goldfinch

I am visiting southeast Iowa, riding the rolling hills here alone. Today I rode with Dan, a rider who has ridden for many years, he even takes trips to France to ride in the Alps. My husband recently met him and was assertive enough to set Dan up with me so he could have a leisurely ride after not riding for a few weeks and I could get tips on riding and increasing my speed. We did 30 miles of rolling hills, a route where I last averaged 12.7mph.

I did the ride averaging 14mph with no wind to speak of. And that was riding mostly side by side, not on his wheel. This was my fastest longish ride ever, anywhere.

What I really learned was how to take advantage of the rolling hills. While you still have momentum from going down hill, keep up the speed by standing up and pedaling for however long you can, then sit, shift down and spin. I finally was actually able to spin efficiently on the uphill side because I kept my momentum up. There were a few long uphills that I didn't have that advantage, so I was still slow on those hills. But all in all, I was much better on the uphills.

I also found that I was spending too much time in very low gears and not getting my speed up. Inotherwords, I wasn't trying hard enough. I managed this faster ride without being any more tired than when I did the ride a few days ago at a slower pace. And I wasn't mashing today either.

What a nice guy for taking an afternoon to spend with a slowpoke! Though he says I should not be calling myself a slowpoke.

Beachgrad05

Nice!

chasm54

Sounds as if he's right.

Maintaining your momentum is key, no doubt about that. And it's too easy for those of us who live in hilly places to forget that riding in hills has aspects that won't be second nature to flatlanders. I frequently power up short climbs in the drops, and in the big chainring, because I've retained my speed from the last descent and know it's the most economical way to get me over it.

Glad you enjoyed it. Not so slow after all, eh?

TrojanHorse

It's interesting that you say that - I've found that upon occasions when I'm dogging along in whatever gear I'm in, the simple act of shifting up one or two gears causes me to be faster (same cadence) without any difference in perceived effort. It's weird and makes no sense but there you have it.

Sounds like you had a nice ride.

goldfinch

Riding Lesson 2:

I am still a slow poke. Dan persuaded me to join their Sunday morning informal group ride, which has been going on for 25 years! He said the group usually splits into about three groups with one quite speedy and going down to a social, relaxed group. So, today I rode with the group. For seven miles I kept up with the slow riders and then lagged a mile or so behind to the first stop, about 20 miles in. Some had turned at the first stop and passed me going back. Others were going on to do a really long ride. Dan set me up with a couple who were going to do a few more miles and then turn around. I said I was slow and could not keep up with them coming into Brighton, the first stop, but they said they would ride with me anyway. Nice people! The guy also ran interference with a dog that went snarling after us about 8 miles into our return trip.

My average speed was crap-12.5mph. I did my best on the hills, standing usually for 20 paces to keep up some inertia, but I still was the slowest on the hills. Both going up and down.

I am exhausted. If I had been riding alone I would have bailed and had my spouse pick me up. We stopped and rested a few times on the way back. The last rest stop had me almost unable to clip into my pedal. My brain wasn't working right. Even though I kept up with eating and drinking the whole route.

I think part of the problem was doing the ride right on the tail of a fairly hard ride yesterday. The other part of the problem is that they were all much better riders than me, even the slow riders.

Everyone I rode with commented on how fast I spin the pedals. I said I have to spin, I have no power to push!

chasm54

You're pretty hard on yourself, aren't you? Yesterday you did thirty miles through rolling hills at a higher speed than you have managed before. Today you did what? Forty? And initially, at least, at a speed faster than you would have maintained had you been alone. Why wouldn't you be tired?

And in other posts you've acknowledged that you came late to cycling with no particular background in athletic activities. I think that instead of being down on yourself, you could consider how few women your age do what you do, and be pleased with your determination, and your progress. And hey, this is supposed to be fun, you know? None of us are going to win the Tour de France.

How fast is fast? High cadences are generally desirable, but there is an energy cost.

Drew Eckhardt 

That's counter productive.

You loose speed faster standing due to the aerodynamics than when you remain seated and will fatigue sooner than if you down-shift and maintained the same power output (_Training and racing with a power meter_ has an anecdote about a racer who got dropped every time he spent five minutes at power he could otherwise maintain for an hour but a cadence of 70 RPM or below) using a higher cadence.

You can maintain a higher average speed working harder up-hill (where 10% power might make you 10% faster and you spend a greater fraction of your time) than down-hill (where the same 10% might gain 3%) provided that you don't get too fatigued (10% harder makes for 20% more fatigue)

Not necessarily a problem.

"Hard" is a product of both force and speed where pedaling faster in a lower gear usually works better.

90 RPM with a 26 cog is about the same as 60 RPM using a 17 cog.

goldfinch

Too much info. I don't know now if I am spinning too fast or not fast enough or if I should stand or not stand or whatever. I think I am going to go take a nap.

Deep Breath Gold!

Generally I spin very fast. I only recently began standing on some of the rolling hills. I actually like standing once in a while, it feels good. When I sit back down I shift way down and am back to spinning fast. The guy I rode with thought that I was generally doing at least100 or even more rpms and thought that it was a good thing.

48 miles today.

chasm54

LOL. Don't think too hard about it, you could do worse than settle for what feels right.

Nothing wrong with spinning at 100 rpm. If you maintain that cadence while going uphill it's going to get your heart rate pretty high, though, so a higher gear and slightly slower cadence might tire you a bit less on the climbs.

bigfred 

Drew, I think part of the difference between what you're saying and what Goldfinch may be getting coached on, is the length of the "rolling hills" and the ability to produce "the same power" sitting as well as standing.

Having grown up in the midwest, I'm well familiar with those rolling hills. And quite different from "climbing" techniquies, there is a hill technique that see's you basically "sprint" over the tops of fairly smallish hills that really only require a few seconds at that output, but, which would cost you considerable time and have you crest going significantly slower if you were to shift down and spin up. It's one of those positive spirals, where you're increased speed cresting the hill, see's you decending the next that much faster. And, subsequently, coming that much closer to the summit of the next before, staying in your down hill gear, you stand and sprint for a few seconds to summit, still at fairly high speed.

There's a reason why sprinters, regardless of it being track or road, come out of the saddle when they need to deliver "full" power for a realatively short time. Those sort of 10-20 second burst durations are probably more of what are being talked about, than 3 mintues or more that would see aerodynamics play the bigger role.

goldfinch

That is my problem. I spin that fast as I go along but I can't on the hills. I end up in the easiest gear pedaling sloooowwww for a loonnngggg time. Standing for a bit (ten to 20 pedal strokes) helps me keep the cadence up when I sit so I can make it up short hills faster. Different story on long hills. Then I just plug my way along because I don't have much choice.