Any other old timers enjoy riding slow?
 

Every once in a while I like pushing myself where I'll average around 15 mph over 10-15 miles just to stay for but for the most part I enjoy a more relaxed pace of 10-12 mph. Where I can more enjoy the scenery around me. A lot of riders get too worked up over how fast a pace they can keep and miss everything that's going on around them.

Exactly what I do, although I also go longer distances to build endurance. I get interval training climbing hills, and visit the mountain gravel roads for the long climbs to push my cardio pulmonary system to the maximum, or at least, as close to maximum as possible. Speed doesn't matter much.

I'm there for the workout and the scenery, not the Strava.

I follow my whim of the moment. I let my ride happen rather than make it happen..........subtleties, subtleties. OOOOOMmmm, OOOOOMmmm

The faster you go, the more you will see.

Sure, I mostly enjoy riding slower these days.

Once upon a time, as part of my general physical training, some rides on certain routes would be pushed harder. Did a couple of ~half-century type distances with other riders at a pace north of 20mph, though those hurt (as I wasn't a serious rider).

Much prefer the ~7-12mph pace, these days, depending on the route taken. Helps me see things, to be part of the space instead of merely whizzing by, and gets me to the destination more relaxed. Of course most of my harder physical activity occurs in the gum, these days. The bike's mostly for transportation and enjoying the day.

guilty... avg. mph seems for me to be one of the more meaningful metrics considering I am comparing me-to-me on the same ride which is a roundtrip. I am always interested in trying to understand what all goes into making the difference from ride to ride, e.g., weather, wind, recovery activity, mood... so far I can't make heads or tails of it but topping a previous high of 12.6 avg. mph is what I'm currently chasing.

I have never found a good reason to go slow....

I agree!

My average speed is 12.7 mph. I would say that's above the median speed on our bike paths

I, too, don't have speed as a primary goal. I do check my average speed after every ride and will take note if it's faster than usual but I don't think about it enough to set a goal to beat a previous best. Prefer to ride in whatever way comes to mind ... sometimes slower meandering and checking out the scenery, sometimes cruising at, what for me, is a fast pace for a while, or just plugging along at whatever speed feels right at the time.

It depends on which way the wind is blowing. 15 mph headwind and I ride about 7 mph. 15 mph tailwind and I'm at 14 mph. Single speed beach cruiser.

Fast, slow, I just enjoy riding.

When I feel strong, fast is good. Otherwise, or in casual group rides with friends, slow is good.

However when I improved my conditioning by pushing harder than I was comfortable with to get faster, I was also more comfortable on slow rides and enjoyed it more. Being able to ride faster isn't just for the sake of being fast. It's nice to be able to loaf up a climb while chatting with a friend, on the same hills that used to leave me gasping for breath or getting off to walk.

I am a 68yo who's not into the slower motion riding scene at this time and hoping not to be there for some time to come. Smelling the roses and taking in the scenery never tickled my fancy and "Only the Shadow Knows" when I will change.

My fast riding is slow so I guess so.

I do like easy rides sometimes, but it's relative to my "hard" rides. I never enjoyed those "slow" rides until I'd worked hard enough that the easy rides were faster, because too slow gets boring.

Me too. :)

Any other old timers enjoy riding slow?

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Originally Posted by robertj298 (Post 20507706)

Every once in a while I like pushing myself where I'll average around 15 mph over 10-15 miles just to stay for but for the most part I enjoy a more relaxed pace of 10-12 mph. Where I can more enjoy the scenery around me.

A lot of riders get too worked up over how fast a pace they can keep and miss everything that's going on around them.

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Originally Posted by DeadGrandpa (Post 20507738)

Exactly what I do, although I also go longer distances to build endurance. I get interval training climbing hills…Speed doesn't matter much.

I'm there for the workout and the scenery, not the Strava.

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Originally Posted by dennis336 (Post 20508170)

I, too, don't have speed as a primary goal. I do check my average speed after every ride and will take note if it's faster than usual but I don't think about it enough to set a goal to beat a previous best.

Prefer to ride in whatever way comes to mind ... sometimes slower meandering and checking out the scenery, sometimes cruising at, what for me, is a fast pace for a while, or just plugging along at whatever speed feels right at the time

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Originally Posted by canklecat (Post 20508201)

Fast, slow, I just enjoy riding.

When I feel strong, fast is good. Otherwise, or in casual group rides with friends, slow is good.

However when I improved my conditioning by pushing harder than I was comfortable with to get faster, I was also more comfortable on slow rides and enjoyed it more.

Being able to ride faster isn't just for the sake of being fast. It's nice to be able to loaf up a climb while chatting with a friend, on the same hills that used to leave me gasping for breath or getting off to walk.

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I replied to this thread.So do you track? How do you track? and what do you track?However, for me as a cycle commuter, with limited time to train for longer rides, I can't just meander. :giver:

It's difficult to define slow and fast without defining what kind of terrain you're riding. Where I live, there's roughly 1,000' of climbing for every 10 miles of distance. With that level of climbing and over distances of 30 to 100 miles I average around 11 to 13 mph. For shorter distances or flatter rides I'd go much faster.

A couple of days ago I rode only 8 miles but covered 698 ft of elevation change according to Strava. Avg speed, 11.2 but the hills here are steep so down is fast but up can be tough. Today I took a short run but at 92* and relatively humid I ended up using every one of my 24 gears. I am 69 and just getting back into cycling so I am not as concerned about speed as I am about the endurance on the hills I face in every direction from my home. Makes it easy to get a good workout as I can not escape the hills unless I do not leave my driveway. Legs and lungs are getting stronger and that is what I really care about for now. Hope to get the speed in time.
Frank.

"How slow are you" is so the new "how fast were you."

Earlier this summer I had a real scare when riding with a group of friends that I had not seen in a year. I pulled the group up a hill to put the hurt on, and half way up I could not breath. Just gasped for air and could not get any in. This never happened to me before outside of some specific training for it in a past life. Now, I ride low and slow and enjoy it all the same.

That's pretty much my position. I don't try to ride slow, it just happens.

To paraphrase an old saying...The older I get, the faster I was.

We used to call this LSD riding (Long Slow Distance).