Originally Posted by birdhunter1

So I am still fairly new to the whole biking as a hobby/fitness gig. While being overweight my riding started as 6-10 mile, then 10-13 mile rides anywhere from 3-6 times a week, mostly after work near the midnight hour (as i work evening shifts 3-11 pm). Most of these rides were on a hybrid bike and averaging 15-17 mph with the occasional longer distance. I set a goal of doing 30+ miles on my road bike that I started riding a month or so ago. last week when I went to do my 30 mile+ trip I went 36.25 at an average speed of 15.0 mph. The first and last 4 miles of this trip have some pretty tall and long hills a few 200'+ and probably 5 in the 100-150' range (steep and long enough that the normal 1/2 ton pickup won't hardly hold speed while pulling a moderate 15' jonboat). The rest of the ride was river bottom paved roads that were flat to 1% grade at worst. Long and no shade but not hard to keep speed on, take the hills at the end out of the average and my speed probably would have been around 17 mph.
I felt good on the ride, stopped for about 10 minutes at mile 21 and had a snack I had packed. From mile 21-30 I had a headwind, not a horrible one but a headwind none the less. After the ride I was of course ready to plop in a chair but after 15 minutes or so I felt pretty good. There is a hill right before my house that is a total B**** and it'll get the heat pumping pretty good. My total time on 36.25 miles was 2 hours 26 minutes with an elevation gain of 2450 feet (runkeeper). I don't feel that the hills defeated me, I don't feel that the distance defeated me, nor the heat or sun.

So to you experts how did I do? I plan on improving this time and doing it more often.