new to cycling--speed??

[DarcyInOregon]

Holy crapsticks, Darcy!!
I think I've put in a total of about 100 miles since Jan. 1st (counting trainer miles). I am very impressed!!

Tri-girl, thanks! My miles are a particular achievement because I had a bike accident on November 13. No, I don't know what happened other than I didn't crash; the doctors ruled out stroke, heart attack and low blood sugar, so a side gust may have gotten me. I decided to do loops on the bike trail inside the local state park. I was only at mile 3 and I woke up sprawled out on the trail. I had been unconscious for 90 minutes. I spent the weekend in the trauma center with severe concussion, multiple fractured ribs and a right punctured deflated lung. However, good comes from bad, and the doctors told me the cycling has burned off the bad fat inside the torso, the fat that surrounds the pancreas and invades the heart and liver, and that I have exceptional heart, liver and kidney health. I got back on the bike on January 1, biked through the pain, in some snow and a lot of rain and a whole lot of headwind, and put on the miles. I still go to the gym too. I am trying my best to get my body fat down to 24% and it is a long journey.

One thing that works for me is using the training log on MapMyRide. It is because Map has fitness challenges. I join multiple fitness challenges for bike miles and I am surrounded by alpha male cyclists. I am not an alpha anything, and my speed has to look like the pace of a turtle compared to them, but it sure is a motivator to keep up with the alphas and hold my position in the top ten on the Leaderboard for the challenges. I keep my training log public too, so that anyone can look at it, see how much I weigh (horrendous), see exactly what my heart rate, speed and distance is on each ride, and doing so motivates me to do my best, even during the bad winter weather.

[Jiffer]

I am a stat freak, so I am giving you specific stats. I started riding a tandem with my husband in the fall of 2006. I got my own road bike in summer of 2007. I started logging my rides in January 2008. Here are four rides from January that year and four recent rides from this year, one of them yesterday. Remember, I had already been riding a tandem for a year and a half before the 2008 first entries, along with my own bike for six months, though I didn't ride much, if any during the previous month or so during the holidays, so it was beginning of season, just getting back into riding at the beginning of the year.

I'm giving you miles, ride time (not including pausing for signals and breaks), average pace, and feet of climbing. The amount and grade of climbing makes a huge difference in over all time and speed. Note the lower mileage in the 2008 rides verses the 2010 rides. Of course I gave you some of my better rides for 2010, but some of the shorter and/or slower rides that I didn't post are recovery rides or training rides where I was focusing on intervals, not over all time.

1/19/08 - 8.91 miles, 0:37:25, 14.3 pace, 747 ft
1/21/08 - 17.58 miles, 1:24:39, 12.5 pace, 916 ft
1/29/08 - 8.79 miles, 0:40:41, 13.0 pace, 486 ft
1/30/08 - 16.80 miles, 1:16:00, 13.1 pace, 660 ft

2/13/10 - 64.50 miles, 3:42:59, 17.4 pace, 2,195 ft
3/05/10 - 70.95 miles, 3:50:54, 18.4 pace, 1,226 ft
2/19/10 - 43.78 miles, 2:23:41, 18.3 pace, 1,047 ft
3/20/10 - 32.47 miles, 2:00:36, 16.1 pace, 1,898 ft

The last ride, on 3/20, was yesterday. That is a club ride with some pretty substantial climbing. I have done that ride at a faster pace, 16.5, when the club happened to go especially fast during the first 10 mile flat section and I was able to keep up. Yesterday, the club went relatively slow in the beginning, but I wanted to focus on the climbs anyway. I keep track of how fast I do climbs on specific routes and I did all those climbs faster than I ever have before. I was SO excited. If you have a way to track laps on your bike computer, I highly recommend using it for small sections of rides that you want to improve on. It motivates me to go faster and I "know" if I did something faster. I don't have to rely on the average pace for the entire ride to know I am improving.

I hope my specific numbers are an encouragement to you to see how one can improve over a relatively short period of time. I remember a club ride a couple of years ago when I was climbing and being passed by pretty much everyone. A woman went passed me at a much faster pace and my first thought was, "I hate her." And then I though, "No ... I don't hate her. I want to BE her! Some day I'm going to BE that woman." But wondered if I ever really could be. And now I'd say I'm relatively close to riding at the pace she was riding that day. Woo hoo! It is only recently that I'm "really" starting to feel good about the speed of my riding and intervals is a huge part of that. I highly recommend intervals. But just getting out and riding at any pace and distance will help you improve.

[invsblwmn]

I agree that it totally depends on the bike. I used to ride 16-18 mph on my cannondale. On the mountain bike with knobbies, it was more like 12mph. On my cattrike speed, I average 10mph and am thrilled with the speed on 20" tires and 3" ground clearance from my girlie parts. Your speed is your speed. Ride enough to get sweaty but not so hard that you can't get home. Enjoy!

[Bike Chick]

Tri-girl, thanks! My miles are a particular achievement because I had a bike accident on November 13. No, I don't know what happened other than I didn't crash; the doctors ruled out stroke, heart attack and low blood sugar, so a side gust may have gotten me. I decided to do loops on the bike trail inside the local state park. I was only at mile 3 and I woke up sprawled out on the trail. I had been unconscious for 90 minutes. I spent the weekend in the trauma center with severe concussion, multiple fractured ribs and a right punctured deflated lung.

Wow, Darcy! How scary! You are an inspiration. Keep up the good work though. And I can't believe you have already done 1500 miles! You're an animal.

I was like a lot of ladies here and my speed increased with my mileage, especially since I was only riding with the guys and I had to ride fast to hang. I obsessed about it and worked to get faster. I did but wasn't having as much fun. I don't worry about it anymore and ride a lot by myself. I enjoy it a lot more too. Just ride your bike. It'll come.

[kenyonchris]

For me, it depends on who I ride with. If I ride with a weaker rider, I average 16-17 mph. But I spend a lot of time with Hammerheads (and most of them men). I let them pull and average 18-22....until they make me pull!!

Doing Amgen in a few weeks and I am so out of shape it isn't funny. The weather has been terrible, moving, and getting married. So I may do it in and under 12 average.

Got a Garmin for the Pinkarello....and love it! I need to get my HR up higher.

[Zen]

Though I have never monitored my cycling speed...but I think to be a good cyclist on a regular basis a person must get a speed of 15-20 mphs.

Being a "good cyclist" has nothing to do with speed. If you had some idea of what your actual riding speed is you might amend that statement.

Interesting signature.

[tangentgirl]

I often average under 12 MPH now!

Glad I'm not the only one.

[Chile Pepper]

Glad I'm not the only one.

You and me both. On the other hand, I'm so much stronger than I used to be--a much better climber, with much better stamina. Hills are part of the issue: nothing is truly flat here, so it's always slow one direction and pretty fast the other, which averages out to 12-13 mph for me. And realistically, I ride alone, I'm 45, and I'm not interested in speed training. The pace isn't going to magically pick up on its own.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Being a "good cyclist" has nothing to do with speed. If you had some idea of what your actual riding speed is you might amend that statement.
Interesting signature.

Oops....she's GONE.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Speed depends SO much on so many factors, such as age, weight, condition, bike type and weight, temperature, hydration, gears, terrain, experience, weather, blah blah blah...
so much so that I believe to compare speeds between people is almost meaningless.
The right speed is what's right for you.
I average about 10mph. I'm an 56yr old cyclist with no athletic background on fairly hilly terrain with a loaded steel bike, and I ride for health and enjoyment. Works for me!

[Jiffer]

Yeah, I did want to mention again how much the terrain makes a difference. I can do a relatively flat ride to the beach and back at a 20 average, (the only time I have gotten a 20 and it's a total thrill ) or I can climb 7,000 feet and get a 12 average.

A lighter bike, clipping in and pedaling efficiently make a big difference. Keeping your tire pressure up (i.e. pumping before every ride ... making sure you don't have a slow leak and/or brake pad rubbing ). The weather, fueling, etc. All of these things play a factor in speed in addition to your strength and ability level.