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

[rij73]

Are you kidding? You did some of the major Tour de France climbs after cycling for one month??? I find that absolutely incredible!

How did it feel to climb for sooooo long at a stretch?
Before cycling were you already strong from some other sport?
How about pictures of your trip?

Enquiring minds want to know!

[Veronica]

Not sure why this is, does anyone else have painful knees when climbing in particular???

I've had knee pain all my life - even when I was a little kid, some sort of biomechanical genetic thing I think. I just avoid the things that I know cause it.

One of those is trying to climb in too big of a gear.

V.

[amy]

liz_999... WOW! How does one even bike those distances after such a short time on a bike? I can't even imagine. Having just read the distances and experience time, I would worry about your knees! Clearly you are a strong woman!

As your friendly online therapist, however, I would recommend more frequent training at shorter distances, daily GENTLE stretches of those legs, and perhaps icing after a ride for now. A good yoga class would be great.

But I will admit I know far more about therapy and the body than about cycling, and many women here have done amazing things. I'm in the "go slow and steady to start" camp.

Good luck!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Liz999-
You must be some incredible cycling prodigy!
How can you even TALK about being discouraged at your average speed??

You need to sign up for the Paris-Brest-Paris and then.... on to the Tour de France!!

[RoadRaven]

Hey there liz - first well done on completeing a great tour...
Most impressive...

But I have to ask... are you saying you had only been on a bike for a month before yu did this tour?
And if so what sport did you do before cycling? Marathon running or some kind of running sport?
And what kind've bike were you on? If you had a triple, it would have made the climbs (like Huez) much more manageable...

I am intrigued, I would love to do this type of tour. But after training for 2 years, and racing for 1 year, I was shattered after a 66 km hilly road race on Saturday... how did you achieve these distances day after day if you only had a month to prepare?

Are we misinterpreting your post?

[Eden]

Touring is *completely* different from racing. My husband and I used to go and do loaded tours without much if any preparation (back in the old days, when no one told you that you had to train for it..., so we didn't know we weren't supposed to be able to do it ) Sure 60 - 90 miles on a loaded touring bike isn't a walk in the park (and we would keep most of the days on a longer tour down to 30 -40ish - like V says, more time to enjoy the place you are cycling through), but you never have to go faster than you want to, you can stop and smell the flowers, look at the sights, get a bite to eat, just stretch and rest and sip your water bottle any time you want to. Novel idea huh!
It really does make a big difference. Its like getting to recover in little bits all day long, so even if you get to your destination tired and hungry, you can eat, sleep and be OK to do it all again the next day. Even with races - I've done a fair amount of stage racing, which at my level means 3 - 4 races over 2-3 days, you would be very suprised at how much you can recover overnight if you get a good meal and lots of sleep in, but that was after *lots* of training, but yeah even a 24 mile race can feel much more taxing than a 60 mile day touring.

[Jiffer]

Liz, it sounds like you are doing amazing for only 3 weeks out. I have a Dh I get a lot of training advice from, which has been very, very helpful. But it is also nice to come on this site with other women, who understand what it is like to be a woman cyclist, and get input from them. I'm sure you'll love it here.

Remember that you will probably never be as fast as your BF unless he doesn't improve and you do. Minitabby gave great in advice in considering a tandem. Dh and I ride a tandem road bike, which is actually how I got into cycling a year ago. I go wherever he goes and we get there at exactly the same time!!! Working at our individual levels of ability and strength. I also have my own single bike now, which I also love, but I rarely ride it with Dh unless he's all set to go my pace with me, which sometimes he does. But I also enjoy going out there all by myself, going as fast or slow as I want on the route that I choose.

As for hills, they are no fun, especially at first. Dh has actually come to LOVE hills and searches out centuries that have a lot of elevation on purpose! WHATEVER!!! It's just something he has found to be good at and enjoys passing up everyone else. I have decided to make myself have a better attitude about hills, since there's no getting around them where I live, and I'm making a point to get better at them. "Hills are my friend!", I keep telling myself! The more I ride them, the better I get at them.

One little tip, when riding a hill that doesn't have a lot of traffic on it. If it's so steep that you feel like you just have to stop the bike because you can't keep going up at that grade, try turning the bike to the left and then the right, to take the hill at a lower grade. I discovered this trick a while back when trying to conquer a killer hill. Luckily, there was very little traffic.

Good luck on all your future riding adventures!!!

[indysteel]

I'm sitting here with furrowed brow because Liz did some of France's most infamous climbs after three weeks of riding and I'm worried about my weeklong tour of Middle Tennessee. Granted, repeated steep grades, no matter how short, can take it out of you, but still. Alpe d'Huez? Five hundred miles in 10 days? I must be a big wimp or something. The first time I hit 500 miles in a month was a big deal. Am I missing something?