squirtdad

I have been curious as to how close to "workout" levels of effort commuting was for me. My body says it is, but today just for the heck of it, I put my heart rate monitor on.

I ended up running between 125 and 135 bpm....which puts the commute in or close to my target range of 130-150 bpm when I am doing aerobic exercise. I will totaly admit to just starting to get back in shape and commuting has been a big help

What is everyone else's experience? Do you work as hard commuting as you do training?

Happy Friday

canyoneagle

I find that I can't ride at a liesurely pace very easily. I am so ingrained in "training" mode, even though I no longer race. As a result, every ride is a training ride for me. I am always spinning in the highest gear I can push at any given time - not in time trial or interval mode, mind you, but riding as strong as my body allows for the length of the ride.
I don't wear a heart rate monitor any more, but I would imagine my HR is in the 'training zone', with some spikes on the hills as I approach my house.
I seriously doubt I come close to my interval training HR of 185-190 (180-185 adjusted for age) at any point on my commute, though.

Booger1

You have to train to commute.....somebody should have told me that 30 years ago!

bhop

I don't "train" but I think it'd be the same for me if I did because I usually push myself pretty hard for fun.

nkfrench 

I consider my commuting to be training also. I recently bought a heartrate monitor and was surprised. Most of my 60-80 minute commute is done with my heart rate 85% max or higher; and I am over 95% max on some hills and on some short stretches on arterial streets with 40+mph traffic. I too am not "wired" to ride really easy on my own, although I am not a very fast cyclist.

I do have to train to commute. Heat, hills, distance require a fair amount of physical conditioning to accomplish safely and happily. I struggled quite a while before I was able to summit one particular long hill ON the bike. I'm still struggling that one hill at 4mph but it's on the pedals and I don't have to stop and get the defibrulator out afterwards. NB I do make 35mph going down that hill in the mornings, sweet!

evblazer

On my 22 mile in today my HR averaged 95bpm with a peak of 135, yesterday I only did 104 but I took a little different route with another hill or two. I wasn't really pushing it so it took 20 minutes longer but I am in the take it as easy as possible mode.

Unless I watched my HR monitor before I'd find myself just cruising along at 110-115 alot instead of pushing it like I would training.

spp_24@yahoo.co

During training I try to keep an average HR of 140-145. The highest average I had on a bike was 160 during a 30 km time trial. I can only hit my max HR running or skating and rarely get above 170 on the bike.

I have worn a HR monitor several times on my 45 min commute and have had averages from 130 (hit many lights) to 148 (no traffic or lights riding in on a Monday morning)

pityr

My commute runs me between 130-170 Going down a hill it drops pretty quickly but on the flats I push 145ish. There are a few steep grades that I go up and that can run me up pretty high. I don't like to just take it easy on the hills and tend to just attack them. Gets them over faster.

Greg_R

My commute HR has been too high and I have paid the price (can't keep it up all 5 days, have to take off a day in the middle). I have since concentrated on the HR and cruised along at 130bpm or so (aerobic). It's hard to take it easy and not attack the hills (or the downhills!).

tsl

Funny you should ask about HR today. This morning I was on the way to work, glanced at the cyclometer and saw:

HR 0

He's dead, Jim was my first thought.

Other cyclists hadn't sprouted wings and halos (or horns and tridents), so I figured it wasn't the big one. (It's the big one, Elizabeth!) I'm hoping a new battery in the strap will fix things up.

Ordinarily, I average in the upper-130s to lower 140s on a commute, and in the 150s on other rides.

pityr

I had to do this for quite a while until I finally convinced my manager to let me work from home 1 day a week

Im also trying to lose some weight before the weather gets cold and I start taking the MAX more. I also keep the HR down a bit more in the winter and try not to over exert myself.

Andy_K 

I find that I have too many stops in my route to consistently maintain my HR in the aerobic range. My commute takes about 50-60 minutes, but that generally includes 5-10 minutes sitting at traffic lights.

nkfrench 

It hurts me pretty badly too. There were at least ten climbs tonight where I was maxxed out at 172. I'm age 53, that's the highest bpm I've clocked. Most of the ride is above 150 once I get my legs loosened up (a couple of miles). I always wondered why I couldn't do a 25 mile roundtrip commute more than a few times a week especially given my slow speed. It's hard to take the downhills easy if it means the next uphill will just be harder. Also, I usually end up on club rides with faster people so what's conversational for them isn't for me. I've been back on the bike for about a year, didn't lose any weight but I did get much stronger and more fit. I'm at the point of diminishing returns until I lose my Athena/Clyde status, I'll still probably commute hard but I should at least get faster particularly on uphills.

aley

Mine varies from 110 to 170, with the average usually sitting somewhere in the 140s. I'm 40, and while I calculate my max HR at about 180 (it varies a bit with the different formulas, but they're all fairly close to there), the highest I've managed this season was 174. Getting into the mid-160s is no big deal for me, but above that I'm really working hard - there's one short, steep hill on my morning ride that'll routinely get me to 168-169 (I motor it at 18-20 mph, mostly because I can), but I couldn't maintain that level of effort for long.

I tend to ride hard - I've been commuting with a (much younger) coworker who loves to ride fast, and I love to ride fast, so we tend to bring each others' speeds up quite a bit. He's definitely faster than me, but we both agree that we ride faster together than either of us would alone, even though we don't usually draft. I have to admit to getting a kick out of sailing past people puffing along at 14, while my coworker and I are doing 22 and holding a conversation at the same time.

lil brown bat

Eh. Depends. If the traffic is light and I'm just noodling along enjoying the scenery, it's low. If I'm going mano a mano with the express bus coming off the Mass Pike exit ramp, it's been known to get up there.

f4rrest

130-140 in (don't want to break a sweat), 150-165 home. A few miles are on aptly-named "Hill street"

rumrunn6

commuting is training. in my opinion everyone will strive to find there comfort zone regardless of their bike or path. by comfort zone I don't mean pedaling easy. when I ride, I ride.

Gonzo Bob

I don't track my HR but I would have to say that I work just as hard on my commutes. Maybe even harder as I tend to encounter more stop lights on my commutes and I often find myself sprinting through them.

DJFlowe

I rarely track my heartrate b/c I don't want my commute to be a training ride... I just want to enjoy it. But when I do track it, I generally average around 150, which is dead in the center of my aerobic zone. Only problem is, my range is about 120-195 or so. I have a pretty hilly route, and for some reason cannot seem to stop myself from attacking the hills. How do you guys make yourselves relax and just take a leisurely ride?

caloso

Interesting timing. I just happened to wear my HRM this morning on a purposely leisurely ride to work so I could get a baseline idea of the calories spent. (I'm trying to track calories in and out as a means of getting a better handle on my nutrition.)

I averaged 129 bpm. Contrast that with a 165 bpm avg. for a tempo workout and 185 avg. for a time trial.

oboeguy

I'll have to break out the HR strap to see. My commute can be pretty intense.