Commuting as training

SPOC

Is anyone else in the same boat in the fact they do most of their miles a week commuting? I read about doing the same old route etc. and reaching a plateau etc.

I ride probably about on average 200 miles a week, have done for over a year now, with probably 120-140 of those a week as commuting, with the rest at the weekend.

I'm finding I've stopped improving (maybe that's as good as I will get?) or is it the monotony of the same old routes? although I do try and vary my efforts and intensities as much as I can, but some days after 10 hours at work it's hard to push it as hard as I can at the weekends.

Apologies if this has been been talked to death before.

meanredspider

You might try the same question on the Commuting Chat forum. I think the trick is to mix up your rides: try to fit in some intervals, some high cadence, some slow and very steady etc etc because, essentially, if you do just do the same thing, you are bound to plateau. It then becomes not about the quantity of the miles but the quality.

hypster

SPOC wrote:

Is anyone else in the same boat in the fact they do most of their miles a week commuting? I read about doing the same old route etc. and reaching a plateau etc.

I ride probably about on average 200 miles a week, have done for over a year now, with probably 120-140 of those a week as commuting, with the rest at the weekend.

I'm finding I've stopped improving (maybe that's as good as I will get?) or is it the monotony of the same old routes? although I do try and vary my efforts and intensities as much as I can, but some days after 10 hours at work it's hard to push it as hard as I can at the weekends.

Apologies if this has been been talked to death before.

Apart from obviously getting to work, you don't say why you are doing all this mileage. I find if I don't have a goal to work towards, just cycling in itself can get a bit repetitive even if you vary routes and intensity. Maybe you already do but I would suggest entering various organised events such as century sportives organised by groups like UKCyclingEvents. They are staged all over the country and usually cover three distances if you don't want to step up to a century ride straight away.

Committing to a ride like that will tend to give you a focal point for your training and focus your mind on why you are doing it. Hopefully you may have some friends who can enter with you but if not it is relatively easy to join up with similar paced riders en-route that you can share paceline duties with which can be good fun in itself.

The UKCyclingEvents rides are fully signed so there is no map reading. There will be up to three feed stations on the ride depending on the length with energy food and drink included in the entry fee. You will also have a timing chip so the ride is timed and you get a goody bag and medal at the end.

Pross

If all you are doing is a steady 15 miles or so that's what your body gets used to and you get good at steady, short rides. As someone said above, mix it up. There was a good magazine article on this a year or two back. If your route has some open road get some intervals in. If you are in urban areas use signals to alternate between seated starts and standing starts. Do a day at low gear, high revs and the next in high gear at low revs etc. etc.

I've found if I commute more than 3 days a week I get bored and stale though even with over half the ride being nice rural roads. It's good if you can get various routes into the commute.

daxplusplus

Do you have a training plan? I'm guessing not but if you want to treat your commuting as training then you need a training plan.

With a plan you'll have to question what you are trying to achieve, what your current weaknesses might be and it will help you generate goals and a route to achieve them. This will provide you with more motivation\focus to keep on improving.

herzog

DaxPlusPlus wrote:

Do you have a training plan? I'm guessing not but if you want to treat your commuting as training then you need a training plan...

Couldn't agree more - it's easy when commuting to fall into the same sort of rides constantly, plodding along for the duration of the commute and not really achieving anything. Around 60-70% of my training load is done during commuting, and each commute has a goal (VO2 Max, LT, endurance etc.) and I vary the route according to what I've planned (i.e., hill repeats for VO2 max, anaerobic conditioning - long flattish bits for TT practice etc.).

Furthermore, it’s also important to monitor progress, how do you currently do this (ave. speed, increased distance, power?)?

bigmat

Obviously depends on the commute, but I find that proper "training" when commuting just isn't viable. I'm riding in rush hour traffic and I want to focus on being safe and considerate rather than putting my head down. There might be opportunities to put in some hard efforts, then again there might not - its far too variable. I view commuting miles as base miles, I rack up maybe 100 miles a week. This year I have been doing a training programme on top of that, mainly on the WattBike at the gym where I get a shower before work. 2 to 3 intense efforts (30-50 minutes) a week, plus maybe a chaingang ride one evening a week and a ride at the weekend if I'm lucky. The commute is part of the overall training regime, but it really is just a matter of getting the miles in more than anything structured.

SPOC

I didn't state an aim because I don't really have one, that's probably part of my problem. I just love cycling to be honest, I'm a competitive person within myself and just love to try and achieve the maximum I can at any one thing I do.

I'm doing a few more sportives this year, if I can do them faster than last year that is really my only goal, other than that to just get faster and improve against myself. It's frustrating that I feel like I can get a little bit more out of myself, but the improvement curve just seems to have stopped.

I ride with a power meter that was donated to me, I've measured my progress against that. My FTP has increased over time as has my speed for my commutes whilst putting out the same amount of power. Also I find commuting with a bag on a real pain and that restricts me as well, but there is no real option to ditch that.

Thanks for the advice anyway guys, appreciated. I will definitely try and mix my route up some more, a mixture of the flat and hilly way home with big hill efforts. It's a lot easier to do now that the weather and light is improving and can take more scenic routes home.

gsvbagpuss

I do all my miles commuting and have only been "training" properly since Christmas. I've made great gains by using interval training - isn't Strava a useful tool here. If you've got a 2, 4, and 8 minute segment on your route then work out a plan when you target one (or more ) of these every other commute?