Originally Posted by
OldsCOOL
Try “base miles”, good ole saddle time. Somewhere along the longer weekly rides you will encounter your hills, face demoralizing energy soaking headwinds and the almighty “wall”. When you spend a season on pressing through the barriers out there on the open road riding solo you will find the slow but welcomed increase of the average overall speeds on the flats.
I've been riding pretty continuously since 1989. While my endurance has increased (I can ride 5-6 hours without much problem, and longer with a little preparation), my speed, while faster than the average non-biker, always seems slower than the dedicated roadies and riders who 'train'. It's obviously more than just distance and time, there is some (many?) thing about
how to ride to actually get better that I seem to be missing.
I've tried some interval training, and maybe I just need to be more consistent about it, but after a couple months where it felt like work to ride, and no noticeable improvement, I stopped trying so hard. And maybe part of it is the 'noticeable'. Maybe I need some better equipment than the seat of my bike shorts. I may have been slightly increasing my power, but not enough to notice with nothing more than an average speed and time to compare it to?