Average Speeds -getting Downhearted!

[liz_999]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Pleased to read that my speed is ok for the area I am travelling in. I have already noticed the difference on certain routes - some hills that I was crawling up at 3mph I am now nearing 5 - 6mph on a day I am feeling good. I have had a little look at that link that was posted on how to improve speeds, and will try to follow the advice and have more realistic expectations. I think what I need most is base miles and I just need to get out on the bike. I see that the general speed does seem to be about 12 - 13 so I can make that my long term goal. I will have a look at the bikejournal website - will be very useful to monitor my training.

Just to mention that BF is not some crazy 'cycling fascist'! I think because I am reasonably fit he expected me to be riding a bit faster thats all, on our 42 miler (yes i know very soon to be doing that distance!) he was very patient and actually gave me a helping hand literally when i was struggling up the hills!

Scarlet - am definately up for cycling with your group!

Have another question too... Am going on a cycling tour Nice - Milan on Wednesday (hence how fast I have thrown myself into cycling!) with my BF. We are going to be carrying everything on our panniers and camping but will be packing as light as we can. What do you think is a realistic mileage per day if we are wanting to be cycling most days of the 2 weeks? Obviously I dont want to kill myself. I found with the 42 miler that my legs were aching in places I never knew I had muscles, but I had fairly quick recovery and did another 15 miles the next day to get the muscles moving again. But it is going to be a holiday so it should be enjoyable!

Oh and I am really enjoying cycling so far, have already noticed the difference in my bum!

Liz

[wiseowl]

some hills that I was crawling up at 3mph I am now nearing 5 - 6mph on a day I am feeling good.

\

That sounds like a significant improvement to me! I don't have anything new to say, except please update us on how the tour goes- that is a very interesting question for me too (how far is reasonable without being deadly!)
And it sounds like a fantastic tour!

[Torrilin]

Use the maximum weekly miles you've done so far as a baseline. If 150 miles is the max, that works out to around 5 days of 30 miles a day on tour, with 2 rest days a week. The second week you can reasonably extend the mileage around 10%, so 165 miles. If the area you'll be touring is much flatter than your home turf, you'll be able to go somewhat further (but from what I recall of geography, I don't think Nice to Milan is likely to be flat...). A 50 mile day is probably a reasonable maximum for you right now.

That's much less than an experienced bike tourist would plan on. But a lot of experienced bike tourists have *practiced* doing much longer rides, so they know their bike works well for 100-150 miles in the saddle every day. You don't know how your bike works for those sorts of distances, so shooting for them is a good way to get hurt. Also, doing 100 miles every day doesn't leave a lot of time for sightseeing .

After you've completed this tour, you'll have a much better idea of how well your bike fits. And you'll be in much better shape for long rides. Fix up the bike if any problems develop, and for your next tour you'll be able to go longer

Oh, and remember riding with a load changes things. You *do* feel it. Don't be surprised if a distance that felt easy unloaded feels much harder loaded. If you can get a loaded practice ride or three in before you leave, it will help a lot.

[Veronica]

I'd rather do 30 - 40 mile days when I am cycling touring, especially if I'm hauling my own stuff. It leaves you time to enjoy where you are, talk to people, take pictures, explore interesting places. Also, you don't have to ride so hard that you can't enjoy the local cuisine.

If you're currently riding at a ten mile an hour pace, that's 4 hours of riding time just cover the 40 miles. That leaves you a reasonable amount of the day to be a tourist.

V.

[Crankin]

I agree with V. On the organized tours I've done (no panniers yet for the Maislins), I will do one or two days of "long" mileage, like 50-60 miles. On the other days, I have usually done what are called the "medium" routes of 30-40 miles so i have time to do other stuff. Otherwise I start to have a hateful feeling toward my bike...

[boy in a kilt]

I've ridden the roads around Nice. Beautiful but apt to be a bit hilly. I've been to that part of the world a few times and I'm hoping to take my wife (who posts here and talked me into joining the forum) there on bikes. Someday.

Couple of ideas. Don't "plan" on doing so much distance per day. Touring is about enjoying the trip (and eating). I've done 120 mile days over mountain passes with a full load and I've spent a days where I've been lucky to hit 40 miles. Each trip will (or should) develop its own rhythm.

If you need to plan for things like accommodations, best to experiment. Load yourself up with roughly the amount of gear you'll take, then toss in another 10 kilos for good measure and do a ride at a nice pace. You should be a little tired at the end of the day, but not totally knackered. Plan based on that. If I had to pick a number, I'd say 60-70 km per day would be a good starting point.

[liz_999]

Hello again, am back from the cycle tour!

First things, I have been very silly - it seems my speedo is different to everyone elses and instead of working out my average speed for that particular ride, it works it out across all rides... so as my first ride was very hilly and a couple of subsequent rides were flat i was thinking my ride speed was 9mph for the flat when really that was the average of them both... realised this when i did 12 miles in under an hour and still had a speed of 9.5!!
So it seems I am faster than I originally thought!

The tour was very successful, did about 500 miles in about 10 days, did a couple of 60 mile days, and also cycled up Alpe D'Huez (had to stop once 2km from the top with excruciating stitch - could kick myself now!) and the Col du Lauteret, and Montgenevre and a place called Sestriere -did Montgenevre and Sestriere on the same day - 2 huge climbs and then had an amazing 56km of descent of about 2000m, was crazy!

So I have gained a bit of muscle in my calves (I had stick legs before) and toned my thighs and lost about 5lb! Am now looking forward to NOT eating pasta!!! My body is just about recovering (only had 2 rest days during the trip and then had the day before we flew home in Milan where we didnt cycle). Have found that the tendons/ligaments right behind my knees are very tight, and found also that my knees suffered a lot during the rides. Not sure why this is, does anyone else have painful knees when climbing in particular???

So after around a month of cycling I am very proud of myself and just want to carry on now! Bike needs a service though!

Thanks for your posts!

Liz

Liz