Originally Posted by ISPringle

Thanks guys! My next organized century is on the 16th of Aug. After that I plan to ride an organized century every other week until the end of Oct. (I have it all scheduled out in my calendar). I hope to get my pace up a bit over the next few months, I think I will see some serious improvements, personally. When I started riding four weeks ago I could only manage a 12 mph pace, it didn't matter the distance (20 miles or 60 miles) it was the same pace. Last week I saw the real jump in pace, going up to 15 mph and then this century saw the 16.5 mph pace. At this pace I am averaging about a 80 rpm cadence. The next century has some serious climb, so I don't expect it to by a fabulous pace, but the ones after that are all relatively flat with lots of rollers. In between now and then I plan on working on getting my cadence up, as that is obviously the only way to increase speed on a ss. A cadence of 90 is very doable and that would have me sitting at an 18 mph pace. I know from time on trainers that I can maintain a cadence of 90 for an hour at a 20 mph pace, and so I believe that 18 is well within reach.

My goal for the end of October is to see a cadence in the 100 rpm range, which would get me into the 20+ mph pace, 110 rpm would be wonderful and that means a 22 mph pace.

Now obviously I know that I can't keep that cadence going continually, since I ride a ss, but that is my goal on flat and slight incline.

The ultimate goal is to save up enough money to buy a bike fit for competition racing and to begin running in crits and road races. Figuring out a training plan has proven difficult because everyone uses technology these days, and all I have is a GPS to tell me my current speed. I may be able to get a hr monitor and or a cadence/bike computer soon, but I'm honestly not too concerned about either of them currently. I figure if I just put down lots of miles, lots of effort, and lots of climb I should take care of strength, VO2 max, and lactic acid thresholds without much problem.

But right now my only problem is that I have not been able to get on my bike since the century, on account of bad weather, and my legs are knots!!! I'd go to the gym and use a stationary bike, but the ones at our local gym always seem to mess with my knees, so I'll hold out until tomorrow and see if the weather chippers up.