comparing fitness and road riding, now my training log!!

today i did exactly the same 33mile ride as i did on sunday with my mate adam, road ride, not particularly hilly, not killing it and wearing 3/4 baggy raceface shorts meaning it was a spin ride. i haven't been road riding much over the winter so far, i find it a bit dull coz most of the time it's on my own, me and adam both want to get our fitness up so we're gonna try and make it a weekly thing atleast but i work less days than him so i'm gonna try and force myself to go out a bit more often on the road bike and maybe i might even threaten myself with the turbo trainer aswel. this will be on top of the mtb stuff i do.

so what i'm curious about is how do you think i did time wise, is this any good? not so much the comparison between the times, adam doesn't have the years of miles in his legs i have even though i don't do anywhere near what i used to do.

1st ride with adam was 2 hours 8 minutes spinning and chatting etc

todays ride, exactly the same route and same clothes and again predominantly spinning the inside ring(39t) 1 hour 52 minutes, average 17.2mph.

for the time of year and not killing it is that a reasonable time?

we are using a road ride around the isle of wight as our target for fitness, it's an organized road ride of 100km on the 3rd of may if anyone is up for it, various startpoints at each of the ferry ports onto the island.

Sounds fine, I usually aim to do about 18mph ish (30km) on a road ride.
. Its fast enought to hold your own if you went out on a club run, but you will behanging off the back if they put on the power. Did the IOW ride last year, Its a great ride, Sorry I can't make it but I'm doing the flowers for a wedding that weekend and will be in Devon

I do a regular weekly Monday evening road ride with a guy from work - he is a proper roadie. This week we did 26 miles in 1 1/2 hrs average 17mph, quite a few hills as well. Normally I shoot off too fast and suffer towards the end of the ride, this week I intentionaly started at a steadier pace, finished much stronger as a result. I try to copy his high cadence which is a great help. The only time I start to drop off the back is on long steady climbs but catch up fairly quickly once over the top.

I've done the Isle of Wight Randonee a few times - it's a great ride, a bit busy though. Done it with just the bike club too. Bognor to Portsmouth, round the island, ferry back to Portsmouth then back to Bognor. A tiring day out. The first time I did it I thought, great an island, it'll be flat with sandy beaches all round it, a nice easy ride. :roll: stupid boy

Enjoy!

i hope you weren't believing in fixies that day!

17 is fine for a flat ride. Jus think how much quicker you'd go in normal kit and not jumping trousers.

I thought my efforts were pretty good till I saw you guys!


I average 17.4/8 mph over 19 miles. This is my commute home, fairly flat with just a 3/4 moderate hills. I do this monday to friday.
I am going to lengthen this when the weather improves - what's a good distance to do?

I wear baggy shorts over some bibs, a rucksack on my back with all my work kit in.

The one thing I love when getting out at wkends is not having a heavy rucksack on my back!

I probably average about 16 mph into work (generally uphill, must be around the highest point in the county) and a bit more back home. There's usually some pauses to cross dual-carriageways. I'd be faster if I wanted to chance the roundabouts, but I promised the wife no more brushes with death.

I can't be arsed if it's p1ssing down though DEAL.

i've decided that as i'm trying to get myself fitter there is no use in guessing how well i am going and if i record the details abit then i have something to refer to and compare.

i'm not going to put every ride down and not all of the bikes have computers so with road rides i'll put down times, milage and average and offroad if the bike doesn't have a computer will stick in a guesstimation of distance and time

this is more for me really than to show others how good or bad i'm going, a sort of incentive!!

so, i like the route i did the other day so i have done the same again and will do the same again hopefully with adam on sunday.

so todays details are

miles 33
time 1hr 43mins 42sec
average 18.7

i should add that i set out to beat the other time although i had the computer set on trip distance the whole way so i couldn't see if i was going to beat the other time, and also i lost the baggies! lycra all the way! i was a sight to behold!!

but i am quite pleased with the time, sunday will definately be slower with adam but that is no bad thing, you can't expect to always beat your times and thats not always the point of the ride and riding with adam massively breaks the monotany of riding on your own which makes it more fun.

thats what i do jonnyboy .

time , distance , average speed . i also make a note of anything that would be worth taking into account when looking back at it

ive managed to put on over a stone since i started noting it down :? noticably bigger leg muscles but also a bigger gut strange as before i would eat nothing but sweets but the fat has come from fruit and eating correctly