Building up to commuting distance

pedromarron

Hi I'm new to the forum and the world of cycling. Starting a new job soon and want to build up to cycling to work everyday - mainly for the health benefits but also financial. My commute will be 9 miles each way. I'm very wary of doing too much too soon so was wondering if anyone had ideas on how to build up to this.

My current baseline is 0 as I've not been on a bike for a number of years, therefore the first few weeks will be about getting used to it. One of my questions is should i go out (even for 30 mins) everyday so my body gets used to it or should i incorporate rest days at this point. And my main question is - if my commute is 9 miles each way - should i be focussing on getting to the point whereby i can do 18 miles comfortably or is that not required as obviously the distance will be broken in two?

Any help/advice will be greatly appreciated.

tangled_metal

It depends on whether you are fit from other activities or not. If you have any base fitness from elsewhere then I would suggest on your non-working days carry ot a recce. Cycle your route into work. Then cycle back after a rest somewhere. I did that one saturday and hung around chatting to someone at work on their break to recover. I then rode home. You could try two different routes as not always the case the most direct is the quickest/easiest.

On the day of my first recce trip I ended up getting home with legs that realised I'd been on a bike for the first time in 2 years but were still feeling good. So after lunch at home i got on my bike again to ride into town (about a 20 minute dash up the M6 by car) to buy something i wanted - a bike maintenance book, well if you commute you'll need to keep your bike fettled. That was one huge mistake. I ended up tiring myself out at over halfway there knowing I had to get back but also that I could not fail getting to town so carried on. Ran out of drinks and after my shop had to ride home completely knackered. I recovered with a tea stop at a mate';s on the way home and filled my flasks up and got home having been riding for about 3-4hours in total that day. Not a good thing to do.

The recce run is very important to work out the best route and how hard to push it I think. If you are really at level zero then do a few shorter rides locally, looping around with your house in the centre so you can just turn in to cut it short anytime. build up a bit then just go for it. Don;t worry about distance just tale your time and get there. 9 miles is not a bad distance to commute and easily doable for most people.Slower going into work so you don;t tire to much or sweat too much. But then homewards you can blitz it a bit if you want to.

Enjoy it!!!

davis

How's your fitness? What's the route like? Are there many hills? Is it in a city or rural commute? Is it on-road all the way, or can you do towpath/off-road or what? Do you have the option of train or driving, or perhaps leaving a car halfway? Do you have a sedentary job or are you pulling a 12-hour shift chucking stuff up and down ladders?

Having said that, without knowing the answers and assuming you're "average", you'll probably struggle to go into 5 days a week both ways straight away.
Do a recce run on a weekend when the traffic's lighter. Work out a route, and remember that the most pleasant route often isn't the most direct (one of the nice things of bike commuting is you might choose a different route home for no real reason!).
I would start doing Tuesdays and Thursdays both directions, to establish how hard you find it, then go to Mon, Weds, Fri after a couple of weeks' commuting, then work out how you feel and how you're doing.



Pump your tyres up properly, and raise your saddle (because I'd bet money on it being too low!)

Edit: If you're just starting out, consider some sort of "recovery food". Don't make too much of this; you're not doing a marathon. I just mean something like having a glass of milk as soon as you arrive at work! Make sure you eat lunch too, as your muscles will need a small amount of protein to recover when you're starting.

slowbike

davis wrote:

Having said that, without knowing the answers and assuming you're "average", you'll probably struggle to go into 5 days a week both ways straight away.

Yer - that's not good to start with - it takes time to work up to the level of doing 100 miles in the week.

davis wrote:

I would start doing Tuesdays and Thursdays both directions, to establish how hard you find it, then go to Mon, Weds, Fri after a couple of weeks' commuting, then work out how you feel and how you're doing.

After an initial recce at the weekend (or offday) - if that goes ok then yup I agree - otherwise you could drive one way, ride home, ride in the next day and then drive home ? or if train or lift is an option then use them for one way?

Don't forget to check out the light you have available - if you're doing a 9-5 then you should be ok to see where you're going in the morning, but at night you're going to want something bright - eitherway you're going to want decent rear lighting - my take on that is at least 2 rear lights (I currently run 3) plus reflectives.
I also use 2 front lights as my commute is rural roads so I need to see as well as be seen ...

Don't forget - listen to your body - if it wants a rest then take one - although you need to recognise when it's just being lazy too!

tangled_metal

Food is worth looking at as mentioned above. Take more food to work with you and snack healthily a bit more through the day. I used to keep back a banana to eat within the last hour before riding home. Whatever happens you'll want to take in a bit more calories to cover the ride. I guess unles you are trying to lose weight of course. I wouldn;t have managed to commute if I hadn't been eating more during the day.

pedromarron

Thanks for the replies, some great suggestions. I like the idea of starting tues and thurs. I've kept pretty active the last few years so i'm sure i'll get a decent level of fitness. I've had overtraining issues in other sports though so i'm going to be very careful and step this up slowly - not jump into 100 mile weeks.

redbikejohn

The first time I cycled ( since my school days) I was knackered just going up the road to the shops! but its amazing how quickly you get used to it. 18 miles in one day for an unfit beginner would be too much but you say you have some fitness so it should be ok but as you will be doing a new activity I'd do a few practice runs for a while. After a bit and if you challenge yourself you'll find 9 miles each way isn't much at all

woopidstanker

I started CTW 3 times a week, 51 miles per week in total. I was also around the 18 stone mark.

4 years on - I'm 15 stone, and CTW every day, 142 miles per week.

Basically - if I can, you can!! Good luck!

pedromarron

Thanks for the advice everyone, i think breaking it up into achievable chunks seems to be the way to go. I've got a few weeks to get some hours in on the bike before i start.