1st Roadie ride done, damn I'm slow

Stuck some slicks on my CX bike and went out for a pootle around the local counry lanes today. Thought my cruising speed was reasonable, but just got back and worked it out, 32 miles with an average (total) speed of 13mph.

I’m happy that I cracked the 50km barrier and my top speed of 34mph was fun, but a bit disappointed with my avg. pace, it was a bit hilly but still was expecting something around 16-17mph???

Any pointers on upping my average speed other than ride more?

Go faster!

Ta, 🙂

Legs are fairly shot now, not sure how much faster I could of gone….

don’t be too disappointed with the average, it is amazing how much speed you can loose over hills.

Best way to improve the average speed, a few methods, pick the right route, you don’t want traffic lights and junctions, also hills will drag the average down, next ride with others, works in two ways you can get a tow and when you have something to chase.

Finally fitness and methodology, attack climbs and keep the pace high, which moves onto training and doing things like intervals. Accept that pain is good.

Ride more 🙄 = get faster.

Also it depends on the terrain, was it very hilly?

On a totally flat ride that would be slow but not on hills.

A great thing about road riding is that you very quickly see an improvement.

It takes time and hard work but you will get quicker and average speed on your computer is a great indicator of how you are doing. Good idea to write some details down after each ride, distance, average speed, conditions etc. To improve though you will have to push yourself hard, your body has the abilty to get stonger after a hard ride.

it will come!

i remember my first few rides, lasted for a slow hour and had to have a rest day..

for proper improvement i would say push yourself all the time, be on the edge of your limit for the whole ride, don’t rest at the top of hills but recover slowly on the way down etc etc.

it’s not supposed to be fun! 😛

the main thing is to get used to riding non-stop as that’s what tends to wear out new roadies even if they’re fit.

According to mapmyride 311m Elev. gain so not very hilly, but lumpy enough to not be flat 🙂

I spun my way up most hills, attacked a couple but didn’t stop at the top of any, rested on the way down etc…

Guess I was just out for a ride so to speak not pushing all of the time, stopped at the odd sign post for directions, chatted to a few people on route, took in the scenery, it was nice. My expectation’s for what that sort of ride would average was probably off.

Saying that my legs are pretty done at the end, pretty sure its the furthest I’ve ridden on a bike. I guess some shorter blasts combined with longer Sunday rides would be the way to go.

Keep up the good work and stick in. I bought a road bike 2 -3 months back and found it hard to start with. Definitely agree with the comments above about the change to continual pedalling, it’s a big change to mtb’ing.

a couple of other things apart from fitness, which at the end of the day will have to be addressed.

Some roads are harder than others, a crap surface, be it badly patched or large chippings will always be harder going. A busy road with lots of traffic can be faster as you get a tow off vehicles coming past.

Thanks for all the comments, obviously just need to get out a bit more and put in some more effort.

Guess its a start to shedding some of my 15st bulk off though, oh I’ll also add I was wearing baggies, peaked helmet, un-shaved legs and mtbing spd’s 8)

Most people are surprised by what their try average speed is so don’t worry. It’s just makes you realise how fast the pros are!

“It never gets easier you just go faster” – Greg Lemond

oh I’ll also add I was wearing baggies, peaked helmet and mtbing spd’s

Hehe. Tis De Rigeur for a newly converted MTBer riding road right? 😉

13mph isn’t as bad as it sounds, certainly over 50km and on your own on your first ride, and 300m doesn’t sound an enormous amount but it’s amazing how much it will slow you down overall!

I did a 25 mile ride the other week, taking in a fair amount of elevation (at a guess 400-450m), most of it relatively steep for a road ride, and going hell for leather I managed it in just over 90 minutes. So an average speed of just about 16mph… Trust me, had it been a flat ride, my average would have been a good 2-3mph quicker easily… Of course though, a flat ride wouldn’t have seen me topping 40mph coming down through Malvern Link though, scaring the hell out of car drivers (and myself when I remembered I hadn’t got disc brakes!) though would it!

Hills will bring your average right down. When I’ve taken the newcommers ride out hill speeds can be right down to 5/6 mph.
We also have a very hilly route of 46 miles, and although the speed between hills is around 23/30mph the average is always shy of 18mph.

If you are averaging that on your own I’d say you would average 15/16mph with another person.

it never gets easier, you just ride faster 😈

balls, too slow!

Just stick at it and ride hills to get stronger. It’s surprising how much stronger you become from going on hilly rides. Do a few of them over the weeks to come and then repeat the ride you did today to see how you’ve improved.

I started road riding about 18 months ago and struggled to reach a 14mph average.

What helped for me was joining a club with fitter, faster riders. Hard at first but you soon improve your fitness.

Now when I go on a gentle ride I average around 16mph, and a harder ride around 19mph. Training rides are 23mph’ish. I completed my first group 100 miler a few weeks ago with a 17mph average which I was chuffed with. Will be doing a solo one in the next couple of weeks and targeting the same 17mph average.

Mountain biking is more fun too as road fitness makes you naturally faster.

Ta guys, seems it not too bad from other newbies making the switch from mtbing. I’ll stick with it and come up with some sort of plan to get my pace up.

Here’s the profile, for anyone who’s interested:

One last thing I picked up some cheap Schwalbe Blizzard Sport tyres which is what I used today, they seemed ok but not knowing much about road tyres would I be ok sticking him them or would there be any noticeable difference getting something different.

Get some Continental GP4000S tyres – you will not be disappointed.

Tyres are very much a personal thing. Most of the big brands have decent fast rolling tyres. If you want something durable then the Conti Gatorskin[/url] is a good bet. 700 x 23 for steed up to 700 x 28 for comfort.

Conti GP4000s are pretty good, but I’m bias as they’re the tyres I use. 🙂 Loads of others around that are equally as good.

Edit: The GP4000’s will be lighter.

Another thing – don’t start by comparing yourself to the riding gods on STW.

Aim for the TdF Pro level first.

My first post was to illustrate the improvement over 18 month and I am far from a riding god. 🙂

I did a stunning average of 10.7 mph today riding my cross bike, and even walked up a few climbs doing the carrying thing. 48 miles altogether; it’s less about how fast and more about how fun.

I have just started road riding too.

I currently judge my progress by how many times I am sick in my mouth on the climbs. Only once yesterday on 30 miles with 1900 feet of climbing. Must be getting better. Will worry about faster later…

Just keep your Blizzards on now, treat yourself to some dancing tyres next year. Personally I never use good tyres for anything but races.

23mph average??? What are you elite?

Just get our there and ride, don’t worry too much about ave speeds at the moment, there will always be someone who can ride faster. Just enjoy it.
If you’re going to do comparisons, do them at 1 or 2 month intervals, there are too many variables to make comparisons on a week to week basis, imo.
And yes, get rid of the baggies and peak- these alone in weight will have cost you approx 0.765mph, the drag factor would cost you another 1.397mph and finally you actually look 3.768mph faster in lycra.

Just over 10mph ave over 80 miles on a singular swift with slicks and fully laden with sarnies and cake (must be over 30lb) i dream of 13mph average!

yeah as others have said, don’t worry too much about avg speed, unless you’re comparing the same route…and even then the wind can make a huge difference. Case in point…115 miles yesterday and my avg for the first ~40 miles was a good 5mph lower than the rest. Was purely down to a pesky headwind.

And possibly ignore some folks average speeds given on here… 😀

They are massaged somewhat!

And possibly ignore some folks average speeds given on here… 😀

They are massaged somewhat!

23mph average???

Oops, One minor detail I might of missed out? 😳

There’s no way I could ever achieve that. 😯 It’s a closed circuit through and off training ride and I’m always hanging off the back trying to keep up. Have only once managed to hang on til the end. Like I said, no riding god!

Apologies for miss-information. 😳

Thought you ment 23 on open road training rides…

Yeh our local midweek crit practice normally av 25-28 depending on the wind. But thats only 60-70 mins.

Any pointers on upping my average speed other than ride more?

ride shorter distances flat out. a mile should do it and will make the maths easier to work out your MPH.

30miles isn’t really a decent road ride, ride more and for longer distances and stop looking at your averages.
3x that distance with an average of 16mph is achievable with a bit of effort (i did it and i’m over the hill and a bit of a plodder)

Ignore the averages quoted by the various STW supermen no two riders or routes are the same the main thing is geting plenty of time on the bike, geting used to regularly churning out the miles.

to put it in context my commute is 20 miles each way flicking through my sportstracker logs I average out at about 15mph on the way in of a morning on fresh legs, but 17mph on the way home after a day at work. same route but in reverse, I put this down to the steeper hills being nice quick descents on the way back.

Average speeds mean nothing on their own.

keep up with your riding don’t focus too much on the numbers for now… do the exact same route in a month or so to see if you have improved.

Agree totally with cookeaa

Waht ever you do tho do not jst keep riding same route over and over. Your body adapts to that distance quickly… Always mix it up a little..

Just give it death!

Thanks for all the encouragement, although back to the mud tomorrow for a short offroad loop. I’ll look to get a bit more road riding in over the coming weeks, I have a 13/14 mile (each way) commute that I keep meaning to do more often so will using that as training.

Oh and BTW, it’s not 13mph, it’s 21kph

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