this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2025
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Bicycles
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I see two big things that others have touched on. One, you wll not believe how much of a difference a real road bike makes in your speed once you have a chance to try one, and the average speeds you're seeing are almost definitely on road bikes. I don't think you need to go out and get one now or anything, get comfortable with what you have first, but also know that if/when you try one your average speed will probably jump at least 5km/h.
Second, cycling takes a lot of time to get used to. Anecdotally, when I first started I was a competitive distance runner and would occasionally win smaller races, and I started riding with a bunch of older relatively out of shape guys who had been cycling for decades. On about one sprint or hill a ride I could beat them, but they would kick my butt on the rest of the ride for more than a year before my conditioning caught up and I started to be able to keep up consistently.
Hills absolutely destroy me even in the lowest gear, I feel like spinning the pedals that fast just wrecks my cardio for some reason.
Sounds like you were pretty out of shape. That won't change in just six weeks. You should start seeing progress, though. If not, see a doctor and get checked out
It's certainly possible that im just in bad shape, no arguments here :)
Just keep going and things will get better.