Trouble Getting Averge Speed Up, Your Experiences?

[Globalti]

Started out about 7 or 8mph, rapidly increased to 10mph and then 11mph. Stayed at that level for the next 5 years (that's still faster than most cyclists round here).

In my experience your typical cyclist is a lot slower than a lot of the silly times posted on the internet. It is of course perfectly possible to get 15,16,17mph (or even higher) averages but these people were perhaps a lot fitter when they started and had the muscles to suit and trained very hard. They may also live in flat places too. These are the elite riders of the 'normal' cyclists.

Er.... I'm an average recreational cyclist aged 55 and cruising along solo I can average 14 mph, with my fast friend 17mph is more usual in hilly terrain and I once rode to Windermere solo achieving 17mph all the way up the A6, which is flat and straight.

 

[MLC]

Peter,

Depends on what with you want to do with your cycling do you want to enjoy it, tour, bimble speed or actually race?

some attacking a 600km audax will pace theirselves completely different to a ten mile TT.

Starting out avg of 12 mph is OK

I ride with the CTC if I go with the slower group they will average around 12.5mph but they are out all day covering around 60-70 miles. This for me is far too slow.

If I go out with the quicker group to elevenses we will average around the 14mph mark and cover anywhere between 35 and 42 miles out and back

If I go out with the local racing club they will average around 17-19mph on their training rides (usually around 18 mph and 22 - 25 miles . This is the intermediate level I do not go with the really fast boys who go furher and faster (approx 35 miles at 22-24 avg) as they are far too quick.

But all of this is in a group.

On a TT you can average 20mph+ however although fun it does hurt

The more you ride the quicker you will get naturally

Intervals etc as per 515mm will help increase speed but they are not really fun. For Instance to do a VO2 max interval you have to ride for about 3 mins absolutely flat out. Think of it as riding for your life so that you are unable to go on any further after those 3 minutes (except that you drop top your lowest gear and carry on) that is the type of intensity you should be looking for. You can only do this once a week and max 5 intervals (after slowly building up) This will increase speed and get your average up but believe me not very pleasant and you must have a good base fitness first.

Try not to get too hung up on averages for now just get used to being in the sadlle and building miles the average will creep up

We completed L2s last year in a smidgen under 3.5 hours and although we were overtaken it was few and far between. That worked out around 16mph avg!

 

[marinyork]

Er.... I'm an average recreational cyclist aged 55 and cruising along solo I can average 14 mph, with my fast friend 17mph is more usual in hilly terrain and I once rode to Windermere solo achieving 17mph all the way up the A6, which is flat and straight.

I never said it wasn't possible. An average person in a subgroup? I don't have that much interest in that. You might as well have someone posting 'I'm a below average club rider and my long term average is 16mph'. I'm sure they are, but it's not very representative of cyclists as a whole or newbies.

You are unusual though. When I say cyclist I include the lot, including the occasional ones and so called POBs that other people sneer at - there are a lot more people cycling at 9 or 10mph average speed than people think, especially round here. I'm perfectly aware that a few newbies average very fast speeds when they start, I do not know why this is, I am guessing it is just that they are built better for it and have better base fitness and pretty good training. I'm sure the odd one can get 17 or 18mph long term averages if they train very hard. That's still very unusual even if they manage it.

When I say average speed I mean my long term average. I post various 12s and 13s from time to time, a lot of 11s, a few tens and a few urban trips and socials that are 9s. I've cycled 100 miles solo and achieved 16mph, it's not remotely realistic myself going on about this as it's very untypical.

 

[LosingFocus]

What sort of speeds where you getting when you first started?

OK, just gone and checked my stats. I've only been cycling since March 29th this year.

On my BSO MTB, I started at 8mph ave. over 9 miles on the road.
Still on the BSO, I then managed to get to 11mph ave. on a off-road/road route, 13 miles.
Before I got my road bike, I managed a 13mph ave. on the BSO on the road (17 miles trip); which still keeping 11-12mph ave off-road (13 mile trips)

On the few trips i have been out of the roadie, I've managed between 14.96 and 16.05 mph ave. This a mostly flat route, but with some decent "hills", between 15 and 18 mile trips.

Im in no way fit or a good cyclist. I used to MTB cycle a LOT when I was 15-17 and still have some of the leg muscle from back then, but at just under 13 stone Im well overweight and before cycling in March I hadnt been involved in physical sports activity in years.

 

[Globalti]

I guess a lot depends on the type of bike and the terrain, I've just checked my annual offroad average on MTB and it's 7.14 mph.

 

[beastie]

I average 13.5 mph on my commute. On a 12.5 mile loop Last night ave spd was 16.3 mph. That was about 85 percent effort all the way apart from last mile back into town. Last year my best speed round the same loop was 14.2 mph. If I put in rides of over 90 mins then I see the benefits in speed increases two or three days later.

 

[marinyork]

I guess a lot depends on the type of bike and the terrain, I've just checked my annual offroad average on MTB and it's 7.14 mph.

That's pretty good.

I'm happy to say that for various reasons I don't want to go into I'm not your normal speedy cyclist, but given little info on a newbie I'll always say that 17mph is unusual - given little info for a group it is. They may be able to achieve 17mph with a bit of training but there's little way of knowing that. A trip to mycyclinglog shows a spread of average speeds - some 'slow' averages there by some very able riders.

I feel a tad fitter since last summer after changing to higher gearing and doing quite a few hill reps of 1000ft or so in the autumn, it's not translated to faster averages at all though.

 

[amaferanga]

....Intervals etc as per 515mm will help increase speed but they are not really fun. For Instance to do a VO2 max interval you have to ride for about 3 mins absolutely flat out. Think of it as riding for your life so that you are unable to go on any further after those 3 minutes (except that you drop top your lowest gear and carry on) that is the type of intensity you should be looking for. You can only do this once a week and max 5 intervals (after slowly building up) This will increase speed and get your average up but believe me not very pleasant and you must have a good base fitness first.

Kind of OT, but if you can only do 5 x 3min VO2max intervals then you're doing them too hard. I'm fortunate to have a power meter and I do 5x5min VO2max intervals usually. The power meter allows me to dial in the intensity quite accurately. You should really find the first couple of intervals fairly comfortable - the last couple should really hurt though. Also, no reason at all why you can't do a workout like this 2 or 3 times a week after you've built up a good basic level of fitness.

 

[byegad]

It all depends on how you measure average speed.
If you only count moving time (As most cycle computers do.) then you get a different value from total time.
I have a regular run into the local hospital that I do every few months for check ups. It takes me about 45 minutes to get there and my average is around 11mph. However there are a lot of traffic lights and if I slow for reds with the aim of rolling until they change (Easy on a trike,) I get a much lower 'average' than if I ride at normal speed right up to the lights then stop. I'm substituting 3 or 4 minutes of riding at cruising speed then stopping for 4 or 5 minutes of rolling slowly while I wait for them to change.
No difference to overall time but very different 'average speeds'.

 

[HLaB]

I think if I looked at my averages it be between 11.5 and 19mph on solo rides (17-25mph drafting) depending what bike I'm on, what terrain what purpose etc there's just too many variables. Drop bars did increase my average but I seriously doubt I went from 13mph to 17mph overnight, its not the only variable. AFAIC as long as you get where you want to its a good average.

 

[4F]

Pedal faster, seriously though my average would be the same as hlab between 11 and 19 depending on mood, company, weather, time of day, hills, commuter racing, type of bike etc etc.

Normally on a commute to and from work it will be in the 14 - 16 range.

The most important thing is to enjoy riding rather than getting into a hangup about a speed that you think must be attained

 

[Shut Up Legs]

My advice if you can't get it up is to see a physician.

Now for the serious answer: as others said above, the increase in average speed will come with time. My approach is to push myself just a little bit each day, not so I arrive at home/work dripping with sweat (although that does happen on occasion when I succumb to "wacky races" syndrome), but just enough to prompt my muscles to develop. Over the last few years my long-term commuting (and recreational) average has increased probably by about 3-4km/h, and I have quadricep, hamstring and calf muscles that simply weren't visible back then. It's not going to happen quickly, though, and if you try to make it happen quickly, you might injure yourself. Over one period when I pushed myself too hard, I developed Achilles tendon pains, and had to throttle back on the speed for several months before it disappeared.

 

[Nebulous]

I've never done any sport competitively and I've spent pretty much 25 years gradually getting fatter and fatter. I was old, overweight and very unfit. As there was nothing I could do about the first one of those, I decided to work on the other two. Over the last year I have made some radical changes to my lifestyle and have reduced my weight by almost 5 stone in total. I gradually built up my exercise, mainly walking, but in October last year I went on holiday and we took the bikes. I landed up doing about 100 miles in the week, roughly 25 with my family and 75 solo.

After I came home I bought a road bike and got cyclemeter for my phone. I have a slightly rolling route with no major hills, of just under 30 miles, and started off then at 14.5 miles an hour average.

Over the winter there was a lot of time I couldn't get out, due to weather, but I went to the gym and exercised instead. My latest attempt at it was around 18.5 miles an hour, which I was slightly disappointed with. I can do about 10 miles or so in the middle of the run averaging over 20 mph but I think I still have a way to go to get my average up to that. Getting through traffic lights and roundabouts with stopping and starting in town is an issue, even though cyclemeter is set to only count moving time. I have done an alternative 37 mile route at 19.1 mph and in my first attempt at long distances I did over 180 miles in two days at an average of around 14.5 mph. From riders tales

So how have I done it? Hard work and lots and lots of small improvements. I'm exercising 3-4 times per week, roughly twice on the bike and twice in the gym. I generally do 30-40 miles twice a week. Since February I have been commuting on my mtb 3-4 times a week. It's only 2 miles to work, but it has over 300 feet of climb, and I push it hard. I don't have a training plan, but I mix up the training in the gym, usually doing one interval session a week. Recently I've been tackling more hills, as climbing still isn't very good. I've also further refined my diet - I'm now up to about 8 portions of fruit and veg a day for instance. Being on mbike has become much more importa

I've bought clipless pedals, worked on my cadence and tried to improve my use of gears (I used to spend almost all my time in my highest gear)
So I've put in a high level of commitment over 6 months - with my main specific aim to get faster. Eventually I want to compete in some way, possibly time trials.

Many people will be cycling for other reasons though. By definition 'leisure cyclist' does not imply a concentration on speed!

James

 

[numbnuts]

When you get to nearly 60 your doing well if the wheels go round