Approach to commuting

[ve safari]

Hey - when you hop on your bike to pedal to work, do most of you use it as a training session with specific goals for that session? Or do you just pedal in and not really try and get a solid workout from it? How often do you try and set a PB for your commute? Every ride? Every second ride? Do you even try?

My own observation is that when I go hard on the commute, my energy levels at work suffer and take a while to recover, which kind of impacts my ability to function and peform at a high level. Curious to see what everyone else does.

cheers

[Max]

I use commuting primarily as a way of reducing my stress levels. I get pretty wound up when I'm in the car, trapped in traffic, watching stupid people do stupid things with their cars. My commute route, on the other hand, goes through beautiful, leafy suburbia, with a stretch along the Kedron Brook that is worth it just to see the duckies with their babies. In the first half of my morning commute, I see at most 20 cars for the entire ride. It's peaceful, quiet and safe. Until I hit Archerfield, which is full of trucks and bogans.. but despite that, they have all given me a wide berth and generally treat me with respect. Lots more cars and trucks than the first half of my commute, but still more relaxing than actually driving in it.

I sometimes push myself on my commute, but as you have observed, it leads to tiredness at work. And that tiredness generally makes me not want to ride home. I live on the opposite side of town to where I work, so it's not straight-forward to get a lift home. I must get myself home. So I set aside any desires to set speed records, and just noodle along at a sustainable pace.

Max

[Redbull]

I only take the bike in on Tuesdays

50km morning - 3 x 15 min intervals
60km evening - easy spin (thats the plan, but sometimes the wind is just blowing in the right direction and I can't help myself)

Spin home due to TT on Wednesday night.

[casual_cyclist]

It's only 9km for me, so I guess I have some more options. Previously I have done interval training with a 5min warmup and then 60 secs sprint, 90 sec recovery until I got to work (or on the way home). With my ride being under 20 mins, I found I would get to work pumped. These days, with training rides on Saturday morning and Wednesday afternoon, I find I use the commute rides as recovery rides. I need them!

[Missy24]

My commute is 9.6km... I like to do it as fast as possible

[provoked]

Mine is 20km - I push as hard as I can for 80% of the trip.

I don't feel tired as such at work, my legs feel stiff for a while though. I feel worse when I don't ride in or just "cruise" in.

[deryans]

same as others, I push as hard as I can, especially hills, and I try and organise my commute so that it's not flat as it's pretty short only a touch at 7/8km

[ve safari]

My commute is 28km in, 30km home. I only ride one direction a day (drive in with bike on car, ride home, ride in next day, drive home with bike on car - repeat). I try and set a PB with every ride, which is OK on the ride home because I can recover in private, but the ride in makes it tough. My job is demanding, and requires too much of me at the moment to ride both directions every day... Be a good way to get the miles up though.

[goneriding]

I do around 50km's in the morning and between 10 - 20km's in the afternoon 4 days a week.

I tend to push fairly hard on every ride especially on the hills. When I first started commuting I did struggle at work with being tired but I am now used to it and don't find that my work suffers (apart from having to put up with me!) but then I have a sedentary job.

[Pax]

My commute is a 56k round trip, I try to do it 5 days a week (when I am not interstate)

Yes, well...commuting is "training" for me in the sense that everything done on the bike is training for whatever target-event I am working towards, or simply being fitness focussed.

Due to all of the variables on the commute that are outside my control (traffic & traffic lights primarily) it is hard to be too specific with "training" targets however this is my approach:

I set myself intensity targets, ie ride at a perceived intensity of X (pick a number between 1 and 5...with 5 being full intensity and 1 being so slow that grannies overtake me). I generally aim for 3-4 with a bit of 5.

Sometimes it it an intensity target for the whole ride, sometimes it is just for the hills.

Someitmes I set technique targets: eg focus on pedal technique or particular cadence levels

I generally ride relatively high intensity Monday to Thursday and take Friday easy because I do a long ride on Saturdays, so having an easier Friday is a good idea.

I don't find that hard trainig in the morning leaves me tired at work, if anything it is the opposite, I am energised. Lack of sleep has a bigger impact on my tiredness than training does (but maybe that means I am not commmuter-training hard enough????)

Having said all of that....ENJOYING THE COMMUTE is the most important thing

[Fletcher]

Unless I'm feeling poorly, like yesterday and today, I approach the commute as a fitness exercise.
I time myself, keep note of my relative speed and cadence(it's an estimate, I don't have a meter).
Right now, I don't aspire to race. However, it would be nice to have that option if, one day, I'm good enough and if I get the racing bug. If I ever do, It'll have to be vets though

Edited because it was thoughtless post and read like gibberish.

[ve safari]

It'll have to be vets though

No need to be embarassed about that!

[Fletcher]

It'll have to be vets though

No need to be embarassed about that!

Cheers, I've never raced before. At the age of 39 I've just gained interest in it. It'd be an interesting exercise getting amongst vets who've been racing since their teens. I guess that's why some clubs probably have an E grade for vets - for when blokes like me turn up.

[justD]

My own observation is that when I go hard on the commute, my energy levels at work suffer and take a while to recover, which kind of impacts my ability to function and peform at a high level. Curious to see what everyone else does.

I have the same problem. At first I was riding harder in the morning and taking it easy in the afternoon, but finding that I struggle to stay awake at work, I've swapped it around. Now I do 23kms in the morning at an easy pace and 36kms in the afternoon at a higher pace. My aim is to do that 3 days per week with a fourth day of casual/slow in both directions, but as I've only just sorted out my knee pain (I hope), I haven't done that a full week yet.

I think it will improve with time though. When I first started doing 23kms in the mornings (even at crawling speed), I struggled to get through the day, but now it's pretty easy. I've read other people saying that you need to ride hard for it to mean anything and I agree that it has much more benefit, but I ride for the love of it and I think any time on the bike is better than on the couch.

cheers,

Dirk

[martinjs]

My direct commute is only 8k's but I almost never do that, between 25 and 30k's most mornings and the pace depends on how I feel each day.

Martin

[Max]

I ride for the love of it and I think any time on the bike is better than on the couch.

+infinity

Max

[Cranky Jim]

The purpose of my commute is to get me to work in one piece while taking my morning exercise. Speed is no consideration and although it's a steady ride I'm never in a hurry to get to work.

[recumbenteer]

set the heart rate monitor to "fat burn" range to get the "engne" to run efficiently, generally avg of 20kph or so...20k commute...1 hr or so

fitness...weightloss...n enjoy the scenery. ...why rush. ..its only work...it aint going anywhere,

[Baalzamon]

I cycle in as hard as I can over 27kms, coming home I'm hitting a headwind and I'm still pushing as hard as I can, but as my commutes get extended, I'm going to be dropping my speed back and aiming for a 25kph avg compared to 30-32 as my commutes will become 100km's....

[gdl_gdl]

My commute is an 84k round trip which I do at least twice a week. I don't set time targets as there are too many factors outside of my control e.g. wind, traffic lights, general energy levels on that day.

However I use my HR monitor and make sure I sit on at least 140 - 150bpm (after a 10 minute warm up on the commute) so I know I'm having a good work out irrespective of what the climate is doing. I'll also do intervals at random points when I hit clear stretches of the road or PSP.

I know a few people who are obsessed with getting a pb for his commute home. I know one person has a pb time from when there was a SW tailwind of 50km/h+! In my view such targets are meaningless and a ride in June / July in rain and headwind would be a far greater fitness test than a coastal cruise!

My tip would be too buy a HR monitor if you were keen to measure the effort of your ride.

Cheers,

Gary

[Aushiker]

Hi

I generally use two morning commutes as interval training sessions (fartleks), the remaining morning ones are LDS rides. Sometimes go for PBs; really depends on the day.

Ride "home" in summer are just survival rides into the Fremantle Doctor; unlike Gary

Andrew

[gdl_gdl]

Ride "home" in summer are just survival rides into the Fremantle Doctor; unlike Gary

Survival for me as well mate! You try and keep below 40 km/h when you have a SSW behind you! (As per the forecast for tonights ride home)

Cheers,

Gary

[ve safari]

Well I jumped on the bike this morning and just felt blaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh. Flat, tired, wished I was in my car. Decided to say sod it and enjoy the ride for what it is. Took 5 mins longer to get in than PB (1:08), and reasonably happy with the time considering how I felt.

[Toolish]

I have just started commuting this week and have ben using it as a casual roll into work.

For those who treat it as training wat are you carrying in. I can't imagine training hard carrying a backpack like I am currently.

Also I commute in 'normal' clothes...can't imagine the looks I would get showing up here in lycra!

[provoked]

I have just started commuting this week and have ben using it as a casual roll into work.

For those who treat it as training wat are you carrying in. I can't imagine training hard carrying a backpack like I am currently.

Also I commute in 'normal' clothes...can't imagine the looks I would get showing up here in lycra!

Extra weight = harder work = better results

That said I don't carry much anymore. I recall carrying the laptop and always felt slower when I did.