kimokimo

I work out my commute so I do 12 miles in the AM and 8 at night 10 PM

I tend to ride hard all the way in the AM and moderate at night. I keep my heart rate at 90% in the AM. I'm wondering about taking two days a week and adding 3 intervals and going slower between in the AM to boost my fitness level.

Anyone done something like this or is long and hard better?

PennyTheDog

You'd probably get more educated answers in the road biking forum. But I think anyone's answer would depend on what kind of fitness you're hoping to gain. Are you trying to mainly get faster, mainly burn calories, or improve your general athleticism?

kimokimo

I've been trying to lose weight (270). The studies show that hard is better for overall weight loss but the net argues for really slow, low heart rate. I'd like to both get faster as well as boost fitness level (to a resting heart rate of around 50). I assume the weight will come off eventually with the rides and paleo diet (under 1800 cals). I've been commuting for a year now and the weight is slowly dropping.

PennyTheDog

Sorry, that's the one of the three I know the least about! You might want to ask this question in the Clydesdales forum. Intuitively I like your idea of throwing in some harder stretches, for what it's worth... you get some aerobic work, some anaerobic, some muscular-- you cover all your bases!

ThermionicScott 

Diet will have the larger impact, but throwing HIIT-like intervals into the mix won't hurt.

My commute will always involve some forms of "intervals" due to the intersections...

alan s 

Depends on whether someone is racing me. Really, though, I usually ride harder on the way home because a shower is waiting. Boiling hot and sweaty is not so great for changing into work clothes. That would change if I had a shower at work.

mstraus

My understanding is that for weight loss, intervals or a more moderate heart rate is better then maintaining so close to your max heart rate. This was described to me by a trainer when I was trying to loose weight. I was tending to run or do gym equipment at a high intensity for 45 mintues at the time. He said I should slow down, decrease time, or do intervals to be most effective for weight loss, particularly if the workout time is longer then a certain amount of time (maybe 20-30 min but I can't remember what he said). It had something to do with higher intensity for longer period makes your body burn things other then fat for quick fuel. This could be wrong, but this is roughly what I was told a few years back.

I would suggest mixing it up, doing some intervals some day of high and medium intensity, and other days go hard, and see if that changes the rate of weight loss (assuming diet and other factors remain constant).

chaadster

For weight loss, burning calories is all that matters; the more work you can do, the better.

Unfortunately, I don't think you can really do all that much work in 12 and 8 mile commute segments, so adjust your expectations accordingly, or do additional, longer rides to turn up the joules.

spare_wheel

Intervals/sprints for speed. Long distance and hills for stamina.

spare_wheel

and other Cat 6 cyclists.

JoeyBike

If you have a long straight shot with no stops, hit it long and hard. Lots of traffic, stop lights, and stop signs....not much choice but "intervals".

Really tho...just ride.

CrankyOne

For weight loss and general health you want to get multiple bits of exercise throughout the day and avoid being sedentary for too long. Each little bit of exercise comes with some residual metabolic calorie burn which is also beneficial. So, your doing the two rides in itself is good. Intervals would be beneficial, but better would be riding to/from lunch. You don't need to ride so hard that you sweat, but just enough to elevate your HR just a bit and even 5 minutes each way would help. This also has the benefit of lessening your lunch appetitie. Also, do a 5 minute walkabout each hour if you can or walk to someone's office instead of emailing or calling.

Greg M

As for the 8 and 12 mile commute not doing much, I can say with my 24
mile round trip commute 5 days a week within the first 3 months I lost
15 lbs. And that is with a cold beer or two after getting home on the 90+
days.

no1mad 

And this is why this thread is going from Commuting to Training & Nutrition.

caloso

90% of what? MaxHR? LTHR? How did you measure it?

kimokimo

90% of 160 max heart rate. (According to the age formula)

kimokimo

No1mad..... Sorry

beatlebee 

If you are really eating just 1800 Calories (assuming a good mcaroprofile) you are losing weight now and quickly.

caloso

First thing I'd recommend is actually testing. The 220-age formula is rubbish. You might as well try to use age to predict your shoe size. One thing is to test your actual max HR, which is simple but painful. Less painful is to do a lactate threshold test and set zones from there. See https://www.trainingbible.com/joesblo...ing-zones.html

*make sure your doctor says you are fit enough to do this.

Carbonfiberboy 

12 miles if you're going hard is less than an hour, maybe a lot less than an hour saddle time, depending on terrain and fitness. 5 days/week? Do you do a long weekend ride? If I were going to be limited to rides of less than an hour, I'd mix it up. I wouldn't do the same thing every day. One day I'd ride the whole way at a very high cadence. One day I'd ride the whole way at a very low cadence. One day I'd TT it. One day I'd do 3 minute max effort intervals. One day I'd do 12 minute intervals. Etc. But watch out for getting too tired! If you get out there and it's not happening, ride the whole way easy.

chaadster

I was going off the fact the OP said he's been commuting for a year now, and reports the weight "coming off slowly." Given that, I don't think a change in the effort of the commute will make that big a difference. The 1.8kcal diet will, though, as will boosting the kilojoules of work.

kimokimo

Today the doc told me I have way too many red blood cells. Seems as though my blood is like cyclists who do blood doping. No wonder I can ride at 95% of max hr and not really be breathing hard.

Had to donate a pint to be safe. Guess I'll feel the next ride for sure.