From a Hybrid to a Road Bike - finally!

[carinapir]

Wow! I have total bike envy.

I'm curious are we talking 12-13 mph avg over the course of the whole ride or when you looked at your speedometer you usually saw yourself going about 12-13mph on your hybrid? There's a huge difference and 14-16 mph average over a whole ride on your road bike would be pretty fast.

On my Giant FCR Hybrid, I generally ride at about 15-17 mph on flat road and my rides range from 30-50 miles. My over all average with hills, descents, and stops tends to end up in about the 12-13 mph range.

[featuretile]

I also wonder about the mileage per hour number - average on a bike computer or when you look at the speed. It seems that when I am riding on flats, it's usually between 13-14mph when I look down, sometimes can be more. Downhill can be 20-30mph. But there are so many steep hills where you see 5-6mph going up, that when I'm done, the average is usually 11mph and I can't seem to get above that.

I just finished a bike tour where I was the slowest one in the group and felt very frustrated and discouraged. The others either have been riding much longer than I or were much younger than I. I think it may be good to stretch yourself with someone who is slightly better than you, but being with a group that is too fast doesn't help.

I did learn that the mileage was not the key. I could feel good or bad after 30-40 miles depending on the speed of the ride and if there were any breaks. If we rode half way, had lunch and continued, I was fine. If the group rode straight thru, I barely made it back. I also just ordered a bunch of Nuun electrolyte tablets for my water because I sweat a lot when it's hot out and may have depleted my salt.

[chicagogal]

If you are serious about training to get stronger/faster, you need to remember that to get faster, you have to ride faster.

This means doing INTERVALS, where you ride fast/hard for a short distance, recover, and repeat. There are lots of different interval training plans out there. They are all hard, but they make a HUGE difference.

[marni]

I have been reading selena yeagers ride yourself lean from velo press and she has some good advice including some interval programs and some other training info. I also find the podrunner 5k,8k, and 10k interval podcasts, downloaded to my ipod/radio which plays loud enough to hear without earphones, have upped my speed from a low 15mph to a consistent low to mid 16 mph. Still kind of discouraging slow after 5 years of riding and weight loss, but I figure my age is a bit against me, that plus lack of frquency of rides since the FIL moved in with us and started taking up my two free days with his physical training and medical needs. Still I love the podrunner stuff for both bike and gym, and an overal speed for the duration of a ride, in spite of wind, highway overpasses (what passes for hills around here) and attitudinal texas drivers is perhaps not too shabby for an over 60 er.

marni

[Ritamarie]

A couple of miles an hour is a huge difference. If you are riding on relatively flat roads you won't see a whole lot of difference in a heavy bike vs a light bike. You will see the difference on a hilly ride. On my road bike, I'll range from 14 mph for a hilly ride by myself to 19+ if it's less hilly (we don't have anything flat here!) or I have someone pushing me. If I ride my fat tire bike, I can count on the average being about 2 MPH slower ... though I think I would top out at less than 16 mph. It's just not that kind of bike.

[Owlie]

I can't speak about the speed (see my avatar), but:

Ooh, nice bike!

[featuretile]

Do rolling hills count as intervals? You go down fast, get half way up, and then crawl up - repeat over and over again.

I have no idea what my speed would be on a flat ride as I have never been on one.