How long did it take you to up your endurance for longer rides? And how fast do you go on said rides?

I've read many threads here, where many could hardly do a mile at first and now seem to be doing centuries like potato chips. And I've read where clydes are keeping up with the smaller road guys doing 19-23 mph. Or some are keeping that pace anyways.

just wondering how those who can, got themselves up to that level....

Bicycle riding claims are about as reliable as fishing claims. The fish are always bigger, more numerous and put up a larger fight a few days later

In other words, don't put too much stock in what others say. While you may be able to ride at over 19 to 25 mph from time to time, sustaining that speed for extended periods is difficult. The average speed in the Tour de France is 25mph. You should always be dubious about someone's claim that they are averaging 30 mph for hours on end. If they are, they should have been recruited long ago. Mere humans like us should be quite happy with much lower average speed.

I can't tell you how long it took to develop endurance for me because it's lost to the mists of time. I've been riding (regularly) since 1977 which is a long ways back. Since I keep detailed records of distance, time, average speed and which bike I ride, I've noticed some things. My "average" speed over a year is a disappointing 12mph. That's summer and winter riding, mountain bikes, road bikes and touring bikes. I can occasionally do a bit higher average speed but most of the time, I'm plugging along...and I'm happy to do that speed. Bicycling isn't (always) about going as fast and hard as you can. Sometimes it just about the joy of turning pedals and enjoying the ride.

That doesn't mean that you'll never want to chase down someone or go fast. That competitive nature is in most of us. But that's just the icing. The rest of them time, the cake is pretty good too. Go out, ride, occasionally chase someone down or keep out in front of someone but at other times just enjoy the ride.

I got on the bike ~240lbs. Hadn't ridden a bicycle for any amount of time in over 15 years. Started with neighborhood rides of 10-15 miles, it was all I could manage.

Within 2 months, I was doing regular 40 mile rides, and did 75 miles within 3 months. Took me until month 8 of riding to do my first imperial century. Did my second one 3 months later.

Covered 7,000 miles in my first full year on the bike, averaging around 15.5mph. Speed came later. On the road, I now average just shy of 18mph (overall) but can do solo rides of 60+ miles @ 19-20mph average.

Never knew to train with a plan, or even moderate intensity. Just rode as much as I could, which enabled me to ride further, faster. I think people get inside their head too much, and stop themselves from improving speed/distance-wise. Riding a bike is not that hard.

I didn't exceed 15 miles for the first few years after I got back on a bike, and it took me about 5 years to do a metric. I did a full English century the next year.

Speed depends on so many things. Fastest I've ridden was a couple hours in a good pack at 18 mph. On a normal supported ride, I'll fall in with a group, ride with them for a while, get separated, ride solo. If I can finish with an average speed around 15 mph, I'm doing pretty well. If it's a mountainous ride, I'll be lucky to average 12 mph.

The most important part, though, is to have fun while you're out there.

If you're not looking at a strava file that shows 19-23 then odds are what's happening is your average cyclist is reporting his top "average" under the best circumstances (flat, tailwind etc) during the course of any ride. Your REAL average will take into account hills, stop lights etc.

The only real answer is to put in lots of miles.

Also, group-ride speed average speed is basically meaningless as an indicator of a rider's speed/ability. We could all do +20mph every day if we could motor-pace every ride too. A guy sitting in the middle of a paceline or pack is doing 20mph while making 100 watts.

I can't tell you about average speeds, but endurance comes with more and more riding. I started off thinking it was great I went 6 miles. Within 2 years of riding I did my first Century with ease. The formula: Ride lots and lots, and at ever extending distances. I would suggest that you join a local cycling club, as group rides are a great way to push yourself to longer distances.

Average speeds are meaningless.

Speed/time on rated climbs is the only metric that matters.

3 years ago I weighed 295lbs. I bought a road bike 2.5 years ago. I did my 5th Criterium race yesterday. We averaged 24.6mph with a top speed of 32mph. But that's in a pack, I sure wasn't make us go that fast but I was along for the ride. Who cares what you can average? Just keep riding, then ride some more. The answer to whether you are "fast" or not lay in your own PR's, and up in the hills.

Like others have mentioned, people that tell you what they average by themselves are probably lying. As you can see by the number I showed, riding in a pack at a race, you can average a high number. I probably couldn't maintain 25mph alone for very long at all.

The answers you seek are in your own times, not anyone else's. And, the only "times" and "speed" that matters is going up hill. As Clydes, we'll never sniff KOM's going up hill, but you can sure improve a great deal. I've seen the best improvement in my climbing through my weight loss. I've lost 40lbs since August of last year, my FTP is the exact same. I'm beating some of my climb PR's by minutes, just by shedding a small child worth of weight off my body.

Keep riding, the fitness will come. Good luck!

Well, that is an open ended question since there are many variables.

How does one define endurance? My idea has always been how I feel after my ride. Can I, or do I want to do other stuff later in the day? In other words, am I able to after my ride. For me, that is endurance. Many people could ride a metric century but the key to me is what are you like after that ride? Are you blown up to the point of just laying around and taking a nap, or do you have enough energy to take the wife out for an ice cream or some other couples outdoor activity? In the beginning with me, it was lay around and take a nap. I did a local charity ride last weekend of 45 miles and got home and didn't need a nap. Sounds weird, but at 62 tired is a normal issue in your day to day life. Being a clyde doesn't help either.

As for mph, that all depends on terrain too. I can tell you from experience that in 2015 I did two 100 mile rides. One had 11,000 ft of climbing and the other had 1,000 feet of climbing. The first one took me 9 hours whereas the second one took me 51/2 hours. So, there is an almost 4 hour difference in ride time, same mileage, but one was really flat and the other was climbing. So, don't be fooled by all the big mph numbers. They could be cycling at the beach or out in Iowa to get those bigger numbers for all you know.

If you are keeping data like on Strava and are doing the same routes from your house for training, you should be getting a good idea of your average based upon repeated routes. Speed will climb to a point where you will max out and not really see a big gain. The real issue then becomes endurance. You will be able to cover the same miles or do the same event faster but your recovery will allow you to enjoy the after event festivities or later in the day. The day after will also be a good indication of your fitness level. Are you sore more than just stiff in the legs? Again, these things will improve as your endurance level increases.

Far to many focus on speed since it is the sexy beast. As they say though, speed kills and I think it is more important to not feel wrecked after a ride and not being able to do anything as opposed to going 1-2mph faster. Like I said, the speed will come because your endurance level is better since you can handle a higher gear and or cadence for a longer period of time.

Keep at it. It will come. Also, check your recovery after your ride with a HR monitor. If you HR falls to normal within 2-3 minutes after you stop riding, you are getting in better shape.

john

Personally, I started out seriously riding at 280 lbs. on my old mountain bike 3 years ago. It was all I could do to try to keep up with other people, I think I averaged about 10 MPH and it was pushing as hard as I could to do 13 MPH. As far as distance was concerned, I started out doing about 3 miles or so at a time, and kept increasing my distance, though I still wasn't going very far. Eventually I was proud that I could go 5 miles, then 10, without stopping. I rode part of a trail with a friend, total distance was around 16 miles and my legs were sore afterwards. I came to learn that the bike was too small for me, and after losing 40 lbs. and getting a hybrid which actually fits me, my endurance and speed went up. I kept training, doing about 10-15 miles every morning, and my average speed is around 14 MPH. I kept going further and further distances, eventually completing a 20 mile ride, eventually claiming my first half century, then last year my first metric century, then a month later 75 miles while training to do a century, then a couple weekends later I did my first and only (so far) full century ride.

Winter came and I got off my bike, didn't use my trainer like I should have, and I figured my endurance would fail big time. However, this year I got out and rode a little bit here and there whenever the weather was nice, and eventually did a 27 mile group ride on my gravel bike. Weather got cold again and kept being cold for a while, I hadn't ridden any great distance, just 10 miles here and there. Then last weekend came with really nice (but windy) weather, and I knocked out a 51 mile ride. While my legs were getting tired toward the end, it didn't take long for me to recover and aside from a minor cramp didn't have any problems with cramping or soreness. I hadn't really planned on doing a half century, I just wanted to explore a road to see how far it was paved, and by the time I got back home I had gone 51 miles. But I was glad to know that even without doing much training at all, my legs were good for 50 miles.

But no way will I constantly keep up with the smaller guys doing 19-23 MPH the whole time. They'd drop me like a hot potato. I'll just keep on moseying along at my own usual 12-14 MPH pace and enjoy my ride rather than killing myself trying to keep up with the fast guys. I ride for my own enjoyment, not to impress anyone else.

But basically, the way I got myself up to my current level is to just maintain my legs by doing regular 10-15 mile rides every morning and then enjoying longer rides on the weekends.

And also, my average speed over time drops a lot when I'm riding with my kids, since my son averages about 7-10 MPH, and with my daughter still using training wheels, my speed drops to just over staying upright speed. But I wouldn't trade riding with my kids for any KOM.

Really, the only person we need to be better than is ourselves. Improving your time over your old time is what is a true test of improvement, not being faster than someone else.

Congratulations on the weight loss, BTW. I personally lost 50 lbs. a couple years ago, and am now working on losing about 20 or 30 more but seems like my weight loss has stalled out a bit.

I started at 330 lbs on a spin bike. At first, 10 minutes of easy spinning is all my heart, legs and butt could stand. Gradually increased the time, cadence and spin bike tension over 5-6 months ... built a bike, started riding. At the 8 month mark I sold my truck and committed to commuting year round. It was a few more months of steady riding before I could do 50-60 mile rides.

Been riding almost every day for the last three years. I've lost a bunch of weight but I'm still a clyde. I'm not performance minded so the milestone of century rides don't interest me, but I'm sure I could do it (have done a 80 mile day on a fully loaded tour through mountains in the rain). Point is, anyone can build up at any weight. In fact, on flat-ish terrain, wind resistance is much more a factor than body weight. Climbing is another story ... my weight and gravity seem to gang up on me.

I started at 330 lbs on a spin bike. At first, 10 minutes of easy spinning is all my heart, legs and butt could stand. Gradually increased the time, cadence and spin bike tension over 5-6 months ... built a bike, started riding. At the 8 month mark I sold my truck and committed to commuting year round. It was a few more months of steady riding before I could do 50-60 mile rides.

Been riding almost every day for the last three years. I've lost a bunch of weight but I'm still a clyde. I'm not performance minded so the milestone of century rides don't interest me, but I'm sure I could do it (have done a 80 mile day on a fully loaded tour through mountains in the rain). Point is, anyone can build up at any weight. In fact, on flat-ish terrain, wind resistance is much more a factor than body weight. Climbing is another story ... my weight and gravity seem to gang up on me.

I started on a mtb at 336. I could ride around 10 miles and it took 1 hour or so on average. After the first year, I was doing that ride in 45-50 minutes on same bike. Kept dropping weight and got a actual road bike and after 5 years of riding now I can ride forever it seems.

Average speed back then was 8-10 mph maxed out maybe at 16 mph with effort. Now average is 16-17 on a good day maxing out at 30mph all out for a SHORT bit.

Don't measure yourself against anybody else, not worth it and no value to it. You WILL get better,faster,stronger as you ride more. Endurance will also come with riding. Just ride and enjoy it.

I went about it a different approach....I was a MTBer normally doing 8-10miles once a couple weeks if that. Bought a road bike in 2005 cuz I was 260, need to drop weight, become active again and wanted to join co workers on their lunch rides. Got my bike on a Saturday mornring and cool clip in shoes for the first time and they said Hey join us on our saturday ride. Not knowing ANYTHING i said sure!! Where do I meet.

55 miles later we arrived back at the cars, tired, super hungry. I knew nothing about eating while riding, hated every hill we did over the 2000ft of climbing. Got a flat and learned how to use my tools as the group went up the road. Also 5miles before the car, I tipped over clipped in and the big ring went into my ankle hittiniig something good cuz I was still bleeding 2hrs later. Had to get 3 stitches to stop the bleeding while starving cuz i didn't eat dinner while being at Urgent Care. Awesome first day!!

Vowed that if I can do that on my first day, I can do it every weekend. And I did + added 3-4 lunch rides in a week. I became addicted to the bike and the lifestyle, I still am, and happy at 205ish weight.. Same ride habits w/ wife and 2 kids, I can only ride 6-9hrs a week. I ride at least one century a month (personal challange), Average speed on solo lunch rides are 18mph over 1200-1300ft climbing to 21mph with half that climbing involved. Weekend rides are 60+ range and tend to average 17-19mph solo. Slower if I go up Mts of course.

Enjoy the journey, enjoy where you ride and who you ride with. Speed is nice but it's not everything, won't solve anything because it's addictive and you will always be chasing yourself. I have "slower" bikes that I still enjoy to ride on allot and N+1 rule lives forever and ever.

You guys do get some impressive distances/speeds as Clyde's. I reckon that has to do with owning a Road Bike vs. a Hybrid that leans a bit more to off road....

Do road bikes hold up well to Clyde's? What should a Clyde be looking for in a road bike?


I want to thank every single one of you for adding some very great insight to my questions. This has been probably my most in depth responded to post to date. Thank you All!

How Clyde-y are you anyway? I've been 245 and I've been 211... and all points in between. Not really that much to worry about below 250 IMO. You might have more wheel trouble than a skinny dude and you'll for sure be slower up hills.

I know some clydes on road bikes at 300 too though but now you have to start worrying about wheels going out on you and seat rails busting and what not, but it's more of something you should routinely check than something to fear.

Right now, 275. Down from 338. And @6'6"

Well, the 6'6" part is going to be more trouble than the 275 part - there are a few threads on here from you oversized lot looking for a bike that fits and apparently the selection is quite limited.

But yeah, take care of your bike and it'll do fine for you. Maybe stay away from wispy wheels with 16 spokes but you don't need tandem wheels or anything outrageous like that.

I have been doing daily rides for 3-4 months. I have not made as much progress as I'd like and only do about 4 miles per day so far. I could probably do a lot more if I took an easy pace though.

For all the Clydes who dramatically improved how far you could ride after 12 months or so, how much weight did you lose along the way?


I'd be curious to know how much improvement a 300lb Clyde starting out would make in ability to ride longer distances, if they remained at 300lbs because they didn't properly address their eating habits?

Caution: claims may appear bigger on the internet. I'm happy to say I let it go in 3rd grade. Never could beat Miguel around the field so I finally settled on being the second fastest kid in the class. Havn't cared about racing since.

When I started I had trouble with a 4 mile ride around the lake, about a year and a half of regular 3-5 times a week riding and I ended up at a century. I ratcheted up the mileage but never worried much about speed and still could care less about it. Dropped riding and replaced it with running and did a half marathon last year but now I'm back to riding as it's a whole lot easier on me and I just enjoy it a lot more. My best advice, just ride the bike.

I lost the first 40lbs in the first 4 months. And yeah, climbing a hill is a good bit easier at 200lbs than it is at 240lbs. I really didn't change my eating habits much at all-- I mean, I finished a donut as I was typing this. I don't think "diets" of any kind are sustainable over the long term, so I just limit portions and watch my total calorie count, without actually giving up any particular foods.

Then again, I've averaged 200 miles a week for a full three years. So I can eat a bit more than most.