average time for 10 miles

[Chris James]

Jimboalee - You keep saying hills make no difference but they do.

Obviously hills make a difference to your average speed.

It almost seems pointless doing some maths to demonstrate as it is so self evident.

But in any case, imagine a mile long 1 in 5 hill. You may climb it at a mere 4mph, taking 15 minutes to reach the top.

You may then descend at 40 mph (in practice you might struggle to go this fast if there are corners and also the slowing effect of wind resistance comes into play at speeds much above this). The descent would then take 1.5 minutes.

So you have covered 2 miles in 16.5 minutes = average speed of just over 7mph.

But for the same effort you might knock out 15 - 20mph on the flat.

If I go for a 30 - 40 mile ride on my own around Huddersfield (hilly) I average about 13mph. Down to about 12mph if the route is much longer.

In rolling Northumberland I average about 14 mph for 60 milers and for flattish Cheshire I average about 16mph for the same distance on my own.

I am faster in groups.

 

[Angelfishsolo]

+1 Another voice of sanity, Thank You

Obviously hills make a difference to your average speed.

It almost seems pointless doing some maths to demonstrate as it is so self evident.

But in any case, imagine a mile long 1 in 5 hill. You may climb it at a mere 4mph, taking 15 minutes to reach the top.

You may then descend at 40 mph (in practice you might struggle to go this fast if there are corners and also the slowing effect of wind resistance comes into play at speeds much above this). The descent would then take 1.5 minutes.

So you have covered 2 miles in 16.5 minutes = average speed of just over 7mph.

But for the same effort you might knock out 15 - 20mph on the flat.

If I go for a 30 - 40 mile ride on my own around Huddersfield (hilly) I average about 13mph. Down to about 12mph if the route is much longer.

In rolling Northumberland I average about 14 mph for 60 milers and for flattish Cheshire I average about 16mph for the same distance on my own.

I am faster in groups.

 

[jimboalee]

Hmmm… The Stratford road between Shirley, Solihull; and the ice cream shop in Henly in Arden is ten miles. Shirley is at 460 ft elev, and Henley is at 250 ft. The hill is called Liverage Hill and accounts for 150 ft in ¼ mile. The rest is an undulating A road.
To the ice cream takes 33 minutes, that's 18 mph. Back takes 50 mins, that's 12 mph. The round trip is at average 15 mph! How strange.

By sheer coincidence, the calorific expenditure for the trip is equal to a twin cone with a flake.

 

[Crackle]

For interest.

Through my thirties and forties, I cycle commuted 8 miles to work, physically pushed Jaguars and Range Rovers around an Exhaust Emissions test lab, went jogging 3 kilometers at lunch time with two other colleagues, pushed more cars round during the afternoon, cycled 8 miles home. Had dinner. Took my eldest son to the playing field to play soccer or cricket in the summer evenings, or to the public swimming baths twice a week in the winter; and in the mid nineties, got up at 2 O'Clock in the morning to bottle feed my younger son.

Either I've grossly overestimated the physical capabilities of twenty first century young adults, or I'm living on the wrong planet.

Yep, different planet. I'd consider you to be a very fit individual who has stayed fit. Not everyone is the same or has done the same, certainly I'm not and I can't currently keep up with a 9 and 11 year old on sheer energy, though luckily I can still outlast them on bigger activities but the day is coming when I won't

 

[Chris James]

Hmmm… The Stratford road between Shirley, Solihull; and the ice cream shop in Henly in Arden is ten miles. Shirley is at 460 ft elev, and Henley is at 250 ft. The hill is called Liverage Hill and accounts for 150 ft in ¼ mile. The rest is an undulating A road.
To the ice cream takes 33 minutes, that's 18 mph. Back takes 50 mins, that's 12 mph. The round trip is at average 15 mph! How strange.

By sheer coincidence, the calorific expenditure for the trip is equal to a twin cone with a flake.

Why is that strange? From what I can gather, you go slower uphill than downhill, which is perfectly normal.

How fast do you go on the dead flat?

To a degree it depends on how hilly we are talking about. If it is slightly rolling then the average speeds are probably not hugely affected. Wind probably makes as much as a difference.

For comparison I put into Bikely the 25 miler I did yesterday afternoon. There was 2590 feet height gain in that 25 miles and that is a pretty normal route around here.

 

[marinyork]

Why is that strange? From what I can gather, you go slower uphill than downhill, which is perfectly normal.

How fast do you go on the dead flat?

To a degree it depends on how hilly we are talking about. If it is slightly rolling then the average speeds are probably not hugely affected. Wind probably makes as much as a difference.

For comparison I put into Bikely the 25 miler I did yesterday afternoon. There was 2590 feet height gain in that 25 miles and that is a pretty normal route around here.

+1. Putting that route into something that calculates altitude that's more or less completely flat. It doesn't even rate a 0.2 in one direction and going the other way about a 0.4. Looking at the A-road it doesn't look like there are too many traffic lights about and it's probably a quality bit of tarmac. The 23 miler I did on Saturday I can't remember but I think it might have been 2600ft.

Now answer me this. If a 9 year old can ride at 14.5 – 15 mph for five miles, can a grown up twentysomething ride at 14.5 – 15 mph for ten miles?

Be VERY, VERY ashamed if you can't.

Cheers for that. I am that twentysomething. Over a course length you've quoted I've averaged 18mph, once. It's never been repeated (it just isn't the flatness and there is too much urban sprawl and microlumping on the roads). My day to day average is nothing like 15mph. I know there are people that easily can. The other thing I would say is I know a lot of people here use computers and some of them don't measure crude average speed.

The story about your physical activity I'd put you in the top 5% of the population. You're vastly overestimating the fitness of the population. I've always walked a lot, used to do running and I'd put myself just above average at perhaps top 40% of the population. I realise that makes me a very crap cyclist and done some things wrong which I have now learnt from but the idea that any beginner could get straight on a bike on day 1 and do 15mph (crude average speed) for a 10 miler is insane.

 

[caz]

Hmmm… The Stratford road between Shirley, Solihull; and the ice cream shop in Henly in Arden is ten miles. Shirley is at 460 ft elev, and Henley is at 250 ft. The hill is called Liverage Hill and accounts for 150 ft in ¼ mile. The rest is an undulating A road.
To the ice cream takes 33 minutes, that's 18 mph. Back takes 50 mins, that's 12 mph. The round trip is at average 15 mph! How strange.

By sheer coincidence, the calorific expenditure for the trip is equal to a twin cone with a flake.

When I pluck up the courage to go on the A34 from Shirley to Henley, I will have to see how long it takes me. Just don't fancy Liveridge Hill both ways! I've done it once from Henley on a Sunday but I was cream crackered by the time I got up to the top of the hill - that was a long drag,and I was in the granny ring managing about 7mph! Turned off soon after that onto the quieter country roads.

 

[Crackle]

Marinyork, what's this 0.1, 0.4 stuff. Is this something you've created because I've never seen it before?

And I think Jimboalee has already established his own personal fitness, which is, I would agree, in the higher echelons of fitness and I speak as a cyclist/runner/mountaineer, albeit a fairly average one

 

[marinyork]

Marinyork, what's this 0.1, 0.4 stuff. Is this something you've created because I've never seen it before?

And I think Jimboalee has already established his own personal fitness, which is, I would agree, in the higher echelons of fitness and I speak as a cyclist/runner/mountaineer, albeit a fairly average one

It is something I've created Crackle. I grade hills routes now to try and get as much hills in as possible so as to survive some of the longer routes I've been doing a bit better (40 miles + which I have always struggled with). 1.0 means 100ft per mile or 1000ft per 10 miles. Like Chris James, whatever route I take it is more or less this, which is why I call it a 1.0. A 0.2 would be 200ft per 10 miles and so on. When I lived in York it was about 0.05 or even 0.02. When I cycle home from town with traffic holding me up, red lights galore and a 500ft hill it can be a 1.2. Do you really live in the Wirral Crackle, thought you lived in Scotland?

 

[jimboalee]

Since my last post on the thread regarding Puncture Fairies, I have been to check my own tyres.
I will have to notify the OP of that thread that it is Imps who puncture tyres and wicked Goblins who break spokes. The little bastards from Beta Leonis Minoris.

Anyway, while I was over by the bike sheds, I popped into Medical and had a go on their electric blood pressure kit. After 10 mins relaxing, I was 135 over 85 and a resting HR of 56.

So, I sincerely apologise to all the Earthlings who can't keep 15 mph for 40 minutes.

 

[marinyork]

My HRR is lower than that (surprised by that and I thought mine was high).

 

[jimboalee]

Must be those Yorkshire Hills.

Cycling DOES pay.

 

[marinyork]

Pay?

 

[Crackle]

Since my last post on the thread regarding Puncture Fairies, I have been to check my own tyres.
I will have to notify the OP of that thread that it is Imps who puncture tyres and wicked Goblins who break spokes. The little bastards from Beta Leonis Minoris.

Anyway, while I was over by the bike sheds, I popped into Medical and had a go on their electric blood pressure kit. After 10 mins relaxing, I was 135 over 85 and a resting HR of 56.

So, I sincerely apologise to all the Earthlings who can't keep 15 mph for 40 minutes.

Yeah but your blood is Green: Green blood is well known for inexhaustible supplies of Glycogen and absolutely no lactic acid build up

 

[Downward]

Good thread for encouraging beginners