opinions of time and speed.
 

ok... my commute is 22.5 miles one way from school. today was my best time b/c i didn't have my backpack on... or that's what reason i'm sticking with anyway. to drop my backpack off... i rode 3 miles extra making the total 25.5(only 24miles were counted in the time and speed avg). my time was 1hr and 38min's with an average speed of 13-14mph.

b/c i'm still some what new to road riding/ commuting.... my question is this: is this a normal time for this distance? i know there are other factors like stop lights, hills, etc. i would just like to know where i stand. i feel like i'm getting stronger/faster... but a .8mph increase in avg speed doesn't seem like much.

thanks for looking,

Rich

In my opinion, average speed is an absolutely worthless figure. Traffic can be different from day to day. Wind speed can fluctuate greatly, etc. And average speed is absolutely incomparable with someone else's unless they are riding the same route at the same time under the same conditions.

I have completed rides clipping along at 22-24 mph and only finished with average speeds of 15 mph so clearly average speed tells one little about how fast one actually goes most of the time. Moreover, most bike computers have a function that allows one to not gather any data when the wheels are not turning. This would result in a VERY different average speed than someone who did not turn this feature on. So the whole average speed thing is very inconsistant as a measure with which to compare yourself to other riders.

To answer your question, you can be moving very fast most of the time and still only finish with an average speed of 13-14 mph if you have a lot of traffic, hills or lights. Perhaps we could give you better information if you told us how fast you were moving most of the time on flats and with little wind either direction.

That being said, on my road bike I can usually clip along between 20-23 mph in the mornings and 22-25 mph at night in the abscense of real wind. My commute is flat and 10 miles each way. The mountain bike with slicks is only a little bit slower. I think, however, that I ride faster than many commuters. I have been passed once on the commute and it was very suprising (I took the opportunity to suck his wheel and make a new friend).
Troy

24 miles in 1:40 sounds pretty good to me. I'm not in shape & have only commuted by bike a half dozen times or so. I do 6 miles in about 25 minutes. I feel like thats a pretty good pace & couldn't keep it up for 24 miles; yet the pace works out to what you've described.

For true average speeds, a .8 mph increase is huge. My increases have been .2 and .4 for commute.

Course, you're younger, but that is good progress. Keep it up and you should be able to improve that a bit more.

Sawtooth... you're right. when i'm on flats and taking it easy... 15-18mph and when i'm moving at my good pace... 21-25 if i'm not mistaken. i have two big hills that i climb at roughly 5-7mph(it's slow, but they are rough hills and i'm just happy to not stop) on the back side of one of the two big hills.. my top speed is roughly 40-44mph(today was 39mph). there are also 2 more long hills with less angle, than the two big hills, that i climb at roughly 10-14mph(these are the leg burners).

and to be honest... i can't remember the last time i rode and wind wasn't a factor. it seems to be always blowing against me(although i know it's not).

Rich

edit: the 15-18 is when i'm feeling comfortable, not taking it easy. easy would obviously be less than 15mph. just had to clarify.

I totally disagree if you are comparing your personal trends on the same exact commute every day. I track elapsed (total) time and computer (moving) time on a spreadsheet every day and it nicely trends upward, then levels off as I stopped going faster. Wind/lights/traffic all average out with very few data points.

When folks say average time doesn't matter, they are mainly talking about racing, where being able to burst for sustained top speeds is important to stay in the lead pack or the finish sprint. But the bottom line is that the person with the highest average speed wins the race, but in order to get that highest average speed one also needs the ability for getting near or at the highest burst and sustained speeds when needed.

Al

In that case, you are moving along pretty fast. I am a club member with some very fast racers and most of our zone 2 rides (able maintain enough breath to talk to each other) are about 17-22 mph. So alone and on a long commute like that the speeds you describe are quite fast.

There are all kinds of commuters. Some like to smell the flowers, others think that if they are not hurting they are not working hard enough. It just depends on what your goals and personality are. Personally, I HATE to be passed and I hunt down cyclists ahead of me like prey even if they are only cruising along at 10 mph. That is the way I like it. I know they aren't racing me, but I am racing them in my mind and its fun. Its not about overtaking them, its about overtaking them within a given distance.

Have fun out there.
Troy

My average speed varies between 12 and 16 mph for my 17 mile commute, but usually just under 14 mph. The wind is the greatest cause of variation. .8 mph increase is 6% on the average speed, which would require an 18% increase in power - a significant achievement.

What do you mean by averaging out? I will have to track that and see what I find. In that case, one could track changes in PERSONAL progress using average speed as long as a consistant route/time was used. I insist, however, that average speed is no indication of normal cruising capabilities when comparing oneself to riders across varying routes/conditions.

By the way Al, just how fast is that bent of yours? I did have one blow by me about a year ago and was amazed at the speed.

Dont ride a bent. Sorry.

Al

My commute is 8.5 door to door. I am in traffic in Chicago for the first
3.5 miles and the last .75, 4.25 miles are on the lakefront path. My best
time was 28 minutes and 22 seconds averaging 17.7 mph. Yet another
good time was 30 minutes and 05 seconds but the average was 16.4 mph.
So I bust a$$ for a little 2 minutes more for a 1.3 mph average?
Oh well, I enjoy it, and the numbers, are just numbers, and when I am
a mile away from home and everything is going my way (wind included)
I bust tail and see what I can do....Have Fun!!!!

Sawtooth... don't get me wrong, that 21-25 is not for very long. lol no way could i sustain that speed and talk to a buddy beside me...

i'll tell ya... one thing i've noticed is that when i ride 20 or so miles on single track, it goes by alot faster than riding road. not sure why.... maybe becuase it's my first love. who knows...

oh, and i'm one of those commuters that likes to beat the last time... even though, sometimes it's just not in me.

Rich

A man after my own heart. There may be a 2 minute variance between 2 days commutes, but the averages work out well.

I enter in my sheet:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
month
day
days commuting that month
am distance
pm distance
AM time: minutes, seconds
PM time: minutes, seconds

The sheet returns in charts with table
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
avg speed am
avg speed pm
avg speed for day
speed +/- this day vs first day: am, pm, day
speed +/- this day vs rolling average: am, pm, day
count +/- days AM & PM for quarter
all the above on a quarterly basis
avg speed: mon, tues, wed, thurs, fri

and just added:
number of days commuting each month
3 mo rolling avg number of days commuting

Yeah, I know it's not necessary, but it's fun and gets me commuting more.

What was the formula to get to the 18% number??

Rich, here's a different perspective on this. I trashed my speedometer thing a few years ago. Too complicated for me to make it stop blinking 12:00. Instead I use the stop watch function on my watch and measured the time it takes to get from point A to point B. I explored different routes and over a few years developed a mental map based on the time it takes riding to get to one place to another in my area. And usually the straightest/shortest route is not the quickest. For example the logical/straightest/shortest indicated by a road map from my apartment to downtown takes about 1:45 minutes. The route I now take (convoluted as all hell by road map standards) takes about 1:15. I saved a half hour I think mostly by cutting my route from 20 stop lights down to 4. Hills aren't so much of a problem provided you get the payoff of nice long unobstructed flat ride at the end of the down hill side. Avoid routes where the down hill ride ends right at a stop sign or stoplight. Because of those my going route and return routes are rarely the same.

Anyways, you indicated that you had about a 20 mile ride. There is potential for alot of different routes in that distance. Maybe a longer one will prove to be the quicker.

yeah, the route i take now is basically straight forward... if i were to take the roads with less stop lights, i'm not sure how it would effect my ride time. mostly b/c those roads are alittle out of the way... maybe adding 4 or 5 miles but also adding 2 or 3 bigger hills. i'm not sure, i'll have to try something different. sure wish it was flat around here. lol

by the way... thanks for all the replys,

Rich

I don't track my performance in any way-- I just ride. In an urban setting, I average 10-13 mph. Speeds go up of I move out of town of course.

If you're inclined to track your performance-- change your route to include as many hills as you can. Climbing is 90% of competitive cycling.

I only do a couple of organized century rides a year. I always start a couple hours late after all the racer types are gone and I don't really track my performance. But the first hill after 50 miles, I start running down guys with racing kits and fancy bikes because they can't climb. They took spinning classes, bought a nice bike, did some flat rides and thought they were pretty tough. One big climb disspells that myth.

So if you want to be a though guy, (and most smart cyclists I know do not ;) ) ride hills and ride in bad weather. You'll have great mental toughness if nothing else.

Since my commutes double as race training. My avg varies depending on the workout my body is up for. Tues i was feeling good, so it was a hammerfest 85-95% of MHR to work and home. Today im feeling not so strong, so i took it easy at 60-70% MHR. My avg in to work was 17.1 for 22.2 miles, but my avg HR for the ride was 130. The only reason it was not lower is that the workbound leg has more climbing than the homebound leg. I plan to noodle home tonight so my avg HR should be even lower since im mostly going downhill. Well see how the forcasted 20-30mph WSW winds help or hurt me.

I have a 22mi commute, and I average 1.5 hours. It's all flat, and no lights. I ride easy.

My time tends to vary only by 10-15 minutes, even if I push really hard or take it easy. Your speed seems fine to me.

I have a 23 mile, one way commute I do at an average speed of 19 mph, though this includes going down a long hill at 46 mph. (As you can imagine, going the otherway is much slower as I have to go up this hill.)

I used to keep close track during a ride of my speed and time. Anymore, I hardly glance at my computer during a ride. Just start and stop at beginning and end.

Power required varies according to the cube of the speed.
1.06 cube = 1.19
Approximation of multiplying the percentage increase by 3 gave 18%.

Well, after some hesitation I decided to post my chart. Its for my 9mi commute, directions not separated as its essentially flat with about a dozen intersections with lights.

The blue boxes are where I changed my bike set up. 'MTB' is my 35lb Diamondback with center tread slick. 'Clipless' is when I changed from loose clips/straps. 'Poprad' is when I started using a Lemond Poprad cyclocross bike set up for road with slicks. 'Fixed' is when I started using a 48x17 fixed gear bike.
http://www.optionnz.com/users/afs/p5/commute.jpg
A few observations:
-Max, Av, Elapsed Av follow each other. Max speed is not a significant burst, but 1mph less of max is typcial of what I get up to between stops. Big peaks/dips are results of significant tailwind/headwind primarily.
-Fixed gear bike slowed me down, but only after riding it a bit. This one I am curious about as the change was not immediate. I also toward end of summer got tired of pushing myself in 110-115 F heat and since its cooled still enjoy the slower pace. Not sure what all the factors are for my peaking then decline, leveling off.
-I hope this explains what I meant above about average trends, even though there are day to day fluctuations due to traffic, wind, etc.

Al

Thank you. this sounds like a good quick and dirty wind resistance formula.

Are you from Missouri??? I also decided to play the "show me" game hoping it might inspire some other rides.

If this works properly there should be 3 images.

Image 1 is summary at bottom of daily input area with quick overview of metrics.
Image 2 is the chart of the daily data
Image 3 is the table under the chart.

Here are the next 2 charts.

Image 4 is a quarter by quarter progress report chart
Image 5 is my initial yearly number of cyclo-commute ride days.

With the way the forum works, you have to click on the thumbnails, I don't know how to get full size images yet.
Maybe someone can give me directions.

AM is slightly uphill the entire distance, and PM is the reverse route. Almost all the time I use the same route, but have used alternative routes a couple of times. I don't know how typical these number are for other riders, but it's where I am at currently.

Anyway, any feedback and suggestions for improvement would be appreciated.