How to increase average speed

[jimjav]

Afternoon,

During the last 15 months I have been getting more and more into road cycling and i am almost achivieng the targets that I put to my self.
My idea was get to the point that I can ride 100 km / 60 miles without major issues. At the moment I have achieve the 80 km mark without stopping and feeling really good after the ride. So I am happy with it, but now I want to increase the pace. At the moment I am around 24 kmh on the long rides and on shorters I can go to 26-27.
What are the best methods to get that power in your legs so you can keep the speed?

Cheers
Javier

 

[raleighnut]

Afternoon,

During the last 15 months I have been getting more and more into road cycling and i am almost achivieng the targets that I put to my self.
My idea was get to the point that I can ride 100 km / 60 miles without major issues. At the moment I have achieve the 80 km mark without stopping and feeling really good after the ride. So I am happy with it, but now I want to increase the pace. At the moment I am around 24 kmh on the long rides and on shorters I can go to 26-27.
What are the best methods to get that power in your legs so you can keep the speed?

Cheers
Javier

Keep cycling

 

[HLaB]

Interval sessions and group riding are things I think helped me but as @raleighnut says more riding is definitely the bigger influence in increasing speed up to a point but recovery/ regeneration is also needed or you eventually burnout. Good luck

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Time and miles, miles at a time

 

[CXRAndy]

What are the best methods to get that power in your legs so you can keep the speed

Do shorter rides, using a high cadence and keep a speed higher than your desired speed. Try riding at 20 mph for a few miles, repeat and repeat. Eventually the times will get longer where you can hold 20 mph

Also do longer non stop low intensity rides to build endurance.

A guy I ride with-well used to, coz he's too fast now. He can ride 100 miles solo at 20 mph. He does 250 miles a week training.

I know there are riders faster but its some achievement for a bloke in his forties

 

[mjr]

The simplest way to increase your average speed is to hammer up to junctions and slam the anchors on at the last possible moment, then sprint away. This will maximise the time your tracker spends autopaused and minimise the amount of recorded at lower than maximum speeds.

It is, however, much more likely to prove fatal if you misjudge it or suffer a mechanical on approach.

Average speed is just an artificial number. Don't worry about it unless you need to.

 

[Racing roadkill]

Try not to concentrate on average speeds. It’s a pretty poor way to judge your level / improvements. There are too many external factors over which you have no control that can influence it ( head winds / terrain ) amongst other things. If your serious about increasing your performance, you need to be measuring your power output. Power is Power / Watts are Watts, if that’s increasing, your performance / fitness is. To be more specific it’s your power to weight ratio that you want to be looking at / increasing. If that’s going up, you’ll be getting faster, on a given rig, in given conditions, on given routes.

 

[DaveReading]

Try not to concentrate on average speeds.

In my road-running days, I used to have a set route that I ran periodically every week or so and my time gave me a pretty good indication of whether I was getting faster or slower.

Much better than concentrating on average speeds.

 

[jimjav]

Thanks everyone.
Group rides are cancelled sadly.

My strava average power has been increasing slowly, from 80W in the longer rides to 110w. So my power to weight has moved from 1.14 to 1.57.

Thanks for all the advice.
Javier

 

[dodgy]

Try not to concentrate on average speeds. It’s a pretty poor way to judge your level / improvements.

Nah, if you record all your rides and note the average speed, you will see a trend emerge if you are riding more often or simply trying harder. Yes there will be external factors and power meters are cool and all that, but if you're getting fitter your average speed will increase over time and will be easy to spot in whatever platform you measure it.

 

[Ridgeway]

Ride down hill more

Seriously though your average speeds will be greatly affected by the terrain you're on. I tend to note how many metres are climbed over an average distance so i can compare my average speeds. It goes without saying that on a hillier route you'll be slower.

 

[13 rider]

View: https://youtu.be/F4pcX_GMmuM

There's a few other clips on the GCN chanel covering the same thing