I’m planning on using this as my commute bike, 30 miles roundtrip in NYC, Brooklyn Bridge to George Washington Bridge. Should I get the lower end version, and then think about upgrading to 105 when things start to get weird, or should I just go 105 from the getgo?
Besides that, since I’ll be commuting all the time, I’m trying to figure out what I should do regarding training. I figure I’ll be getting plenty of endurance in, so I’m wondering what you guys think of this proposed schedule:
Monday: early swim then commute to work
Tuesday: commute home followed by a short hard run/intervals
Wednesday: commute home followed by weights/trx/core
Thursday: commute home followed by a moderate/tempo run
Friday: early swim then commute to work
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: long run, followed or preceded by a time crunched TrainerRoad workout (30 minutes).
Ideally, I’d like to get 3 runs, 2 swims, and 1 strength/core workout, and 1 or more TrainerRoad workouts in per week. Is this crazy, or doable? Should I move all my extra workouts before or after my commute? Should I take the train on Wednesdays so I can do strength in the morning and one more TrainerRoad session after work? I haven’t started swimming yet, and middy if this commuting won’t start till February.
I still have a lemond nevada city from 2001 that I ride occasionally and the sora shifters and derailleurs never caused me any problems. It’s not flashy but got me through plenty of training and racing miles.
Two thing I will add for the commuting part of it, you don’t mention your goal races. But while 150 miles per week seems like a decent total, I’d suggest a longer ride on the weekends or maybe of the afternoons and consider making one of the afternoon rides include intervals.
The other is that a weekend day off for a working man or woman takes a big chink of available training time off the table. On the other hand i coach several people who do that because one of those days is family day. If that is your case, then keep saturday off. If it is just a rest day, then take the train one day during the week and make that a rest day.
Training scheduling has lots of wrinkles depending on your own circumstances, so you’ll get varied responses.
Half marathon in March, super sprint in April, half marathon in May, two sprints in June on back 2 back weekends that I could possibly place in my AG, Olympic in July, sprint in August.
I could probably still do the long ride on Saturdays, since that’s endurance anyway, shouldn’t be too much effort since it’s zone 2.
I would get 105 the tiagra shifters plastic parts on the top are going to break off and it definitely does not shift as well as 105 I have both the recent models on different bikes currently and it’s definitely appreciable. Idk what your goals are so I can’t really give you feedback on your training if your goal is only tri then I would ditch strength training unless you’re only doing sprint distance. I would run off the bike or swim then bike to emulate transitions but I would def add a high volume/long bike ride. I personally do my training by feel
Re the bike I’d go 105, commuting every day in all weathers takes quite a toll on bikes, the higher quality will pay off in the long run.
Re the schedule, as others have said I would eliminate the rest day and try to run more. Don’t think you necessarily need to do a long ride with a daily 30 mile commute - my round trip commute is 35 miles, I’ve had good results at events with 100+ mile bike sections just off the commuting and a couple of long rides near the event for confidence building. If you feel you need a long ride then its more efficient to just extend your route home one day, rather than doing another weekend ride.
Once your body adjusts to riding twice a day, I would also start getting some intensity into the rides. I tend to just work this in naturally by attacking hills, working off other riders (lots of cyclists on my route), or simply being in a rush on days when I’ve left slightly later than I should have done and have a meeting to get to. You can do more structured intervals if you prefer. The Great thing about commuting is that you’re breaking your mileage up across 10 sessions, so you get a lot of recovery.
Tiagra isn’t bad but I would completely avoid Sora. The nicer bikes come with better quality wheels as well. Cheap wheels, are well cheap.
As for the training questions, I would run more and wouldn’t bother with a rest day.
Exactly. I have a CAAD8 with Tiagra that I bought just about 4 years ago. I’ve logged thousands of miles on it with little trouble. It isn’t Ultegra smooth . . but it is dependable.
Tiagra is indeed not horrible, my first road bike about 3 years ago had 9 speed Tiagra and it worked fine.
I still would advice to go 105 if you are going to be seriously beating on the bike, especially riding winter/rain/etc…
I have a CAAD 8 with 105 that I commuted about 40 miles no issues, I did change the wheels and tires during the non-winter months to something nicer. (stock wheels are boat anchors)
My 2004 Trek 1200 came with Tiagra. I raced it for 4 years and then turned it into a commuter. I figured I would replace the parts as needed. Still haven’t done that yet. So yeah, Tiagra is just fine. As for the cheap bikes come with cheap wheels? Well rankly so do expensive bikes. Generally some low end Fulcrum or Mavic or Shimano wheel. Perfectly fine wheels for commuting. And heck, modern Sora is also fine. I watch a guy come second in many cyclocross races with his Sora equiped bike, year after year (and it is the older Sora stuff).
Re the bike I’d go 105, commuting every day in all weathers takes quite a toll on bikes, the higher quality will pay off in the long run.
Re the schedule, as others have said I would eliminate the rest day and try to run more. Don’t think you necessarily need to do a long ride with a daily 30 mile commute - my round trip commute is 35 miles, I’ve had good results at events with 100+ mile bike sections just off the commuting and a couple of long rides near the event for confidence building. If you feel you need a long ride then its more efficient to just extend your route home one day, rather than doing another weekend ride.
Once your body adjusts to riding twice a day, I would also start getting some intensity into the rides. I tend to just work this in naturally by attacking hills, working off other riders (lots of cyclists on my route), or simply being in a rush on days when I’ve left slightly later than I should have done and have a meeting to get to. You can do more structured intervals if you prefer. The Great thing about commuting is that you’re breaking your mileage up across 10 sessions, so you get a lot of recovery.
Ok, so it’s going to be between Tiagra and 105…the boss makes the executive decision on how much I’m allowed to pay.
Regarding the schedule, what about something like this:
M Commute, Run (moderate) when I get home
T Commute, **Swim **before going to work, Core/TRX at night
W Commute, Run (moderate/tempo) when I get home
R Commute, **Swim **before going to work, Add 30-60 mins to ride home
F Commute, **Run **(intervals) when I get home
Sa Long Swim, Strength/Core/TRX
Su Long Run