Is this good or not?

No one knows how old you are to answer your question.

You can probably go to the website of the race you are doing and get a look at last years results.

 

I agree with karibu, but generally, I'd say 15 mph on a road bike on flat or rolling terrain is generally considered slow.  Sorry!  Now get out their and ride!

Well what kind of terrain are you riding? Flat? Hilly? Is it windy? How hot? So much factors into speed.

If you wanrt to know how you would do at a race, look up a race in your area and see what the bike averages are for your age group.

Really hard for us to say. Ya know?

I ride in Texas and it's pretty flat here but super windy. People who average 15 mph tend to be beginners but are not the slowest riders in our club. Whereas our medium speed group and alpha (fast) group average between 17-22 mph for distances of 30 to 65 miles.

Around here, for an OLY, an average of of 20 mph gets you top 1/3 of field (men- I'm assuming you're a guy given your name is Jon and you have a girlfriend, but that is not a given- haha); 21mph prob gets you top 20% and 22mph gets you top 10-15% in general. Very fast on the bike for an OLY would be around 25mph. 15mph, unfortunately would put you at the back of the pack. But don't worry, you should get faster quickly as you ride more and get used to your bike.

26 years old.  90 degrees with 40ish% humidity, and the ride had considerably more uphill than downhill.

I kind of figured I'm not outstanding now seeing as how I have 3 weeks of road bike experience.  Also, it's not even for lack of being able to pedal faster...simply that I'm not comfortable at all on the bike.  I've had a custom fitting and everything but I'm still a noob once I clip into those pedals.  When I get to 25mph I get nervous and start to brake.  Is this something that I should be able to overcome by the Nation's in mid-September?  Anything specific I can do to improve my confidence other than just ride ride ride ride ride as much as possible?

You are just starting, anything is "good."  I ride 16 - 18 in races, it's good for me, but I'm usually one of the bottom bikers in races.

How do you define respectable?  Do you have to win?  15mph is going to be one of the slowest times, but I think anyone getting out there and finishing an oly did a respectable job.  I just finished last in my last race.  But I still finished one.  That's respectable to me.

just keep riding. comfort on the bike is a huge part of riding, the more you do it, the easier and more natural it becomes. and the more you are ok pushing it.


first it awkward,
then it becomes ok
then it becomes natural to you,
then things get fun

Haha awesome.  So I'm in "awkward" now...hopefully I'll be to "Ok" sometime in July so I can spend August actually pushing myself to get my speed up before I start to taper.

I would conisder my performance respectable if I can go out on the course and have fun and push myself hard without everyone else on the course looking at me and immediately thinking "what a nOOb!"

THIS. Believe me, he knows what he is talking about. In the beginning, it really is just that simple. I started riding about 4 months ago and have seen great improvement in that time both in my average mph and my comfort on the bike.
Also, KSH had a great suggestion of looking at other people's race reports to get a good idea of a good mph for YOUR particular course. Also, many times you can find a map of the bike course on the race's website. If it's local you can practcie it a few times before the race. That's what I did and it was a real confidence booster knowing what to expect.

Were you riding in an MC Escher painting?

Presuming you finished at the same place you started, your up and down will be even.

Yeah I know that makes little sense.  I guess since we started and ended at the same place it was a net even...but we came back a different way than we went out so it was a lot of slight downhills and a lot of seriously steep uphills.  The downhills might have even covered more distance...but speaking from a tim standpoint I spent the majority of my time going up.

Is that good for me? No. Is that good for BryanCD or newbz? Not even close.

But here's the thing. You aren't me, or bryan or newbz. For you, on a brand new bike that you aren't really comfortable on yet, it's perfectly fine. (The alternative is zero, either lying on the couch or next to the bike :p )

For an Oly, the top people will be going under an hour for the bike (~ 25mph average), the slowest will probably be going about 2 hours (~ 12.5mph average). Anywhere in the middle for a first timer, perfectly acceptable.

Decent times I would personally qualify as anything under 1.5 hours (just under 17 mph).

As far as how fast you can run after the bike, that just comes with experience, as does the speed. You'll hear this often, Time In The Saddle. The more you can get, the more comfortable you will be. The more comfortable you are, the faster you will be with the same effort. (FREE SPEED!! :D )

Just put in the time, and everything will become easier, until it becomes harder.

John

triathlon, in general, is just not that kind of sport.  nobody is watching you and judging you, so just go out and have fun.  that has nothing to do with your speed, by your own definition.

That's the thing with hills, you ALWAYS spend more time going up.  But on the positive side, hills build character.  Just keep riding.


Edited by wbayek 2010-06-23 3:46 PM

I am in the same situation as you with a new road bike, I have done some flat rides where I get to an average of 19-20mph.  Just did a very hilly ride last weekend which I averaged 15mph.  I have my first Olympic tri this weekend on a very hilly San Francisco Course, so I guess I will find out this weekend how I shape up in a race.

Just keep at it.

I remember earlier this spring I was feeling pretty good hitting 15-17 mph on flats and slight declines.

Today I took a head start on a group ride after a break and kept ahead of them for maybe 3 or 4 miles, going about 20-22 mph solidly. (My last race this weekend was nothing near that, as it was a hilly beast.)

All this on my MTB.  Put in the miles, and keep pushing, the speed will come!

-eric 

Yep, my bike times are always faster in a race than they are when I'm training. It takes me about 15 minutes of riding just to warm up, in a race you don't waste time warming up. The swim takes care of that for you
My first race was nuts, 30 mph winds in my face and I'd only had my bike 3 weeks. I was still switching gears backwards. I averaged 14.5 mph for 13 miles and still placed 4th in my age group out of 20 (pretty sad I know). By the end of summer I averaged 19 in two seperate races. It will get much better, just keep riding.

No