8Lives

Well from my house anyway. I rode out to Moraga, where I usually turn into the hills, but I did enough climbing yesterday so i just doubled back. This is officially the flattest ride I can do from my house - 28 miles, 1772 feet total ascent, 18.0 avg.

Yes, I know avg speed means nothing. But still...

ridethecliche

Good job!

tigershark

Good work, keep riding and you'll bring that speed up even more.

Randallissimo

I have yet to break 17.6, so I'm jealous.

DenisMenchov

That's very good.

If your goal is to become a stronger rider, definitely climb more, and focus less on average speed.

8Lives

Not focused on avg. speed at all, but thanks. It was just the first time I've seen 18 from the house. I've climbed over 240,000 feet this year. With an avg. ascent of about 80-90 feet a mile high avg speed is not my main metric!

Bah Humbug

Average speed means nothing?

Caad 8

CameronC

I think he was being humble.
It was a great accomplishment.

Bah Humbug

Thanks for being helpful. I've been hanging out here for months and never saw that. Care to spend a minute enlightening me?

tkn0spdr

Today was my very first ride with an average over 20mph. It's the Florida coast so other than a few causeways there's no hills to speak of.
I was pretty excited considering the stops and starts I had to do for traffic control devices and whatnot.

Thanks,
David

Caad 8

Since speed can be influenced by so many different things, it's not really a good indicator of performance. If you've been here for months you should already know the answer to your question

operator

Sustained watts/time is a much better indicator.

ridethecliche

While we're on the note of accomplishments, I averaged 180W for 3.5 hrs yesterday. First for me on a training ride. I need to do that more often.

Nashville Man

Do you notice the effects of wind speed? Here in Houston I can average 16-20mph on the same route...depending on wind.

8Lives

+1 on "watts is watts". Everything else is just...not.

My post was a little more of a commentary on the area I live in - where a "flat" 28 miles still has 1,800 feet of climbing. Did like the 18 though :-). If you live in flats, for comparison, my average for the year is 16.25 mph. When i rode down in Marina del Rey (dead flat circuit) earlier this year I averaged 20-22 depending on how I felt, wind, rabid skateboarders, etc. That went up to 27-28 when riding with a fast early morning pack I kept running into (not literally) :-).

kudude

I question your premise.

Go ride the bay trail. Try not to blow your brains out.

8Lives

Agree - but this was leaving from my house, I am up on Grizzly Peak. So you still need to come down and go back up....

kudude

Fair enough. If you're perched on a hill it's awfully hard to go anywhere that's not up or down.

Sixty Fiver

You can do the math that will tell you what kind of wattage 18 mpg equates to although there are great deal of variables to enter.

I would guess it would have required a steady output of about 200- 225 watts to hold that speed (lots of variables to consider) which also seems to be the wall for many as going beyond this require some serious focus and training.

As I have been rehabbing the back I have clawed my way back to that 18 mph average and am looking to get back to my sub hour 40 shape... that requires a steady output of around 300 watts (for me).

I have been increasing my daily mileage and been hunting for bigger and badder climbs to increase my power output and the results are starting to show.

Good job.

Woodyg3

Wow. You guys argue about everything here. This must be an Internet forum!

Anyway, to the OP, glad your training is going well and congrats on the 18+ average.

kudude

Who's arguing? I can think of some flat rides around where he lives and he corrected me that he in fact lives ON the hill. It was a clarification

Beaker

Nice location.

I only had time for a quick spin out through Canyon today, but if it wasn't the sweetest short ride I'd done in a while.

FR4NCH1SE

To me avg. speed is everything, but to a certain degree, I want to go far and at a decent avg. speed. 18 mph is amazing, I would love to get that high, the highest I have done is like 13 for 3 miles. lol Im still learning and riding.

tkn0spdr

I totally notice the effects of wind. I'm right on the ocean so there is almost always a breeze, sometimes it's more than a breeze too. When I was doing bridge repeats the other night with the wind out of the east, on an east-west causeway I averaged 18 to 20 mph up and 40 mph down on the east side and about 13-16 mph up and only about 23-26 down on the west side.

This is my mountain.

Thanks,
David