Question: I’m an average cyclist who rides about four times a week for a total of under 100 miles. The problem is that I always go all-out. No matter what I try, I can’t seem to make myself slow down. If I diligently monitor my speed, it creeps up and soon I’m in time trial mode at over 90% of my maximum heart rate. How can I manage my rides better? — Carl S.
RBR Replies: We sympathize. We have trouble riding slowly, too.
But we have to realize that we don’t improve when we’re going fast. Intensity is only the catalyst for improvement. The actual improvement comes when we’re resting and the body repairs the “damage” from hard rides. Then the general adaptation syndrome kicks in. The body adjusts to the stress and gets stronger.
So, if you think about how a nice easy spin makes you stronger, it can help you keep your irrational exuberance under control. Other tips:
- Ride a “town” or “beater” bike on your easy days. Getting on your good bike makes you want to go fast. Riding a cruiser makes you want to, well, cruise.
- Ride with a slower person. Go at their pace by riding side by side or following, never leading.
- Combine your ride with errands. When you need to make several stops, you won’t have the chance to steadily up your tempo. You could even do these rides in street clothes rather than cycling clothes to help curb your urge to go fast.
- Ride bike paths rather than your usual training roads. Inline skaters and people walking dogs or pushing baby strollers will make you ride slower.
I had the same issue. It made riding no fun. Just anxiety over trying to go faster all the time. Mental exhaustion. And I never even raced! Madness!
I got rid of my bike computer. Riding without a computer is freeing, fun and I ride more than ever.
You only need to use your internal “fun-o-meter” to track rides.
Experience the intoxication of the beautiful smells and scenery when outside.
You will be surprised how far your bike will carry you when you stop hanmering and let it do the work for you.
Life is too short to not have fun!
I’m with Michael,
For years (I am a 40 plus year rider) I rode hard all the time and always felt like I needed to keep my speed at a certain average. At age 62 I developed A-fludder/ A-fib requiring two ablations and a cardio version over the course of five years. I didn’t want to give up riding completely but I knew I had to back off my intensity. One of the tricks to achieving my goals was to get rid of my odometer. I still loosely keep track of mileage but I don’t really care how fast i’m going. The goal is to keep going–not kill myself getting there.
There’s a reason why so many racers log their first thousand miles of the season on a 62-inch fixed gear. They go slowly, and work on their spin. This improves their ability to respond to surges in the pack’s speed, and it’s kind to their knees.
When I used to go on rides with lots of slower riders, I would use this as an opportunity to work on my spin. I’d put my bike in a low gear — maybe 60 inches or so — and work my legs like a hummingbird’s wings. It was still a somewhat easy ride for me, and I developed the ability to pedal and apply power smoothly at cadences up to 120 rpm or more.
If you’re riding alone, and have trouble turning off the hammerhead mentality, restrict yourself to that super low gear. You’ll develop great smoothness and you’ll be kind to your knees.
I’ve always had this problem. Even currently at 43 I struggle to get a hold of smooth cadence rolling rather than full steam ahead to complete exhaustion. I’ve only just this year switched to a device that monitors HR, cadence and other metrics. While I agree wholeheartedly agree with others about ditching computers on the whole, I personally rely on these metrics to keeping me slow and steady. I just recently started getting better as a cyclist because of my “metrics keeper” computer and for the first time in my cycling life, actually cycling well into the 60 -100 mile range and great physical ability to do anything afterwards instead of just showering and bonking our on the bed ‘til morning.
Same problem! Riding with somebody else works for me but I have to be careful not to work my way to the front. Also, on flatter roads I know which gear to engage to avoid making too much effort. Resist the urge to change to a harder gear. I agree that not using a cycling computer would probably help but I doubt that I’ll ever ditch mine! Good luck!
A few years ago after a bout of A fib while riding followed by a cardiac ablation, followed by a second ablation, then followed by a cardio version I realized that it was time to SLOW down .
The first and best thing I did was to get rid of my computer. As I’m sure many of us know, we are addicted to watching our speed all the time. I’m always asking my riding partners how far we rode…but that’s ok… my heart is more stable now, and I’m still riding.
Ditch the speedometer and ride how you feel
I have this same problem, but am able to ride slower if I’m riding with a friend. I feel like mixing it up (solo vs buddy rides) is enough for me. Like getting the reprieve from going ‘all out’ when I’m riding with a buddy makes me excited to see how hard I can go when I ride solo. A lot of what I enjoy about road cycling is going as fast as possible, so I’m okay with it personally. Going slow just isn’t as enjoyable.
I believe if all your workouts are high intensity, then all you need to do is skip a day between workouts to let your body recover and grow.