What's your average distance, pace, etc?

[Jiffer]

I thought it would be fun to see what types of rides us TE'ers do. What distances do we typically ride, what type of terrain (flat, lot of hills, etc.) and what pace do we do it in? And how long have we been riding?

I started riding two years ago when my husband, a strong rider, talked me into getting a road tandem. 9 months later I got my own bike and have primarily ridden that.

Now that summer is over and I'm not training for a century and school has started (I homeschool), I'm typically riding 3 times a week, 20-30-ish, sometimes 50 or longer. There is almost always some sort of climbing involved in my rides because of where I live.

Until recently, my average pace was typically in the mid 14 mph range if I was riding moderate to hard. So, slower if I was taking it easy. But then last month it jumped to the high 15 range and I was so excited. And now, all of a sudden, I had a 53 mile ride on Sunday with 1750 ft of climbing that was a 16.4 pace ... and a 21 mile ride today with 721 ft of climbing that was 16.9. This thrills me beyond measure. It's so exciting to feel yourself getting stronger and faster.

[alpinerabbit]

I have a couple of favorite rides.

the 1:45 evening ride has 2 hills and a nice stretch of flat, or alternatively another two hills (35K)

the 2hr scenic ride has one major hill and coffee at the top of it. (40K)

the 2:30 round of the lake is almost flat. (65K)

then I do a couple rounds of ~100 on weekends, and we've mapped out a century route.

Then there's the 90K ironman route that we do sometimes.

I've logged a surprising amout of km this year with mostly weekend rides - so most of them must have been in the 100k range.

average pace - 20kph for easy, up to 26kph for flattish.

[aicabsolut]

Flat rides (30-70 mi) with maybe 600 feet of "climbing" (overpasses) are around 18-19mph average solo or in a small group, 21mph in a big group.

Lightly rolling rides, like my weekly 50 miler, are something in the 3000-4000 vertical feet range, averaging around 16mph for "slow," 17-17.5mph solo, and 17-18.5 in a small to mid sized group.

"Hillier" rolling rides (steeper grades and lots of little climbs with a few longish ones that take it out of me quicker than what I consider lightly rolling), may be more like 30-48 mi and closer to 3000 ft than 3500 or 4000. Average speeds for me (typically solo on those roads) are around 15.5-17.5mph.

Then there are mountain rides of 45-60 miles (in a group technically, but many of the miles are too difficult for me to keep up with the guys enough to get much drafting benefit, and I'm also slower on descents). 4500-7000 feet of climbing. Average speeds from about 15-17mph (the 17mph ride involved a good sustained stretch of a rotating paceline around 20mph).

I have definitely gotten faster on certain terrain in the 2 years I've been cycling. These are my more recent numbers.

[fastdogs]

I usually ride 8-10 miles during my lunch break, on the road. usually average a great big 10 mph. I have ridden as much as 30 miles on flat crushed limestone trail, again average 10 mph. I ride my trek 7200 hybrid.
I prefer to ride my mountain bike, but never check my average speed on the trail. 4-14 miles depending on where I go.
vickie

[Veronica]

My 8 200 Ks (125 miles) this year have ranged from a low of 12.4 (40 miles of brake rub will fry your legs) to 14 mph. All have had more than 6,000 feet of climbing.

For the bike leg of my triathlons I've averaged 17.5 mph on a 25 mile flat course. 22.1 mph on an 11 mile flat course and 16 mph on a hillier 56 mile (1600 feet of climbing) course. That's all after swimming of course.

No drafting on the tris, very little on the 200Ks.

Veronica

[7rider]

My commutes are 15 miles round trip, on generally flat roads, and I average about 13 mph for them (that accounts for a lot of stop-and-go riding and weaving around the downtown areas).

My group rides are on "rolling" terrain, generally 30-40 miles, at anywhere from 17-18 mph average. I'll gain anywhere from 1800 to 2500 feet for those rides, usually.

I just hit a personal best on a FLAT century - 97 miles at 20.6 mph.

According to my Bike Journal account, my "average" ride (total miles / number of rides) is 23.2 miles at 15.1 mph, and I've gained a little over 1,000 feet each ride. I'd say that's a pretty fair assessment of my year. FWIW, my average HR was 142 and max HR was 189!

Oh, and I've been riding, more or less, for about 15 years now.

[jobob]

One of the most memorable TE threads

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=7968

[Madride]

Most of my rides are very hilly around 20-25 miles and I average about 14 mph on those. If I climb the pass near my house It is about 5 miles to the top and it takes me about 40 minutes to get there so I average around 10 mph on those rides. On the rides that are more flat, although it is near impossible to find any where flat where I live, I average around 16-17mph.

[pardes]

About 6 miles a day of bus/bike commuting (6 miles on the bike, 19 miles on the bus) with a quick bike spin around at lunch.

Flat terrain (thank you God), average speed 7 miles per hour, a mix of city streets and suburbs neighborhood roads.

Trek 7.6 FX, loaded with panniers full, and a big fat smile on my face.

[Aggie_Ama]

Well somedays it is 14 mph, somedays it is 18 mph. I did a century at 18.5 because I was in pancake flat Houston. I did 85 miles at 10.8 mph because I was in the mountains.

I like 15 mile rides, I like 60 milers (prefer the metric to an imperial century). I do both with regularity. I have other interests so some days I only want to spend 1-2 hours pedaling and somedays I want to spend all day. Most of the rides I do are ones that can be accomplished by rolling out my driveway and those will be rolling hills all day. Some steep climbs but mostly rolling with no end, not much flat but nothing to really call steep on most rides. My norm around her fluctuates 14-16 mph but honestly I like to look at the farm animals, the flowers, the houses and I don't usually rev it up to hard. I get distracted by nature so drafting is something of a lost cause on me, it takes too much attenion from the goats, llamas, chickens, cows, sunflowers, yucca, bluebonnets. You get the idea.

Some days I would rather hike 2-3 hours, some days I want to play on the dirt mountain biking 2-3 hours.

[wildhawk]

I have been building in both miles and average speed on each of my rides since I started back to cycling the end of July. When I first started I could only do about 7 miles with avg. speed of 8.5. I can now do 20 miles 4 days a week with an average speed of 13.5 - 14.5 with faster sprints of 17 - 20 mph. DH and I try to get longer rides in on the weekends. Of course this is on the relatively flat trails near my home. I have been training on bridges for my “hills” here in Florida, but I have to slow down going up those - but at least I haven’t walked up them - I have muscled every one of those beasts! Nothing to compare to yall’s major hill climbing elsewhere in the world though. I just completed my first 50k - the trail had some pretty good grades so I had to work extra hard and faced a headwind most of the day going north on the trail. You are all an inspiration to me!!

Pardes: I train with full panniers too on my hybrid - comes in handy for packing my extra water and snacks - I got real spoiled on that SAG supported 50k! Now I am back to packing my own support stuff.

[violette]

Our weekend rides are usually about 70km at 35kmh. We have no hills, all flat, but if we do the hills, we go about 20kmh.

[indysteel]

I'm with Aggie Ama on this one. My average speed varies quite a bit these days depending on my mood, the terrain, the group, the weather, etc. For the past two years, I train and ride pretty hard up until the Ride Across Indiana in mid-July and then I get kind of burnt out and totally change gears, so to speak. For that reason, I'm thinking of skipping the ride next year. I just don't like what it does to my motivation.

My favorite ride is about 60 miles long regardless of the terrain, is with a group of about 8 of my favorite riding friends and averages around 17 to 18 mph for a flat ride, a bit slower if there are hills.

And I've been riding since July of 2006.

[kfergos]

Let's see... I've been riding a couple years now. The vast majority of my rides are commutes: 13.5 to 15 miles, trending uphill on the way out takes me 52 to 55 minutes. Trending downhill on the way back takes me right around 50 minutes (those are summer speeds; in the winter it's a whole different ball game!). Generally I measure my elevation gain in hundreds, rather than thousands, of feet. A hilly ride might include 1,000 feet of elevation gain.

I did my 3 centuries at a 16-mph pace; alone I ride 14.5 or 15 mph. Not exactly a speed demon here. I'd like to get a little faster, but I never push myself commuting because I know I have to do this ride 10 times in a week. Pushing myself one day means the remaining rides will feel endless.

ETA: The hilliest ride I've done so far, the King's Tour of the Quabbin, was a century that involved 7,000 feet of elevation gain. It took me forever and my legs wanted to fall off at the end.

ETA 2: This thread got me thinking (a dangerous pastime, I know). I should just start measuring all my riding metrics in metric units. I could ride 21.7 km at a 25.7 kph pace every day. It's like improving with no work!

[Aggie_Ama]

Indy- I have been there on the motivation peaks. Last fall I was all about the Imperial Century. I was spending all weekend doing 50-100 mile rides and had no problem. This year I completely tanked, I just couldn't do it. We did one 95 mile ride self supported this spring and that will be as close as I get to a century this year. I am happy to say my house is cleaner, my bathroom painted and in a couple weeks I will have the best landscaped yard in my neighborhood!

I log miles still but lately the adventure is what I crave. I get excited over the crane I saw, the llamas or ostrich being out, the cool house I never noticed or the sunflowers gently swaying but lately could care less if the average was 16 or 13 mph. And starting mountain biking brought a whole new level of chain love to my world. Now I get excited over finding a new trail that is easy enough for me or getting over a fear and trying something new.