rob214

my group of friends and I did a slow ride Saturday, 42 miles at a 13mph av. we rode casually stopped at a local brewery then a coffee stop and then a beer garden before heading home. took about 6 hours but we had a great day. I don't really drink but I had great fun hanging out with the guys

big john

I've been a member of a road club for almost 30 years. I always ride with the A group even though I was never quite fast enough. Over the years different people have come and gone but most of the time they are willing to wait for me and other fools who can't keep up. The last two years I have slowed even more, partly because of job demands and being older and I'm starting to have doubts.
For years I have done 100 club rides per year but lately I've switched to mountain bikes and even (gulp) solo rides. I still want to go fast, just not AS fast. If I could get more time off work I'd like to see if I could get back where I was, at least as far as endurance is concerned.

davethelefty

McBTC -- great advice. I used to ride half/metric/full centuries but it's been 16 years since my last one. Now at 64 I've set a goal to ride a half-century in March. I'm working to increase my overall weekly mileage as well as my long ride distance, following a well-tested century plan I used before, adapted to a 50 mile goal. This plan I use is Excel spreadsheet-based and tracks pace per ride and per week. I'm very aware of what speed I'm riding, and for the 12 weeks I've been in the plan my weekly average pace has risen to about 15 mph.

I challenge myself every week to be faster. I ride a carbon flat bar road bike and I set a goal to ride my upcoming half-century at a 15-16mph pace. This is ruining my training, quite frankly, this desire to be faster, because every ride has to be fast, fast, fast (for me, of course). I am slowly burning out and can't seem to slow down...

Carbonfiberboy 

As it is said, most people ride neither easy enough nor hard enough, but rather somewhere in between. Don't work on average speed. Plot routes with at least 50' of climbing/mile. Climb as hard as you can, then recover for the next climb. For this forum population, only 1 or 2 rides like that per week. The rest just enjoyable moderate riding, no goals. If you don't recover adequately between hard climbing rides, you go backwards.

If you are somewhere that doesn't have climbs and neither will your target ride, then do speed work on the hard days instead of climbing work. Whatever you do on your hard days, you want to be so tired at the end that you can hardly stand up. Then you need to recover from that. For the flats, google "bicycle speed workouts." The way to increase average speed is to ride very fast, either on the flats or climbing or both, for short periods of varying length, paying no attention to average speed.

DeceptivelySlow

That does sound like a great day on the bike. The type of intervals I could get into, beer-coffee-beer. I might also be able to keep up on the bike at the aforementioned pace.

I-Like-To-Bike

As it is said - by whom?

Why when I ride a bicycle do I want to do any of that baloney that is "as it is said"?

OldsCOOL

Carbonfiberboy 

I wasn't responding to you. You can ride your bike anyway you want, OK? As can everyone else for that matter. I offer advice to those who seem interested in advice. That advice was not offered to you. Nor for that matter, does anyone have to take my advice, offered or not.

rydabent

In my book that is how to enjoy cycling. Cranking along as fast as you can with your head down watching your front wheel is not my cup of tea.

balut bandit

It strikes me that if folks actually rode bikes as you describe they would tend to run into things quite a bit.

GuessWhoCycling

I think it is your own misconception that people get worked up on how fast they are riding therefore miss everything around them and don't enjoy their rides.

There are some riders that travel at good rates of speed and are able to enjoy their rides just as much as someone doing 13 mph.

For example, my 56 year old wife has done a flat 40 miler at 18.1 at her best. Many 17 mph averages on the same course. I have carried 18+ many times over the years on the same ride. 17.5 on solo centuries (100 miles) while cruising at a comfortable pace.

Not claiming to be FAST but I know plenty of riders who ride at a much slower rate of speed and too many times I hear them say we are riding so fast that we don't enjoy the ride. Of course these are riders that would consider 15 MPH fast.

But one must consider if a cyclist who can carry 18 on a 40 mile ride is not trying too hard on a 40 miler at 16 or 17 average speed. Of course it looks fast to a slower rider but it is actually a comfortable cruising speed where one can take in sights, have fun, chat, and actually cover more ground allowing them to take in more sights.

But it's always the slower riders saying we ride too fast. Yeah, 16, 17 may be fast for them but for us, it's a comfy cruising speed. WE ARE NOT MISSING OUT ON ANYTHING. I'm actually taking photos and recording videos while riding at these speeds and certainly do not have my head down hammering blindly.

I think it's just a misconception by slower riders that other riders traveling hat higher rates of speed are missing out.

big john

Yeah, but you're an ox. The other thing to consider is that some of us actually enjoy hammering from time to time and aren't always sight-seeing.

GuessWhoCycling

I totally agree! Another point I wanted to bring up. I have been told by others that when we do ride hard, we don't enjoy the ride. Total madness.

I have to say no matter how hard one rides, they are riding because they enjoy it. I have done a 7300 mile year at best but have others telling me who ride only 1000 miles per year that I can not enjoy riding the bike like they do. Really? If I didn't like it, I wouldn't be trying to get more riding in. I never understood their logic. I say if I want to ride my bike that much and they want to do only a fraction of what I do, then I must be enjoying my rides.

But honestly, I really don't understand anyone who thinks the other is not enjoying their rides as much as another. I enjoy the fitness, the feeling of pushing my body at times, cruising with the wife chatting about life, cruising with a small group having fun, stopping at a bagel shop to eat a bagel, or even pushing hard with friends to finish a century in a respectable time frame. It's all good!

I don't I have ever saw a person on a commuter, carrying groceries, touring, racing, cruising, taking pictures, riding to breakfast, or even a kid on a tricycle riding down a driveway and thought to myself that I enjoy my rides any more than they are. I like riding my bike no matter how or where and convinced we are all enjoying the ride. Not sure why people even start topics like this. ;-)

misakosic

cleaver!

downhillmaster

GuessWhoCycling

Ah! Hopefully someday he gets to experience and understand the joy I/we get from cycling.

rydabent

Once or twice a year I have to pull off the MUP and yell very loud to keep some head down "real cyclist" from hitting me.

balut bandit

I'm sure that's how you felt but your irrational fear of being hit by one of those "DF riders" on a MUP certainly colors your perception of the actual risk.

The simple fact is that folks aren't out there "cranking along as fast as they can with their head down watching their front wheel." That's just another wacky, false, supposition that's a result of your well-established recumbent tricycle bias and general animus towards folks who enjoy riding normal bicycles.

OldsCOOL

BikingTech

I didn't go thru all the pages on this thread but I'll just leave this here Foghat fans?

robertj298 

I guess we can't all be downhill masters lol but it's pretty easy to be a master online

BlazingPedals

People tend to ride at the speeds they want to ride. Some are slower, some are faster. It's hard to ride at a significantly different speed!

rydabent

On occasion they do.

bobwysiwyg

I find this to be quite accurate and true.

GeezyRider 

This is why I generally prefer to ride alone. Riding with another person or a group can be fun, but it does require more effort. Sometime it has been well worth the effort and sometimes it hasn't.