I’m working hard to achieve the magic 18MPH average, and thought I must be there today only to find it’s the same old 16.77 again.
My rides only 53 miles and only reasonably hilly so proper average. The thought of maintaining that extra 1.25MPH seems impossible now.
What I can’t get my head round is that I race in the Vets LVRC and just manage to hang on, with a average of about 24MPH in most races. When there are guys on here just ‘casually’ riding 75-100 miles thousands of feet of climbing and still average over 18MPH and don’t even race! I could cry.
More weight loss for the climbs is the only thing I can think of.

Route is Leighton Buzzard taking in Ivinghoe Beacon, Bison Hill, Toms Hill, The Crong (regional hill climb hill?)and back, for those that know the area.

Off to stick fingers down throat.

I seem to remember doing the 1st 130km of the 2000 Etape in pretty much exactly 4hours – 20mph with 3 categorised climbs (2x cat2, 1x cat4).

Then I hit Mont Ventoux, and the next 23km took me almost 2h 30mins….d’oh.

Forget the weight loss, it will come, or it won’t and won’t matter, and going uphill faster will not effect your average that much.

What you need to aim for is speed. Speed on the flat, and getting up to speed, acceleration I suppose, whenever you slow down.

Start by doing shorter distances; you know you can ride the 53, so go and do 20 but faster, then try to up the distance while maintaining the speed.

Try your 53-er by riding well within yourself on the climbs, but eyeballs out on the flat; I suspect your speed will go up, because you’re not as tired after each climb.

Think about the gearing you use in the LVRC races; you should aim to ride in those gears on your own.

Speed.

Another good way of upping your average spped is not to sit up on the descents. Most people put loads of effort in on the climbs, only to take it easy over the top. If you keep the power on over the top you’d be surprised how much quicker you’ll end up going.

As paule says, most people won’t be putting in anywhere near the effort on the flat that they could do. It’s hard work to average 18mph on your own, even if you can sit in a race at 23-24, you can’t really just sit and relax and zone out, you need to be conciously trying to push it.
Start with shorter distances and work up.

Try a couple of weeks of riding intervals riding at a speed well above your best average,harder gears than usual will help too.Start with short ones & build up to longer length ones.Have 3-5 days rest then try going for a PB again….

Going to train on some shorter evening rides to get the speed up.
I think though my weak spot is the transition between the flat roads and the climbs, I’ve got to retrain my approach from the sit in and spin MTB enduro style to a hit them faster method.

The secret to going fast is going slow. Train easy, if you feel you’re trying, it’s too fast. Roadies have the worst training regimes ever. The 18mph average will come, but I wouldn’t get fixated on it.

Just because other people can do it doesn’t mean you’ll be able to. At the end of the day you may not be genetically equipped to do 18mph

just to re-iterate what Paule was saying, you need to keep pushing on the downs. If you’ve got a HRM then try and keep your HR high when descending – takes a lot of effort but you fly. Also how’s your eating? do you find you slow in the later stages, could be you need to put more fuel in at the beginning.
Also maybe try some 30 mile rides and aim for 19 – 20 mph to get some speed into your legs

Things might not be that bad. I was talking to a local 1st cat and he reckons that’s a good average for that route especialy on your own, and that I need to find a different route for a ‘benchmark’ time.
Also someone we knew for a bit who trained with Hincappie(Ooh did I drop something) said that speed is fine, just double the distance or keep it as it is but aim for a 25MPH plus average??????????????????

Where’s me golf clubs.

It’s very seldom I get close to 18mph on a longish road ride, I’m more in the 16-17mph bracket on a good day. On my commute my best ever average was 19.1mph over 20 miles, but that was on a lovely hot summers day, a good commute average for me is around 17-18mph but as I say it would be unusual for me to maintain that speed over a longer distance. But all my riding is on my own or with much slower riders. I did average over 20mph working with a group of 3 other guys for the first 20 something miles of the Bealach Mor sportive. Last century ride I did my average was 16.1mph.

I am quite shocked at times that I manage such a low average but the weather makes a big difference. Maintaining a faster average is something I would really like to work on this year.

18mph sounds very fast as an average if you’re going up and down the chilterns with that set named hills. Find a similar length route going along the length of the escapement and back or off into the flatlands to the west and see what sort of average you get.

Keep the same wattage all the way, that means easing off on the climbs and motoring on the crests, decents and flats. As said before by another member of the wise STW!

Keep the same wattage all the way And how do you do that without very spendy kit.

Your route takes you by Aston hill. Go there. On an mtb. Forget about darkside woes.

Attaining an 18mph average when you are out on your own is a very, very different thing to doing it in a group

When there are guys on here just ‘casually’ riding 75-100 miles thousands of feet of climbing and still average over 18MPH and don’t even race! I could cry.

I doubt that very much. As above – are you training properly – resting, dogn “base”, intervals etc?

If you are just kncoking out the same circuit every time it’s not going ot help.

At the end of the day you may not be genetically equipped to do 18mph

Pah, don’t listen to him. You can do it. You might not be genetically equipped to win the tour, but you can still be quick.

And weight loss helps loads if it’s hilly. There aren’t many fat (or even big) top MTBers, cos of all the hills.

cynic-al, probably not. I know the route well and I do is set mental targets for a climb or stretch between villages and stick to those speeds.
The problem is I’m the proverbial ‘old dog’ trying to learn new tricks.

I could try midweek time trials or go back to the local crits, though both bore me rigid, enough to make me pack. the hills are definately the problem that’s what I have to concentrate on.

periodisation, no point going long and fast, get one right then the other.

3 weeks of very long rides, say 80 miles, as often as you can (saturday and sunday?) as slow as you can, if granies/kids are overtaking you youve got the pace about right. Mid week some short rides 20miles or so, can be at an average pace, just dont push yourself, thats not the point.

1 week off, just some short evening rides to keep things ticking over.

3 weeks of hard and fast riding, every 3-4 days you should go out for 1.5 hours (half hour warm up, half hour training, half hour cool down) or so and ride as hard as you can, go a bit faster, then take a break for a few min, the go fast, etc etc. If you dont want to die at the end it wasnt hard enough. Keep one big ride per week at the weekend, but keep it slow.

Take a week off, some short rides, eat lots of carbs

Then got for it.

I’ve got to factor in off road riding as well, and tbh I’m pants at the scientific part.

Like my mate says, when I was racing years ago I was nearly two stone lighter and thirty years younger.

It was all easier in the days when you just patted your St Christopher twice and went for it.

(listens for the sounds of heads hitting desks and the breeze of all the rolling eyes)

Keep pushing it a little once you’ve reached the crest of a hill. People always seem to have the mentality “great, I’m at the top, now for a rest”. Little things like that will see that average creep up.