New commute - tell me it gets easier?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Andrew_P

In between here and there
LOCO - You have confused me with your cycling lingo! What is cat rated hills? And what is N+1?!

Thanks everyone!
Sorry missed this, CAT rated hills are long and hard start a cat 4 to HC the bigclimbs in the TdF are HC.

N+1 is rule 12 of cycling
 

summerdays

Cycling in the sun
Location
Bristol
I did my 20 + miles today and for the first time it felt slightly easier, and I think a minute or two faster, despite the traffic being much worst than I've had it up till now. Felt good but then it's the first time I've attempted it this week, I suspect by the end of the week I'll be really tired again. (But then I did notice it was quite windy before I set off, and didn't notice it whilst cycling so I could have had that elusive creature - the tail wind, giving me a helping hand:whistle:
 
OP
OP
hotfuzzrj

hotfuzzrj

Guru
Location
Hampshire
I love those cycling rules, very funny!
Don't think I'm pro enough yet to do all of them but still going to try!

Summerdays was that 20+ miles each way?!
 

summerdays

Cycling in the sun
Location
Bristol
No - the full commute each way (plus some extra bits) would be about 30 I think, getting a lift part of the way with Mr Summerdays and not doing it at all on some days at the moment.
 
OP
OP
hotfuzzrj

hotfuzzrj

Guru
Location
Hampshire
Yeah my shifts are sets of three or four (apart from a week of Nights) so this three I did it twice, and I hope to do two out of the next four.
Not sure I'll ever manage every day, but I am enjoying the exercise.
Good luck with your increased commute too!
 
Good morning,

It sounds a bit nutty but after doing this for a couple of weeks, you may find a lot of benefit from doing a training ride on Saturday.

A short ride, the first 2 or 3 miles as a warm up and another 5-10 miles as fast as you can go.

The thinking is that the normal commute will quickly build up a level of fitness that makes the ride comfortable, and the weekend rides will add the extra strength to make it easy.

After doing the weekend ride for a couple of months you could easily drop it off and integrate it with your commute home.

I found this out by accident and all bar one hill on my commute "disappeared".

Bye

Ian
 

John the Monkey

Frivolous Cyclist
Location
Crewe
I'm doing 13 ish each way at the moment.

Just split it up through the week if you're feeling knackered (Mon, Wed, Fri, maybe?) Then build up to four days, then five.

Remember that you don't have to go flat out all the time - I sometimes treat Monday as a "recovery day" if I've ridden a long ride on Sunday, and ride to a slower average speed that day.
 

tadpole

Senior Member
Location
St George
I have recently moved from Birmingham to Surrey. My commute and role have slightly changed.

Old commute - 3.5 miles each way. Lovely. Normal Early start time 0800 Normal Late finish time 2200
New commute - 13.5 each way. Hilly. Normal Early start time 0700 Normal Late finish time 0000 or 0100

I have done the commute on the bike three times now, it's a lot longer than I'm used to but enjoyable, the scenery is beautiful and the motorists give plenty of room.
But I'm blinking knackered!!
Will I get used to it or should I just resign myself to being knackered forever??
(Oo oo also I'm on a hybrid, should I bite the bullet and get a road bike?)
I guess it depends on what you want from your commute, if, like I was until I met Strava, you just want to ride to work, it will get easier, to the point of being boring. But after Strava, it got a lot harder, and faster. Now I ride to work with a purpose, and it take 40% less time, but I hurt 50% more, I also say no to a road bike, only because if you do your miles on a heavy hybrid, when you are race fit on, the move to a road bike will be that much more sweeter, and faster.
 

Colem

Member
Location
Poole
I started commuting April last year, on a poorly set up MTB (it's a 9 mile commute for me), and i have to admit the first 2 months were tough. I stuck with it, doing 4 days a week and after the inital 2 months ramped it up to a full 5 days.
I switched to a road bike in Feb and really loving the ride in now, the odo is well over the 2000 mile mark ^_^

So stick with it, and if you feel really tired, there is no shame in throwing the odd rest day!
 
Top Bottom