I must be able to go faster....

Keiron Curtis

I've been commuting 40 mile roundtrip, 3 or 4 times a week, for 4 years or more, but I'm a 12mph plodder. With the influx of dozens more people commuting by bike like myself, I've become sick and tired of everyone flying by me. How can I go faster? I ride a 27 speed Raliegh Pioneer GT tourer, but with straight bar. Should I consider a more aggressive set up on the bike? Replace the bar with the original drops? By the way I'm a lzy sod.

andysol

Maybe you know the answer to this. But you need to put more effort in! And alternate days slower than now. But you should be out of breath and sweaty on the days when you push it. A heart rate monitor may help you but you don't really need one, your body will tell you when you are pushing it.

You could use a simple speedo, and monitor average speed. Then try to beat it every day you try harder. But mix days of effort with plodding.

But enjoy it, if you enjoy plodding then whats wrong with that!

Depends on what youre target is.
Andy

Keiron Curtis

Cheers andysol,
As you say more effort, there's a word that frightens me! I hear what you say, and I agree, as long as I enjoy the ride, that's the main thing. But I will try this "getting out of breath thing" now and then. As far as heart monitors etc., I'm a real technophobe, read lazy there, gizmos just fall apart on me.

The Ors

Keiron Curtis wrote:

I've been commuting 40 mile roundtrip, 3 or 4 times a week, for 4 years or more...By the way I'm a lzy sod.

You've just contradicted yourself there!

I think you're possibly being a little bit hard on yourself; 40 mile round trip is a fair old commute. Just remember that these guys that go flying past you are (statistically) going to be doing a far shorter journey.

Blue Meanie

Distance gives you form.
Training gives you strength.
Recovery gives you speed.

Join a bike club, or start entering Sportives. Don't buy a £1k bike, they make you slow becuase they're too easy to pedal; pedalling easy will never make you faster.

lemoncurd

Replacing the bar will make no difference at 12 mph.

If you want to increase your average speed you'll need to work at it by pedalling harder and faster. Pick a quiet stretch of road on your commute and go hard, as hard as you can maintain for the section that you've picked. Once you've got your breath back pick another section and repeat.

Works for me.

The Rookie

Pedal that bit faster, you soon realise what effort you can sustain that will not wear you out but will make you hot an sweaty yet you can sustain for the length of your commute. Aim to pedal with one effort and at near enough one pedal speed and use your gears to keep you at that up and down hill, that reduces fatigue and increases speed versus flogging uphill in too high a gear or coasting down.

Make sure your tyres are upto pressure, they will give max and min pressure on them, most road tyres (even trekking style) will run to at least 80psi, I run mine at 80 rear and 60 frnt (rough roads, it takes the sting out), I drop about 1mph average speed if I run them at the 45psi (the min).

If you have a smart phone see if you can get the 'sport tracker' app for it, it uses GPS and plots course, speed and you can upload and get other data (averages over each 0.5km of route for example) which is great for comparing day to day performance over the same route, I don't use it every day, but when I want to check progress or if I make any changes I want to confirm.

Simon

skdotcom

Tarmac specific narrow tyres at a high pressure help rolling resistance. I average 15-16mph on a 30 mile round trip commute with 25c tyres at 110 psi.

I do get sweaty cycling to work though. and pass a lot of people on bikes who clearly are cycling at a speed such that they don't need to change clothes when they get to work.

Keiron Curtis

Thanks guys, a few good pieces of advice there, and I appreciate you all going to the trouble to pass it on to me. Cheers.

cje

40 mile round trip 3-4 times a week? That's impressive at any speed. I'd probably be one of those people that fly past you because my commute is only 4.5 miles so I can go flat out, but I've never done 40 miles in a day.

Lycra Man

Keiron - if you want to go faster, you'll have to stop being a lazy sod.

You are the motor, so put some more effort in, and you will see the results. Don't expect miracles immediately, but you must have good background fitness to do a 20 mile each way commute. 12 mph = 1.6 hours. Try and raise that to 13 mph. When you've done that, aim for 14.

My commute is 15 miles each way, and my best is around 17mph.

Lycra Man

desweller

Make sure you've got the bike set up correctly. If you've got the saddle too low, for example, you're never going to be making the best use of your legs (and will therefore be doomed to go slowly) and will suffer joint soreness into the bargain.

Keiron Curtis

Hi there DesWeller,
I think you might have something there, since changing to the Pioneer GT, I've tinkered with the "cockpit", but still have to perfect the set-up. I'll definitely have a look, over the next few days. Cheers.

Keiron Curtis

Lycra Man wrote:

Keiron - if you want to go faster, you'll have to stop being a lazy sod.

You are the motor, so put some more effort in, and you will see the results. Don't expect miracles immediately, but you must have good background fitness to do a 20 mile each way commute. 12 mph = 1.6 hours. Try and raise that to 13 mph. When you've done that, aim for 14.

My commute is 15 miles each way, and my best is around 17mph.

Lycra Man

Thanks LycraMan, I'll have to get my cycle computer back working, sounds like good advice, cheers

stuartturbo

The other is what is the route like.
I do a 37mile round trip also, and aim for 3 days a week. average is 15mph to 17mph.
The last day is hard work. but easier as legs hurt on day three like they did on day on( always planned an light :idea: day at work
this i think is due to being a fat bastty ( less so now 19st down to 17st 7 ) and sleep or the lack of generally only get about 6hrs.
I do this on a Tricross.
for me up hills are a killer Ie the first part of my journey home is ok i can do the these 6 miles in 20mins The spike below is the Dartford crossing but then what i call hills set in and the speed drops right off for the last part
I need downhill and flat.

I find the computer does both help and hinder It's a bad day but you know it when you finish you have may good time and the flip side i think i am having a blinder and computer says NO

hstiles

Start with some interval training. Pick specific sections of your commute and really push yourself to cycle at a consistently higher speed. Focus on reducing the recovery time between fast sections and work towards a much longer, single fast section. You'll really improve your fitness this way and increase your average speed.

Once you've succeeded in raising your rolling speed, you can repeat the process.

joelsim

Set yourself a challenge once a week. Try to do the commute 10 minutes quicker than normal.

CarlosDSanchez

The answer is in your first post, no one got faster being a lazy sod!

You just have to push, got my average up from 16 to 19, but it will be drop right back down again if I stop pushing.

CiB

If you wanna go faster you gotta pedal harder, that's all there is to it. 12mph is pretty slow esp for a 40-mile round trip. Each to their own - I treat my (20m) commute like a time trial most days and try to batter any previous PB currently standing. It doesn't often happen but it does mean that most commute times are as close to 1 hour as I can get them; 20+ miles at 12mph is close to 1¾ hours - I don't think I could bear to take that long ambling to work. YMMV though.

You won't get quicker unless you push harder.