Originally Posted by
andrewclaus
A rule of thumb I learned from runners, that's always worked for me, is to train to 30% of the hardest pace you want to do. So when I had a goal of riding 600 miles/week on a cross-US tour, I trained the winter before to 200 miles/week, and that worked beautifully. Similarly, on some long distance treks (AT, PCT, CDT), I wanted to walk 20 mile days consistently, I just trained to about 7 miles per day. It still took time and commitment, but it worked great, no training injuries.
Yep, familiar with suggestions like these. But they apply to endurance rather than speed. My objective is to see if I can increase my average riding speed. The usual advice is High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). I'll have to read some more to understand the principle (frequency, intensity, effectiveness). I can only say that anecdotal evidence suggests that untrained cyclists trying to improve their power output often claim rapid increases in the 25% range.