Do I cycle too fast for touring/long rides?

[wakou]

I know that my pathetic average speed is a mere all-day-long tootling speed for some.. but I have a 120 mile ride coming up and would like to conserve energy so that I get to the end!
I average about 16mph on a ride. My longest one-day ride so far has been 60 miles, and I was quite tired by the end. I am considering replacing my 50t big ring with a 46t one so I am limited to top speed. Or even adjusting out the big ring altogether with the front mech stop screw, but I think that only having 34t front would be TOO frustrating, and I would be cross chained a lot of the time (12-28 cassette) I guess that a large dose of self-discipline is really what is needed, but I have none of that. On a long ride I tend to push hard downhill, to help with the inevitable uphill to follow. Do you touring types avoid this temptation and just roll down and spin gently up? Should I join a 'group' on the ride and stick behind them? Or should I go to the half-way point at my usual pace, and take a really long break/sleep (It is a night ride, the 'Dunwich Dynamo'), thus making it a sort of two ride journey?
Do they even do 46t outer rings (105 compact double front chainset)

 

[wakou]

!! lawks no, hardly ever use it, downhill only, and then in small doses...

 

[StuAff]

Pathetic average? 16 mph? If that's overall average, not rolling, it's hardly pathetic, more darn quick. And if it's rolling, it's still as fast as many others (me included). You could fit smaller rings, but why bother? Bit of group riding would probably help. If you learn to ease up just a fraction, and spin more, you'll save a lot of energy.

DD in under nine hours last year, btw....

 

[berty bassett]

personally i would have said that if you usually seem to be pushing yourself and your sometimes out of breath then keep this up right to the day of the ride and then just calm down - just keep going at a steady pace without getting out of breath and you will breeze it . i wouldn't bother fannying around with the gears as you already have easy ones to get up hills and if it doesn't tire you to pedal downhill then go for it - at least at the minute you have the option if you want to . i think if you make it as though your legs are buzzing like bees wings when they don't usually then you may tire quicker just stick with what your happy . i changed my front chainset to 38 50 and there is a bit of everything in there somewhere - if you find it hard going in places then just tuck behind someone and get dragged along for a while . enjoy ---

 

[alans]

16mph average is a long way off pathetic.
I'd be extremely satisfied with such an average.

If you want to slow down,hook up with someone slower than yourself,stay with them & do all the talking

 

[GrumpyGregry]

16mph rolling/moving average is pathetic? I must be doing the wrong kind of touring.

 

[Andrew_P]

I think I know exactly what he means, as I have considered the same. I do a reasonable amount of miles but it is 99% commuting and as such I have become used to riding 80-90% effort, and most commutes when weather and wind are favourable I am chasing best times. I enjoy this, it is 50-60 mins good quality excercise.

I am 100% sure that sometime this year I want to do an all day distance ride, but I know speed is going to be my enemy, and the danger is burning out and making a long run much more painful than it has to be.

I have also decided to do a few HR limit commutes keeping it at low endurance levels, which would be my advice to the OP.

 

[Norm]

Just have a ride or ten where you force yourself to ride slower. Riding hard is like any habit, it takes a few goes to break it but it can be done.

I know this because my ride in to the office is currently only 4.5 miles, which isn't really long enough, IMO, to warrant changing. If I limit myself to under 10mph, then I get to work as fresh as a daisy and in less time than if I average 16mph and have to wash and change when I get there. However, it was very hard to get into the habit of riding so slowly, I got there in chunks of limiting to 14mph, then 12mph and now 10mph.

Luckily, the ride home is a little faster.

Now, you won't need to go that far to hit your 120 miles but you could try getting into the habit of riding at 75% and leaving yourself energy to spare.

 

[gbb]

Just ride outbound at 14mph OP....and try to stick to it.
16mph is my average, but i am just building up the mileage after some time off the bike. Keeping the speed is no problem, distance is, ive lost so much fitness.
The longest ive ridden in the last 8 months was circa 18 miles (before that 50/60/80 milers were normal), but this last week i had a day off, thats it, i'm going for it, but knowing the legs are'nt used to the distance
Set off into the wind (well, breeze) and tried to maintain 13/14 mph, working at a level well within myself . Even thats not easy, you look down and you're doing 16 mph, ooer, must ease off a bit. Homebound, i had the tailwind, and the knowledge i was still feeling good so i could up the pace
The end result was 59 miles, still averaged 15mph, the ride was just a tad pacy, but well within myself. Climbed off the bike as fresh as a fresh thing

BTW, is the 34 inner needed ? can you run a 38 and stay on that ?. I used to run a 40 and stay on that, but there are no real hills here.

Just control the speed, particually against the wind, ride well within yourself. You can extend mileage so much doing that.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Stuaff's suggestion about doing some group riding sounds like a good one to me. But if you don't have the chance to do this before the DD, there'll be a lot of riders there on the night, some faster than you, some slower, but there will also be a fair number at around your level. Without wheel-sucking complete strangers, you should be able to use other riders to help you pace yourself.

 

[boydj]

Stay well within your capabilities on your ride and make use of any groups to make the ride easier - just don't get sucked along with a group that's too fast. Aim for a 15mph average when riding solo and up to ~18 if you can stick with a group. Watch your speedometer and listen to your body - and practice going more slowly before the event.

No real need to mess around with gearing, but a change to a 46 or 48 would make gear changes a bit easier and might give you some more comfortable gears for cruising without impacting too much on top speed which you might hit 0.01% of the time. Personally, I changed from 50/34 to 48/36 for this reason.

 

[Part time cyclist]

Nothing new to say that hasn't already been said, trying to ride slowly is a ball ache!!! If you are on your own so join up with a group and have a nice chat as you go along miles will fly by and you won't even notice it. Last year I trained for the London to Brighton at stupid mph solo I compleated the ride with my nephew and after trying to speed him up a few times on the ride I realised it was a no go and just eased of and we talked the whole way there, even ride up Ditchling beacon without too much effort..... To coin a phrase "it's good to talk"

 

[Globalti]

Yep, on the only 100 miler I've ever done I found that a bit of company really helped while away the miles.

Best advice for a long ride is to save as much energy as possible by getting in with a bunch and doing some drafting.

 

[YahudaMoon]

The key to long distance is go slow out and finish fast, not fast out with a slow finish.

I still get it wrong sometimes when my fitness level drops

 

[Scruffmonster]

If you restrict your gearing you'll still ride at the same intensity within the confines of that gearing.

If you want a guaranteed fix, get a heart rate monitor, wear it for a few rides between now and the DD, do a little reading on the subject then ride a few rides without a cycle computer and use your heart rate as a guide to effort.

If you can be bothered to observe the numbers, you'll notice a tipping point in effort vs average speed. I generally find that if I ride at an average of sub 155 beats per minute, I'll clip along at about 15mph average speed and be able to ride like that for hours. To hold an average of 17mph I'm probably at about 175bpm and I wouldnt want to do that for more than 2 or 3 hours. It sounds techy written down but it takes little to work it out and it's good to know.

With all that said, the DD promotes cruisy riding after the first 15 miles, even though it's flat for most of the 120 miles. Very few stomp it out at warp speed. We covered it in 9 hours last year with a couple of lengthy stops and finished tired but not destroyed.