Thirsty (for knowledge) Thursday: Training on Your Bike Commute?

A reader of 220 Triathlon posed a question to one of their coaches: "I cycle to work every day, 5.5km each way. Can I get any training value out of it? I’m on a heavy hybrid bike with solid tyres, inc. 60m of climbing."

Coach Dermott Hayes chimed in saying there IS possible value there, but it needs to have an objective and it needs to be executed as you've planned it. He goes on to write that...

...a 5.5km commute on a heavy bike means that you should really consider what goal you’re looking to meet from the commute; it’s a short distance and if you have to encounter traffic and stoppages for junctions or lights then the effectiveness of the training time is certainly reduced.

The best way to "get something out of" that ride is to add in some HIIT efforts (high intensity interval training). He says:

Ideas for how to spice up the commute and turn it into a training session could include some high-intensity interval efforts of approx. 20-45secs, broken up with 2-3mins of easy recovery.

Or, alternatively, you mention there’s 60m of climbing, so maybe you could turn the uphills into an opportunity to ‘overgear’ and focus on building strength by riding in bigger gears.

However, if I was advising one of my athletes on what to do with this training time it’d be to use it as lower-intensity, fat-burning, recovery-style rides.

He didn't come right out and say it, but it seems like this under 4 mile route is a bit to short to take seriously as a workout. (The caveat is that she's on a heavier bike, so it might "ride" more like 6-8 miles.) He sort of shys away from the HIIT idea as well by adding:

In the time it takes to ride 5.5km, if you were going to turn it into a proper session, you should include warm-up and cool-down time, but there really isn’t enough time for this.

So instead, I’d take the opportunity to spin your legs at low intensity and save energy for your more focused training sessions where you can go full gas.

You can set your parameters in the same way as for other training and possibly include a heart-rate ceiling that you mustn’t exceed, or spend some time focusing on your pedalling technique or cadence.

But don’t think of this as ‘junk miles’, just save the big training for when you have more time.

This is similar to my feelings when I was biking to class a few years ago: the way TO class and HOME from class were just extra miles and spinning out my legs. If I was able to sneak out during lunch for a ride, THEN I'd go hard and do an actual "workout." Glad to know I was doing it right by Hayes.

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