Originally Posted by
TitaniuMerlin
I'm 23 years old and am in the worst shape of my life.
These past few weeks i have become disgusted with myself. A 12 mile, mostly flat, ride is challenging for me even at a 16MPH pace. I should be able to hold close to 20MPH average and go longer. So that is what my goal will be speed wise - 20 MPH average on flats.
Time wise, i'd like to lose the weight by July. I think thats a good goal. Same with upping the mileage to 15 miles a weekday (time constraints) and 40 on the weekends.
Any advice/tips etc would be appreciated.
1) Thank you for giving us some background to work with.
2) It is possible you will never average 20 mph on flats. For many cyclists, that is extremely fast. However, pick one day a week and start doing intervals on that day. They might help increase your speed.
3) You should, however, be able to go longer. Start increasing the distance of your weekly long ride by about 10% per week.