cycling times

hi
i'm still completely new to road biking (2 months), i've been road running in races for 2 years now and know the times of good runners and average runners like myself. i'm going to do a duathlon event shortly 3k run 14k bike 3k run on a flat circuit.
most of you in this forum seem to be experienced good cyclists my question is what sort of time do you guys do 14k(8.70miles) or say 10 miles in? flat course and a normal road bike (not TT). What is average time and what is a good time?
it will give me some idea of a goal to aim for, i'm pretty slow at the moment, so just building up my stamia is priority
i don't seem to use the same muscles cycling as i do for running.

 

my times so far is just over 28 minutes, works about about avg 18mph

 

Thats okay.

I know a number of triatheletes and i think for a 14 k ride leg they would be averaging between 32 and 38 km/hr.

Don't concentrate too much effort on your bike leg though as you already noted you get big thighs and short hamstrings. Doesn't help the run at all. You need to just do enough to get your strength. Training for such an event is best by yourself after you have learnt technique. Cyclists speed goes up and down - you need constant speed with intervals sometimes.

 

As others have pointed out your goals in a duathalon or tri are different since you've got to run after you get off the bike and especially as a runner you're better off putting out your best effort in that leg vs. the bike. Anyway as a roadie I do flat 10 mile time trials in 22 to 25 minutes. The longer times are on really windy days or during stage races where the TT often follows a crit or circuit race on the same day or a road race the day before. Basically a good goal for a road racer is to get under an hour for a 40km time trial which means 25 mph average speed. A shorter event like a 10 mile TT should be faster. I don't ride a custom TT bike but use clip on aero bars on my road frame but I do wear an aero helmet and have deep V aero rims which both help.

That's racing. In training I tend to cover 7.5 to 8 miles in my 20 minute Threshold blocks so that works out to something like 23 to 24 mph on a course that's mostly flat but has one moderate(big ring) climb for about three minutes out of the 20.

I'm competitive in master's races, but not super fast relative to my competition or younger guys. I finished 3rd in my age group for a recent hill climb time trial but 22nd overall so those times above are decent but not fast relative to the really fast guys. I did a 10 mile TT in a stage race earlier this summer that I finished in 24:36 for 10th place, the winning Cat1/2/Pro rider cleaned that course in 19:55, that's over 30 mph! 'course we didn't have to jump off our bikes and start running but we did have a crit a few hours later.

Anyway, don't know if that info is encouraging or not, but FWIW I wasn't turning times anywhere near these a year ago or even 20 years ago when I raced seriously and put in a lot more miles yearly. I train less and go faster now and I thank my power meter, Hunter and Coggan and folks from this forum for teaching me how to train effectively.

Good luck,
Dave

 

thanks for the replies, very very interesting and wow great times!!

 

a bit off topic, but as an aspiring duathlete...
what is your running time for the 2 3k stretches?

 

hi
just to give you my background i'm 33 , stopped smoking 8 years ago. Have never done physical activity till 2 years ago when i started running. i'm not a natural runner i think i'm pretty average, my 3k time 12m:25s my 5k pb 21m:20s my best mile time is 6:04. how about you guys?

i wonder how cyclists compare, apparently cycling is good for running (all round leg strength) but running does nothing for cycling. i've noticed since cycling my hams are slightly tighter as expected and warned but my running has improved slightly, might just be overall fitness.

since my post i've now managed 14k on a bike in 25m:44s (avg (32.6km/h)
moderate winds on the course. i'm well pleased with that after 6 weeks on a bike! the improvements will slow up now i'm sure

i hope i'm training correctly

at the moment i'm only interested in small duathlon events (the race is 15/8/07 3krun,14kbike,3krun)

The way i've been bike training is just doing a 14k flat course at a hard but steady pace , just on my lactice threshold, just trying to stand the burn in the legs as long i can with out stopping pedaling.

I also have a short 4.5mile course with a very steep mile long hill in it,gets my heart rate to nearly max for at least 9 minutes. i push hard on this fast course, takes 15 mins in total. Before i do this bike course i get my bike ready in my house,go for a 1k run, back to the house quickly get the helmet and straight on the bike and do the fast bike course. Return to the house then the 1k run loop again. This really produces the dead leg transition nightmare, take 2 mins for legs to wake up.

i want to to find a course where i can actually run 3k, 14k bike and 3k run to complete similate the race, but its tricky where i live to find a fairly flat 14k route.

i'm no expert on training i just made this up myself, i always time myself and its great fun getting those PBs. i'm pretty consistant this days with my times.

 

It really depends on how advanced you are in either sport. For a beginning to intermediate aerobic athlete cross training in either direction can help. As you get more specialized and trained to a higher level there's a lot less training crossover. But most of the published studies show a better crossover from weight bearing sports(running, nordic skiing) to cycling than the other way around. I run during our early winter and late spring mud seasons when the roads are really icy and there's not enough snow to track ski and it helps my cycling but not as much as good training on the road bike or even the indoor trainer.

Probably not, 6 weeks is just getting started. I got back on the bike last summer after a decade layoff from serious training and my improvements have been steady all year including another big jump in sustainable power just a few weeks ago. You've just got to stick with steady training and avoid overtraining and burnout or undertraining and stagnation. Take the long view and you can keep improving for quite a while.

That's basically the essence of Threshold or Sweet Spot Training. You don't need to work right at your threshold all the time though as long as you stay pretty close to it for those longer efforts. Basically as long as your long blocks are at least 10 minutes long and better yet 20 or more and you ride them at a steady pace where you end up with deep steady breathing and it requires a lot of mental focus then you're right where you want to be for developing your core aerobic fitness. Some days can be a bit easier with longer efforts and some days right up against your best race pace but these workouts will pay off big time with better race splits.

The short stuff you mention can be good for developing the top end of your aerobic fitness or VO2 Max fitness as long as the efforts are at least 3 minutes long. As a duathalete you're basically doing running and biking time trials so you want to focus on aerobic activities. Anything shorter than 3 minutes will emphasize anaerobic metabolism and that shouldn't be your focus.

Sounds like your training instincts are pretty good. You don't need to actually replicate your events too often. It's o.k. to do run days and bike days and just put them together from time to time. That way you can give your best training focus to each sport. Google "arthur lydiard" for info on how this applies to running and extrapolate his concepts of "train don't strain" and building a large base of sub-threshold work before adding speed work to cycling. There's a lot of good info on the cycling aspects in the training forum and power forum. Search on L4, SST, Threshold and other subjects. A lot of this stuff points back to Lydiard's work with runners so if you get it right for one sport you should be able to extend it to the other.

Good luck,
Dave

 

thanks Dave for the great reply, i found the lynaid site on google after
http://www.fitnesssports.com/lyd_clinic_guide/Arthur%20Lydiard.pdf

its a great read i now understand more about aerobic and anaerobic workouts
i'm going to add some extra training he suggests to my weekly schedule. not sure i can manage as much training as he suggests just yet.

i wore a heart rate monitor on the quick bike route yesterday for the first time,looking back at th report I stayed 5 minutes in zone 4 and 8 minutes in zone 5.

duathlon race tomorrow looks like it will be raining

 

did my duathlon race tonight 3k,14k,3k one side of the circuit is very windy however: for any one interested

managed 12:15 on the first 3k
35 second transition
24.55mins for 14k bike(33.7k/h)
35second transition
but did a terrible 15min 3k on the last leg,very disapointing, my calfs were trying to go into cramp and my legs were dead just had nothing left in the tank. give it my all on the bike.
my total time was 53:22 the race i did was 54:58
very pleased considering my lack of bike training and duathlon experience

I really love this multisport, highly recommend people having a go