Originally Posted by Abe_Froman

I'd say being middle aged, and being able to hold 15mph+ for extended distance is doing pretty darn good relative to the rest of the population (especially middle aged population. And I'm basically there at 39). I think most people in their 30s and 40s would struggle to sustain more than 10mph for an hour, or even pedal constantly period for an hour. 15mph represents a pretty elevated level of fitness.

And congrats on getting into road riding. I think you'll find you will get considerably faster over the next couple years. I started working seriously at getting faster about 2 years ago, and started doing group rides with a pretty similar level of fitness as you. Comfortable at 15mph for extended distances, much faster than that would tax me pretty hard. I'm much faster now, but again, there are PLENTY of people that are way faster than I am. I never cease to be amazed when I'm doing 20 on a local route I ride a lot, and someone just blows by me, without looking like they're breaking a sweat.