Is it ever the bike?

[Catrin]

You may be working on the bike every day and not see any tangible improvement because you train focusing on an area and measure your improvement on another. For example, if you train for mileage base and measure improvement based on sprint speed - you may not see any change. Why? Because you work on A and test B. It's like teaching students: if you teach them A and test them on B maybe no student will pass. Our body is a student, sort of, and learns what we teach.

So, before you get disappointed about the lack of speed improvement, make sure that you are, in fact, focusing your training to achieve higher speed.
That also extends to your 'off-the-bike' training, i.e. fitness: make sure that your strengthening program is designed to achieve your goals.

Thanks for this reminder - I find myself guilty of this in that I am currently training for endurance/distance and climbing hills but then get frustrated when I can't get past 19.5 mph on flat ground when hammering it.