By all means, do it! It's a great resource to have for the type of workouts you're doing. I'm sure the equipment is decent, and diverse. My PT says that there's great benefit in changing up your workouts. When you have a 'routine' you're not challenging your body as much.

Help!!

Is it ok to bail out from commuting for rest of the week if you are feeling too tired?

Why wouldn't it be? You don't have to answer to the forum or the cyclo-commuting gods.:lol:

And don't knock the exercise you get at the gym. I don't go to the gym as I have my own gym at home. Cycling is good for your cardio vascular system and gets you good at riding, but not much else. Some weight bearing exercises such as running and weight lifting is needed to build bone density. Some form of weight lifting is good for developing body strength and maintain muscle mass. All of these are good for us, and even more important as we age.

I found over the years that the act of 'going' to the gym, whether it's five minutes or 25 minutes away from your home, I was wasting time in transit, especially if I went every day. Having my own gym at home I would save hours of transit time by not having to pack, drive, change, and repeat...Yeah, I sometimes work out in boxers at home.:innocent:

LOL. True but I wonder how people are able to keep up the strength and stamina to commute every day. There must be some "cyclo commuting gods" showering their blessings on them.

How long is your commute? If it's more than 25 km, let's say, it's not easy to do it every day.

17 miles one way, nearly 1000 ft elevation :twitchy:
Plus I did a 70 mile ride last Sunday.

There is a shorter route too but it goes through the downtown area, with lots of traffic lights and cars parked on the streets.

That's a pretty long commute to do daily. Cut yourself some slack and take a day off!

Thanks! And done. Drove to work today. And the ride back home yesterday was quite good too. Knowing that it was my last commute for the week, I did not allow myself to relax. Reached home with a riding time of just under an hour, which was quite good for me.

I'll probably go to the gym tomorrow and put in another long-ish ride on Saturday, rest on Sunday (RibFest in town, woo-hoo) and back to commuting on Monday.

You're a strong rider. My commute is 13.5 miles each way, and I don't think I've ever done it in less than 59 minutes.

I ride about two days a week. I'm trying to increase that.

Thanks! Such kind words encourage newbie riders like me :) I don't know how long I can keep this up though. Either I will have to reduce the intensity or increase my diet. Yesterday, I had gorged on a chicken salad sandwich an hour or so before heading home. I believe that fueled my ride well.

You should definitely eat more. If you don't, you risk weakening yourself.

Interestingly, when I got back into bike commuting, I was living and working in New Jersey suburbs. I noticed that while I was saving money on gas, I was spending more on food, and it was costing more overall. Then I did some research and found that a gallon of gas has 31,000 calories. It's a fossil fuel, and it's underpriced because we're borrowing from both our ancestors (whose lives spanned the time when the petroleum formed) and our descendants (by depleting the supply we leave to them). Of course, we can't fuel our bodies with petroleum, and a car uses a lot more calories per mile than a cyclist, so it roughly evens out, but it's something to think about when we turn the key.

Nowadays my two commuting modes are the bike and the subway. The subway provides no carbon footprint guilt, and it's a mildly pleasant trip.

I started riding a whole lot more after moving back into the city in August 2013. I've lost 25 pounds, and I'm down to my college weight. I didn't even know I had 25 pounds to lose. Now most of my clothes look stupid on me.

Last year, I clocked 2,000 miles, and I hope to clock 2,500 this year. Today, I'll hit the 1,000-mile mark, so I'm a little behind target, but I have the summer to add miles. I highly recommend ridewithgps and similar apps. It's fun to read all the data it provides.

For me it is really simple - DE-STRESS :)
Long and frustrating days at work - just pedal it away :)

Also, when you commute, you stay in better shape and are healthy. That's money saved on healthcare.

Congratulations on your 1000 mile mark.

I use both Strava and RWGPS. I started off with Strava because the local group rides all had Strava routes. Later, when I started going for rides with New England Randonneurs, had to switch to RWGPS because all their routes were on RWGPS. I like both for various reasons.

I agree, it is a good way to de-stress after a hard days of work. I commute by bike because honestly I dont have a choice. When I first moved to where I live now, I needed a bike just to get around, now after 2.5 years I dont want a car anymore, yeah it would be nice on days with bad weather and in the winter but I can tough it out, I love cycling now. I commute and ride on my off days for fun, and even wrench on then in my spare time.

Haha, right now my weight-lifting ranges from 5mo babies to 3yo preschooler

We're not carfree, but we are down to one car - my wife and kids' means of transportation. It helps me keep riding to just not want to deal with getting them all up and out the door just because I'm feeling lazy...

But, really it's just become a habit after four years. Just part of the routine. You just need to keep yourself motivated until it becomes routine. Then you can use the motivation for those few bad weather days or the "don't wannas".

Good luck!

What keeps me motivated...
 

Honestly what keeps me motivated is two things...
1. Wanting to lose the turkey I have hiding under my jacket
2. Saving all that money in car insurance, gas, taxes, repairs etc.

Its that plain and simple. Now that I have typed it out it doesn't seem like much as motivation but if you really put yourself into it and don't give yourself any other options (I got rid of my car so I didn't have an excuse) it really does the trick.
Hope that helps!!

Squatch

Biggest thing for me while getting started in bike commuting: financial pressure. No, I didn't get laid off. I had a well-paying job with plenty of money coming in. So how did I do it? I auto-paid my money into student loans. If you don't have those (NICE, btw) then you can apply similar pressure by just auto-saving or investing into some index funds.

YMMV, but that was very effective for me.

I'm just getting started commuting to work. It's not that far, maybe five miles each way, but I live in a Chinese city and it offers its own challenges. I'm an American, but when I was younger (19) I lived in Germany and rode bikes 100% for my transportation. I loved it. I started riding dirt bikes when I was a kid and in my 40's started riding big street bikes. I just love being out there in the wind. Now, I'm back to enjoying cycling every day. Oh, and I lost 90 lbs. this past year and this is a good exercise supplement to keep me headed in the right direction. This is what keeps me motivated.

That's really smart, turning your pedaling into wealth. There is a blogger named Mister Money Mustache with lots of financial tips, and he often stresses driving cars less and riding bikes more. He says that the marginal cost of driving a mile is a lot more than you think. He says it's on the order of 50-something cents, which is the federal tax allowance. So each mile you ride instead of driving saves that much, and you can make that add up a lot. The sooner you do it, the more the wealth compounds. Some might not feel the pressure you do even under the same circumstances, but you saw an opportunity and seized it.

Since I started this thread I've worked at home two days, but I still haven't driven to work and I'm working on my 12th straight week of biking 95 miles or more (dating back to before I started this thread). On the days I worked at home I had good reasons to work at home, but even those days I wanted to ride so I guess the motivation side is going extremely well.

Glad to hear you've settled into groove.:thumb: Keep it up.

My secret is living in the SF Bay Area. Traffic has gotten so bad here, going anywhere in a car is a miserable experience. i do everything I can to avoid it.