New rider - speed and hIlls
Comments
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As said, there's no answer. Some like myself consider 16mph a fast ride, others would think that to be sauntering along. The best speed on a particular hill or segment is faster than you've done it before.0
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Winter is a seriously bad time to get worried about average speeds. Wind, cold, road grime and darkness all gnaw away at your morale and ability.
These are the days when my 25 mile loop frequently comes in at 15-16 mph average. In summer, with warm bared legs, it's usually 19-20 mph.
Use the time to work on baseline fitness so that you're raring to go when the warmer weather arrives. Nothing splits up a club ride in April like half the riders being winter-fit and the other half just emerging from their caves.0 -
Quite a large guess, but I would say that 6min/km for running is maybe equivalent to 15mph avg on a bike, so long as it's not hilly.
The main thing when you start is just get out there and enjoy it! Get comfortable on the bike, cornering, take in the views, and just cruise along and enjoy the ride. When you're feeling good push hard, then recover and push even harder! When you're feeling tired just take it easy. I think it takes a good 6 months or so for the body to get adjusted to bike riding, it's not quite so natural as running. But well worth persevering with and you're fitness will come on in leaps and bounds if you stick at it with a ride or two per week.0 -
Once in a while I put my kids in the bike trailer for a ride on the greenway. There are a few short but steep hills. Having them in the back at an extra 70 lbs makes a world of difference. I can barely make it up on a triple ring in the smallest rolling at maybe 4 to 6 mph.
Same hill in my double ring racing bike by myself with no trailer I can possibly make it up the hill in the big ring up front at about 12 to 15 mph.
I would focus on a target weight for general health and fitness. I wouldn't target an Alps climber weight for your height just yet. Just lose some. You'll be amazed how the climbing speeds will increase.
I've found intervals helped my power while long and steady base-mile rides helped my weight loss.
The flats are about frontal area and watts. The climbs are about watts/kg.0 -
So I started riding daily in August 16 (had enough of public transport).
I was 107kg @ 183cm. Low BF and pretty muscular (ex weight lifter and current rugby player). My cycling was ok and I could hold my own against the other commuters, just.
Five months down the line, I'm now 92kg and a lot fitter. My upper body has diminished substantially and I've not been in the gym for about 4 months. Quads have dropped a little from 28" to 26.5" but I would say they are still as strong.
My FTP has increased from 187w to 301w in just a couple of months.
It's all about consistency and enjoying being on the bike, not just doing it to lose weight.
I'll probably plateau around 88kg since I have a large frame, but I hope my power will continue to increase...0 -
Whatever speed is required to get to the top is enough. Sounds like your main goal is losing some weight, so rather than focus on speed. Refine the goals to the weight loss. (I don't do weight loss so don't know) So is half a stone realistically achievable each month?
With that speed will increase (effectively for free) without you noticing and it'll be an extra "bonus" when you hit the speeds you are thinking about.
Less weight + better fitness = faster for longer.0 -
Well I assume OP is middle aged, if that's the case then don't get too hang up about your speed. Just go as fast as you can go and you will just get faster as you get fitter and lose weight.0
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Quite a large guess, but I would say that 6min/km for running is maybe equivalent to 15mph avg on a bike, so long as it's not hilly.
Not far off, in my experience anyway. My PB for running 10K is 5:40min/km pace and when I'm riding by myself (rolling Essex hills) I tend to average 15 to 16mph for rides of 50 miles or so.
Having said that there is a lady in our club who's 10K PB (set very recently) is a couple of minutes faster than mine (a tad under 5:30 pace) but on club runs seems to be more of a 12-14mph type rider. She seems to mostly struggle on hills as well, which is odd because she probably doesn't weigh half what I do and must have a decent W/kg figure - certainly better than my own FTP of 2.6W/kg or so!0 -
niblue wrote:Having said that there is a lady in our club who's 10K PB (set very recently) is a couple of minutes faster than mine (a tad under 5:30 pace) but on club runs seems to be more of a 12-14mph type rider. She seems to mostly struggle on hills as well, which is odd because she probably doesn't weigh half what I do and must have a decent W/kg figure - certainly better than my own FTP of 2.6W/kg or so!
That'll be down to training. I found that fitness related to sports is, sport dependent. I used to play football and was a winger (a couple of years ago) and could easily last 90 mins (+extra time wen required), i personally took it as praise when the fullback and/or winger were being subbed after 60 mins as i'd ran them over. The coach later used to swap which wing i was on at half time (i didn't thanks him at the time) so that we could dominate in the 2nd half against most teams. Football aside, put me in a swimming pool and i could only just about manage 4 lengths front crawl before having to resort to breast stroke for a few and then do another couple of front crawl. Other people who can't run could sit for a good hour just doing front crawl.
You want to be good at climbing hills, you gotta climb hills.0 -
Being on the heavier side of things doesn't mean you can kick some serious butt. One of my cycling partners weigh around 110kg's and he pedals like hell. He has many top 10 positions on a lot of Strava segments in my city. And he even has a KOM on a down hill segment as well.
And on some of the flat segments the average speeds are over 40kmph. Of course on the hills we zip past him but that isn't really the point. It is more about improving yourself.
There is one exceptional rider here. He is 100kg, very tall (like yourself) and he can fly along the flats at around 37kmph for two hours or more. This is just to show larger sized people can kick serious butt on the flats. The hills are a bit different but nonetheless.
Keep at it and enjoy it!
So just keep riding your bike and the improvements will come.0 -
Don't worry about speed-based goals. Set time-based goals. Couple that with perceived effort if/when necessary.
30kph for 5 minutes is much less useful to you at this point than 18-22kmph for 1,2 or 3 hours. The only reason I mention perceived effort is so that you keep yourself in check and do good work for the duration. Going "out riding" for 3 hours and spending 2.5hrs drinking beer beside the river might be good fun, but if you have fitness goals....
Speed will come later.0
