What is your overall average MPH?

[Batbike]

don't want to go there again!!

as for speed, i feel the actual #'s don't matter because it is not how fast you ride but what you put into the ride that counts. A short fast ride has merit; a long slow endurance ride also has merit; as for every ride in-between.

personally, unless there is a real reason for me to worry about speed, like how fast it took me to get home because i promised my kids i would be home in time to get them to XYZ place, then it is not an issue -- well, unless i am working on sprints or speed work for the day -- it is not important. Speed is nice to know, but not something to work on ... the work is in the overall bike ride, not a computerized speed.

[GLC1968]

Wow, that other thread scared me! I must have missed it the first time (and I'm glad that I did!)

I'm super competitive by nature so when I first started riding (a little less than 2 years ago), I was dying to know how my average speeds compared to everyone else's. I only rode with guys, and most of them could kick my butt and did on a daily basis. I was always worried that I wasn't fast enough to ride with groups. I would hang back on all group rides so that I'd avoid getting in someone's way, and I rarely pushed myself because I was afraid of running out of steam before the ride was over. This was true when I rode with anyone...including DH. The only time I rode hard was when I was alone because then I figured that if I bonked, no one else would have to put up with me. I know...backwards thinking...but whatever. About a month ago, something happend that made me stop thinking about whether or not I was fast enough/good enough...

My husband and I planned a Sunday ride and we decided to take our touring bikes. We rode out to a local plantation that we ride to often, but this time we took it slow, took tons of photos and planned on taking a tour at the plantation once we got there. As we approached our destination, DH started having a mechanical problem with his bike that basically left it unrideable. We ate our lunch, but skipped the tour in the interest of getting back before too late. We rode about 5 miles up the road to a local country store and then I left DH there while I rode home to get the car. We were still 20 miles from home, it was 90 degrees and the sun was blazing (2 pm ish). DH sat down and resigned himself to waiting 2.5-3 hours for my return. I decided that I wouldn't let that happen so I hammered. I rode as hard as I could on my heavy bike, attacking every hill, and hammering in the flats. When I got home, I threw the rack on the car and drove back to pick him up. He was stunned when I arrived. I'd averaged 17.5 mph over hilly terrain (about 1500 ft of climbing) for 20 miles on a 32 lb touring bike after having already ridden for 24 miles. And in the heat, no less. This was obviously an extenuating circumstance, but because if it, now I know that I am capable of more. I know that I can push myself and I can do well - I figure that if I could do that on my own (no drafting) on THAT bike...I'm going to be capable of way more on my road bike that I ever thought. It's weird, but I don't think about my speed anymore. Now I ride based on how I feel, if I'm feeling strong, I ride fast...if I'm not, I don't. I don't really know why, but that one ride changed the way I think quite a bit.

Anyway, I ramble on...my point is that it's really tempting to want to compare your speeds to others, but the best thing to do is to know your own abilities, ride your own ride, and only compare your speeds to your own speeds over time. And if you want to get faster, I think the best way to do that is to challenge yourself and ride with people who are faster (when you can).

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I'm around 20-22... km per hour. If you want to feel faster, try setting your computer to kph. Works for me. That and the fact that everything is metric here.

Hey what a great idea. In fact, I'm gonna set my bike computer to METERS per hour instead of KM!!!

[Chile Pepper]

Hey what a great idea. In fact, I'm gonna set my bike computer to METERS per hour instead of KM!!!

Go for it! You'll be smokin'.

[Jiffer]

GLC1968 Thanks for sharing that great story! How totally inspiring! I could totally relate because, as a new rider, I have a big goal to get good enough to keep up with other people and I'm always wondering how my pace compares to others, specifically a friend of mine. I'll get a chance to find out on Monday when we ride together. I know she's definitely faster than me, but I'm curious if I'll surprise myself if I really work it to keep up with her.

I have learned that I can usually do a lot more than I typically push myself to do. Though it's no fun to go all out and kill yourself every time, it's nice to know you CAN when you either have to ... or just make up your mind to. It sounds like you had an amazing ride. What a feeling of accomplishment!

I can also relate to trying to pace yourself to make it through a ride and not really knowing how much more you could have pushed it had you tried. Your story inspires me to choose to push even harder and see what I can really do! (At least some times!)

So, thank you!

[nicole309]

Well, at first I felt bad about posting this thread since there was already an extensive one about this topic. Looks like it wasn't so bad after all....

[rij73]

I've been riding for almost 3 months. My training ride of doing 3 to 7 laps around the local park always seems to be at about a 13.5 mph average. My first ride of ONE lap of that park was at 9mph average so I'm thrilled with the improvement!

[weathergal]

I usually average 12-14 mph by my cyclocomputer, but that's counting declerating to stops, and depends on wind direction, hills, etc. On Biking Across Kansas this year, I passed a bunch of people, but many people passed me, so I'd say I'm about average. Of course, it was kind of a bummer on the day there was a bit of a tailwind and I was making good time, to hear people passing me say that they had left 2 hours later than I did. I stopped at every SAG stop though, so it probably depends on your goals. Some people like to hammer, some like to stop and smell the roses.

[solorider]

great thread-
I've only been riding three years, and I've been tracking my mph this year just to set a different goal for myself. the last two years I really worked on increasing the total number of miles I could ride, and got to the "metric century" (yep i love changing to metric too- just being able to say century feels great!) that's 62 miles. I was thinking over the winter of trying to do 100 miles and do a real century this year, but decided to work on speed instead.

Because I usually ride solo, I didn't have any idea how I was compared to others, except that on the few organized rides i've participated in, I tend to pass more riders than pass me. I also anted to try and ride with some local serious riders that post weekly rides, and they all say average speed is 20 mph and I wanted to know if I could keep up at all before I tried to join them.

it seems like there are SO MANY variables though- I ride a hybrid, not a road bike, as i like the dirt roads (i've never seen a red hog though- I'm jealous of that experience Lisa!), but I live in a fairly flat section of the country, but it can sometimes be pretty windy...so not sure I know what the right speed is yet- but i've been averaging between 16.5 and 17.5 on rides of greater than 30 miles.

I totally agree with just having fun though-I think I'm going to cover up the mph indicator on my bike computer on my next ride and see if I'm faster or slower.

[Geonz]

"There will always be somebody older *and* faster than you."

Hey, I averaged 12.9 on this a.m.'s commute - worked a *little* harder than yesterday's 12.3 but mainly... I had cleaned the chain.

It's how it feels, not what the numbers are

[GLC1968]

Jiffer - glad my story helped!

And now I can add one more new experience that I just had last night...

I ride with a women's only ride on Tuesday nights and last night I was late, so I'd missed the group doing the 30 mile loop. I joined the group doing intervals instead. As we were warming up, I was talking with the leader who is a former racer and has tons of experience with all the different group rides in our area. I told her my goals and how I'd love to try riding with more groups (besides just the women) but that I was afriad that I couldn't keep up. She said that the drills we were about to do would totally help. Anyway, we went and did our intervals and what an experience!! I've never done anything like that on a bike before and man...it was a rush and a nightmare all at the same time. After we were done, she caught up to me on the ride back and said that if I could ride like that, I didn't need to worry about being dropped. Man...that made me feel really, really good!

Now my new goal is to be able to do the same set of intervals and be as fast on the last one as I was on the first!

[pumpkinhead]

I was out for a 17 miler @ 6am this morning and averaged 18miles/hr. Pretty much 98% flat and 2 overpasses.

[Andrea]

I have no idea what my total average speed is, but, like most of you, it depends on the company and the situation! I race, so my speeds tend to be up there.

The Tuesday night ride from my team's sponsor shop averaged 24.5 mph on rolling terrain (it's prettymuch an all-out hammerfest) last week. I felt like superwoman after keeping up with that one...
On a 30-40 mile solo recovery ride, I'll usually just spin @ around 17-18mph

Most of the time, I'm somewhere in the middle.

[coyote]

I took a different route to work this week and was quite pleased with myself that I had increased my average speed by 2 mph. But then I realized I went down a really steep underpass.....I reached about 27 mph. I'm going to disengage the computer the next time I take that route and see what my average is then. But wow that underpass is fun

[cinnamon_toast]

Does anyone know approx what your speed increase is when group riding? Not necessarily doing pace lines but catching some draft.