Originally Posted by
Inpd
I'm curious if other people have a larger difference in their averages than mine?
Yes, but I don't ride the same sort of terrain on short and long rides.
Since I live about 15 miles from good riding roads, all my weekday rides are dead flat but involve stops for traffic and time accelerating/decelerating.
With good riding roads running through the Santa Cruz or Diablo mountains, all my long rides include sustained climbs, and an hour at 7 MPH is not good for average speed.
I'm also curious what this says about me and my bikes? Me being a newbie rider (but rides a lot) and my bike being a Breezer Venturi (steel racier bike)
It says you need to ride hard (as fast as you can for 10 minutes) intervals and forget about trying to be fast for an hour or two at a time. The shorter intervals will lift your VO2max and lactate threshold by applying more stress than a long hard ride could, and produce bigger improvements in your speed over durations past an hour.
Your expectations may also be unrealistic. On flatter terrain speed is essentially proportional to the cube root of power because aerodynamic drag increases with the square of velocity and you're covering ground faster. With all-day power 60-70% of one hour power you'd be at best 18% faster if you spent no time slowing or otherwise not pedaling.