10 miles, what time to begin with?

lc1981

When people are starting out doing time trials (this comes to mind because 10 miles is a common time trial distance), they're often told to aim to beat "evens", which is 20 mph, or half an hour for 10 miles. 35 minutes sounds sensible given that you've not got drop bars and you've got some street furniture to negotiate. But it's only 10 miles, which means you're never going to be far from home, so if you want to test yourself I would just push as hard as I felt I could sustain. Over time, you'll start to take note of the max heart rate that you can sustain for that distance, and then using your HR monitor becomes a good way to pace yourself.

Bobbinogs

It's nice to have a target and I agree that the common one for 10 is 30 mins. However, I would set a target and try to beat it once a week. That leaves plenty of time for other rides which will make you a better rider, so maybe a 20 mile ride at a nice sustainable pace every now and then (with the length increasing by 10-20% per week), maybe a couple of other rides like a total of 10 miles but with a 5 mile bit in the middle at full pelt. One interval session per week (and no more) and a hill climbing session can be nice. A few days off always helps too (sounds counter-productive but rest is essential for improving performance).

For now, ride your bike, take time off and work on your 10 mile TT once a week.

smidsy

Perhaps you should worry less about meaningless averages and more about your surroundings and other road users.

andyd77

arenaman wrote:

smidsy wrote:

Perhaps you should worry less about meaningless averages and more about your surroundings and other road users.

Er thanks for that

he's right - think tbh you should be concentrating on road craft and less on the speed, as you are lacking experience, you'll be better learning to cycle properly on the road.

Mikey23

Plus one to the advice that there are too many variables to be fussing and fretting about times. The time to begin with is your time and no one else's. a once a week time trial against your previous best will put your system under load and measure your progress. Don't stress about averages, learn competence and confidence and enjoy

lc1981

arenaman wrote:

Anyway, going out again later for an hour, this will be the 6th day on the trot, weird that my legs still feel fresh, even when I was mega fit with running and competing I would feel really tired training every day, I thought I'd only manage every other day on the bike but feel fine so far. Is this because of the non impact nature of cycling?

Possibly, but then 10 miles isn't very far by cycling standards so I wouldn't expect to feel tired from that sort of distance if you're reasonably fit.

DavidJB

What are you doing? Why are you trying to do 10 miles as fast as possible? That's not fitness. Go an ride 30 miles then 40 then 50 etc and don't worry about 'how fast' you can do it. If you want to build speed do intervals over a longer distance. 10 miles is barely a warm up.

slowbike

I've been riding for 2 years now - 10 miles is more than a warm up to me ... but I know what they mean ... I can't pick up a fast solid pace until I've been riding a few miles.

And yes - you are in the right section - they're not....

Finlaz22

OP why are you so concerned with what they think? If you're just messing around with 10m TT at the mo then that's cool, just don't become so focused on beating your previous time that you become dangerous to other road users.

However, there is good sense to what DavidJB is saying. To become fitter and enjoy cycling more you'll naturally want to increase distance. Unlike running you can do this in surprisingly big leaps. If the following day you feel like you can go out and do the same again then it probably wasn't far enough

slowbike

But you also want to increase speed too ... and I know why the OP is asking.... your first thoughts as you start to ride are ... 1) what average speed do other ppl achieve and 2) how do I get there myself ...

as you ride more and more you realise that point 1 is relative - various factors are involved eg how many in the group, how many hills and the weather conditions during the ride ... then point 2 becomes far more pertinent.

So asking for a target time for a 10 mile "TT" seems quite a sensible way of doing it - at least he didn't ask for an average speed like most (probably including me at one point!).

You're right though - if he focuses on increasing distance as well then the 10 mile TT will become easier.

blackhands

One point - how are you setting your heart rate max?

stronginthesun

i think a regular fast as you can 10 mile blast is just as good for fitness than slogging slowly around a 50 miler

t4tomo

what will help your fitness is do some longer rides (just work up steadily to 15 or 20) and the come back to your 10 mile "test" and see how much your time has improved, rather than just do 10 miles all the time.

The your next phase is to take the 15-20 mile longer ride to 25-30 etc.

lc1981

arenaman wrote:

50 miles is way above my horizon. 10-25 miles at various intensities should do it for me

I think you'll be surprised how quickly longer distances will start to feel easily achievable.

smidsy

arenaman wrote:

50 miles is way above my horizon. 10-25 miles at various intensities should do it for me

This will always be true if you keep doing 10 mile rides.

You need to vary your riding and include high intensity work (e.g. intervals) along with longer rides of easier pace and also hill work.

Mix it up and you will soon see the advantages.

Constantly doing 10 milers will soom become like a hamster in a wheel.

epo rocks!

This guy is obviously a troll. :roll:

epo rocks!

arenaman wrote:

epo rocks! wrote:

This guy is obviously a troll. :roll:

Really? do tell us how you arrived at that conclusion :?:

I notice you joined the forum 13 minutes before calling me a troll, oh the irony

Post deleted

sub55

arenaman wrote:

Thanks, I'm not over concerned about anything really I just did 10 miles out of curiosity, set a mark and would like to try and better it from time to time that's all. My main focus is building up fitness to quite a good level. As I explained I'm not a reckless or dangerous rider but the incident was a wake up call anyway.

I value people's opinions that's why I asked the question in the first place, got a couple of replies that needed deleting though :roll:

quite a good level for a 10. around 20 min

Wirral_paul

Crikey what a thread. I know this is "Beginners" but dont think i've ever seen a beginner so determined that he knows it all and shouts those down who try to give good advice.

So then OP - why so worried about a target for a 10 mile TT?? If you want to do a 10 mile TT then for £2 or £3 you could go to a local club TT and find out for yourself. Just dont expect to get much faster if you want to train in the way you think is best - you'll soon peak and go no further. You'll also be constantly injured if you hammer yourself from cold. Still - if you feel you know better........

elderone

Im thinking im in the wrong sport,if walking round with golf sticks is so knackering then may be time to swop the bike for a golf bat and ball

Rob85_

There are lots of unhelpful posts on here, quite unwelcoming alot of them. There is alot of snobbiness in cycling.

I started cycling again in September last year, on my first outing I could only go about 7 miles at around 15-16 mph. Now I can cycle just under 30 miles with an average of around 20 mph or around 100 miles at 17 mph. This is by no means amazing, and I still feel very much at the beginning of my cycling journey, but it does show how fitness builds up.

Since September I've read lots and lots in magazines, read books as well. The problem is there is some very convoluted information out there that can be quite confusing to someone new to taking it a bit more seriously. I realise now that it just isn't necessary to someone that has just starting cycling/cycling again. The most important thing is to get out often, enjoy riding and have fun.

As someone else said just slowly increase your distance, rather than heading home at your usual point take it a bit further, there are so many interesting places to see. Bigger distances will improve your 10 mile time if your fitness isn't amazing.

smidsy

Rob85_ wrote:

I started cycling again in September last year, on my first outing I could only go about 7 miles at around 15-16 mph. Now I can cycle just under 30 miles with an average of around 20 mph or around 100 miles at 17 mph.

Blimey, and we thought Greg Mansell had come from nowhere in a short space of time. Give his dad Nige a ring I am sure there is a place on UK Youth for someone with these stats

The difference with your situation and the OP is that you have increased your distance, the OP is not proposing to do so.

Constantly cycling 10 miles (or even pushing that to 20 now and then) is not going to build the base fitness necessary or the ability to recover after hard efforts etc. This in turn means that the OP is unlikely to achieve his goal of faster 10 mile times.

To get faster over 10 miles you need to be able to sustain high intensity effort (at threshold) for the whole distance. You are not going to do this without increasing the distance you ride and building your CV system etc.

Wirral_paul

Rob85_ wrote:

Since September I've read lots and lots in magazines, read books as well. The problem is there is some very convoluted information out there that can be quite confusing to someone new to taking it a bit more seriously. I realise now that it just isn't necessary to someone that has just starting cycling/cycling again. The most important thing is to get out often, enjoy riding and have fun.

As someone else said just slowly increase your distance, rather than heading home at your usual point take it a bit further, there are so many interesting places to see. Bigger distances will improve your 10 mile time if your fitness isn't amazing.

This is the point that people are trying to make though - and i fail to see how it is snobbiness for everyone to suggest that just going out and hammering yourself for 10 miles is a bad idea. The OP will not improve his fitness very far and he'll likely end up injuring himself - as with all athletic events, a proper warm up is needed. I'd always encourage a newbie to cycling to slowly build the miles without riding yourself into the ground and just enjoy it. Once they build that basic cycling fitness, then some thought about speed can come into it - but to come on here asking for target times after 5 rides is quite frankly a bit pointless. Its one thing to just go out and ride a 10 mile circuit yourself and see what your time is on Strava and then repeat the circuit regularly to see how you're improving - but targets after 5 rides just isnt going to help.

OP - seriously - get out and just enjoy riding your bike and dont worry about trying to beat a certain time. If you insist on a target time then only you can come up with a realistic target for yourself. I honestly think you'll soon give up trying to chase times - and either start simply enjoying getting out a simply riding, or alternatively ebay will likely gain more business with another "limited milage" bike for sale.

smidsy

You can blast over 10 miles sure, but as with any strenuous excercise one should warm up properly before and cool down and stretch following.

This means that your 30 min blast takes more like 1 hour all told (and covers more than 10 miles).

Blasting 10 cold and nothing else is what people are concerned about.

andyd77

OP still insisting he's right, honestly, he'll wind up injured won't build fitness, and, to cap it all, he'll blame someone on here for 'bad' advice, seriously arenaman...

Rob85_

smidsy wrote:

Rob85_ wrote:

I started cycling again in September last year, on my first outing I could only go about 7 miles at around 15-16 mph. Now I can cycle just under 30 miles with an average of around 20 mph or around 100 miles at 17 mph.

Blimey, and we thought Greg Mansell had come from nowhere in a short space of time. Give his dad Nige a ring I am sure there is a place on UK Youth for someone with these stats

The difference with your situation and the OP is that you have increased your distance, the OP is not proposing to do so.

Constantly cycling 10 miles (or even pushing that to 20 now and then) is not going to build the base fitness necessary or the ability to recover after hard efforts etc. This in turn means that the OP is unlikely to achieve his goal of faster 10 mile times.

To get faster over 10 miles you need to be able to sustain high intensity effort (at threshold) for the whole distance. You are not going to do this without increasing the distance you ride and building your CV system etc.

How very sarcastic, unfortunately I don't have a father sponsoring a team nor am I anywhere near quick enough. Already at 28 I have missed the boat on that one. Thanks for the advice though. I do believe we agree that the OP needs to increase the distance.

I just hope the OP gets out and rides more and doesn't worry to much about speed as it will come.

I hope soon to construct some sensible sort of training plan. But am definitely glad I didn't for this first year of cycling. As you mention I wouldn't have had the CV system for it.

lc1981

arenaman wrote:

Yes I'm enjoying the rides, thanks. Just got myself a proper track pump today, my tyres were seriously underinflated :shock: I'm looking forward to seeing how the ride feels tomorrow

Faster, probably! 8)

Grill

Jesus yes. I ride clinchers at 105-115 depending on conditions and you don't even want to know what my tubs hit.

lc1981

arenaman wrote:

I managed to get 100 in the front but the back won't go over 90, still a big improvement on what they were

Sounds odd. What's stopping it going above 90?

Bobbinogs

Have you thought about doing a cycling blog?

Might even be worth joining a club (no, you don't have to be super quick).

Mark Alexander

Whilst 'evens' on a 10 TT is 30 mins don't think about it! Just enjoy riding. 14.6mph is fine for a ride that's your 1st week, or your 1st 2 months as long as you're enjoying it. Think why you started cycling. It's infectious. steady riding, is what get's you fit. setting targets is good and fun. Learning road craft will come whether you set targets or not. Although smart arse comments aren't helpful, safety comes with confidence and paying atention.

Enjoy your cycling.