Training Suggestions
 

To give you a little background, I'm 32 and have been road riding for just over 2 years (mountain biking for 8). My weekly workout regimen involves three days of cardio (25-35 mile ride, or 40 minutes on a stationary bike if I can't get outside), and three days of weight lifting (alternating upper and lower body).

I seem to have hit a wall on the bike. No matter how far or what type of ride I do (25 mile recoveries to 65 mile grinders), I cannot average better than 16.5 - 16.8 mph. I can go the distance, just not as fast as I'd like (I'd be happy with another 2-3 mph improvement).

So, my question is, what's the most important suggestion all of you can make to help me adjust my training to improve? I purchased a computer with cadence and will be buying a HRM soon. Ideas?

To ride fast, you need to ride fast. Go short and fast. If you ride with groups, find one that drops you in the first 20 miles. Or do a search on 'intervals'. You need to stress you body. If you only go 17mph, your body will only adapt to go 17mph. - TF

+1

Also, using average speed for the entire ride as your performance metric is often counter productive. It leads you to do silly things like not taking an adequate warm-up and riding steady pace for the entire ride to give you a higher average.

If you need a performance metric to gauge your progress, pick sections of a well known route over which to gauge yourself. After a good warm up, see how far you can get in a timed hard effort. Use several different time periods to gauge different aspects of your fitness, ie. 5 minute, 20 minute, and 1 hour. Don't test too often though, because it is fatiguing. Only test when you are fresh and can take some recovery time after.