‘Again?’ I could be heard to mutter on occasion (especially in the winter), as I donned yet another pair of bibshorts and struggled into my overshoes (why do they have to be so tight?) in preparation for the five purgatorial urban miles in wind, rain and single-digit temperatures that would deliver me from office to house.
Was it worth it, the rigmarole? When were they – whoever ‘they’ might be – going to invent the teleporting device that we were all teased with by Star Trek?
Perfect. Except that rigmarole of the daily cycle commute – I miss it a lot.
James Shrubsall
James has worked at a variety of races for CW, from the Classics to the Giro d’Italia – and this year was his seventh Tour de France. He has been cycling on and off road for four decades, and misses his ride to work.
We’ve all read the articles extolling the virtues of the daily commute as a vehicle for training, and it can indeed work very well for that. If it takes you out onto the open roads over a useful distance – say 10 miles (16km) and upwards, you could chuck in a structured session a couple of times a week, and it might make up the bulk of your riding.
Indeed, there have been some very successful riders over the years who have built their condition almost exclusively on commuting miles.
However, if your commute generally totals 20-30 minutes of waiting at junctions and getting out of the way of motorists, the idea of throwing in a VO2 max session is as impractical as it is dangerous.
And no police officer is going to accept the fact that you were about to set a new five-minute power PB as an excuse for jumping that red light.
Extending the commute out into more forgiving territory can of course be an option. But many of us have enough commitments at both ends of the day that such a thing can only be an occasional luxury.
Sometimes that short, urban commute is only ever going to be just that. A practical way to get to work while getting the blood pumping at the same time.
When I used to train seriously, I would discount the five miles to work and back almost entirely. It would be relegated to a disdainful side note in the paper – yes, paper – training diary.
The rest of my training was done on weekday lunchtimes and at the weekend, and if it didn’t render me borderline incapable of movement or thought for the following 24 hours (sorry boss), it wasn’t worthy of the name.
One pandemic coupled with one office move later – folded gently in with a new ‘remote worker’ designation – and commuting in the Shrubsall household became 10 steps across the living room rather than 10 miles across Croydon and back.
It didn’t take long before I was missing a host of the benefits. The fresh air and that feeling of the blood coursing through lethargic veins of course, but also the cardiovascular benefits of riding 50 miles a week that were no longer happening.
What I had been so ready to consign to the ‘pointless’ column in my training diary had been so clearly anything but. Short, rather tedious, and mostly untaxing it may have been, but all the same it was three-and-a-half hours of aerobic exercise a week.
On most people’s report cards that would gain an A-star and and Well Done from the doc. In fact it’s 50% more than the recommended 150 minutes per week, all achieved by short commutes alone.
Giving it up also meant breaking numerous useful habits: that of quickly being able to locate all my kit and pulling it on as though it was no effort. And the habit of riding in all (OK, most) weathers. The habit of riding a bike, full stop.
Suddenly getting dressed up to go out (especially in winter) was as much of a challenge as the ride itself. And as for heading out into the rain, forget it. When you’ve got options, it’s easy to postpone. When you’re commuting, you just get on with it. Riding three times a week instead of 13 somehow felt no easier.
More stolid work-from-home mates of mine have solved the problem by inventing their own daily ‘commutes‘, which both start and end at their houses and can take place any time of the day they fancy.
Needless to say, they usually leave me trailing when we’re out on the bike together. But I’ve lately come to believe more strongly than ever in consistency, and I’m going to try to inject a bit more of it into my riding week with a few more rides.
The distance almost doesn’t matter – it could be as little as 20 minutes. Because thought I once thought it was pointless beyond transporting me to work, I now realise how valuable it was.
Now, where the hell is all my cycling kit?
