stevage

Just a fun poll...

unterhausen

a barrel of laughs

larryfeltonj

I voted "training session" and lately that's literally true. My commute is only about 8 mile RT if I go directly to work, but since I'm getting ready for a string of centuries I'm doing a partner and I ride just under twenty miles in the morning, and I stretch my ride to about ten on the evening return trip (deliberately hitting as many hills as I can).

MMACH 5

I picked a training session. However, the only thing I'm training for is my next commute.

Use it or lose it.

paulwwalters

Mine is a time trial while racing cars which ends up being a dangerous expedition. Thus, a training session and obstacle course all wrapped up into one. The relaxing cruise is the walk from the bike rack inside. Until I sprint up 3 flights of stairs...

Szczuldo

it's a 5 mile TT for me there and back, no such route which won't take me through at least one stop light though so my average speed is always hurting because of it, I did make almost all the greens one day and it dawns on me that you have to really forget that it hurts to be able to push really hard the entire way. On days when I catch a lot of greens thats what I practice, on days when I catch reds I do intervals.

hubcap

My commute is most frequently a multi-modal bike-train-bike excursion, so I picked an obstacle course.

When I ride the whole 66 mile r/t commute (about once a week), then that's more like a marathon.

lil brown bat

None of the above.

FredOak

Always training, every ride there is something I didn't expect and so learn from it.

Lamplight

My actual commute is a relaxing cruise. It's when I need to ride other places that it becomes an obstacle course and/or a dangerous expedition.

Barrettscv 

...the best part of the day on many days.

girljen

A relaxing cruise. In the morning, it wakes my brain up and gets me ready for work (it takes the place of that first cup of coffee). On the way home, it helps me wind down from work.

oakback

I say obstacle course, but it's more like a random slalom on the road. Lots of glass, metal, and wood.

capejohn

More often than not, I end up under hypnosis. I get somewhere and don't remember most of the ride. But I get there quickly. I have also been told that some car came very close to hitting me and never noticed. So I suppose I'm a relaxing, dangerous, training expedition commuter.

making

did someone mention All the above. Often more.

sagginwagin

I just started my 16 mile each way commute about 3 weeks ago and I've been treating it as combo training session time trial. Since its so early in the morning (between 4 and 5AM) there is very little traffic and the route I've selected has minimal bad pavement with the exception of a 2 mile stretch. Since I've started I've knocked 10 minutes off my ride time which is good and bad. I went from spinning in the small chainring for the entire distance in and around 100 rpms to pushing the big chainring at between 80 & 95 rpm. I'm thinking that I probably need to find a balance between the 2 before I blow out my knees!

mtnwalker

I voted training session although I have no idea what I'm training for since I don't race. A better answer is to improve my well being. That is 'til someone passes me really fast then it becomes a race which negates my I don't race statement.

rhm

For which reason I didn't vote at all. My commute is too many things to pick just one. For example, my morning commute:

Leg 1. It's a race against time. The train leaves at 6:04 AM. I have to get there before it leaves. I don't know what time I left the house (tried to get out by 5:35, but failed, of course). I don't know how the traffic, or the lights, will be. This morning I had to stop and futz with my tail light, which cost a couple minutes. And so on. Is that a time trial? A race? An extended low-level panic? Whatever you do, do not relax.

Leg 2. Relax. Take a nap.

Leg 3---part 1: Nothing will wake you up better than eight minutes of playing in NYC traffic. Watch out for the taxi!
----------part 2: Ready to race! Show those lycra-clad central park poseurs how fast a commuter can go on folding bike with 16" wheels. Try to stay ahead of the real roadies for a little while.
----------part 3: Relax! Give the man $3 for a cup of coffee, one muffin, and one donut... and ride the rest of the way to the office... very carefully (don't spill!)... on the sidewalk, probably.

amit_shah25 

I have around 10 miles that I try to use as a training session, and then I have around 6 miles of signal lights every block and traffic which I just relax and ride. And then if I ride with my wife, I ride at her speed which is relaxing ride for me ...

pinkrobe

Exactly.

I also turn mine into a race, but I'm racing against cars.

CliftonGK1

Training session. I pick my routes to/from work for either longer distance and long hill climbs or shorter distance with steep hill climbs.

uke

Time trial with nine stops in under two miles.

GoldIngot

I voted obstacle course but it's equally a relaxing cruise. No, I'm not bipolar.

My route has a lot of rough roads both literally and vehicularly so it is almost always an obstacle course to avoid turning my bike into a pile of parts. It's also a very relaxing ride for me...often the 1 thing I really look forward to.

Szczuldo

I doubt you'll do any significant damage to your knees at a cadence of 80-95. so that should be the least of your worries, your greatest worry should be how do I shave off that extra minute or at least half minute.

Indie

An all-terrain obstacle course. First I ride the gravel park path on my street, being careful of dog walkers; then I take the paved path on the cemetery until I get to the bit that's under construction and have to ride through mud and wood chips on lumpy lawns. From there it's nasty chunky pavement, a footbridge over a ravine, and then more nasty pavement all the way downhill to work, with a couple of five-way intersections and lots of hedges to hide my view of cars.