commuter training
 

Hello all! I hope someone here can help or suggest books etc for me.
I don't get a lot of time outside of commuting for training and I'm looking for a way to maximize my time. I have always just ridden what I feel like doing. I ride fast or slow when I feel like it. No real rhyme or reason. I recently took a class at a local velodrome and got my ass kicked! (Totally great class though! Highly recommended.)
So.
Any idea how I can maximize my 9 miles one way (with hills) morning and evening? I've been riding 2 to 3 time a week but plan more through the summer. I just got a heart rate meter and maybe interval type work is good?
Ideas?
Thanks!

Definitly interval work. If you're looking for something that will help you on a velodrome, short high intensity intervals are what you want. I've done the following for the first time over this past winter, and noticed considerable gains:

-4 minute warm-up.
-30-seconds all out, followed by 30-seconds of easy spinning (Do 5x, then spin easy for 5 minutes...repeat 5 more if you're up for it).
-3 minute cool-down.
(I do a 20-minute ride like this and I'm toast.

Sometimes I alternate those 30-second intervals to focus on different things, and to give different body systems a break, so it ends up like this:
1st = faster spinning easier gear, but all-out hard and fast
2nd = really slow hard gear, still going all-out, but building muscle strength
3rd = faster spinning, but all-out hard and fast
4th = really slow hard gear, still going all-out, but building muscle strength
5th = faster spinning, but all-out hard and fast

When I commute (5-7 miles each way, depending on the route, I tend to use the ride home as the hard ride. Another thing to do if there are rolling short hills is to plan to go hard and fast up the hills, and recover on the down hills.

One thing to keep in mind with intervals, is that the reason they work is based on going hard quickly before you are fully recovered, which forces your body to adapt. This makes them hard, because there is a cumulative effect of tiredness. So a 30-second all-out sprint, followed by 5 minutes of recovery before the next spring, will not give you the same effect.

Your situation sounds a lot like me a few years ago. My commute is 8 to 9 miles one way with good rolling hills.

With little more than commuting I got into shape for my first gravel century. Therefore, I'd think you'd be able to do it with the velodrome riding. For me, I was riding every day, all weather. I typically pushed hard on the PM ride, using Strava segments as a gauge to see if I was faster than the day before. To push it extra hard, I'd attack every hill and not coast for the next down hill, keeping my heart rate up longer.

Thanks 12strings (I play 6)
That is exactly what I was wondering. Since I just got a heart meter I've been trying to figure how to fit that in. Like pushing up close to max heart rate then cooling off to about 120 then repeating. Sounds like what you are recommending. I do have more of a climb on the way home, too, so that could feed into intervals. Its a little harder gong through downtown with lights and traffic and pedestrians and all.
I won't be able to do intervals the whole way but I'm going to start throwing them in regularly and see what happens!
I'm sure to always get my butt kicked at the track but it really is a blast ride there.

Thanks HT
Sounds like trying to push harder in general on the whole ride? Like keeping your heart rate up longer for most of the ride?
Maybe I've just been slacking too much on my commute. Likely.
I think I'd love to do gravel riding as well but time restraints are what they are right now.

Good advice but remember one day hard then next day very easy/recovery. You will need to find your max heart rate, some folks guesstimate by taking 220 minus your age

I started commuting this year (12 miles each way, more or less) and it made up the bulk of my winter training. I'd typically ride easy in the morning, and then tempo/sweetspot on the way home. I'd end up with an 1:20ish of ride time with 30-35 mins of solid work.

Doing that 3-4 times a week plus some longer weekend rides was enough to get me through winter with decent fitness.

maybe try some time out of the saddle, like on some of your hills, and if you already do that, then do more of it?

Training as a commuter... for what goals? Racing? Weekend Warrior? Fitness?

A few things you might do.

• Bump it up to 5 days a week if possible.
• Are you using Strava? Choose a couple of segments to hammer, or perhaps a few hills to conquer. If no appropriate segments have been defined, then define your own. BE SAFE
• Are there hard and easy routes? Don't shy away from the more challenging rides?
• Do you have time to add a few extra loops to your ride? Perhaps 9 miles in the AM and 20 miles in the PM?
• I'm a slow rider, but I've made a goal of hitting 20 miles at 20 MPH. I'm halfway there with about 10 miles at 20 MPH (with small hills). Nonetheless, choose some goals that will be a challenge for you, and work on them. Maybe a little at a time. For example, hold 20 MPH as long as you can. 1 mile. A couple of miles.

commuter training

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Originally Posted by xiyangshen (Post 18827274)

...I don't get a lot of time outside of commuting for training and I'm looking for a way to maximize my time. I have always just ridden what I feel like doing. I ride fast or slow when I feel like it. No real rhyme or reason...Any idea how I can maximize my 9 miles one way (with hills) morning and evening? I've been riding 2 to 3 time a week but plan more through the summer. I just got a heart rate meter and maybe interval type work is good?
Ideas?
Thanks!

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FWIW, last year I developed for myself my“Time-restricted,Personally Ambitious, but Non-competitive Cyclist Training Routine.,”as discussed on this Fifty-Plus thread, “Riding versus Training” (also with other good training tips).

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Originally Posted by Jim from Boston (Post 17975245)

About two weeks ago I described a new training routine for myself combining a well-established Ten Week Century Training Schedule of daily mileage goals with a personalized intensity scale based on ”Relative Perceived Exertion (RPE).”My basic premise was that I wanted to get significantly fit, within a busy work/family time-crunched life, but not suffer so much that I would abandon the program.

I do have the advantages of a very nice minimum 14 mile one way commute that is easily extended; and a high end, very comfortable carbon fiber road bike tha tencourages riding…

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I’m still riding it, and enjoying more than ever. In fact,

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Originally Posted by Jim from Boston (Post 18860138)

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Originally Posted by Jim from Boston (Post 18779153)

…I particularly agree with your assessment of weeklymileage, though at over 150 miles per week, I call it hyper-fit. Since March 6, through June 4, I have been engaged with a fitness challenge at work. This past week, I rode about 150 miles, via extended commuting routes, and still am in fourth place (of about 40 participants), neck and neck for third place. :twitchy:

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Phil_gretz (Post 18779957)

You must WIN, Jim. Do whatever it takes ... must win...

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Thanks for your encouragement, @Phil_gretz. The Challenge ended on June 4, and I came in third place of about 40 participants, and our team came in first, by a hair-breadth (see graph below; the team standings are at the top from highest upward to lowest, and the top ten individual participants below).

Those standings were released every week, and the competition was very motivating with very beneficial effects. Now that it’s over I am trying to ride at least about 150 miles per week through the summer; 147 miles last week. :D

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