1st 25 Mile ride, need to go FASTER!

[makbike]

Congratulations and keep up the good work.

I second the suggestion of using a trainer during the winter months. Using a trainer is boring, I'll admit but it pays off in huge ways in the spring. Do you have a local bike club? Do they offer "trainer tours" during the winter months?

Once it warms up and you are outside again on a regular basis ride and then ride some more. Try increasing your mileage by 10% each week and over the course of a few months you will find your endurance and speed increasing.

Do you have a bike computer? Does it have cadence? I would suggest you focus on your maintaining a steady cadence first, speed will follow. Find a zone, say 80-90, that you can ride comfortable in consistently and focus on spinning. As your strength and endurance builds try bumping your cadence up a little and again the speed will follow.

Keep up the great work!

[Jo-n-NY]

I am all for using an indoor trainer also. This will be my 5th season it so that puts me at riding consistantly for 5 years. Once you get back outdoors, you will have lost very little fitness level if any at all, infact you probably will be stronger.

However, this winter season, if them temps are as low as the forties, I plan to take the bike outdoors on the weekend.

~ JoAnn

[Tuckervill]

I'm thinking about getting a trainer, but not because I want to improve my cycling--just so I will have another way to improve my fitness besides walking, lifting, and exercise classes during the winter.

Is most of the benefit just for cycling, or can it help my fitness, too? I'm not racing or into super long distances or anything like that. I have no mileage goals. I just want to bike for fun. Which, for next year, I want to have fun doing a century at the end of the season.

Do you think a trainer would be worth the money for me?

Karen

[blueskies]

Karen,

I do think a trainer would be a good investment for you. It's good for your cycling specific fitness, which makes your outdoor rides more fun. And it's good for your overall fitness, which makes your whole life more fun.

I find that having convenient exercise options make it's easier to keep the workouts regular. In the winter, I like to go to classes at my gym, but it's also really good to be able to just pop in a workout video & do it on my own schedule at home.

[flash]

Is most of the benefit just for cycling, or can it help my fitness, too? I'm not racing or into super long distances or anything like that.

Karen -- riding an indoor trainer would most definitely improve your overall fitness, in the same way that riding your bike outdoors will improve overal fitness.

On the trainer, it can be a little easier to incorporate intervals or focus on certain aspects of your fitness (examples would be strength or cardiovascular fitness). Why? In an outdoor ride, weather and terrain play a huge role. If you are going out for an "easy ride" to put in some base miles, a super windy day can make you work much harder than you had planned. Doing an easy ride while watching your favorite movie is a great way to get a base mileage or recovery workout in. [And, of course, it works the other way too...it can be very convenient to push yourself to do 5 high intensity riding on the trainer, whereas out on the streets you might need to stop for a red light or train in the middle of a high intensity section of your workout.

Hmm...that's probably more info. than you were looking for. Sorry! Bottom line? Whether it's for cross-training or cycling-specific training, USING an indoor trainer can improve your fitness and performance. The key is USING the trainer...a certain amount of motivation and creativity are helpful to keep the trainer from turning into an expensive bike stand...because riding indoors by yourself can get boring!

[Geonz]

The tires make a **huge** difference and are a lot cheaper than a bicycle :-)

Of course, riding a bike that takes more work makes you stronger, so that when you get on something more efficient, you FLY!

And don't forget to work on technique.

[Tuckervill]

Okay! I'll read all the threads and put one on my xmas list!


Thanks!
Karen

[Kathyrides]

Congrats on a cool milestone!

Riding lots and doing harder work ie intervals is key to getting faster.

In '04 I did my first tri and averaged 12 mph and now I can do 20 and am close to 21.5 in a time trial. There seems to be a learning curve and once you get it and work hard you will get faster. Seems strange to say but to learn to ride faster you need to ride faster...question is how? Do little bits at harder effort ie you'll be going faster. In time your body adapts and you will get faster at all distances.

Trainer and a good plan to train in off season will help. Spinnervals DVDs are a good workout and they have ones that emphasis different things. Base building and ones geared for power like hills would be good.

I think for some women, it is hard to push yourself to a place where it is uncomfortable but doing that will help you improve more. When I race, do intervals, it hurts to ride my quads and hamstrings hurt and want me to slow down, learning to push on helps you get faster.

[onimity]

A 15 MPH average on a 50 mile ride is a serious goal, *especially* on a mountain bike/hybrid. I did a 65 mile ride that averaged 16.1 MPH (3,000 ft of elevation gain) this fall and it was really hard and only possible on my road bike, and drafting off of the local collegiate men's cycling team.

I've read that you should focus first on distance and then on speed, though you will naturally improve your speed a little in the process. I followed the oft-cited advice of increasing distance by no more than 10% at a time, and that worked well for me in training for my first century.

On a mountain bike my (hilly) commute is still around 12 MPH, about what it was when I started last winter. But I am a lot less tired and riding a heavier bike than I was then...On a road bike it is a lot faster, and I don't have to work as hard.

A road bike will make a huge difference, and slick tires will help a lot as well.

My biggest piece of advice, though, is not to base your goals on those of others. We are all different, and you are not your daughter. I find that a bunch of realistic short-term goals help motivate me better than a big long-term goal.

Good luck, and most of all, have fun!

Anne

[Zen]

What's the hurry?
Everybody's in a hurry. just enjoy the ride.

[lph]

Because riding fast is fun too.

[silver]

I have no mileage goals.
Karen

Tell me you did not just type that!!!!! Blasphemy!!!!

Miles are EVERYTHING!!!

(Really, really just kidding!!! )

Bikerchick2: I'm just joking with Tuckervill. But more cycling will make you faster. I personally wouldn't try to do hard intervals more than once a week. Like others have said....mix it up, one longer ride each week, one interval ride, one easy ride, one hilly ride, etc. Although I do ride a lot, it's not about chasing to get more miles.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I'm not racing or into super long distances or anything like that. I have no mileage goals. I just want to bike for fun. Which, for next year, I want to have fun doing a century at the end of the season.

But isn't wanting to ride a century a mileage goal?

Tip for beginner riders:
I am a slow rider. But one little trick I figured out a while back helped me raise my average speed in a simple way. After my first six months of riding, I thought I was working hard on all my rides. Then i realized that after every uphill I struggled up, I would coast down the other side and keep coasting a long time to rest my legs and enjoy the scenery. I would coast until I needed to start pedaling again. I changed that habit so that I would pedal whenever I could, even when going slightly downhill, where I used to coast. It wasn't a strain on my legs at all, but it kept me going faster overall.
I hadn't even realized I was doing so much coasting until I actually focused on it.

[Tuckervill]

But isn't wanting to ride a century a mileage goal?

Tip for beginner riders:
I am a slow rider. But one little trick I figured out a while back helped me raise my average speed in a simple way. After my first six months of riding, I thought I was working hard on all my rides. Then i realized that after every uphill I struggled up, I would coast down the other side and keep coasting a long time to rest my legs and enjoy the scenery. I would coast until I needed to start pedaling again. I changed that habit so that I would pedal whenever I could, even when going slightly downhill, where I used to coast. It wasn't a strain on my legs at all, but it kept me going faster overall.
I hadn't even realized I was doing so much coasting until I actually focused on it.

I think in context of this thread, I meant no 3000 mile years or whatever. I think if I sign up for a century, I will be motivated to ride enough to make me capable. But I'm not going to get all stressed about it.

I used to do that, too, Lisa...coast to get my heart rate back down I don't have to do that anymore (well, I may because I haven't ridden since October). I like coasting, though. It's FUN. I try not to if I want to have a speedy ride.

My philosophy of fitness is

• Never do anything in one session that will make me not want to do it again.
• Never get caught not having any fun.

Karen

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

My philosophy of fitness is

• Never do anything in one session that will make me not want to do it again.
• Never get caught not having any fun.

Karen

Good philosophy! A lot like mine. Happily, I love to ride often, and almost always have fun doing it.

If someone likes to ride fast- that's good!
If someone likes to ride slow- that's good!
If someone likes to ride both fast and slow- that's good!


Sometimes a problem happens when people ride together and have differing pace. Fast riders get frustrated, slow riders get dropped out, etc.
I play oldtime music with lots of other people. My DH and I tend to enjoy playing at an easy speed (just like the way we ride bikes...and other things! =8-O ) Anyway....we have a private joke when we get unhappily stuck playing with people who zoom through playing a fiddle tune at 100mph....we say "well at least it's over with a lot quicker!"