Average Speeds....

Average speeds mean nothing. Conditions, terrain, distance etc means that avg speed will vary between everyone.

I once did a hilly ride averaging 17mph in the Peaks, inc the Cat and Fiddle......but that means nothing...

yep, I can see where you're coming from, I'm always looking at my average speeds. But as these guys have said there are too many variables to take the comparison with others on an internet forum too seriously.

Example - we used to live in Yorkshire and over hilly routes I'd bust a gut to do 18mph and need a "float" day to get 20mph. Now we're living in Lincolnshire I'd feel really down if I dropped below 20mph in the summer. For me, my winter times are down by at least 2-3mph as I just don't like riding in the cold & wet.

I wouldn't say 16.5mph is low, the important thing is how you feel after the ride and whether you're avs times are improving over the same route, similar conditions, etc. So as a method of charting your own progress it's fair enough, but don't worry too much about what everyone else is doing. If you're finishing your training rides worn out, eating sensibly & recovering before the next session, then you're probably doing the best you can.

I think that stopping at traffic lights and having to slow down for stupid motorists in front of you is the main thing which affects your average speed - even out in the countryside. These factors are so unpredictable that it's best to time yourself on certain stretches of road with no traffic lights or up a particular hill in order to see improvements regularly.

Furthermore, wind can change everything and if, like me, the length of your slow-speed warm-up period fluctuates, you wont get realistic readings.

On a good day, riding round the city, I get 19.5mph. On days with loads of traffic, it's more like 17. When you get traffic and headwinds, averaging 16 is amazing!

jfwall wrote:

bhm100 wrote:

For me, my winter times are down by at least 2-3mph as I just don't like riding in the cold & wet.

.

How glad am I I read this, I've been riding all through the winter and getting miffed that my averages are poorer in the winter than the summer.

My average speed graph looks like a hump over the summer where 20mph was getting to the norm but now I'm struggling to get to 18mph,

Jonathan

We are all slower in the winter. For a start, it is harder to move an object (cyclist) through cold air, as the air molecules are harder to move through as they 'vibrate' slower, thus more effort is required to move through them. Also, the body expends more energy to keep you warm, so demands more of your energy that you would other wise be using to cycle with, so you are less likely to improve your cycling 'vitality' (leg strength, aerobic breathing, blood cell production), so you are bound to see a drop off in performance. Of course, all the opposites are true when it's warm, and we are more likely to go out more often, and further, thus increasing our cycling 'vitality'