Keep your leg speed up!!!

Last weekend my riding speed was an average of 10.4 mph over a distance of 20 miles.

So far this week I have cycled 26.5 miles and I have seen the most improvement.

I cycled to work and back in the rain on Wednesday and today. I decided to ride the long way to work on Wednesday which added over 0.6 miles to my journey but it is a little more scenic. So on Wednesday I averaged 11.2 mph over 13.6 miles, I noticed my maximum speed at times under my own power (not including down hills) was 14.5 mph.

Today, I took the normal route which was 13 miles exactly, my average speed went up to 12.3 mph and under my own power I did a maximum of 17 mph. That is an average increase of 2 mph in a week. I have been told that I will see this increase by 2-3 mph when I get my new bike

I am so pleased with this, I seem to get tired and my legs ache between 4 and 5 miles but after 5 miles I seem to get a second wind (no jokes please Lee) and I feel like I can continue quite effortlessly.

I think I have learned the secret of cycling, keep your leg speed pretty constant. If you set a pace that means your pedals rotate 360 degrees in just under a second and your rpm is between 80 and 100, if your pedals are rotating faster than this, increase the gear, if however, your pedals slow down much from this decrease your gear until you are back to this rate.

I think this is because if you keep the momentum going it makes it easier to continue. I used to cycle in the highest gear I could. I will let you know if this technique continues to work, if you find this works for you, please add a comment to this blog letting us know.

I am planning to try to reach Ely this weekend which is 12.5 miles each way. This would be a very good way of finishing off the week. I will be able to test my theories of it being quite effortless after 5 miles and my pedal rpm rate.