From a Hybrid to a Road Bike - finally!

[BluOrchid2]

I am the proud owner of a 2011 Specialized Dolce Elite with the SRAM Apex gear group! :D

Been riding a Specialized hybrid for the past 9 years or so, and this summer began putting a lot of miles on it, ON THE ROAD. Consistently doing 25-30 miles rides, about 3 times a week on the fat knobby tires. Replaced my seat but still wasn't real comfortable. Hubby ordered my new bike for my birthday, and it came in a couple weeks ago.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/bluorchid2/photo3-1.jpg
Here she is, in her bedroom. :p

I've taken Carmelita (her name! :D) on 3-4 rides so far, and my avg speed has gone from 12-13 mph to 14-16 mph but I really thought I would be going faster on her. My cardio is great, my endurance is pretty good I think for what I've been riding, but my speed is disappointing to me. My longest ride ever was last Thursday; I rode 45 miles and it took me 3 hours. I wanted to do a Century ride this season, but it's just not going to happen yet. When I finished my 45 mile ride, I thought to myself, "If I was doing 100 miles, I wouldn't even be half done yet." And I was D-E-A-D, dead. REALLY fatigued. I had that ride on Thursday, worked on my feet all day Friday, rode a 26-mile route with my husband on Saturday that was very hilly and in 20-30 mph winds - tough!, and then Sunday walked on my job all day again. Today is the first day in four that my legs haven't been fatigued, and have finally fully recuperated from Thursday's 45 miles.

When you are riding by yourself, not in a group or drafting anyone, what sort of speeds do you average? Just curious...it's not going to kill me to not be any faster, but I feel like I have very strong legs and feel like i should be averaging higher speeds than I am.

I feel like I need a PLAN. A training and development plan, and I don't know where to get it. I haven't ever heard of personal trainers for bikes. LOL

I feel like a big girl bike rider now, with a real fast road bike! :D

[sarahspins]

Nice! As far as speed, I only average 13mph on a good day..however I will admit that I am overweight and that weight is not budging (I've actually GAINED WEIGHT in the past year.. ugh) and it's most likely slowing me down... it's hard to say.

[radacrider]

Nice bike!

Have patience and definitely put a personal plan together. Also, if you can find a group to ride with, that helps push you more than riding by yourself.

More than bike weight it is the engine that makes the speed. < sigh, I know>

I have two bikes, light roadie at 19 lbs and a custom, roadified MTB (drop bars, road tires) at 29 lbs. I just did a few commutes to work (30 mile round trips) and was faster by 15 minutes each way on the heavier bike. Why? I haven't ridden but a few rides all year, so I was not in great shape for the hilly ride. The SUB (as I call her, my sport utility bike) has more lower gears so I wasn't running out of leg on the long climbs.

Have fun on the new bike, that in itself is a boost to the psychie.

[nikkoblu2]

Hi Blu- sounds like we have some similar issues. I've been riding a Trek hybrid for about 2 years averaging 13-14 mph and riding usually 30-45 miles at a time (with a coupla 50s). I only ride on the weekend and I haven't done any group rides.

A couple weeks ago I picked up my new Cannondale road bike. I haven't done as much riding on it as I'd like, but looks like the average is about 15mph. Same as you - good cardio, strong legs, although haven't gone clipless yet.

I think it will be key to get in some group rides. With my competitive nature riding with someone - even one person - who is a stronger rider than me would probably do me a lot of good.

Wish I could offer some advice...but, I'm trying to figure out the same thing myself right now.

[carinapir]

Wow! I have total bike envy.

I'm curious are we talking 12-13 mph avg over the course of the whole ride or when you looked at your speedometer you usually saw yourself going about 12-13mph on your hybrid? There's a huge difference and 14-16 mph average over a whole ride on your road bike would be pretty fast.

On my Giant FCR Hybrid, I generally ride at about 15-17 mph on flat road and my rides range from 30-50 miles. My over all average with hills, descents, and stops tends to end up in about the 12-13 mph range.

[featuretile]

I also wonder about the mileage per hour number - average on a bike computer or when you look at the speed. It seems that when I am riding on flats, it's usually between 13-14mph when I look down, sometimes can be more. Downhill can be 20-30mph. But there are so many steep hills where you see 5-6mph going up, that when I'm done, the average is usually 11mph and I can't seem to get above that.

I just finished a bike tour where I was the slowest one in the group and felt very frustrated and discouraged. The others either have been riding much longer than I or were much younger than I. I think it may be good to stretch yourself with someone who is slightly better than you, but being with a group that is too fast doesn't help.

I did learn that the mileage was not the key. I could feel good or bad after 30-40 miles depending on the speed of the ride and if there were any breaks. If we rode half way, had lunch and continued, I was fine. If the group rode straight thru, I barely made it back. I also just ordered a bunch of Nuun electrolyte tablets for my water because I sweat a lot when it's hot out and may have depleted my salt.

[chicagogal]

If you are serious about training to get stronger/faster, you need to remember that to get faster, you have to ride faster.

This means doing INTERVALS, where you ride fast/hard for a short distance, recover, and repeat. There are lots of different interval training plans out there. They are all hard, but they make a HUGE difference.

[marni]

I have been reading selena yeagers ride yourself lean from velo press and she has some good advice including some interval programs and some other training info. I also find the podrunner 5k,8k, and 10k interval podcasts, downloaded to my ipod/radio which plays loud enough to hear without earphones, have upped my speed from a low 15mph to a consistent low to mid 16 mph. Still kind of discouraging slow after 5 years of riding and weight loss, but I figure my age is a bit against me, that plus lack of frquency of rides since the FIL moved in with us and started taking up my two free days with his physical training and medical needs. Still I love the podrunner stuff for both bike and gym, and an overal speed for the duration of a ride, in spite of wind, highway overpasses (what passes for hills around here) and attitudinal texas drivers is perhaps not too shabby for an over 60 er.

marni

[Ritamarie]

A couple of miles an hour is a huge difference. If you are riding on relatively flat roads you won't see a whole lot of difference in a heavy bike vs a light bike. You will see the difference on a hilly ride. On my road bike, I'll range from 14 mph for a hilly ride by myself to 19+ if it's less hilly (we don't have anything flat here!) or I have someone pushing me. If I ride my fat tire bike, I can count on the average being about 2 MPH slower ... though I think I would top out at less than 16 mph. It's just not that kind of bike.

[Owlie]

I can't speak about the speed (see my avatar), but:

Ooh, nice bike!

[featuretile]

Do rolling hills count as intervals? You go down fast, get half way up, and then crawl up - repeat over and over again.

I have no idea what my speed would be on a flat ride as I have never been on one.

[tulip]

On a century ride, you need to pace yourself. Typically, you don't ride the same pace on a century ride as you do on a speedy 45-mile ride. There are plenty of century plans out there. Do a search here, or go to the library. Selena Yeager has several good books out with century plans. There are others, too.