how slow am I?

[Fredwina]

When I started cycling, I picked up by Greg LeMond. He urged people to train by time, not by mileage. I found this really does help.(i,e, doing an hour ride versus going out for 15 miles)
Speed: maillotpois hit it on the head. I think some people (form past experience in real life) associate max speed with average speed.
An example. Today I did Glendora Mountain Road with Warren. I averaged 12.9, so that means I'm slower than you , right? Going up (there's about 2500 feet of climbing in 6 miles), I was averaging about 6.5mph. Better than my last time up. Going down, I doing around 35(Getting better at hairpin turns). We going to come through La Verne(An LA suburb), but they were having a parade, so we wound up in Pomona (a less "desirable" city, if you get my drift), We were doing about 20mph through there since it was fairly flat .
Unless you're racing, the only person you really need to compare yourself against is yourself. Sounds like you're doing fine