Want to improve your cruising speed? Add speed training to your daily rides and commutes.
Professional cyclist: Pete Penseyres
Tip: When I first rode across America, I thought I should do more training, so I rode 40 miles to work and 60–70 miles back home, doubling that on weekends—all at a steady pace.
But three years later, after adding speed workouts to my rides, I set a new average speed record for riding across the U.S. (15.4 mph). I did two 35-mile race-paced rides and one short team time trial each week.
Although speed training made up only 10% of my total training time, it was the most important part. Getting faster in short efforts also helped me go faster on longer rides. It boosted my cruising speed by 1–2 mph per hour.
What can you do?
Most riders pedal at the same steady pace most of the time—as you know, you find a nice rhythm and just keep spinning. It feels good and isn’t too hard.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying your ride. But if you want to improve, you have to push yourself to go faster once in a while.
Luckily, doing this a few times a week won’t be painful or make you grit your teeth. Here are three pain-free (well, mostly) ways to add speed training to your everyday rides.
(1) Time Trial: Find a flat road with no traffic lights or intersections. Ideally, it’s about 5 miles long and has a gentle uphill grade or a bit of wind.
Warm up for at least 15 minutes, gradually increasing pedal pressure. Then hold an intensity around LT for those 5 miles, and spin easy on the way home to cool down. That’s it.
(2) Ride in a fast paceline: Riding in a tight group is like interval training. Whenever you’re leading, keep the effort near LT or slightly higher. When you’re drafting, your heart rate drops a bit. For best results, keep the group size to about five riders so you get plenty of chances to pull and improve.
(3) Climb hills: If the terrain allows, climb twice a week for 10–15 minutes each. Attack the climbs and your heart rate will naturally rise to LT. Plus, it’s easier to maintain intensity on hills than on flats.