Average Speeds -getting Downhearted!

[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?

[rij73]

Don't worry Indy... seems like a lot of us are feeling that way! That's why I wish liz_999 would come back and answer some of our questions!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Don't worry Indy... seems like a lot of us are feeling that way! That's why I wish liz_999 would come back and answer some of our questions!

She's probably busy pedaling up Mt. Everest!

[spokewench]

There really is no reason that this young woman could not have done what she did. We all seem to think that things are harder than they really are.

Last year, I went to do the Bicycle Tour of Colorado, lots of climbing, mountain passes, approx. 480 miles in six days of riding with one rest day. I really thought it was going to be hard and I have been riding bikes for almost 20 years. But, some of that feeling is because I don't really like to ride for more than 4 hours at a time, 6 at the most. Well, I trained quite a bit, mostly just rode lots of hills before we went and that worked for me. I was able to ride the route without being miserable and without taking all day!

But, to my surprise, there were a ton of people that ride those rides that don't look like they could ever finish them. They are overweight, riding junker bikes, underweight, riding junker bikes, people with cancer, and other diseases who are just heroic, and they finish those rides. They may get up really, really early, before light and ride till dark, but they finish! So, it is really incredible what people can do, and who those people are too.

So, I think it is really in what kind of riding you are willing to do, what speeds, and how much determination you have. It is amazing what any one person can do physically.

I surprised myself on that ride - and I think that a lot of TE'ers would surprise themselves as well if they push their limits! We have wonderful surprises and abilities that we really don't know are there until we try them out.

[indysteel]

Liz, I think that's just awesome!!!! As some of you know from my own thread about my upcoming ride in TN, I've had some moments of weakness--including a bad one yesterday--when I have really doubted whether doing the tour is a good idea. Reading Liz and Spokewench's stories have really given me a renewed sense of determination. Thank you ever so much.

K-

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I surprised myself on that ride - and I think that a lot of TE'ers would surprise themselves as well if they push their limits! We have wonderful surprises and abilities that we really don't know are there until we try them out.

I think that is generally true- people tend to think they "cannot" do something they have not tried yet.
Good for you doing that huge tour!

I've ridden over 4,500 miles over the past year- far more than I ever would have dreamed possible. Yet sometimes I start out on a really long ride, full of strength and confidence and towards the end I am really exhausted. I think it will take me many more months to increase my strength and stamina. I like to think my age (53) is not going to hold me back too much.

And I look forward to seeing a few of Liz's pictures.