Fifty Plus (50+) - how fast should 55 y/o be able to ride?

due to life schedule, i can only manage around 50-60 miles a week, 2,500 - 3,000 miles a year.

i've never raced or joined a bike club, so i have no buddies to compare with, no experience riding in a group. i've done centuries, but always solo.

i don't necessarily train by how fast i can ride. rather i train based on duration of ride, or target cadence, or heartrate, or power output, or climbing vs. endurance vs. LT intervals etc.

so my question is, what's a reasonable expectation for how fast i should be able to do a 30-mile ride?

i don't need guys who race answering the question, i'm not in your league. but how about the enthusiast riders, guys who ride up to 4-5,000 miles a year? at age 55, how fast should i be able to ride 30ish miles and feel good about myself that i'm a bona fide cyclist?

I rode 4300 miles last year and 3300 the year before.

I ride at a leisurely pace at whatever cadence feels natural. I often average about 10 miles in an hour which includes stops for photo ops. and/or chatting with other cyclists or hikers. I firmly believe that any pace that's fast enough to maintain balance and keeps you from tipping over is fast enough to qualify you as a bona fide cyclist. Of course, that's just my opinion.

Perhaps you could ask yourself why you ride and then just set out to accomplish those goals, as we all tend to have our own individual reasons for cycling. In my opinion...be it for speed, endurance,weight loss, basic transportation, recreation, or meditation....it's all cycling and it's all good.

Hard question to answer for me, there are so many variables. I would think I could do a flat, windless 30 miles in around 1.5 hours, maybe a little more. Never timed myself and never think about average speed, however.
I ride 5-6K per year and I'm 56.

OP, what bike do you ride and where?
3000 miles a year is a recreational cyclist.

Fast enough to enoy YOUR ride. Some times I ride fast(in a relative sense), sometimes not so fast. If your enjoying your ride, isn't that fast enough?

First check with your dr and make sure you are fit for strenuous exercise.

As big john said, there are too many variables to be able to compare average speed. Like Cranky said find a comfortable cadence and keep it there. If you are serious about improving, get a HR monitor and a cyclo computer that measures cadence. Get some clip in pedals and concentrate on pedaling in circles. Most of us are mashers from our younger days. It's very inefficient, and not good for your knees or hips. Google "efficient pedaling techniques."

Do wind sprints 3 or 4 x a week and in 3 months you will be amazed at your improvement.

So Fla is very flat, and for 6 months (summer) the winds tend to be low. That is about the best scenario to compare, but not many can duplicate those conditions.

I rode 6900 miles last year and averaged about 17.5. Most of the rides were in flat fla. When I ride in upstate NY my average drops to about 15. I'm 63. Been riding 2 yrs. Nerve been much of an athlete.

You should be able to ride fast enough to get there before the beer is all gone.

I hit 50mph last year going down a big hill. Scared the beejeesus out of me but was pretty exciting nonetheless. As to the OP, I'm with cranky ride at whatever speed it takes to enjoy yourself.

30 miles is one of my favorite loops and with one stop along the way I allow 1.5 hrs but it's usually more like 1 hr 15 min. I think I average around 16 mph. I'll be 52 in a couple weeks. I'm not a roadie ...

30 miles is one of my favorite loops and with one stop along the way I allow 1.5 hrs but it's usually more like 1 hr 15 min. I think I average around 16 mph. I'll be 52 in a couple weeks. I'm not a roadie ...

???

When I divide 30 miles by 1.25 hours I get 24 mph. Most of the local roadies probably can't hang with you on that pace.

???

When I divide 30 miles by 1.25 hours I get 24 mph. Most of the local roadies probably can't hang with you on that pace.

Even 1h30m is 20 mph

my recollection of duration may be off, also it's probably more like 28.9 miles - plus I'm going by my computer's avrg reading

edit - dam its been 6 mos - now I remember - i used to tell my kids I would be back in 2 hours and always home sooner. the 1 break I took varied from 10 - 20 minutes

I belong to 2 clubs. One is more moderately paced (15 mph ave for 50 miles), the other has 2 groups that are paced @ 17 and 20. For an average rider I would say 14-15 is a good first goal.

I don't understand why I am so slow. This chart shows average speed, and my average moving speed is usually about .5 MPH faster. The last few elevation numbers are wrong -- Garmin is having an issue with their web site. I'm 57.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a39/TromboneAl/Trips.jpg

Anyway, my average speed is rarely more than 13 MPH, but it sounds like many average 15-20 MPH.

My daughter did a century with an average of 15.5 MPH, but I whipped her butt when she was home for Christmas.

I'm hoping that it's the hills that keep me so slow.

Once last fall when the weather was especially nice I did a 30 mile route on my commute to work. I'll never forget the time, 1:59:59.0 and I think I was riding the LHT.

For me, 15mph is decent, considering it is watch time, not bike computer, so the stop signs and street lights have an affect. I've done 50+ miles @ 17mph or so, but that was rural and the longest ride I've ever done up to that point.

All that aside, it's hard to say what a good time for you is. I suppose it's whatever you can manage and still stay healthy and happy while you do it.

As for your bonafide cyclist concern, I sure as hell wouldn't worry about that.

due to life schedule, i can only manage around 50-60 miles a week, 2,500 - 3,000 miles a year.

i've never raced or joined a bike club, so i have no buddies to compare with, no experience riding in a group. i've done centuries, but always solo.

i don't necessarily train by how fast i can ride. rather i train based on duration of ride, or target cadence, or heartrate, or power output, or climbing vs. endurance vs. LT intervals etc.

so my question is, what's a reasonable expectation for how fast i should be able to do a 30-mile ride?

i don't need guys who race answering the question, i'm not in your league. but how about the enthusiast riders, guys who ride up to 4-5,000 miles a year? at age 55, how fast should i be able to ride 30ish miles and feel good about myself that i'm a bona fide cyclist?

I fit the description. 54 Years old, 3000 to 5000 miles a year. Never raced.

I have a 36 mile loop I ride several times a month. I start in the city, so I have some stop & go before getting to the suburbs where I can ride for an hour without stopping. My route is flat and I ride solo.

I'm between 17 and 18.5 mph, depending on wind, clothing and fitness levels.

TromboneAl, adding hills to the ride makes you stronger, but will drop the average. For flat rides my Tues and Thurs group (when I am off to ride with them) will average 17. If we ride a hill workout, it drops to 14-15.

There are just too many variables for a simple answer. The type of bike you're riding, the wind speed and direction for the day, the number of hills or elevation you'll be riding, what you ate for breakfast that day, if your tires are inflated properly, the number of traffic lights and stop signs you have to deal with, etc. all have an impact on how fast one rides. Perhaps the question should be, "How fast do you want to ride?" Do you have a goal in mind? If not, why even think about it?

Well conditions are just about everything. I used to commute 12 miles one way. I think my lowest average speed was something like 7 miles per hour into a howling headwind. My highest average speed was 27 mph and I probably could have broken 30 with a warm up beforehand. Climbs will really reduce average speed also. I think I averaged something like 5 mph up Teton Pass in Wyoming.

On flat rides, I can average about 18. To average a certain speed, you have to cruise faster than your average by about 2 mph or even more. In the loop through the area I live in, even on fast group rides, I have never been able to average over 20 mph (or at least I don't recall it). Out in rural areas where one can cruise for long distances, averaging over 20 is not that hard in a group.

I'm 56, started commuting two years ago, and have been actively riding a road bike for a year. I do a wide variety of riding, from commutes to fast group rides, and I have just started racing a few weeks ago. Average speed has so much to do with your riding environment (how many stops; how much climbing) that comparisons are difficult, but here are my totals for February:

Count...................35
Distance..........564.49
Time.................35:40
Elevation Gain....12,949
Avg Speed...........15.8
Avg HR.................133
Avg Bike Cadence.....84

If I am just riding for an hour or so, with no training related goals or restrictions, my 'moving average' will be between 18 and 20 mph, at a cadence of 95-100. Cadence is both more important, and more comparable: RPM over MPH !!!!

Al look at this http://bikecalculator.com/wattsUS.html. You're on the right track but need to add data for wind and temps

Speed is so variable, it's not really a good metric for a forum like this. I've been on rides where I averaged 23+ for fairly long distances (metric century, for instance;) but on others struggled to average 16 mph. Terrain, weather, and type of bike all make a huge difference, as do traffic signals and stop signs.

I'm 50, 210 lbs or so, riding 8,000 miles a year. On my Raleigh Sojourn, I'll average between 15 and about 16.4 mph on a 30 mile open ride. This is the speed from my computer, which stops timing when you stop rolling. It'll be lower if there's lots of traffic or stop signs, "open" means very few stops required. There's older guys in my club that can ride circles around me, so that's not especially good. There's also older guys that are slower than me, for that matter. Going all out on a 20-mile time trial a while back, I got it a bit over 18 mph. I once did a 100k averaging 19 mph, but I think that was a tailwind-both-ways situation that I've never repeated.

I'm 55 and have ridden a bike most of my life, but mostly for commuting and recreation- roughly 3-5000 road miles a year plus some small fraction of that on MTB trails. Almost all my road riding is urban or suburban in character with substantial hills. My actual average for a ride is around 11-13mph due to climbing and traffic lights. I'm in good shape since I'm a runner, but am too small to be a fast cyclist- someone else could probably have a faster average in my riding conditions.

I don't understand why I am so slow. This chart shows average speed, and my 57.
Anyway, my average speed is rarely more than 13 MPH, but it sounds like many average 15-20 MPH.


It's the real world you are showing with hills, etc. What I was saying was under ideal, flat conditions.
Sometimes when I ride in the mountains my average speed is around 10mph. It shows how average speed is misleading and pretty much a useless metric.

rnorris, too small? How could one be too small to be a good cyclist? Smaller is always better in the hills. Trust me on this.

"how fast should i be able to ride 30ish miles and feel good about myself that i'm a bona fide cyclist? "...

Like the others have said, there are many variables to consider here but if you are on a road bike on relatively flat terrain with little wind you should be able to average between 12 to 15 MPH fairly easily for someone over 50 and under 200 LBS.

too small? How could one be too small to be a good cyclist? Smaller is always better in the hills. Trust me on this.

Definitely. Ever see a pro cyclist up close? Most of them are tiny people.

Definitely. Ever see a pro cyclist up close? Most of them are tiny people.
With hollow bones.

somewhere between 10 and 25 mph would be the answer.

I averaged about 16 mph on the commute into work this morning. (A bit of a tailwind)
My fastest ride of any distance has been about 18mph.

:thumb:if your off the couch and on the bike, that's plenty fast. i ride almost every day. couse up hill is a little slow on a ss/fg but hey, i'm riding.

. . . how fast should i be able to ride 30ish miles and feel good about myself that i'm a bona fide cyclist? . . .

When you ride 30 miles and say, "That was fun, let's continue" you are a bona fide cyclist. If you fail that test and still ride a lot, you are still a genuine cyclist.

Riders ride. I think it is that simple. Most bike owners do not use them. They are owners but not riders.

ride your age until you hit 38 then subtract 1 every two years. :)

Did a pretty flat 30 mile loop today and averaged 18 mph, but I'm not 55. I'm older. I average 16 mph on somewhat hilly 25 mile loop with a 2100' elevation gain.

sweet

I'm 56 and used to race, but not any more. I quit riding for 17 years and returned to cycling in Spring 2009 to lose weight (over 50 pounds) and get back in shape. Nowadays I typically average apx. 17 mph on my 20-mile solo "training rides" in mostly flat to rolling terrain.

You should be able to ride fast enough to get there before the beer is all gone.

An eminently practical bit of advice. I may post this on my refrigerator.

As mentioned earlier, speed is not a good way to evaluate performance. There are so many variables. You might think about a power meter -- a little expensive, but you can also find used ones on e-bay. You might also take a look at the book
"Training and Racing with a Power Meter." to see how they can be used. Anyone can benefit from using one.

I'm hoping that it's the hills that keep me so slow.

You had to throw that second line in the data just to see if we were awake didn't you.
Assuming that was a round trip, 22.5 miles with an average grade of 10% and an average speed of 12.8mph for the total 45mile!
If we assume the ride was indeed 22.5miles at 10% up and 22.5 miles at 10% down, your max speed was listed at 34.7mph. If we assume your average down hill speed was 30mph (very close to your max) then you up hill speed was approx 8.2mph average. You are the man!, that's an amazing pace for 22.5 miles of 10%, I know I couldn't do it. Your a God!

I don't understand why I am so slow. This chart shows average speed, and my average moving speed is usually about .5 MPH faster. The last few elevation numbers are wrong -- Garmin is having an issue with their web site. I'm 57.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a39/TromboneAl/Trips.jpg

Anyway, my average speed is rarely more than 13 MPH, but it sounds like many average 15-20 MPH.

My daughter did a century with an average of 15.5 MPH, but I whipped her butt when she was home for Christmas.

I'm hoping that it's the hills that keep me so slow.

I tend to run at about 13 mph. Doesn't matter which bike I'm on, either.

I just finished my first ride of the year, on the mountain bike with street tires - 15 miles at a hair over 13.5.

I'm fixated on this subject. Not fast just fixated. I started 6 months ago at 9 MPH. I've worked very hard at getting faster and now can do a flat 10 miles at 18.3 MPH. A flat 20 miles in the high 16s and can ride all day in the high 15s. My record for a pace line ride is 19.1 for 14 miles. I'm 53 y/o and an obese 5'8" at 225 ish. I've got a decent road bike and I ride about 100 miles per week.

I'm currently doing 1 mile sprints where I force myself to ride at least 20 MPH every 5th mile. I'm doing this to simulate pulling the line with the pace line group I ride with on weekends. I'm one of the weaker riders of the group and I'm unable to take the lead as long as other do. They never complain at all but it grates on me that I can't quite pull my share.

I'm not satisfied with my progress but I'm slowly getting faster/stronger as time goes on. I don't think there is any magic pill other than to keep pushing.

Part of the physiology goes something like this. As we stress our muscles our body adapts by adding muscle. Equally important is the vasculature our body adds to feed the new demands being placed on our muscles.

In my case, I sat on my fat a$$ for decades in front of a computer. Not much need for muscles or feeding them. It's just going to take time for my body to catch up with my expectations.

In the meantime I'll just enjoy the ride albeit slowly :thumb:

Oh yeah, if anybody finds that magic pill please do share!

Did a pretty flat 30 mile loop today and averaged 18 mph, but I'm not 55. I'm older. I average 16 mph on somewhat hilly 25 mile loop with a 2100' elevation gain.

This is where I want to be!

Let me see. I am 106 years old. I average between 28.6 and 29.7 MPH on 30 mile rides. A little less on rides over 100 miles. Actually hilly rides do not slow me down. All the women run out to the street to watch me pedal past. If I had a better bike than this old beach cruiser I could do better.

Can I go to my room now?

I'm fixated on this subject. Not fast just fixated. I started 6 months ago at 9 MPH. I've worked very hard at getting faster and now can do a flat 10 miles at 18.3 MPH. A flat 20 miles in the high 16s and can ride all day in the high 15s. My record for a pace line ride is 19.1 for 14 miles. I'm 53 y/o and an obese 5'8" at 225 ish. I've got a decent road bike and I ride about 100 miles per week.

I'm currently doing 1 mile sprints where I force myself to ride at least 20 MPH every 5th mile. I'm doing this to simulate pulling the line with the pace line group I ride with on weekends. I'm one of the weaker riders of the group and I'm unable to take the lead as long as other do. They never complain at all but it grates on me that I can't quite pull my share.

I'm not satisfied with my progress but I'm slowly getting faster/stronger as time goes on. I don't think there is any magic pill other than to keep pushing.

Part of the physiology goes something like this. As we stress our muscles our body adapts by adding muscle. Equally important is the vasculature our body adds to feed the new demands being placed on our muscles.

In my case, I sat on my fat a$$ for decades in front of a computer. Not much need for muscles or feeding them. It's just going to take time for my body to catch up with my expectations.

In the meantime I'll just enjoy the ride albeit slowly :thumb:

Oh yeah, if anybody finds that magic pill please do share!

Wind Sprints. 4 to 6 per each ride, 3x per week for 3 months. You'll be pulling the group all day.

OP:
Some of the more accomplished riders here can do a 5 hour century (non-metric) and then go dancing. But you do not have to be anywhere near that to be "real". There's obviously a pretty wide rage of abilities here and as far as I'm concerned everyone is real. There are no standard criteria for competence at this... that is very much a personal matter.

A good thing about being fast, other than vanity, is that you can ride with a wider range of companions if you want to.

The vast majority of my rides are alone. I do not worry about speed much. As Long as I enjoy the ride, well that is fast enough for me.

Fishermen (I refuse to use the PC term, "fishers") have fish tales.
Cyclists, well, they have vivid imaginations... How wet it was, how cold, how hot, how many watts, how far, how high, how steep... How Long is an oriental gentleman.

Let me see. I am 106 years old. I average between 28.6 and 29.7 MPH on 30 mile rides. A little less on rides over 100 miles. Actually hilly rides do not slow me down. All the women run out to the street to watch me pedal past. If I had a better bike than this old beach cruiser I could do better.

Can I go to my room now?

"That water sure is cold!" "Yeah, and it's deep, too!" - Richard Pryor

so my question is, what's a reasonable expectation for how fast i should be able to do a 30-mile ride?Well, that's not really what you want to know.

What you really, really want to know is:


Am I riding as well and as fast I should be
for my age and the kind of time and effort I put into
my cycling and health routine?

Well, that's a good question. However, why would you ask strangers on the Internet to measure your performance if you haven't measured it yourself?

Off hand, I'd say you should be able go as fast as you rode last year. And I might add, you probably can't ride as fast as you would have if you would have tried as much at 50.

There's still time, still some chance that you can ride faster than you ever have in your life. But that depends on how fast you used to ride, and whether you can grip on what it takes to exercise for improvement, without the excuses.

Average speed is one of the worst indicators of fitness, though it can be used to compare the same route under the same conditions by the same person, sometimes. There's no magic potion to better fitness. It takes work and time and the older we get the longer it takes to see change. The key is to enjoy the ride however you do it. If it becomes a chore or a source of stress then the results may not come.

I averaged 12mph yesterday on my ride. 2 hours and 24 miles. I accomplished everything I had set out to do which was to ride 1.5 hours in a particular zone. Success. So I suggest one focus on each ride and not worry about the long term. Keep it fresh and ride consistently. Develop a progressive plan that will help you reach your goal and in time you will be a better rider.