Hi
Now the “roadie average speed ” thread has dropped back a few pages , I’d appreciate any tips on how to up my average speed. I have signed up for the Pru London ride and started road riding in earnest a few months ago. Over 30,40,50 miles my speed has varied from 13.8 to 14.9ph. The last 32 mile ride had about 2700 feet of climbing and I averaged 14.1 mph. As you may guess with that small height gain I’m in the South East. Last weekend I did 69 (!!) miles at a speed of 12.8mph with more climbing- 4700 ft. Now, I think I can manage 100 miles, but at that speed I may struggle to do it in under the time limit.

Even discounting the “average” 20mph claims, how can you get to 17 mph on 100mile rides, or 15mph on ambling tours? Is it a case of getting the miles in, or being a bit smarter in what I ride eg more hill practice?
With still 3 months to go I think I have time to improve but have to make changes now.
I have been getting out early sun for the rides- I guess I need to carve out time elsewhere to get more riding/ exercise in.

Just about to go to a meeting so I won’t be ignoring any replies.

Any help will be much appreciated.

Neil

i ride locally (dartmoor) at around 13-14mph. I did last years Ride London in a shade under 20mph in horrendous conditions.

I was amazed how much difference a flat course and closed roads makes, there wasn’t any free rides either as if you got within about 3ft of someones back wheel and you got drowned.

The last 32 mile ride had about 2700 feet of climbing and I averaged 14.1 mph. As you may guess with that small height gain I’m in the South East.

Sounds like a fair bit of climbing to me?
I normally expect around 3000ft of climbing in 30 miles here in hilly west yorks/dales (that would normally take in 2 or 3 ‘cat 3’ hills, 500-1000ft each).

Broad outline of what works for me when preparing for an event/long day:

More time on the bike – every hour counts. I like a couple of short sharp rides in the week, and a longer paced effort at the weekend, plus ideally a bit of running or swimming slotted in where possible – but concentrate on the bike.

More hills in the time you are out (but don’t knock yourself out on longer rides)

Interval efforts on the flat if you don’t have any hills (I’d rather ride up hills but have a choice of a few decent climbs nearby – also in the south, it doesn’t have to be 500M ascents, short sharp ones are good, sharp long ones better :-))

I don’t really think about average speed though, just getting the time in and seeing how it pans out on the day. Easy to go hero to zero if you’re not quite right. Maybe a HRM is worth investing in, so you can learn your ‘comfort zone’?

Ride more get fitter. Or follow a specific training plan – the latter is less fun but if you are serious and stuck for time will work. In your case you don’t need to be riding full distance just do shorter rides but make them hard.

Easier tips are:-

Draft – learn how to ride in a tight group and then take turns. My race speeds are around 25mph for 50miles but 20mph solo on the same course – solo is harder.

Get aero. Look at your position and try to cut down your frontal area- less flappy clothes, take any bits off your bike, drop your stem, adjust your position (provided you don’t sacrifice comfort and end up with crippling back pain).

Pace yourself. Don’t go mad on the hills or at the start – constant effort not going into the red and building up lactic acid is more efficient than sprint and rest.

Never stop pedaling unless you are braking. Learn to get comfortable at speed so you don’t need to brake as much.

Be efficient. Look for smoother bits of road, take a racing line so you don’t scrub speed – carry speed into the bottom of climbs to make it easier. Eat on the bike, don’t stop.

Use your effort wisely. I think it makes more sense to go harder on slow climbs than on fast descents with the wind behind you.

regarding position I aim for this. Comfortable enough. hands on the hood, wrists and forearms flat on the top, back flat, head up and eyes forward.

I taught him that 😉

It’s simply a case of just riding more by the sounds of it. If you’re only riding on a Sunday then you won’t improve. Try and do it everyday.

Learn to ride in a group – you save a large amount of energy drafting but you have to take your turn on the front otherwise you’ll get shouted at and called a wheelsucker! 😆 It’s not as easy as it seems but it’s not that hard to pick up though you do need to have trust in the other riders in the group. The initial trick is to pick a group that you can hang on to, so if one goes past you at a couple of MPH faster than you are doing make an effort to join it, if the group is flying then don’t bother.

you save a large amount of energy drafting but you have to take your turn on the front otherwise you’ll get shouted at and called a wheelsucker!

not when there are 30,000 other riders you won’t.

biggest timesaver will be not stopping, not puncturing, not having a mechanical.

I lost count on the number of people fixing punctures and that was before the start line.

3 months is plenty of time. Just get out there and ride lots. Maybe pick sections of your ride to push the pace up a bit (e.g. ride hard to the next village) and do fartlek style intervals.

You might want to seek out slightly flatter routes too. If you do a very hilly route you might be mashing it up the hills, cruising down the descents, and taking it fairly easy in between. In terms of zones it might be all over the place where you may get more benefit form long sustained efforts in specific zones (e.g. long zone 2 with set intervals in zone 3 / tempo / threshold.)

You can usually find quite a bit of speed just optimising your position a bit too, you’ve got plenty of time to work on that.

Also weight, if you’re carrying too much then lose it. Plenty of time to do that.

Having said that, you’ll likely be surprised how quickly you can go in a big group.

Ride more, ride with a group or chaingang, ride intervals – you simply need to up your power, it will take time.

A better position will help a little.

@janbo

With 30,000 riders you’d hardly need to pedal the air suction will just pull you along! 😆

Less flippantly and with mechanicals and the like aside just being efficient at everything you do helps massively, whether that’s your riding or pedalling style; food stops; etc. If you use electrolyte drinks find out what is provided by the event, if it’s what you use fine, if not try it out or use your own.

Have a plan for the feed stations but be prepared to adapt it if there’s big queues for anything. If you know a feed station is coming up in the next few Km and you are behind a big group or groups of riders then get in front of them so they don’t hold you up.

As others have said, just ride more frequently even if it is just for an hour it will help. Rest is also important if you up the mileage quickly. Intervals will help for sure but will hurt but that is good. Find a hill and try and beat your time or set time goals e.g top 50% 25% 10% etc on Strava leaderboard.

Find a hill and try and beat your time or set time goals e.g top 50% 25% 10% etc on Strava leaderboard.

Smashing hills doesn’t really help as much as longer more moderate efforts. 15 to 30 minutes reps of tempo in an hour or two of z2 will have more benefit if the goal is to get better at maintaining a higher pace over long distances. All about improving efficiency (as I think someone has already pointed out.)

One of my shorter training routes is 31 miles and just over 3000ft of assent, I averaged 18.6mph the other day. In a year I’ve gone from 16.5mph through to 18.6mph on that course.

Lots of base miles, a training camp in Spain, lots of early season racing. There’s no quick solution to getting faster. Ride a lot and push your heart rate zones, reduce your body fat.

Training in winter on a heavy bike was painful but well worth it now the summer bikes out.

I wouldn’t worry about finishing, I think you’ll be fine if you’re doing those speeds now. I’m not mega fit, don’t ride a lot of road. I did a some longer road rides in the months before last year’s Ride10086 and when I was trying, I’d get high 14.something mph averages. 6 mile commute with lots of lights was 11-13mph

I did the Ride London at 20mph average in, as jambo said, atrocious conditions. The flat and the lack of traffic and traffic lights make a HUGE difference, as does having all the wheels in the world to sit on. Before the wind and rain stated down, I was clipping along at 26mph quite happily, including the odd turn on the front.

I didn’t really have a time goal or a speed goal, especially after the weather became more apparent and the course was shortened, but I decided at some point on the ride that an average speed starting with a 2 would be nice to finish with, and pushed harder if it dropped.

I did sit on some wheels in the rain, though, I figured I wasn’t going to get any wetter!

Disclaimer.- Not done Ride London but know and ride with a few who have.

Its easy as its flat and on closed roads ( swept as well I think ) .

To make it easier , and to get maybe 1 or 2 mph faster I would do a Tuesday eve hill reps session , either 1 hill and rep it , or a ride that is deliberately hilly.

Thurs eve HIT tabbata style intervals , 30 mins of seeing stars..

LSD every weekend . Aim for 4rs on the bike.

Try and drop 1kg a month as that will help alot and should be easy .

Ride with faster people.. you’ll be surprised how much more you can push yourself. Its easy to back off a notch if you are solo.. but if you have to keep up on a faster riders wheel then you will.

Actually go out and train to get faster rather than just riding more. Sure, riding more will help, but it’s not the most efficient way to do it. I’d be looking at doing 3 hard interval sessions per week with at least 1-2 longer steady effort rides. The beauty of the intervals is they’ll increase your top end power and due to the short recovery times between efforts, improve how quickly you recover too. This will mean that come sportive day you’ll be able to push a little harder on the hills then recover quickly on the downhill/flat sections sufficiently to keep pushing.

My personal favourites are tabata intervals 4 times/week with 1 long ride thrown in over the weekend. Tabata intervals are stupidly hard but great if you don’t have a lot of time. A better option might be to look at the likes of Bike Radar etc to find one of their 12 week sportive plans. Will be just what you’re looking for. Structured interval sessions and long ride progression.

LSD every weekend . Aim for 4rs on the bike.

Not sure I’d be in a fit state to ride a bike on LSD 😉

Its easy to back off a notch if you are solo..

I was half tempted to suggest getting a power meter 🙂 Definitely Prevents slacking off on rides if you are riding to zones.

Ride with faster people.. you’ll be surprised how much more you can push yourself.

This. The difference between a quickish 14mph average and a trying-very-hard 17mph is mostly psychological. For me, anyway, if I keep pushing and I have some motivation I’m a lot quicker. At least that’s my experience. You may already be working at 100% on your solo rides I suppose.

To improve beyond that you’ll need to put in some serious training of course.

Thanks for all replies. I’ll have better read during tomorrow and probably come back with some more questions. My “me time” has just started at 11.50 so this is one area that needs addressing if I am going to get any evening training in. One thing that is working so far, I was 89kg in Jan and am now at 76kg.

Thanks again

Neil

Anything over an hour keep fuelling and drink sensibly and well done on weight loss. Less weight is faster. Also look at cadence, keep a high cadence don’t push a big ring. To go faster you need to cycle faster, intervals over short distances. Always change your ride distance and effort. Short fast, long slow, hills, intervals etc

If you’re struggling with finding the time to get out on the bike then a turbo with a TrainerRoad subscription is a good bet. A couple of small kids here make can it tricky to get out on the bike and I’ve spent 410 hours, often late at night, on the turbo over the past couple of years!

I was 89kg in Jan and am now at 76kg.

That’s amazing, well done. More to come off, or are you happy where you are?

Hi
Thanks for all those who replied.

Not long after my initial post I did an Evans 80 mile ride and did well for the first 40 miles, then struggled until the end. Managed an average speed of 13.8mph and 4600ft of climbing. I was getting slower in the last 10 miles so still had doubts over the full 100 miles.

I then increased the miles; changed my route to incorporate some (southern) hills and after selling my Spitfire had space to get the tubby trainer set up for some intervals.

I recently did the ride that prompted this post and knocked just under an hour off the time getting an average of 14.7mph. The climbs weren’t such an issue and I felt that I could have done more.

To top it off, the following weekend, I managed an 85 mile ride with over 5300 ft of climbing in 5 hrs 25 an average speed of 15.5mph. God knows where that came from!

The weight loss has steadied- I was fluctuating around 75kg for a while but am now just under 73kg. I’d like to get below 70kg, but I’m looking forward to carb loading for the Pru ride soon!

Anyway, thanks for the advice it has certainly helped. If anyone’s doing the Pru ride, see you on the 2nd!

Neil

Ride London averages seem a shade higher than normal for the riders I know.

To get the best from yourself in three months:

Lose weight-stay off the booze, eat sensibly etc
Ride more- and faster not just base miles, set goals.
Build muscle- bit of gym work also helps to lose weight
Motivate- ride with people faster than you etc

After doing the 2013 London 100
I thought the same thing.” How can I improve”
Well I came up with the theory……ride as fast and as hard as you can, every time you’ve got your lungs back!!
I know it sounds crazy, and I know you can’t do it all the time…but simple things first like …when climbing a hill change to a harder gear and stand up pedal …….after a while ….you’ll see improvement….but you really need to push , push!!