# How to assess fitness level



## greatfool (Aug 7, 2006)

I'm new to road biking and I was just wondering how to measure my fitness level. 

For example when I was a runner I could say I run a 5:30 mile or 12:00 2 mile ect and compare my fitness with any other distance runner based on that, the only real variable being temperature. 

I plan to go on some group rides soon and I would like to know whether I am a strong, medium, or weak rider. I know that I have the endurance to go for a long time, but I want to measure cardiovascular capacity, so what tests could be used? One mile on a road bike can be a sprint so I guess some longer distance must be needed. Thank you.


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## levels1069 (Jun 9, 2006)

its incredibly difficult to gauge your fitness level on a bike in comparison to running. When you can say you run a 5k, 10k, or marathon at such a pace you've to remember that bike races do not follow the same format. Sure you can say i ride a century in 4:30 or can do a 30 mile road race is 1:30 but then you have to factor in hills, group ability and such...too many independent variables.

my advice...to gauge your ability in comparison to the rest of the group, go out and ride with them. Worst thing that can happen is you get dropped and say to yourself, "alright i need some work with hill climbing so i dont get dropped" or "i should work on my flat land speed". The best case scenario is that you finish the ride and are hardly winded, in which case you find better riders. Unless you're racing though, its hard to give a general fitness level without specific courses and times to compare with others. 

My BIGGEST advice: find a good 20-30 mile loop that you know well and can do often. Ride it and time yourself tommorow. In two weeks go out and ride it again, time yourself. Track your progress. I've got a 20 mile loop from my house that i time myself on every monday for a good sprint workout, and i try to lower my time by a minute every week.

You could get into the whole physiological aspect too, but thats a different conversation totally as far as VO2 max, lactate threshold, heart rate max and ave, blah blah


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## borregokid (Jun 9, 2005)

I dont mind saying how fast I think you could go if your under 35. If your older you will go slower. Like levels1069 said go out and find a 20-30 mile loop. If you can average 20 mph you are probably in the top 2% of all riders. Anything over 18 is excellent, 16 good, 14 fair and 12mph poor. If your riding a cross bike, crummy steel bike, mountain bike, huffy, etc you will of course be slower. Typically recreational riders will be somewhere between high 13mph and 17mph.


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## R.Rice (Aug 23, 2004)

borregokid said:


> I dont mind saying how fast I think you could go if your under 35. If your older you will go slower. Like levels1069 said go out and find a 20-30 mile loop. If you can average 20 mph you are probably in the top 2% of all riders. Anything over 18 is excellent, 16 good, 14 fair and 12mph poor. If your riding a cross bike, crummy steel bike, mountain bike, huffy, etc you will of course be slower. Typically recreational riders will be somewhere between high 13mph and 17mph.


This is the type of information the the OP DOESN'T need.

Everything about this post is wrong.I know 40+ year olds that race Pro 1/2 and are extremely strong.

Next,the numbers game you are playing makes no sense.I live in Florida where it is flat as can be and on a windless day I can average over 18mph on a recovery ride.That doesn't mean jack.

The only finite way I can think of to measure your fitness would be with a power meter.You will know what kind of power you can put out and compare that to other riders.However,that is a bit extreme for a newer cyclist.

I say just ride a lot and do some group rides.The faster the better.You will know pretty quickly how you stack up.Like Levels said,if you can stay with the group and finish the ride strong you'll know where you are in comparison to other locals.


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## Argentius (Aug 26, 2004)

Among many riders the "benchmark" is their "10" time -- a 10-mile Time Trial, but unlike running aerodynamics, equipment, wind speed, temperature, pavement quality, etc, make such a difference that anything you come up with yourself is largely meaningless.

To be rather crude, any data that we could say online is just a virtual penis comparison.

Just go on the group rides. If they're not just looking at the flowers, and if there are any hills, you will quickly learn if you're fast.

...
And you can't sprint for a mile.


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## borregokid (Jun 9, 2005)

The OP wanted some numbers and I am only too happy to oblige. The Cooper Institute and others have come out with fitness numbers so I dont see any reason we cant at least throw out some numbers for biking. As I recall the Cooper Institue had numbers for 1.5 mile run, pushups, situps, etc all the way to age 70. 

It looked to me like the OP wanted some sort of comparison to a 530 mile or 12 minute two mile and I think 20mph average on a road bike is probably pretty near in terms of fitness. Bottom line is there arent too many guys who can average 20 mph or more or run two miles in 12 minutes. Whether your running a power meter or the treadmill at the doctors office you still need some comparisons. The only change I would make in the spread would be to drop it to 10mph for poor and 22 for superior.


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## R.Rice (Aug 23, 2004)

borregokid said:


> The OP wanted some numbers and I am only too happy to oblige. The Cooper Institute and others have come out with fitness numbers so I dont see any reason we cant at least throw out some numbers for biking. As I recall the Cooper Institue had numbers for 1.5 mile run, pushups, situps, etc all the way to age 70.
> 
> It looked to me like the OP wanted some sort of comparison to a 530 mile or 12 minute two mile and I think 20mph average on a road bike is probably pretty near in terms of fitness. Bottom line is there arent too many guys who can average 20 mph or more or run two miles in 12 minutes. Whether your running a power meter or the treadmill at the doctors office you still need some comparisons. The only change I would make in the spread would be to drop it to 10mph for poor and 22 for superior.



I am not a runner and I don't know how they guage themselves.However,what you are saying is still misleading.I imagine runners don't deal with wind as much as a cyclist due to the big difference in speed.

With that said,terrain,wind and the other various condition make it really hard to compare numbers.The reason I say this is simple;saying "there arent too many guys who can average 20 mph or more "is simply misleading.Anyone who is slighly fit around here can average 20mph.Here,in Fl,that isn't a big deal.Strong guys would do a 40k ITT in well under an hour(25-26mph average).However,when I go to western NC to ride on the "easiest" terrain they have up there I have to absolutely be killing it to average over 18mph.That has a lot to do with the fact that you are either climbing up a wall or decending and that you are above 4k feet at all times.

All I am saying is it isn't as simple as saying "If you can average 20mph you are strong" because that is untrue if you live where I do and it is an understatement if you live somewhere that less than a mile out of your driveway you are hitting a 20% grade.


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## levels1069 (Jun 9, 2006)

borregokid said:


> The OP wanted some numbers and I am only too happy to oblige. The Cooper Institute and others have come out with fitness numbers so I dont see any reason we cant at least throw out some numbers for biking. As I recall the Cooper Institue had numbers for 1.5 mile run, pushups, situps, etc all the way to age 70.
> 
> It looked to me like the OP wanted some sort of comparison to a 530 mile or 12 minute two mile and I think 20mph average on a road bike is probably pretty near in terms of fitness. Bottom line is there arent too many guys who can average 20 mph or more or run two miles in 12 minutes. Whether your running a power meter or the treadmill at the doctors office you still need some comparisons. The only change I would make in the spread would be to drop it to 10mph for poor and 22 for superior.


i see MANY reasons why those numbers are completely useless. You have a link to the study where you got this information? Good researchers would never make the mistake of confounding their studies like that without taking into consideration all the independent variables.

Runners around a track that can average 3x 5:30 miles are in good shape. Riders never go the oppurtunity to go around in circles on a perfectly flat track to gauge their fitness, thats not what this sport is about. So to start putting numbers on fitness, ESPECIALLY when it comes to average speed (which i'm convinced is useless to a good rider) is really really misleading. Simply said, you've just gotta get out there and ride with other riders. 

Challenge yourself instead of sitting here reading about it, its not complicated as we make it seem. Ride hard, get better. Always ride hard because their is always someone better. /thread


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## 53T (Jul 20, 2002)

*Word! (nm)*



Argentius said:


> And you can't sprint for a mile.


.....


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## vanjr (Sep 15, 2005)

This topic interests me. So essentially I cannot objectively tell if my training is effective or not as a biker?


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## tubafreak (Apr 24, 2006)

Not individually (without a large investment in a power meter). BUT, as previously stated, a group ride with other serious riders will quickly tell you where you are in comparison to whoever you're riding with. If you're keeping up with Cat 3/4 guys on a tempo paced ride you're doing well. If you're dropped off of a pack of freds then you've got some work ahead of you.


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## vanjr (Sep 15, 2005)

I am not sure how exactly a power meter would help (could easily measure max power output, but that really is meaningless-power over time may tell me something).

For reasons stated earlier (too many variables), group rides are almost meaningless-you can tell huge differences in riders, but am if you are a B rider, how can you tell if you are really improving? On one group ride you do not get dropped, but does that mean the cat 3/4 guys are taking it easy? Some riders you usually drop also hang with you. does that mean they are getting better? I just do not see how you can measure changes in fitness level (admittedly the OP asked about fitness level, not changes in fitness level)


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## levels1069 (Jun 9, 2006)

vanjr said:


> This topic interests me. So essentially I cannot objectively tell if my training is effective or not as a biker?


to you, Vanjr, and the original poster....i'll put it plainly and simply.
Go out and ride, ride hard and ride often. Spend time busting your ass in the saddle having a good time. Remember that hill that use to kick your ass six months ago? Look at yourself plowing right over it now with lactic acid to spare in your legs. Trying to quantify changes in fitness is incredibly sketchy and no one can give you a simple mathematical answer...."you've increased %% here and need work %% here".

YOU are the only one that knows your own body. YOU know when you're getting better and anything else is merely and opinion. Is your training effective, is your fitness up to par? What do you think? Is your body still sore the morning after, or do you feel like getting up again at the crack of down and attacking that 10% grade, 4 mile climb. 

If you're out there, pushing yourself, suffering and having a blast. You're going to get better. Your fitness will come along, dont worry so much about putting numbers on it. When you get called up to TMobile, CSC, Disco then you might think of getting some professional numbers pinned up. Until then, you are the only one who will know if your fitness is up to par and improving


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## rochrunner (Jul 11, 2006)

It's hard to compare running to biking. It is much easier to guage performance in running since runners typically sign up for events on courses that are precisely measured and timed, and which are always competitive in nature even if you're just competing against your last-year's time. And of course these events are open to the masses -- not just the serious racers who get to start at the front. The route is always closed to traffic, so there's nothing to interrupt your run like there can be when biking on public roads. Of course, weather conditions do come into play, and runners are probably more affected by heat where bikers are affected by wind, but it's probably easier to be consistent for a runner.

For example, I just ran an annual 10-miler that I've been doing for 8 years straight now, and can measure my performance by my times and my placing in my age group and overall. I'm not exactly ready to compete with the Kenyans up at the front, but I finished in the upper third of my AG (55-59) and overall this year in a field of almost 8000.

Interestingly, I actually cut down my running this year in favor of getting into road biking, yet I managed to set a personal-best time for the 10-mile distance. I guess there's really something to this cross-training thing, and it seems to be doing me some good!


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## PJay (May 28, 2004)

*borregokid is right...*

...as a rule of thumb.
certainly some general statement can be made abt ability for an athletic newbie. i think borregokid's comments sound fine as a rule of thumb.

i don't see anything off-base or misleading in borregokid''s summary - but i think people could be more helpful than griping and sniping. 

positive comments like explaining how wind, hills, posture/form, weight, etc. are important would be helpful.

maybe one important dimension to warn any newbie about is how unfriendly cyclists can be. that way, when he goes out for a 20 mile group ride, and no one talks to him because he doesn't have clipless pedals, even though as a newb he will be finishing at least in the middle of the pack, he will know that this is normal.


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## Kerry Irons (Feb 25, 2002)

*Objective measure*



vanjr said:


> So essentially I cannot objectively tell if my training is effective or not as a biker?


One measure that anyone can do is a weekly time trial. Length can vary depending on what it is you're trying to measure. A single TT is not that meaningful, but including a short TT (10 miles or less) in your weekly riding will tell you a lot about how you are progressing.


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## ChilliConCarnage (Jun 1, 2006)

PJay said:


> ...as a rule of thumb.
> certainly some general statement can be made abt ability for an athletic newbie. i think borregokid's comments sound fine as a rule of thumb...
> 
> maybe one important dimension to warn any newbie about is how unfriendly cyclists can be. that way, when he goes out for a 20 mile group ride, and no one talks to him because he doesn't have clipless pedals, even though as a newb he will be finishing at least in the middle of the pack, he will know that this is normal.


I totally agree here. Cycling is not so incredibly complicated that you can't apply a rule-of-thumb. Some people here could definitely use a "Responding etiquette on internet forums for dummies" book. Or some medication. We're not road-rage infected motorists here - we're cyclists for goodness sake. Don't worry. Be happy.


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## kritiman (Jul 31, 2006)

Goals are helpful. As, "I'd like to be able to ride 20 miles in under an hour."


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