RubeRad

Ah I get it, I 'mis-heard' the inflection in your earlier post. You heard from chas58 the same thing I thought you said, which is "racing = not daily".

Anyways, I don't ride my bike for speed (or to get a workout) any more than I drive my car for speed or use my feet for speed (I HATE running). All 3 I do it just fer to git there. Unless I'm in an especial hurry, which usually I'm not.

noisebeam

Back in the day before Str*va I tracked every ride in Excel, copied the data manually over from bike 'computer' and made fancy graphs - this one covers a 10 year period from 2004 to 2014. Things to note:
It took me a year to go from 14mph average to 21mph average.
2009-2012 there is a step up in speed - this is also when I started to ride with racers on the weekends and evenings which increased my fitness.
My new route in Nov-2011 resulted in slow down in average speed

RubeRad

noisebeam that graph is awesome! It shows very clearly that (a) you're very fast, (b) you avg 20+ (excluding stopped time) all the time, and (b) your elapsed average including stopped time is pretty much capped at like 20.5, with a few exceptional days doing a little better (clusters in late '09 and late '11)

Why do the first 2 datasets come in (apparently) 2 points per date, joined by vertical lines? Or is that actually like joined-lines per week, and broken because no commutes on the weekends?

I guess the purple asterisks are tied to the epoches in the text boxes, so X axis is their date, but does their Y axis (mph) signify something?

noisebeam

It is hard for me to ride slower. I can do it and enjoy it. it hurts my butt more though.
In regards my commute I cut my time in half by getting fitter and riding faster. That is effectively an hour extra a day which I could use for more enjoyable non commuting riding or spend with family.
I also have to get home in set time as I usually have to pick up son and if I didn't ride faster I would have to motor to work. I am often a bit stressed about missing pick up cut off time. My excuse for riding fast into work is I can sleep in more.
Heading home in a minutes. Only 112F right now.

noisebeam

Each workday gets two data points: AM and PM. The red line is a 4 day average (of 8 data points)
The purple annotations are dates on X, but Y is arbitrary to get them out of the way of the data in graph. I used to maintain the graph better so the Y axes points were more cleanly out of the way and the labels closer to the purple X.

RubeRad

Ah, AM/PM, of course.

You could maybe clean the graph up, make more use of dead space, if you make a secondary Y axis on the right with a different scale. One Y scale for averages, the other for max?

Actually, that graph is so dense and rich, I'd advise ditching the max speed (least relevant -- downhill, right?), so the rest of the graph can expand and be more discernable.

Not knocking what you got, I just love to tweak. This is one of my favorite books, and the mere fact that you made that graph tells me you would enjoy it too. You can pick up a used copy for under $20.

noisebeam

I am very familiar with that book.
The graph evolved over time - you can imagine when it only had one or three years of data -less cluttered and dense.
I don't use or maintain it anymore as I started using GPS tracking app in April of 2014.
I also think it is OK with the data smeared like it is - being able to see more detail is not needed, it is the trends that show up OK with the smear. But I totally agree there is quite a bit of room for improvement.
The route is all flat. One can see in May-2014 my repeated efforts to get KOM on a 1/3mi segment with that cluster of top speeds.

CliffordK

The charts are made in STRAVA on the Analysis page. I use the free version with an android phone.

Not much blowing through red lights, but good route planning helps.

Keep in mind that each person's commute is different. A few mostly green lights may be preferable to stop signs, even if one can get away with just slowing for the stops.

The new roundabout is frustrating, but I can get through it safely by strongly taking the left lane for a dozen blocks, and it is quick!

20 MPH for 7 miles should be easy enough.

I don't do it a lot because most of my rides are about 15 miles each way, and I don't want to be exhausted when I arrive. I still have to do whatever I had planned, and return home. But I will work more on conditioning.

jack k

There is an entire presupposition here that you are assuming.

RubeRad

Very impressive. I could just sit and stare at that for probably half an hour, picking out all kinds of details

chas58

Nice Chart!

Strava has great analysis tools.

I don’t track my overall time, as that tells me nothing other than how long I waited at intersections. I know it is 38minutes give or take.

I do have some segments (typically a mile) that are un interrupted. They show me my fitness level changing over the season. My typical mile speed is 20. At race pace (or KOM pace) its about 26, quarter mile sprinting is about 33mph (all solo with my messenger bag). But day to day, 20mph is comfortable.

davei1980

If there ever was a commute which one could average over 20 MPH it's mine. I leave the house and ride on dedicated bike lanes/MUP for all but the last three blocks of an 8 mile commute. All major intersections have underpasses or over passes except one.

What's more is the bike lanes/MUP follow exactly the path of the Spokane River so there is very little elevation gain or loss. The steepest part is literally an MUP overpass over a busy street. Easy to sprint up because it's so short.

I really need to take a go pro video and post it here.

(FULL Disclosure - in these nearly ideal conditions I only manage to average 14 MPH but that's partly because I elect to ride a single speed bike where my top end speed is a little limited by how fast I can pedal)

josephjhaney

Just as an update, I ALMOST had it earlier this week. I will get it at least once this year. But averaging it over multiple trips? Dunno about that.


https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2807049781

josephjhaney

I shall henceforth reference you, and this post, next time someone calls me a "data geek" for tracking my stuff.

Joe

RubeRad

All hail noisebeam, King Data Geek!

CliffordK

Excellent!!!

I have started wondering if there is a bit of an odd effect, that the cyclists that do longer commutes may do better than the cyclists with shorter commutes, even if it means expending the effort over longer distances.

In my case, I get a lot of my riding and overall fitness from commuting.

While I don't typically push real high speeds, it still is a lot of miles, and the overall fitness is certainly getting better with time.

And, of course, those with longer commutes will tend more towards road bikes than the typical commuter bikes.

josephjhaney

Well, I can only speak for myself, but I use a late 90's Kestrell 200SCI, I love that bike, and it's my everything but "hey, there is ice on the damn road" today bike.

Joe

noglider 

I'm sure all of this is true, because I get to observe lots of bike commuters here. I've met a few extreme commuters, such as one who rides from Westchester County to Brooklyn. I met him on a trail. He was moving really fast on a road racing bike. He slowed down to ride with me for a few minutes because he was near the end of his ride home, and he was tired.

Then again ... there was something about the 13 mile commute I had at my previous job that seemed to wear me out. Maybe I wasn't approaching it well. I only did it 2 or 3 days a week. My current commute is 6.5 miles each way, and I like it so much better that I do it every day. I'm averaging slightly more miles per week as a result.

FromBeyond

Not a 20mph guy, but I've noticed road quality makes a big difference on my avg speed.
When I take the smooth roads, I avg 16 or 17 mph for the whole commute (i'm slow). But when I add in a couple old rough roads, then my avg drops a good mph or so.
I imagine, if I lived in a nice area where the roads weren't old and janky, I'd be a bit quicker.

Banzai

noglider 

I think that's what happens a lot, but some are reporting and even showing averages of 20 mph. It's pretty impressive. I was never that fast.

DannoXYZ 

I used to commute between college-town next to university to downtown to work in bike-shop, 13-miles. Being ADD, I always got bored going slow, want that speed and adrenaline! I trained with sprints, intervals, hillclimbs to increase my speed so I can do that commute in 45-min or less.

That led to an encountre with school's Cycling Team and 10 glorious years of racing.

fietsbob

Paying a Motor bike guy to let you wheelsuck in their slip stream really works well..



Note; the roller added on the back..

CliffordK

Oof,

Can I at least get and E-Bike?

I don't think I'd want to suck exhaust fumes like that

And, it would probably be a Harley dude with sawed off mufflers.

dwengo

Really impressive, you can see how you increased over the period of a year.