speed vs distance.. the next step?????

[caligurl]

howdy!

ok... i'm getting better with my distance (at least i think so)... i've now had my bike for 4 weeks now.. and saturday i did a 30 miles ride and yesterday 19.6 (how did i miss that last .4?)

i AVERAGE... 13ish miles per hour (13.2, 13.9 depends) over the rides i've been doing.. i know that's not fast or fast enough for club rides, etc.

i've also been concentrating on spinning in the 90's vice the heavy gears at a lower cadence. naturally when going uphill or up even small grades.. my speed suffers cuz i end up dropping into the "baby" gear. (and even then.. depending on the grade.. i can't stay in the 90's.)

my question is.. should i be concentrating on going further at my current speeds.. thus being on the bike longer? or going faster, which will most likely mean shorter times on the bike cuz i'll wear my legs out more quickly? which is the next proper step?

p.s. i've been practicing going downhill too! i've gotten much better and have gotten up to 24 mph! WOO HOO! (this from the weanie that rode her brakes the whole time the first couple of times! )

[Veronica]

It really depends on your personal goals. Do you have a set distance you'd like to get to? If that's the case, then I'd try to add more mileage at a pace that pushes you a little bit.

Are you working out with a heart rate monitor?

I have one ride that I consider my training ride. There are specific points on it where I just really hammer for all I'm worth, whether I'm on the single or riding the tandem. (Poor Thom I really pushed him on it this weekend. Work has kept him off his bike for a few weeks.) The rest of the time when I ride, I try to keep my heart rate in my high endurance range and just enjoy being on the bike.

V.

[caligurl]

hi veronica!

yes.. i have a HRM.. but that's one thing i haven't paid all that much attention to on it too much information!! lol!

i average somewhere in the 130's i think (going on memory... would have to check my polar log thingy to be sure) i know i get up in the 140's when climbing (baby hills)

my goals? hmmmmm well.. to go further and faster! lol!

i really need to sit down and decide what i want.. i asked hubby what my goals should be and he said only "I" can decide.. some help, eh?

i like the accomplishment of going further.. but i also feel like the little sister that tags along when i'm riding with hubby cuz i know i'm waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy slow for him... (it takes me 28-30 minutes to do the 5 mile "neighborhood ride".. which is up and down (i go down one street and then come back up the next that's at a slight incline... again can't tell you the exact incline cuz i'm not at home to check)

there's so much to concentrate on: "gum", cadence, speed, heart rate!, distance.. UGH!

[Adventure Girl]

Absolutely it depends on your goals. Do you want to do a century (just finish, don't worry about time)? Then you should concentrate on distance. Or maybe you want to do a metric and be able to finish in a certain amount of time. Then you should try to increase that average MPH. The tour was a good illustration of that. Do you want to be a climber, sprinter or over-all rider? (Ride like Richard Virenque, Robbie Mc Ewen or Lance.) Personally I wouldn't mind winning the white jersey… Oh to be 24 years old again…

[caligurl]

i do think i want to do a century! but of course.. i don't want to be all day doing it! lol!

i know i would have to "ride on my own" (as in not with hubby) cuz it would drive him nuts to do a century and not go at his goal.... i have planned on doing the tour de palm springs since i got my bike.. but just recently decided i could do 100 vice 50 miles!... (it's in february.. plenty of time to train!)

i would like to be an all-around rider.. basically cuz i've not seen too many courses with no hills at all... plus around here there are hills (that's why i've been doing baby hills even as new a rider that i am)..

so can i assume (yes i know! ) that if i concentrate on distance.. that speed will come along eventually?

p.s. i was so bummed that voekler (spelling?) lost the white jersey.. we was definitely my hero of the tour this year!

[Adventure Girl]

Originally posted by caligurl
i was so bummed that voekler (spelling?) lost the white jersey...

Voeckler was a great story in this year's tour. You couldn't help but cheer for him. But it seems he must have gone too hard in the beginning of the race and didn't have enough to hold off Karpets and Casar in the end. We haven't heard the last of Thomas Voeckler!

[bounceswoosh]

I was cheering for Voeckler ... but ... what was *up* with his climbing technique? I think the OLN announcers referred to it as "dancing." Looked horribly inefficient. I have to wonder if he'd do better with a less "noisy" technique.

[Veronica]

I thought he climbed a lot like the way Lance does, with that sort of snakey standing movement on the bike. I think he doesn't yet have the endurance to climb at that pace for that long. But I'd be happy just to finish a tour!

V.

[MightyMitre]

Hi Caligurl - I know just where you're coming from.

When I first started riding I wanted to be able to keep up with my boyfriends speed and also be able to do the same distances. It's frustrating when it seems like you've got to choose between speed or distance but there's some good tips here. Basically you need to do the distances to improve your endurance and from that you'll find you gradually get stronger and can start to ride faster.

It might feel like it's taking forever at times but if you use a bike computer and do a regular ride you'll gradually notice your speed creeping up as you get stronger.

Don't forget - it's far easier for hubby to slow down to match your pace than for you to try and keep up with him.

Happy riding...

[pedalfaster]

Originally posted by caligurl

so can i assume (yes i know! ) that if i concentrate on distance.. that speed will come along eventually?

Sorta.

Before you start working on speed, you want to have a good "base". I've heard figures of anywhere from 300-700 miles in your legs before you add intensity. As with everything, there is lots of wiggle room there for personal interpretation.

Basically you want to be able to ride for at least 2-3 hours at a comfortable, steady pace before you add interval, sprint and hill repeat workouts to your routine. The base miles help reduce your chance of injury once you add those hard efforts.

[fasteryet]

You might consider reading some bike training books, just to get an idea of how some folks do it, then modify the plans to fit you.
A good base is definitely most important. I find that as a relatively new (about a year) roadie, and a middle aged one besides, that I needed to spend a lot of time just slowly increasing my distances. Now I try to vary my routines by riding some days mostly long and flat (up to two and a half hours), and some days more hills but less distance (up to one and a half hours). Eventually I'll put the distance and hills together. The other factor, of course, is how much time you have to train.

[spazzdog]

So I saw this thread and tried to remember where I found the suggested training program I followed back when I did a century. Couldn't find it, but I did find this:

http://www.geocities.com/ne_century_rides/training.html

It's got a 10 week program. If it's too aggressive, you could probably repeat some of the weeks... depends on the date for the century you pick out.

good luck!

[KkAllez]

I was going to ask a question pertaining to this but rather than start a new thread I hope you don't mind me 'drafting' off of yours Caligurl.

Ben and I have been riding 20 to 26 miles each ride every other day.

Monday ride: 20 miles. Strong head wind all the way out, plus roller coaster hills the whole way (we have no flat areas anywhere to ride). Wonderful speed coming back in. Took quite a few breaks. Avg speed was 12.5 mph and 1 hour 36 minutes.

Wednesday (today): 26.3 miles. Strong cross wind going out and turned around expecting tailwind only to discover cross wind but not as bad as it came from behind a bit. AVG 12.7 mph. Time was 2 hours 2 minutes. AND we did not stop once! Yippee!! I even managed to climb one hill coming back home and not get under 11 mph, which has been my goal. Burn baby burn!!

The road condition leaves much to be desired as it was topped two years ago and is rough. On the only short smooth stretch we feel like we have died and gone to heaven. We bike on a rural stretch of interstate highway access road as there is no traffic. Today we saw only one car on the access road.

SO all that data to say, we bike hard and long, or so it feels and I am just plain peeved at our averages, however, do I take into account the road condition, the hills we are perpetually climbing coming and going, and the wind? Do these times look decent for us being as how we have just now gotten back into biking after a 10 year lay off and never road biked before now? We've been invited to ride with a group of men and I look forward to that. I guess there are no women riders around here. I just hope I can make a decent showing and not be staring at their butts the whole way.

We will do the Hotter N Hell Half Century rather than the 25 mile ride as we feel ready for it. This weekend we plan on doing a long ride. I feel really good after our rides and we both feel like we could ride longer but on weekdays by the time he gets off work and I get out of class we are limited in day light hours.

Any input appreciated!

[Veronica]

First of all - don't compare times with other folks - unless you want to race. There's so much that affects how each of us ride. On twisty downhills I can smoke a lot of the guys I ride with. And terrain can make a huge difference as can wind. So can your riding style. My average climbing the local mountain is pretty dismal.

I have a ride I call my "training ride" and I use that to see my progress. It's pretty much a Visa ride (out and back) so the winds I get offset each other. It's always windy here, but they almost always blow in the same direction. My HRM also has an altimeter which is handy for assessing the nature of the ride you're doing since it shows elevation gain and will tell you the percent of grade. My training ride climbs about 1100 feet over 20 miles. It's up and down, but no hill is greater than about 3.5%. When I started riding, I averaged about 13 miles an hour on it. Now I'm working my way towards 16. I use the data from my monitor to see where I tend to ride slower and push myself harder through those parts.

Now there are rides I do where my average is higher and a lot where it is lower , but this is my assessment ride. My advice would be to find something similar for you and somehow chart your progress. Remember that not every day is going to be a breakthrough day. And keep it fun.

Veronica

PS Don't just stare at butts, most of the guys I ride with have great calves too.

[jobob]

Now that I've finally made it up my Nemesis Hill in one shot and lived to tell about it, I figured I would make that my personal 'uphill time trial' to gauge how I'm doing. ( This is a hill in the Coyote Hills park where I often ride ; there used to be a Nike missile control station on that hill but now there're just cell phone towers )

It's pretty short but fairly steep so I figured it would be good for high-intensity work; I envision myself someday doing it mutiple times in one ride (bursts out laughing).

It's only about 0.4 mile of climbing but it goes up about 240 feet; Jo Math Whiz figures that averages out to 240'/2112' => about an 11% gradient overall, except about two-thirds of the way it levels off a bit and then kicks UP. So nerd I am, I bought myself one of those bubble inclinometers (tres low-tech, like me!) and rode it this morning to get a better idea of the profile:

1st ~ 0.25 mile: 10-12% (huff puff)
next ~ 0.05 mile: "levels off" to 3-4% (well in comparison it seems level !)
last ~ 0.1 mile: kicks up to 15-18% (ack!)

For the longest time I would get up to where it (sort of) leveled off but then bail when I got to where it kicked up again, it's been as much a psychological barrier as a physical one!

To add to the perversity I thought I'd time myself - it took me a few seconds shy of 4 minutes, which surprised me, since it felt more like a half hour though I care not to share how long it took me to catch my breath ...

But there you have it, it's my stake in the ground, and now that I've gotten over the psychological barrier and shown myself that I can get up over that last hump (gives self pat on back) there's nowhere to go but, uh, up?

next stop Mt. Diablo