Increasing average speed but while commuting only

[Si S]

And I m pretty sure that's what's going on with a fair few people on those routes at rush hour.

Oh yes, to my shame I've done it, the incident that sticks in my mind is having an average of 17.9 mph with 4km to do, I did get it to 18 but it wasn't remotely sane, that was the last time I rode the commute with my speeds visible.

[Ningishzidda]

Two cyclists riding the same direction down the same road = a race.


The rules for ‘Scalping’.

A ‘Scalp’ can only be claimed if the cyclist being overtaken is younger on a lighter bike.

Not many people scalp me nowadays.

[hubner]

I think you would need to increase your cruising speed by quite a bit, to only increase the av speed slightly. If your cruising speed goes from 20mph to 25mph, and that is much faster and takes a lot more effort, then your average might go from 14mph to 15mph.

[Highlander]

Two cyclists riding the same direction down the same road = a race.


The rules for ‘Scalping’.

A ‘Scalp’ can only be claimed if the cyclist being overtaken is younger on a lighter bike.

Not many people scalp me nowadays.

Ha ha that reminds me of a story a friend of mine from Manchester related - back in the 1980's he was out training and came across this old guy on a fixed wheel bike.  I'll have him my friend thinks, of course he passes the old codger but he draws up alongside with a "mind if I tag along?" Feeling somewhat embarrassed my mate nonetheless tries to shake off the old guy, after half an hour or so he's had enough and fakes having to turn round to head home.  "Thanks for your company anyway" says the veteran and thrusts out his hand - "Reg Harris, pleased to meet you."

Another clubmate up here in Caledonia had a similar withering experience in the company of a tiny girl who said she was on her way to visit her sister along the Moray Firth.  At the time it was unusual to meet another cyclist of any sort on these roads and poor Hamish was trying to work out why his legs were burning when this girl was cruising effortlessly.  That turned out to be Yvonne McGregor the year she won the world pursuit championship.

[Ningishzidda]

In a Ford Motor Company survey years ago, thousands of motorists from USA and Europe were asked “What speed does a cyclist travel at?”

The average of all the answers was 13.2 mph.

So if you wish to ride a bike at 25 mph along an urban street when Joe Public motorist reckons a cyclist does about 13 mph, ( you are doing nearly double what he thinks ) don’t be surprised if he just glances at you and pulls out for you to smack the driver’s door with your front wheel.

Best practice is to keep to just over ( 15 mph ) what is thought, and then you will be able to just slow down a bit  if Joe Public pulls out of a sideroad.

In fact, Read 'Cycle Craft' by John Franklin.

[Ningishzidda]

Two cyclists riding the same direction down the same road = a race.


The rules for ‘Scalping’.

A ‘Scalp’ can only be claimed if the cyclist being overtaken is younger on a lighter bike.

Not many people scalp me nowadays.

Ha ha that reminds me of a story a friend of mine from Manchester related - back in the 1980's he was out training and came across this old guy on a fixed wheel bike.  I'll have him my friend thinks, of course he passes the old codger but he draws up alongside with a "mind if I tag along?" Feeling somewhat embarrassed my mate nonetheless tries to shake off the old guy, after half an hour or so he's had enough and fakes having to turn round to head home.  "Thanks for your company anyway" says the veteran and thrusts out his hand - "Reg Harris, pleased to meet you."

Another clubmate up here in Caledonia had a similar withering experience in the company of a tiny girl who said she was on her way to visit her sister along the Moray Firth.  At the time it was unusual to meet another cyclist of any sort on these roads and poor Hamish was trying to work out why his legs were burning when this girl was cruising effortlessly.  That turned out to be Yvonne McGregor the year she won the world pursuit championship.

 

Bob Maitland had the same fun in Solihull.

My school chum tried to overtake Janet Crowther and June Pitchford thinking “They’re only girls.”

[sojournermike]

Two cyclists riding the same direction down the same road = a race.


The rules for ‘Scalping’.

A ‘Scalp’ can only be claimed if the cyclist being overtaken is younger on a lighter bike.

Not many people scalp me nowadays.

Ha ha that reminds me of a story a friend of mine from Manchester related - back in the 1980's he was out training and came across this old guy on a fixed wheel bike.  I'll have him my friend thinks, of course he passes the old codger but he draws up alongside with a "mind if I tag along?" Feeling somewhat embarrassed my mate nonetheless tries to shake off the old guy, after half an hour or so he's had enough and fakes having to turn round to head home.  "Thanks for your company anyway" says the veteran and thrusts out his hand - "Reg Harris, pleased to meet you."

Another clubmate up here in Caledonia had a similar withering experience in the company of a tiny girl who said she was on her way to visit her sister along the Moray Firth.  At the time it was unusual to meet another cyclist of any sort on these roads and poor Hamish was trying to work out why his legs were burning when this girl was cruising effortlessly.  That turned out to be Yvonne McGregor the year she won the world pursuit championship.

 

Bob Maitland had the same fun in Solihull.

My school chum tried to overtake Janet Crowther and June Pitchford thinking “They’re only girls.”

Many years ago and in a different sport, I had the 'pleasure' of going straight through to the 'plate' when I drew the Yorkshire Ladies Squash Champion in round 1 of a friendly tournament. I seem to recall only taking one or two points in that match.

[Highlander]

My school chum tried to overtake Janet Crowther and June Pitchford thinking “They’re only girls.”

Many years ago and in a different sport, I had the 'pleasure' of going straight through to the 'plate' when I drew the Yorkshire Ladies Squash Champion in round 1 of a friendly tournament. I seem to recall only taking one or two points in that match.

Never underestimate girls/ladies/women (sorry I'm not sure what is PC these days) you can't win.  Some years ago our club champion was riding with Caroline Alexander who some of you may remember as a Mountain Biker who represented GB in the Olympics and was/is, let's be honest, very attractive.   They're pretty well matched but after a while Andy tells Caroline to carry on without him as he has to stop.  Have you got a puncture she enquires no he replies it's just I can't cycle with an erection. 

If I had made that up it would be sexist but it's a true story.

[jane]

The girls/women thing is easy.  If they're children, girls is fine as a girl is a female child. Otherwise women.  Ladies, well, I'd stick to women, because although nowadays many young women don't seem to mind the term, if you call an unreconstructed second wave feminist like me a lady, you'd be wrong, because I'm not.

Regarding the story if you had made it up it wouldn't be sexist, as far as I'm concerned, but you would have been a bit of an idiot to do so.

[Karla]

The girls/women thing is easy.  If they're children, girls is fine as a girl is a female child. Otherwise women.  Ladies, well, I'd stick to women, because although nowadays many young women don't seem to mind the term, if you call an unreconstructed second wave feminist like me a lady, you'd be wrong, because I'm not.

Regarding the story if you had made it up it wouldn't be sexist, as far as I'm concerned, but you would have been a bit of an idiot to do so.

... and if you used "woman" to certain ladies of my acquaintance, they'd say you were being awfully vulgar and disrespectful, and should use "lady" instead. 

As Highlander said, you can't win.

[velosam]

Slight update. In a bid to beat the predicted rain I rode home as fast as I dared.  Even then I just about cracked 15mph and beat the rain.  But my left knee hurts and I am quite tired.  It's the fastest I have been and I was lucky that traffic was light. However I don't think it's possible every time but it was quite good fun in a masochastic way and I didn't get wet!

[hellymedic]

It's Friday. Don't cycle at all tomorrow and be gentle with yourself on Sunday.
Only cycle fast twice per week.

[velosam]

Cheers that should be easy as I only cycle twice a week!

[Highlander]

Cheers that should be easy as I only cycle twice a week!

There, I'm afraid, is the answer to your question.

Unless you do some other form of exercise I doubt you will have enough basic fitness to even think about power training.

I'd just get a set of better tyres.

[velosam]

I did try commuting more but was too knackered in the day time to be effective at work!

[hellymedic]

I NEVER did 10 commutes by bike in a week in all my high-mileage years.

I still got stronger. I would reduce the commuting if I had big weekend mileages.

[Ham]

Everyone is different, but I too found my c30 mile each way too much to do 5 days a week especially when starting, is there any way you can train assist? I had a natural half way house at Ealing, so acquired a single speed folder and reduced the cycle to 12 miles, which is a distance I dare say most of us can do without thinking. After a while I could deal with the whole distance much easier. I know I couldn't do it now without working back up to it. Maybe  swap bike to train around Wembley?

[velosam]

I am actually ok with not doing everyday as I like to get home earlier a couple of nights to spend time with the kids.  In the summer I can ride a little more as they sleep later in the holidays.

Mentally once I start I want to finish the whole journey, it's just a faff on the trains

[LittleWheelsandBig]

I thought that your job meant that trains were always wonderful.

[velosam]

I thought that your job meant that trains were always wonderful.

They are, it's the underground that's rubbish lol

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Until recently my personal best (as such) into London was set in December when I wasn't very fit.  The simple reason.  I had a 30mph tailwind and it being 23rd December there was no traffic AND nearly all the lights in Battersea were green. 

The moral of the story is that there are too many other factors involved in a commute to make the commute speed/time a reliable test of fitness and there is the risk as Jane and others pointed out above that in encourages one to rider faster or less carefully than they should.

I did go a little quicker recently (early Feb) courtesy of a 20mph tailwind and on the racebike with a relatively light load (clothes only rather than laptop and shoes plus clothes).  When I got to Putney I eased up as I rather liked the irony of a PBP set when I was unfit, but the wind blew nicely along the Embankment and the lights were annoyingly green so the PB fell. 

Where I do try to go faster is on the long flat stretch through Lower Sunbury and Shepperton out to Chertsey because that's a lot safer to ride harder.  Then it's a matter of riding one gear higher than comfortable and working hard to keep my cadence up.

[contango]

I suspect I know the answer to this but here goes anyway.

My average varies between 12.5 and 14.5 and I would like to increase that by 1mph so my bad days are around 13.5 and the better days above 15.

I only commute and dont have a turbo. Actually even if I had one, probably would not use it anyway.

My question is  - other than intervals, is there any other way of improving my speed?

I do try and extend the commute by a couple of miles in the morning but can't find the motivation on the way home unless its not in winter.

Any advice appreciated.

Since last June you have made five posts on the general topic of "how fast I ride"
The only category that beat it was buying a perfect bike with eight posts

anyway the answers to your question "other than intervals, is there any other way of improving my speed?"

1) get faster tyres instead of marathon plus
2) loose weight (assuming your commute is not pan flat)
3) ride in at 4am when there is no traffic

The thing with the commute is that you need to consider whether gaining a bit of speed (e.g. by swapping out the heavy Marathon Plus tyres) is worth it given the higher chance of getting a fairy visitation and thereby losing all the time you gained and some.

Personally I'd rather have near 100% assurance my tyres wouldn't let me down so my commute would take a reasonably predictable time, than know I might get there a couple of minutes faster (assuming Fate and Traffic didn't conspire against me) but then I might run over a piece of glass and spend time fussing with fixing a flat in the cold and the rain. But that's me. I always rode wheels with lots of spokes and I like the plastic reinforcement in my tyres (when I changed from M+ tyres I went to Durano Plus, which don't last anywhere near as well but are almost as bulletproof).

I used to be able to get from my home to my accountant's office in just under an hour, and if I'd gone by train it would have taken me just over an hour. So as long as I was faster than the train I was happy - the fact I arrived in a rather warm state didn't trouble me because I was usually only there to drop off paperwork. It also meant I didn't have to pay South West Trains to ride their train, which to me was always a good thing.

[velosam]

So after all that above a few changes

1. I have started having a protein bar in the morning after the ride in. It seems to make a difference as my average speed on the way home has been around 14mph, so at least a 1pmh improvement.

2. I 'met' up with the guy I meet on the way home on Monday pm. Astonishingly, and maybe its an outlier, he nearly had 2 offs (people pulling out on him) within 500 yards.  I didnt quite suffer the same problem as I was slowing down, so I can see how his pace could be construed as unsafe

3. and to top it all off somehow I managed to do 15.5mph on the way in, which was surprising as I was really not in the mood to ride today.

Just as a side note, I dont ride to my speed (its too depressing as it feels slow) but to make sure I don't grind, which happens when I get tired.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Sounds positive

[Ningishzidda]

Build a Math Model that includes windspeed and temperature etc.
That will give you a better idea of how you compare day-to-day.