Originally Posted by
brianipmh
As of right now, this is my "training" schedule (sometimes I don't get to fulfill my schedule because of school work but I try my best to get at least 120/w)
Mon-Thur
15/20 miles on the road with short intervals of going ~17mph for a mile (where 15mph is my usual average)
Fri/Sat
~30 miles on the road with lots of short sprints of going 24~27mph for about 15s
I think you could throw in another rest day and up the intensity on selected days. To get the speed up, the intervals really need to be 95-100% effort for at least several miles at a time. One mile is closer to a sprint. At the ripe old age of 18 it will be very hard to over do it on the intensity. But one month is a short time to expect big gains and 120 miles a week is a very respectable training load for starting out. Don't be discouraged.
Originally Posted by
brianipmh
just a general question, is a road bike really that much better than a hybird (Giant Escape2) ? Even for a cheap road bike?
The main difference with the road bike is the greater drop to the bar. At 15 mph there isn't going to be a big difference between the two, but as you get closer to 20 mph the wind resistance increases exponentially. For the typical hybrid setup, just removing the spacers and flipping the stem would get you half the way there.