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Iron fit & commute
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I ride 12 miles to work and obviously the same distance home 5 days a week, and I'm religiously following the ironman programme from "Be Iron Fit". Does anyone know if my commuting miles will adversely affect my training programme? What is the best way (speed / h.r. Zone) to manage my unavoidable commute miles?
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If you are getting 24 miles a day in on the bike that is pretty good. I assume you are counting that as part of your training effort. You do need to get a longer ride in though if not 2. Could you extend the ride home one night to make it more like 25 miles? Then get a long ride in over the weekend.
If I had to chose I would select HR zone to work to rather than speed but I dont see why you need to do either. Just bike it.
imo you either make it worth counting or dont. what i mean is one day do it as intervals - 1 mile on, 1 off or something like that or just take it easy and dont count it. if you just bike it like JB says i think you arent getting a specific work out but it may also take a little bit out of you so that you dont perform when you have to do an interval or TT workout. you only need to rag it twice if you plan cleverly and take it easy the other 3 days or vice versa
Good question
I think commuting gives you lots of time on the bike, and can make you pretty strong, (especially if you treat lights as interval sessions
However
I used to ride both ways 4/5 days, and found I got pretty tried by the end of the week - the weekend ride is the most important one so if you are too tired and miss that then its a bit self defeating.
I am in london so my solution was easy....
I ended up
hope that helps
How ling have you commuted on the bike. If it is a long time then it can be considered as additional to the training load. The same as if you have a manual job.
If recent then consider it to part of your training otherwise you will burnout.
If you striucture the ride to meet the workout goals of the day then consider it as part of your training load regardless.
I know a lovely female landscape gardner. Hard as nails but lovely (just in case she reads this). Early on in the IM schedule she found it easier to cope than other beginners due to her natural hard-as-nails fitness levels. Later on as the volume ramped up the training load and work load started to really take its toll- she wasjust knackered.
Think of your commute as a manual job. It helps with background fitness but ultimately will contribute to overall tiredness. If you aren't getting the specivity of training from the commute and it is stopping you from trainingdue to tiredness then it isn't beneficial.
Hope this helps.
M..eface
I commute 6 miles each way , fairly hilly and Definately part of my aspirational 10 hours per week training plan