This year, I am wanting to work on getting faster. Not necessairly racing speeds, but just faster, like the average person who bikes can do...15 MPH I think is good to aim for. But that would just about double what I do now. I've already decided I need to get a lighter bike to help with that (mine is 40 lbs). I'm too slow to keep up with even the slow people so before I join a group ride, I want to improve my time. So after getting a lighter bike, what would the next step be?

My bike was broken for 3 months and I just started biking again 3 weeks ago. I've only been able to go on 2 rides. One was 40, one was 50 miles. Should I cut down on the miles and instead concentrate on doing shorter rides where I try to kill myself in that shorter time or should I log more base miles before I try to work on anything? Should I be trying to get more rides in during the week or is one ride a week ok while I'm rebuilding my endurance?