Average speed (MpH or KMpH)

p1tse

as a newbie, what's a good average speed to achieve and maintain?

CiB

43. That's good.

You'll get a lot answers saying it's a meaningless number as it depends too much on terrain, fitness, weather conditions and how much wine you drank the night before. All things being equal though if you can see averages of 17mph+ and you don't live in Norfolk that's a good start.

saprkzz

p1tse wrote:

as a newbie, what's a good average speed to achieve and maintain?

It totally depends on what your aiming for, Circuit racing?.. Sportives?...TT's?...commuting?... or just for fitness and fun.
Are your rides hilly or flat?, are you riding on your own or in a club?

Only use Ave as a gauge on your rides, as others have no idea where your riding.

paul_mck

43.2 actually.

what a dumb question.

Buckled_Rims

Don't waste your time thinking about average speeds as it have absolutely no value what-so-ever. It blurs your judgement. You take extra risks to gain a few seconds or 0.1 mph faster. Average speeds simply do not work because you have different air temperatures, wind, traffic, road surfaces, etc for a million other varibles.

It would only be useful on a turbo, and even then why would you want an average speed when interval training is a million times more successful at making you fitter.

charlie_potatoes

p1tse wrote:

as a newbie

I noticed that you joined in 2006. That seems a long time to be a newbie?

Just wondering

secretsqizz

KMpH is that a New Years Honour?

DavidJB

Who cares.

p1tse

Charlie Potatoes wrote:

p1tse wrote:

as a newbie

I noticed that you joined in 2006. That seems a long time to be a newbie?

Just wondering

Well just got my first road bike
Think I was doing some other research when I first joined forum lol

charlie_potatoes

p1tse wrote:

Charlie Potatoes wrote:

p1tse wrote:

as a newbie

I noticed that you joined in 2006. That seems a long time to be a newbie?

Just wondering

Well just got my first road bike
Think I was doing some other research when I first joined forum lol

Ahh! I see

simon_masterson

Aside from terrain, it depends on what sort of ride you are doing. If you head out on your bike and do intervals and slog up steep hills repeatedly and so on, your average speed won't be very high. (or won't be as high as it could be!)

Conversely if all you ever do on a bike is go from A to B, you don't need to worry about average speed, and if all you ever do on a bike is try to go from A to B as fast as possible, you are wasting your time as there is far more to training than that.

Nevertheless if you can manage 17mph average then you are probably doing something right.

ForumNewbie

I found that with my new road bike, in good conditions, I can usually average up to 15 mph on a reasonably hilly 20 mile circuit riding alone. I'm in my mid 50s and have been getting a bit fitter this year, but a lot of guys my age that have been riding for years will be a lot stronger and faster than that.

I would say that if you can average over 15 mph over on a hilly circuit alone, you would be doing okay. If you are young there will be plenty of scope to get faster, but if your nearer my age it will be a lot harder to get your average up to even 17 mph in my opinion. Not saying it's impossible but it will be harder - even I'm still hopeful of getting faster by getting more miles in and doing some work on the turbo trainer I recently purchased.

nolight

Based on my experience, on an average route (not very hilly), avg 28km/h is reasonable. 29kmh is good and 30kmh is tough. But I have a lot of traffic lights in my area which slows me down.

Also I define average speed as the average speed on the cyclometer at the end of the trip, typically that means most of the time the speed is a few km/h higher during cycling.

DavidJB

I average 17.5MPH roughly over all my winter training rides. Some are as low as 17mph, some are as high as 18.9MPH all depends on the session, conditions etc. In summer you're probably looking in the 19's.

I actually had to look this information up for this thread. If you're training right you don't give a rats behind about average speed. Just ride to enjoy it or if you're training for something train in a decent way (hint average mph isnt it). Average speed is a nice to have and can show a long term trend of improvement if you ride the same routes all the time. If you must ride to something ride to heart rate or power.

Considering I've raced at 29.8MPH ave over 50 minutes (flat crit) last season and I was a lot less fit then than I am now it goes to show that training averages mean diddly squat. Trying to beat an average speed all the time means you're on the limit for the entire ride and you'll never improve substantially..

rolf_f

Buckled_Rims wrote:

Don't waste your time thinking about average speeds as it have absolutely no value what-so-ever. It blurs your judgement. You take extra risks to gain a few seconds or 0.1 mph faster. Average speeds simply do not work because you have different air temperatures, wind, traffic, road surfaces, etc for a million other varibles.

This of course is nonsense. Average speeds do have value - as long as you know what to do with them (all data has value up to a point). What doesn't have much value is comparing your average speeds with other people unless you know a lot more information about who, what and where (amongst other variables). Average speed can be useful to assess your own performance but only over a period of time. What doesn't have much value is comparing the average for one ride with the average for another.

elderone

DavidJB wrote:

I average 17.5MPH roughly over all my winter training rides. Some are as low as 17mph, some are as high as 18.9MPH all depends on the session, conditions etc. In summer you're probably looking in the 19's.

I actually had to look this information up for this thread. If you're training right you don't give a rats behind about average speed. Just ride to enjoy it or if you're training for something train in a decent way (hint average mph isnt it). Average speed is a nice to have and can show a long term trend of improvement if you ride the same routes all the time. If you must ride to something ride to heart rate or power.

Considering I've raced at 29.8MPH ave over 50 minutes (flat crit) last season and I was a lot less fit then than I am now it goes to show that training averages mean diddly squat. Trying to beat an average speed all the time means you're on the limit for the entire ride and you'll never improve substantially..

29.8mph ave over 50 minutes is stupid quick when you think wiggo averaged just over 30mph in 50 mins + to win gold in the tt.
personally since starting in sept my average is about 15mph on undulating route.
lately due to rain ive been using a heavy old mountain bike doing hills,a cat 4 and 2 cat 3,s within a cpl miles of home.average for that is 7mph but much much harder than a standard road ride.So basically averages dont say much.

on the road

During summer my avarage speed tends to be round about 17mph, in winter it's round about 15mph.

p1tse

Thanks for the replies
I know it depends on weather, course, hills etc

As a newbie I was reading around some club runs etc. I'm no way near ready to do big miles but it suggested 30 miles in x hrs etc. which obviously at a high level gives an average speed

LittlePlums

When you say "average", are you using the mean, mode, or median?

Please specify.