Your opinions on my performance

Hello I am David and this is only my second post.

I am new to biking although I have always owned a bike and I just got my first road bike a little over a month ago and began riding some distance. I have a trek 1500 I guess a good intro bike perhaps. I am 5'9 160 pounds or 73 kilos, and 33 years old. I rode 30 miles yesterday on fairly smooth road where half of it was flat and half was rolling hills w/ average hill being 200 yards, and wind was around 5 to 10 miles per hour half of the time for me and half against me. My average speed was 17.9 mph, duration 1 hour 40 minutes, average heart rate was 164 which is 81% for me, average cadence was 91 per minute. I know it is very difficult to determine how well someone is performing even with this much info, but generally speaking is this ok or average? I plan on training throughout the winter and entering some races in the spring hoping just to finish with the pack. Your opinions will be greatly appreciated.
David

Sounds pretty decent for a recreational or club cyclist. You're definitely ready to start looking into the local club rides and learning how to ride in a group. That'll help keep you motivated to ride, and will be valuable experience if you're looking to race next year. Good luck.

I would suggest recording this information over a number of rides in the next while and the average of them (each day is different) would be your current performance. Good or not, no idea.

Then in the future you can monitor your progress (i.e. same speed but lower heart rate in similar conditions, or you maintain a heart rate you're comfortable with and go further, faster.

You should also read threads on setting goals, recovery rides, training programs, intervals, etc...lots of info.

Good luck.

Also, in a shorter race you can expect to average 90% or more of your maximum heart rate. It would be good to some training at that intensity. The motivation of riding with others can really help. I did a 156 km race a few weeks ago, and my average heart rate was ~85% max for the 4 hours.