Best commute time

[Kev365428]

Those BNA members who were out at Smeaton Grange on Sunday saw me act like a sooky la-la and pull out of the race after contesting the preem.

OK, I was tired and had done less than 90km in three weeks, but I was still pretty angry at myself for giving up so easily during a race.

So, on todays commute I decided to punish myself for my sooky attitude. I decided I was going to push after 5 minutes warm up and teach myself a lesson.

The result was my best ever commute time, for the new route (about 4km longer than the original).

Stats are: -

Distance - 41.9
Time - 01:07:58
Av Speed - 36.99
Av HR - 150
Av Cadence - 92
Max speed - 55.71
Max HR - 177
Cal - 1880


I'm stoked.

Kev.

[Boognoss]

Kev, to kind of compare I reckon we'd need to see total ascent and descent stats. I could never get close to 36kph average on my commute with about 350m of climbing and descending.

Distance - 27.67
Time - 00:49:19
Av Speed - 33.66
Av HR - 146
Av Cadence - 92
Max speed - 59.9
Max HR - 176
Cal - 1189
Total Ascent: 284m
Total Descent: 322m

This commute was when I was on fire. Usually 31-32 on a good day inbound on the Corsa and a couple of kph lower on the Tricross.

[Kev365428]

Tried to upload the data to GarminConnect, but the website seems to be down. As soon as it's back up I'll upload the data and get the stats.

I have to admit that the majority of my commute is relatively flat, with a slight downhill aspect about it. However, I was making comparison to my previous effort, not other peoples commutes.

Cheers,

Kev.

[Boognoss]

Fair enough . That's a very nice average anyway. If I chopped off the first 2km and the last 4km I'd probably get a similar average .

[simonn]

There I was feeling pleased with myself yesterday... My avg speed seems a little too low now

Distance - 23.56km
Time - 00:53:14
Av Speed - 26.55kph
Av Cadence - 79
Max speed - 64.31kph
Total Ascent: 505m (according to bikely.com)
Total Descent: 468m (according to bikely.com)

Show us you routes!

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Fr ... h-Ryde-1-2

[martinjs]

The only way I could get anywhere near that average speed is if my commute was all down hill and I had a tail wind behind me.
Well done.

[martinjs]

My Best was on the 14 of Jan

Distance: 38.10k
Time: 01:23:24 08:00am
Avg Speed: 27.41kph
Cadence: 82
Road: Flat but rough and started on 1/2k of dirt road.

Comments: Extended commute to work, already warming up but still managed to do me best ever average speed over a distance.

[Boognoss]

Here's my commute to work in case anyone's interested

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Commute-to-St-Leonards

[martinjs]

Here's my commute to work in case anyone's interested

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Commute-to-St-Leonards

Look's like you have lots of nice traffic to play with.

[Boognoss]

Here's my commute to work in case anyone's interested

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Commute-to-St-Leonards

Look's like you have lots of nice traffic to play with.

It's actually not too bad. Before the M2 motorway the traffic is generally light at 6.30am. Then on the M2 it's breakdown lane, and after that off-road shared pathway to within 300m of my office. A few more cars than you would see though .

[leximack]

Those BNA members who were out at Smeaton Grange on Sunday saw me act like a sooky la-la and pull out of the race after contesting the preem.

OK, I was tired and had done less than 90km in three weeks, but I was still pretty angry at myself for giving up so easily during a race.

So, on todays commute I decided to punish myself for my sooky attitude. I decided I was going to push after 5 minutes warm up and teach myself a lesson.

The result was my best ever commute time, for the new route (about 4km longer than the original).

Stats are: -

Distance - 41.9
Time - 01:07:58
Av Speed - 36.99
Av HR - 150
Av Cadence - 92
Max speed - 55.71
Max HR - 177
Cal - 1880


I'm stoked.

Kev.

thats some nice times Kev, but i still reckon your a sooky la-la for pulling out

My commute involves too many sets of traffic lights to make it a quick one, generally its about 27-28km/h, if i get to 30 i have done well to get lots of green lights and keep momentum going. I also enjoy lots of cyclepaths which is a bit slower than the road, its slower but its safer for me.

Don

[Kev365428]

Ok, stats with ascent/descent are -

Stats are: -

Distance - 41.9
Time - 01:07:58
Av Speed - 36.99
Av HR - 150
Av Cadence - 92
Max speed - 55.71
Max HR - 177
Cal - 1880
Ascent - 313m
Descent - 396

Thanks for the sooky comment Don. I need to HTFU badly.

Bikely profile is here.

For those of you who think this is an impressive time for a commute, I must stress that 60% of my commute occurs on the M5 Motorway, so it's head down/bum up and churning away at 40+km/h average for a good 40 minutes or so. No lights, no stopping (except for the occasional on/off ramp congestion), and only a couple of low gradient hills that I can climb at 35+km/h if I try.

I'm still happy but to have sliced over 4 minutes off my previous best.

When I was riding the old route (38km), my goal was to get in under the 60 minute mark. Wonder if I can do that over the 42km course????

Cool.

Kev.

[Aushiker]

I'm still happy but to have sliced over 4 minutes off my previous best.

Well done on that. Comparing your previous rides is the best comparison. My best commute average is around 31 km/h over 42 km.

Andrew

[hartleymartin]

6km in just under 25 minutes, average speed of about 14.4km/hr. However, the second half of my trip is mostly up and down long hills, where I have to drop it right down in gear and crawl. Although I am now trying to maintain a cadence of at least 80rpm, up from 60rpm when I started riding, which I find fatigues me less doesn't cause me any cramps and actually seems easier.

[20thCB]

My best is 39km with an average speed of 28km/h.

My goal is 30km/h, might come as I get fitter. I really only use the bike for commuting though, so it might take longer to hit that target.

[munga]

i'm gunna have to mount a computer on my bike now..

[Kev365428]

I slackened right off today.

6 seconds behind Tuesday's record time.

Damn!!!

Funny how I can now remember all the places where I sat up to have a little rest on the way in. Why was I so lazy.

6 seconds.

Damn

Kev.

[Boognoss]

Gee Kev, I hope this isn't the downhill slide to bad form .

6 seconds over 40 km ain't that bad .

[m@]

Set a PB this morning as it happens; 10.59Km (AT) 32.85Kmph average. Next target, 35Kmph average

[Kev365428]

Way to go M@.

Yeah, my form is on the downhill run. Two rides in a week is obviously too much. Need to talk to Alex to get him to set up a training plan for me that factors in the fact that i can't ride more than 1.5 times a week on average.

Tomorrow's ride in will be fun/interesting.

On another point, but related, I've found the virtual partner on the Edge 705 to be a real boon in helping better PB's. The old Edge 305 had a virtual partner too, but this new one is excellent. Shows you how far behind the virtual partner you are (didn't figure this out until too late).

Kev.

[familyguy]

Best stats to date are:

Distance - 19.00
Time - 0:49:03
Av Speed - 23.2
Av HR - 158
Av Cadence - 92
Max speed - 51.4
Max HR - 191
Cal - 773

Did the reverse route this morning on a different bike which added 10 minutes and knocked 3km/h off the average!

Only done this a dozen times or so, but thats easily my best.

Jim

[wombatK]

I slackened right off today.

6 seconds behind Tuesday's record time.

Damn!!!

Funny how I can now remember all the places where I sat up to have a little rest on the way in. Why was I so lazy.

6 seconds.

Damn

Kev.

6 seconds ? surely you have to slow down and head-check before each of the m5 exits and entry ramps and that could easily vary day to day by more than 6 seconds.

No point trying to save a second or two there, and killing yourself. Don't know if you're trying to make up the crossing slow-down time because you figure it's rest time. For me its not - my heart rate goes up whenever I'm negotiating a ramp crossing.

Apart from the M5, you've got stop or give way signs through Bardwell Park to Arncliffe, and a couple of traffic lights at Tempe that could easily steal 6 seconds from you due to traffic variability.

I'm hugely impressed by your ride times - and could never imagine anyone calling you lazy.

[martinjs]

I slackened right off today.

6 seconds behind Tuesday's record time.

Damn!!!

Funny how I can now remember all the places where I sat up to have a little rest on the way in. Why was I so lazy.

6 seconds.

Damn

Kev.

6 seconds ? surely you have to slow down and head-check before each of the m5 exits and entry ramps and that could easily vary day to day by more than 6 seconds.

No point trying to save a second or two there, and killing yourself. Don't know if you're trying to make up the crossing slow-down time because you figure it's rest time. For me its not - my heart rate goes up whenever I'm negotiating a ramp crossing.

Apart from the M5, you've got stop or give way signs through Bardwell Park to Arncliffe, and a couple of traffic lights at Tempe that could easily steal 6 seconds from you due to traffic variability.

I'm hugely impressed by your ride times - and could never imagine anyone calling you lazy.

+1

[Kev365428]

Ah, I'm just having a go at myself.

Always very vigilant when crossing the on/off ramps on the M5. Best place to get skittled I reckon.

I'm more angry at the 4 or 5 times I thought I was way behind, so I backed off for a good 2 or 3 minutes to only ~60-70% of full effort. It's those times I'm remembering. As for traffic lights and the like, I'd never risk that for a few seconds. That's all part of the mix.

Kev.

[wombatK]

Ah, I'm just having a go at myself.
Kev.

Phew, I was hoping that was so - nothing wrong with beating up on yourself to spur yourself to higher achievements. If you hadn't been treating the entry/exit ramps with respect, you'd probably not be with us now. For a moment I thought you might have been travelling so quick you'd worked out a way to take a traffic lane (in slower peak traffic) so that merging ramp traffic was not so threatening.

Really, your six seconds difference is one part in 4080 of your trip time - or 0.025 % difference. Random errors from your bike computer (e.g. slight temperature differences etc affect clock accuracy more than this), a bit of swerving around glass etc.,. and certainly slight headwinds, could overwhelm that. You'd only have to add an extra 10 metres to your trip distance to explain the time difference (and would obviously have to be careful about exactly where you turned the computer on/off).

For contrast, two or 3 minutes of "slacking off" in a 67 minute trip is around 3 to 4% of your journey time. It could easily account for the 6 seconds - if you ignore any benefit a short recovery period might bring. We need Alex or someone similarly qualified to advise us on whether going flat-out the whole time would be counter-productive.

In the absense of any advice to the contrary, I think it's awesome that you can go flat-out for over an hour. Look forward to hearing your next installment...