JJakucyk

So I've been off the bike for a little over a week, and I didn't really feel like doing a long ride this evening, but I was desperate to get out there and so SOMETHING. I went down to the airport trail, which has had part of it repaved and straightened out (although it's about a half mile shorter than it used to be, they cut off the slow areas near the playfields, parking lot, pro shop, driving range, tennis courts, etc., so it's not all bad). It's now almost exactly a 5 mile loop. Anyway, I decided to do two laps (I've never done more than two, it's soooo boring) as fast as I could. The trail is mostly flat with two short hills. However, being in a valley, the wind can be pretty bad. It wasn't too windy today, and being a circuit the effects get mostly canceled out.

Anyway, I know 10 miles isn't that much, but again, I haven't ridden in a week, and I didn't warm up or anything either. I managed 16.8mph this time, blowing away my old record of 15.9, which has stood since last year, on my hybrid even, but I did tie it once on my road bike this year too. I've done 15.7 and 15.8 over 30ish mile rides a few times, but getting those last few tenths just never seemed to happen. I'm sure most of you guys here could probably blow me out of the water, but hey, it's not bad for a 265 pound guy.

Apollo

Nice job! Personal bests are what we all measure our successes with. Keep it up.

~Apollo

"Its time to ride." - LA

Doid23

Well done! Hey, everyone starts somewhere, even the strong riders, and when they started I bet they weren't 265 lbs (spoken by a 225 lb former 300 pounder).

Urban Shooter

Congrats!!!! That is great. I'm in the same ballpark as you, just got my average up to 16mph from 14 this week. It's a great feeling.

STEVO820

good job. sometimes you see people post about crazy high average mph but never let that get you down. next thing you know you will be doing better and better.

-Steve

Urban Shooter

I am really skeptical about some of these claims of high average speeds. It's pretty subjective as to what distances they gauge their speeds over.

gabdy

Thats excellent mate. Once or twice a week do the same circuit all out and you will keep improving.
2 weeks ago I also increased my avg speed, over 75Km my average went from 26.2Km to 27.5Km, very happy with that. It seems all rides I do now are around 27.5.
I broke my record with 100.3Km on friday avg 25Km then did 50Km on saturday at 27.5 and on the sunday I did 75 at 27.5. I thought with that amount of riding I would'bt be able ti increase my avg and was shocked when I read the computer.

oldspark

Went to Spain for work last spring and did not ride for 6 days and had a personal best after the lay off so rest is a good thing.

oboeguy

I think a lot of people have incorrectly calibrated computers. Maybe its deliberate?

Anyway to the OP, bravo! I, too, sometimes feel better riding after a few days off.

JJakucyk

For a moment I thought you said OCP. Although I DID wash and wax my bike over the weekend.

mnppunky

Great!!!!! Keep up the good cycling habit.

Sammyboy

Nice one! Beating yourself is what improving is all about. I'm about the same weight, at 6'3, and I took 10 mins of my 12 mile time this morning! I should put that in context though. I've not ridden a road bike in 10 years, and only really started riding regularly at all a couple of months ago. Started riding to work and back with my g/f (she starts at 7:30 am), 2.5 miles each way, all climbing on the way there, all hanging on for grim death on the way back.

Anyhow, I was getting excercise AND enjoying myself, and started to get the bug back (road a lot when I was a teenager). So I picked up an old 531 Gazelle roadbike for £30 ($50) on ebay, did a little greasing and adjusting, and fitted new tubes, and rode a 12 mile for the first time Monday. Took me an hour (damn!). Did a couple of little rides Tue and Wed, then road the 12 mile again today. 50 mins!

It's still slow as all hell, but hey, much faster! Wonder how fast I'll be in a month.....

rickkko

Congrats JJakucyk!

Keep concentrating on cadence and the speed will come like a thief in the night.

Being a mathematican by education half the fun of bicycle riding for me is logging data of my repetative workout rides and watching how I improve.

I use a Shimano FLIGHTDECK computer and a dBase dB500 heart rate monitor to collect the data and EXCEL to store and analyize it.

My regular workout ride consists of an 18 mile circuit that I've artificially broken into 6 segments of varying lengths depending on the challenges. The longest segment is 6.12 miles and the shortest, .5 miles.

What was so incredible about yesterday was how close my stopwatch times off the dB500 were on a couple of segments from the day before. 1st my overall (18 mile) time yesterday was 1:04:10. The day before: 1:04:18. That's only an 8 second difference over 18 miles! (I concentrate heavily on cadence).

The other segment comparison that blew me away was last 1.6 miles where .5 is uphill. It usually takes me around 7 min +40's seconds for this section. The difference logged between the two days was .08 of a second!!!! (That's 8 hundredths of a second!)

What I'm getting at is how consistent one can become, even considering wind, traffic and changing hazards encountered from day to day.

Then as you lose pounds and your muscles strengthen you find its easier to pedal the lesser weight and easier to ride at a higher cadence.

Have fun! ...And think how fast you'll be going if you lighten your load by 5 or 10 more pounds!
..rickko..