What's your average speed and do you set yourself targets?

[totallyfixed]

Distance / speed / averages are of course only relative to an individual and as such it is impossible to gauge what your maximum output is. Without going to ridiculous extremes like buying a powertap, a heart rate monitor can be a useful tool. I certainly wouldn't be hitting anything like maximum power or heart rate within a few minutes of leaving the house. You are obviously a fit individual and are capable of sustaining a high speed but I'm willing to bet you a drink [I'm in Cambridge several times during the year} that if you go at 50% for the first couple of miles, 75% for the next 3 then hit it for the last 7 you will average higher than you have managed before. You won't be damaging your health per se, but you will be tearing tiny muscle fibres which your body then has to repair instead of building and strengthening existing and new fibres.
On top of all that there is age related exercise damage but I'm not going there.......

 

[Dave 123]

My target is to come home in one piece.
There is a roadsign on my commute about 3/4 mile from home, I used to aim for 20mph as I passed it, now it's about 28 on a good day..... I think you know what I'm aiming at!

 

[Glow worm]

My cycle computer thing tells that me my average speed is normally 10-12 mph. I'm working hard to bring it down to about 8-10mph. To be honest, I'd much rather enjoy the ride rather than faff about worrying about speed or targets. The world's a fast enough place as it is these days, so I like to be still be able to do something slowly/ at my own pace just for a feckin' break from all the whizzing about the place madness everyone else seems so hung up on.

 

[DRHysted]

depends on how I feel.
Generally I aim to keep above 3:30 minutes per mile. but if the body feels good I'll push, if it feels spent then I'll go easy(er).

For example coming home from work this morning, I ran out of all steam with 4miles (of 8) to go (I knew I was pushing it due to too many shifts and not enougth rest over the last nine days, but I didn't want to take the car to work, I'm starting to enjoy the pain). So I dropped to the middle crank and took it easy (had to drop to the inner crank for the last hill).
However when I went in last night although I was tired I managed an average cadence of 91 and speed of 17.8mph.

My overall averages are road bike 17mph, MTB 13mph.

 

[al78]

I like to average 13-14 mph when cycling to work, and 16+mph cycling home. Headwinds and fatigue will slow me down by around 1 mph, using the folder or mountain bike instead of the road bike will knock another 0.5-1 mph off the average.

Fastest average heading into work is 15 mph. Fastest average coming home is 20 mph.

 

[HLaB]

I like to look at the average but after the event as a curiosity, I'd rather not get hung up on it during the ride.

 

[Albert]

I live in Mid-Wales. Average rides have well over 1,000 ft of climbing per 10 miles with regular 10 to 15% ramps no matter where I go. I long for flat rides where these 15+ averages are easy.

 

[VamP]

Hope you didn't carry the bike for any of that !!!!

I might have done

 

[Glow worm]

[QUOTE 1785968, member: 9609"]Fantastic - glad someone else sees cycling from my side of the fence. I plan my big days on 7mph, if my cyclecompter is showing 10mph I know its time to find somewhere comfortable to sit and enjoy the view.
[/quote]

And a fine attitude to life it is too. Sometimes just taking a step back and slowing down a bit can be a great thing. The world will keep turning if you don't get wherever you're heading quicker than yesterday, just as I found it kept turning when I had to look up a thing called 'cadence' (shudder), and promtly forgot about it after someone mentioned it on here!

 

[Kiwiavenger]

i look at average speed after i finish, plus i try and keep the cadence between 80-85 at the moment with occasional bursts to 100-120 and can drop to 60-70 on the hills

 

[Speedywheelsjeans]

Averages on cycle computers are not really good for ride comparison. Different weather conditions, sore legs, bad road surface increasing rolling resistance etc can all alter average speed from ride to ride. 19.4 mph is a respectable average, over 800 miles my bike computer is reading an average of 17.85 mph .... however when I look down I tend to see around 23-30mph when im not being slowed down by anything, when you throw in big hills, slow traffic, recovery riding and poor road surface you can drop your average very quickly, so dont get disheartened about average speed.

 

[Speedywheelsjeans]

The one thing that has always puzzled me on these threads, is for those that average around 19mph, how exactly do you measure that? I ask because it takes me around 11 miles to warm up and fellow club men / women at least 5 or 6 miles. If someone leaves the house for anything less than a 30 mile ride and averages these speeds I can only suggest that they may be damaging their health.
I've just got back from a relatively short 26 mile training ride, I'm injured at the moment [gets excuses in] but nevertheless on a rolling course for the first 9 miles my average was only just over 15mph and didn't get settled into a hard rhythm until well after that, in the end I finished with 17.52mph average.
The next bit is a request for one of the fast people to run a forum ride and advertise it as a quick ride, ought to be quite a few takers, yes?

I do 10-15 minutes of skipping intervals before I get on the bike for training, followed by 5 minutes stretching. get my lungs co-operating and my blood flowing

 

[Nebulous]

Averages on cycle computers are not really good for ride comparison. Different weather conditions, sore legs, bad road surface increasing rolling resistance etc can all alter average speed from ride to ride. 19.4 mph is a respectable average, over 800 miles my bike computer is reading an average of 17.85 mph .... however when I look down I tend to see around 23-30mph when im not being slowed down by anything, when you throw in big hills, slow traffic, recovery riding and poor road surface you can drop your average very quickly, so dont get disheartened about average speed.

They may not be good for individual ride comparison, but average over the piece is pretty much the best measure of performance there is. It's a harsh master though - I can spend 5 miles or more to garner a precious 3 tenths of a mile an hour and then lose it all and more on 1 hill!

 

[gaz]

They may not be good for individual ride comparison, but average over the piece is pretty much the best measure of performance there is. It's a harsh master though - I can spend 5 miles or more to garner a precious 3 tenths of a mile an hour and then lose it all and more on 1 hill!

Power is a better measurement.

 

[Nebulous]

Power is a better measurement.

Aye - ok, but I don't have a powermeter, and I'm not likely to have one any time soon.