Went out for a ride around town today, and came back really pleased having
ridden for a total of over ten miles. (I’ll confess to a ten minute break at
a friends’ house at the 3.4 mile mark.)
Things I noticed about a “longer” ride:
My legs ache.
My um “underneath” aches (pressure rather than friction).
I feel good.
My average speed was up. My route to and from work is just under two
miles and I have only just increased my average to 7 mph (from about 6.7).
Today’s first stretch was 3.4 miles, and my average was 7.4 mph. This
surprised me at first, until I thought about it - lots of long, straight
bits today compared to my twisty corner-filled commute.
Got a bonus coming in August. Most of it’s going on computer stuff - but
will I have enough left for a Coker…? <dreams> (So far I’m still riding -
almost daily - on my Pashley 26" Muni, with 150 cranks and, thankfully, a
miyata airseat.)
Impressed! That’s a pretty good average speed on a Pashley 26. I timed myself on mine over 5 miles a while back and was averaging 6.5 mph on a flattish canal towpath with few obstacles. Can’t remember but I think that was with the longer cranks fitted.
If you pace yourself, and take breaks for your undercarriage to recover, you will find 15 and 20 mile rides achievable without too much trouble.
Congratulations! As I am new rider (about 13 saddle hours now), ten
miles seems like quite a distance to me. I’m now riding about 1.5 miles
a day on my 24" wheel and it involves being bucked off several times
(yeeha), remounting and riding on again. I can’t wait until I can roll
like you are.
Did you read Cokerheads post on Friday? He rode for six days, and on one
of those days he rode 68 miles!!! Now that’s what I call covering
ground. If only I… could… go a little-bit fur-ther…
Trevor Coultart <coultart.remove.this@mac.com> writes:
> Went out for a ride around town today, and came back really pleased
> having
> ridden for a total of over ten miles. (I’ll confess to a ten minute
> break at
> a friends’ house at the 3.4 mile mark.)
Hey, taking a ten minute break is nothing to be shameful of.
> 4. My average speed was up. My route to and from work is just under
> two
> miles and I have only just increased my average to 7 mph (from about
> 6.7).
> Today’s first stretch was 3.4 miles, and my average was 7.4 mph.
> This
> surprised me at first, until I thought about it - lots of long,
> straight
> bits today compared to my twisty corner-filled commute.
With time (and practice, practice, practice) your average speed should
rise. Keep working on it. On a recent out-and-back 12 mile ride, I was
“racing” two bicyclists (I say “racing” because they didn’t know they
were racing. It was more of a personal race to see if I could keep up.)
Anyway, on my 24x2.6 with 150 cranks I averaged 8 mph over 4 miles. The
only problem was that after they dropped me I still had 6 miles between
me and my house! I was so worn out that I took several rests while riding
home.
Jeff T.
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