Am I getting better at cycling...

Congrats on your improvement, that takes a lot of dedication.

You ask what your next goal should be...it depends on your overall goals.

A training pace is valid only over a set distance...the shorter you ride, the faster you can go. the longer you ride, the slower you'll need to go.

What race distances are you training for? what have your previous race splits looked like? is your training distance representative of your racing distance?

Are you following a training plan or "just riding around"? Do you vary your pace of riding with any interval work at different intensities, or is it always the same?

In the end, nearly everyone's goal is to race at a faster pace, so you can make that an longer term goal...what you seem to be looking for are some intermediate goals to get you there. EG take 1/2 your race distance and aim to be able ti time trial that distance at a faster pace than your race distance.

OR combine your biking & running goals together. EG you can do your traiing rides at X pace, followed by a brick run of Y pace. Perhaps Y is too slow. By training more on the bike, you may keep your bike pace the same, yet be able to run at Y+ 30sec/mil faster.

Lots of ways to skin the cat.

Get/make a plan (lots of free stuff on the net) and find a reliable way to monitor your work (HR is ok, Power is better in my opinion). Average speed is NOT a good way to judge improvement unless you do all of your training on a trainer (which is a GREAT way to do it). Track your progress with data and look for improvement.
Don't get 'sold' that there is a secret workout that some coach is pushing. There isn't. Consistency over time will pay dividends.

Anything is possible for a middle aged man! My father-in-law quit smoking @ 50 and has qual'd/raced Kona 3X (turned it down 1X) and has run Boston 10+ times. He's now 69 and did Kona in 2009. He is self coached and pulled a training plan out of a copy of Triathlete magazine from the 80's. It really is that simple. Consistency over time....
Jamie

I looked at the last couple of months of your logs, and it seems that your cycling consists mostly of steady rides, with a few bricks and short intervals (a couple of miles each) thrown in. To improve your cycling speed endurance I'd recommend to try for some more systematic intervals in the 15-30 minute range, in order to improve your FTP. You can realize substantial gains in this way. I like to do two of these per week, one with higher intensity, e.g., 2 x 20 mins with 10 mins recovery between, and one with lower intensity, e.g., 4 x 25 minutes with 4-5 minutes recovery. It's easy to ride these hard and to carefully monitor progress if you're doing them on a trainer, as many of us are, but it looks from your logs that you're in a place where it would be a travesty to be indoors. There are many extra variables outdoors that can affect your speed on any individual day, so in the absence of a power meter you would need to focus on longer term gains, rather than worrying about small changes from one session to the next.

You've made huge improvement! Huge. Yes, you are getting better at cycling.

My advice as a cyclist is to not make things complicated. Have fun. The technical advice in this thread resonates with me, but I wouldn't suggest you follow much of it for now. Get on the bike and ride a lot of miles. Five hours a week is more than most people ride, but I might double that to be FOP. If you aren't doing it already, ride with friends who will challenge you. Time in the saddle is most important, but riding hard is important too. Climb hills, sprint out of corners, and ride fast with your friends on the way home. This is the fun way to accomplish the stuff you might find in training plans, and for social people, it makes the miles fly by.

Speed is a perfectly adequate way of grasping your progress. I ride in cycling meccas in CA, and we always talk in terms of speeds and average speed. At your current level, I'd guess you'd fit in my clubs' social no-drop rides, but will soon be riding at that target of yours, about 19 mph and would fit into a club core ride.

Great job, D!

For a little context, at a sprint a couple of weeks ago, with a field that was about 1/2 college athletes, the middle of the pack went about 18 mph, 29 km/hr. You probably recall since we tracked each others' early progress that I was in that range on my MTB, coming off years out of the saddle (construction back injury). At the tri a couple of weeks ago, I came in 12/95 on the bike! Only two people out out of their 20's beat me. At your level of dedication, you'll be fast and have a lot of fun.

Thanks for all the feedback and motivation. All the observations on my log are correct. Most my rides on the road are steady pace, with wind trainer sessions having sets. It is only this week that I started including interval training in my 2hour long brick ride. It's taken me time to introduce intervals as I really haven't had the stamina to ride at to many different paces.

My goals...I love the HIM / long course type races (events for me...not races!). I have a long course race on 13 March and another in July. I'd love to hit an average bike pace of 28-30km to do a reasonable bike time and then be strong enough to run well.

I have a bit of a running background and done a half marathon in under 1:45...but in my first HIM..2:15! Love to get that to below 2 hours..

AdventureBrear...I will experiment with your advice on my Saturday long brick sessions....see what I can manage on the run if I don't push to hard on the back and then push hard on the bike and see what my run comes in at....

gff

Love this.....my teenage girls think I am worse than a 10 y/o boy!

All great comments, especially Time In The Saddle.  

I highly recommend Dr. Phil Skiba's books: easy to read, and they'll give you a very good understanding of how your body adapts to different training stimuli, and you'll learn the different ways those adaptations are measured (VO2, Critical Power, etc.)

-Scientific Training for Athletes
-The Triathlete's Guide to Training with Power

http://www.physfarm.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1&zenid=9b958085dc7046eb2884e76e8bc85635

For the next winter, I highly recommend Jorge's winter cycling program: it's a fantastic program.
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=230692&start=1

Dude, you are such a beast.