how long till I do 20mph avg?

[visual_infinity]

How much training wil it take to ride at speeds of 20MPH average? I am currently doing 14-15 or so, it changes, but on longer 20 mile trips its only 12-13MPH. I havnt been into cycling long, but I am definitely commited, I have a resting heart rate of 47BPM and when I cycle I do 160BPM. I cannot seem to go any faster, I think my maximum heart rate is 180BPM as I have only ever achieved that through excessive excercie which involed running on the spot and heavily excercising my arms with weghts at the same time. The old 220 minus your age thing can be wrong I read in a cycling book, anyway, I do 35 miles at an average of 12 MPH and I am knackered. I have made substantial progress since when I started, on my first cycle trip I did 8.7 miles in 55 minitues, I can now do the same journey in 35 minutes! In addition, if I have the enrgy, I can ride there and back in 1hr 15 so thats 13.92 MPH average (which is odd, because the 35 minute stretch was coming back after getting there - why faster coming back than going? Hills?)

So getting back to my original question, How many hours per week and for how many weeks??? How many rest days???

Jonthan

 

[J-MAT]

visual_infinity:

Nobody can tell you how long it will take or how many miles a week to ride, etc. Biological entities respond differently to training, and there are so many other variables like food, sleep, motivation, etc. that can effect your progress.

20 mph average speed is within the reach of just about anyone. Keep riding and you will continue to make progress. It takes time and you must be patient, but the good news is the less trained you are, the faster your progress will be. The hardest fitness gains to make are at the top amateur/professional level.

Fitness improves with the consistant accumulation of workouts. Ideally, you should probably ride 4-6 days a week, with at least half your rides at a subjective easy/moderate pace. Do one or two "hard" rides a week.

Hard does not necessarily mean long, it means riding faster than you normally do for shorter periods. Try something like 2x10-15-20 minute blocks at 16-17 mph once or twice a week.

After a few workouts, you will get the speed "dialed in." Set your goal for the blocks ahead of time. If you shoot for 16.5 mph for 10 minutes, then do your best to hold 16.5 mph for 10 minutes.

If 16.5 mph was too easy, go to 17-17.5 mph. If it was too hard, back it down some. Of course, once you get fitter, you will have to adjust your speeds higher. It will take courage and honesty to adjust higher. The suffering doesn't get easier, you just get faster. If you are not suffering, you are not training hard enough. You should feel like you are doing hard but manageable work.

This workout should take about an hour or so with 15 minutes of warm up/cooldown. Observe your heart rate, but don't really worry about it. There is not a good correlation between power output and heart rate. If you are too tired to go fast, just ride easy, and don't worry about missing workouts. Be sure to get plenty of sleep.

Good luck!!!

 

[devinci_freak]

Hi,

I presently almost have 20mph average on 100km rides. Here is how I trained: I worked a lot on my speed on little distances. Once my speed was good enough, I started really big rides at a moderate pace, and graduately, as I gained ease on them, I increased my speed, so that it is almost the same as on small distances. But that is not all, my next step, which is already started, is the following: make let's say 3 or four 100km rides a week only on the big crank and small rings (3-8, 3-9), to increase my strenght. Hopes that helps.

 

[TheDude]

The only way to ride faster is... to ride faster. If you want to ride at 20mph on average, you'll eventually need to ride at that speed for short amounts of time. As the other posters have pointed out, this takes time and planning. You'll get there, don't worry.

 

[JohnO]

If what you want to do is accurately gauge your progress, then be sure you're comparing apples to apples, and do so accurately.

What I did was establish a test loop, about 18 miles, mix of hills and flats. Then I got a computer (cheap) and heart rate monitor (fairly cheap), and started recording the average. While I ride in quite a few locations, that loop is when I pay attention to time and average speed.

This spring, I could average maybe 13mph on that loop. Just got back today, with a 17.3, my best ever. On flat ground, I can hold 20 - 22 mph for 10 miles, the longest flat road I can find. It's a real kick to see improvement. In my case, at age 46, it's downright flattering.

It also helps to ride with people that are faster than you are. If you never push yourself that extra bit, you never get better. And nothing gets you to push that extra bit than getting left behind.

 

[David760]

Hey Visual, I'm 52 and over the past two years of riding three or four 10 mile routes per week, plus spinning classes during the winter, I've progressed from 15mph to about 17.8 to 18.1 over the ten mile route, including hills, slowups for intersections, sprints to escape dogs, etc.. I can usually maintain 20 to 21 on flats, depending on wind. I'll tell you this: I was seriously disolutioned after I decided to be try to be like the really cool riders and get a computer. That little up or down arrow indicating how current speed is affecting your average speed is so discouraging some times. Like when I look down at it while I'm climbing a hill and see I making about 11MPH with my 52 y/o heart maxed out---realizing I'm going to have to hold 22mph for a while to meet my goal "down the road". I hope someday to do the ten miles in 30 minutes (20mph ave), but it's going to have to happen before I get much older. Keep riding!!!

 

[M2cycler]

Hey David,

I know what you mean by that avg speed thing. I think it's the most evil thing on my bike.

 

[visual_infinity]

My computer can display the average, though it will also display, on current speed on its own, so get another comp or dont look. PS dont feel bad about going up hill slow, today I road about 5 miles at 20mph and when I get to a hill I can only do 10-15 depending. Also, I do a lot of breathing deeply, it does wonders.

 

[infinitive one]

i have only started training for cycling about 2 weeks ago and i have an average of 18.48 mph for a 10 mile route

 

[visual_infinity]

Originally posted by infinitive one
i have only started training for cycling about 2 weeks ago and i have an average of 18.48 mph for a 10 mile route

Well you must have been doing it for years or was very fit anyway,