Originally Posted by
brianipmh
seems like I have not improved after a month of what I consider decent training for a noobie. I rode about 120 miles/week at 15/16 mph for a solid month and for the past two
days I was hoping to speed up to a constant pace of 16~17 mph for at least an hour and I just couldn't do it. I've ridden 15mph for 2/3 hours non-stop but when I tried to
bump it up to 17 mph for an hour, I simply could not. I've always tried to climb the small amount of hills I have in my area and sometimes do some intervals but my biking
muscles just aren't building up. This is really frustrating to me and I'm really hoping to hear some advice from some more experienced people. Thank you.
That's a fair amount of miles per week. How does that break down per day? If you want to increase the speed, you first have to be able to go fast. If you can't go 20 mph comfortably for a few miles, you're probably not going to see 17 miles over an hour. Steady effort over an hour or more is great for endurance, but will do nothing to build up the legs, and it may even do the opposite. Pick a few days a week to do hard intervals, with a rest day following. Basically as fast as you can go for 5 minutes at a time, then an easy spin for a few minutes, then repeat for not more than 30-40 minutes total.