Getting Faster-How to Train?

[surgtech1956]

I am really slow, averaging 11-12mph. How do you improve on speed? More miles, riding hard all the time, hills? Thank You

[KnottedYet]

By riding faster?

Really, I got faster just by making myself ride about a mile an hour faster all the time.

Shift up a gear, wollop on the pedals until you are spinning back up at your preferred cadence, and keep going.

Up hills. On flats. Downhills.

There's nothing wrong with 11-12 mph, by the way.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LcudaQU3mko/S_AmawpuPYI/AAAAAAAAC9s/qTMHjn_bNVs/s1600/itsokay.gif

[schwartzdeborah]

I am really slow, averaging 11-12mph. How do you improve on speed? More miles, riding hard all the time, hills? Thank You

go for slopes and increase the speed every interval. do not immediately increase it cause itll only make your body more susceptible to get tired right away.

[Owlie]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LcudaQU3mko/S_AmawpuPYI/AAAAAAAAC9s/qTMHjn_bNVs/s1600/itsokay.gif

I love it.

[bluebug32]

Ride with a group that's faster than you. Try to hang on.

[Owlie]

That works for some people. If you find it demoralizing to keep getting dropped all the time, perhaps intervals? Even if it's nothing exactly organized, Knot's technique works (for me, at least). I'd try keeping a pace 1-2 mph faster than I normally would, and I gradually got a bit faster. :)

[surgtech1956]

I have gotten a little faster, my average 11.7mph compared to 10.5mph, for 10 miles. Its flat here, I've been doing intervals for about 30 mins. Its working for me, wish I had some hills.

[Aggie_Ama]

I have never trained to get faster on the road, I got faster by riding lots. But I am training for longer endurance and thus faster for mountain bike racing. I can't do anything too structured, it tends to make me anxious. Right now I am focusing on time in the saddle with loosely structured goals. Here is a typical week (usually 4 days, sometimes 5):

Saturday - Long road ride, no real goals can be rolling, can be hilly, can be flat. Goal is just 3-4 hours of saddle time. Usually a 50 miler accomplishes this.
Sunday - Mountain bike. Again long, no goal just time in saddle. Often pre-riding a race course. 2-3 hours generally.
Monday - Off if it was a race weekend or very easy spin on the road.
Tuesday - Short track races, this is actually a fun substitute for high intensity/sprint intervals.
Wednesday - Off although I will probably be changing this to a ball based core training day.
Thursday - Hill Repeats. I use a long hill with several very steep sections. Right now I am tempo climbing (just get up in an easy gear) but after I get more comfortable I will be adding gears or jumps (getting out of the saddle). Goal is builing endurance, you can go faster longer if you have a good strong engine. **You can simulate hills on the trainer, it isn't nearly as satisfying for me mentally but physically it hurts the same. **

My first race of the season I shaved about 8 minutes per lap off my time from last year on the exact same course. I do have a race bike now so that might be accounting for some but mostly I think I am getting faster.

[surgtech1956]

Maybe I should be riding longer, then riding as fast as I can for about an hour? I wish I had others to ride with - at least others around my age. Now thats its getting cold out, I wont want to ride for distance.

[goldfinch]

Maybe I should be riding longer, then riding as fast as I can for about an hour? I wish I had others to ride with - at least others around my age. Now thats its getting cold out, I wont want to ride for distance.

Wish you were nearby as I go your speed and also would like to be a bit faster. Interestingly, back in September I did my longest ride ever, a charity ride of 50 miles (all flat). I averaged 12.5 mph which was by far my fastest time for any long ride.

I usually average anywhere from 10.5 to 11.5 mph for 20 to 30 mile rides, maybe a bit more if the ride is really short and I am working really hard. I am very slow on the uphills, that is part of the issue.

[NadiaMac]

+1 for riding with folks who are faster with you. is there a group ride where you can try to hang on as long as you can (then ride alone afterwards)? it can be a bit demoralizing, but you will ikely see improvement over time and that's always encouraging. make sure you know the route if you take this approach!

also, interval training and weight work can help

[Bethany1]

Put two computer magnets on your bike :D

[azfiddle]

I think riding a lot does help and definitely trying to hang on with faster people. I get discouraged when I drop off the back a lot, especially if they decide not to wait for me.

Wind is the flatlander's alternative to hills. So you might consider that.
I think intervals are also good.

My average seems to be creeping up - from 13 mph two years ago to almost 15 now. Sometimes lately it has been higher- over 16, but I don't know if part of that is due to weather. Unfortunately, everyone else I ride with has been doing Carmichael Training spin classes for the last 3 months and they have all gotten faster than I have gotten faster, so I still can't keep up with them. Does that sentence make sense?

Keep riding. Push yourself when you can. And have fun.

[surgtech1956]

Thanks azfiddle, I never thought about the wind. Unfortunately, winter has arrived here in Michigan and I think my riding is done for the season unless I take a spin class at a local YMCA.

[Crankin]

I am one of those people who gets totally demoralized when I am dropped. To the point of wanting to quit right then. For some reason, I don't like being reminded that I am slow, old, whatever. I always say I am not competitive, but I think I am, in my own weird way.
I like intervals for improving my strength, speed, whatever. It really works.

[Bethany1]

Two magnets don't work. LOL. My mechanic forgot to take the front one off when he installed my new wireless computer last week. Totally messed up my readings when I went for a ride the next day.

What's helped me is time and learning to not stress my entire ride about it. If I'm relaxed I can pedal better and move faster.

Challenging yourself also helps. Last week my DH called asking if I wanted to go to Omaha with him and I had gone to Lincoln earlier to ride one of the trails. He caught me at mile 9 and I knew I had to make it back to the car ASAP. I was doing a nice steady 10mph and headed back at 15-18mph until my body started protesting about 4 miles from the car. I didn't know I was capable of moving that fast even though it wasn't for very long.

[li10up]

I just spent a couple of hours in a bookstore reading about this very thing. The main point I took away from it is this...if you currently avg. 13 mph on your rides then on your next ride warm up for a few miles and then speed up to 14-15 mph and ride that speed for a few minutes or as long as you can. Recover and repeat 4 or 5 times. Over time your overall avg. speed will increase and your "intervals" will become faster. This will work for everyone. Just throw in a couple of minutes at 1-2 mph faster than avg., recover, repeat.

I'm looking forward to trying out this less structured type of training myself.

Stick with it. You'll get faster. :)

Edited to add: I didn't notice how old this original post was...oh well.

[li10up]

[QUOTE=Bethany1;612687]Two magnets don't work. LOL. My mechanic forgot to take the front one off when he installed my new wireless computer last week. Totally messed up my readings when I went for a ride the next day.

In reality it should - if the two magnets were on the same wheel half way apart the sensor would sense the magnet twice as many times and report your speed as being twice as fast as it really is...

humm, i just might have to try this...;)

[Becky]

In reality it should - if the two magnets were on the same wheel half way apart the sensor would sense the magnet twice as many times and report your speed as being twice as fast as it really is...

humm, i just might have to try this...;)

My bike shop coworkers and I have done this to each other. It works exactly as you have described :D

[surgtech1956]

I'll give it a try. Last year what I did was try to ride faster the whole ride. I like this idea of intervals. Thanks for sharing

[goldfinch]

I just spent a couple of hours in a bookstore reading about this very thing. The main point I took away from it is this...if you currently avg. 13 mph on your rides then on your next ride warm up for a few miles and then speed up to 14-15 mph and ride that speed for a few minutes or as long as you can. Recover and repeat 4 or 5 times. Over time your overall avg. speed will increase and your "intervals" will become faster. This will work for everyone. Just throw in a couple of minutes at 1-2 mph faster than avg., recover, repeat.

I'm looking forward to trying out this less structured type of training myself.

Stick with it. You'll get faster. :)

Edited to add: I didn't notice how old this original post was...oh well.

Thanks for this post. I am going to give this a shot. I am kinda stuck right now and this may help me speed up.

[marni]

And boy on those days when I look at the computer and get anything over 15.5 mph I just know I have a tail wind.

I have been trying for years to get my average up to be a steady 16+ but in spite of intervals, running, sprints, heavy fast pedaling and spinning, I just don't have enough fast twitch muscles. On the other hand I can ride for hours and hours and hours at 14-15 mph, head winds or not.

I am obviously a tortoise, not a hare but that's ok because I am totally non competitive and much prefer distance to speed.

marni

[Owlie]

I just spent a couple of hours in a bookstore reading about this very thing. The main point I took away from it is this...if you currently avg. 13 mph on your rides then on your next ride warm up for a few miles and then speed up to 14-15 mph and ride that speed for a few minutes or as long as you can. Recover and repeat 4 or 5 times. Over time your overall avg. speed will increase and your "intervals" will become faster. This will work for everyone. Just throw in a couple of minutes at 1-2 mph faster than avg., recover, repeat.

I'm looking forward to trying out this less structured type of training myself.

Stick with it. You'll get faster. :)

Edited to add: I didn't notice how old this original post was...oh well.

Once I actually get my computer to work again, I am trying this.

[li10up]

And boy on those days when I look at the computer and get anything over 15.5 mph I just know I have a tail wind.

I have been trying for years to get my average up to be a steady 16+ but in spite of intervals, running, sprints, heavy fast pedaling and spinning, I just don't have enough fast twitch muscles. On the other hand I can ride for hours and hours and hours at 14-15 mph, head winds or not.

I am obviously a tortoise, not a hare but that's ok because I am totally non competitive and much prefer distance to speed.

marniMarni, don't give up...I don't think you are some sort of genetic mutant that can't get faster. :D Keep working at it - you can do it!