How long before you plateaud

meanredspider

I reckon I hit something around my plateau of commuting times after about 2-3 months. When I started I was reasonably fit having been Spinning twice a week and playing hockey 1-2 a week. Since then (and my times were slightly confounded by improving weather) I've notched up in very small increments but also had spells off the bike for reasons outside my control which set me back.

What is the experience of others? Without specific training but just commuting, how long do you think it is before you plateau?

Just as an aside, there was a guy called Duane who developed the "Duane Curve" which pretty much predicts a path of improvement like this - I'd say my data fits his model pretty well.

Rule74Please

commuting times are no indication of fitness. Even riding the same 30 mile loop is no indication either. There are too many variables in cycling to judge fitness by times alone. Remember you have tail winds some days head winds others etc. Silly things like high pressure adds a little time per km so you will find today you could fly tomorrow you are not as quick.
Remember the difference in catching a red light and missing it could be 2 or 3 minutes difference and starting and stopping will dramatically reduce your average speed even if you computer stops recording at zero

Ignore all the science and just enjoy riding.

jamesco

meanredspider wrote:

What is the experience of others? Without specific training but just commuting, how long do you think it is before you plateau?

About a week. Traffic lights are the biggest factor in my commute time (across London). As long as one's reasonably fit to begin with, there's sod-all one can do to speed things up except to go through red lights, and that'll only get an improvement the first time.

meanredspider

Ooh - traffic lights - I remember those....

Actually, the rare occasions I do need to stop, I let auto-pause pick up the pieces.
As If to prove the point (and I've only just looked and even I'm surprised) my last 6 rides in:
51:46
52:48
52:05
51:33
52:21
52:49
17.5mph +/- 0.1
and my rides home are within a minute of each other (with one exception)

But, anyway, I think you are taking this too seriously. I wanted to hear from those people who started out as a wheezing sweaty mess who could hardly get up the stairs of an evening and became lethally-efficient bike commuters. How long did that transition take? And at what point did you think you peaked? No times needed. Just for fun and, I guess, to give those people just starting out some idea of when it becomes easier.

cjcp

meanredspider wrote:

became lethally-efficient bike commuters

This is me. 8)

Anyway, back in the real world...

Hard to tell because I started commuting in 2007 and have done a variety of sportives since then, so the bike fitness has continued to rise even if the weight has plateaued. Also, my commuting fitness fluctuates throughout the year - tend to be slower in the winter by some distance because in the spring and summer I can do an uninterruped 6.7 mile loop around a local park. When I start doing these loops, the fitness starts to rise noticeably.

If I had to take a stab, I don't think I'd have plateaued in the first year of my commute. The returns may have diminished, but I think I'd have been faster in the second year.

Tonymufc

If you have plateaued, have you been doing the same thing on your commute. I.E. riding at the same pace, taking the same route home. As you get fitter the improvements will come slower. Try a few intervals on your way home. Sprinting for lights and road signs for example. If you have any hills try blasting up them or at least give it a bit more welly than normal. if you keep doing the same thing you'll keep getting the same results. Mix it up. Just don't forget to take it easy on a couple of the days to give your body a break.

Moodyman

I plateud after about 6-9 months.

I started puffing and panting up mild inclines, and now climb big hills without thinking about them.

The only difference between first hitting my peak and now is that I don't feel knackered.

Before I'd be gagging for food and needing my bed, now I happily feel that I could do the commute all over again. Also, my times are now within a narrower range - e.g 48-52 mins range, before they might have been in 48-70mins range depending on wind and how I felt.

meanredspider

Tonymufc wrote:

If you have plateaued, have you been doing the same thing on your commute. I.E. riding at the same pace, taking the same route home. As you get fitter the improvements will come slower. Try a few intervals on your way home. Sprinting for lights and road signs for example. If you have any hills try blasting up them or at least give it a bit more welly than normal. if you keep doing the same thing you'll keep getting the same results. Mix it up. Just don't forget to take it easy on a couple of the days to give your body a break.

My question was really just that though - how long does it typically take to plateau doing just the same thing?

Just started taking a different (more hilly) route home and adding a hill to my ride in.

Despite it being cool this morning (about 4C) did my fastest ride in and ride back this year today.

Headhuunter

Rule74Please wrote:

commuting times are no indication of fitness. Even riding the same 30 mile loop is no indication either. There are too many variables in cycling to judge fitness by times alone. Remember you have tail winds some days head winds others etc. Silly things like high pressure adds a little time per km so you will find today you could fly tomorrow you are not as quick.
Remember the difference in catching a red light and missing it could be 2 or 3 minutes difference and starting and stopping will dramatically reduce your average speed even if you computer stops recording at zero

Ignore all the science and just enjoy riding.

Absolutely, my commute times have little to do with fitness and more to do with how efficiently I can dodge through traffic, skip red lights without killing anyone or myself and avoid potholes. There are very few points on my commute when I actually get the chance to actually open up and speed along at the limits of my abilities in an attempt at a PB...

meanredspider

Sure - my commute is almost entirely rural - but, unless it's either incredibly short or incredibly busy, your best times would have come down as you got fitter? Or do your times vary by 30-40%?

My times (trended over time) are a great indication of my relative fitness. Weather and some traffic will affect individual times but that's true of most data. I'm struggling to break the 20mph barrier which is why I'm trying something different.

Headhuunter

meanredspider wrote:

Sure - my commute is almost entirely rural - but, unless it's either incredibly short or incredibly busy, your best times would have come down as you got fitter? Or do your times vary by 30-40%?

My times (trended over time) are a great indication of my relative fitness. Weather and some traffic will affect individual times but that's true of most data. I'm struggling to break the 20mph barrier which is why I'm trying something different.

My commute's 6 miles each way, it pretty much always takes between 20-25 mins depending on traffic, red lights etc etc. 20mph is pretty much a pipe dream, I might hit it for a 100m stretch along a bus lane but I'm reluctant to push it over 20 because you get eejits in cars pulling suddenly across bus lanes, moped and motorbike riders swerving around you etc etc, it's just not safe. I've definitely got fitter over the years but the commute time doesn't vary much because as mentioned, fitness is not the major factor affecting commute time for me and probably most people in major cities.

meanredspider

That's fair enough. I've been lucky that both my commute up here and when I lived in Cambridge were broadly head-down and cycle as fast as you can.