Cycling Speed

As a reward for finishing my first marathon, my incredibly wonderful OH splashed out and got me a Garmin 910 XT.  Its great for the running side of things, with virtual pacer and all of the wonderous stuffu that go along with it.

It has also highlighted to me however information on my cycling - the one metric I pay closest attention to being my cycling speed.

Just out of curiosity, for those of you who know your speeds, what is a good average speed for me to target over the course of a given ride? 

Thanks!

Comments

  • Depends on if your are riding on good or sh*te road surfaces and if they are flat or hilly? It's a how long is a piece of string question I'm afraid.

    If your thinking about what improvements you can make I would just make a note of your average times and see if there has been any involvement in a few weeks or month's?

    One speed that might help is that for most IM's the average speed you need to make for the cutoff's is about 16 mph.

  • Ahhh...Cake...fab! 16mph, that what ultimately what I was after.

    I like to tell myself that the roads can be shitty, dodging potholes and traffic, so I can adjust for that - but your point is well taken regarding average times and measuring it out.  I haven't been on the bike too long, so its more impatience on my part than anything else!

  • fat buddhafat buddha ✭✭✭

    it will also depend what sort of bike you are riding

    on the road a heavy mountain bike with knobbly tyres is going to be a fair bit slower than a sleek carbon road bike with narrow slick tyres.   so as Cake says, it's a piece of string question.

    and who knows - you might have a good engine and can go quicker than many others

  • I theeeenk that a bike speed of 13.5 mph would get you through the Outlaw end of bike cut off - assuming you were on the bike after a 2 hour swim. 

  • I was going to say 14mph will get through most IM cutoffs............road surfaces really do play a part as does weather condition and how technical the course it

  • 30 kph = a 6 hour IM bike split



    While i ride that while comuting/ in races, i dont go that fast on long rides at the weekend for, some reason.....
  • cougie wrote (see)

    I theeeenk that a bike speed of 13.5 mph would get you through the Outlaw end of bike cut off - assuming you were on the bike after a 2 hour swim. 

    image Hope so or I'm fecked next week but seen the 16 mph speed a few different places so through it was kosher.image

  • 8 hours is 14 mph..........so it depends on your swim time and the bike/swim cut off.........

  • I own a Specialised Allez entry level road bike, so I'm not sure I have *too* many excuses for being sluggish in terms of speed. 

    I'd love to get up to averaging 30 kph like O.range, but I think its well beyond me at this stage.  I wonder if doing intervals on the bike would have the same effect on speeding me up as running did?

  • popsiderpopsider ✭✭✭

    I wouldn't recommend you do intervals.  

    Start off by just getting general bike fitness - if you go out on hilly routes then you are getting some natural intervals in there anyway.    Get in with some groups rides - whether that's a local triathlon club, cycling club or chain gang when you get a bit faster. 

    Intervals just make things that much more unpleasant and if you aren't enjoying it you'll ride less - you can get quite far on consistent fairly high mileage - intervals will be bring your fitness on further on top of that but if you don't have the mileage in the first place you'll never get near your potential imo.    Most people that say they do well off 3-5 hours of high intensity stuff have a background of higher mileage.

  • fat buddhafat buddha ✭✭✭

    +1 with pops

    get the legs working on riding first - the speed will come as you get fitter, more confident, and familiar with riding.

    intervals are fine on the turbo imho but only once you have a good baseline in place

  • Cake wrote (see)

    One speed that might help is that for most IM's the average speed you need to make for the cutoff's is about 16 mph.

    Cake - I know your spelling gets mucked up with the old diptheria, but I didn't know it extended to your numbers, mate. 16mph is a 7-hour bike split, isn't it? You'll be scaring the bee-jaysus out of everybody.... mass entry cancellations for Outlaw image! Here's hoping for  16mph average at IMW image.

  • slowerthanilook wrote (see)
    Cake wrote (see)

    One speed that might help is that for most IM's the average speed you need to make for the cutoff's is about 16 mph.

    Cake - I know your spelling gets mucked up with the old diptheria, but I didn't know it extended to your numbers, mate. 16mph is a 7-hour bike split, isn't it? You'll be scaring the bee-jaysus out of everybody.... mass entry cancellations for Outlaw image! Here's hoping for  16mph average at IMW image.

    Ditto that. Just had a major panic attack for 16mph image

  • Thanks

    PS, I've finished with the Andrex now.

  • It's quite suprising how quick you can build your average up once you start getting the miles in regularly without any fancy interval training
  • Come on, who else panicked at 16mph! Me, for one.

  • Having ridden the course the other week and managed 15.5 when my normal is nearer 14mph I was quite pleased with myself!  image  I thought the 16 was a bit high, but on your 'bling' Cyfac bike Dusty I fully expect you to be attaining 16mph!  And if you don't, you can expect to be called a crap swimmer and cyclist when you pass me on the walk, I mean run!!  imageimage

  • Dustboy wrote (see)

    Come on, who else panicked at 16mph! Me, for one.

    image

  • image I'm sorry guys, thing is so you can all laugh at me all year I've been hammering the bike when i can to get it up to that and I live in sheffield land of big fecking hills. imageimage

  • No worries Cake!!  You'll blow the course away then!!  image

  • After having had a laugh at your expense, mate.... worth saying that the Outlaw course (if it's like last year) is easily a 16mph track.

  • Prince Siegfried wrote (see)

    No worries Cake!!  You'll blow the course away then!!  image

    image Feck no mate I've done 4 or 5 long rides all year and seriously worried i won't make the cut off's. Still going to play through taking part is more interesting that winning sometimes.

    Slow no worries I'm well used to the course there I think I'm one of the few people who have done the race all three years not and thinking about doing a relay for next year just to say i have all the finesher's medal's. I like medels. image

Sign In or Register to comment.