you are timing the commute, then I think the total time and therefore, the door-to-door average may be more useful.

Just a curiosity to spark a discussion.

On my commute I spend between 5 and 10 minutes going slow. Either creeping with the traffic or stationary at lights. With my old strada doing rolling time I just got used to working with it. First use of the Garmin today and I was surprised about the average speed door to door vs that of rolling average.

Looking forward to seeing what the climb home via Hampstead looks like stats wise, with a heavy load and Friday legs.

 

[Norm]

I was thinking of the "what speed do you ride at?" thread a few days ago. Several were saying that they ride at 18/19mph, which is about what I ride at on a flat empty road. My average, though, is around 13/14mph.

I think the difference is partly down to internet machismo and partly because, when we are riding slowly, we don't look at the comps because we are concentrating on other things, such as the traffic, the phasing of the lights or if, faced with a hill, just living for long enough to get to the top of it.

Someone posted a few weeks back that all "averages" should include the time taken stationary because, otherwise, you might as well set your computer to only record time taken when riding over, say, 5mph. If I did that, I'd reduce my mileage by around 75%.

 

[Rob3rt]

If you have a garmin, it will give you both without any settings, it will when uploaded to Garmin connect, remove all the stationary time (time spent below a certain speed) and give you this average. You can also set the device so it gives you this data, but I see no point when software will give it anyway.


I average about 14mph through city centre traffic on my commute, moving average about 17-18mph.

On non busy roads probly have a moving average in the low 20's.


So in summary, I use both measures. But I dont take huge notice of them since there are many variables. I usually look at distance, total time taken, time spent in heart rate zones and record my own percieved effort.

 

[HaloJ]

Norm if we use time when stationary though what about the poor soul who hit almost every set of lights on red this morning? Aka, me?

This morning my rolling aveage was 14.7 on the Garmin and 14.6 on my Nokia (used for comparison) which is set to stop tracking at 1.2mph. Overall door-to-door on the other hand was 12mph. Start, stop, start, stop.

As you may know I did an interesting 23 mile blast away from the city the other day. The idea to get a better look at my averages plus it gave me an excuse to go whizzy on the Secteur. Average for that was 16.2 with far less starts and stops. I'll be doing something similar using the Garmin and hopefully without getting lost next time.

Now to the why. I'm trying to get a better impression of where I am. I'm wondering if I should join a club but don't want to show myself up. Just don't know fully yet where I want to take this obsession. I want my 100mile badge for certain. I'm just floundering about and curious what others do whilst I continue to soak up as much information about cycling as possible.

 

[Rob3rt]

Lots of clubs have members who just pootle about enjoying the ride, they dont expect everyone to be aiming at putting in sub 23 mins over 10 mile or racing in crits etc.

You should be able to find a club that will suit you. Your local CTC(I think this is the one) should also do organised rides.

 

[GrasB]

It depends what you want to use it for. If you are timing the commute, then I think the total time and therefore, the door-to-door average may be more useful.

I still find my rolling average far more useful for that. See how far I'm going (say 20 miles) & take my expected average of 19mph to get 1h 5 min. Now look at the map to estimate how many junctions there are & multiply that by 10, that's about the number of seconds I'm going to lose, & add that to my time.

 

[a_n_t]

Do TT's, it's alot easier!

 

[GrasB]

TT's are great but don't really fit in with my commute to work or the need to get cash or emergency shopping

 

[lukesdad]

Does it matter? I give myself 2 1/2 hours for my ride to work, I m always early. Job done!

 

[a_n_t]

Trying to find your quickest average speed over a certain distance don't really fit in with a commute to work.

My commute, 5 miles > 18mph'ish
10 mile TT, 25.2mph

 

[GrasB]

Who said anything about the quickest average? I'm talking about my usual 'cruising' average speed & working out how long I need to leave for travelling.

lukesdad, I give my self 1h to get into work, which gives me 15m headroom over my normal travelling time, but what happens if I want to do 30 miles into work instead of 15 miles or I've got an extra 30 min to commute in? This is where knowing your average speed comes in handy.

 

[lukesdad]

Rocket science it ain t GrassB. Time taken!