With the price of gas and to get in more miles on the bike I have been riding my bike to the gym and then to work and home three days a week. The schedule and mileage is as follows:
Mon: Drive to gym for a quick 30-45 minute lifting session and 30-45min swim and then drive to work and home (easier day after two long bike/run days Sat./Sun.)
Tue: 17mi to track for 1hr track run workout, 15mi ride to work, 15mi ride home in the evening
Wed: 15mi ride to gym to swim, 15mi ride to work, 15mi ride home in the evening
Thur: 15mi ride to gym for core work and swim, 15mi ride to work, 15mi ride home after work, 30-45min run if early enough)
Fri: Drive to gym, 1hr run, 30-45min swim, drive to work, drive home in the evening
Sat: 4hr long bike ride, maybe a 30min swim at tail end of bike ride if going by the gym that day
Sun: 2hr long run, 30-45min swim if I didn’t swim Sat.
The 15 mile rides can take me anywhere from 30-50min depending on how I am feeling and how much I am carrying in the backpack for the day. The main question is if I am getting decent training from these broken up commute rides or would I be better served (training wise, not wallet wise to sacrifice a day or so of bike commuting to get in a straight couple hours of riding and then drive to my other workouts and to work? Basically are the broken rides that total around 30-45miles at the end of the day worth it in comparison to a straight two hours? I enjoy riding to work but I am also going for maximum benefit as much as possible in my training.
I have done the same thing. I commute 45 minutes each way on my PC’s. Not the same as my 2 hours solid in the hills,
but, saving the family some money is more important.
In a typical week I get about 60 miles of bike commuting in , then do a 30-40 mile ride on Sunday. My commute ride is 15 miles and takes me an hour with stoplights. I feel like the commuting gives me a decent base, which allows me to ride hard on the weekend, but it’s the weekend ride that elevates my performance level. Like you, I’ve been thinking I need another solid bike workout in there somewhere, so I’ve recently started doing an hour ride on my tri bike once a week before switching bikes and riding to work. That gives me a 2-hour ride. When we lose the light, that first hour will likely need to be on a trainer.
It’s not perfect, but I think it’s a good compromise.
I use commuting as part of my training (on bike days I add an extra 40-60 miles to my ride back home) but I am also careful to keep the excursion low on days when I need to.
not a real answer to the question you’ve posed - but isn’t there more at stake than just the optimal training protocols? do you enjoy riding to work? do you like the good you’re doing, not just for your wallet but for the world?
if not… then yeah, you can reconsider. but i think it’s worth thinking things through in a wider perspective.
This is something I have thought about as an option. I would probably do it on the Wednesday but then I would lose that swim. I could try to make it to the pool on the way home from work though but the pool is a lot more difficult to get a lane in the evening. Riding an extra hour in the evening is difficult as the motivation drops significantly after getting home from a long day.
I would certainly agree. I do enjoy riding to work and I do enjoy knowing that I am not burning fuel unnecessarily. None the less, I also enjoy being as competitive as possible at my races.
More driving would allow me to do a longer continuous ride one morning and then drive to the pool and get a swim in before or maybe, that’s a big maybe, after work. There are only so many hours in the day and while I can cover the miles between home, the gym and work fairly quickly on the bike, it doesn’t leave much time for extended bike sessions if I want to get it all in. That is why I posed the question, am I getting sufficient fitness with the segmented bike rides instead of the a longer continuous ride? Sufficient in the sense that would that continuous bike ride in place of a segmented ride make a noticeable improvement in my fitness over say a half-iron distance bike leg most likely?
If hours in the day are a limiter, then riding your bike instead of driving will result in more riding. More is more. Extend the ride home or to work and you’ve created a longer ride during the week. I really think that if you add up the time you would spend driving instead of commuting you’ll find you need to make up alot of riding.
I think bike commuting is a secret weapon for training as it only takes about half the time out of your day. For me a hilly 7 mile loaded commute takes half an hour. But I would have spent 15 minutes driving. Thus, by leaving home only 15 minutes earlier, I get half an hour workout. Coming home, I’ll ride ten miles in about 45 minutes. Surely that 1:15 of riding is equal to 1:00 of continuous training benefit (I think it is equal to 1:15, especially if there are hills or you otherwise make it a workout); but to get the 1:15, it only cost me 0:45 minutes as 0:30 would have been wasted driving. Anyway, that’s how I think of it.
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I can definitely see your point. My daily mileage on most commute days is round 45miles give or take when the day is done. If I gave up one of those days to do a continuous 2 hour ride I might cover 45 miles if I was really pushing it and that is doubtful. Most likely more like 36-40miles. I may also end up giving up a swim too which I should probably consider. The question still remains, is that broken 45 miles as effective as the continuous 36 - 40 miles? Commuting by bike has significantly increased my bike training but I am just trying to see if there is a way to make it even better.
Why not lengthen one of your rides home? Instead of going 15 miles directly home, make it 30. I like to ride long and climb hills with my backpack once or twice a week on my commute, then riding without the backpack is a breeze.
Personally I don’t believe in the “junk mile” theory.
Every mile I train has a purpose.
My commutes are split as well.
I might climb in a big gear in the a.m., spin fast in th p.m., do single leg in the off season, time trial in if I’m late…etc
It all counts!
If you are doing a 4 hr ride on the weekend, I think the commuting is fine, especially since I don’t see a race longer than a HIM on your schedule.
I’ve commuted by bike to work for 15+ years now. The daily 10 to 14 mile round-trip commute was the only training I did on the bike other than a long, usually hilly ride (3 to 6+ hours) on the weekend. I managed to finish 15 IM that way, including three qualifications for Kona.
to sacrifice a day or so of bike commuting to get in a straight couple hours of riding and then drive to my other workouts and to work? Basically are the broken rides that total around 30-45miles at the end of the day worth it in comparison to a straight two hours? I enjoy riding to work but I am also going for maximum benefit as much as possible in my training.