Occasionally, I ride my bike and the bus to/from work. At the end of June, I decided one day on a whim that I would ride home from work—13.4 miles. It took me just under an hour at approx. 14 mph. I was hot, tired and worn out after that ride. It was the biggest ride I've done in nearly two years!
Yesterday, I did the same thing . . . only the result was very different.
A week ago, I took the advice of my brother-in-law, an avid road cyclist (thank you Ron). Since I can't get the road bike I want (too expensive), I replaced my big fat knobby tires on my mtn. bike with small slick road tires (26x1.25)—a $50 fix.
I was able to do the same ride in exactly 45-minutes of riding time, or 17.86 mph—only my second time riding home from work. At the end of this ride, I felt much less exhausted. One factor could be that the temperature was about 8-degrees less yesterday. Or it could have been the fact that I was riding in bike shorts (no, not the tight spandex kind, sorry). But I am sure that the new tires really helped a lot (much less resistance on the road).
I was getting to the point that my gears weren't much of a resistance—I couldn't pedal any faster. Road bikes have a higher gear ratio, allowing for faster speeds.
My goal is to work up my endurance and strength to do the ride in under 40 minutes, or 20+ mph by the time the weather turns too cold.
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