Boy did I get one today.

I have been riding by myself for the past 4 or so months, and have made some pretty good gains getting used to riding again, as well as losing over 35 lbs. I picked up a new road bike for the first time in around 20 years, getting off the mtb I had been riding as a hybrid. My average speed jumped up by well over 2mph right away, and has been much easier to log miles. Over the last two weeks I increased my average speed almost a mph just on the road bike alone.

The area that I live is pretty hilly, I wouldn't go so far as to say climbing mountains, but the whole terrain is rolling rather than just flat within several miles of the house. It is great for training rides, and getting used to what may come just riding down any given road.
A good friend of mine, who is also 17 years my younger, was heartened by watching my progress and had been on the fence about riding himself. He went last week and bought a road bike that is in all respects the mirror to mine as far as weight, group, etc. just a different manufacturer. He has been riding with a partner, his brother, who is an accomplished long time cyclist, and even before he was riding has been into working out, eating healthy, etc.

We had been talking for the past few days about going on a ride together at a PATH Foundation ride up at Panola Mountain. We got together today and headed up there. The terrain is much more hilly even than the area I live and have been riding. There were two hills that were as steep as the steepest around here, and easily twice as long.....I had planned on riding 15-20 miles today. I have been "training" on 10-15 miles rides, gave myself some good rest yesterday and headed out.
Three miles into the ride, I was dying. My lungs and legs were burning like crazy, and I was just watching my buddy fade away. He eventually slowed down from his pace to stay back with me, and honestly if he hadn't been there to motivate and push me, I never would have even completed the ride. I have never sat down in the middle of a ride, and over the 13 miles I managed (or I should say that he managed) to pull out, I had to sit down on a bench twice. Even my own average speed was a great deal slower than normal.

So, to get to the point....I will likely continue to be riding alone, at least for the foreseeable future, all but one or maybe two days a week. That will be after I have attained the goal average speed I have been thinking to make. After the ride today I just don't see that happening within the time frame I have set at my current pace.

How do I go about motivating myself to push that much harder, outside of the comfort zone? Especially while riding solo?

I realize that speed isn't going to come back or develop overnight, and that I am almost 20 years older than I was when I rode regularly before. I just don't know at what pace, and how hard I should be pushing myself. Going fast when I was 20 was just easy, I didn't have to "train". I rode bikes from the time I can remember, and it is all I wanted to do. The being in shape and advantages that came from it were totally taken for granted.

Today was a real eye opener. It is going to require a whole lot of hard work and dedication to make the goal I have likely prematurely set for myself.

I'm not sure of your age but I'm 40 and have only been riding for 7 or 8 months. I mostly ride by myself and try to do at least 100 miles per week. Living here in Central Alabama I'm not far from where you are and your description of the rolling hills sounds about what I ride each day.

About 2 months ago I decided I was ready to go for a ride with someone and my step brother is a marathon runner and has a road bike that he bought so he could keep his fitness level while recovering from a running injury. We met up one day and he took me on a route he had ridden with a group of guys where he lives.

Well, lets just say I was sucking wind all day and he had to wait for me at the top of every hill. We did about 3k feet of climbing total for the day and rode about 38 miles. His fitness level was so much better than mine.

Here we are a couple of months later and I have continued to ride as much as I can, pushing myself as much as possible. I went on my 1st group ride this past weekend with a local club and I did much better than I did only 2 months ago. I was able to keep up with the lead group, we climbed about 4k feet over the day and rode a little over 65 miles averaging 16.6mph which isn't bad considering all the climbing we did.

I feel I still have a lot of room for improvement for sure but my point is, don't give up. Keep riding and add as many miles as you can. It will come if you keep it up (although you'll never be 20 again ;-)

One more thing, be sure and eat a GOOD breakfast before going on a group ride (or really any ride). I find that what I eat makes a huge difference on my performance.

I was in "Loose Weight" mode for so long that I found it hard to stop watching the calories after I reached my target weight. Now on days I know I'm going to ride after work I'll eat a bigger lunch that I normally would to be sure and have the calories to do well on my ride. I can feel the difference during my ride if I don't eat well.

I think it was Tallulah Bankhead who said "Getting old ain't for sissies" and at my advancing age I'm starting to get a good grasp of that. I come and go at getting into what is for me a decent form and every time I lose it it gets harder and harder to get back to that former level.

I ride solo mostly and use my computer to extend my goal. I have several familiar routes and I am always trying to bring my average speed up. I like a cadence monitor as I'm riding to keep me from slacking off. I have had cooperative motorcyclists act as a durney for me and that is a great work out. Or I'll catch a slow delivery truck. Every so often I'll get a young riding partner and get my pride handed to me in a greasy paper sack but you can feel a whole level up the next ride.

I just stumbled across this forum recently and have gotten some great information (a thread a few days ago about using the glutes and hamstrings was great for me) and inspiration.

Do some sprint intervals. Do some long slow rides. Get out when it's cold. Get out when it's hot. Don't give up. Losing 35 lb. is awesome on it's own.

Congrats on the weight loss. Maybe the motivation you need will come from riding a couple of times a week with your buddy. riding with people who are stronger than you is a good way to make yourself faster.

sounds like you're doing great, punkncat - just keep it up.

i'm not an expert by any means, and i'm training more for distance than speed, but i find sprints help for some reason. not sure why - i started doing sprints when i was running, and now i've been incorporating them into my long rides, at the beginning and also at the end.

good luck and don't get discouraged, sounds like you're on the right track.

No matter how fast you are there's always someone faster than you are.

But it sounds like you had a bad ride. The thing to do when that happens is not to decide that you suck and give up, but to figure out what happened and how to fix it. Chances are that you either didn't eat enough or at the right time, or you were tired from training and needed a rest. Figuring out when those are happening is suprisingly difficult. It's not something that non-cyclists need to do often.

Yep, riding with other will set you straight real quick on where you are in the cycling pecking order. Keep it up.

Well it's a good thing I never get dropped, that's all I have to say.

if you're like myself, who lack self-motivation and discipline, the only way to get faster is to go on fast group rides and try to stay with the pack. also, speed on flats doesn't necessarily translate into being a strong climber. this affects the bigger guys (like myself) more than it affects the smaller guys. if you're having trouble on hills, you'll need to do some hill-specific training to keep up.

Thanks for the kind words guys. I am going to keep at it. I love this stuff......I am going to have to make a concerted effort to turn my attention from weight loss mode, to be able to ride 15+ miles mode. I apparently can't perform well, and do long rides, on my blubber alone, lol.

Methinks I am going to go scour the training, and..is there a nutrition forum...yup, gotta learn how to pack on some energy preride.

Firstly, well done on what you've achieved already, considering that most guys/girls your age are lazy and obese, you've made a wise choice. Be patient, these things take time for your body to adapt to, we all want to be world champs overnight, but that ain't going to happen. Eat, drink, sleep, train AND think smart and you will improve. Don't get discourage because you got dropped, use it as motivation to improve.

In 6-12 months from now you will be telling PCAD how much of a girl he really is!

I ride on my own and I still get dropped.

I have a few rides in my area and took a few others out on one of them last week. Riding with others is tiring. They tackle hills differently to me- Have different speeds on the flat and even the downslopes are different. I made the mistake of trying to ride with them- instead of them riding with me at my pace.

It was only a 35miler and by the end I was bushed. Now these are the same riders that join me in a few organised 100 milers each year And they use me as paceman after the 40 mile mark. From then on they are struggling.

i'd keep riding with others. wanting to not get dropped has me climbing faster, sprinting harder and just working hard than ever before. all things i wouldn't do if i was riding alone.

Congrats on the weight loss. I too am a lone rider, a rebel, Dottie. You don't want any part of me. (misquoted Pee Wee Herman reference). I am encouraged by this post as I have never been on a group ride, but am feeling the urge (hence my posts about the agony of choosing a proper road bike).

Since committing to cold weather riding this year, the strength gain has been quite noticeable, but the curiosity of what a group would do to my performance is growing.