How to increase av speed

thomsonn

So I'm after a Little advice.

I can’t break the 22mph av barrier consistently

I commute 50 miles a day every day (lets see if I can write that in the depths of winter) and I average 21/22 mph, mainly flat but 2 hills to speak of (Kingston hill and Putney hill for those in /around ldn)

I have started to build in Intervals to my commute on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I guess I get out for a 60+ ride every 3rd week (family n all)

It doesn’t matter if I do 25 mile commute or a 60+ training ride I can’t av >22mph consistently – ok honestly I can’t break 21mph on a 60m + ride

I’m a Cat 3 RR and the last race I did was an Av of 25.5 mph over 40 miles – if I’ve any hope of getting in a break away and staying with it surely I need to be able to av that sort of speed

Any advice on how to build average speed?

Toks

thomsonn wrote:

’m a Cat 3 RR and the last race I did was an Av of 25.5 mph over 40 miles – if I’ve any hope of getting in a break away and staying with it surely I need to be able to av that sort of speed

Any advice on how to build average speed?

If you can averge 22mph over 50mph five days consecutively then you definitley can make a 3rd cat breakaway. Unless its a tailwind boosted effort. What makes you think you can't make a 3rd cat breakaway? It sounds more like a confidence thing. Have you even tried? I'm not sure I'd try and break any records with winter upon us. Why not keep riding at a decent pace and leave that challenge to the spring.

damage36

Are you taking into account drafting. You're doing 22mph with your nose into the wind the whole time. In a RR you will be protected much of the time.

Floodcp

thomsonn

1 mile intervals on the turbo. If this doesnt make you faster nothing will (imho)

Warm up on the turbo and then set the resistance fairly hard.
Try to do 1 mile in 2 minutes followed by a 6min rest (spinning an easy gear)
then do another 7 sets of intervals with 6 min rests

When you can do all 8 sets within 2 mins reduce the rest period

If this doesnt really hurt the resistance is too low

Good luck

ride_whenever

1mile intervals are not going to improve average speed, they are far to short, they'll just improve your lactic threashold, which you can max out in about 4-5 weeks. Look at doing longer repeated efforts say break a 60mile ride into 3 20 mile rides separated by 15minute breaks. If you ride so over the full session your average speed is the same as before, the time spent on the bike will actually be faster. You slowly reduce the rests keeping the speed on the bike the same.

Floodcp

ride_whenever wrote:

1mile intervals are not going to improve average speed, .

I would disagree. When you are able to ride 1 mile intervals back to back without a rest you can average 30 miles per hour. Is this not what he is trying to achieve??
You would also need to supplement this with other training such as base, recovery etc in a structured fashion.
I can only say that it has helped me a lot this year.

thomsonn

hmm interesting responses thankyou.

Toks to answer your query tail wind gets my average up to about 23/23.5. I don't know the technical terms but I think i'm a bit of a plodder as in during my commute I never REALLY push myself in terms of getting my heart rate up mainly becaue A) no incentive and I am always thinking Ilve got the ride home or the rest of the weeks commute so don't want to kill myself.

from reading other forums I think intervals are the way to go but at the slightly longer rate than the 1 milers - i like what ride_whenever is saying and this concurs with some other reading I have done.

However Flood_CP can you expand on your success story - you say the 1 minute route paid dividends??

guv001

I think floodcp was recommending 1 mile intervals not 1 min.

Toks

Floodcp wrote:

I would disagree. When you are able to ride 1 mile intervals back to back without a rest you can average 30 miles per hour. Is this not what he is trying to achieve??

Er... Is this advice aimed at the general cycling population or seriously strong elite types. Please explain how 1 mile intervals are going to help me sustain 30mph.If I absolutely kill myself in 10 second sprint I may just get upto 29mph on the flat so you can see my problem :roll:

Floodcp

Ok so probably aimed more at the racing cyclist. Thomsonn did say he is a 3rd cat racer. Obviously if you are doing 1 mile intervals in isolation then it is not going to very helpful. It needs to be structured within a training program.
I possibly wrongly assummed that he has a good base especially if he can hold an average of 22mph on his own over 20 odd miles.

I have been doing it this year under the guidance of a coach and it has brought me on greatly. Dropped almost 2 mins off my 10 mile TT PB. Had some good results in my raod races too.

thomsonn

Thanks guys

All good advice and as ever different people have different advice on same topics.

sorry for the minute/mile typo earlier

As you assume Flood_CP I'd like to think that with the miles I am doing at the moment the base is there - its building on that through intervals as suggested that will get my average down.

I'll write back in a few months and let you know how the training is going