ChrisAlbertson

Are those "flat pedals"? If so, get some bike shoes with cleats and matching pedals. Not only will you go faster but you will exercise both sides of the legs and keep balance. Next step. Buy a cadence sensor and place the cadence readout front and center. This is more of a teaching tool than a workout tool. Teach outself to always keep the cadence number over 80 and maybe around 90. But certainly over 80. This is easy to do. If you see you are going 70 RPM, shiply downshift and spin the pedals up. Learn what 80 to 90 feels like.

With a bike you want "power" which is very different from "strength".

The other thng if you want to improve is to not just ride at th speed you can do for the aloted time, even if you push hard for the whole time. Progress will happen but it will be slow. The best plan is to mix it up. Do a full-on sprinted for 30 seconds then go slowthen a 3 minutes sprinted then slow. Ride up a hill untill you can't continue then coast down. Your AVERAGE rate might be just as fast but yu need peaks that are well above average then a short recovery.

Lifting is exacely like this when doing reps you alternat from high to low effort. That is how we get better.

So get a HR monitor and see if you can make it go way-up then drop to 80 then five minutes at 125 and 3 at 140. (using my numbers, you'd be higher as you are 10 years yonger) But all the time keep the cadence above 80. Use gears to change up the effort.

With rolling hills and car traffic and lghts all this happens automatically but on a flat ciruit track you have to think like lifting, in terms of reps and sets. o a set sets of 30 second sprints then a set of 3 miutes slower sprints and 10 minutes of slow cruising.

But get pedals, if nothing else they stick your feet to the pedals when dong 100 RPM. Which kind of cleats hardly matter.