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Distance/speed for newbie (unfit)
- PeteV
- Posts: 167
- Joined: Fri Nov 12, 2010 11:01 am
- Location: Northern 'burbs, Adelaide
Distance/speed for newbie (unfit)
Postby PeteV » Sun Feb 03, 2013 10:51 am
Cheers for any advice
Pete
- gururug
- Posts: 1528
- Joined: Fri Jan 26, 2007 12:05 am
Re: Distance/speed for newbie (unfit)
Postby gururug » Sun Feb 03, 2013 11:00 am
Having said that....some options are;
1) Ride with others ( beginners bunch ) one in a while - Not my cup of tea but good motivation and learning
2a) Burst intervals - 1 Ride a week, instead of maintaining a pace, deliberately go slower than really fast for short distances ( warm up well first )
2b) Hills are good - An alternative to bursts is to go find some rolling hills or gradual larger hills and stress your cardio once a week.
Just keep it fun and regular then go back to the numbers in a month or two.
On speed, your weight and position on the bike will have a tenfold benefit to the amount of km's you do. Pushing yourself too hard now would be like hitching a 3 tonne trailer to a barina and driving up a large mountain. These things will improve over time just by riding regularly...
The most important thing is to mix it up a little so your body doesn't plateau and get used to a single type of training. You seem to be doing this already though so your doing well

- RonK
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Re: Distance/speed for newbie (unfit)
Postby RonK » Sun Feb 03, 2013 11:07 am
PeteV wrote:As my kmph improves I will compensate by pulling longer rides.
You have it arse-about. Increase your distance and your speed will increase itself...
- foo on patrol
- Posts: 6255
- Joined: Sat Dec 19, 2009 11:12 am
- Location: Sanstone Point QLD
Re: Distance/speed for newbie (unfit)
Postby foo on patrol » Sun Feb 03, 2013 11:52 am

After 6mths of this you can start doing interval training and worry about increasing your speed. For what it's worth, after 3wks of riding over Christmas, my average speed over the
same course increased by 1.5Kmh, so this may give you something to go by.


Foo
Goal 6000km

- PeteV
- Posts: 167
- Joined: Fri Nov 12, 2010 11:01 am
- Location: Northern 'burbs, Adelaide
Re: Distance/speed for newbie (unfit)
Postby PeteV » Sun Feb 03, 2013 12:13 pm
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
- brett.hooker
- Posts: 467
- Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2012 5:52 pm
Re: Distance/speed for newbie (unfit)
Postby brett.hooker » Sun Feb 03, 2013 12:35 pm
Then for the next six months I could barely get about 20kph average... But I just plugged away at my cadence and general fitness and slowly, slowly it is improving... This week I did two 100km rides (tues night and thurs night) on flat roads at 25 kph average. I also commuted (short) every day...
For me it's a lifestyle choice, and I might never reach the speeds that the fit and light people reach, but I love my rides and that works for me...
- brentono
- Posts: 3696
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- Location: Perth DubyaEh.
Re: Distance/speed for newbie (unfit)
Postby brentono » Sun Feb 03, 2013 12:40 pm
Keep your gears in the low range, 67-74" and after a while you will find your
cadence improving, and your fitness and overall riding strength will be better.
Sad that it is not part of modern training methods, for cyclists, as it forms
the base, and foundation of many great Australian riders, from last century.
Don't worry about your speed, as stated.
Just my 2c.
Cheers

- Xplora
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Re: Distance/speed for newbie (unfit)
Postby Xplora » Mon Feb 04, 2013 5:01 pm
Just spin fast, try to focus on using your lungs to pedal instead of your legs. Your lungs will adapt much quicker than the legs will. You'll be smashing out the kms in no time... and RonK is right - you have to do plenty of kms to get there.
-
- Posts: 172
- Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2012 12:58 pm
Re: Distance/speed for newbie (unfit)
Postby sb944 » Mon Feb 04, 2013 11:11 pm
I could do about 22km/h when I moved from single speed to a road bike. Each month = 2km/h faster for me since then, now at 30km/h if I push myself on the exact same ride. On my favourite uphill segment, which was just under 2 minutes, I've improve about 23 seconds in the same time. I've improved more on the average speed than the uphill segment, so obviously strength is only part of it, the confidence to go faster around intersections and downhill have also been huge gains for me.
Join strava in my opinion. You can try for short uphill segments some days, longer segments other days, and still have your average speed benchmark too. It helps keep up motivation, plus gives you the mix of trying to better your own times, while seeing how quick others can do it. I also find it handy for finding new rides to take.
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