Best ways to increase biking speed (Page 3)

See, I told you that I'm no genius... and thanks for correcting me, I did have in mind watts, instead of weight... I failed to correct myself.

I'm still going to end by this: a real life scenario... since I was an analyst and was able to gather information and make it usable for others... I had to figure out how to reach my goal of faster bike splits... when I realized that in order to achieve say 23 mph avg. over a HIM leg from 21 to 22 mph that the level of strength and endurance required was far greater challenge than when I went from 20 to 21 mph, so I set my goal understanding at what gear ratio I'd have to ride a 53/14 or 50/13 or 54/15 to achieve that goal of 23 mph, but it's not so simple as that obviously, b/c to have an avg. of 23, you need to ride on the best flat portions of the course at 25 to 26 mph, and do that for a long time, and that is difficult to say the least... and requires almost 300 watts... so now that 23 is comforable to me and setting my sites on 24, the strength requirment is even greater since that means flat riding at speeds of 26 to 27 mph, which is now about 340 watts, my current 20 min. threshold, so obviously, I have to work more at raising yet again my leg strength to raise my threshold.  Which is what I plan to do over the summer.   This is all that I'm kind of getting at.

But thanks, I'm glad that we're discussing this for others, b/c I get tired of the ride more ride harder comments, and if you're the OP on the other side of the computer and that was the prevailing response, would this type of answer suffice? I'd say no, it'd just frustrate the person.  At least it did me, when I was the newbie triathlete.

You don't need to increase your leg strength. You need to increase your ability to continually put it out.

ding ding ding

The comments may be repetitive but there's a reason for that.

I'd say, a) look at what some of the top cyclists on here are doing (maybe gadzooks or natethomas2000) -- I'll give you a hint: it's not the weight room.

b) work on your position and aerodynamics.  I did 23mph at an Oly 2 years back and I guarantee I wasn't anywhere near 300 watts.

Just to pile on, you are completely wrong.  You need to raise your endurance to raise your threshold. 

Tired as you may be, it is the best advice in this (and other) threads.  Hopefully people will understand that through reading this discussion.

I wasn't gonna mention this, this ain't ST    But it deserves [polite] discussion......

Word

You're all right...

I like the ibike a lot... and I have it a .280 cda, which is why my watts may show higher than my actual cda of about .24... why have a relied on a higher cda?  B/c I have a road bike and my cda is .345 on the hoods and I rely on that as my FTP watts numbers, my numbers are the TT bike are highly variable, I think that I've figured out why my hands on the bars sometimes block the wind port in certain wind conditions... b/c there are times that I'm doing threshold efforts and the stupid thing is showing like 200 watts... I need their wind tube thingy but I'm not going to shell out $50 for a stupid plastic tube... furthermore, on a perceived exertion basis, .280 cda matches perfectly with a .345, so I stick with that as my base.  Otherwise, the difference in speed between the 2 bikes is about 1.5 mph.  So, that watts at 22 mph on my road bike sync with watts on my TT at 23.5, it makes doing intervals and long rides equivalent in terms of watts independly of which bike I'm riding... basically, I'm matching PRE and watts between the 2 bikes.

Listen, guys... I might give you the impression that I emphasize gym work over bike work... that's not the case... you're welcome to look at my logs... I ride my off when I ride... within the limits of my aging body.  But, I try to incorporate every single tool and piece of knowledge available to expidite the process, since I'm impatient.  Furthermore, I haven't accepted the fact that I'm not 25 yo, and just can't do 21 to 22 minute 10 mile time trials anymore.  But, I'll sure as hell and try... and that's what it's all about, improving and getting faster.

Alright, I gotta go and ride... done... good luck to everyone

This argument or discussion seems to come up a lot.......This all falls into the strength & endurance continuum debate in the research and most research shows the stronger you are the more of the carry over to endurance sports....IT DOES NOT MEAN ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS SQUAT 600lbs to get faster.

We build three main components physiologically in most sports 1) Cardiovascular fitness= Delivery of oxygen to body tissues and efficiency of the heart in perfoming this 2) Muscular adaptations to the stress upon it= ability to process lactate, mitochondria per sq inch, neuromuscular recriutment via the motor unit etc.......different types of training is going to effect different aspects of this therefore either making you deliver more power, lessen fatigue effects etc therefore go faster and ride longer yad yada yada....carry on...great thread

I looked at your logs and your race results.  You are doing a great job.  You are probably mistaken in your attribution of why you have been successful.  But, more importantly for this discussion, your rationale for why you think it must be beneficial is completely off base (as I think others have aptly demonstrated by providing the actual physics involved).  If your gym work is helping your bike splits, it is probably not for the reasons you assume it is.

Aero bikes may be overrated.  I averaged around 22 mph in Galveston 70.3 on my Cervelo P3 and got passed by a guy sitting up in a non-aero bike around mile 20 and never saw him again.  Not sure if it was even a branded bike.  At the time I was doing about 23 mph and he must have been doing 24 or 25 mph in a cross wind.  Now when say they are overrated, that's to get your attention.   An aero bike will give you speed.  A good aero helmet is the lowest $/mph gain you can purchase, and my Zipp 808 full carbon clinchers easily drive another 1 to 2 mph at 20-25 mph nominal bike speed.  But that experience, along with many in training, would suggest that fitness beats it all.  

You can only get so much faster with equipment, but you can keep getting faster with fitness.  I extend running concepts to bike training, being a novice at the sport, and incorporate 10 miles and 20 miles "sprints", along with interval and hill work, always focusing on a high cadence rate.   

Why would you bring the entire tool storage over instead of just bringing the ones you need? There is no need to use everything simply because it's available. Go with what will work the best. Do continue to expand your knowledge of what "best" is. That may come mean a different tool, or different use of an existing one.

I must be too new to the sport because I just keep getting faster over any distance.   The same was once true in running, where my PRs are now months apart.  

I've experimented with various cadence and it appears that I get most benefits on the high end.  

By the way, aero is useless under a certain (bike + wind) speed.  For me that's around 17-19 mph.  On a calm day, aero picks up significant benefit around 20 mph and really kicks into gear around 25-30 mph.   Also worth mentioning the nuances of aero against a head wind component vs a side wind component.  Some helmets (and wheels) are geared toward the cross wind component, others ignore it.  Mentioning it because in my local races, a lot of AG'ers are in the 15 to 20 mph range and have $8,000 aero setups and would be better off focusing on fitness than fast equipment.

This doesn't say anything about when aero equipment begins to have an effect on speed.  It certainly is NOT at 12 mph (ground speed + windspeed) or thereabouts, which is what I think you're implying by this chart?   It would be very misleading to say so.

For me either, but we seem to be coming across that way to each other :-)  I do think that most people asking how to get faster on a bike are likely to need fitness to get to the speeds where equipment really matters.