Commuting - commuting on days of training rides

Here's another deep :D topic for conversation today: What do you do on days when you participate in long after-work group/training rides? Although my 8 mile commute isn't that taxing, I sometimes feel like driving the car in on days when I'm doing after work rides. Because 1)i'll have time to make it the ride location after work if I'm driving, 2) I wanna be fresh for the group ride. This is somewhat of a dilemma for me because ideally I would ride to work every day. What do others do?

I really don't have a choice since my commuter bike is not the same as my road bike. On days that I participate in those long rides after work I have to drive in with my bike in the car. If they were the same, I would probably still drive. I would hate that extra 8 miles at the end of the road ride.

I did a 30 min xc race last night... I also rode my bike to and from work and to and from the race. My distances are short, 5km to work, ~5km to the race site.

KrisA you're the man (I think), I find it very hard to wake up in the AM and ride when my legs are sore after a long nightride. More power to you. :beer:

I usually will take it extra easy on the commute if I am not worried about not feeling great for a group ride after work. Sometimes if I know we are going to have a fast paced ride I commute on my tubulars and take and alternate route with less road debris.

It really takes me about 30-40 minutes before I feel good on my bike. My commute is only 17 miles, so it is just an extended warm up. Our group ride leaves about 5miles from my office, so I usually feel great for it.

Weather permitting, I ride to work every day. When the evenings are long enough, I also get out for an evening ride two or three times per week. My commute is a 60 km round trip. when I can, I like to go watch the Tuesday evening crits about 15 km from my house. Wednesday evenings, out local club does a ride, usually 60-70 km, or I can drive to do a local crit for masters, 50 km usually at an average speed around 43 kph. If it is nice, other days I might extend my ride home by about 15 km instead of going out later, or try to persuade my wife to go out for a ride with me on our hybrid bikes.

Mine's an opposite situation. I've been meeting up with some guys for a 30 mile training ride before work 3-4 times a week. I ride 4-5 miles from my house to the meeting spot and then go from the workout to the office. I think the other guys go home, change, and drive to work but I don't have that luxury. The 4 mile commute home in the afternoon feels like nothing!

Well, most of my "training rides" are pre-dawn before work, when conditions are somewhat cooler. Mind you, my commute is only a 26km round trip, so I don't really have a problem doing both in a day.

hey mike,

this is a relevant topic for me... i had SUPER hard training rides the last 2 days...

for me riding to work BEFORE is no problem. i usually just ride the commuter into work, ride home and switch bikes, drop off my pannier for my bikepack and head off. my 11km commute is a good warm-up. occaisonally if i know i'm short on time or i'm riding somewhere where it makes no sense to go home first, i'll ride either my MTB or my road bike to work. to me an extra 11km isn't going to make much difference --- but then on most of my weekday rides i'm one of the stronger riders (i lead a wednesday night "race" training group of about 10 guys, so i set the pace and decide what and how much we're doing)

for me a bigger issue is the commute day AFTER a big ride! during my high training/racing season i quite often commute only 3 days a week - less than my 4.5/week average in the winter when there's ice and snow!!! because some days my legs just need a big rest!

for example: last weekend i spent 4 days in Lake Garda and rode 6000meters of vertical and my first day back at work (Tuesday) i took the subway to give the legs a FULL rest. then i had HARD rides Wednesday and Thursday (sprint/interval training with a race buddy) and today i FORCED myself to SPIN - i was trying to keep it about 20km/h and would not allow myself to go to the big ring, but it was hard as some guy came cruising by and i had to watch him take off while forcing myself to concentrate on spinning and NOT taking up the chase.

i guess if it's a time issue then driving on your ride day might make sense, but since commutes usually aren't very long (20 to 50 minutes typically) it usually shouldn't have much of an impact on a group ride (usually 1 to 3 hours)

I do my training ride a couple of times a week before work. Go home after the ride, and swap to my commuting bike..old, heavy road bike with fairly fat tyres that go through the potholes and over bumps well..particularly at the high speeds required when running late for work... My problem is staying awake and alert all day after such an early start.

I do my training rides alone in the early morning. I still ride to work, but it is only a 5.5 mile ride. I can't get to the local evening rides in time even if I drive to work because of traffic, so I don't really have a choice. Now that the weather is nice, I sometimes ride with my family before or after dinner, but those are fairly leisurely affairs.

Mine is a lot like Nathank. Two weekends ago I did a two big rides, a century on Friday and a century on Sunday. Monday I climbed on the bike and boy was it tough getting going, but once started it went okay.

I don't really have difficulty with the training ride days, as I look for ways to add miles to my riding, some pre dawn stuff is great and the after work rides are even better. I'm not riding with anyone yet, looking for a club, but I am getting out there and doing thirty after work, making the day a 50 miler.

I want to keep those miles up for touring and more centuries this summer.

i took the day off again today (Monday) to get a COMPLETE rest day, as i had hard training last Wed/Thur, then a big tour saturday and then a big and tiring race Sunday (with 1300 meters vertical). since my BIG race is next Saturday i took the subway today and tomorrow will ride, but only spin lightly. RECOVERY is important!