What do you think about 5 days a week 30 mile commute?

craker

I do occasionally do the journey (that's just over 15 each way) - sometimes truncated to 10 miles each way if I drive some of the way, but seems to have dried up since September. I can save £200 a month by cycling - it costs me £5 a day to get over the Severn Bridge.

I'm looking at 1 hour there and a bit longer back (ooh the Welsh hills) but I'll have to get rid of my car ('cos otherwise I'll just opt for a lie-in and a drive).

Can you do this sort of thing without being a triathlete in training? I don't want to find my enthusiasm disappearing after a few months.

The Chingford Skinhead

I do 11-12 miles each way and generally now do it five days a week - I built up to it as I wasn't particularly fit but wanted to ensure that my commute didn't leave me too tired for the weekend pleasure rides. The key things are, IMHO, to build up to it and make sure you enjoy it. Then if you do, you can get rid of the car. But if you stop enjoying it you may as well be sat in your car not enjoying that either.

The complaining tadpole

I do 10 miles each way, started off 1 day a week, upped it to 3 and now I take the car in on Monday with clothes for the week & commute Tues-Sat. Yes it is tiring at first but your body does get used to it. The key for me was selling our second car so if I dont bike to work my wife is stuck at home. Out in the sticks that does not make for happy wifey!

The Chingford Skinhead

The complaining tadpole wrote:

I do 10 miles each way, started off 1 day a week, upped it to 3 and now I take the car in on Monday with clothes for the week & commute Tues-Sat. Yes it is tiring at first but your body does get used to it. The key for me was selling our second car so if I dont bike to work my wife is stuck at home. Out in the sticks that does not make for happy wifey!

The body does adapt surprisingly fast. I'm on quite a steep (but short) hill. Used to get to a standstill unless on the lowest gear or get that massive burning sensation. Went up it Friday in the gear I'd been using on the flat with no burn at all (mind you, my head was still stinging from a hail storm shower so the pain may have been there but bigger pain was suppressing it

Give it a go Mr Si - good luck

ansbaradigeidfran

Depending on where in Monmouth you are (and where you're headed to on the other side of the Severn) you may be able to do a train/bike commute. An acquaintance on mine does this to get to work at Bangor University: he cycles five miles to Colwyn Bay and hops on the train there. He said that buying a month's season ticket was a very good incentive when he started, as having paid for it he didn't want to waste his money.

greg66_tri_v2.0

Give it a go.

I reckon you'll find it hardest on (a) mornings when it's cold, windy, and p!ssing with rain before you start. You know you've got a long grim old ride ahead of you; and (b) if you have to work late in winter. I sometimes get changed for the ride home, but I actually want to be home immediately and not have a cold ride getting in the way (that said, 99 times out of 100 the ride is fine. It's the expectation that's the killer).

Rich158

Go for it. I do a 42 mile round trip 4 days a week, it's amasing how quickly the body adapts

cjcp

Yep, give it a go. Mine is 14-15 miles each way. Will you be doing that undulating road people take instead of going over the Bridge?

itboffin

My commute is 15 hilly miles each way followed by nearly two hours on the train, usually wet from sweat or rain and then 2 miles the other end.

When it snows, rains or is very windy I will most likely be seen shouting at the sky and grinning like an escaped loon.

Just to make life harder for myself I switched to single speed for commuting.

Do it you'll love it and hate it on the days you can't.

redvee

I used to do 10 miles each way 6 days a week and in the final 4 months of that job I was working 11 hours 2 days a week. Uphill all trhe way from Avonmouth to the M4/M5 interchange basically.

Anonymous

I do 18 each way and work a rolling shift pattern. Sometimes it's a bugger riding home at 3 in the morning when it's cold and raining or at the end of a night shift at 7am when everyone is rushing around in the dark trying to get to work. Oh, and when I'm on an early and need to set off at 5am.

In fact, reading my post I haven't a clue why I actually do it!!

The Chingford Skinhead

itboffin wrote:

My commute is 15 hilly miles each way followed by nearly two hours on the train, usually wet from sweat or rain and then 2 miles the other end.
.

WTF :shock: I thought IT was supposed to set you free. I think you may have taken the wrong dictionary definition for "remote" when applied to "remote working"

andrewc3142

Go for it, although you may want to build up to doing it every day. My commute is 30 miles each way into Central London but I tend to train it back during the winter. Some weeks I can ride every day, sometimes I'm based out the office (and have to grab a quick 10-15 miler early morning) and sometimes I'm abroad and have to make do with hotel exercise bikes.

linsen

I couldn't contemplate more than once a week when I started my 24 mile round trip, now I'm trying to organise my work to get up to every day (admittedly only 4 times a week because I am a slacker and don't work Thursdays)

Not that I'm training for anything :shock:

It's amazing watching fitness build up - just mind you don't have a couple of weeks off!

chuckcork

I was doing my 28 mile a day round trip to/from work every day from early March to the End of September (when I was made redundant), so 30miles round trip is very doable.

On top of that was going out on Sundays as well so a typical month would see me doing 1200+km.

Only problem was on the sunday club runs I'd be a bit tired before the others would be, and couldn't put the power on as much, as a single day off the bike a week is not really enough for a propert recovery. A few days off 0-70the bike though before a sportive and I'd race the first 60-70 miles like my life depended on it....

Go to it.

prj45

Perfectly doable on a morning in, next evening home type rota (Mon in, Tue home, Wed in, Fri home).

I don't think it will be long before you're doing it both ways five days a week though ( i regulary do 14 miles a day each ways five days a week although it's pretty flat).

craker

ansbaradigeidfran wrote:

Depending on where in Monmouth you are (and where you're headed to on the other side of the Severn) you may be able to do a train/bike commute.

Yeah I used to do Severn Tunnel Junction to Bristol Temple Meads followed by a four mile commute, but STJ is eight miles away so its not practicable time-wise for the new job. Brilliant way of commutng to work though. Cup of tea, read a book (1/2 of personal time in a busy day..) then a twenty minute cycle whatever the weather. I really miss it.

gtvlusso

mr_si wrote:

ansbaradigeidfran wrote:

Depending on where in Monmouth you are (and where you're headed to on the other side of the Severn) you may be able to do a train/bike commute.

Yeah I used to do Severn Tunnel Junction to Bristol Temple Meads followed by a four mile commute, but STJ is eight miles away so its not practicable time-wise for the new job. Brilliant way of commutng to work though. Cup of tea, read a book (1/2 of personal time in a busy day..) then a twenty minute cycle whatever the weather. I really miss it.

Where are you commuting to? I work up at Aztec West in Bristol. Allot of the guys I work with from the South Wales area ride motorbikes across the bridge as there is no fee for them. However, one of my colleagues will be cycling in during summertime - I think he measured it as 22 miles each way from Newport., perfectly possible journey!

I was doing up to 72 a day over summer on some weeks, but averaged 20 miles each way most of the time - I slept an awful lot (still do), but it is fine to do it. Just take plenty of water and make sure your bike is in top condition!

craker

gtvlusso wrote:

Where are you commuting to? I work up at Aztec West in Bristol. Allot of the guys I work with from the South Wales area ride motorbikes across the bridge as there is no fee for them.

Aztec West indeed. Motorcycling does strike me as a possibility but for (1) despising most motorcycles as noisy (2) dieing tragically after riding like a nutter. Apparently the road I live on was voted Britain's Best Motorcycling Road in MCN one year, it's a magnet for super racing bikes and Harley Davidson gangs. Why are those bikes legal?

I might wait for one of our two cars to pack up and then I'll face less criticism from Mrs Si (who will have more running around of the children to do).

gtvlusso

mr_si wrote:

gtvlusso wrote:

Where are you commuting to? I work up at Aztec West in Bristol. Allot of the guys I work with from the South Wales area ride motorbikes across the bridge as there is no fee for them.

Aztec West indeed. Motorcycling does strike me as a possibility but for (1) despising most motorcycles as noisy (2) dieing tragically after riding like a nutter. Apparently the road I live on was voted Britain's Best Motorcycling Road in MCN one year, it's a magnet for super racing bikes and Harley Davidson gangs. Why are those bikes legal?

I might wait for one of our two cars to pack up and then I'll face less criticism from Mrs Si (who will have more running around of the children to do).

Ah - invoke the wrath of "The Wife"!. Motorcycles are great - I have ridden for years, the freedom and power at hand is un-believable - easy to park too! You can get 400cc scooters, no gears, will do 80 mph in comfort on the motorway and do 60 mpg. A GSXR 1000 is probably a bit excessive for a commute - 186mph and a 0-60 time of about 2 seconds is probably a bit much! A couple of guys get the train from Newport/Rhondda to Patchway and cycle from Patchway each morning. However, I would give the commute a go - the only dis-advantage is the westerley breeze we tend to get here - you will be fine getting into work with the breeze, but will be a nightmare getting home! I am sure there are plenty of car shares available too when you don't fancy the haul in.

TRADESIZE

i work in aztec west too, who do you lot work for? I am at LV in the quadrant. They recently built us a nice bikeshed, and seem to be very pro cycling, showers & bike to work scheme too.

if you can save £200 a month you've got to do it ! that is serious money.

The Chingford Skinhead

Found a guy at work doing 19 miles each way (and only marginally longer than it takes me to do 12 :oops: :evil: ). He does it every day and loves it.

singlespeedexplosif

should be fine - I do just over 30 each day on my commute and you very quickly build up a good level of fitness and it becomes second nature. You may need to ease into it - 3 days per week first or perhaps in one day, home the next and so on. Nothing like just hitting it and getting stuck in though

If it gets a bit morale-sapping, just think of the amount of cake you can eat

gtvlusso

TRADESIZE wrote:

i work in aztec west too, who do you lot work for? I am at LV in the quadrant. They recently built us a nice bikeshed, and seem to be very pro cycling, showers & bike to work scheme too.

if you can save £200 a month you've got to do it ! that is serious money.

A certain mobile phone company......not based on Aztec, across on the darkside of the A38.

As for mileage - up to 36 each way in summer and if I am feeling funky....depending on dependants needs and home life.