Just come back to road cycling, how bad is this?

over-the-hill
over-the-hill Posts: 144
edited April 2008 in Workshop
I've come back to road cycling after 38 years away but have been off road cycling for the last 2 years although not all that frequently. I'm 53. My first ride out I averaged 15.2 mph over a very hilly run of 10 miles, my max speed was 37 mph my highest gear is 40/12 . My lowest gear is 34/26 which I had to use a couple of times on some very steep bits of road. I have done the same route on my MTB and it took roughly ten minutes longer. My immediate aim is to get to 30 mins for 10 miles but will probably need a flatter course.

Just out of interest, how much tougher would 39/27 be?

Comments

  • John C.
    John C. Posts: 2,113
    Do you really mean 40/12 is your highest gear ? if so then you need to up the gearing.
    Well done on your return, sounds like a very acceptable time to me for a hilly ride.
    As for the 39/27, it's about one or two gear drops less than you have now.
    http://www.ripon-loiterers.org.uk/

    Fail to prepare, prepare to fail
    Hills are just a matter of pace
  • over-the-hill
    over-the-hill Posts: 144
    Thanks for the encouragement. Sorry, it's a 50/12!
    I've got a compact 50/34 at the front and a 12/26 cassette.
    Glad I don't have 53/39 (nearly bought an 07 Tarmac) although I do find I need to use the front gears more than I thought.
  • Mettan
    Mettan Posts: 2,103
    over-the-hill wrote:
    I've come back to road cycling after 38 years away but have been off road cycling for the last 2 years although not all that frequently. I'm 53. My first ride out I averaged 15.2 mph over a very hilly run of 10 miles,

    IMHO, 15.2 over a hilly 10 is good for a first ride - interestingly, what was the ascent/elevation in ft ?
  • BUICK
    BUICK Posts: 362
    Sounds very good to me. Hope you weren't feeling too bad the next day?!
    '07 Langster (dropped one tooth from standard gearing)
    '07 Tricross Sport with rack and guards
    STUNNING custom 953 Bob Jackson *sigh*
  • over-the-hill
    over-the-hill Posts: 144
    Mettan wrote:

    IMHO, 15.2 over a hilly 10 is good for a first ride - interestingly, what was the ascent/elevation in ft ?

    Not sure how I find that info. I use a Cateye wirless computer and I don't think it gives that data.
  • aracer
    aracer Posts: 1,649
    You could plot your route into http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/ to get height info.
  • over-the-hill
    over-the-hill Posts: 144
    aracer wrote:
    You could plot your route into http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/ to get height info.

    Not sure what these figures mean but the ascent was 551 ft, descent was 571 ft
  • Mettan
    Mettan Posts: 2,103
    over-the-hill wrote:
    aracer wrote:
    You could plot your route into http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/ to get height info.

    Not sure what these figures mean but the ascent was 551 ft, descent was 571 ft

    Yep, that sounds about right - although if you start and finish at the same point (ie - from your house) and you plot your route accurately on BikeRouteToaster you should end up with the exact same ascent and descent (often you can be a few feet out as you click fractionly over or under your start finish position though) - you're roughly right though - and yes 551 ft is a nice hilly 10 miler - I did a very hilly 436 ft ascent over 5.2 miles today - I'm training for a very Hilly Sportive coming up soon, so am picking very/extremely hilly loops from home.
  • over-the-hill
    over-the-hill Posts: 144
    Mettan wrote:
    over-the-hill wrote:
    aracer wrote:
    You could plot your route into http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/ to get height info.

    Not sure what these figures mean but the ascent was 551 ft, descent was 571 ft

    Yep, that sounds about right - although if you start and finish at the same point (ie - from your house) and you plot your route accurately on BikeRouteToaster you should end up with the exact same ascent and descent (often you can be a few feet out as you click fractionly over or under your start finish position though) - you're roughly right though - and yes 551 ft is a nice hilly 10 miler - I did a very hilly 436 ft ascent over 5.2 miles today - I'm training for a very Hilly Sportive coming up soon, so am picking very/extremely hilly loops from home.

    No the finish was at my destination which is close to the elevation of my house I then rode back the other way slightly faster. I'm still not exactly sure what the figures mean. Is it some kind of average?
  • redddraggon
    redddraggon Posts: 10,862
    Mettan wrote:
    I did a very hilly 436 ft ascent over 5.2 miles today - I'm training for a very Hilly Sportive coming up soon, so am picking very/extremely hilly loops from home.

    I'm not sure I'd class 436ft over 5.2miles as very hilly - my 6 mile commute I do every day is about 480ft of climbing (probably more as bikely seems to miss out a tall bridge I have to climb at the beginning) - I rarely even leave the big ring.

    When you say extremely hilly loops where are you talking about?
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  • scapaslow
    scapaslow Posts: 305
    Aracer, thanks for the link to bikeroutetoaster.com - it will great to get a good idea of the ascents in my local loops without one of the GPS computers.

    I have a local 15 mile hilly loop that i do frequently and just found out it's got 820ft of ascent. I average between 26 -28 kmph for this which i always thought was crap. Maybe it's not quite as bad as i thought as i hadn't realised there was quite as much climbing in it, though it always feels tough.

    Thanks again.

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