Road Cycling - Do you race yourself??

i race myself and my previous times on a particular trip around the town that i like, i try to get faster and more consistent every ride. DO you do this too? Ive been trying to get my average speed up cause im a bit slow, but i have not been in the sport too long so i give it my best. right now my average is just under 15mph...I KNOW I KNOW, id never be able to keep up with the likes of you, but im trying to get better. Anyway I would like some advise on how to get speed up and exersizes to do before/after a ride.

thanks to all....and GO LANCE

G'day,

don't get to stressed about others average speeds or whether you can keep up with them or not. Your cycling is about you. Enjoy it, thats what its about. a famous cycle coach once said, (can't remember who, but I'm sure the forum will inform us!), when asked the best way 3 things you could do to improve your cycling...1/ ride your bike...2/ ride your bike....3/ ride your bike. Good luck, keep improving...but most of all...have a blast,

cheers,

Hitchy

I ride against my previous best times, I find improvements come in jumps at random time intervals. Ive only been riding about 5~6 months, if you ride on a bike path you will find your faster on the road ( don't know if its drag racing cars of lights(at least I know its a race) or less obstacles in your way).
Hitchy is right ride, ride, ride and of course enjoy.

do intervals. don't get caught in a rut where you go a steady 15 mph the whole ride. go all out to speed limit signs or something. this way you can shock your muscles to greater gains than by just going steady.
you aren't going to set a PR (personal record) every time out, so don't try.

get a HRM.

train by time, not by mph. your body. knows time, not distance. this can help mentally.

years ago i avg'ed 15mph >>everyone has to start somewhere. you can't fake avg'ing 20+mph.

find a training partner. do group rides.

I would like some advise on how to get speed up and exercises to do before/after a ride.

I used to try to push my average speed on every ride. What happens, though, is you constantly ride around your max, say 16 mph, rather than pushing hard at 20 mph for a couple miles then take it easy (the intervals the previous poster mentioned). Riding at one level of effort all the time makes it difficult to push beyond that level.

I’ve also found that as I’ve gotten faster, it becomes increasingly painful to ride at my max for 20 miles. I generally ride without my average speed displayed so I’m not focused on it. Some days I’ll try for a good time if I feel good, but generally I only go hard in spurts.

A solid week or 10 of riding 20-30 miles every day will improve your level after a day or two of rest.

I use the philosophy of “Go hard when it feels easy, go easy when it feels hard”.

-murray

Auricpoe, you have to remember that some of the "average" speeds some here talk about may not include many stops! It dosen't take much to knock your average down and then it's rough to get it back up! Did about 30 miles this weekend without but a couple fast stops and my average was 22 point something, but got into city traffic and it went down to 18.5 real fast and stayed around that mark! So very discouraging! Hint: I was sooo tired!, but you get the idea! So do I say I had an average of 22mph? yeah! your suppose to clear the computer when you get into city traffic, that's it! or, fess up and take the total?

as others have said, intervals are good to do. i'm probably a little less organized about how i do mine, but whenever i feel like i need to coast that's when i start really hammering. you have to condition yourself to tolerate the burning legs then go a bit beyond that. make sure you do recovery rides and take a day off once in a while as well.

one more thing. don't worry about averages!! i get stuck on this sometimes as well. if you're riding around town, being too preoccupied with speed may cause you to do something stupid (i.e. run lights, hit pedestrians, etc..). instead just focus on bursts of speed when the coast is clear. worry about averages only when you have miles of open road. :)

i appreciate all the suggestions, keep them comming because i bet there are others who concentrate on this stuff too