No improvement, what am I doing wrong?

andy 3654

Been riding for about 3 months and not seeing any improvement not even a little, what am I doing wrong?
I commute to work so use this as my training runs. Its about 20 miles to work which at best I can do in 63 mins but is usually between 65-75 mins depending on how the traffic lights behave.
Ive tried improving my cadence and just trying to push harder and faster but nothing seams to work.
I usually will ride for one day and then take 2 days to rest which is the least my body seams to like.
Any help or guidance will be greatly be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Frank the tank

Work on your aerobic base, developing your cardiovascular fitness by going at a steady pace for longish distances. Going hell for leather without having accquired base fitness is like building a house on sand. To develop that aerobic base should take about two/three months if you ride regular.

colsoop

3 Months isn't a massive amount of time really and i bet you have improved, perhaps the time hasn't dropped or the mph increased that dramatically but would it really with traffic / lights ?

May i ask what sort of improvement were you expecting to make ?

Do you do any riding other than commuting to work ?

danowat

Ride for a day then 2 days rest?, to be fair, that's unlikely to bring about much improvement.

andy 3654

When I have chance to I try to go out for 50 mile trips but not done too many recently as life gets in the way. To a certain extend traffic lights do play apart as anyone who has been down the slough trading estate will testify to. Its a stretch about 2 miles long but has at least 12 sets of traffic lights and unfortunately there is no escaping it. I was hoping to be cruising in the low to mid 20'smph I can for short while.
Really I want to do 25 mile tt's but don't want to till I improve.

andy 3654

Yes I know 2 days rest is a bit much but I tried going every other but there was just no power in my legs they did not want to be pushed.

LegendLust

andy 3654 wrote:

Yes I know 2 days rest is a bit much but I tried going every other but there was just no power in my legs they did not want to be pushed.

They will. Give it time.

danowat

andy 3654 wrote:

Yes I know 2 days rest is a bit much but I tried going every other but there was just no power in my legs they did not want to be pushed.

I'd argue that you are pushing far too hard on your 1 cycle day then, you should be able to (after 3 months of training) manage a 20 mile ride without having to have 2 days rest to recover.

Crispyapp

andy 3654 wrote:

Yes I know 2 days rest is a bit much but I tried going every other but there was just no power in my legs they did not want to be pushed.

It sounds to me from reading this that your pretty new to road riding? Am I right or wrong?

Like someone said above I bet you have improved but you haven't noticed what your improving on. It's like the karate kid, sand the floor etc etc you know the film ( I hope ) he thinks he hasn't learnt until he needs to use the move. In your case are there any hills on your route, I bet when your first rode that route week 1 you were out of breath, or getting out the saddle to push harder? Do you now find yourself pushing that same gear or harder without getting out the saddle, without getting out of breath. If you get out of breath do you notice you catch your breath back quicker???

If your answering yes to above then there you go, that's improvement.

Now ride every 2 days with 1 off. And steadily increase until you ride every day. Then it will become your setting off early to put a few extra in on way to work or maybe take a more difficult route....

Keep it up pal.

karlth

I've been riding for over two years and I couldn't cover 20 miles in 63 minutes unless it was absolutely dead flat, and possibly not then, so I'd say stop complaining and be glad you're damned good at it already.

iPete

Ride to work 5 days a week, you'll soon HTFU!

If feeling drained is an issue take the edge off the pace until you can do mon/tue/rest/thur/fri happily. You may not think you are improving but you probably don't notice as it'll be so incremental. Concentrate on keeping the miles up through the winter, do not worry about speed and do enter some TTs if thats what you want. Don't worry about not being quick enough to win, set yourself a benchmark and racing is a great way of improving!

tiredofwhiners

You may find that the improvement you're getting at the moment is losing the need to crawl back in the house after a ride and collapse on the sofa. Once you're fully past the 'exhausted after 20 miles' stage then speed will come, but don't forget that you may be sacrificing speed improvements for distance improvements if you're going long.

Well done though

andy 3654

Yes I am new to riding and yes I get the Karate kids reference. I think my recovery post ride is quicker so thanks for pointing that out to me and Ill also try to ride more and see where that takes me.

ugo.santalucia

If you can cycle 20 miles in 63 minutes, frankly I don't understand what you expect from yourself... it is fast enough to get you easily in a fast paced group ride, where you can experience 2 mph increase just by enjoying a bit of draft.
For Tour de france glory is a bit late...

Gweny

andy 3654 wrote:

When I have chance to I try to go out for 50 mile trips but not done too many recently as life gets in the way. To a certain extend traffic lights do play apart as anyone who has been down the slough trading estate will testify to. Its a stretch about 2 miles long but has at least 12 sets of traffic lights and unfortunately there is no escaping it. I was hoping to be cruising in the low to mid 20'smph I can for short while.
Really I want to do 25 mile tt's but don't want to till I improve.

Yep Slough T.E is really fustrating with the light timings!

DavidJB

You're hammering it too hard on your ride...I bet you're still fatigued when you get on the bike 2 days later.

You're never going to 'cruise at mid twenties' so adjust your expectations. 25MPH is around the average race pace for a 2/3cat road race and thats in a bunch.

Back off the pace and increase the duration to start. Don't read on here about peoples average speeds because its absolute rollocks at worst and highly subjective at best. You need a good base fitness to build on and you won't get that zooming round everywhere at max HR...my guess is you're probably always above 165 BPM...pushing into the 180's sprinting from traffic lights...basically crap places to be for real training, you should only be in these zones in targeted efforts. Get a HRM work out your zones (google how to work out heartrate zones) and stick in the lower ones through to January...then start some harder efforts and I bet you'll see a massive improvement.

My training rides at the moment are between 17-18.5MPH mostly during this phase of the year. Hammering does not mean you're going to get fitter, its all about building a solid foundation to build a big high top end.

Edit: N.B This doesn't mean your rides should be at 17-18.5MPH... Disregard speed and ride to HR...

keef66

If you are genuinely doing 20 miles in 63 minutes commuting / traffic lights, then + 3 to the "how fast were you hoping to go?" responses.

20 miles takes me 80 minutes on traffic free country roads whatever I do.

I'd say join a club and see how you get on.

zx6man

I found that I had to do plenty of non work commute riding to get much improvement. I find now that I am only just "warmed" up after my 5 mile commute.

andy 3654

Thank you everyone that has not only given me some relief and understanding but has now inspired me further.

This is why I love being part of this community, one day when I'm more experienced I can pass on my knowledge to new riders.

simon_masterson

I used to do my 18 mile commute in 50 minutes - 1 hour and 10 minutes or so depending on traffic (and my own condition, obviously). The quickest time I recorded was 43 minutes. The course is pretty flat.

Yes you will be tired (I always was, and I had a saddle sore that lasted for weeks at one point!), but you will also get very fit; I wouldn't give up hope of getting faster. It took me a little while to get to that speed. I've just had a forced few months off cycling (moreorless, anyway; different job with <1 mile commute, then being disallowed from keeping bikes where I live...), and still I'm not completely back to square one. Eat the right stuff and tell yourself you can do it!

samsbike

Gosh that is good. I have been commuting since April and my 16.5miles takes me anything between 1hr 15mins to 1hr 30mins.

I wish I could do 20 miles in 63 minutes. If its any consolation I have not seen any significant decrease in my time and given the amount of comfort food I have been eating its getting worse not better.

simon_masterson

It's worth keeping in mind that our respective courses may contain different numbers of hills!

diy

I would say it took me about a year to 18 months to build the muscle up before I had cyclists legs.

g00se

DavidJB wrote:

You're hammering it too hard on your ride...I bet you're still fatigued when you get on the bike 2 days later.

You're never going to 'cruise at mid twenties' so adjust your expectations. 25MPH is around the average race pace for a 2/3cat road race and thats in a bunch.

Back off the pace and increase the duration to start. Don't read on here about peoples average speeds because its absolute rollocks at worst and highly subjective at best. You need a good base fitness to build on and you won't get that zooming round everywhere at max HR...my guess is you're probably always above 165 BPM...pushing into the 180's sprinting from traffic lights...basically crap places to be for real training, you should only be in these zones in targeted efforts. Get a HRM work out your zones (google how to work out heartrate zones) and stick in the lower ones through to January...then start some harder efforts and I bet you'll see a massive improvement.

My training rides at the moment are between 17-18.5MPH mostly during this phase of the year. Hammering does not mean you're going to get fitter, its all about building a solid foundation to build a big high top end.

Edit: N.B This doesn't mean your rides should be at 17-18.5MPH... Disregard speed and ride to HR...

This this this this....!

It sounds like you're pushing yourself too hard. You need to slow down and build up the miles in your legs. A heart rate monitor is a good idea if you can afford one - otherwise look up the techniques to 'guess' the zone you're in by looking at your rate of breathing and ability to talk.

Have a search on here or google Bicycling Training Zones. It sounds like you need to build up from the 'base' of your training-pyramid-thingy (all your training is built on long miles of steady work well within your cardio effort). Think a nice, long day out in the country looking at the fields and rivers, not strava segments .

andy 3654

Well I have listened to the advice Ive been given and Wed,Thur and Friday I only cycled to work and caught the train back and what a difference that made. For all those how said I was over doing it you were right as for those three days I was able to do it in 63 mins each day and it diddn't feel like hell.
So many thanks.

Rulebritania

I've been cycling from scratch since the beginning of Aug 12, I'm lucky if I get out for 3 rides a week. started at 10-15 for weeks I put a post on here about it, again good feedback now I am upto 30+ miles, at the start I was pushing too hard and like you had nothing in my legs when it came to hills then I discovered the right technique (for me anyway) of hill climbing. Its all about time in the saddle not the speed build up the amount of time in the saddle at a good pace not caning it all the time. Look to get out on days off and discover your countryside away from traffic lights and hustle and bustle. You'll find you will go for a 30 miler and with what you say about timings you'll enjoy the ride if you control the urge to push too hard too early.

As many said on my original post. Enjoy the ride or burn out and give up.

snickwell

andy 3654 wrote:

Well I have listened to the advice Ive been given and Wed,Thur and Friday I only cycled to work and caught the train back and what a difference that made. For all those how said I was over doing it you were right as for those three days I was able to do it in 63 mins each day and it diddn't feel like hell.
So many thanks.

Be wary though - I wouldn't say this is a sign of 'improvement' in your ability, more so than you're getting ample recovery time (which are two different issues).

Genuine improvement for me happened over the first two YEARS of cycling, let alone months. Give it time and build your base.

PS. 20 miles in 63 minutes? Solo? After 3 months?

simon_masterson

This all depends on who you are, though, doesn't it?

As I said earlier in this thread, the fastest I did my 18 mile commute was 43 minutes. That was in March of this year; about a month into doing the job. Prior to that I'd done very little cycling during November-January, and that followed my first few months of adult cycling; I started in May of 2011, beginning with 5 miles each way commuting and the odd evening ride here and there, increasing to about 9 miles each way after a couple of months when I married and moved further away. And I don't drive, and the place that I commuted 18 miles to isn't very near a train station, so there were few rest days; most of them were when I had managed to render my two bicycles unrideable. I didn't even have padded shorts, so I was not only constantly exhausted but putting up with extremely painful saddle sores that would last for weeks. I still improved, and I wish I were that fit now...