Boy am I slow...

[northstar]

I think that the most important lesson I've learned about riding so far has been to ride my own ride.


Karen in Boise

Yes, yes, yes! Well said, Karen!

[Veronica]

I only averaged 12.9 mph on my last ride. Nobody told me I was slow.

V.

[Jolt]

That tire article was interesting--maybe I can't blame it all on the tires after all! It's more likely that I'm just plain slow, given my 10-11 min/mile running pace and the fact that I was never a speed demon on the swim team either (however, if I go to the local Y to swim laps I blow by a lot of people even though I generally swim a 500 in about 10 minutes--there's more of a range of swimming speeds there). I will probably still give that group ride a try in the next few weeks and see how it is, but I'm starting to get the feeling that I might do better to just ride at my own pace.

[mimitabby]

Jolt, the tire article wasn't talking about underinflated tires.
None of those tires were down to 35 lbs of pressure!
When tires are as low as yours were, there is a LOT of resistance.

I have tires that had directions right on the package for how many pounds of pressure per pounds of
weight of the rider. It took me months of trying to convince DH to leave my tires at 90 instead of blowing them up to 120 which is the max.
Did you notice the other thing in the article? the faster tires were not the 23cm ones; they were the 28 cm ones!

and Karen, right on. Ride your own ride. But don't make it harder on yourself with squishy tires.

[Jolt]

Jolt, the tire article wasn't talking about underinflated tires.
None of those tires were down to 35 lbs of pressure!
When tires are as low as yours were, there is a LOT of resistance.

I have tires that had directions right on the package for how many pounds of pressure per pounds of
weight of the rider. It took me months of trying to convince DH to leave my tires at 90 instead of blowing them up to 120 which is the max.
Did you notice the other thing in the article? the faster tires were not the 23cm ones; they were the 28 cm ones!

and Karen, right on. Ride your own ride. But don't make it harder on yourself with squishy tires.

Well, it will be interesting to see how much of a difference there is with more air in the tires the next time I make this trip (the weather has been rotten today and is expected to be equally rotten tomorrow, so that probably won't be for a couple of days). Maybe I got confused with that article because they said higher pressures weren't necessarily faster; you're right, that probably doesn't apply to ridiculously underinflated tires like I had! Having seen that article though, I think I'll just stick with the 38's for the time being rather than switch to something like 32's as I was starting to consider doing. If it won't make much of a difference for speed, I might as well have the wider ones that will handle sand, gravel and potholes better.

[Geonz]

That tire article was interesting--maybe I can't blame it all on the tires after all! It's more likely that I'm just plain slow, given my 10-11 min/mile running pace and the fact that I was never a speed demon on the swim team either (however, if I go to the local Y to swim laps I blow by a lot of people even though I generally swim a 500 in about 10 minutes--there's more of a range of swimming speeds there). I will probably still give that group ride a try in the next few weeks and see how it is, but I'm starting to get the feeling that I might do better to just ride at my own pace.

Performance in other sports doesn't reflect on cycling. I was also a serious non-contender on swim teams, but I learned a *lot* about training and technique. THere are two categories of swimmers - swim team types and the rest of the world. In the assorted triathlons I've done (the teeny tiny ones) sometimes they separate out the "slow" swimmers and I barely make the "fast" classification - basically, I'm at the back end of the people who know how to swim efficiently. It has a *whole* lot to do with my puny little arms and thunder thighs

Once I got some technique and time in the saddle - but it took me three or four years (most of which weren't where I am now, so these folks think I was an overnight success), I found cycling was pretty easy and had to admit after it was proven a few zillion times that I am good at it. I didn't *really* believe it - 40 years of being a slug doesn't go away - but since for years I've taught bright students who were convinced they were stupid, I recognized the thought pattern ("they're just being nice," "she was having a bad day," "they were holding back," "it's easy for them")

It wasn't even overnight here... I got physiologically addicted and started riding 9 miles almost every morning, then adding a four mile loop to that, then another one - and I'd try to do specific intervals in those loops faster each time. SO, I was "riding my own ride," but pushing the pace... at *my* comfort level, slowling down when I felt like it. WHen I could do 8 miles and hold a 15 mph average, I went out to our "low-key but not beginner" ride and was pleasantly surprised to be more than ready to keep up (with the *back* end). I had some real Cinderella experiences that I savor to this day
Ride your ride... as one of our retired riders says, "There will always be somebody older and faster than you are!"