Habit Graduation: How to Increase Your Average Speed

If you are a new rider, it is common to start wondering on how to increase your average speed, when you compare yourself with other riders. Here are some tips that you need to practice with patience, which will finally increase your average speed.

Bend and Tuck Your Elbows

Wind resistance is the major thing that slows your speed as you ride. Your ability to reduce your frontal area and drag will enable you to slice through the wind easily. In order to achieve this, ensure you lower your body position as you ride. You should avoid sitting straight on the saddle and catch the wind, but instead, lower your body near the bars by bending and tucking your elbows.

Try and Ride With Others

Some people may consider this a lie, but taking your rides with others will finally increase your average speed in different ways. The first way is taking turns to ride in front, and share the work of cutting the wind, which in return will help your group to travel faster than when alone. Also, as you ride in a group, you raise your effort level as you get encouraged by others, besides increasing your average speed and building your fitness for future rides, as you always try to keep up with someone who is faster than you.

Break Less as You Ride

You should try and break less, since it results to slowing down and accelerating back to your initial speed requires a lot of energy to pedal harder. When riding in a good road, avoid breaking your speed down to comfortable levels, which will increase your confidence when riding at high speeds. Also, you should only brake in a straight line, when you are comfortable with your cornering speed, before you start taking turns in a corner. By doing so, you build your confidence levels, which will eventually have a positive impact to your average speed.

Lose Some Weight to Increase Your Average Speed

In order to increase your average speed, you should lose some weight, which allows you to go faster using less effort. With less weight, you easily move uphill, as you require less energy to move against gravity. In addition, losing weight enables you to cut through the wind and reduce your drag on flat surfaces.

Take Intervals

The best and fastest way of increasing your speed is training at speeds above your normal speed. Training at intervals allows you to take short cycles that are higher than your usual average speed; take rest by going slow in order to recover before you ride fast again.

Wear Tight Clothes

Make sure you wear tight–fitting cycling clothes as their material wicks away heat and sweat, leaving you cool and dry, hence less tiring to ride. Also, baggy clothes increase your drag which finally slows you down.

Finally, you practice to track stand in a slight inclined road, which aids you in determining your balance point. The technique will enable you to balance your weight as you ride, which will help in improving your average speed.