I'm looking into cycling, hoping to be able to commute to school (a 35km ride each way).

Once I'm fairly fit, will hour long rides at a comfortable cadence each day increase my speed at all, or just my endurance?

Is there something else I should keep in mind to increase average speed?

Just being fit and riding will increase your speed. Doing hills or intervals will do it faster.

Riding 35 km at 25 kph will take 1.4 hrs. If the terrain is fairly flat, you should be able to get to 30 kph if you so desire, a pretty good clip. That would save 10 minutes one way.

10 minutes really isn't that much time in the grand scheme of things. You can save about that much time streamlining your clothes changing and eating.

I like to go fast, so I do. But with only 10 minutes at stake, there is no reason not to take it easy and enjoy the ride if that is more your thing. The difference in effort between 25 kph (15.5 mph) and 30 kph (18.6 mph) average speed can be quite a bit.

P.S. Hills, stops, etc. really kill your average speed. If you are averaging 30 kph that implies that most of the time you are cruising at over 33 kph. Last night I took a 30-mile (48 km) ride and averaged 17.7 mph (28.5 kph). There were stops and pedestrians to deal with though. Most of my open road riding was in the neighborhood of 25 mph (40 kph). All that slowing down and speeding up really kills your time.

If you want to increase speed, you will need to push yourself and ride faster. Riding at a comfortable pace will not increase your average speed.

Maybe you can work some intervals into your ride home from school.

Lol, already CbadRider and beezaur have conflicting points. Beezaur said I could with regular cycling, just not as fast as intervals. And your saying there is no way.

Could anyone link something reputable, maybe a journal article, or well-known cyclist?

@beezaur, the ride has 2 stop signs, and 1 stop light. That's it. Quite a bit of it is low-grade hill, so I'm thinking that should help get me in shape. Way back will definitely be faster though, as there is a rise in elevation along the way there, and a decrease on the way back.


And fair enough, theres not a big different between 25km/h and 30km/h. I was really just wondering if I would improve, however gradual the improvement might be, or if I had to do intervals for example to get my speed up.

I just want to add, it seems like if I couldn't increase my average speed by just doing my regular routine, I could if i just shifted to a higher gear for the hills, or something where I'm going at a bit slower cadence up the hill.

Some people have recommended 4 days of regular cycling, 2 days where you include intervals on hills or flats, and 1 day off. What do you think of this?

Has anyone intentionally tried to build their average speed, and if so, how did you do it? Was it effective?

Read Joe Friel on cycling training. CbadRider is quite right. If you want to increase your speed, you need to train with intensity. But you can't do that all the time, you need time to recover and distance builds strength and aerobic capacity. So your training should consist of a mixture of LSD (long steady distance) rides, with occasional interval sessions of a severity that make you want to throw up. Once or twice a week is enough for those.

The long rides will help with your aerobic capacity. This does not directly translate into more speed but indirectly it will help you go faster with less effort when you decide to go ahead and push yourself a little more. Otherwise the long rides just get easier on your heart and lungs.

@chasm54, could you or someone else provide a good example of interval training? It seems like there isn't a set way to do it, so I'm just looking for a general guide or specific example.

Riding a lot will improve your speed some, especially starting from scratch. I don't think CbadRider would refute that.

I'm not saying thet will increase your speed a lot, just some. If you want large increases in speed, you have to ride fast. That means riding fast at first only for short times. That is more or less what an interval is: riding fast in bursts interspersed by rests at lower speeds. Hills do the same thing, but trading climbing effort for speed.

So, I think we are saying the same thing in different ways.

Pushing it will make you improve. Doing intervals or hills will make you improve the fastest. By "hill" I mean something fairly steep, think two or three times walking speed or thereabouts with a hard effort.

There is a book, Time Crunched Cyclist, or something like that, which has had good reviews here.

Go hard for a minute or two and then go easy a few minutes. Repeat.

So that seems like something I could easily integrate into a daily commute, right? Should i just do some intervals on all of my rides, or will that wear me out? (once I get fit that is, starting from scratch that wouldn't work well)

The worst thing about doing it on easy terrain is motivation, but you can certainly work it into your commute. There is no getting out of a hill. You either go up it or you walk.

As far as how worn out to get yourself, that starts to get into specific speed versus distance type goals and other considerations. As a general rule of thumb I would say do a hard day and then an easy day or maybe two easy days.

Nutrition plays a big part in it too. If you are eating well, meaning carbs and proteins at the right times, and in appropriate amounts, you can manage a more difficult schedule.

Don't be afraid of easy days though. It is very easy to get overuse injuries or other overtraining problems, which basically make your progress backward.

Aside from a cycle training book, I would suggest Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook or something else like it. That was a real eye-opener for me, and helped a lot in my training. Helped a lot with the grocery bill too.

Random intervals can be more amusing. Ex: stop light to stop light or a few light polls.
The issue with commuting is boredom.

Depends on your level of fitness. If you're a relative beginner, just putting in the miles will get you faster. However, as you get in better shape, this will level off and some type of structured training will be necessary to make significant gains. The faster you get, the harder it is to continue to make progress.

Average speed is a bad measure, as it discourages structured training. When I do intervals my average speed for the ride is generally slower than when I do a regular ride. If I was hung up on average, I wouldn't do them. The real measure is a race or race like conditions (such as being able to hang with a faster group ride).

Books can be and have been written about intervals, etc. If you're new to it try this once a week. After warm up, ride as hard as you can sustain for 5 minutes, pedal easy for 5 minutes and repeat. Maybe start with 4 repeats and work your way up to 8-10. The proper pace is one you can keep for each repeat. If you're on a route with hills, etc. you may have to go by perceived effort as the speed may vary for the same effort. A HR monitor helps, but it takes a while for HR to respond to effort. While I don't have one, I think this would be a big benefit of a power meter, as power is power and is instantaneous. Another one to try is 1 minute repeats with 1 minute rest intervals. Start with 2 sets of 4 with 5-10 minutes recovery between sets. This will work your anaerobic capacity whereas the longer repeats work your aerobic capacity more.

Yeah, go as hard as you can for a minute, then recover for two. Repeat six times. You can probably integrate this into a commute, but don't try to do it every day, once or twice a week is enough. The most common problem among cyclists who are training is that they make the easy rides too hard, and the hard rides too easy. You need time to recover, and most of your training should be aerobic. So cycle within yourself most of the time, but when you go hard, go harder than you think you can.

Thanks for the info so far guys.

I am a beginner right now, but I have an entire year to get into shape for the commute. Which makes me think like chinarider mentioned, the speed gains level off.
My goal is to do the 35km as fast as possible. Because of this, I am not trying to get sprinting speed up. I think it's too long of a distance for that to help. I suppose your right that average speed isn't really what I'm looking for either.

After analyzing my route more, and looking at what I'm dealing with, it seems like the thing that will improve my time the most is my ability to climb hills. The hills aren't too steep, so I just need the stamina to maintain usual cadence on a medium to low grade for a while. Obviously I also need the strength to pedal at 80 rpm on a hill as well.

Will intervals help with this? Is stamina for hills built the same way as stamina for flat roads? In other words, I know long riding at your regular pace will improve your stamina and endurance for longer rides. But will that carry over into helping me get up hills faster, or will I need to do something else?

Thanks for the help so far guys I'll definitely look at getting some good reading materials as well.

Ah, one other thing.

To increase my speed, am I better trying to pedal faster, or switching to a higher gear to pedal harder?

+1. The same goes for runners. Part of the reason (besides ignorance) is that it's fun to ride (or run) moderately hard, but intervals hurt (if you're doing them right).

To the OP, maybe once a week really charge your hills. This will be like an interval workout more specific to your needs. You can vary between sitting using a high cadence or standing with a lower one. Generally higher cadence is easier on the knees (and your bike).

Okay, so my plan then is to do regular rides, trying to maintain a natural cadence while i'm just starting. And i'll work on increasing distance I ride. Once i've got up to doing 10-20 miles a day easy, then I'll work on integrating intervals of just charging hills or working in a higher gear to parts of my ride.

I would wait until you've ridden at least 1000-2000 miles. If you're trying to get reasonably fit in a year there's no point in starting out with intervals too early. Cyclists who ride competitively train in cycles and will spend 3-4 months building a base with just endurance rides and no intervals. Once you're able to ride comfortably every day then you're ready to start building a base.

The problem with starting out with intervals now is you risk burnout or a lessening of your motivation. Just ride for now and have fun. Find a group to ride with if you can. That will increase the intensity of your rides with less pain than intervals.

Yes! My previous posts shouldn't be interpreted as saying you have to do intervals etc. I assume your livelihood doesn't depend on how fast you ride, so just have fun. If having fun for you includes getting into the training aspects, great; if not, great too. The health benefits come from consistent riding. Being able to average 16.5 mph instead of 15 mph doesn't make you any healthier.

Certainly I wouldn't start intervals until I was quite confident in my endurance, and had felt I hit a ceiling.

And yes, my livelihood doesn't depend on my speed, however the more I can ride in less time does help with getting more done, or more cycling in.

Thats a good point chinarider, that being able to average a fast speed does not make you any healthier.



I think what I've taken from this thread is that I will indeed hit a plateau where my speed does not increase with leisurely long-distance cycling. If I want to increase it from there, all I need to do is work harder during my rides, but be careful not to overdo it. I appreciate the help.

It's even simpler than that. The power necessary to maintain a speed on the flat increases as the cube of the speed. IOW, one has to work very much harder just to get 1-2 mph faster on the flat, and the percentage increase is small. Hills, however, are another story. Hills are pretty much linear when ridden at the speeds most folks ride them, 6-10 mph. Not much wind resistance down there. So your increased effort goes directly into cutting down your time, rather than into entropy. IOW, ride hills faster. That's how one gets their average speed up. Riding hills faster is a very effective training method for riding hills faster. Works every time. Not only that, but being able to ride hills faster will also make you faster on the flat. Top climbers are often top TT competitors.

I have a personal TT (time trial) 20.1 mile course in a triangle configuration on the open road. My times in avg MPH have steadily increased. What helps? Pushing yourself.

Hills are your friend. Attack them. Love them. Eat them up.

Intervals, sprints, fast medium distance rides are a plus. This develops leg strength over a longer haul. Also builds toughness in your mind.

Leisure riding will not build faster speeds on the averages. Pushing yourself will.

"Pain is weakness leaving your body". Greg Lemond once said, "it doesnt get easier, you just go faster".

What is your ride? Do you like distances or do you like raw speed where you go all out, nothing held back?

I've been a year-round commuter for several years; a new job assignment in March changed the ride from 4-5 miles (~8km) 1-way (+ whatever longer routes I added), much on a bike trail/MUP to 11-12 miles (~20 km) 1-way, entirely on roads. So I didn't have to ride into shape, I did have to get used to 3x the daily mileage. I had been taking an indoor cycling class (Computrainers + Erg videos) and used the riding to extend some of what I learned in the classes.

Lots of good advice above. The day after day riding will help your endurance (and burn off a lot of excess pounds as long as you don't go crazy eating), although I'd still work up to even longer rides if you also plan to ride, say, a metric or English century. You can work in intervals on some days to build speed; use favorable sections of road or stop lights - they won't be organized structured intervals like the training books describe, but they will fit easily into your commutes. Either way, you'll feel like you are flying if you go for a ride without the commute load.

Definitely work those hills into your routine. It will help both fitness and ride time, even if you take it easy the rest of the way. Consider using a faster cadence - I've trained myself to spin in a lower gear - I'm usually doing 90-100 rpm (or more) unless it's really steep. It's easier on my legs, if nothing else. YMMV - I know people who ride quite well at lower cadences - my "motor" may simply work better at a higher RPM than their's.

If you like numbers, keep a log of your commutes. I've noticed over the past 5 months several definite trends: Average speed has increased, average heart rate has declined (including plotted against speed), and I've dropped a few more pounds. Good luck!