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Kermit power
14,883 posts
82 months
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TKF said: Do you realise that your Strava rides are public whilst making statements like that? Yes. Where I actually get any flat and I try and push it, I can hold around that. The instant I get to any sort of gradient at all, however the speed drops exponentially because I've got sod all power to weight. I do mean any sort of gradient too. Even 2% is enough to drop it quite a lot lower. Hence my view that weight does significantly affect top speed off the flat. I'll usually average around 15 mph on a variable ride, but have yet to manage to average double digits up somewhere like Box Hill. Do bear in mind though that the majority of my rides are commutes into Central London. Having 81 sets of traffic lights in 15 miles is going to slow anyone down! 
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Dizeee
11,909 posts
75 months
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Speaking about average speeds, I have been meaning to bring it up myself.
I am finding that being held at only a handful of traffic lights over say an hour, as well as being caught behind the odd car can seriously affect my overall average speed. Am I right in thinking that using a Garmin egde or other such device means it works out you are stopped and does not actually use that data to calculate average speed?
I say this because when I am moving, and unlike Kermit including some inclines, I can manage around 20mph, usually 22/23mph ish on the flat. However when held at lights or even T junctions I can look at the phone and watch the average speed plummet in the short time I am there, which annoys me as I feel like my overall data is not actually accurate in terms of pedalling time.
I guess it simply measures speed / distance / time and gives a figure on my phone, whereas if you were to remove the stops and pauses your true average would be higher? I am always overtaking other cyclists, sometimes flying by them, so when I get back from a ride with little incline and see my average is 18.5mph I am sometimes surprised.
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TKF
4,474 posts
104 months
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Kermit power said: Do bear in mind though that the majority of my rides are commutes into Central London. Having 81 sets of traffic lights in 15 miles is going to slow anyone down! I'm not talking about the commutes. I'm talking about the other rides you have done with flat or even downhill sections on roads without lights or junctions. Saying you can hold 23-24mph comfortably is a pretty bold statement when you can't actually back it up. It would give you a 25min 10 which is a very good pace in anyone's book.
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TKF
4,474 posts
104 months
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Dizeee said: Am I right in thinking that using a Garmin egde or other such device means it works out you are stopped and does not actually use that data to calculate average speed?
. On Garmin devices you can set it to auto pause when you stop or go below a certain speed. On the Strava app (I think) you can also have an auto pause too. You certainly could on the SportyPal app. The pause only influences your av speed though. Strava segments use the times you pass though the start and the finish points.
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Gargamel
Original Poster
5,339 posts
130 months
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GBDG said: How are you doing 40 miles a day and staying overweight! Don't do it every day, have lost about 7 lbs do far.
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Dizeee
11,909 posts
75 months
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TKF said: On Garmin devices you can set it to auto pause when you stop or go below a certain speed. On the Strava app (I think) you can also have an auto pause too. You certainly could on the SportyPal app.
The pause only influences your av speed though. Strava segments use the times you pass though the start and the finish points. Oh the segments are fine, it's just the overall average never seems to add up. I have just got back in and at the end of the ride my phone said a total of 1 hour 37 mins and an average speed 18.5mph, once uploaded though the stats always change, it says 1 hour 49 mins and an average of 17.2 mph. I am starting to not look at the average speed as I just don't believe it is accurate.
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okgo
20,737 posts
67 months
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Strava measures moving time. As I'm pretty sure the default on the phone is to stop recording under a few mph.
Seriously stop worrying about it, it isn't important. If you want to see how quick you are on the relative flat, enter a time trial, they're about £3 and anyone can do them.
Just looked at your ride, before gong off on one, maybe do the maths?
31.2 miles in 1 hr 49 mins (which was your moving time, you spent 10 minutes not moving) = 17.2mph moving average. Your real average would be 15.4 mph.
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Dizeee
11,909 posts
75 months
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okgo said: Strava measures moving time. As I'm pretty sure the default on the phone is to stop recording under a few mph.
Seriously stop worrying about it, it isn't important. If you want to see how quick you are on the relative flat, enter a time trial, they're about £3 and anyone can do them.
Just looked at your ride, before gong off on one, maybe do the maths?
31.2 miles in 1 hr 49 mins (which was your moving time, you spent 10 minutes not moving) = 17.2mph moving average. Your real average would be 15.4 mph.
But it doesn't tally. Looking at my segment times I am going through them anywhere between 18mph and 22mph - this is the sort of pace I try and keep throughout, bar the odd small ascent etc. Plus, like I said, I rode for 1 hour 37 minutes which was my moving time, it is only when I upload the ride that it finds these extra minutes from nowhere. I can't understand why the time and ave speed figure changes so much from what is displayed at the end of my ride to when I click upload and it appears on Strava. I was really happy with my ride today, I pushed it really hard towards the end, and there is no way on earth I was averaging a paltry 15mph! Thats what I used to do down the canal towpath on my mountain bike!
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Dizeee
11,909 posts
75 months
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Yup, just looked at all 12 segments and they all show me anywhere between 18.2 mph and 22.2mph. I am not racing the segments and slowing between either. I am trying to be consistent throughout.
It's not that I worry about it as such but it would be nice to have some greater accuracy. It's also frustrating to put a lot of effort in then see an apparent poor result which doesn't fit with what you have actually done.
Maybe a Gramin device is the way forward.
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okgo
20,737 posts
67 months
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I can see what you mean yes. Seems like there is a lapse in the GPS. Thing is this could be anything. Looking at the sections that don't have the lapses in, your speed avg seems to be above 18 mph each time. Get yourself a Garmin. And maybe try a route that isn't downhill if you want to willy wave  You should click on the performance tab too, its far more accurate than looking through the segments
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Dizeee
11,909 posts
75 months
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okgo said: Get yourself a Garmin. And maybe try a route that isn't downhill if you want to willy wave Thats just it - I'm not! I know I am not much in the grand sheme of things, and the more cycling I do the more I realise I need to do more. I just like things to be accurate, and when I sweat like I did today it makes me unhappy to see dodgy data. That said I appreciate it will never be bang on accurate, thats why I like the segments as it is a simple A > B time that is fairly accurate. Downhill?  Flat maybe 
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Kermit power
14,883 posts
82 months
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TKF said: Kermit power said: Do bear in mind though that the majority of my rides are commutes into Central London. Having 81 sets of traffic lights in 15 miles is going to slow anyone down! I'm not talking about the commutes. I'm talking about the other rides you have done with flat or even downhill sections on roads without lights or junctions. Saying you can hold 23-24mph comfortably is a pretty bold statement when you can't actually back it up. It would give you a 25min 10 which is a very good pace in anyone's book. Went away on holiday, and just having a little trawl around stuff I missed whilst in the land the internet forgot. Just to be clear on this, when I said I could hold 23-24mph, I certainly didn't mean I could hold it indefinitely and go off setting 10 mile TTs at that sort of rate!  I was more thinking of up to a mile or so at a time. That I can definitely do comfortably without my maximum heart rate. I don't know of anywhere to try further than that to see what sort of speed I could do, but I agree, I'm sure I would tail off well before I got anywhere near 10 miles. When I say flat though, I really mean flat. Even a railway bridge gives gravity all it needs to cabbage my speed!
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