Do these training hours count?

Old n' Lazy

I ride to work sometimes (It's about 25km one way) Do I get any benefit from these rides? Or is this just wasted time in the saddle? My standard training is usually about 7-8hrs per week in 3 sessions. I was thinking of using the commuting rides would be used as part of my low intesity hours. Or is a 50-60 min ride just too short?

frenchyge

50-60 minutes is definitely not too short for a workout. If there's a benefit to your commutes, and what that benefit might be depends on how you ride them.

BlueJersey

Personally, I only commute to warm up my body to prepare for the first day of my 3 day block training. Or just to maintain my CTL until the beginning of my 3 day block cycle. Otherwise, personally, I don't see any benefit in commuting. The effort isn't continuous because of frequent stops. Intensity isn't consistent enough.

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BtonRider

I commute to work as a recovery ride. The above comments are correct that the effort isn't consistent enough to offer good training. I've personally found that I recover faster when I commute though. I don't always have a lot of time to work in as many recovery rides as I'd like, so the commute is an easy way to work in a few easy rides to a busy week.

Spunout

If it is not training, should you then not use the values to prop up your CTL?

ihana

I do a 9kms daily commute through town and train at lunch time or occasionally
after work. I find the commute is a nice warm up/down and also gives a feel of
how tired or fresh I am that day.
I think a proper cyclist is one who actually uses the bike for commuting too,
where practical, of course.

cheers,

Tom

BlueJersey

Nah, the commute would only earn me 1 CTL point the most. 110TSS round trip the most.

__________________
In memories of my hero, Mimi.
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http://www.myspace.com/thresholdpower
Photo collections:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vracing/

Nicolai Foss

If you do a 5 time a week commute at 110 TSS wouldn´t that give you a CTL of around 78? In my wiew if you didn´t take such a large amount of riding into your training plan you would have a large risk of overtraining.

I commute 18-20 km each way which gives a TSS anyw´here from 90 to 180 depending on tempo. One of my routes is best for tempo riding whereas the other has more lights and therefore is better for anaeobic efforts (and ususally ends up with more TSS despite being shorter).

BlueJersey

I just commute once a week. Maybe twice the most. I learned my lesson from last year about commuting. You can rackup high TSS per week but it really didn't make me a stronger racer.

__________________
In memories of my hero, Mimi.
http://geocities.com/victorhome/
http://www.myspace.com/thresholdpower
Photo collections:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vracing/

turbonium

i have only done bike commuting 15km each way. and it got me pretty strong.

Pendejo

My guide is: If you're not straining, you're not training. In my opinion, easier rides can help with weight control, mental attitude, and keeping the legs rust-free. But they will make little or no contribution to your competitive efforts.

Papote

I have the same doubt. I'm training following Friel's method (The Cyclist training bible). If a certain week I should train 12 hours, I don't know if I should count in the five hours of commuting to work (24 km each day, 12 km commute taking around 40' each way, four days), I ride the commutes below 65% maxHR (recovery), ever lower in the morning (below 55% maxHR, I find it more difficult to rise my hear rate in the early morning).

Or perhaps I could ride those commutes at training speed, but these are short rides... . I commute through the cycling path around Madrid, not too bad for training purpoes.

daveryanwyoming

Which is a direct contradiction of Arthur Lydiard's famous quote: "Train, don't strain"

But I expect I agree with you more or less, cut out the junk miles or at least don't call them training. Training should have focus and require some effort, but it also shouldn't be so brutal that you can't finish the session, train again on subsequent days, do enough of it in the short and long term or be fresh enough for your events.

-Dave

Steve_B

I agree. I learned that a few years ago when I started tracking my CTL. Ouch. I was getting a lot of TSS through commuting (without doing any real training during the ride) then sometimes I would train after work on my TT bike too. It got to be too much and my CTL was getting to be way too high (IMO). Once I cut back, and managed my riding through WKO+, I am a much more effective racer. My legs aren't tired all the time and I'm less likely to mentally burn out from too much volume.

Now, I commute generally for one of many good reason: need an easy day, need more TSS "fill", need to open up the day before a race, need some SST, all of which I can do on the way to/from work.