Pathetically slow? How long to improve?

[Seal]

Well I hadn't thought about the other users slowing us down. That is a factor to an extent. We ride West to East starting on the outskirts of Purcellville through Purcellville which is usually a mob scene and onward to Ashburn. We have to stop for a lot of traffic crossings. Leesburg can also be mobbed.

My aerobic fitness is not amazing. I did a couch to 5k several times on the treadmill last spring but got sidetracked w/achilles problems whenever I tried to go outside on pavement or hills or did any speedwork. And we are talking a very slow couch to 5K like average running speed about 4 miles per hour. I also worked my way up to riding 30 miles on the indoor bike at the gym over last winter but that was taking 2 hours. I've ridden bikes since I was a kid but the bike prior to this sat in the garage for 8 years before I dragged it out and almost instantly decided I needed a new one. I have only been riding in earnest since July adding a few miles a week to the long ride. First was on my sucky hybrid and now on my lovely Ruby.

I essentially walked in and took the Ruby off the shelf after trying a billion different bikes and not finding anything that worked w/my short torso and longish legs except that bike. They offered to send me to a fitter who works with triathletes but they didn't offer a professional fitting at the shop and I got the feeling it would be extra.

My core isn't horrible. I did private pilates last year 1-2x a week. I'm now doing the pilates on my own and doing fewer exercises but doing the main core ones more frequently. I also take two horseback riding lessons a week. The biking started as a way to just improve conditioning/leg strength and thigh tone for riding the horse. Occasionally I get to the gym for some inner and outer thigh machine and leg press but I prefer to be outside if at all possible.

My fitness goals were to have stronger quads and actually be ready for ski season for the first time in my life and to not feel like I was having a heart attack when biking with my 30 year old friend who actually has asthma but who also usually somehow manages to kick my ***.

So what I'm hearing is maybe I need to figure on it taking years to make a very pronounced dent in the VO2 max and that its a cumulative effect. I had sorta hoped it would be a fast learning curve but will just keep plugging away and will probably give the bike fitting a try too. Also those 2X20 intervals sound very doable for lunchtime rides while teleworking which as the sun goes down earlier and earlier will be about all I can get in during the week. I had been doing all out sprints for 30 seconds at a time with a few minutes of recovery in between. the 2X20s sound like a different beast.

[JennK13]

Are you doing any group riding? Intervals are great, but riding with people faster than you will also help with speed. I spent all summer riding with kids (literally, interns and the 17 year old son of a friend) and trying to keep up with them made me a lot faster! Like 4 miles an hour faster. Find a group of people, 2-3, that you can ride with who will truly push you (and be there to pick you up!) And ride with them if your DH won't. I push my DH, as his pride won't let him be beat by a girl! I do intervals as well, and really focus on form as well as speed/heart rate, but when alone, we can slack - not when with other people! It helped me tremendously.

[OakLeaf]

all out sprints for 30 seconds at a time with a few minutes of recovery in between.

I've always read that the interval (i.e. the recovery) should be no longer than double the repeat (the effort). The interval workouts I do are one minute sprint/one minute recovery; three minutes at about 30 sec/mile quicker than 5K pace/three minutes recovery; ladder intervals going in 30-second increments from 30 seconds to 2:30, up and down the ladder twice, with recovery duration equal to the effort.

Twenty minutes is kind of long to be considered intervals anyway, IMO - valuable work, but more like speedplay or tempo work than intervals. You might add those workouts to your weekly routine rather than substituting them for interval days.


On your other implied concerns:

Here's a great video about riding in traffic. There are certainly roads in my area that I wouldn't ride on (narrow, busy, poor sight lines), and I have no idea what the roads are like where you are, but even in Florida there are some roads that are safe and appropriate for cycling.

If the bike lanes you refer to are off-limits to pedestrians, then great, go for it. But if you're talking about shared use trails, then you need to take the other users into account for your safety as well as theirs, and that means keeping your speed down unless you're way out of town with no one else around, and no adjacent homes or parks from which someone might wander onto the path without looking. There are many threads here about appropriate speed on MUPs. Four times pedestrian speed is already approaching unsafe, but it's generally agreed that it's a reasonable compromise for an unreasonably designed facility.