Not going hard...

JimboPlob

I commute 4/5 days a week and on 2 of those days add in extra to get some proper training in.

On the days I don't do that, I try and go a bit easier....

I hear stories of people saying if you want to ride faster, ride fast all the time. Should I be taking these non training day commutes easier, or just ride them hard?

rick_chasey

Depends how you feel.

I can pretty much go flat out all the time. Most people here complain of feeling tired if they really slam it very regularly, so they take it easy on a few rides.

Give it a go, see how you feel.

SBezza

There is no point in going hard every ride if you don't get the time to recover, your body only gets better through rest, be that complete rest days off the bike, or very easy recovery rides.

It all depends on what you are training for, if it is just to get to work and back quicker, then just ride as hard as you can for as long as you can, and eventually you will get quicker, but it is far from the best training.

amaferanga

How far are your normal commutes and your extended commutes?

derbygrimpeur

SBezza wrote:

There is no point in going hard every ride if you don't get the time to recover, your body only gets better through rest, be that complete rest days off the bike, or very easy recovery rides.

It all depends on what you are training for, if it is just to get to work and back quicker, then just ride as hard as you can for as long as you can, and eventually you will get quicker, but it is far from the best training.

+1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercompensation

saturnfive

There's also the question of zones to take into account - as has already been said: riding as fast as you can all the time will get you faster but it's not the best / fastest way...

It seems that many people when trying to ride (or even run) faster, do their whole ride "Somewhat hard". This often can translate to above aerobic but below lactate threshold (so something like 80-86% of MHR range) Training in this zone can be quite wearing without giving much back - it's too fast for aerobic training, it's hard enough to be tiring on you're body but you're body isn't dealing with enough lactate to make good adaptions.

So as I understand it, you'd be better off training at an aerobic level for the majority of rides and then doing quality intervals that put you around your lactate threshold for 5-20 minutes, for example.

I read up on this quite a bit and this year, I've been doing my commutes / other rides at 60-80% of MHR (trying to stay around 75% where possible) and I try not to go over that (except when someone came past me on Truleigh hill last night so, obviously, I had to race 'im!) - I'm trying to develop as good a base as possible but not tire myself out too much. I've just started to add intervals / hills climbs etc. once / twice per week. I also have every 4th week "easy" (still riding but reduce hours massively and just try not to lose any fitness) It seems to be paying off reallly nicely so far - I think I'm just about the fittest I've ever been and it's only early April! (never trained "properly" before though....)

SBezza

80-86% of MHR is not a bad zone to train in, and you should be able to do it every day. It is a medium to hard tempo level, and is a good level for aerobic development. It is just you can't spend as many hours in this zone as you can 70%-75% for example.

If you are going to be riding in the 70-80% zone I would hope your commute is at least a couple of hours long, short rides in this area are wasted training IMO, might as well do shorter rides at a higher pace, just not all of them, some will need to be done at a level below 70% for recovery.

Anyone that trains with progression in mind will probably get fitter, it still might not be the best way to get the best fitness however.

There are various ways the OP could train on his commute, tempo rides, threshold level intervals, even shorter harder intervals, it all depends on how long the commute is, and the terrain he has to ride over.