Dark side newbie, average mph.

Redfred237

Hi everyone,
I've finally decided to turn to the dark side and buy a road bike, I've been commuting to work for the last few years and also doing off road stuff at the weekends. Can't call it mountain biking in the Fens.
I recently suffered a heart attack back in April (one too many mid ride cakes) now on the mend and fully stented up, So I decided to get me a race bike. after looking on and off for about a year and debating weather to spend money on a better Mtb. I have now stopped farting about and after trying several bikes I bought an Orbea ttg from my lbs, Liked it from the minute I hit the road.
First solo ride out as soon as I picked it up did 30 miles and averaged 15mph felt really chuffed with myself, next ride out I went with some friends who said that we should try to average 20mph. Did 28 miles with a head wind both ways and still only got 15mph average. but by the end of the ride I was totally spent. I had absolutely nothing left in me, any slight incline or increase in effort was too much for me not my heart but my thighs had nothing left in them.
My question guys is two fold what should I expect as a beginner to average, and has anyone else on here recovered from a heart attack to return to cycling?

Thanks in advance.

Essex Man

Were your "friends" trying to kill you?

20 mph for 30 miles is a fast pace. Stick to your own pace and push yourself more each time, within the limits of your health of course. If your ride left you tired, you can't expect anymore of yourself.

15 mph into a headwind is a good pace, how come the headwind was both ways?!

flanners1

I would not beat yourself up about average speeds, depends on terrain, bike, how you feel, time of day, traffic, what you had to eat, who you are with etc etc. It is an nice to be aware of it but not the be all and end all IMO

Get some miles in and then watch your average speed, fitness and endurance rise.

Redfred237

Essex Man wrote:

Were your "friends" trying to kill you?



15 mph into a headwind is a good pace, how come the headwind was both ways?!

That's quiet normal for round here, very rarely get a tail wind. Going to work and coming home is the same.

Anonymous

Just enjoy the riding, the speed will come!

Nice one for getting out post heart op!

SLX01

I have coronary heart disease and have had a stent fitted so know how you feel it can be a worry especially if you have had a heart attack. Just ride at a pace you are comfortable at and if possible get a heart rate monitor to help judge your work level.

msw

First solo ride out as soon as I picked it up did 30 miles and averaged 15mph felt really chuffed with myself, next ride out I went with some friends who said that we should try to average 20mph. Did 28 miles with a head wind both ways and still only got 15mph average. but by the end of the ride I was totally spent. I had absolutely nothing left in me, any slight incline or increase in effort was too much for me not my heart but my thighs had nothing left in them.

Bear in mind there's a lot of other variables too - 2 rides isn't a big sample size! You could have been having an off day, have slept badly, have allergies playing up (if you are a European pro...). After a few more rides you'll get an idea of your normal, pushing it and going hard paces, but as others said don't get too hung up on it - it's good to get to know your own effort levels rather than pegging it to a speed.

bompington

Redfred237 wrote:

with a head wind both ways

You're clearly picking up roadie culture already!

mattward1979

On my recent club ride I managed 20 miles in nearly exactly 1 hour... I was over the moon!! Been trying for the magic 20 for a while.

Ive been riding for coming up to 2 years now, and I was drafting club mates for about 50% of the ride so things were in my favour.

Dont rush for massive speed over distance yet or the strain could be damaging... Enjoy your rides and let the speed develop

Redfred237

Thanks for all your encouragement and advice .

Garz

NapoleonD wrote:

Just enjoy the riding, the speed will come!

Nice one for getting out post heart op!

+1

well done fred.

anto164

Garz wrote:

NapoleonD wrote:

Just enjoy the riding, the speed will come!

Nice one for getting out post heart op!

+1

well done fred.

+1 again!

When i started out a couple of months ago, i struggled to ride for more than 10 miles without my legs burning.

Now i'm happy doing 50 miles at a time, with an average of just over 17.5mph. The speed and the endurance keeps coming as i'm out ont he bike more. Also, where i live (On the tip of a peninsular where there's always a headwind) there's always a headwind on the way home from any ride, so it makes for a more of a workout for the last 10 miles or so.

You'll find the more you go out, the easier it is to add miles on, and easier to get up to pace and stay there!

Redfred237

[

quote="SLX01"]I have coronary heart disease and have had a stent fitted so know how you feel it can be a worry especially if you have had a heart attack. Just ride at a pace you are comfortable at and if possible get a heart rate monitor to help judge your work level.

[/quote]

Have got and been using heart rate monitor, just had my work rate increased by cardiac rehab team to 160 bpm max. Very hard to stick to this when out on bike but aware that it's got to be done.

ceeque

I`m a full-on double-stented member of the heart disease club also, with a top-max heart rate of 160(thats pretty generous for me btw, don`t tell anyone ....). I freakin` love riding my bike and would consider 15mph for an hours riding a good result. Getting to 20 is a different story with too many variables to go into here.....
As above, just get the miles in and the speed will come pretty much naturally I reckon, just don`t try and do it all at once ..... have fun!

on the road

They probably have their computers incorrectly setup.

keef66

I've been riding my road bike for just about 2 years. I'm soon to be 53, and only get out a couple of times a week for 20-50 miles. Max I've ever seen on the HRM while on the bike is 186. It's not exactly mountainous round here, but neither is it flat. When I first started my average door to door speed was about 12mph, and now the best I can manage is 15mph, and I can't see that improving unless I join a club. It doesn't concern me in the slightest.

Average speed is so easily affected by wind, weather, traffic, junctions etc. Don't beat yourself up about it.

on the road

Even in a club you wouldn't get above 17mph average unless it was an out and out racing club. 17mph would be when they were belting it but 15-16mph would be the norm.

Oz Chief

Got a similar storyline as O.P. except minus the Heart Attack and probably about 20-30 years.

After pestering my wife for a while, she bought me (I bought myself) a Specialzed Allez Sport road bike.

On the weekend, I took it for it's first ride, on my own.

Did 35 miles at just over 15mph, no wind, some good hills.

My only query is going up the hills. Riding up a decent steep hill i could only do about 30 r.p.m cadence. (Although it was such a struggle i wasnt looking much) On my mountain bike on the same hill I would do about 50-60 r.p.m cadence, and not seem struggle nearly as much.

Is this how road bikes are, or is there a problem in the set up or something?

Chris James

Oz Chief wrote:

...My only query is going up the hills. Riding up a decent steep hill i could only do about 30 r.p.m cadence. (Although it was such a struggle i wasnt looking much) On my mountain bike on the same hill I would do about 50-60 r.p.m cadence, and not seem struggle nearly as much.

Is this how road bikes are, or is there a problem in the set up or something?

You need to change to a lower gear!

I comfortably climb at about 75rpm. When I am really, really struggling (say 1 in 4 gradients) then it may drop to about 45-50 rpm.

30 seems far too low, and you run the risk of injuring yourself. If you are already in your lowest gear then I would avoid the worst hills until you have built up some more strength.

Jon Buoy

I'm a newbie too and had a similar experience to the OP when out riding with some more experienced guys. I managed to keep up for the first half of the ride, until we hit the first big-ish hill which wiped me out and rode back at a very leisurely pace, feeling every slight incline. :oops:

Once back home, I drank loads of water and can only guess that I had become dehydrated causing the fatigue that I experienced.

I now carry two water bottles, one with a high energy boost and the other plain old water.
Have since ridden the same route at a similar pace, but made sure that I drank lots both before and during the ride without similar tiredness.

Don't underestimate the importance of keeping well hydrated.

NicolasD

I ride my mountain bike on roads fairly often (planning on getting a road bike) and one of my first longer bike rides (~25miles) I had a moderate headwind in the middle of ride that completely beat me up. A couple months later, I did 60miles, but since there was no wind I had a lot more energy when I finished so wind definitely makes a huge difference. I probably didn't even hit 10mph on average not counting the breaks I took to eat or walk so I would definitely say take your time.

Pretre

Chris James wrote:

Oz Chief wrote:

...My only query is going up the hills. Riding up a decent steep hill i could only do about 30 r.p.m cadence. (Although it was such a struggle i wasnt looking much) On my mountain bike on the same hill I would do about 50-60 r.p.m cadence, and not seem struggle nearly as much.

Is this how road bikes are, or is there a problem in the set up or something?

You need to change to a lower gear!

I comfortably climb at about 75rpm. When I am really, really struggling (say 1 in 4 gradients) then it may drop to about 45-50 rpm.

30 seems far too low, and you run the risk of injuring yourself. If you are already in your lowest gear then I would avoid the worst hills until you have built up some more strength.

+1 - you can injure your knees really badly if you try & push a gear at 30rpm - change down (a lot of gears!) or get off if you're really pushing that slowly.

datpat64

All advice here is good. I'm surprised you managed a 15 MPH average so quickly !

I've been on my bikes for 18 months now and regularly do 140 miles a week. I'm lucky to be riding at much more than 18-19 mph unless I'm on flat TT course. Bear in mind wher you live will have an impact on this.....hills reduce averages

Try getting 15 mph averages in and around the Peak District

Dave

blackpoolkev

With reference to the headwind issues -the effort needed to overcome wind resistance goes up very sharply with airspeed, infact as a cube function, e.g.if you output 15watts of power to travel at15kph,you would need to output 120watts(15 x 2 x 2 x 2 =120) to double your speed to 30kph.Therefore you will find it harder to improve your average speed the faster you go(assuming similar aerodynamics).
Don't forget, on a calm day you will still have a 15mph headwind while riding at 15mph!
Also,if you are out for a couple of hours, a small snack(bananas seem good enough for pro tennis players and work for me) and plenty of fluids should help alleviate the end of ride exhastion that you exprienced.

milese

Average speed is relative to yourself and your local terrain so if your going to worry about it, only worry about your own.

I like to keep a log of average speeds on certain routes (and now the Garmin does it for me). There is a local loop of 16.4 miles that used to take 1 hour 2mins, that I did in 52 mins on Sat (18.5mph).

Its taken a lot of riding though to bring it down that much.

Rich Hcp

Milese wrote:

Average speed is relative to yourself and your local terrain so if your going to worry about it, only worry about your own.

+1

cheaperholidays

Hi

Does anyone ride with a camel back instead of water bottles?


Handy on hot days..

anto164

i use my camelbak when mtbing, only problem i hate with them is the sweaty back..

Rich Hcp

cheaperholidays wrote:

Hi

Does anyone ride with a camel back instead of water bottles?


Handy on hot days..

Yes, Camelbak Slipstream, small and not too sweaty

Whats a hot day?

Redfred237

Oz Chief wrote:

Got a similar storyline as O.P. except minus the Heart Attack and probably about 20-30 years.

Hi, Just to clarify I was 39 when had the heart attack back in April, Now 40

Flurst

I'm 50 in a couple of weeks and have been cycling a year, I have 4-5 circuits I do regularly and always record the data, time, avg speed, how I felt and wind direction and I have been slowly improving all the while, as much as 10 minutes better on a 20 mile run. I am now a few kilo's lighter and feel great, one thing I have noticed is that on average my max HR was around 165 and recently I've been able to get up around 175, I guess this is my body being able to cope with being pushed harder!!!