What's your average distance, pace, etc?

[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.

[arielmoon]

I just started riding and logging my miles in May. My terrain is rolling hills.

I ride 20-30 miles a day on the weekdays averaging 18-19.6 mph by myself.

Group ride on Monday is 28 miles, and depending how many people come and which group I end up with, we average 20-22 mph.

I have taken some longer rides on the weekends 43 miles at 18.6 mph, 33 miles at 19.2 mph, and 55 miles at 17.5 mph.

For next weekend's century, my first, I am hoping to be in the 15-16 mph range.

[Jiffer]

I just started riding and logging my miles in May. My terrain is rolling hills.

I ride 20-30 miles a day on the weekdays averaging 18-19.6 mph by myself.

Group ride on Monday is 28 miles, and depending how many people come and which group I end up with, we average 20-22 mph.

I have taken some longer rides on the weekends 43 miles at 18.6 mph, 33 miles at 19.2 mph, and 55 miles at 17.5 mph.

For next weekend's century, my first, I am hoping to be in the 15-16 mph range.

Whenever I find myself hating you, I just tell myself I'm going to BE you some day and then I have to love you! You're a total inspiration! You've only been riding since July?!! Surely you were pretty fit before you started cycling.

I don't think you'll have any trouble at all getting a 15-16 average on your century with the pace you are doing your shorter rides at and you may, quite possibly, do it faster. It depends, of course, on if you get into a good group, as well as the amount of climbing.

My fastest rides were when I was 100% pulled by my "super cycling man" husband. He pulled me and two friends on a 66 mile ride to the beach and back at 18 mph. I was ecstatic at my time, even being pulled. I worked SO hard and kicked my butt! A week later, he pulled the three of us on what was me and my girlfriend's first century. I ended up with a 16.3 average. Since you are already faster than me, even not being 100% pulled, I don't see any reason you wouldn't get at least a 16 average, unless there's a lot more climbing or you have weather issues or something. I had about 3,000 feet of climbing and near perfect cycling weather ... other than the major headwinds the last 10 miles.

Good luck on your century and let us know how it goes.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

We need to remember that everyone's definition of 'hills' is different.
We all bike over vastly differing terrain depending on where we live.

I went to Cape Cod this summer and someone who rides there during the summers described a route as being 'very hilly'....well there were a couple of teeny bumps on the path, but certainly not worth leaving my middle ring for. I kept waiting for the hilly part to start, but it never did. To my delight, I was magically transformed into a much faster rider as well. :-D

I think of my area as 'rolling hills' no matter what direction i go in from home, but when I went to New Hampshire last weekend I think their definition of 'rolling hills' was significantly steeper than my definition!

[arielmoon]

Whenever I find myself hating you, I just tell myself I'm going to BE you some day and then I have to love you! You're a total inspiration! You've only been riding since July?!! Surely you were pretty fit before you started cycling.

~snip~

Good luck on your century and let us know how it goes.

Oh dont hate me! I was in pretty good shape before I started cycling in May. I compete in Dressage with my horse Ice:



And like Bleeker said- every terrain is different. Most of you would probably laugh at my hills although Ocala is not like most of Florida.

And thanks for the encouragement about the century. BF is now exBF and he is going to do the 45. So I am going to hook up with the LBS group and hope for the best.

[shootingstar]

I was a bike computer junkie for first 5-6 years after returning to cycling. Kept a cycling journal plus mileage.

Let's see at that time average speed was 19-22 kms./hr. And I was cycling annually 4,000-6,000 kms. annually.

Now it's probably slower and each ride during the week, is half the distance I used to do due to impossibly convoluted and lengthy work commute that doesn't allow me to cycle the entire trip.. while weekends each ride is approx. 42-55 kms. each day. On self-loaded touring trips it increases to 45 - 80 kms. each day.

Stuation as somewhat temporary due to awkward location of my job and commuting distance. I won't be at this job forever...it ends soon.

I know the distance I ride nowadays by asking my partner who tracks his mileage religiously on Excel..with graphs. If he wasn't around, I might seriously consider using the bike computer more often. But I haven't used a bike computer for many years now. I gauge my level of bike fitness by how I climb certain hills each season, amount of weight I can cycle up and down on various routes and distances.

It isn't my cycling fitness that interests me so much these days compared to why am I munching so much more food throughout the day nowadays.. : Latter I consider something I must be more vigilant.

I care less about my fitness but feeling strong / enthusiastic enough to go out when the weather becomes lousier, colder and wetter. I seem to be losing my cold acclimatization this year which bothers me...since it affects how far I'm motivated to cycle.