Cycling Mob: Road Cycling, Mountain Biking and More - View Single Post

08-26-2004, 11:17 AM

Bob in CT wrote:
>
>>
>> What I found is that I have to occasionally ride with faster riders. The
>> result is that I ride faster, too. Oh, yeah, just in keeping up with
>> them at
>> first---but eventually, I get accustomed to the "feel" of riding
>> faster and
>> it seems more like normal to me. Last week, two of us were riding at
>> 19 mph
>> (trying to catch the main group which had left 15 minutes earlier) and a
>> third guy was going along with us--mostly drafting--well, okay, always
>> drafting. But when we stopped for a moment or two, he panted out "I
>> don't
>> usually ride this fast. I mostly ride at 12 mph." And yet, he was
>> keeping
>> up--because he had an incentive, I guess. When you ride alone, you
>> tend to
>> ride slower. At least that is true for me. Now, I have another
>> problem--I'm
>> up in the 18 mph range and all alone. I call myself a "tweener"
>> because I am
>> used to riding faster than the 14 mph group but I can't hang with the
>> 23-24
>> mph group yet.
>> The morale of the story is: riding with some faster people can improve
>> your
>> performance.
>>
>> Pat in TX
>>
>>
>
> You're right about that -- sometimes when I'm alone, I'll let my speed
> slip. I've been trying to get faster, though, when riding alone. It's
> just that I ride so many hills that I'm going as fast as I can up the
> hills that when I get to the top, I don't (or can't) go faster. Many
> times, my HR is well into the 90-95% of my max. HR for a long time
> (typically, about 1/3 of my ride is above 90% of my max HR -- I'll find
> out more this weekend, as I'm going to reprogram my HR monitor so that
> it tells me how long I'm between 90-100% of my max HR). On my current
> long rides, as soon as I turn around, I know it's all downhill (except
> for two very hard uphills, but these are relatively short), so I average
> over 20 mph on the flat sections of the downhill.

You sound like me. If I ride 12 mph I can ride for a long long time,
and pretty much any hill will get my HR up over 90% of max, if it isn't
pegged at MHR. How long have you been riding regularly? For me, I
think a lot of it is just that I've only been riding since late May, and
it takes me a long time to build up fitness due to my impaired gas exchange.

I think I have the best of both worlds right now: when I ride with my
husband, it's long slow distance; when I ride with my sons, they push
the pace. We're an exclusive club of five around here. *grin*

-km

--
the black rose
proud to be owned by a yorkie
http://community.webshots.com/user/blackrosequilts

08-26-2004, 11:17 AM	#19 (permalink)
the black rose Posts: n/a	Re: Anyone ride slow but long? Bob in CT wrote: > >> >> What I found is that I have to occasionally ride with faster riders. The >> result is that I ride faster, too. Oh, yeah, just in keeping up with >> them at >> first---but eventually, I get accustomed to the "feel" of riding >> faster and >> it seems more like normal to me. Last week, two of us were riding at >> 19 mph >> (trying to catch the main group which had left 15 minutes earlier) and a >> third guy was going along with us--mostly drafting--well, okay, always >> drafting. But when we stopped for a moment or two, he panted out "I >> don't >> usually ride this fast. I mostly ride at 12 mph." And yet, he was >> keeping >> up--because he had an incentive, I guess. When you ride alone, you >> tend to >> ride slower. At least that is true for me. Now, I have another >> problem--I'm >> up in the 18 mph range and all alone. I call myself a "tweener" >> because I am >> used to riding faster than the 14 mph group but I can't hang with the >> 23-24 >> mph group yet. >> The morale of the story is: riding with some faster people can improve >> your >> performance. >> >> Pat in TX >> >> > > You're right about that -- sometimes when I'm alone, I'll let my speed > slip. I've been trying to get faster, though, when riding alone. It's > just that I ride so many hills that I'm going as fast as I can up the > hills that when I get to the top, I don't (or can't) go faster. Many > times, my HR is well into the 90-95% of my max. HR for a long time > (typically, about 1/3 of my ride is above 90% of my max HR -- I'll find > out more this weekend, as I'm going to reprogram my HR monitor so that > it tells me how long I'm between 90-100% of my max HR). On my current > long rides, as soon as I turn around, I know it's all downhill (except > for two very hard uphills, but these are relatively short), so I average > over 20 mph on the flat sections of the downhill. You sound like me. If I ride 12 mph I can ride for a long long time, and pretty much any hill will get my HR up over 90% of max, if it isn't pegged at MHR. How long have you been riding regularly? For me, I think a lot of it is just that I've only been riding since late May, and it takes me a long time to build up fitness due to my impaired gas exchange. I think I have the best of both worlds right now: when I ride with my husband, it's long slow distance; when I ride with my sons, they push the pace. We're an exclusive club of five around here. grin -km -- the black rose proud to be owned by a yorkie http://community.webshots.com/user/blackrosequilts