Advice to get my average up??

I ride 10-15 miles four or five days a week, then a longer (~30 miles)
ride on the weekends.

I've been doing this now for a couple months.

I have an older Bianchi, but it's OK, and in great shape.

I've made the following replacements:


1. Clipless pedals
2. Longer quill stem
3. New bottom bracket and crankset
4. Mich Carbon tires


My average speed is between 15 and 16 MPH. Seems to be there no matter
what I do.

I've tried spinning at a faster cadence, but not much change.

BTW, every time I look at the speedometer, it seems like I'm travelling
about 17-21 MPH, but with intersections, double-wide pedestrians, etc.,
my average stays about where it is.

I do feel that I'm getting into much better shape. I used to feel DEAD
TIRED after a ride, but now I can do the 30 miles and feel pretty good.

Any suggestions to get my average speed up?

THANKS!

-Bianchi Bob

First, it seems to me that you are doing OK as it is.
With the amount that you are riding you have begun to develop a good
base and the main advise I'd give for you to start doing some interval
work at speeds higher than you now ride. Three or four 2 minute
intervals in the middle of your ride will begin to get you used to
higher speeds.

Intervals seconded. I do the "natural" kind as I'm in Tennesse with
frequent rolling hills. Hills, unless they're obscenely long, get
attacked like Sigourny Weaver on an alien--totally to the max. On flats
I concentrate on spinning at something like 80% of my max, and
downhills are for relaxation and the crocheting of baby booties.

You're not that slow btw, and I seriously doubt equipment is holding
you back. Your case sounds typical. I've been there. I'll be as fast in
the beginning of the season as during the end--but the difference will
be that the same 30 mile ride will be effortless instead of a killer
due to slow twitch muscle development.

Declare holy war on some hills or even hit the gym for some squats and
such. Sounds like you're in good shape, just need some power.

Bianchi Bob wrote:

I ride 10-15 miles four or five days a week, then a longer (~30 miles) ride on the weekends.

My average speed is between 15 and 16 MPH. Seems to be there no matter what I do.

BTW, every time I look at the speedometer, it seems like I'm travelling about 17-21 MPH, but with intersections, double-wide pedestrians, etc., my average stays about where it is.

Those "speedometers" are great for keeping track of distance, and
getting an idea of how fast you're going. But the "average speed"
feature is the work of the Devil! Everybody seems to get obsessed with
higher average speeds.

If you're not into racing (I think only about 1% of cyclists race), why
worry about it? Do you want cycling to be something enjoyable, or some
form of torture where you subject yourself to interval sessions and
such?

If you ride regularly at a pace where your breathing and heart rate
become elevated, your fitness level will gradually increase.

If you're overweight, losing a few pounds will allow you to climb
faster, and will improve your overall health.

You can increase your "average speed" by blasting through stop signs
and red lights, and by taking descents as fast as you dare. But none of
that relates to better fitness. Riding in a paceline will increase your
speed by a couple of mph, but again, it doesn't really correlate to
increased fitness.

My advice is to just ride your bike regularly at a pace that gets your
heart pumping, but not so fast that you get exhausted. Forget all the
BS you read in Bicycling magazine, and just concentrate on enjoying
every ride.

Art Harris

Ditto intervals.

I'll add, the body adapts very quickly to a pattern of exercise.

There's a great article about this he
http://www.totalkaizen.com/articles/chunky.html
(not implying you're chunky - the article just seemed relevant)

You might add some weight training to the mix but intervals on the bike
target the specific muscles you're using so that's probably the cycle
equivalent of "weight training"...putting those muscles under more load.

Chris

In article .com,
says...


If you're not into racing (I think only about 1% of cyclists race), why
worry about it? Do you want cycling to be something enjoyable, or some
form of torture where you subject yourself to interval sessions and
such?

mmmm...torture.....


;-)


Nah, I just want to see some tangible evidence that I'm getting better.


If you ride regularly at a pace where your breathing and heart rate
become elevated, your fitness level will gradually increase.

Like I said, I AM less exhausted at the end of a ride. I guess that's
fairly tangible!



If you're overweight, losing a few pounds will allow you to climb
faster, and will improve your overall health.

6' 5" ~180 lbs.

Not much more to lose!

My advice is to just ride your bike regularly at a pace that gets your
heart pumping, but not so fast that you get exhausted. Forget all the
BS you read in Bicycling magazine, and just concentrate on enjoying
every ride.

I AM! Every time I ride, it's fantastic! I've truly fallen in love
with the bike!


Thanks for the excellent advice! I will continue to cherish my rides,
and try to watch the 'avg speed' indicator a bit less.

-Bob

You might add some weight training to the mix but intervals on the bike
target the specific muscles you're using so that's probably the cycle
equivalent of "weight training"...putting those muscles under more load.

How about this: Don't sit in the saddle when riding, stand up and shift
into the highest gear. The effect of this was remarkable for me, it's like
'orbital stair-master machine' exercise, without the boredom, and it
increases your rate of workout per mile dramatically.

rms

On Mon, 10 Oct 2005 13:45:11 -0500, Hell and High Water
wrote:


I AM! Every time I ride, it's fantastic! I've truly fallen in love
with the bike!


Thanks for the excellent advice! I will continue to cherish my rides,
and try to watch the 'avg speed' indicator a bit less.

-Bob

I think there are some 'tricks' that you can use. Most of these won't work
for very experienced riders, but they've worked for me.

1. find a longish straightish road with a slight grade - a false flat. Do
intervals on this road, on both the uphill part and the downhill part. When
you do the downhill part, you should already be slightly breathless. Push
your speed so that you're seeing 24mph. IOW, if you can do 21mph on the
flat really pushing, here you're getting 3mph faster. If the grade is a bit
too much, this won't work as well - it should almost look flat. For me this
gets me used to riding at a faster speed than I'm used to and I can keep it
up longer, because you can grab nanoseconds of recovery it being a very
slight downhill (at least that's my theory). Don't get me wrong, it
shouldn't be easy, in fact it should feel harder than your hardest flat
interval in some respects. Use the 'uphill' portion to tire you and get you
breathing hard before you start the downhill portion. Do at least 5 - 8
repeats.

2. motorpacing. Same kind of thing. Find somewhere that you can have a
trusted and skilled partner drive in front of you so that you are riding
pretty hard to catch up to him, and using the lack of wind resistance,
really get your speed up. This takes some practice and skill on both parts,
but it can work - just be very careful and don't be tempted to ride too
close - 10-12 feet back is plenty. When you get your speed up, at a
pre-designated location, you pull out from around him and try to keep up
that new speed as long as you can. He should of course drop off and let you
by - be very careful doing this!

3. parkinglot Crits. I've found that I -really- give myself a workout by
finding a large empty parking lot that has some hills and a lot of tight
turns. Go out and ride a dozen or so laps pretending like you're in a real
criterion. Jump on the turns, stand to pedal, pick a "finish line" and go
for the sprint win on each lap. This teaches you like no other method how
to get tight fast turns, how to keep your speed up right after slowing for
the turn, how to find a good 'line', how to jump and pedal and so on. Since
the layout of the course dictates your tactics, you'll really give yourself
a good workout. I get more 'toasted' doing one of these than a hard fast
ride. The point is it's hard to 'tell yourself' ride harder. But a parking
lot crit, I find, -makes- you ride hard because of the lay-out. These can
be so tough I only do them once a week.

4. wear a somewhat bulky jacket. Go ride your regular course. Of course the
jacket will catch the wind, and it will tend to slow you down. Don't let
it. Try to forget you're wearing it. Now I don't mean you need to heat
stress yourself. A light jacket that's a little too big for you that
catches the wind is just as good. After about two weeks riding with the
jacket on your normal route you'll be doing the same speed you normally do.
Rest a day or do a couple day recovery rides, then take off the jacket and
do your course. I almost guarantee that in two weeks you'll add a mile or
two per hour to your average speed. Problem is, heh, is this is a somewhat
temporary effect - you'll be fast as ****e for a few rides. If you go back
to riding your regular course in your regular cycling gear, in a couple
weeks, usually, you'll be back at your old speed - if you're not careful.

5. ride with a faster partner. This is one of the best methods, but I'm
putting it near the end of the list because most people realize this.
Obviously if you can find a group to ride with, that's even better. Learn
to draft. Use your partner to do 'jump sprints'. IOW, he drags you along
and you jump out and sprint past you. He then jumps on your tail and drafts
-you- and then jumps -you- and you draft for a while, then jump him again.
Rinse, repeat. Be careful - find an experienced partner and work up to
proper drafting methods. This is one of the more enjoyable tips, imo, but
since it's hard to find a good drafting partner, chances will be rare.

6. find a course where there's something that you can find to race, such as
a transit bus. (Be careful!) Try to beat the bus from point A to point B.
You don't have to be riding the same route, btw. You just have to 'barely
lose' to the bus and then 'work' to win over time. This is pretty fun too,
especially if you're not on the same route, but can see the bus here and
there on the way to the finish line. Pick an easy, slow lumbering vehicle
at first. Harder than it seems, since you're in traffic. Avoid taking
chances to 'win' - you want to win on speed, not cutting traffic lights,
obviously.

7. string together intervals where you used to rest. If I'm doing a one
mile interval and then turn off a side street to recover, after a couple
weeks I'll try and eliminate that turn off as a 'rest' street. Same thing
doing hills. Where you used to keep your speed up going to the top of the
hill, instead pick a point just past the crest and pick a speed you want to
reach as you pass that point. WHile it's pretty easy to sprint up my
favorite hill at 14mph, it's -much- harder to do that -and- keep my speed
up over the crest and hit 16mph 100 yds past the crest on the downhill, b/c
you're really tired, but being a downhill, it's mentally easier, I think.

8. find a hill that you can do ok. Alternate riding it various ways. Ride
up it slalom some days. Other days ride up it keeping up your speed no
matter what it takes - stand to climb, slalom a little, spin an easier
gear. Try to set a speed that's just a little too vast, but do everything
you can to reach that speed. Once you're pretty speedy, then apply trick
#7, and string together the hill climb, keeping your speed up over the
crest and getting up to a nice fast speed just past the crest, say 100
yards - a telephone pole or something. Somedays ride the hill 'easy' -
break it up.

9. Find a course with rolling hills that's a bit of a challenge. Learn it
for a couple weeks. Then go ride it but try to expend as little energy as
possible. IOW, 'flatten it out'. When you ride the hills, slalom, stand,
spin, do any and everything to make that ride feel like it takes -no-
energy to ride. Because you're mentally and technically 'flattening it out'
you'll end up some days with a faster average speed than usual because
you'll have learned to 'parcel out' your energy better. (hope this makes
sense - it's really -neat- when it works).

10. Realize that your improvement come during -rest- not training. So after
each ride, do a recovery drink (home made is fine). Get that 1:4 mix of
protein and carbs in those muscles within 30-40 minutes post ride -
immediately is best. Get plenty of sleep, consider taking an after noon nap
on weekends or whatever your hardest day is. Always work in some
excrutiatingly slow (HRM=108bpm) recovery ride. I can usually tell when I
need one of these because my legs are starting to get a little sore when I
tense the muscles.

There are -lots- of other things you can try but I figured you'd like the
'active training tricks' best.

As you can see these are mostly 'mental' things, but they're ways that you
can get that bike moving faster than you can by normal pedalling. Obviously
don't do them all at the same time, and find the ones that work for you, be
creative, find other similar ways. Above all be careful. Don't run into
your motorpace car (actually a motorbike is better - I have a friend with a
Vespa that I do this with!), don't strain something. You're mainly working
on your lungs not your leg muscles.

HTH.

That's good for now. Bear in mind, these are things I've tried myself and
for me they work. ymmv. ;-)

jj

Hell and High Water wrote:

In article .com,
says...


If you're not into racing (I think only about 1% of cyclists race), why
worry about it? Do you want cycling to be something enjoyable, or some
form of torture where you subject yourself to interval sessions and
such?

mmmm...torture.....


;-)

Good attitude. You'll be fine :-)

In addition to the intervals--a recommendation with which I
agree--build up your base mileage. Just ride more. Makes you
stronger.

jj wrote:
:: On Mon, 10 Oct 2005 13:45:11 -0500, Hell and High Water
:: wrote:
::
:::
::: I AM! Every time I ride, it's fantastic! I've truly fallen in love
::: with the bike!
:::
:::
::: Thanks for the excellent advice! I will continue to cherish my
::: rides, and try to watch the 'avg speed' indicator a bit less.
:::
::: -Bob
::
:: I think there are some 'tricks' that you can use. Most of these
:: won't work for very experienced riders, but they've worked for me.
::
[...]
::
:: 2. motorpacing. Same kind of thing. Find somewhere that you can have
:: a trusted and skilled partner drive in front of you so that you are
:: riding pretty hard to catch up to him, and using the lack of wind
:: resistance, really get your speed up. This takes some practice and
:: skill on both parts, but it can work - just be very careful and
:: don't be tempted to ride too close - 10-12 feet back is plenty. When
:: you get your speed up, at a pre-designated location, you pull out
:: from around him and try to keep up that new speed as long as you
:: can. He should of course drop off and let you by - be very careful
:: doing this!

Too dangerous for a nonracer, IMO.

::
:: 3. parkinglot Crits. I've found that I -really- give myself a
:: workout by finding a large empty parking lot that has some hills and
:: a lot of tight turns. Go out and ride a dozen or so laps pretending
:: like you're in a real criterion. Jump on the turns, stand to pedal,
:: pick a "finish line" and go for the sprint win on each lap. This
:: teaches you like no other method how to get tight fast turns, how to
:: keep your speed up right after slowing for the turn, how to find a
:: good 'line', how to jump and pedal and so on. Since the layout of
:: the course dictates your tactics, you'll really give yourself a good
:: workout. I get more 'toasted' doing one of these than a hard fast
:: ride. The point is it's hard to 'tell yourself' ride harder. But a
:: parking lot crit, I find, -makes- you ride hard because of the
:: lay-out. These can be so tough I only do them once a week.
::

Too dangerous for a nonracer, IMO.

[...]