spock

I don't know how long it took me, but it took me quite a while not to care. It's not as easy as it seems.

LesterOfPuppets

Solo? Never gonna happen. I had some good 18.5-ish days when I lived in Phoenix, AZ, though.

Wait, 10-miles no wind? I could probably rock that out!

LesterOfPuppets

You could always bring a map and cell phone and tell them not to wait for you if you get dropped.

kabex

Not to mention, I lived at sea level my entire life. I am seriously handicapped, I get drunk on 2 beers here.

ticktockpedal

QUOTE=Gorden Gekko


Hey, there's the guy from my group ride...

ticktockpedal

year two. year one was on a hybrid. i still can't figure out what average speed means. is that speed averaged over distance, or speed averaged over time? or either, and are they all calculated one or the other. but anyway, when someone says average, i get that that's what the bike computer says, so it doesn't really matter.

radshark

It hard to ride with no wind during the day....

That said, it took me about 2 1/2 to 3 months of commuting 40 km (round trip) per day. Each time I tried to better my average speed and recorded the trips with my garmin. There was a straight section of about 12 km (7.5 miles) and a 4 km (3 mile) section of winding bike path. I averaged about 32 km/h and sometimes a little bit more on that section with no head/tail wind.

Getting faster for me was all about cadence and smoothness. When I started out I was pedaling around 80 but by the end of the 3 months I was comfortable pedaling at 95. Pedaling on an indoor trainer seem to make me a bit smoother and quicker too.

Hope that helps.

aprevo15

yeah true. there's always gonna be wind. thanks for the advice. i will try to better my time on my commute gradually.

also many of you are basically telling me to shut up and go ride and don't think about the numbers. i will try. lol.

radshark

I'm visiting close to this spot in Florida. Its a converted rail bed that substantially runs north/south. It is paved (beautiful shape) and straight as an arrow with the exception of one sweeping curve. It cuts through interior wilderness and is a flat as a pancake. The trail is lined with trees on both sides so there is not much wind. It crosses one moderately busy county road. The the remaining roads are hardly used at all and have good visibility so you can coast through at speed safely). The trail is approximately 29 miles in length. That's 29 miles (one way) of essentially uninterrupted bike path where the only thing you really need to watch for are turtles, the odd snake, and, in rare instances, a gator. If there were more corners it would be blissful but the straight-line path gets tedious after awhile.

I averaged a bit about 17 mph for the 58 miles yesterday (I took three breaks). I'm still trying to gets my legs back after a long winter with no indoor trainer. I hope to do better next time possibly with one break.

It is called the Gen. James A. Van Fleet Trail.

Cheers

fishymamba

I could easily do it.....after eating some "tainted meat".

Runner 1

I'm not sure why everyone says average speed is "meaningless". To you personally maybe. Some people ride to commute, some ride to compete with others, and some just want to see how fast they can average for a given course.

Also, I think this whole "temperature and wind affects my speed by 20 mph" thing is waaaay overblown. In the last 50 or so posts where people say you can't compare average speed on flat, windless ground, I haven't seen ONE single piece of data backing that up. And I'm not talking about these pseudo-physics calculations that all the English majors like to throw up on here. I want an actual study done by someone with a technical degree.

Don't like average speed? Fine, you can crush these people in a road race if it pleases you. But I'm more tired of hearing people whine about it than I am about people posting about it.

/rant

LesterOfPuppets

Knowing your average speed would be more useful when gauging your fitness to join a 20mph ride that is 20 minutes @ 18mph, 40 minutes at 22 mph then 20 more minutes @ 18 mph than when trying to assess your fitness for a ride with a lot of jumps with some cruising in between. If you can't blast to keep up with the group on a jump or if you keep up on one jump but can't recover enough to keep up with the next jump then you'll get dropped in no time.

All depends on the group ride. If you can solo pretty close to 20mph you can probably keep up with most recreational group rides without much difficulty. If you're going out with a more race oriented group you might be in trouble if you've never tried interval training or the like.

Mr. Cranky

How long until the dog averages 20 mph? HTFU, dog.

guadzilla

Jens Voigt takes 25 min to average 20mph for 10 miles.

waikikihei

Altitude is an advantage in cycling time trial record attempts. Moriarity NM is a great site for the 40k. Altitude - flat, flat, flat out and back course and no wind early in the morning. The velodromes at Mexico City and Colorado Springs are also at altitude. I think Eddie's hour was set in Mexico City. Moriarity and Colorado Springs have numerous records.

Eclectus

Just make your vision go to "tunnel vision". You don't have to puke. It's easier if you ran long distance in high school.

ponka00

You are not far away

Cycling for only a month is not much and you will always take some time to get accustomed to a new activity. I am pretty sure that you will be able to manage it within the month given that you are not that far away

brundle_fly

Depends on the person...some it could take a month to average 20 mph,others can be riding for years and still never get their

rolliepollie

When my trip doesn't consist of any hills, stop signs, street lights, headwinds, traffic, massive potholes, or flying pigeons.

Better question: How long it takes you to go 0-30?

ticktockpedal

Quit looking around, Dog, and GO!

merlinextraligh

Uhm, you don't need to be a Cat 3 to do that. Most Cat 3's can break an hour in 40k TT, which takes 25mph+

WhyFi

I don't think that this is a safe assumption even if your lungs are working at max capacity processing oxygen (at the lower elevation). If they're not working at max, forget about it - easy advantage to the higher altitude.

DrPete 

Well, I guess it took me about a half an hour to average 20mph for 10 miles.

guy2600

It took me about 6 months of dedicated training...

DrPete 

Exactly. Even my sorry butt can turn 23.6mph in a 40K TT preceded by 1500m of swimming and followed by a 10K run. And I'm no cat 3.