Commuting and training
*PING*
Posts: 3
Hello everyone!
I'm looking for some advice on structuring commuting rides in terms of training.
Having had a few years of intermittently riding a single speed since moving out of London into the sticks, I've bought a road bike (with gears and everything!) and am looking to get into better shape to start joining in on some local club riding/sportives/etc.
My 'commute' to work is short, but I tend to go out of my way to stretch it out to around 11-16 miles. None of my available routes are flat in the London sense, and I have the option to go via some reasonable hills if I go the right way.
To date I've always just ridden by feel, and then later on by pitching myself against my own Strava times via the iPhone app. I now have a Garmin 500 however, with cadence and heart rate too, so suddenly have the option to structure training at specific effort levels and with the chance to see how my pedaling is too.
Ideally I would ride to and from work every day, and I can go longer on evenings occasionally if required.
What would the general suggestions be..?
Should I be looking to have Wednesday as a rest day, and to train harder on Tuesday PM and Friday PM?
Ride all but specific days in zone 1 or 2?
Ride hard in the AM and recovery ride home?
Ride hard home and recovery ride in?
I've looked at places like the British Cycling plans, but most training plans seem to be aimed at people who only ride when they train, rather than training as the ride.
Any advice or input would be greatly appreciated!
I'm looking for some advice on structuring commuting rides in terms of training.
Having had a few years of intermittently riding a single speed since moving out of London into the sticks, I've bought a road bike (with gears and everything!) and am looking to get into better shape to start joining in on some local club riding/sportives/etc.
My 'commute' to work is short, but I tend to go out of my way to stretch it out to around 11-16 miles. None of my available routes are flat in the London sense, and I have the option to go via some reasonable hills if I go the right way.
To date I've always just ridden by feel, and then later on by pitching myself against my own Strava times via the iPhone app. I now have a Garmin 500 however, with cadence and heart rate too, so suddenly have the option to structure training at specific effort levels and with the chance to see how my pedaling is too.
Ideally I would ride to and from work every day, and I can go longer on evenings occasionally if required.
What would the general suggestions be..?
Should I be looking to have Wednesday as a rest day, and to train harder on Tuesday PM and Friday PM?
Ride all but specific days in zone 1 or 2?
Ride hard in the AM and recovery ride home?
Ride hard home and recovery ride in?
I've looked at places like the British Cycling plans, but most training plans seem to be aimed at people who only ride when they train, rather than training as the ride.
Any advice or input would be greatly appreciated!
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Comments
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There's an article about using commuting as training here:
http://roadcyclinguk.com/riding/trainin ... 2p32q5G.970 -
thegibdog wrote:There's an article about using commuting as training here:
http://roadcyclinguk.com/riding/trainin ... 2p32q5G.97
Thanks!
I was looking through that last night as it happens, and I read it pretty much as being aimed at people training in traffic etc, whereas I am definitely in the 'any ride that takes place on beautifully traffic-free roads can be used as part of your regular training regardless of what time of day or what your destination is'
Read more at http://roadcyclinguk.com/riding/trainin ... YisaCCg.99 camp.
Dedicated plans then tend to be single rides 2/3 days a week, plus a longer ride at the weekend. As I'm looking at potentially 10 rides in the week, I wasn't sure how people would approach them.
It looks from the article that aiming for zone 1/2 as a rule isn't a bad idea. I'm already having journeys that are specifically aimed at cadence rather than speed or whatever.
Should I have a day off, or a day where in and out are both at recovery pace?0 -
I think you just have to do it on how you feel really - harder sessions take time to recover from so I wouldn't be doing one every day. I commute 9 miles each way and they're mainly base/recovery pace as I'm racing or training two nights (Tues/Thurs) a week and doing longer rides/races at the weekends. I don't take any days off from commuting, I just take it easy when I feel I need to and try to incorporate it all into bigger build/recovery cycles.0
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Treat your commutes as opportunities to train.
But training requires that you sit down and:
1. identify what you want to achieve
2. What's stopping you achieving it .. ie what are you weaknesses.
3. Come up with a plan to address those weaknesses.
4. Measure your progress and go back to step 1 on a regular basis.
You can make it more complex than this but you do need to think what your trying to achieve and how you'll do it. That feeds into what, ultimately, you do on your commutes.
Me - lots of base miles over the winter. Spring and I started to up the intensity and introduced intervals - Threshold\V02Max. In the last month I've upped the intensity again - Max efforts.
I can't do intervals every day so those other days I either take as rest days, active recovery or zone 2. Some evenings and weekends I go racing or do longer, more social rides.
Having a power meter since the new year has made all of this a lot easier - you can do it by feel but if you want to progressively stress your body and add structure then having something that provides numbers so easily makes it a lot more obvious. Can go a long way with feel but can be a bit more hit and miss.
The main advice I'd give is slowly build up the training load over time .. you'll be amazed at what you'll be able to get away with but it takes time (years).0
