I’m curious to know what people’s experience was/is in trying to make a bike commute resemble a cycling workout. A little background…this winter and til early April, I’m focused on marathon training following the Hanson plan so running six days a week, working up to 50-60 mpw. I don’t think it’s wise (nor will I have the time) to dedicate a lot of time to bike training. The crux of the situation is I’m also planning to race a mid-May 70.3 that’s become an annual tradition. I’d like to have some bike fitness before hitting the roads a month out from a race…so I thought bike commuting might be a decent solution.
The commute is around 14 miles round trip so not total chump change but some city riding is also involved, and I try to be a good cycling ambassador by obeying lights. I can ride my road bike or mountain/hybrid bike. Former is obviously quicker although since I’m not in race mode (or weekend training ride) I don’t exert much effort.
Would bike commuting 3x week help beyond general fitness? If anyone has incorporated the bike commute into the training, how did you feel come race day?
If someone has followed the hanson marathon plan while also training for a triathlon, how did you balance all of the training? I’m fairly fit and finish the bike split anywhere between 3 and 3:20 (female…not sure how mid-pack AGers differ in speed based on gender) so I’d like to aim for under 3:10.
Have you considered intentionally making your commute longer? Are there some random hills you can do on your way if you make a quick detour? Can you shower near work? There are lots of variables here.
I generally commute to work throughout the winter. My round trip ride is about 30 miles and there is a lake at each end of the trip that I can loop around if I want to add another 10 miles or so. I enjoy it a lot and feel that it really helped my bike power last spring. I will generally use it anything from a recovery ride to some 2x20’s depending on my other workouts for the day. I am lucky in that my route allows me to do that without many interruptions for stoplights or vehicular traffic. About 75% of the ride is on a separate trail from cars. I am not sure 14 miles round trip would have a significant impact other than maybe to aid in recovery from other workouts but I am sure people much smarter than me will chime in.
I commute a bit during winter as it’s the majority of my weekday training. 12.5 miles each way. Usually easy/steady on the way in, and sweetspot/threshold on the way home 3-4x a week.
Got more miles in over the winter than I had the previous year. Felt I came on much stronger over the spring and summer. Won a few bike races and all.
Just make one of your bike commute legs longer, but even 14 miles round trip (7 miles one way) is plenty of distance go get a workout. 5 min warmup and then sprint between every traffic light if you have to for one of your bike commuters and just spin easy the other way. 5 mile of super high intensity can still be a good workout…but really tack on another 5-10 miles on one leg and you can get to 98% of ideal fitness by doing intensity frequently.
I do have access to facilities and am considering extending the bike commute, however I guess that leads to another question–at what point does the cycling degrade the marathon training? Previous marathons, and heck ironman training, I’ve probably run 3-4xweek at regular speeds plus a long run. I get the feeling that the hanson plan of track workouts, tempo runs, and steady state runs will be more intense than previous training formats, even if the total mileage per week is the same.
As a couple people have said, try to extend one of the rides by whatever you can and then do some high intensity stuff. I would hop off the bike 1-2 times a week when I got to work and get in a short 2-3 mile run. Getting my road bike put back together this weekend and plan to resume my commuting again. Another thing I liked to do is pack my bag with all of my stuff for the day and a few extra things to add some weight then try to match a time goal for the entire ride. For me at least, this would add just a touch more effort over the entire ride to compensate for the weight.
ETA- I think as long as you are still hitting most of your runs as prescribed you will be good. The riding should help a bit with recovery and also mixing up the training. I would mix in a 4-6 mile lunch run a couple times a week and it seemed to work pretty well but obviously that depends on intensity for each workout as well.
I commute year-round and it typically makes up at least 50% and sometimes 100% of my weekly mileage. 15 miles each way, and unless travelling I normally go in 3-4 days a week so 90-120 miles/week most weeks. I use a single-speed, and my commute is nearly all on pretty busy urban roads. I once counted something like 70 traffic lights on my route, so I’d normally expect to come to a complete stop at a red maybe a dozen or so times, and have multiple other places where I’m easing up due to traffic or to allow a light to go green (some sections of my route I’ve commuted down most days for the last 15 years, so you get to know the timing of the lights pretty well…). I doubt I ever get more than a couple of miles where I can go as hard as I want with no interruptions.
So it’s about as unstructured as training gets, I don’t really plan anything much more complicated than easy, medium or hard! But the training benefit is surprisingly good. If I’m riding aggressively then effectively I’m getting a lot of short, hard interval work, so you’d expect power for short durations to be good. But the bit that really surprised me was that my endurance has been pretty decent as well - I once rode an 80 mile sportive/gran fondo type event at a time when my training was 100% commuting (had a new baby a few months previously) and didn’t do a single training ride longer than 25 miles. Rode hard all the way round (mix of solo and small group riding) and had no endurance issues at all, still going strong at 80 miles. Finished in an average of 21mph on a hilly course which was a very good time for me and better than I thought I’d have been capable of with that preparation.
I’ve also successfully used commuting as a way of maintaining bike fitness during a run focus. Did a 6 month marathon build a couple of years ago, bike commuted throughout. Did have to dial the intensity right down at certain periods when my legs were struggling to adapt to the running load. I also have a history of picking up injuries from doing high intensity or speed work while running, so I did some high intensity work on the bike instead and kept the vast majority of my running to 1/2 marathon pace or slower which worked pretty well. 2 months after the marathon I did a 100 mile bike event and in that time I’d got my bike fitness back to as good as it normally is.
So overall I’d say go for it. Nice thing about you having a shorter commute is that you can fit your cycling in around your running. When you’re having a tough run week (increasing mileage, adding speedwork or hills, etc) you can just do a gentle 7 miles each way, when you’re having a maintenance run week and your legs feel good you can add in some more distance or intensity on the bike.
Make your bike as heavy as possible. Add panniers and stick some big, thick books in them. Seriously. I knew a guy who commuted like that and when he took up triathlon he banged out a 1:02 40km in his first race and then with some more focused training got it under an hour.
Also one more thing is put the fattest highest Crr tires that you can on your bike with the lowest PSI that you won’t flat with. This virtually extends the commute in terms of overall kilojoules per week. Add in super baggy clothing too.
I commute 8 months a year, 20k each way - Though I have the benefit of a few longer sections without traffic lights.
I mainly use it as base milage and will throw in one or two interval driven (to the next light or up the one hill I have) per week. I save my intensity workouts for non commute workouts.
More than 1 or 2 per week and it starts affecting the quality of my other workouts.
I commute 8 months a year, 20k each way - Though I have the benefit of a few longer sections without traffic lights.
I mainly use it as base milage and will throw in one or two interval driven (to the next light or up the one hill I have) per week. I save my intensity workouts for non commute workouts.
More than 1 or 2 per week and it starts affecting the quality of my other workouts.
My old job was 18 miles each way but a lot of paved trail riding so there was only a small section where I had to deal with lights and traffic. Doing that 3 days per week made a huge improvement on my cycling – and then I’d add a weekend ride if I was training for a race. Also out here, you can throw your bike on a bus if you need to or if you’re too tired.
The extra gear you carry does add up - especially if you ride hills. Panniers, change of clothes, u-lock, other stuff for work.
I would say dont wory about it too much it terms of using it as training, miles are miles and more are better ( generally). I would treat it as base/recovery and fit in harder workouts around it.
If that were my commute, I would do it at least three times a week. My commute is 32 miles each way by bike (it is shorter by car, but bikes on the interstate are frowned upon). It has 5 miles in town, twenty miles on a gravel road, and seven miles through town to work. The gravel road gets a lot of animals, so I just ride that at a steady pace, especially in the dark. In town, I treat the sections between stop signs and stop lights as intervals.
I am not doing it during the winter because it would be completely dark both directions, but in the summer, I loved it and did it once a week. I am not normally one for working out in the morning, but I really enjoyed that morning ride.
I’m with Dev, a small amount of Cycling can go a long way to keeping your bike fitness. Obv you won’t set any prs, but that’s not your goal.
It’s go further and say be careful trying to pack too much into those commutes. An hour or so a day of biking adds up quick and will prevent you from running at your best.
I’m literally in exact same boat. Starting Hanson plan for early April marathon. Have a 14 mile round trip commute to/from work.
I personally just plan to do super easy riding to and from work. I expect to feel pretty wrecked from the running so plan to use it to spin the legs as a bit of active recovery rather than a true workout. Depending on my legs I may do some sprints or a little quicker riding but will err on the side of being conservative.
This. And it doesn’t even have to be intervals of super-high intensity. Just do something. I get 90% of my workouts in by riding or running to work and I do quite OK in races.
I was thinking, and now will, put gatorskin 28mm tires on the road bike to increase resistance. The drawback of using my road bike is that I won’t have panniers to carry stuff so work items will be in a backpack. I like the idea of adding weight as I could see that beneficial to the training but I also don’t want to start having back problems. My commute ends near a safe six mile loop so I could tack on a loop or two before going home.
This process will be an interesting case study of prioritizing a running pans out…
Too funny. Good luck with your training! Have you used the Hanson plan before? I’m going to promise to listen to my running legs first and bike workout second so I don’t risk injury or poor training in one or both areas.