1mph improvement

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Ming the Merciless

There is no mercy
Location
Inside my skull
These days I very occasionally go for a ‘fun’ ride. I hadn’t really ever done it before (did you know for example that beyond the hedges are fields with cows in? Never even really looked up before!!!).
I think I’ve got a few more years of killing myself and then I’m going to become an expert on cows!

Don’t forget to look up for Red Kites as well.
 

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
Doesn‘t matter. I only look at my own times for comparison on Strava. Like you, I’m in my 50’s, and I’m not going to be winning against the best local riders across all ages. Some win the genetic lottery and train, some win the lottery and don’t train, some lose the lottery and train like buggery, some lose the lottery and sit on the couch. Those who win the lottery and pick up biking early probably go into racing. The rest of us enjoy cycling as a past time or become sedentary.
I always wondered how i would compare to others if i had a regular day job, enough sleep, normal levels of stress and more time to train .As it is im normally a few hours short on sleep and apart from a club ride ( which i havent done for 3 weeks due to issues ) my training consists of commuting whereas they are all on zwift races and mid week chain gangs
 

Hacienda71

Mancunian in self imposed exile in leafy Cheshire
Get low and aero. At 18mph it starts making a noticeable difference. Hoods or drops bend your arms to get lower. It is free speed.
 
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Martinsnos

Senior Member
Get low and aero. At 18mph it starts making a noticeable difference. Hoods or drops bend your arms to get lower. It is free speed.
Many thanks. I need to keep up with that stretching, I’m a bit creaky these days.
I know a PT who really delves into his subject. Apparently these days the thinking is the absolute minimum time to hold a stretch is 1 minute. My goodness it is boring but…I must tell myself of the benefit when out on the road (I count 1 and 2 and…. to 60 and I reckon I’m lucky if it is 45 seconds - must use the timer on the phone more but it’s longer!!!).
 
Dear knowledgable members,
I’m 53, on a fairly decent road bike. I picked a fairly flat course today and average 18 mph for 1 hour.
My question, what 1 training ‘thing’ would you recommend to get me and extra 1mph?
For example…
Squats?
Upping weekly mileage?
Frequency of riding?
I just tend to go out and ride as fast as I can but I appreciate that probably means I’ll stick at about 18mph (until the age thing becomes a big issue!).
Many thanks.
Upping your frequency and mileage are good things but don't forget to build in rest to adapt, riding as fast as you can constantly isn't going to improve you.

Many folk though don't have time to up their frequency and mileage and you have to be smart about what you do do. Google interval based training and lots will argue it gets better results than upping frequency and mileage anyway. With interval training similarly don't forget to rest to let your body adapt. Good luck 👍
 
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Martinsnos

Senior Member
Upping your frequency and mileage are good things but don't forget to build in rest to adapt, riding as fast as you can constantly isn't going to improve you.

Many folk though don't have time to up their frequency and mileage and you have to be smart about what you do do. Google interval based training and lots will argue it gets better results than upping frequency and mileage anyway. With interval training similarly don't forget to rest to let your body adapt. Good luck 👍
Many thanks. I’ve got 3 things to try now:
Shorten and do last third flat out.
Hill repeats
Intervals.
 

Punkawallah

Über Member
Not coming from a cycling background, but it boils down to work harder, or work smarter or work harder -and- smarter :-)

Being a sensible man, and thus bone idle, I’d suggest option two - buy better wheels/tyres and go ‘aero’.

Good luck!
 
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Martinsnos

Senior Member
Not coming from a cycling background, but it boils down to work harder, or work smarter or work harder -and- smarter :-)

Being a sensible man, and thus bone idle, I’d suggest option two - buy better wheels/tyres and go ‘aero’.

Good luck!

Thank you.

I know this sounds stupid but going aero almost seems like ‘cheating’ to me but I suppose what I am really meaning is get the 1mph through training harder, then go aero and get 20mph!!!
 
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Punkawallah

Über Member
Of course it’s cheating! Otherwise it wouldn’t be worth doing :-)

You obviously want the third option, then. So, once again not from a cycling background, but varied intensity efforts followed by ‘active rest’ will show improvements. What they used to call Fartlek training, before t’Interwebs.
 

Ming the Merciless

There is no mercy
Location
Inside my skull
I always wondered how i would compare to others if i had a regular day job, enough sleep, normal levels of stress and more time to train .As it is im normally a few hours short on sleep and apart from a club ride ( which i havent done for 3 weeks due to issues ) my training consists of commuting whereas they are all on zwift races and mid week chain gangs

One of those unanswerable questions. There’s also some fitness improvements you’ll never get unless you started in your 20’s and kept going consistently across decades. Some structural changes that improve fitness and scale over decades.

There is a study I was reading about some life long top level endurance athletes. They had changes and improvements in their muscles that even fit high level 25 year olds couldn’t match.

Very few of us ever get close to our athletic potential ‘cause real life
 

Punkawallah

Über Member
Even a modicum of effort yields results, though. Hardly consider myself an ‘athlete’, but regular exercise in some form or other has, according to the ‘magic machine’ in a gym, resulted in a 25% discount on my ‘temporal‘ age - YMMV, T&CA :-)
 

Punkawallah

Über Member
Buggered if I know - the nice man just said 'Stand on that bit and hold these handles'. "Whirr, whirr' later and out pops a piece of paper from the ticky-type. Lot easier than standing up & sitting down, I tell you :-)
 

Shortandcrisp

Über Member
Thank you.

I know this sounds stupid but going aero almost seems like ‘cheating’ to me but I suppose what I am really meaning is get the 1mph through training harder, then go aero and get 20mph!!!
Its no more cheating than riding a road bike rather than something more upright; besides, for most of us maintaining an aero position is hard work in itself. I doubt very much if you’d initially go any faster on that course in a more aero position, just because I doubt you’d be able to put out the same level of power until you’d got a few weeks of training in that position under your belt.
And if you really want to cheat, ride the same course tucked behind a group of faster cyclists; I’d bet you’d easily turn that 18 average into a 20+ average.
 
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