COMMUTER TRAINING
To celebrate Cycle to Work Day on 8 August, we look at how you can transform your daily commute into the ultimate training plan
Even with a modest daily commute, we show you how you can make it count towards your summer goals
Around 750,000 UK riders pedal to work each day. Cities such as London, Brighton, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield have experienced a major rise in bike commuting in recent years.
“Humans are the original autonomous vehicle,” says Gareth Mills, UK country manager for Strava. “Commutes logged on Strava have really grown, with a 31 per cent increase from 2017 to 2018. The average distance is now 12.1km.” As well as saving money on transport – and pleasing teenage eco-warrior Greta Thunberg – bike commuters enjoy unique health benefits. A study of 358,799 people, published in the journal Heart, found that active commuters cut their risk of heart disease and stroke by 11 per cent and their risk of dying from such diseases by 30 per cent.
But commuting by bike is also a powerful and often overlooked opportunity to achieve serious gains in fitness in preparation for sportives and races. “I’ve finished two Ironman events and sportives in Dartmoor, the Cotswolds, the Welsh mountains and the Yorkshire Dales by training with extended commutes and one long ride per week,” reveals Mills, who commutes in Bristol. “As a new parent, it’s the only time I can build my fitness.”
Your commute can even help you shape up for European mountain adventures. “I commuted from Harpenden to London as preparation for the Haute Route Alpe d’Huez,” explains amateur rider David McNally. “Over the winter my commute helped enormously with base miles, and on Wednesdays I would take the train in early
and do hill repeats in Highgate. I have a busy job and three young children so long days in the saddle are rare. Using my commute allowed me to accumulate decent weekday training, which I could complement with more intensive efforts at the weekends.”
Londoner Mike Gluckman used his regular 10-mile commute from south east London into the City to build enough stamina to survive a multi-day mountain sportive. “I was training for the seven-day Haute Route Alps and the meaty end of my training consisted of four commute rides, plus three mid-week turbo sessions and one longer weekend ride.” Even professional riders agree that such regular rides provide winning benefits. “I always tell amateur riders that it’s better to do a little something every day than one big ride at weekends and then nothing for the rest of the week,” explains Sir Bradley Wiggins. “It is the consistency that brings results.”
Every day heroes
Although commuting by bike usually conjures up images of trouser clips and folding bikes, riding every day can be a great training tool. “Using your commute to improve your fitness for a sportive can be a very useful way to add extra miles,” explains Phil Paterson of training company RG Active (rgactive.com). “Even a 30-minute ride each way will add up over the week to some good base miles.” Former national hill climb champion turned cycling coach Matt Clinton (clinterval.com) agrees: “A couple of hours per day on a regular basis should prove a good foundation for a sportive. When I commuted regularly, I only needed to
“Doing ‘double days’ opens the legs up in the morning, recovering, then using those same muscles again on the way home, forcing your body to adapt” Matt Clinton, coach
supplement that with a couple of turbo sessions a week before competing at weekends.”
The accumulated mileage of commute rides will automatically boost your stamina, but the act of riding twice a day, both to and from work, triggers bonus physiological adaptations. “Doing ‘double days’ means you’re opening the legs up in the morning, recovering, then using those same muscles again on the way home, which forces your body to adapt,” explains Clinton. This double stimulus sparks an increase in mitochondrial enzyme activity, which means your body starts to burn more fat for fuel to boost your endurance capacity.
So simply riding your bike to work and back can deliver fantastic gains in fitness. But with a few subtle tweaks, your rides can become even more effective. “The biggest piece of advice is to avoid junk miles and to always ride with an aim,” explains Connor Murphy, a sports scientist at Train Sharp (trainsharpcyclecoaching.co.uk). “Have a plan for what sessions you’re going to do, which route you’re going to take and how long they are going to take.”
This detailed planning will help you unlock new ways to maximise your commute, such as extending your ride in order to tick off a few extra miles, or diverting via a park for some faster-paced circuits. “I use commuting as part of my training and I have three routes: a direct route, an extended route and a route with some hills,” continues Murphy. “These vary from one hour to one hour 40 mins each way.” Phil Paterson believes that injecting this kind of variety is the best way to challenge your body: “I sometimes add in loops of a park as well as the occasional hill rep session. You can be quite creative with your riding.”
With the right mental approach to your commute, everything from the natural geography to the weather and changing seasons can be harnessed as a training tool. “Bristol is a lumpy city so I use the climbs
as an impromptu interval workout,” says Mills. Even the British wind can be turned from an enemy into an ally, according to David McNally: “There are decent sections on my ride for 10-15 mins ‘sweet spot’ intervals (typically 75-85 per cent of your maximum heart rate), but in a headwind I can push those to 20-30 mins.” Long summer nights also offer extra opportunities. “When I had a 17-mile commute, the lighter evenings allowed me to extend this to a longer 30-mile ride on the way home,” says Clinton.
Whatever your approach, it’s important to get organised by prepping your kit and food the night before. “Have your food prepared at work along with your clothes and you won’t need to pack a bag every day,” advises Murphy. “I usually have some cereal and yoghurt at work in the morning, but some food in the afternoon is important so you don’t bonk on the way home: crumpets with chocolate spread are my go-to at the moment.”
Compute your commute
Although varying your daily rides, tagging on hill reps and knocking out longer summer rides will make your commute more productive, you can achieve a whole new level of fitness by building in targeted training sessions. “Only do efforts somewhere with minimal junctions, lights or interruptions,” warns Paterson. “If you’re commuting from a rural or suburban area to a town, you may find the roads dictate your speed, so use open stretches of road to work on speed when it’s safe to do so, and use slower sections to develop bike handling, braking and accelerating.”
Intervals and power efforts are possible on your commute, provided you do them on quiet and safe roads. “A few examples could be leg strength, threshold pushing or maximal aerobic power (MAP) efforts,” advises Connor Murphy. “A leg strength session might involve 3 x 10- to 20-minute efforts at 60-70rpm in Zone 3 (the pace of a lively group ride), with 5-10 min rests in between sets. A threshold pushing session would be in the same format but at 90-100rpm and a power range from just below to just above threshold (the power you can sustain for an hour). A sample MAP session may be 30 secs at maximal aerobic power, followed by 30 secs at Zone 2 (steady enough to hold a conversation). Repeat that 10 times for one set and aim for three sets with 10 mins active recovery in between.”
On most commutes, longer intervals are often the easiest option. “Intervals less than 30 secs are quite tricky to do repeatedly on the road as you build up so much speed each time,” warns Clinton. “But 1-2 mins or longer works well as you’ll still push your VO2 max, which will help you on punchy climbs in a sportive.” Multi-day sportive rider Mike Gluckman used to perform intervals on his commutes. “I used to do three mid-week sessions on the turbo but it became so tedious I started to work the intervals into my commute instead. My route was elongated to include Richmond Park where I could do intervals or high power blocks to replicate riding in the mountains.”
Varying your gears and cadence is a simple way to extract extra gains from your commute. “Riding in a higher gear and working at a lower cadence helps to develop strength endurance as you have to produce more power with each pedal stroke,” explains Paterson. “It can also improve pedalling efficiency as you focus on riding more smoothly.” Mike Gluckman even used his single-speed bike to boost his power output. “It is great for building strength with low cadence efforts or by practising high-power output at high
“Training fasted can help endurance athletes as it increases PGC-1 alpha, which is involved in energy metabolism” Phil Paterson, RG Active
cadence on the flats,” he explains. “Aim for a 48x16 for a suitable balance or a 50x16 for a little more grind.”
For anyone looking to lose body fat or improve their stamina, skip breakfast before your commute. “Training fasted can help endurance athletes as it increases a protein called PGC-1 alpha, which is involved in energy metabolism,” explains Paterson. “It creates new mitochondria and improves lactate metabolism to make us more efficient.” Fasted rides should always be completed at a low intensity to encourage your body to burn fat as fuel. David McNally found this strategy really effective: “I often did the ride fasted or semi-fasted, which has helped massively with getting leaner.”
Go the extra mile
The routine mileage of your commute will build stamina, and a few extra interval sessions, big gear efforts and fasted rides will crank up your gains even further; but don’t forget the importance of longer 3-5 hour steady endurance rides at weekends. “For a sportive you need to prepare for hours of continuous riding,” says Paterson.
Murphy insists that weekend rides remain crucial. “Those rides will give you a good endurance base, increase your aerobic capacity as well as improve the function of your mitochondria.”
Weekend rides are also the best chance to hunt down some hills and improve your climbing. “The hills don’t have to be steep since you can always determine how hard it feels with your gearing and your effort,” adds Paterson. “But this is the time to work on climbing - both seated and out of the saddle - to develop a more rounded climbing technique and fitness.”
On rainy days when you don’t feel like cycling to work, or to sharpen your fitness before a race, add in some mid-week turbo sessions with full-gas 30-60 sec intervals. “Some sessions are just too hard to complete on the commute with traffic and junctions,” warns Murphy. “These sessions are best kept for the turbo trainer where the structure won’t be interrupted.” And with the release of smart trainers and virtual riding communities like Zwift, indoor training doesn’t have to be dull.
As long as you bolt on some longer weekend rides and a few lung-expanding turbo sessions, your routine commute – if used correctly - could be the most powerful component of your training regime. “It’s a simple way to add in semi-structured training without making it too serious,” says Paterson. “I commute every day by bike because it adds movement and miles into my day… and it’s quicker.”