Speed or Distance?

mbhuw

I managed my first 40 mile solo ride today. It felt good and with the right nutrition i think i could have gone another 10-15 miles relatively comfortably.
However, my average speed was pretty low at 13.5mph. My main excuse is that it is very hilly on my route. I do sometimes head up to a lake (which is flat) to do loops around and can manage an average of 17mph over about 35miles.
I'm following a cycling fitness plan to doing a 100 mile ride within 12 weeks but am wandering whether it might be worth stopping that and instead try to increase my speed?
What's your opinion, try to increase speed, or distance?

RoadMeridaBen

It takes a while for the speed to come just keep at it and you'l get there, Im crap at anything over 50 miles so go for distance and speed :P

Slack

Work on both, with a bias towards distance. Speed will improve over time - the time scale will vary, but don't expect to achieve a genuine increase in long distance speed in the space of a few months.

The 12 week plan you talk about will probably be sufficient to help you complete the event, however, as it's not specific to you, then use it as a broad guide.

bristolpete

I am not sure, but would say work on distance and speed will follow. However, there have been loads of threads on here regarding increasing average speed and fartlek style interval work is what you need on those rides.

I think that if you focus on riding 100 miles at 16 miles per hour time and time again you will indeed get good at riding 100 miles at 16 mph.

I remember reading that to get an extra 1 mph faster as an average you are looking at 33% more power over the same ride which equates to watts which is harder than it sounds. Of course as amateur bike riders no two days are the same and sometimes you fly, sometimes you don't. For me, the biggest increase I got in speed was putting Zipp 808 on my regular bike and that increased my training loop by 1.5 mph over the entire course, but they are not ideal all day long wheels.

An expert will likely confirm what I am trying to say.

Pross

I guess it depends on what your aim is. Are you looking to ride long distances or ride fast? Try mixing things up a bit as it will help keep your riding fresh and stop boredom.

oldwelshman

Forget about average speed, just ride and enjoy the ride and mix it up. If you do a long ride you can still do a few 1 to 3 minute intervals in it.
It can be so boring doing just one particular thing in a ride.

RideOnTime

Distance...

jeremybarker

I'm very much in the same boat as the OP, i've posted in the newbies section. I've just started cycling after not having ridden a bike in 18 years so have now been out three times. I did a 44 mile ride in 2 hours and 36 minutes which i was pretty pleased with, not sure i'm quick enough to keep up with a club ride yet though lol.

cyco2

jeremybarker wrote:

I'm very much in the same boat as the OP, i've posted in the newbies section. I've just started cycling after not having ridden a bike in 18 years so have now been out three times. I did a 44 mile ride in 2 hours and 36 minutes which i was pretty pleased with, not sure i'm quick enough to keep up with a club ride yet though lol.

44/2.6= 16.9 mph

That is an astonishing speed for somebody in 'the same boat'. Obviously with out details it means naff all. :roll:

teebs_123

jeremybarker wrote:

I'm very much in the same boat as the OP, i've posted in the newbies section. I've just started cycling after not having ridden a bike in 18 years so have now been out three times. I did a 44 mile ride in 2 hours and 36 minutes which i was pretty pleased with, not sure i'm quick enough to keep up with a club ride yet though lol.

Depending upon the terrain, that's not a bad time at all.

jeremybarker

It was a pretty flat run, i'm just pleased that i havn't bonked, fallen off using clipped in pedals or suffered any cardiac faliure.

Does that mean it was a crap time being flat

cyco2

I have always found it boggling the amount of effort and speed that's needed to get a good average. So, I would say your route if circular must be just about ideal for a fast average, with you bowling along at 20 mph most of the time. This is a high average for a 'beginnerish'. Well done!

jeremybarker

I used to be pretty fit before getting married and having kids lol. The main motivation for doing all this is to raise money for a friends 10 year old son who is terminally ill, so there's a group that will be doing a run from London to Brighton and a 100 mile ride in about Augut though I think that is going to be donw over two days. I'm a bit impatient so wanted to push myself and see how far i could get out of the box. I'll probably do the same ride this weekend though I may also try a run on the south downs and see how unfit i am when it comes to some proper hill sections.