jwsavage

Any tips and advice on training to increase average speed?

ModoVincere

Intervals.....ride hard for 4 or 5 minutes, then rest for 4 or 5 minutes.
Repeat 4 or 5 times.
Once a week, try to do a 15 mile TT.

Holyspokes

ride harder and longer

chevy42083

It's easier to ride harder if you ride shorter

merlinextraligh

unless you're talking average speed for a time trial, forget your average speed.

Focusing on average speed leads to riding at a moderately hard intensity all the time. Which doesn't make you faster.

Do intervals as suggested, and forget about your average speed.

cooker

I'm an overweight commuter who usually averages only about 12 mph on longer rec rides, and I wanted to really bump up my average speed last summer by riding every evening after work on the Trans Canada Highway bypass outside Kenora, Ontario. I was up there for a week of contract work. I did 30-40 km every evening for about 5 days in a row, and for the first 4 days I didn't see much change in average speed. It was very windy which didn't help...whichever way I went I seemed to have a headwind. For the last day, I pre measured and planned an approximately 20 km test ride, and I thought - I'm really going to push hard, see if I can up my average speed. Walmart to past Big Bay and back - here we go. So I headed out with my head down, pedalling at a high steady cadence, and trying to set a pace that I thought would tire me out partway home, so that I would have to struggle to maintain speed on the last section.

It was late afternoon, a little gloomy, with no wind, and that section of highway is fairly open and flat, with fields, marshes and ponds along the sides. I was labouring a bit when I passed the Big Bay exit, and when I turned back, I wondered if I'd misjudged the pace and would collapse before the end. To my pleasant surprise, I seemed to get a second wind, and I just forced the legs to keep churning and they did. Three quarters of the way back, and now I'm really tired, and again, I'm starting to think I went out way too hot.
...



And then I saw the lightning.




VVVROOOOOOMMMMM! I roared past Walmart and right on to my hotel without slowing. I got up to my tower room just in time to see a spectacular wall of rain sweep in off the lake.

16 mph.

So I recommend fear.

kellefson

I increased my average speed last year significantly by doing a couple weeks of stomps. Shift to your highest gear, slow down to 5-10 MPH, then hammer away on that big gear for 20-30 seconds. Spin easy for 3 minutes and repeat around 10 times. I noticed a huge increase in strength almost immediately after doing these and was able to push a much taller gear, increasing my average speed.

paggnr

Concentrate on handling skills. A lot of time is lost on cornering for the 'normal' rider.

You will be amazed how much quicker your loop will be when you have nailed cornering skills.

KidTruth

After a long battle I finally got my average speed to my goal (18 mph for over 30 miles.) What worked for me was gradually forcing myself into higher and higher gears. I'd force myself into the next gear for a quarter of my ride, then half, then the whole thing. Eventually I worked my way up to a gear that I could hold a nice 90 RPM spin on and pushed me up to 18 mph.

Now I've gotta push up to the next gear.. 20 mph, here I come.

Pinyon

It depends on your ridng style and fitness level. I'm over 40 year old rider that never raced, and got back into the sport a couple of years ago. For me, getting faster is as simple as switching up my routine every week to target a different system, and riding with a group of faster riders at least once per week to keep me honest.

I do a week of mountain/hill riding, with some 55+ mile routes that climb pretty steadily for 2+ hours, and have at least 3-4 miles of 12% uphill slopes. These build power, and act like sustained long-time period intervals for me. The length of the intervals, depends on how long it takes you to get up the hill or mountain pass.

The next week I will ride rolling hills on the edge of the prairie. This allows me to work on my short-hill climbing technique, and my flat-land riding technique (short time-period intervals).

The next week I tend to do head further out onto the prairie, for a mixture of flat-land type TT riding for at least 2 days, and recovery rides for 2-3 other days.

If I'm training for a 100+ mile ride, I will throw in some 5+ hour rides every week, that combine both steeper hills, as long as they don't take more than 20-30 minutes to climb, rolling hills, and flat prairie. I try to make the route have more and steeper climbing sections than the ride that I'm training for. This builds my overall endurance, and helps me gage how to eat and drink to prevent dehydration, bonking, or getting sick from eating or drinking too much. Which is easy for me to do on longer rides, if I don't have an idea of how my body is processing food and fluids near the time of the event.

Roody

Fear is a great motivator! And for those who are unfamiliar with the Great Lakes, they have no idea how fast those storms can come out of a clear blue sky. Scary stuff, for sure.

But it shows how much more your body can do when you have the proper motivation-- IF you've given it a little training. One reason I train hard is so that I can handle the unexpected when it comes up on a normal commute. Headwinds, ice, mad dogs, muggers on bikes-- I never know when I'll be wishing that I was in better shape.

yoyostock

Along those lines...braking skills. I notice that when I am braking too early or too often, I lose time there. Not only that, time is then also lost in having to regain the speed back up.