livedarklions

For me, it's a statistic that's affected by too many variables to be useful, especially on long rides. I might use it on my 30 mile rides, but really it's a better measure of wind speed and traffic than it is of my effort.

On long rides, I really stopped using it in part because I found I was making my rides less interesting to boost the speed number. If I am going to do 6-10 hours of riding in a day, I need to go through places worth seeing and give myself permission to slow down and enjoy those places. There's going to be plenty of boring flat somewhere else where I can really open it up.

I agree with Grant Peterson on one thing-- I don't think of my riding as training. I just like to ride fast for its own sake because it's fun. Worrying about average speed turns it into a chore. That's for me, of course. I'm not saying people who think about it differently are wrong, I assume they're a lot better judge of what works for them than I am.