KrautFed

I have now averaged out some commutes by car to work, and it seems to take 35-37 minutes in normal traffic to get from my front door, to the time-clock. When I first started commuting a few weeks ago, my bike time was around 40-42 minutes and front door to time-clock was nearly 1 hour even. At first I thought it would be impossible to get from my house to my work quicker by bike than by car, but I am now setting myself a goal to try. The trip is 8 miles one way, with 1 considerable hill (so steep, that I used to walk the bike up it), and 1 other notable hill.

Yesterday I was feeling pretty good, so I decided to stretch my legs a bit on the commute in. My bike time was 30:15, which was my fastest time ever. My front door to time-clock time was around 45 minutes.

My new goal is to have a door to time-clock of 35 minutes. Which means shaving off 10+ minutes of yesterdays commute.

Here are some things I'm going to work on:

1. Sub 30 minute bike time is essential ... 25 minute possible?
2. Stop coasting as much, recover while spinning slowly (50rpms).
3. Eliminate the 2-3 minute waterbreak 2/3 up the MONSTER hill, recover on the downhill.
4. I can't really cut down much on lock/secure time, but can definitely shave ~1 minute.

My goal is to have a front door to time-clock time of 30-35 minutes by October 1st (I don't commute everyday). I'm going to keep posting my commute results here.

doraemonkey

How far is your commute? Quick mental calculation tells me that you might be doing 16km or about 10mi.

What other obstacles are there? You running red lights? Or do you make time by filtering? What other factors are in the door to clock-in? Locking the bike, shower, etc?

This week from my work (13km trip) people are taking 1 hour by car to get back to town due to Agriculture expo. My average is about 28minutes for the trip. So for now I am faster than by car...

recursive

I do this too. My fastest commute so far is 16:55. My commute is 5.7 miles with minor rolling hills. The key for me is hitting the intersections well. There are a couple of alternate routes that I pick between depending on the status of traffic, lights, weather, and whimsy.

If there were no other traffic on the road, I think I might be able to do it in 15, so most of the strategy I use focuses on how I deal with traffic. I've learned the timing of most of the lights so I know when to sprint for a green. In order to have a shot at setting a PR, I can't stop more than once or twice. (Damn you, Johnson Street!!) And not more than a few seconds.

If you are stopping for water, that is an "easy" place to save time. Maintaining speed through corners can save a surprising amount of time too. I take them pretty agressive.

Apparently I have been putting more thought into this than I realized.

Good luck!

rando

good for you! you can do it! you are already pretty fast. 35-40 minutes is about what it takes me. when I started it took 40-45. I would love to have it down to 30 but I'm not sure I want to work that hard! one thing I found that made better time for me was eliminate a route that had two sloooow stop lights. saved me a couple minutes.

doraemonkey

d'oh! I should read more attentively, yer commute is 8mi about the same a mine! But I got no hills...

KrautFed

It is 8 mile commute. I do run red lights downtown that are in the warehouse district with VERY minimal traffic. I do filter, if by filter you mean pass cars stuck in traffic in the busier sections of downtown. Another factor is that I can park my bike across the street, as opposed to parking 2 blocks away and walking when I come by car. I carry about 20lbs with me everyday, and it REALLY slows me down in the straights and hills.

Thanks for the encouragement. I know I'm not the fastest cycler out there, and I'm on a steel bike as old as I am, but I love setting personal challenges.

PS - I conquered my previous goal of completely climbing my morning Mountain on Monday of this week. It is an extremely steep hill that I normally ride 2/3 the way up and take that water break and then walk the rest of the way up. The last 1/3 is STEEP and I get wobbly because of my slow speed and weight of bike+gear. I did it at 5-6mph on Monday, the whole thing.

GRedner

If I commute by public transportation (the train stops right outside my building), it takes me 40-50 minutes to get to work.

If I'm biking in nice weather, it takes me 20.

Three cheers for the MBTA.

agarose2000

I think you'll be able to make your mark once you start powering over the hill without walking. Ironically, as mentioned above, you'll probably save more time by timing the red lights for clear passage than you will from madly pedaly from one stop to the next. Interestingly as well, I found that as I got faster, I had to change my timing anticipation since I hit the lights at different intervals.

Just don't forget about safety and watch out for getting doored in busy sections. I'm all for speed and fitness, but I'd give up on that goal any day if it meant cutting corners on safety. (Yup, kind of sucks when there are like a thousand parked cars in the "door" zone...)

I also found that at least for my inbound to work commute, I'm slow as all heck locking up my bike, but I got great advice on this forum to just relax, and take that time to carefully & methodically lock the bike while using it as well-needed cooling off time, which takes about 10 minutes for me anyway. Since then, I've been much more comfortable after I change, as well as not worrying about my bike during the day. I highly recommend this approach for bike locking.

wild animals

the last time i rode up my own mountain, i rode until i couldnt ride anymore(!!!) and then i stopped pedaling and just kind of hung there until i almost started rolling back, then i started pedaling again until i couldn't pedal anymore(!!!) and then hung there again, etc. just tiny little breaks in pedaling made a huuuuuuge difference. but it sounds like your hill--er, mountain--is probably a lot steeper than mine. hehe.

anyway good luck! this is why i love cycling--you can set goals and do the planning and the work and then eventually you can see huge improvement! it's amazing.

SpiderMike

I just moved into a house. I made a chart and traded off cycling and driving. I'm only about 8 minutes faster in the truck. Of course the routes for bike and vehicle are different. Dispite the difference in routes, Iknow I can cut my commute time down to better than vehicle.

Other than slowing faster on the fixed gear, I just need to find the path through the neighborhood with less stop signs. Good luck KrautFed!!! OH, and don't let the steel be an excuse for times. insert the whole "Steel is real" chant.

SingingSabre 

I started off taking 60 minutes to complete my 8 mile commute. Then it was 50. Then 45. Then 35. Now, my best time was 32 minutes despite a slight headwind, road blocks with associated construction, and freshly deposited soft sand.

Keep at it. You can totally do it. How do I know you can do it? Because I'm frikkin lazy and I can do it. Well, I can trim my time down. I couldn't make my commute to work shorter by bike than car as it only takes me 14 minutes to drive (8 miles ridden in 14 minutes isn't physically possible or safe with my commute), yet I digress.

If you have the facility and the drive, you can do it. Which you do, and you can.

KrautFed

Thanks for the encouragement everyone.

A little update. I woke up at 5AM this morning and couldnt squeeze any more sleep out. I'm going out with a lady friend tonight at 6pm right after work, so today is a recover day for me. I threw my helmet & gloves on and pulled the ole' gal out for a morning cruise. I decided I needed to work on my climbing, so I headed to the "mountain" about ~2.5 miles away. I ended up climbing it 2.5 times... with the 1/2 being a mechanical problem with the chain. It was so dark out, I couldnt figure out how to get the chain untangled and back on the sprocket... even with my LED headlight (in hand). I was forced to carry my bike back down the hill from halfway up, to a bright lighted corporate sign that gave me enough light to see what I was doing.

I then proceeded to climb the mountain... err, hill, twice. The second time up, I made it all the way without taking a break and immediately returned to the bottom and scaled up again (for really a third time). The third and final try, I got to about 50ft to go and was slap give out. I climb better in the saddle and when I tried to stand up to power over, I nearly fell over... so I just sat there for a few seconds, and then went over the top.

On the way back down, the sun was about to rise, so I stopped halfway down at a Hospital parking lot and snapped some pics with my camera phone. I wanted to sit there and watch the sun rise, but my alarm went off (when I was supposed to originally wake up) so I figured I'd better get back to my house and hit the shower. I ended up doing about 5.5 miles and averaged 11.1mph

Anyway, here are the pics... the old girl isnt as ugly as she used to be.

elbows

On the fitness (as opposed to logistics) side, I've found doing some weights at the gym has helped a lot with my speed. I started going for non-cycling reasons (back+shoulder problems), but my routine involved a lot of hamstrings and quads, and it's made a huge difference.

I don't have or a cycle computer or time my rides, but I do know that a year ago it was hard work to push the 42x16 gear on my singlespeed, and now I can easily spin it out on the flats -- time for a higher gear.

Edit: I do lots of reps (I aim for 3 sets of 50), with light weights, and I do them quickly. Seems to develop tone without bulk, which is good for posture as well as cycling.

pHunbalanced

Garage to desk (6th floor), I take about 25 minutes, but can make it in 20 under pressure. I have a 4.5 mile commute with the ride itself taking 15-18 minutes through urban residential and downtown streets with several mild hills, more down than up. I filter downtown, but never run reds. If I can do my ride in 15 minutes, you can probably do yours in ~27 with work. Since I'm no Eddy Merckx, you can likely even meet your goal of 25 minutes with improvement on that hill.

oboeguy

I get a kick out of riding almost always being faster than taking mass transit in NYC. Combine that with my folding bike and I rarely take mass transit when going somewhere alone.

KrautFed

UPDATE: 9/20/06 - I felt REALLY sluggish this morning. I nearly didn't make it in time to leave for work. I almost took the car.

This morning, my bike time was about the same, 30m38s, but I took less breaks and timed the lights better. My door-to-clock in time was 41 minutes this morning. I really shouldn't have stopped to break on that huge hill, but I was feeling downright crappy this morning. Now that I think about it, I'm all freshened up and I still feel crappy. I think I got a headache from this bring the first sub 55 degree morning, and I really needed something covering my ears and/or something

doraemonkey

Hey keep it up, I have found that I am in one of 3 states on my bike: Tired, Awkward, or Rock and Roll.
Tired is just Tired, and I just can't get any motivation or speed. I usually take the trail when it is like this.
Awkward, is that feeling when something isn't right... pedaling in squares, or having some strange saddle sensations.
Yesterday, I was rock and roll. Caught up to, and passed the bus that takes the same route as I do... feels awsome!

Nice to hear your progress, I have about the same distance sans the hills.... I do usually have the wind at my back in the evening... every little bit helps...

Ciao, gotta bike!

Chris L

I don't even time my commutes. That's going to be influenced more by the number of red lights I hit than my the pace at which I ride, so it's largely irrelevant. I can judge the bike vs car commute times by how many gridlocked cars I pass along the way. There are usually hundreds of those.

plarson

I've found through the summer that if I drink a lot of water the night before, my commutes are easier. Hydration makes a big difference. I'll fill a 48 oz. container with water and drink it during the day, so when I go home, I'm pretty well hydrated for my 8 mile ride. I really noticed the difference. Give it a try. Oh, and a fixed gear bike will get you up that hill easier. I'm in Austin. It's hilly.

Novakane 

I'm sure you can do it. I've been doing 12 miles (one way) in 45 minutes, on a steel-framed bike loaded with a rack, fenders and gear. I think you're going at it the right way - that hill is killing your time, so you'll either have to work on getting better at it (which it sounds you are doing) or find a way around it.

jyossarian

Yeah, but how many stops do you make to let people on/off your bike?

You can do it OP. One day you'll hit the magic combo of rest, food, hydration and green lights and you'll feel invincible and you'll clobber the commute into submission.

wild animals

those pictures are hilarious--your bike looks like a rearing blue unicorn i can hear it whickering!

oh and ps: congratulations on your speed!

wneumann

Good luck on hitting your goal KrautFed. I wish I stood a reasonable chance of beating my driving time in to work, but a 13.5 mile ride (where the drive contains many 45mph sections with long stretches between lights) pretty much guarantees I won't be doing that ride in 30-35 minutes any time soon (I'm currently at just under an hour of moving, just over an hour total), but I'd love to drop the time to 45 minutes or so.

And I can certainly relate to some of your issues. I've got a big hill in both directions (well, big to me some of the more experienced folk or people from San Francisco might just giggle a bit), so I have to work at both ends of the day -- if nothing else, I am getting better at climbing. As for carrying 20 lbs/day, I too am carrying 30 or so every day, only this 30 is around my waist and hopefully looking to leave me in the near future. Ugh.

Anyway, keep up the hard work, and keep stripping off those seconds.