Trying to get a bit faster.

[Firenze]

Background information:
This is the first year back on the bike after at least 15 years. My goal was to develop the stamina to ride the 2 day 200 mile STP. YTD = 2,484 miles. Includes 3 centuries and two metric centuries. On the centuries my average speed was 15mph. That is on bike, rolling, time to distance calculated average. I seem to get passed a lot.

I am now cutting down a little on the volume and adding some intervals. I ride an hour after work 3 times a week on average plus longer rides on weekends.

And yes I am still working on the weight side of the power to weight equation. Hills are still a killer and I have followed with interest the hill climbing thread.

Any suggestions on how to train for overall speed? I want to be able to ride with the big kids. :cool:
Thanks
Arch

[wasfast]

It wasn't clear (at least to me) what overall speed you meant. You mentioned STP, then your century speed, then intervals. Those are all a bit different to me.

Double centuries require lots of saddle time and long steady distance. While intervals (which is a broad category, from 10 second sprints to 2 x 30 minutes)will improve your short term speed and improve your fitness some, it won't do much for a double century ride.

The bottom line to going faster is to go faster. No, I'm not being trite. You go faster for a shorter amount of time at your goal speed. This is a classic way of teaching your body what it feels like. I guess you could make a sort of "poor man's" interval out of this:

Let's say you want to average 20mph for 50 miles. How long could you ride now at a 20mph average? Let's say 10 minutes. So, you may do 8 minutes with 3 minutes rest, then another 8 minutes. 3 of those would be pretty tough at your fitness level I suspect. These are just examples, the actual speed and time are extremely variable.

I'd also suggest that you mix up your riding during the week. Do hills one day, a longer ride than usual ride one day and an intensity day (maybe the "intervals" mentioned above). Do your longest ride on the weekend and gradually increase the mileage, 10% week over week.

It's possible to finish a double century with low miles but you'll really pay for it. I'd suggest you give yourself at least a year to get some depth in your fitness. I started riding again 4 years ago after 25 years off the bike. It's taken me until this year to really get going again despite riding 5K+ miles each of those years.

Most of all, hang in there. It will get easier.

[Ray]

every article I've ever read on doing long distance events (a century is long enough for me thanks, but a double is a good one if you're moving toward hard-core) indicates that if you JUST train for distance, you'll be able to ride all day but never get any faster. To get faster, you need to do some intervals / speed work PLUS lots of distance to build your endurance. Others will have to tell you about HOW to do intervals - I wouldn't know one if it hit me in the face. But if you wanna get faster, you have to work on speed. If you wanna go longer, you have to work on endurance. If you wanna go faster over long distances, you have to work on both. Whether this is too much to work up to in one year, I don't know. For me, its been too much to work up to in ten years - I'd worry about burnout trying to get there in one. But that's just me - I'm sure others have done it.

Good luck,

-Ray

[Fixed]

I want to be able to ride with the big kids...ride with the big kids ..hang on
cheers bro :beer:
http://worldcat.org/wcpa/ow/3b1a7a9a5c5f68d0a19afeb4da09e526.html
eveything you would want to know imho cheers