Putting in the miles

Jordan93

I mainly ride at a constant pace, like the pro's only slower . Anyway I don't do any interval, hill or sprint training. Will my rides that i do now make my avg. speed increase?

Is it a necessity to do hill/interval training?

freehub

They will, just vary your routes, mixed, hilly and flat.

You need to push hard though to get faster.

If you're ever gonna do TT's the interval and sprint training is good.

That's as much as I can say I don't know any more than that.

Jordan93

I do push myself hard every time I ride, when I get off the bike i'm usually wet through with sweat and i'm very fit/active.

freehub

Does your legs ever ache after a ride?

Jordan93

Yes, like immediately after the ride for awhile but usually subsides before the next day. Soreness/aching is caused by DOMS which is caused mainly by Eccentric contractions.

doyler78

Intervals give you more bang for your time. So long as your efforts are truely hard then you will likely see gains however that is dependent on terrain. If you are riding rolling terrain then you are unlikely to be getting any quality threshold efforts in therefore any gains WRT gains average speed (power) will be much slower than if you done intervals which focused specifically on doing this or if you incorporated into a longer ride where you can find a section of road that allows you complete the intervals properly paced (not necessarily consistently paced as that is dependent on terrrain).

I can ride around for 2 hours on a rolling course (which is my natural terrain) and go as hard as I can and come out with a highly variable power with loads of time spent freewheeling and lots of time hitting the sharp rises very hard. At the end my legs will be trashed.

I can go out a ride the same route but push the downhills and moderate my efforts on the rises to try and keep a consistent effort (not pace) and if I am pushing that effort just below my 1 hour limits (threshold) then I will get back and my legs will be trashed.

The 2 rides were completely different. The second ride will have done much more for building power and the first will do much for helping me to ride hard for short periods (such as in a road race where I would need to accelerate out corners, bridge gaps, etc) but will not do a whole pile for building my sustainable power.

That's why terrain is important and why pace can be a poor indicator of effort on anything other pan flat roads or on a trainer (which is set up consistently).

It's all about what's important to you.