how's my pace?
 

training for a sprint tri in august. I do not know anyone else who rides so I ride alone and have no idea if i'm a slowpoke or not

this morning's ride to work was 10.94 mi in 39:04

I felt great, but have no idea how this compares. i had to stop for a few lights and slow down to roll through stop signs, but was riding pretty hard the whole way.

pretty good...might help if we knew the terrain you ride. Hills, Mountains, Flat? That comes out to around 18-19 avg or so I think. IMO, that should put you toward the faster middle 1/3. Some people will take 45 min to an hour, but others will do the bike course at 25 mph avg. I averaged just under 20 on my last sprint which included a grueling 2 mile climb on miles 7-9 of 12. That put me just inside the top 25% on the bike split FWIW

completely flat, unless you count a few highway overpasses

my only limitation is cars and pedestrians

If the course will be completely flat I'm guessing the someone will turn in a time of ~28 min for the 11 miles but those are the guys who are insane. IMO, if you can drop that time down to ~33 min or ~20mph avg you'll be good. I find a great training tool is to ride slightly slower than when you're really pushing yourself, but to do 2-3x the distance at that speed. I usually can hold ~20-22 mph on a completely flat 10 mile circuit so I'll try to do 20-30 miles at 18-20 mph, not letting the speed drop below say 15 on the slight inclines but then forcing myself to bring the avg speed back up again til it's back where I intended it to be. For this, I'll tend to put my speedometer on the avg speed setting and use that instead of the time/distance setting

Sounds like a decent mid-pack pace. The fastest guys will be WAY faster. And the slowest will be WAY slower.

FWIW, I average 21-22mph on a standard road bike and I'm a solid mid-pack age-grouper (31-35 male). My 5k is about 22 min. And my 400m swim is 8:00. The swim is by far my weakest event - mid-pack swim times are 6 min or better. The run is my strongest event.

Thanks guys. i feel better now. I was worried i'd be riding in front of the cop car that follows the stragglers ;) Average is good enough for my first sprint.

best 5K time was 15:10 in highschool (18 years ago). Due to back, feet and knee injuries I'd be very happy with a 22 min run.
my swim will just be a warmup for the bike and run. i have no thoughts about time, just not drowning

Don't forget to do brick sessions (ride then run immediately after getting off the bike) to get your legs used to running after the bike. Don't be discouraged after the first time you try this... It will get easier.

i haven't gotten to brick sessions yet. some days I'll run during lunch after a few hours break from my ride into work. i need to work up to the immediately after riding run

You've got time. Start training in the hills and your flat time will improve. You're averaging 16.8mph right now. You should be able to reach 20+ by August.

yeah it's pretty decent, +1 to colombo, 20+ is a good age grouper average,

just to make you feel sad though, ;) pro triathletes will average around 25-30, and a top TdF time trial specialist will average almost 35 mi/h over a similar course... (DZ can at least)

so yeah, you're doing pretty well though.

What I've done in the past is look up the results from your division in the prior year's race. Then figure out where you want to finish.. 2nd to last, middle of the pack, or on the podium and pick someone's time to try to mimic. You'll be able to figure out MPH in the bike and it will give you a good target for each leg to shoot for.

i hadn't thought of that Chris. thanks

i now have last year's age group winner's split times on a post-it on my keyboard ;)

Niiiice, I like the post-it idea! I'm gonna do that too. Good luck and go gettem!