Average speed

[ianwoodi]

I AM 53 YEARS OLD AND GETTING BETTER ALL THE TIME WITH AGE

 

[ianwoodi]

You should never give up in trying to improve yourself weather its in fitness or health or life is not worth living

 

[Pedrosanchezo]

And mine, not bad for an old duffer @@ 48, if only I packed in the fags... lol

pity my climbing is in imperial


View attachment 22936

Defo give up the fags!!

Mine seems to default to metric. Here is imperial version of those April elevation stats:

Elevation gain - 35485ft

Max elevation gain - 7129ft

It was a pretty hilly month but i was ill and off the bike for a week at the beginning of the month, so i tried to make up for it.
Think i was only on the turbo 3 times the whole month. A testament to the decent/dry weather we have been getting.

 

[Rob3rt]

My all-time top speed is 34mph. Despite being well placed on most local Strava segs, I am bringing up the rear on any steep descent. I am a cowardly descender. The anti-Pedro!

I am the same, I go uphill fairly well and usually have to wait for quite a few at the top, but coming back down, they will all be waiting for me at the bottom, lol

 

[Andrew_P]

I am the same, I go uphill fairly well and usually have to wait for quite a few at the top, but coming back down, they will all be waiting for me at the bottom, lol

Whoops a bit of Red Wine bank holiday willy waving from me.

Progress for me is the key, I am sure at some point I will plateau but as someone said earlier always trying to get better go longer or faster, for me it is part of the enjoyment from cycling nothing against pootling around, in fact I love doing that with the kids but I would be lying if I said I didn't think about the impact the pootle was going to have on my monthly average speed! I love looking back and comparing April 2013 to 2012 and 2011 etc

 

[ianwoodi]

Man after my own heart nothing against the pootling but i am to young to pootle plenty of time in my 70s to pootle if i last that long

 

[SquareDaff]

All relative - I cracked 18.7mph average on the 30 mile commute into work this morning - TBH I'm not interested in competing against other people. I'm approaching 45 and am absolutely certain there are many people out there that will be faster than me. With the best will in the world I'm only going to get slower!!

I track my training from the start of my season (1st April this year) throughout. As long as I can see that I'm improving that works for me. Oh - I don't mean obsessively either.

 

[Rob3rt]

All relative - I cracked 18.7mph average on the 30 mile commute into work this morning - TBH I'm not interested in competing against other people. I'm approaching 45 and am absolutely certain there are many people out there that will be faster than me. With the best will in the world I'm only going to get slower!!

I track my training from the start of my season (1st April this year) throughout. As long as I can see that I'm improving that works for me. Oh - I don't mean obsessively either.

You might want to look at your local TT and race results! Put it this way, 80% of the top 10 in the TT I raced on Saturday were Vets (>40 years old)! One of the 2 riders in the top 10 who was not a Vet was a pro rider, 26 years of age, he did not win, he came 2nd! The guy who won, was a Vet!

 

[DWiggy]

Strava is your friend (my personal best friend) , push yourself on as many segments as you can you your ride, if there are not enough segment's then create some, you will soon get a jist of the typical speed for your area and for your ride (you can even make your whole ride a segment), theres nothing quite like getting into the top ten and getting the converted KOM, well that will really make your day!!!

 

[SquareDaff]

You might want to look at your local TT and race results! Put it this way, 80% of the top 10 in the TT I raced on Saturday were Vets (>40 years old)! One of the 2 riders in the top 10 who was not a Vet was a pro rider, 26 years of age, he did not win, he came 2nd! The guy who won, was a Vet!

Is that experience and tactics showing through? "Or is it just that all the younsters spend all day sat on their backsides in front of the TV playing on the XBox" he says, lighting the blue touch paper and standing well back

 

[ianwoodi]

Careful

 

[Mo1959]

You might want to look at your local TT and race results! Put it this way, 80% of the top 10 in the TT I raced on Saturday were Vets (>40 years old)! One of the 2 riders in the top 10 who was not a Vet was a pro rider, 26 years of age, he did not win, he came 2nd! The guy who won, was a Vet!

Sorry if this is a daft question, but is there an age when you can't really expect to improve much? Or, if like me you haven't really started cycling until you are in your fifties, can you realistically expect to at least make a reasonable amount of improvement if you put the effort in?

 

[SquareDaff]

Sorry if this is a daft question, but is there an age when you can't really expect to improve much? Or, if like me you haven't really started cycling until you are in your fifties, can you realistically expect to at least make a reasonable amount of improvement if you put the effort in?

I'm not expert - but I'd expect that, at any age, if you put effort into improving then you will see a return. The returns might not be as great as if you were in your 20's though! In your case, if you've only just really started cycling I'd expect the returns to be very noticeable, mainly as the initial baseline is probably low (I don't know how much cycling you consider "haven't really started")

 

[Rob3rt]

Is that experience and tactics showing through? "Or is it just that all the younsters spend all day sat on their backsides in front of the TV playing on the XBox" he says, lighting the blue touch paper and standing well back

Pacing and experience will only get you so far, you still need the engine and vice versa, such things are not mutually exclusive!

If age was as dramatically limiting as many people allude to, then the small percentage of the field made up by the younger riders would make up the largest percentage of the fast end of the results sheet! But this is not the case.

As for age distribution of entrants, you will find that there are a lot of >40's racing bikes and they make up a large part of the field. This is partly due to expense, some people think you need all the best kit to race, which can put many off. Gear becomes increasingly important as you get better especially at the sharp end of TT'ing where the gear can make the difference between winning and not winning but not having the gear shouldn't put you off giving it a go. But it is also probably partly due to lifestyle, as people get older, generalising, their lifestyle becomes less sporadic, this lends itself to pursuits such as racing bikes! There are probably many other factors too it.

 

[Pedrosanchezo]

Sorry if this is a daft question, but is there an age when you can't really expect to improve much? Or, if like me you haven't really started cycling until you are in your fifties, can you realistically expect to at least make a reasonable amount of improvement if you put the effort in?

Mo, you will be able to come on leaps and bounds. It all just depends on time spent in the saddle. I have faith in you! I like Crieff people.