Getting faster?

BMKN

In order to get faster is it as simple as ride more? Im stuck in a slump at the moment been riding two years and I have 30000km or so in my legs. I do 150km per week ny commute. And I do a spin at the weekend as often as I can with my club, usually around 100km. I am stuck at a 17mph average speed whether its over hills with club or commute. How do I get out of this rut?

cougie

Intervals. You have base - but you need to stress your system to make it improve.

Spin classes.
Sufferfest.
Trainerroad.

Plenty of options to take you out of your comfort zone.

marcusjb

Basically that - you've got plenty of base with 15000km a year (but you seem to be missing a couple of thousand km with your 250km a week average?), but if that is mainly at a moderate pace, it won't do too much for speed.

I ride big miles at endurance pace - I am rubbish at speed. Having to change that slightly this year though - but it's really hard work to get your average speed up!

BMKN

Should I do turbo sessions then? I have a turbo my friend gave me but never use it. Well im guessing 30000km could be higher. What do I need for turbo sessions as I used it once and my tyre wore slightly

cougie

You should probably read up on it.

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/f ... ing-24170/

cyco2

Use some of your commuting rides to do some intervals. Start by doing 1minute hard effort, 1 minute recovery. Build up pattern of riding that enables you to put in a lot of these efforts and gives you a good daily recovery period. Extend the efforts when you can. You don't need a heart rate monitor to do this because you can do it quite easily with perceived effort. Try and use this same effort on the climbs. Log each timed effort and climb in minutes and set yourself a target. Say 1000 minutes. Then if that doesn't have some profound effect on you, give it up and try golf.

olake92

Where do you want to improve your speed? Do you want to be faster over the course of a 3 hour ride, or be able to sprint up a hill faster? Each goal requires a different training focus and work on a different 'energy system' - extensive/intensive aerobic capacity; lactate threshold; VO2 max; anaerobic capacity; muscular force. If you simply want to increase you average speed from 17mph, I'd recommend training with long intervals at a high aerobic level (around 80% max heart rate). From there, you can progress onto your more maximal efforts of 10 minutes or less. Joe Friel has a good explanation http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2011/07/in ... art-1.html and this website is pretty comprehensive http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/traini ... art-1.html

The main thing to understand is that riding 'long and steady' does make you faster up to a point, as you become more efficient and your aerobic capabilities improve a small amount. However, when you imagine a body builder training to bench press heavy, he doesn't get there by doing 1000 reps of no weight (he'd get very good at pushing his unloaded arms in the air), he does it by doing 5-12 reps of near maximal weight, for 3 or 4 sets. Cycling is no different - near maximal weight, low volume makes you fast.

Of course, there's a lot of debate about how to improve speed (otherwise we'd all be capable of winning le Tour de France! ) - read around and see what suits you.

Finlaz22

Nobody's even mentioned diet yet. How heavy are you re-height? Is there much you can lose? Eat lots of good foods and stay properly hydrated, get early nights, and then in addition to all these things people assume you're doing already you can do the other suggestions.

Otherwise it's likely you'll burn out, or at least not improve significantly. Recovery and diet are underestimated by many because they don't have to work up a sweat for it!

cyco2

BMKN wrote:

How do I get out of this rut?

So, have you worked out from the replies what you want to do ?

Team4Luke

measuring your speed over a club ride/commute is no measurement, too many slowings, junctions, traffic, stop starts in between and back to your front door.
Simply ride for less time and do it a bit harder, so instead of a club ride for several hours at 17mph, go out for an hour and push it above 17's as best you can, keep at that and improvement will come.

StillGoing

Team4Luke wrote:

measuring your speed over a club ride/commute is no measurement, too many slowings, junctions, traffic, stop starts in between and back to your front door.
Simply ride for less time and do it a bit harder, so instead of a club ride for several hours at 17mph, go out for an hour and push it above 17's as best you can, keep at that and improvement will come.

This. See what max speed you can maintain on the turbo for 1 hour. Then do 30 minute sessions at a 2% faster rate for a month and retest yourself over the hour period at the end at the faster rate.

Tom Dean

philthy3 wrote:

Team4Luke wrote:

measuring your speed over a club ride/commute is no measurement, too many slowings, junctions, traffic, stop starts in between and back to your front door.
Simply ride for less time and do it a bit harder, so instead of a club ride for several hours at 17mph, go out for an hour and push it above 17's as best you can, keep at that and improvement will come.

This. See what max speed you can maintain on the turbo for 1 hour. Then do 30 minute sessions at a 2% faster rate for a month and retest yourself over the hour period at the end at the faster rate.

1. There are easier ways to set a baseline than 1h max on the turbo.
2. 1h max + 2% for 30 mins is itself close to all-out! Not a great way to train IMO.

StillGoing

We're not talking as fast as you can go for 1 hour, just the fastest pace you can maintain for 1 hour. By reducing the time by 50%, you should be able to go harder still over a shorter period of time. In the Army we trained this way for various physical activities. Guys training for marathons would employ the same tactics to increase distance and pace. By training harder at the shorter distance, when they were again tested at the longer distance endurance and pace had improved.

imposter2.0

philthy3 wrote:

We're not talking as fast as you can go for 1 hour, just the fastest pace you can maintain for 1 hour.

Is that not the same thing?

dw300

Imposter wrote:

philthy3 wrote:

We're not talking as fast as you can go for 1 hour, just the fastest pace you can maintain for 1 hour.

Is that not the same thing?

Yes, they are.

StillGoing

No they aren't and I'm sure you both get what I'm posting. As fast as I can go is as fast as I can go. As fast as I can sustain for 1 hour will be much slower.

imposter2.0

philthy3 wrote:

No they aren't and I'm sure you both get what I'm posting. As fast as I can go is as fast as I can go. As fast as I can sustain for 1 hour will be much slower.

Go back and read what you actually said, as I think you're confusing yourself. You said the fastest pace you could maintain for an hour was not the same as the fastest speed you could go for an hour - which is quite obviously the same thing.

StillGoing

No it isn't.

pedantic
pɪˈdantɪk/Submit
adjective
1.
excessively concerned with minor details or rules; overscrupulous.
synonyms: overscrupulous, scrupulous, precise, exact, over-exacting, perfectionist, precisionist, punctilious, meticulous, fussy, fastidious, finical, finicky; More

imposter2.0

keep digging

Would have been easier just to admit your error, but never mind....

dw300

madasahattersley wrote:

Man I'm so confused :?

Cliffs ..

1. philthy3 said one thing but meant another.
2. Got called out about it.
3. Denied he was wrong when he was.
4. Told us we should be mind readers.
5. Continues to deny he was wrong, starts insulting people.
6. You got confused.
7. I cleared things up.

NeXXus

dw300 wrote:

madasahattersley wrote:

Man I'm so confused :?

Cliffs ..

1. philthy3 said one thing but meant another.
2. Got called out about it.
3. Denied he was wrong when he was.
4. Told us we should be mind readers.
5. Continues to deny he was wrong, starts insulting people.
6. You got confused.
7. I cleared things up.

Give this man a round of applause

StillGoing

dw300 wrote:

madasahattersley wrote:

Man I'm so confused :?

Cliffs ..

1. philthy3 said one thing but meant another.
2. Got called out about it.
3. Denied he was wrong when he was.
4. Told us we should be mind readers.
5. Continues to deny he was wrong, starts insulting people.
6. You got confused.
7. I cleared things up.

The fact that the written word can be interpreted both ways has nothing to do with it of course. Where was the insult? I must say you're being very constructive.

StillGoing

Imposter wrote:

keep digging

Would have been easier just to admit your error, but never mind....

Is the below not me trying to explain what I mean for you? If it still wasn't clear, and I'm sure it was, why couldn't you have just come back with a sensible post saying you still don't get it or I'm still not making myself clear?

philthy3 wrote:

We're not talking as fast as you can go for 1 hour, just the fastest pace you can maintain for 1 hour. By reducing the time by 50%, you should be able to go harder still over a shorter period of time. In the Army we trained this way for various physical activities. Guys training for marathons would employ the same tactics to increase distance and pace. By training harder at the shorter distance, when they were again tested at the longer distance endurance and pace had improved.

imposter2.0

philthy3 wrote:

Is the below not me trying to explain what I mean for you? If it still wasn't clear, and I'm sure it was, why couldn't you have just come back with a sensible post saying you still don't get it or I'm still not making myself clear?

See below - explain that. We all say it's the same thing. You, for some reason, keep saying that it isn't.

philthy3 wrote:

We're not talking as fast as you can go for 1 hour, just the fastest pace you can maintain for 1 hour.