I do hilly centuries on the weekends; last Saturday's was over 6,000 feet of climbing: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/435627661

I get up to 10,000 feet on some weekend day training rides. So no, my commutes I always think of as "recovery" rides. A typical day's round trip commute will only have between 400 and 600 ft. of climbing, so no big deal really.

Rick / OCRR