How long until you always cruised above 10 mph?
 

Some days this riding is really getting to hang out.

About how long/how many miles did it take you to be able to consistently keep speeds above 10 mph?
I mostly have moderate hills, and have just logged over 1,000 miles. And still have these uphill stretches where I'm only going between and 9.5 mph. Almost there, but not quite. Ugh...

I just realized today, that maybe I need to either work on increasing cadence or on increasing power. Maintaining cadence is ok, but sometimes still are breathing hard. I'm still hoping to see the day when I can ride normal commute always above 10 mph and vary cadence between 75 and 105. Currently I can only do 88 without stress.

Anything you all do to get there faster? [ Sorry riding more is not an option. 50 miles a week is enough. ]

Since I'm in the flats, 10 mph happened immediately. 15 mph within the first few weeks, and 20 mph within two months. You've got it MUCH harder, though, with hills!

Yeah, on the flats add 10 mph. It depends on how I am feeling and the wind. Flats float between 19 and 21. Again almost on magic milestone, but not quite there.

This is my first year of serious cycling since about 82 or 83. Man, am I out of shape.

At any rate, I've logged almost 2000 miles so far this year and my endurance has come up a lot. My speed, not so much. But I can keep up a higher average speed for a longer time, especially on flat or rolling rides.

My local ride from my house though has tons of hills on it. Steep, short hills. Long hills that aren't so steep. They definitely take the wind out of me. I mean, they're getting easier, but as my rides get a little longer my average speed is still what I would consider slow. (16-16.5... somedays 15.5)

But I haven't really concerned myself with speed since this year was about enjoying myself and getting back into shape. I'm happy that I've lost about 20 lbs and my cholesterol was lowered enough that I can put off taking the drugs for a while longer. My blood pressure is very low, and I feel better. So I don't get all excited about the fact that I'm significantly slower than I was in my 20s.

Next year though, I'm going to try training a little for speed after the weather warms up in Spring. We used to call them wind sprints, but I think they're called intervals now. I'm thinking that with my mileage base from this year (and whatever exercise I manage over the winter) that I should be able to bring the speed up a little. If nothing else, but to make those longer rides take a little less time so I have more chance of fitting them in my schedule.

Az

It's allright for the roadies, but us offroaders have problems averaging 9 mph for a ride, let alone 10. Mountain bike, knobblies at offroad presures and on the Flat bits on the road, 15mph is our norm. Then theres the hills- Hills? short 200metres of slope will drop the speed to 10mph. 1000metres at 10% will see me drop to around 8 and Extremehills, 15to 20% will see me drop to 5 or 6mph. Then we get offroad. 4 mph up the long steep hills seems to be average. On the flat ,if there are any, we can still get to 15mph or higher, and 30+ is the norm when gravity takes over.

Speed is not my forte, but endurance is. That 9 mph by the way, can be sustained for our annual offroad 100miler, so forget speed, look at endurance and how much you enjoy the ride.

I don't worry about high cadence very much. I doubt I get over 100 very often. I've got 175mm cranks now. Seem to cut the cadence a bit, but get lots of power. Below 80 feels pretty dang slow.

I started riding more regularly about July. I think I was hitting over 10 mph on all but our steepest hills within a couple of weeks.

I suspect a great deal depends on one's base conditioning and skill/training level. Once one establishes a base of some type, then structured training really helps. I used to do this in the early 90s, until I got hurt in a car accident. Really pumped up endurance and power very quickly. Now I simply ride as I get the chance. Or make the chance. Certainly working on sprints, intervals, hills really hard with appropriate recovery will help. Work at the hard parts.

For the most part, I don't concern myself with speed. I guess on my road bike I may average around 15-16mph on most rides.
When mtn biking I'm lucky to average 5-8.
I do live in the Berkshire Hills of New England and level or near level areas are pretty much non-existent. I used to occasionally watch my heart rate, but that's about it. Like stapfam, I try to just enjoy the ride.

aj

doesn't sound like you;re having any troubles. 50 miles a week and you can do moderate road uphills at 9+mph? Sounds fine to me. Breathing hard ? - I'd hope so. As a point of comparison - pack fodder in the TDF (yes they ride 120+ miles a day, thousands of ft of climbing, do it for 21 days+-, and are incredible YOUNG athletes) do the longer climbs at about 20kph (12 mph). 9 mph doesn't sound so bad.
50 road miles a week? not knockin them, but don;t expect too much. Short of 50 miles of punishing intervals a week, or 50 miles of a lot of climbing or offroad, it sounds like you're maxin it pretty well.
Like the others said
Enjoy the ride
don't worry, be happy

If milage cannot be upped, how about on your ride at some point doing some interval training. At some point on our rides there will be a short rise for about 100yards and I presume it will be the same for you. This is the point to go for an out and out sprint. No further than this initially, and only a couple on a ride. If you put enough effort in, you will be shattered after 80 yards and then it is grin and bear it for the last bit. Now shattered you slow down until you have recovered, then ride at normal pace. Only a couple of 100 yarders initially, but it will improve your strength. Before long you will be looking for the 200yard hill or the 2 marker posts to do it on the flat for a longer distance.

No pain No gain! how fast you really want to go depends on how much pain your willing to endure. Training to go fast will involve doing interval or hill repeats and doing them on a regular basis, these both involve high heart rates with a large amount of physical effort. Generally high cadence means higher heart rate and lower cadence means more power, find your "happy" zone that works for you. Good luck :)

I don't care about speed. When I'm commuting, I'm just riding to get there. When I'm riding for fun, I'm riding for fun. Speed is the least important facet of my riding.

I used to say that too. When Linda and I first started riding a year and half ago, she had a cyclometer on her bike and I did not. She used to tell me what our speed and what our average was at the time. Back then, she could kick my butt cycling, and I used to tell her, "I don't ride for speed or average". Since then, I've changed my style of riding, picked up a cyclometer (w/cadence) and have gotten progressively faster on the bike. Now, I love to hammer. Speed is fun. Cruising at 25+ in the flats for distances just feels great.

Still, there are times when we ride just for the joy of getting out and looking around and soaking in the sunshine and fresh air.

Take care,

Steve

Here's what happened to me. My average MPH was slowly progressing over the last couple years 13.4, 13.5. 13.6 then one day 14.2 Yes I hit 14! Well just the other day I went out for 20 miles, two 10 mile loops... The first 10 miles I did 15mph, then I said I think I can go faster and did the second 10 in 15.7 Now I'm thinking that before the end of the season I am going to do this loop in 16.

Early this year we would do 20 miles on Monday(rolling), 20 miles on Wednesday with hard hills and 15 miles on Friday with intervals. Don't know if that did it but something just changed for me.

Road bike or MTB

Road bike always above 10 mph average
MTB about 3 months

That is on long streches w/o stop signs and stop lights
Joe