5 Ways to Boost Your Average MPH on the Bike

How is it that you can be riding along at an effort that is tough for you, and someone that appears to not possess a single fast gene in his or her body comes gliding past with what seems like zero effort? Or maybe you agree to ride with a friend that is "completely out of shape" but they seem to ride with little effort.

More: Calculate your Pace.

Frustrating, right? What are they doing that you aren't?

When intermediate cyclists seek my help to take their riding speeds to the next level, I've noticed there are a few things many of them have in common. Changing just a few items in training makes a big difference. Maybe the changes they make can help you too.

More: 5 Tips and Tricks to Boost Your Cycling Pace

Keep Pedaling

You may not have noticed that you coast a lot. Some riders get into the habit of coasting for a good percentage of any ride. If you're spending a lot of time coasting, you're not building the fitness necessary to keep high average speeds for low metabolic cost.

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As an experiment, ride a mostly flat course that has no stop signs and very little traffic. Aim to put power to the pedals continuously for 30 minutes. Keep the pressure on the pedals light so your effort remains aerobic; but keep your legs moving and feel that you are generating power with each pedal stroke. If 30 minutes is easy, aim for 60 minutes.

I suspect some of you will find that you are spending more time coasting and not generating any power than you realize.

Ride a Rolling Course

After practicing the skill of keeping pressure on the pedals on a flat course, it's time to take that skill to the hills. Find a rolling course that has few stops and distractions. After your warmup, ride for 30 to 60 minutes at a steady, aerobic effort, keeping force on the pedals all the time.

This workout requires that you play with the gears on your bike to figure out what gear combination allows you to keep force on the pedals 100 percent of the time. Yes, that means on the downhill portions too.

More: A Breakdown of Bike Gears

Hill Repeats

For this workout you'll need a heart rate monitor. Find a hill that takes you some 3 to 5 minutes to climb. Note a start and stop line for hill repeats. The goal of the workout is to find the gear combination that gives you the fastest time on the hill climb without exceeding the top of the aerobic zone (Zone 2) on your heart rate monitor. Get full recovery between each climb, spinning easy for some 3 to 5 minutes before beginning the next climb.

Isolated Leg Training (ILT) Indoors

Many cyclists do ILT work in the winter and on an indoor trainer. The workout helps reduce or eliminate any dead spots out of your pedal stroke. One common workout example is to do a warm-up, then with light resistance on an indoor trainer, do 100 percent of the work with one leg while the other leg is resting on a stool.

The bottom of the stroke is similar to the motion of scraping mud off the bottom of your shoe. The top of the stroke can be improved by driving your toes and knees forward. In all positions, keep your toes relaxed. Do not allow them to curl up and clinch the bottom of your shoe. The aim is to be smooth and keep power applied during as much of each revolution as possible.

Begin with 20 or 30 seconds per leg and build up to 60 seconds per leg. After doing one set with each leg, spin with both legs for some 2 to 4 minutes before starting the ILT work again.

Start with a cumulative time of 3 to 5 minutes on each leg within the workout and build time as you become stronger. Be sure to stop pedaling and change legs or spin with both legs when your form becomes sloppy or jerky. Do not worry about achieving any particular heart rate--smooth pedaling form is most important.

Once you're efficiently making smooth circles on the trainer in a normal setup, you can put blocks under your front wheel to simulate hill climbing. Build the time you are able to complete ILT drills on hills.

More: The Truth About Indoor Cycling Cadence

ILT Work Outdoors

After achieving good form doing ILT work on an indoor trainer, move outdoors to a flat course. One method of doing ILT work outdoors is by relaxing and unweighting one leg while the other leg does 90 percent of the work. (The unweighted leg stays clipped in.)

A second method is to pull the non-working leg out of the pedal and allow it to hang about 6 to 12 inches away from the bike. In either case, use a gear combination that allows you to keep force on the pedal for the majority of the pedal stroke.

Be sure to change legs when fatigue sets in, or set a specific time interval to prevent excess fatigue. Again, correct form is most important. Similar to doing the drill indoors, work your way up to an interval of 30 to 60 seconds per leg. After doing a work segment with each leg, spin easy with both legs for a minute or two and then return to single leg work.

Finally, when you've achieved what you consider to be a good skill level at ILT work on a flat course, try the drill on a slight uphill. Of course it is most challenging when the non-working leg is removed from the pedal.

Why Do ILT Work on Hills?

At least one study1 concluded that cycling uphill decreases gross efficiency and is associated with changes in pedaling technique. If you train your legs to be as efficient as possible going uphill, of course it only helps your cause of increasing speed.

By practicing good pedaling technique and making a conscious effort to keep power to the pedals, I'm willing to bet your overall cycling speed will begin to increase. With foundation skills nailed, you can begin adjusting volume and intensity to make even more gains.

In no time you'll be one of those people gliding along at higher speeds, with less effort.

More: 3 Cycling Workouts to Help You Conquer Hills

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1. Arkesteijn, M., et al, "The Effect of Gradient on Cycling Gross Efficiency and Technique," Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 2012, Dec 14 (Epub ahead of print)