I had an interesting ride today...

I first saw a guy with full gear waiting at a light with me, and just staring at me....I was like CRAP! So I said, "Hi"...He did not respond. And he kept starring. I was a bit disturbed.

I saw another cyclist ahead of me pushing 19+mph on flats. I was about 15 feet behind him trying to keep up. He looks back and waves for me to pass. Im thinking, "Crap dude I have to go at least 21+mph to pass this guy, hes crazy" and constantly trying to keep up he waves for me to pass him. I started spriting and then as soon as I was getting close he started sprinting too. I was like CRAP!!! . I look down and Im going 25mph and hes staying with me. We were doing 22mph average for about 5 minutes until I gave up. He gave me a thumbs up and then he sped off. I was no match for this guy

All in all, with a flat and some scenery I think it was a good day.

PS: I did 20 miles this time, and I wasn't exhausted when I got home. I'm going to shoot for 30 tommorow.

Thanks for reading

Its amazing how a little competition gets the blood flow going.

Geez ..... I came up to a guy with an interesting pannier setup today, wanted to strike up a conversation about it, then had to sprint a bit to get ahead since the lane was narrow and some impatient cars coming up..... I then slowed down so he could pass and he seemed to consider it a race, I never got to ask about the panniers.

Earlier in the day I was walking up to the post office with my handtruck full of packages and along came an older guy on a bike, with a beard, looked very competent and fit but .... what's this? His right knee sticks out with every pedal stroke, really sticks out. I said "Knees in" kind of motioning my hands together when he went by, I wonder what he made of that? And I noticed later when riding that if I point my feet dead streight ahead instead of slightly toes-in when I pedal, my own knees go out to the side.

thats competetion? i usually go bout 15mph steady and 17 or 18 with a little push, recently my biker cousin came down from denver to visit me in chicago.
i was riding slicks and he was riding 18inch mongoose tires on a mongoose steel frame.. me on my aluminum. So anyway we were riding at 20mph and he claimed it was to easy so we went 25ph, we did this for about 20 minutes, me at the point of dieng when we turned into my street. then he sped off casually probably reaching the 30's


my story

You like the word "crap", don't you?

What makes you think cyclists appreciate/enjoy gratuituous and cryptic "advice" from strangers? What would you make of a stranger yelling/motioning at you "Knees apart"?

Yes It brings joy to my heart

Haha I did another 21 miler today and some guys said "Left" really loud. They scared me so I shifted to the right and slowed down. Then they passed me going at leats 25mph+...I was already exhausted, otherwise Id try to keep up with em for awhile

Had another flat today...Im never going on this trail AGAIN! I was repairing it and at least 3 people stopped by and asked if I needed help. Cyclist are nice I will probably go out later today again. I dont know, I was kind of tired today though.

Is 20+mph on flats easy for you guys? I mean I can probably sutain 20mph with some tailwind for maybe 20-30 mins but after that I am pretty much exhausted

"Is 20+mph on flats easy for you guys? I mean I can probably sutain 20mph with some tailwind for maybe 20-30 mins but after that I am pretty much exhausted"

Piece of cake if you add in one day of 42-45mph sprints and one day of 27-35mph intervals per week. After that, 20mph+ on the flats is pffftt... CRAP!!!

As for the interactions with other cyclist, I'm usually friendly and at least say, "Hi, how's it going"? If they don't respond, I just move on. Some people accuse me of being a ditzy, bubbly blonde on the inside, not sure if I should take that as a compliment or an insult..

There is one guy I encounter all the time. He looks to be 100+ years old , with a very long gray beard and seems to have no muscle or fat on his body but he climbs every hill as if they were flat sections. Every time i see him it makes me feel good know that we are part of a sport that can be done by any active person until late in life if not until the day you die.

Wow you can sprint to 45mph on level ground? Maybe you should be on the tour.

30mph on 18" bmx? 45mph sprints? Sounds like a little creative license.

45 mph sprints? I dont know man. I know Im new but I will be lucky if I can do 30mph sprints. 45 sounds like a fable.

I just have to keep training. I am going to start aiming for distance but it annoys me to go slow so I will work on my spinning technique as someone has mentioned. I doubt I can average 20mph on flats anytime soon. It takes alot out of me just pushing that much for a long period of time. I am more in the 15-17mph range right now.
Thanks guys

I was in Ft. Wayne IN for two months. You always ran into the same people on the trails there. There was this guy, John, who had to have been about 75. He'd smoke his pipe while riding his bike! Very cool, very slow.

Then there's this fat-ish guy who hauls a big cooler with his MTB on a modified Bob Yak. He zooms around at around 18mph. Never stopped him to ask what was in the cooler. One can only imagine.

I was riding today and heard a clear voice call out to keep elbows in, I looked around and then thought I was hearing things, then after a few seconds noticed a group of 3 women riding along, maybe a kind of class with coach, on Foothill (I was on a side-road running alonside Foothill) lol!

"Wow you can sprint to 45mph on level ground? Maybe you should be on the tour."

Yeah, except I can't climb worth sh*t. I've been pertitioning all the clubs around here who've been holding hillclimb TTs that they should have a combined up and DOWN time on the hill... makes it more fair for guys like me. No Tour, but I did do Olympic Trials in WA about 10-years ago for the kilo. I didn't make it past the 1st round, but my buddy Marc made it to the finals and ended up getting a flat on his last lap.. that kinda sucked

"45 mph sprints? I dont know man. I know Im new but I will be lucky if I can do 30mph sprints. 45 sounds like a fable. "

heh, heh.. nah, more like 40-41mph by myself, but I hardly ever do them by myself. Especially nowadays after 10-years at a desk job, but I'm getting back into it. Come on down in a month or two and I'll show you some 40-45mph sprints. I always go out with a group of 4-6 for sprints and there's a couple places with 1-mile straights in Hope Ranch where we can use the entire road. Add in a lead-out guy or two on a slight slope and 45's possible.

Here's the thing about speed, is that no amount of riding at 20mph average is automatically gonna increase it to your speed to 21mph. You gotta hit speeds HIGHER than your intended target in order to improve. People always get caught in no man's land with workouts doing intermediate intensities and intermediate distances. You'd get better improvements by increasing the intensity AND the distances (just not at the same time). I never do medium rides of 40-50miles @ 75-80%, what's the use? That same amount of time would be better spent doing 15 miles with 100% sprints for speed and 75-100 miles for endurance the next time. You always gotta stress your body to beyond its current level in order to improve.

Well, I sure had an interesting encounter yesterday. One of those "small world" moments.

A bit of backstory--I keep a Livejournal, and I have a lot of fellow hobbyist photographers and a lot of cyclists on my Friends List. There's this one dude, who happens to be both, and also lives in Kansas City. I reckoned at some point in time we'd cross paths.

So yesterday, at 3:00 I rolled up to Acme and observed the usual motley crew of city cyclists assembling for the afternoon adventure session. One of the people was this guy with a pretty fancy looking recumbent, and we got to talking about inner-city bike riding, and what "terrain" we liked best and least, and he expressed his dislike of railroad tracks, and explained that he had to learn how to deal with them, since he has to cross the Bottoms daily on account of where he lived. After he named his neighborhood, the wheels in my brain started turning, and I looked at the 'bent and said, "Hey...are you a photographer?' and he said he was. Then I asked, "Do you keepa Livejournal account" and he said that he did. So I joked that we'd already met, and introduced myself properly, both with my real name and my LJ handle.

He's a pretty cool guy and plans to come along on more of the urban exploration rides, so that's good. I love when the Saturday ride has a ton of people along.

Never knew it was possible. I know I have to start pushing the limits but its hard when you can only do this 3 days a week.. I am going to do some climbing today. Hopefully build up some leg strength. HOw can you sustain 15 miles at 100% sprints though? I bet at 100% youd give out at the 2nd mile? I have to try this when I get better. Seems possible but 40 is really hard

"HOw can you sustain 15 miles at 100% sprints though? I bet at 100% youd give out at the 2nd mile? I have to try this when I get better."

You go out easy for 10 miles to warm up, 50-60%. Once you're ready, a 100% all out sprint, will last maybe 30-45 seconds. Spin up to about 130rpms or so and shift. Relax for 5 minutes to recover. Then do another sprint. Start out with 3 sprints, then go home, about 15 miles. This will improve your average speed tremendously if leg-strength is your limiting factor.

If aerobic capacity limits you, then intervals would help too. I like pyramid sets. Do 1 minute interval at 90-95% effort so that your heart-rate climbs steadily from 60% of max-HR to 100% by the end of that minute. Relax for 5 minutes to recover. Then do 2 minutes at 85-90% effort to go from 60% max-HR to 100% by the end of two minutes, recover, repeat, etc. I like do a 1-2-3-2-1 pyramid set, sometimes 1-2-3-5-3-2-1.

Then add in one day of endurance, 3-5 hours, and you'd be improving about as fast as possible. That 20mph average will be 24mph in 1 month, 27mph in 6-months.

Another thing I'll do sometimes if I see a guy all decked out going on a ride, I'll ask him what is workout is that day, maybe I'll join in. I know the schedule of all the clubs around here, so if I want a certain kind of workout, I'll just pick the ride that's doing it. Sometimes, I just show up in T-shirts, beach shorts , and tennis-shoes for fun...