Accounting for Commuting Miles in Training
dyrlac
Posts: 751
TL;DR: Typical daily commute is 2x45m of junk(ish) miles and weekend riding limited, so find me a workweek turbo plan that doesn't overly rely on "rest" days that will result in Going Faster. <wordy version follows:>
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I have a few events lined up this year, the first of which is the RVV in Flanders in April, so I'd like to get some structured training in place snappish with the focus on maximising sustained power. This is proving difficult, as I am struggling to find a training plan which takes into account commuting miles (from a perspective of rest periods/base mileage sessions/general intensity).
My daily commute is 11.3 miles each way. A typical ride sees me average HR Zone 3.7 (78% max), topping out at HRZ 5.2 (92% max), but with lengthy periods (10% of a 39-49 minute ride time) being stationary at traffic lights or s-l-o-w-l-y filtering (yay London!). I suspect this falls right in the middle of the "too hard or not hard enough" zone. Realistically, that's not going to change, although I try to sneak in a lap or three of Richmond Park on the way into the office once a week. At the weekend, nipping off for more than a couple of hours is very tough (young kids, etc).
I do however have access to a Wattbike during the workweek and am happy to spend arbitrary amounts of time on it. I have yet to find a turbo session schedule that assumes 120+ miles (8 +/- hours)/week of daily unstructured outdoor riding. Any thoughts on quality sessions that can complement this? So many of the programmes I've seen online assume entire days of total rest or worse, recovery rides (I can keep my HR down on a boris bike, but would rather punch myself in the face if I'm trying to get somewhere).
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I have a few events lined up this year, the first of which is the RVV in Flanders in April, so I'd like to get some structured training in place snappish with the focus on maximising sustained power. This is proving difficult, as I am struggling to find a training plan which takes into account commuting miles (from a perspective of rest periods/base mileage sessions/general intensity).
My daily commute is 11.3 miles each way. A typical ride sees me average HR Zone 3.7 (78% max), topping out at HRZ 5.2 (92% max), but with lengthy periods (10% of a 39-49 minute ride time) being stationary at traffic lights or s-l-o-w-l-y filtering (yay London!). I suspect this falls right in the middle of the "too hard or not hard enough" zone. Realistically, that's not going to change, although I try to sneak in a lap or three of Richmond Park on the way into the office once a week. At the weekend, nipping off for more than a couple of hours is very tough (young kids, etc).
I do however have access to a Wattbike during the workweek and am happy to spend arbitrary amounts of time on it. I have yet to find a turbo session schedule that assumes 120+ miles (8 +/- hours)/week of daily unstructured outdoor riding. Any thoughts on quality sessions that can complement this? So many of the programmes I've seen online assume entire days of total rest or worse, recovery rides (I can keep my HR down on a boris bike, but would rather punch myself in the face if I'm trying to get somewhere).
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Comments
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Have you tried not riding the commute 'like you stole it' in zone 1/2? You can then concentrate on using the wattbike or weekend rides for hard efforts to get that FTP up.0
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Reflecting on this post, I crawled in this morning in Zone 2 (except for the mighty Wimbleberg). It was awful; my slowest door to door time ever. Cannot imagine what a Zone 1 commute would look like: pushing the bike on foot? The problem is admittedly one of discipline, as the best part of my day is half-assedley racing the commute. Will try some over/unders this afternoon to see if it helped.0
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Sounds like you are looking for the discpline of a training routine but without the discipline in it. A contradiction surely? A training plan means the discipline of particular requirements to progress as you want. Those requirements include recovery, rest, etc. I no longer have targets to achieve so don't train just ride for pleasure but My understanding when I was training for stuff was the recovery is when you get better. If you can't allow for that then why bother? If I'm wrong I'm sorry but if you can't even take it easy on your commute then what is the point? Where is your recovery coming from?0
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Dyrlac wrote:Reflecting on this post, I crawled in this morning in Zone 2 (except for the mighty Wimbleberg). It was awful; my slowest door to door time ever. Cannot imagine what a Zone 1 commute would look like: pushing the bike on foot? The problem is admittedly one of discipline, as the best part of my day is half-assedley racing the commute. Will try some over/unders this afternoon to see if it helped.
I've had to make the same shift in mental attitude towards the commute. How do you think a z1/2 feels for 20 miles across London?
But at the end of the day the time difference is nominal and depends more on wind direction and traffic lights.
After a while you may settle in, realise racing people on a commute is pointless*, start to feel better at the end of the week and train better.
Alternatively, stick a smaller gear on your fixie. This also worked for me
*but great fun from time to time0 -
WTF are you stopping at lights for?! Stop turning those commute miles into junk miles. Run the reds (like everyone else appears to) - especially if there are any Strava segments through them. Come on - Zone 4 all the way! You've got 8 hours of rest before doing it all again on the way home - longer before the next morning.
This is, of course, tongue in cheek. 0 -
Is the OP me? Sounds pretty much identical - similar commute, similar lack of weekend riding, similar access to Watt Bike. Just take the weekend off - that can be your rest time. Or chill out on the commute. I did the Chris Carmichael time crunched thing last year, on top of my commute, seemed to work OK although I had a s**t race season so maybe not. Generally improved though based on various benchmarks - Richmond Park TT time, times up various regular hills etc. I'm floundering a bit at the moment, need some structure to the Watt Bike / turbo sessions I can squeeze in but lacking a bit of motivation. If you get any decent plans suggested that don't involve skipping the commute, I will read with interest.0
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Well, finished the beginners' under/overs (4x (4,1,4,1)); that was painful, and I am somewhat concerned whether I'll be able to make it home, I may even have to take the flat CS7 route and recover on the endless Col du Balham descent*.Tangled Metal wrote:Sounds like you are looking for the discipline of a training routine but without the discipline in it.
Guilty as charged. May well be that the answer is that the commute needs to be harder (some scope for this, I'm too willing to just cruise along absent SCR or to crumple in the face of the wind) and can extend into Richmond Park more often. Could then leave the w/e for recovery, as per BigMat above. Leaving wattbike for what, consistent-output endo miles? tabatta?, a couple of times a week. Or just go back to r*nning.iPete wrote:Alternatively, stick a smaller gear on your fixie. This also worked for me
70" is already too small! Descents terrify me on it (one of the reasons I've left the rear brake on).Me-109 wrote:You've got 8 hours of rest before doing it all again on the way home - longer before the next morning.
Sadly I usually have more time between the morning and evening rides than between the evening and morning rides.BigMat wrote:Is the OP me?
Maybe? I don't see you when I'm where I am, which is what you'd expect if I were also you. Wife will like the idea of the weekend off. Am also lead to believe that timecrunched possibly assumes a better base level and is best for peaking for specific events, which (on reflection) is only partly what I'm after.
* (Apologies to non-Londoners for SCR slang)0 -
Try making your harder work outs harder .. you'll then find it a lot easier to do z1\z2 on the commute because you'll bloody well have to!0
