What is your overall average MPH?

[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!