Making the decision to cycle to and from your place of work or college could transform your fitness in just a few short months. You can also add on some miles of the direct route is too short for training purposes.
Using your commute to work as a training session will bring many benefits including improved condition by the time the summer is out, writes elite cycling coach Paddy Doran of Peak Edurance Coaching
It’s often said that if you want something done, ask a busy person.
That may ring true, but making space in your day for training - which for even the most dedicated of amateurs is still a leisure activity - can often seem impossible.
For professionals, finding time to train and to recover is often a case of following a strict programme prescribed by a coach.
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For amateur racing cyclists and indeed those who simply cycle for leisure and general fitness, it’s the same to an extent. But you also have to be a bit creative too.
Cyclists who wish to improve, and who have the usual time constraints due to work or college, need to manage their time very well to allow for the full benefit of the effort and time they put into the sport to accrue.
One tip for time poor cyclists that might seem obvious but is often overlooked is to use commuting time to and from work or college as part of your training.
For this to work well, the commute should ideally be a reasonable distance, conducted on safe roads with good lights and high visibility clothing.
He should only be done in safe weather conditions.
Good planning is needed to organise a change of clothes, safe bike parking and good nutrition; the latter element being overlooked more often than you might think.
More and more of us are finding access to the right facilities for commuting easier to attain as companies cotton on to the growth in cycling among their workforce.
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The trip to work will soon be part of our daily routine and can also lead to very progressive training.
Using a single free-wheel or fixed wheel with a low gear ratio can improve your ability to pedal at high cadence in a very natural and progressive way.
And it doesn’t even have to feel like training. It’s also excellent as a short recovery session following previous harder training.
If you train according to the daylight hours, as the evenings get brighter the commute home can be extended into a more lengthy training session.
But even now, once you wrap up and get lights organised, there's nothing stopping you.
The key thing is to cycle in and out of work or college as frequently as you possibly can. After a while it will just become a part of your day and you won't feel right if you don't do it.
When you get to that stage, as you will much more quickly that you think, your condition will have improved hugely.
And if weight loss is part of your goals, you should see some great benefits there too.
One positive side effect of training according to the available light is that your commute sessions will also be very progressive as the summer arrives.
A huge benefit of training during commutes is that when you get home you are in for the evening, with training finished and with time for proper rest and recovery.
There are many pluses here too for couples and families.
When training is incorporated into your time away from the house during the day for work or college, your home life can really benefit. You will find you have more time to give to it.
So if you usually use public transport or drive to work or college, consider commuting by bike.
Even if it’s only a twenty minute each way trip, you could cycle or jog.
That translates to 200 minutes of cycling – more if jogging - by the end of the week. It will probably be faster and definitely cheaper than taking the bus or car anyway.
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