Getting Faster-How to Train?

[bluebug32]

Ride with a group that's faster than you. Try to hang on.

[Owlie]

That works for some people. If you find it demoralizing to keep getting dropped all the time, perhaps intervals? Even if it's nothing exactly organized, Knot's technique works (for me, at least). I'd try keeping a pace 1-2 mph faster than I normally would, and I gradually got a bit faster.

[surgtech1956]

I have gotten a little faster, my average 11.7mph compared to 10.5mph, for 10 miles. Its flat here, I've been doing intervals for about 30 mins. Its working for me, wish I had some hills.

[Aggie_Ama]

I have never trained to get faster on the road, I got faster by riding lots. But I am training for longer endurance and thus faster for mountain bike racing. I can't do anything too structured, it tends to make me anxious. Right now I am focusing on time in the saddle with loosely structured goals. Here is a typical week (usually 4 days, sometimes 5):

Saturday - Long road ride, no real goals can be rolling, can be hilly, can be flat. Goal is just 3-4 hours of saddle time. Usually a 50 miler accomplishes this.
Sunday - Mountain bike. Again long, no goal just time in saddle. Often pre-riding a race course. 2-3 hours generally.
Monday - Off if it was a race weekend or very easy spin on the road.
Tuesday - Short track races, this is actually a fun substitute for high intensity/sprint intervals.
Wednesday - Off although I will probably be changing this to a ball based core training day.
Thursday - Hill Repeats. I use a long hill with several very steep sections. Right now I am tempo climbing (just get up in an easy gear) but after I get more comfortable I will be adding gears or jumps (getting out of the saddle). Goal is builing endurance, you can go faster longer if you have a good strong engine. **You can simulate hills on the trainer, it isn't nearly as satisfying for me mentally but physically it hurts the same. **

My first race of the season I shaved about 8 minutes per lap off my time from last year on the exact same course. I do have a race bike now so that might be accounting for some but mostly I think I am getting faster.

[surgtech1956]

Maybe I should be riding longer, then riding as fast as I can for about an hour? I wish I had others to ride with - at least others around my age. Now thats its getting cold out, I wont want to ride for distance.

[goldfinch]

Maybe I should be riding longer, then riding as fast as I can for about an hour? I wish I had others to ride with - at least others around my age. Now thats its getting cold out, I wont want to ride for distance.

Wish you were nearby as I go your speed and also would like to be a bit faster. Interestingly, back in September I did my longest ride ever, a charity ride of 50 miles (all flat). I averaged 12.5 mph which was by far my fastest time for any long ride.

I usually average anywhere from 10.5 to 11.5 mph for 20 to 30 mile rides, maybe a bit more if the ride is really short and I am working really hard. I am very slow on the uphills, that is part of the issue.

[NadiaMac]

+1 for riding with folks who are faster with you. is there a group ride where you can try to hang on as long as you can (then ride alone afterwards)? it can be a bit demoralizing, but you will ikely see improvement over time and that's always encouraging. make sure you know the route if you take this approach!

also, interval training and weight work can help