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.