Originally Posted by barba
You are either dreaming, a pro cyclist, or have a badly mis-calibrated computer if you think you can hold anything near 35mph for long on anything but a long downhill. And it is not just you, the vast majority of us could not either. Most of us who find the claims in this thread dubious have simply long since abandoned it.
My computer is right. I've compared it to fellow cyclists computers as well as compared mile marker distances to those posted on the local paved bike trail. I can hold the low 20's on a nice long 30 mile ride. I'm not a seasoned bicyclist either (only back in riding a few months now) and still have plenty of room to grow in getting in better shape and losing more weight.
You wouldn't even come close to surviving on the local bike club rides if you can't hold atleast the upper 20's on a flat road. Forget the climb up mt cheha (the largest mountain in the state, i think). Heck you wouldn't probably survive the spinning class at the local gym either.
...
This reminds me of running. I have recently completed a learn to run program. It took about 8 weeks and I went from never running to being able to run 4 miles without stopping. Great huh? I can run a 5K without pushing too hard in just over 33min. So I should do a 5K run huh? I looked over the local run results from last years Woostock run since the next one starts early next month... and the top runner finished it in 15:26.60. That's just over 5min miles. That's blazing fast. That's super human right?
I'm aiming for sub 30's right now... and yet there are more than a few people running sub 20's.
It's not incomprehensable at all to me to realize there are people out there that are much more fit than I am, have an amazingly high VO2 Max, and can just outrun, ride, swim.. or whatever pretty much anything i can do. And these people aren't that rare.
Could that dude that runs a just under 15.5min 5K also do great at a marathon? Maybe not at all. EDIT: Oh and that guy last year was 38 years old. Not a young dude either.