Oly race speed = Long ride speed (Page 2)

One standard answer is conditions vary. I have been riding a lot lately to prep for my IM at the end of this month. Quite a few rides over 100 miles and the average speed varies from 16.5 for one ride to 18.2 for my last and longest ride. 

The 16.5 day I started with a group and rode too hard for the first 40 miles, that coupled with crazy wind made for a very slow 103 miles and I was beat to exhaustion afterward. I rode 115 last weekend, averaged 18.2 for the entire ride and felt great and ready to run. 

Speed is a tough thing to use to measure effort, courses and conditions vary a lot. My LBS holds a weekly TT night, each riders time will vary a decent amount each week based on conditions. 

Race day, swimming before, etc. can all add to an elevated heart rate and thus a slower bike split. 

Yeah, swimming less volume doesn't sound like a good idea for the vast majority of age groupers to improve at it. Could they have meant swim shorter intervals?

You can do a lot with 5 hours of riding a week. See what you can do about maintaining that more often. It's consistency over time, and time is much longer than one week. Look at how you're doing over several months (yes, plural). I would have said "normal" or average for you is closer to half that when looking at several months of the logs. The up and down every week can make it difficult to improve as much. I know, life happens, but keep doing the best you can with it. At your volume, for the most part it's probably fine to take advantage when you have a little more time one week. And as said, keep working hard for the bike sessions. Many of them will be with that amount of time.

Are you following a training plan to prepare for your HIM?  Take a look at some of the free plans here on BT and they should give you an idea of the recommended volumes you should be doing.

It might be that you need some more structure to your workouts.  Periodization has worked well for me, increasing my intensity over shorter distances to approximate race efforts as I get closer to a race.  I try to ride relatively hard all the time, but will do TT's or hard race-distance efforts as I get closer to an event.

As far as swimming, I do believe that swimming 50's & 100's helps to improve speed over time, but obviously you also need to regularly include longer endurance workouts that reflect your race distance. 

Mark

There's a lot going on here.  Probably too much to easily answer one specific question.  But I agree with the post above noting that your training (according to logs) looks somewhat erratic and with little swimming of any duration.  I think when someone told you to do more 50s and 100s, you may have misinterpreted that to swim much less than you were when you may have just been steady swimming for longer distances.  Doing 600m of 50s and 100s might be fine as a set in part of swim--not for your entire swim (and, generally, you would like to see some main sets of a distance at least equivalent to your race distance).  Regardless, if you don't find swimming that way to be fun and that frustration makes you swim less, then go back to what you were doing.  It might not be 'optimal' training, but doing more (assuming you can handle more) is almost always better than doing less.  While intensity can offset some drop in volume (when figuring out what is more or less), it can't always make up the whole difference if the volume drop is big enough.

If you really feel like all your rides are the same, then go out for a shorter ride.  Do a warm-up, and then ride HARD for as long as you can.  When you can't go hard any more (say, can't keep speed above a certain mark for a couple minutes), turn around and bike easy back home.  I can guarantee you that (assuming conditions and terrain are similar each direction) you will be substantially faster on the way out.  Or simply decide that for the next x min, you will try to ride above y mph (where y is much higher than the 18mph pace you might typically maintain--say 21 or 22).  Basically, learn what it feels like to really push yourself.  As with swimming short, hard sets, you may find this less enjoyable.  In that case, go back to the way you trained before and accept the results it yields.  This is supposed to be fun for all of us.  You don't have to enjoy every workout, every day, but you should enjoy the process of chasing whatever goal you have set out for yourself.  Otherwise, modify your goal and/or your process.

Aside from all that, as others have noted, there are conditions, terrain, etc. that can have a big impact on speed.  Calibration can sometimes be an issue (ie, distance measured accurately or not), too.  Power would be a better marker than speed, but use what you have available and just try to be cognizant of the impact wind, hills, etc. might have.

As usual, Johnny makes a lot of good points.

Just to echo one of the things he discussed, I was also stuck on about 17-18 mph a couple of years ago.  I just decided one day that I was going to ride at 20 mph.  It was harder and felt more uncomfortable than riding at 17 mph, but I learned what it felt like and I think more importantly, I realized psychologically that I could do it.  It eventually became my "new normal".  That didn't make it any easier, but at least I knew it was capable of doing it.  That's why I like the Greg Lemond quote in my sig line; going faster, whether it be swimming, cycling or running, means learning how to deal with being uncomfortable.

Mark

There is a logical reason why your speeds do not differ despite great differences in effort.  People have given you a wide range of reasons why that may be, so it's up to you to figure out which one(s) it is.  I think you're the one missing the point in that you are simply rejecting everyone's ideas and suggestions and coming to the conclusion that you defy logic.

I don't think that anyone has said or implied that you're not trying or working hard at your cycling.  Folks are just offering well-intended thoughts and suggestions based on their knowledge and experience.  They're taking their time to try and help you.  If you're feeling insulted it's only because you're being thin-skinned.

It doesn't make much sense when you say that you're pedaling so hard that you want to throw up, but can't go any faster.  No sense at all.  Not to sound demeaning, but do you understand how cadence and gearing work together?  I ask that because you mentioned earlier that your cadence was all over the place.  The ideal thing to do is find the cadence that works best for you and then use your gearing to keep the load constant.  Speed is a result of pedaling at a certain rpm in a given gear.  You can't be pedaling 'harder' and going the same speed unless you're dropping down to a lower gear.  Conversely, the ability to go faster is dependent on either pedaling faster (higher cadence) in a given gear, or pedaling at the same cadence and being strong enough to sustain that cadence while shifting to a higher gear.  It's simple physics.

Mark

OP rides a fixie...

Obviously, your car is a hybrid

What are you riding? How's your position? Have you had a good fit? 

What makes you so convinced that none of the suggestions posted thus far are valid?

Do you have any GPS files of rides that are in question?  Where one ride was a cruise, and the other ride involved near puking efforts, but resulted in the same speed?

I'm no expert (and I hate Holiday Inn) but maybe your fit is entirely too aggressive given you're on a road bike. Super compacted, closed up hip angle, can't put out any power. Maybe try pulling off the clip ons, getting a road fit and seeing what happens. Then you can introduce the clip ons again later. 

I doubt you'll find one single smoking gun as it's likely to be a culmination of multiple factors.  Links to garmin connect or better yet links to workouts loaded in strava would probably be helpful.

From what you describe it sounds like the first thing you need to address is your fit.  Your hip angle must be super closed if you're riding a road geometry frame with a flat back, not to mention that you're hitting your knees when you're riding forward on the bars.  Running aerobars on a road-geometery frame is always a bit of a compromise.  That's why, as you have noticed, that most folks riding road bikes with clip-on aerobars use a more upright position.  If you want some feedback (or are a glutton for punishment  ) post some photos of your position.

Mark

Strava is actually a great way to analyze parts of your rides if you tend to ride the same portions (or segments) hard.  Wind can still play a factor, but it gives you a much better grasp of your ride than simply comparing the ending/overall average speed.

But beer still takes priority over strava.