Average MPH

[Mako]

Hi,

This is my first post, hello everyone! I've been lurking for a good while now....

Nothing to add advice wise - sorry! However I have also been pondering this and trying to improve on my own average of around 15MPH (give or take). It'll be interesting to read the responses!

Cheers,

Mako

[Veronica]

Intervals - speed intervals, hill intervals.

I do my speed intervals inside with my bike in a trainer and use Coach Troy. But you could adapt the same idea to an outside ride.

Find a place where you can ride uninterrupted and relatively flat terrain. After you warm up, ride at an uncomfortable but sustainable pace for 6 minutes. Then soft pedal for two minutes. Repeat this two more times. You should choose gearing that allows you to maintain your optimum cadence for the full six minutes.

Then repeat this process but now up the pace and ride for two minutes with a one minute soft pedal. Repeat this five more times.

Cool down.


Veronica

[blue_angel]

I'm also bigger than average, and after a year off from cycling, my first few rides were in the 13-14 mph range (on the lovely rolling hills of SE Michigan). If you stick with it, your speed will improve. And even though it can be intimidating, riding with faster people will help you get faster too. Others above have advised you to contact the ride leader, and I second that advice. He or she will give you an honest assessment of whether or not you can keep up with the group pace; and if not, hopefully s/he will be able to point you in the direction of a different ride that is more suitable. Ultimately, it's more important that you enjoy your ride than that you feel badly for not being as fast as everybody else (this is what I tell myself every day!).

[chosen1]

Intervals - speed intervals, hill intervals.

I do my speed intervals inside with my bike in a trainer and use Coach Troy. But you could adapt the same idea to an outside ride.

Find a place where you can ride uninterrupted and relatively flat terrain. After you warm up, ride at an uncomfortable but sustainable pace for 6 minutes. Then soft pedal for two minutes. Repeat this two more times. You should choose gearing that allows you to maintain your optimum cadence for the full six minutes.

Then repeat this process but now up the pace and ride for two minutes with a one minute soft pedal. Repeat this five more times.

Cool down.


Veronica

+1 for posting this. I had been wondering what "intervals" were and was about to start searching the forum to see if if they had previously been discussed. I'm going to do these this weekend and add em to my regular bike training. It's mainly flat here but I "think" I know where I can ride that will have a hill too.

[Owlie]

To the OP, and to Mako (15 is pretty good! See my snail?)--just keep riding. You'll get faster. My normal pace this year is anywhere from 13-15 (on flats). Last year it was closer to 12-13.

If you want numbers:
For right now, for me, on a somewhat ill-fitting road bike, with clipless pedals:
"Coast" speed is 10-12, normal is 12-16 or 17 (on a good day), actually pushing it I can get up to 20-21 depending on road conditions and winds, but I can't keep that up for very long. In wet weather, I found out today I'm only comfortable doing 14 max. Hills...sometimes I'm lucky to get up them!

[Mako]

Owlie - Thanks for the response and advice, that is just what i keep thinking 'just keep going'

I do agree with the previous posters response about riding with people faster than yourself, when I have done that I have felt myself pushing harder (with less pain!).

It's a little difficult when you know you are too slow for the club rides, I know getting dropped is something you probably have to go through but I think I need a bit more work first......

So I'll just keep pushing it!

Cheers, Mako

P.S Anyone else suffering from the same issues - too slow, but not fast enough?

[Crankin]

Yes, I've always been in the in between group.
When you average around 15, it's hard to find a "group." It took me a couple of years... but it's true, I ride faster with a faster group. On the other hand, I don't do much group riding anymore. Just with 1-5 people, friends, who either ride around my speed or a little bit faster. Or, I ride with friends who are slower, and I end up waiting.

[Owlie]

Hee, a little competition can work wonders! DBF is faster than me, and if I ride with him, he lets me set the pace because he's worried that he'll drop me. (The end result is that I come back and am tired, and he comes back and is perfectly fine because he spent the ride drafting off me!) Next time I ride with him, I'm going to see if I can actually keep up with him.

[blue_angel]

Yesterday I made an mph breakthrough: 30 miles in 1:51, for an average pace of 16 mph over the whole ride! That's a full 9 minute improvement over my previous 30 mile benchmark. It sounds crazy, but I had changed my cleat position the day before, and I think that actually affected my pace! I like to spin between 95-105 rpm, so it makes sense that improved efficiency in that cadence would result in speed gains.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

My average speed is about 9 mph. That's right, 9 mph.

About 4 years ago when i was really cycling regularly for a couple of years, even in winter, and I rode the most ever- 2500 miles in one year, I got pretty strong that year. That year my average speed increased!....to 10 mph.

My fastest speed ever was 40.2 mph on a descent, but I frequently hit 30 or 35 mph downhill, and regularly hit 2.5 to 3 mph up the steeper hills. Very few flats around here.

I took off my bike computer last year.

[KnottedYet]

I took off my bike computer last year.

I took mine off all my bikes. Too distracting.

Ride lots.

[TxDoc]

I agree with Eden. Most larger clubs have several speed groups.
Just pick a slower ride for the first time, learn, observe, do your best to ride safely and try to hang on with the group. If you get dropped, keep going and go back the next time. Keep going back until you can easily hang on with the others and you are safe riding with the group. At that point try taking some pulls and doing your share of work in the paceline.
Go back, learn more, do more work, repeat.
If/when the group becomes too slow for you, find a faster group and repeat all of the above. Speed will come with time and training.

On a different topic - what makes you brake all the way downhill??? That is definitely not a safe thing to do... Maybe some bike handling skills would help, and they are way more important than speed. There are several coaches and organizations that teach bike handling skills - and you can practice on your own too. It's very important, especially if you plan to ride with a group.

Oh, and just in case y'all were wondering... I'm slow too except on TT day

[goldfinch]

I averaged 9.6 mph on my 20 miles ride today. That was good for me. I have only had one ride, 6 miles, where I averaged more than 10mph.

A few weeks ago my average was in the 8.5 range. So I might be pokey but I'm getting better.

[Orange utopia]

My average on my hybrid on my long ride last week was 12.2mph over 31 miles. On my road bike today I averaged 12.8 mph over 33 miles. Now today had way more hills so there really was some improvement by going with the lighter and faster bike but I'm still not breaking any records.

[wackyjacky1]

My average speed is about 9 mph. That's right, 9 mph.
...
I took off my bike computer last year.

Same here!

Just lately I had an epiphany: I'm simply never gonna be fast, and all of the sudden I realized I didn't care about speed. Perhaps it's an age thing; when I was younger I worried -- a lot -- about my lack of speed, and really berated myself for it. Now I'm content to poke along, rubbernecking at the scenery, pausing to take the occasional picture, or even stopping to have a nice latte and a scone at a cafe! Yeah, it takes me two hours to ride twenty miles, but I'm ok with that now.

But...I do avoid group rides because I know I'll be miles behind them when they've already finished their ride.

That being said, I'm finding that the more I ride, the stronger I'm getting. I've been commuting nearly every day this year, which has really increased my saddle time, and while I can't quantify it, I can feel that I've gotten a wee bit faster and better on hills.