We've been going out on the weekends for the last 3 weekends. We're just trying to get the missus comfortable with/on her bike. When I was a kid, I lived on a bike, but she wasn't that kind of kid. She's getting more comfortable every time. She slows down a lot when there are people around or for turns or whatever. I'm not pushing her. I'm loving it though. I'd love to go farther and faster, but I'm more concerned with her being happy.
Our first ride which was just a short shake down run was about 5 miles. We spent some time in an empty parking lot with her practicing her shifting.
The next day we went 10.8 miles at an average speed of 7.5 mph. Where we ride, there's lots of people and people with animals and clueless people that aren't paying attention, so she was doing a lot of slowing down. We were also figuring out where/how to get to the riding trail that we will mostly be using.
The next weekend, we hit that riding trail a bit harder, 22.24 miles, avg speed 9.6 mph. Once we've gone about 4-5 miles, the route opens up a lot and there are fewer people and less to worry about. I checked a bunch of the segments once things clear up and for a big portion of the ride our avg speed was 13mph.
The next weekend it was quite a bit colder, so we only went 16.1 miles at an avg speed of 10.4. She's clearly getting more comfortable on the bike.
Yesterday, we went 32.95 miles at an avg speed of 10.7 mph. I ran a second app for the 25 miles farthest from home, and our avg speed for that 25 miles was 11.2. For the 5-8 miles at the end of the route, it was colder and raining. There were a bunch of miles where our avg speed was 13-13.5mph.
I'm hoping that one of these days, I can take off without her to see how I'd do. I'm betting that I can easily hit at least 15mph for the full distance. I think we've got another 6.5 miles that we can go on the same bike trail, so we should be able to just about hit 40 miles on bike trails without getting on any streets.
We had a 3 mile section in the very middle of the ride where we averaged 13.3mph, so I know she can go faster. Neither of us are muscle sore/tight/etc... in the next day or two after we ride. We are going to start getting a couple of evening a week in on the indoor trainer, so that should help with some development of speed and strength and comfort on the bike for her.
Distance Avg speed
10.78 mi 7.5mph
22.24 mi 9.6mph
16.11 mi 10.4mph
32.95 mi (partial 24.90 mi) 10.7mph (11.2mph)
This was our ride yesterday. The bike path that we were on ends at the reservoir near the red dot in the top left, 2.5 miles past where we turned around. I think it may be possible to ride around the reservoir, but it may just be a dirt path. I think that'd add another 1.5 miles.
