Does using commute to and from work count? as my commute to work is 25km each way, which takes about an hour, so I use that time to train for the next sportive I have entered.
I block nights, alternate my commute 20k each way, and once off shift, a small group of us meet up at 6:30 for a 'bum run' around 45k, or a few club members throw a 'mid week' ride out, around 90k plus. Summer months, it's the club weekly 10 mile TT followed by a 40k chaingang the next night, if the legs aren't 💀💀💀.
commuting since 35 years (with times where it was not possible)..... That is 2 times a day?! Last year ~13 000km.... including cycling holyday..... and all the other ways I had to go.....
This is why using a bike for commuting / general transport is so awesome…getting around and getting in my exercise throughout the day without needing to commit a large chunk of time to training 👌
Started doing this few months ago, doubled my mileage and reduced fatigue and aches. 1hr 6am, 1hr 6pm. made heat more tolerable as well. Highly recommend! Thanks for doing this vid gcn!
I just got into cycling early last summer, and my entire riding/training plan was split days via commuting. in the morning, I would have a 15 to 20 minute zone three and four ride, then on the way home if I had time I would extend out to as much as a one hour ride. I was honestly surprised how quickly my fitness increased so when I wanted to do long rides, it was much easier than I expected.
Sounds like a great plan! Commuting is a great way to keep the miles ticking over and get the double rides in, we've long sung the praises of the bike commute
This is me, though I usually go the other way around with a longer ride in the AM. It's easier in the morning to just leave a bit earlier, while the PM has a lot of pressures like kids needs, sometimes other training (martial arts in my case), sorting dinner, getting everyone ready for bed, etc.
Former pro triathlete here who has done both of these. What they didn’t get into is the double session simply takes longer due to kit up and clean up. It’s great if you are commuting but with indoor training options now, one a day is my preference. More time for family
Doesn't take that much longer though does it? 10minutes tops? Heck you could probably do 5mins. Arguably warming up /down twice is probably the bigger factor? an hour into a ride you are sweet....takes me at least 10-15mins at the start of any ride to feel more bedded in. Which is why I love you can skip warm up blocks on a workout on zwift now (though more when I'm coming off the back of another workout session)
Yes, the warm up is part of it. But even if its just 5 minutes a day thats almost 30 min per week. Gotta do what works best for the schedule - everyone is different and it changes all the time! @@out_spocken
@@out_spocken Don't forget checking air in your tires, filling up your bottles, then cleaning your bottles when you get home, now having double the laundry to do, and then washing your bike and lubing chain if it was a rainy ride. It incrementally adds up.
I could be on my trainer in 5 mins, and 5 mins after the session I could be in the showers. Can’t say the same for riding outdoors. I’ve stopped riding outdoors for the past year since it’s so boring and time inefficient compared to indoor training.
@@87togabito Where do you live that riding outdoors is more boring than indoors? Time efficiency is arguable, and I'd agree that riding indoors takes slightly less time before and after. But living in Colorado, any time I get to ride outdoors is far superior to the trainer. Even riding on the flat though ice or mud, time passes so much faster than staring at a screen on the trainer. Dodging holes and walkers and dogs and gophers is so much more engaging than keeping the wheel of the avatar in front of you. I guess if you live somewhere you can ride outdoors year round would get kind of routine. Maybe I'll move there when I retire...
I used to ride centuries every Sunday when I was younger. I started to diversify as I got older. A great day today is 30-60 minutes of cyclocross at dawn in the park, followed by a 14-mile quick jaunt around my city's bike path. In the evening, when weather is appropriate, it's sprint training on my BMX with my boys.
As a former competitive swimmer, split days are normal for me. Now as a busy parent with a full time job getting back into more competitive cycling, split days are the only way I’m going to be able to get fit enough for the event I just signed up for!
Same as a former runner. Doubles work brilliantly, and they’re much easier to do now with smart trainers. A short indoor ride is really easy to add to your schedule.
It would be great way to annoy my wife if I started split days ! She tolerates my cafe runs on the weekend mornings but wants, quote, "some sense" out of me in the afternoons.
Until Covid changed things - my commute was just this, each way was around 20km, so 40km a day. In, was a push, I liked to keep it as late as possible so I had a time limit - this really woke me up and got me ready for work. My commute home, sometimes a longer journey, was easier and really helped me unwind. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and still prefer this over doing larger miles. Don't get me wrong, despite cycling 5 days a week for the commute, I also headed out at weekends and even cycled my holidays.
I miss my commute. I was/ am in no way training, but those built-in free kms were lovely. Not to mention the feeling of arriving at work already having accomplished something. Now that the Canadian winter has finally arrived, I am trying to find a way to motivate myself to ride indoors. No joy so far. Might have to be several 5-min sessions a day? Oh, the boredom…
This dovetails nicely into Si's video about commuting for fitness. Pre-covid I was commuting to work ego, splitting training sessions. My early commute was a 15km early morning hammer to work and then after work, 35km home which was broken into some KOM chasing and some easy riding. It was ideal... plus I had 12kg on my back, on my commuter bike (heavier than my race bike) so when the weekends rolled around, my solo longer rides/group rides I was on fire. Post covid I work from home 100% so I do single sessions but maybe I'll review this once the weather is good (I'm in Canada) and give it a go again.
Thanks for this, it's given me a big 💡moment & am now planning split training of all sorts days! Reckon it will make the winter feel less overwhelming too
Hi Si and GCN, grrrrreat training topic! I'm 60, still working and on wknds enjoy occasional split days. Often weightlifting up to about 2hr in the morning and riding about the same time in the aft. I'm a multisport guy, but for any athlete, I advocate some weightlifting, preferably for strength, and jogging for baseline fitness. If jogging is painful, go easy and use it for Zone 2 training. Keep up the great work all!
Split days have been a way ot life for the last 10yrs for me, my daily commute stars at 01:30 with a nice steady 35km to work lasting around 1hr 15min (no traffic apart from the odd police chase) followed by a more direct blast out the blocks 20km home covered in around 35 mins. Having something to train for keeps me motivated, my 2 main ride this year are the Fred Whitton in May then Lands End to John O'Groats in September which keeps me mental focused.
Great timing on this video. This year I’ve decided to split my zone 2 days into two sessions rather than one long one. Mainly bc of how uncomfortable low intensity training is on the bum and it’s terribly boring. So far I look fwd to each shorter session instead of dreading the long one.
Seems logical Si given that exercise = work the muscles followed by the laying down of new mussle fibre. Two short rides gines more time for the laying down phase, which is what training is for. Thumbs up for the cycle commuting, it works. How about (I used to do this many years ago) short ride to work, ride home the long way round.
This is so spot on. I used to find myself struggling to find time because I couldn’t get up early enough to commute to work so consequently I wouldn’t ride at all. After many weeks of not riding at all, I finally said to hell with it and starting driving halfway to work and doing a 30 minute ride in and 30 minute ride out. What a massive difference in my life that made. I wasn’t over tired when I got to work to work, I would get a nice shower and felt like a million dollars when I started my day. This video is so spot on. That Si!
I used to bike to and from work, and only had a short ride - by the end of the summer if I caught every light, I'd be in the saddle for only around 15 minutes total each way. I still dropped 40+ lbs and felt the best I'd done in years, in spite of a two week break in the middle for recovery from a deviated septum surgery. I also got in one longer ride of two to four hours every weekend or other weekend through the warmer months.
Awesome video Si. This past summer I would ride my bike in the morning(20miles) then go to a yoga class in the evening, now that it's to cold for me to ride I practice yoga in the morning with a 4 mile walk in the afternoon, rain or shine.
I use to cycle to work and back. About 15 minutes each time. Then I cycled for my job. Royal Mail! Only cycle about once a week now. Hour in the winter. Twice in the summer about 2 hours at a time. I’m nearly 75.
When I was commuting 5 days/week, I'd ride easy in the morning and increase the distance/intensity in the afternoon. I did this for 5 years with the only exception being in the winter when the roads were ice/snow-covered in Colorado, USA. Thankfully, this was rare.
Those are some good advices! I bought interactive trainer last month and it is a bliss, riding 25-50min 4-5 days a week, combining it with upper body and core strength training. All my numbers are going up instead of declining during the winter months. Additionally from short sessions on the next day you are recovered and not too tiered to do chores or work.
Been doing split days for more than a decade - courtesy of the cycle commute. The best version of it was when the kids were young and I had to get them from school - I'd always be late leaving work and their school was close to the top of the highest "hill" in Brussels - so max effort for 20 mins (with micro rests at traffic lights) really boosted my fitness. Meanwhile the ride into work, largely downhill and leisurely, added to my overall training load in easy zone 1 / 2 . Kids now at university so I miss out on the high intensity rides as I've now got much less motivation than the school run gave me!
When just putting on winter gear is already a training session in itself, I don't think I can fathom doing it all over again later in the day. Save this for summer... :)
Wow! Thanks Science Si and gcn!! Love these deep dives into fitness research and applications to cycling! I have regularly done splits with commuting. What a great affirmation from the research. It's like the McMaster/ UCLA ground breaking research that took couch potato males, sent one group to the gym for at least an hour and took the other group and gave them a 10 minute workout on the bike with 3 spaced out 20 seconds as fast as you can go bursts. Upshot? With HIIT, you don't have to take as long as you think to get benefits, so there are no time excuses! Love this balanced approach here and the reminder that if your HR is elevated in the morning, you need to take a rest day. Short more frequent sessions fit better in a day. Love this fitness science content! More please!
Thing I have against split training sessions is that I have to use 2x of everything and then times that by 5 each week. So, each day I have to use a bib, shirt, socks and then a fresh dry one for the 2nd set later in the day. Needless-to-say that often times my gloves aren't even dry, have to get another dry towel, plan the training blocks etc. I guess I'm in the ride 3 hour straight camp than the rinse and repeat camp.
I did some two a days last year and man, I saw huge gains but the mental toll is for real. I had never done such workouts and I underestimated just how much it was wearing me down. For 2024, going to be smarter about that.
For 2 years pre-pandemic, I commuted to and from work in a similar fashion to Si. Leisurely 20 km into work, which I used to plan my day, and then return trip was a speedy ride to get the workday’s frustrations out of the system. Best two seasons I have ever had. Trying to get back into that mode now.
Having a newborn at home has required me to balance time optimally and squeeze training time whenever I could. Basically what was said; even though the quality of each session is not the same it's still a similar volume of training but being spread over the day makes recovery easier. I was expecting to lose a fair bit of fitness/form during parenthood but it started to go the other way around just because I was giving my body a bit more time to recover and taking away a bit of intensity. Basically, for endurance sports, volume > intensity.
I do a 20 mile (each way) commute to work. can only really do it at most 4 times a week, or 3 on a lower intensity week. Quickly builds up fitness after a holiday or illness. Trick is to eat throughout the day, not just a few big meals. I do the morning commute fasted and have a bar ready for the ride home. Plenty of rest in between is needed but a great way to keep fit doing a necessary task!
Thank you for this! Sometimes i commute to work 25 km one way but I used to think that 2 x 25 is much less then 50 in one ride. After watching this i will be more dedicated in those rides.
I love your uniforms. Very professional and recognizable. Although even if the topics are such simple, some of us do dress casual on a regular basis. I guess it'll be a big change for the whole presentation sometimes to portray common person rather than being too athletic based on your attire.
I have zero performance ambitions and don't care about zones and watts. I still do three split days a week because of my commute. I can tell it does me good because of how I feel. Sometimes I ride the commute hard, sometimes I extend the route home and sometimes I just take it easy. Depends on traffic, time of day and how I'm feeling.
Back in the day, I would do a 20 - 30 min ride to work, depending on traffic, and ride the same back to a 1 hour session with my fellow cyclists almost every weekday except Mondays. The sessions were mostly tempo work. We would ride the weekend rides as well, Sunday being the harder day as it is in most parts of the cycling world. Best cycling shape of my life.
I use my 7.5 mile commute as my training. 5 days a week and I try to go for it each way. Racing cars up hill are fun. The need to get to work takes it the 'should I'. Mental health benefits as well. On the way to work 'what do I want to do, how will I handle this situation' on the way home 'what a day'
My most successful seasons in multiple sports were achieved by doing split days. Road racing in 1978, set my marathon PR in 1987, and fatbike winter ultras in 2008. I would do split days 5 days a week, one long single workout day, one day off, for 6 months leading up to big event.
Work commuting with two rides a day I have done many timmes. It works! I also will say that doing one short ride a day is far better than none. A new Idea thanks to getting indoortrainer and this video is several minirides a day. What about having several short bikingbrakes on the trainer when you are doing homework or homeoffice? 15 minutes is a good distance, and 7 minutes is also something. Those minisessions, it got me very fit as a child, skiing 1,2 km laps between the schoolhours. Some days I got 7,2 km crosscountry skiing during the schoolday in the brakes, followed by 10 km or more in the evening.
I do double days quite often, especially during the warmer months. Sounds counterintuitive, but I live in Colorado at 2840 meters elevation, so even during the “warmer” months, mornings are quite cold. As an early riser, since it is cold and dark outside, I generally ride for 60-90 minutes on the indoor trainer at around 5:30 AM, have breakfast and coffee, and then ride outside for another 1-2 hours (or even more!) at around 10:30 AM when it is much warmer. These double rides do render me much fitter and very quickly as well. Oh…I am retired, so finding time is not an issue…but I still love the double sessions!
Used to doing 3-4 hours a day (on the trainer now!) before an evening shift of 3-11pm. Now switching jobs where I start around 8am. I wake up at 4am, start by 4:30 and do a 2.5 hour session (intervals first, then high z2 afterwards). After getting home with a light snack, I start at 5pm and do steady riding in low z2 with technique work or surges for an hour or so, aiming for bed by 8pm, letting the heart rate settle down.
Im commuting 3 days a week to work which gives me 6 training sessions of 1 hour if I don’t feel like taking a detour. But the best part of this is that I receive €0.21/km which is €12 a day and around €1800 a year! I really think all employers should pay their commuters at least the same amount as employees that travel by car or train.
I have occasionally done them just before the CX season. One session focusing on more intense efforts, and then a second session targeting skills. Don't have to find one location to best suit both activities that way.
I just started this for my morning routine. Up, out of bed, shorts on off to the bike & out the house for 30 mins. Whatever I've got planned in my day at least I get a minimum of 30 mins in. It also centers my morning routine & gets me sun (in the summer)
I've done this for weight training with large volume. I found that I was fresher for the second half. I could see how this could be beneficial some days if you don't feel up to a longer ride. Get in an hour. Rest, eat, recover then get in another quality session. Or breaking up a Z2 session and intervals or if it just works schedule wise. Probably good tool to have in the arsenal and adapt when necessary.
I do 2 short rides a day through necessity. I commute by bike to work Monday to Friday. 13 miles in 13 miles home, 26 miles per day, 130 a week. Not a massive amount but in the 7 years I’ve been doing it I’ve lost 25kgs and got a resting HR of 60/62 bpm. Use a road bike in decent weather and a 29er in the winter if ice or snow. Admittedly, by Friday I’m ready for a Chinese and a couple of Guinness and I do need to stretch and foam roll daily these days, but as I’m 58 I’m allowed!
After 2 years of commuting I went from having to stop at the top of a 200m incline because I was out of breath on my single speeder to buying a road bike and doing London to Brighton non-stop with no major issues. Its just a 15min commute each way.
My car broke down last week so I'm cycling 10k to and from work every day. It doesnt sound like much but previously i would go on like one long ride around fortnightly. I already feel sooooo different every day and the route is getting easier and I am getting a lot faster. It's something I look forward to now
I regularly do split training days. Three or four weekdays I'll generally run in the morning for 30 mins max and then do an indoor turbo session in the afternoon/evening. Weekends generally reserved for long outdoor rides. I feel it works well 👍🏼
@gcn thanks 👍🏼 well, I used to do more running than cycling (until I grew some more brain cells 🤣) so that comes naturally to me and is great for cross-training and just general fitness. I find it really boosts my aerobic and anaerobic capacities so I can smash it out harder on the bike. Serves me well 👍🏼
Yes split days all summer long by commute to work, 26km each way, definitely got me pedaling faster and so shows that I got fitter. Nice distance to do in a 'fast burst' rather than a sustained effort of 100km ride for example. Hate winter when I can't commute (my route is small country roads and so I feel it too dangerous to do in the dark, even with good bike lights)
I've definitely done a morning indoor session when it is cold then take the bike off and ride outside when it is warmer. The morning is usually the "workout" and the outside is "for me"
Morning Zwift before work, Evening post work 1 hour ride before heading home. I feel great when I can make this happen. Wakes me up for work and then I get to blow off steam before I come home. My wife has noticed a difference in my general mood
Work from home, 'commute' on Rouvy, in a magic world where your work and home are linked by classic climbs and are both uphill from the other. Alto D'Angliru to work, Passo Del Stelvio home.
Came back to the bike after Christmas of a couple of weeks doing nothing. Due the storms I thought; why not start a Zwift FTP builder plan. For now, the longest have been 67minutes, but it was already my 3rd of the week. Got to give it to the shorter sessions. Especially in winter, now the weather is completely nuts, and to keep motivated to prepare for bikepacking in summer.
I hate to admit it GCN was right. I’m Canadian and currently my part of Canada is having a very British winter. It sucks! Give me snow and cold and sun over around freezing drizzle and grey any day. IMO it is easier to ride outside when winter is colder with snow and sun.
Commuting for me changed everything. As a mountainbiker I really only get out when I have a lot of time. So getting a gravelbike and biking my 25km to work gives me ca 2hrs of biking three times a week! Saddle time increased several 100% 😅
years ago i was surprised how easy it was to take a bunch of cycle commuters on a charity coast to coast ride (uk). a few longer training rides and they absolutely smashed it, sometimes leaving us (experts!!!) hanging.
my current training plan is as follows Mon 60 min strentgh gym session - 10K lunch run Tues - 10K lunch run - 15 minute core session (evening) Weds - 60 min strength gym session - 10K lunch run Thurs - 10K lunch run - 15 min core session (evening) Fri - 10K lunch run - 15 min core session (evening) Weekends will generally be a 40-50K mountain bike ride, All of the above running is done at 4.30 easy pace. THis is the look of things in the colder/wetter winter months, but once spring comes around, Ill add in 50K+ road rides every other weekday, and then a 100K ride over the weekend sometime. Now or in the road riding months, I rarely feel fatigued so I have to assume its sometning that my body is able to handle.....so much so that now and then I can add in a longer run or ride, for example last week I went out for a 3hr run and covered 34KM. At the end of the day, the most important thing is this...if you feel tired, either miss a run./ride or go very very easy...its served me very well for the past three years where with running along I have covered 8600KM
Sounds peachy but no ride is just 30 minutes for a normal person. Getting suited up, showering, geeking out on your Strava stats... That's an hour easy. I'm pretty sure that's why people generally do 1 longer ride.. Not to mention how often you've gotta clean your kit.
i mostly do splitdays. longer rides are hard to fit in my work/family schedule. i keep them for some planned-ahead weekends. when i do splitdays, i usually do one cardio ride and the other one is the fun ride to fool around.
The best summer of cycling I had, I was semi-employed. I rode in the morning, about 20-30 miles, on my vintage steel Davidson road bike. I then ate, rehydrated, and took a nap. At 3 or 4, I ate a light meal, and then rode between 40 to 50 until dark. I am now thinking of those halcyon days, as the cold makes it impossible to ride.
for me split training is more a combo - that e.g. is a quick run morning, like 4 km, and then a proper biketraining session evening. But that also tire me down actually. So I have included walking ....
I’m commuting to work every day - 30 km one way, 60 km a day. During Covid, when I had to work from home, I still went out on ONE ride every day, about the same total distance and it felt VERY different. I think I lost some of my fitness then. So, I do believe that splitting has a place. On the weekends however, long rides are a must.
Seconding everybody who's talked about commuting/extending a commute. I only manage one proper long ride a week on average, but I usually try to get my daily time to somewhere between 1-2 hours between the midday sesh and the night sesh (yay for working 1-9pm most days), and get several punchy climbs and a couple of longer ones in the rotation. Result is that I sometimes find myself on group rides feeling like I'm out for a Sunday stroll while the people around me are getting real workouts in.
I watched the whole video all the way through. Today will be a "split day" for me (all indoor cycling), and I have already done the first workout. I think that if an individual gets in a workout not long before bed, the quality of sleep will be higher, meaning it will be much deeper. This has often been my experience with late-night workouts. Some thoughts that came to my mind include that a split workout day means the individual can get some good nutrition and rest in between cycling. Also, perhaps one can reach a higher level of intensity with multiple workouts, each being shorter. You covered this idea when you discussed commuting, with the intensity occuring during the ride back home. Of course I also think that longer rides have their own training advantages, and these might be missing during split days. However, you also covered the idea of listening to your body, which is really fundamental and essential. Therefore, perhaps my body might lead me to suppose that we could have some long days that are not split, and other days that are split. I may have missed expressing some thoughts in here, yet a good concluding one is that for the new year (2024), perhaps I could be trying some additional cycling in the form of second workouts on days that would otherwise not be split.
I've been commuting for many years. Not really training as such but the mornings are normally a rush (!) and the evenings I do a longer route back - c50kms a day. Some days longer, some days in and out the same so shorter. The main thing is my fitness. Not boasting but I think it's good; not pro standard but good. However, I find longer rides at the weekend hard to arrange - I love them when I do them but more often that not I'm tired and/or busy with other stuff.
With my current schedule of 1 hr Mon-Thur (2 hard and 2 steady-state) and then 3-5 hr on Sat (zone2 with sub-thresh intervals) and Sun (steady-state zone2), I don't know if I could handle adding any more... LMAO!! Good stuff though!
Use to train on a record rally sprint the aerospace. contoured one ,back in the day. ended up been semi pro doing 60 mile a day 6 days a week it got me fitter. doing two runs, of 30 mile out in the strines south Yorkshire. speaking of carbs i use to carb up before and during the ride
I used to have an hour long commute in the early morning with an hour and a half return in a different route to avoid rush hour traffic. I would then sometimes do a group ride directly after the commute of about an hour and a half to two hours twice a week in addition to club rides on Saturday mornings. As others have stated, this was the height of my cycling fitness.
I recently took up cycling again. I have a 40 minute commute ride and it's helpful, but I didn't really listen to my body and it did burn me out a bit. 80 minutes 3 to 5 times a week is quite intense after a long time of doing very little. Be kind to yourself folks, rest when you need to
I used to be about a 350-400 hour a year rider. That’s a lot in itself, but I realized my door to door commute was an hour. That’s a lot of idle time. I dabbled prior, but then in 2023 finally committed to bike commuting. I got just shy of 600 hours in 2023. It’s definitely a lot for day after day, getting up at 330a and riding in the dark, pack and unpack, but I made the call that more volume can’t be bad no matter how it’s done. It is tough though on workout days, I still do it but ride very slowly, the shortest ride I can do is 10 miles which is still a lot, twice, before you need to get on the trainer. Regardless, if possible, more riding is better than not.
Very interesting Simon, doing split sessions is something I've been contemplating. I'm not crushed for time and can ride as often and as long as I want for me it's more about the fitness benefits. Is doing split sessions really beneficial. I'm thinking swimming and riding! I ride 5 days a week. So I'm thinking shorten 3 of those rides say from 2 hours to 1 but use the other hour for a swimming session! I'm going to try it out👍 thanks for the info!
Being a triathlete makes split days easy and necessary. You have to do it. I would swim every day at lunch and then either run or ride in the morning or after work. I was very fortunate to live and work in a place that allowed for that lifestyle. Those days are long over.
I find that ridding to and from work is helping me with my longer rides. As for upper body workouts, that comes with my job of lifting heavy bags of garbage.
I do think that commuting helped me prepare for some long sportives - and that's without making the commute a specific session, just accumulated time in the saddle (and living in a hilly city 😄) Also, if you think running events tend to be shorter you've missed a whole world of ultra running! Montane spine races start on the 14th Jan, check out that insanity!!!
@@simonrichardson5259 you would go out of business if you built your content around my suggestions. But since you asked, it seems like there is hyper-focus on the quantitative side of cycling and less on the qualitative side. So many fast bike riders but so few cyclists by which I mean, those who know how to drive a bike.
I don”t know about the everyday commment. I know many people who commute (5days x 2 in and out) every week (say 48 weeks per year) and do long tough session in group Saturdays, then a slow family ride Sunday. They are all super fit and absolute machines.
When I was a competitive swimmer, almost every day was a double day. Morning sessions and evening sessions. Usually in the pool, but including strength sessions every other day. I have never been fitter! Not sure I could manage it now in approaching my 60s though!
I did split days biking to work everyday rain or shine. Now that I am retired, no split rides and average 250 km per week and am very fit with only minor aches which I treat with daily yoga exercises. BTW I have reached age 78.
I find 2 x25 miles a day better than a 50 mile because I get bored riding bike alone for more than 2 hours.i find my average is 1+ mph more second session same route - miles .done it for 30 years. Done 3 times a day when warmer days come .only do 50 to 100 mile long rides with mates
I always find I go better (more power) in the second session in a day. The first session of say zone 2 seems to serve as a warm up, and the second session of, say zone 4 is better quality than if I had just done the z4 session that day. The down side is two lots of kit to wash!
I could be completely wrong but I actually find split days easier to recover from. I commute 20k each way to work and ride every day. I am very strict to stick to zone to (the only exception the 2 climbs to get home). I will also on average do an hour zwift session with my wife on 3 of those evenings. I usually get off the bike on commute rides not feeling like I have much to recover from. However, if i were to do all 3 sessions in 1 ride, my legs would definitely be sore. Granted, commuting in zone 2 helps but physiological demand is not linear. The toll per km will be higher after 100km than after 10 and this may be harder to recover from
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Have you ever tried a split-day training plan? 🚲
Does using commute to and from work count? as my commute to work is 25km each way, which takes about an hour, so I use that time to train for the next sportive I have entered.
Jep.. as a triathlet (sorry for that) i run in the morning and bike in the evening.
When focusing on ultra-endurance running training (like now) run commuting is the only way I can fit in the miles. I love split-day training.
I block nights, alternate my commute 20k each way, and once off shift, a small group of us meet up at 6:30 for a 'bum run' around 45k, or a few club members throw a 'mid week' ride out, around 90k plus.
Summer months, it's the club weekly 10 mile TT followed by a 40k chaingang the next night, if the legs aren't 💀💀💀.
commuting since 35 years (with times where it was not possible).....
That is 2 times a day?! Last year ~13 000km.... including cycling holyday..... and all the other ways I had to go.....
This is why using a bike for commuting / general transport is so awesome…getting around and getting in my exercise throughout the day without needing to commit a large chunk of time to training 👌
This was Ian Cammish's mantra.
Started doing this few months ago, doubled my mileage and reduced fatigue and aches. 1hr 6am, 1hr 6pm. made heat more tolerable as well. Highly recommend! Thanks for doing this vid gcn!
Awesome! Do you change up the style of rides you do?
I have a new Job an i can ride now to work with my Bike every Day. I'm soo happy with it.😍
I just got into cycling early last summer, and my entire riding/training plan was split days via commuting. in the morning, I would have a 15 to 20 minute zone three and four ride, then on the way home if I had time I would extend out to as much as a one hour ride. I was honestly surprised how quickly my fitness increased so when I wanted to do long rides, it was much easier than I expected.
Sounds like a great plan! Commuting is a great way to keep the miles ticking over and get the double rides in, we've long sung the praises of the bike commute
This is me, though I usually go the other way around with a longer ride in the AM.
It's easier in the morning to just leave a bit earlier, while the PM has a lot of pressures like kids needs, sometimes other training (martial arts in my case), sorting dinner, getting everyone ready for bed, etc.
Former pro triathlete here who has done both of these. What they didn’t get into is the double session simply takes longer due to kit up and clean up. It’s great if you are commuting but with indoor training options now, one a day is my preference. More time for family
Doesn't take that much longer though does it? 10minutes tops? Heck you could probably do 5mins. Arguably warming up /down twice is probably the bigger factor? an hour into a ride you are sweet....takes me at least 10-15mins at the start of any ride to feel more bedded in. Which is why I love you can skip warm up blocks on a workout on zwift now (though more when I'm coming off the back of another workout session)
Yes, the warm up is part of it. But even if its just 5 minutes a day thats almost 30 min per week. Gotta do what works best for the schedule - everyone is different and it changes all the time!
@@out_spocken
@@out_spocken Don't forget checking air in your tires, filling up your bottles, then cleaning your bottles when you get home, now having double the laundry to do, and then washing your bike and lubing chain if it was a rainy ride. It incrementally adds up.
I could be on my trainer in 5 mins, and 5 mins after the session I could be in the showers.
Can’t say the same for riding outdoors. I’ve stopped riding outdoors for the past year since it’s so boring and time inefficient compared to indoor training.
@@87togabito Where do you live that riding outdoors is more boring than indoors? Time efficiency is arguable, and I'd agree that riding indoors takes slightly less time before and after. But living in Colorado, any time I get to ride outdoors is far superior to the trainer. Even riding on the flat though ice or mud, time passes so much faster than staring at a screen on the trainer. Dodging holes and walkers and dogs and gophers is so much more engaging than keeping the wheel of the avatar in front of you. I guess if you live somewhere you can ride outdoors year round would get kind of routine. Maybe I'll move there when I retire...
I used to ride centuries every Sunday when I was younger. I started to diversify as I got older. A great day today is 30-60 minutes of cyclocross at dawn in the park, followed by a 14-mile quick jaunt around my city's bike path. In the evening, when weather is appropriate, it's sprint training on my BMX with my boys.
As a former competitive swimmer, split days are normal for me. Now as a busy parent with a full time job getting back into more competitive cycling, split days are the only way I’m going to be able to get fit enough for the event I just signed up for!
What did you sign up for?
Same as a former runner. Doubles work brilliantly, and they’re much easier to do now with smart trainers. A short indoor ride is really easy to add to your schedule.
Split days are a super cool for fitting around a busy life 🙌
It would be great way to annoy my wife if I started split days ! She tolerates my cafe runs on the weekend mornings but wants, quote, "some sense" out of me in the afternoons.
Family first John 👀 You might have to sneak onto the turbo maybe?
Take your balls back and ride your bike when you want.
Ha .my wife would go bonkers lol. She's awesome but ! Still have family time 😂,🚲🍺
@@gcn easy there.
I got rid of my family in favor of more biking. Never been happier!
Until Covid changed things - my commute was just this, each way was around 20km, so 40km a day. In, was a push, I liked to keep it as late as possible so I had a time limit - this really woke me up and got me ready for work. My commute home, sometimes a longer journey, was easier and really helped me unwind. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and still prefer this over doing larger miles. Don't get me wrong, despite cycling 5 days a week for the commute, I also headed out at weekends and even cycled my holidays.
Amen, brother
Exactly the same, only do it two days a week now...
I miss my commute. I was/ am in no way training, but those built-in free kms were lovely. Not to mention the feeling of arriving at work already having accomplished something. Now that the Canadian winter has finally arrived, I am trying to find a way to motivate myself to ride indoors. No joy so far. Might have to be several 5-min sessions a day? Oh, the boredom…
This dovetails nicely into Si's video about commuting for fitness. Pre-covid I was commuting to work ego, splitting training sessions. My early commute was a 15km early morning hammer to work and then after work, 35km home which was broken into some KOM chasing and some easy riding. It was ideal... plus I had 12kg on my back, on my commuter bike (heavier than my race bike) so when the weekends rolled around, my solo longer rides/group rides I was on fire. Post covid I work from home 100% so I do single sessions but maybe I'll review this once the weather is good (I'm in Canada) and give it a go again.
Thanks for this, it's given me a big 💡moment & am now planning split training of all sorts days! Reckon it will make the winter feel less overwhelming too
Day 5 of GCN 30 in 30, been pushing hard each evening so far…tonight will try sit at a comfy 2ish wpk and then a nice sprint at the end….
Great camera/image quality. Especially appreciate the usage of longer focal lengths and compression
Hi Si and GCN, grrrrreat training topic! I'm 60, still working and on wknds enjoy occasional split days. Often weightlifting up to about 2hr in the morning and riding about the same time in the aft. I'm a multisport guy, but for any athlete, I advocate some weightlifting, preferably for strength, and jogging for baseline fitness. If jogging is painful, go easy and use it for Zone 2 training. Keep up the great work all!
Split days have been a way ot life for the last 10yrs for me, my daily commute stars at 01:30 with a nice steady 35km to work lasting around 1hr 15min (no traffic apart from the odd police chase) followed by a more direct blast out the blocks 20km home covered in around 35 mins.
Having something to train for keeps me motivated, my 2 main ride this year are the Fred Whitton in May then Lands End to John O'Groats in September which keeps me mental focused.
The "odd police chase" - Now that's an exciting commute 😂 Fred Whitton is one killer challenge! Are you getting in lots of hill training?
I did the Fred Whitton last year so I certainly know what's coming 👍
Great timing on this video. This year I’ve decided to split my zone 2 days into two sessions rather than one long one. Mainly bc of how uncomfortable low intensity training is on the bum and it’s terribly boring. So far I look fwd to each shorter session instead of dreading the long one.
Seems logical Si given that exercise = work the muscles followed by the laying down of new mussle fibre. Two short rides gines more time for the laying down phase, which is what training is for.
Thumbs up for the cycle commuting, it works. How about (I used to do this many years ago) short ride to work, ride home the long way round.
This is so spot on. I used to find myself struggling to find time because I couldn’t get up early enough to commute to work so consequently I wouldn’t ride at all. After many weeks of not riding at all, I finally said to hell with it and starting driving halfway to work and doing a 30 minute ride in and 30 minute ride out. What a massive difference in my life that made. I wasn’t over tired when I got to work to work, I would get a nice shower and felt like a million dollars when I started my day. This video is so spot on. That Si!
I used to bike to and from work, and only had a short ride - by the end of the summer if I caught every light, I'd be in the saddle for only around 15 minutes total each way. I still dropped 40+ lbs and felt the best I'd done in years, in spite of a two week break in the middle for recovery from a deviated septum surgery. I also got in one longer ride of two to four hours every weekend or other weekend through the warmer months.
Awesome video Si. This past summer I would ride my bike in the morning(20miles) then go to a yoga class in the evening, now that it's to cold for me to ride I practice yoga in the morning with a 4 mile walk in the afternoon, rain or shine.
I use to cycle to work and back. About 15 minutes each time. Then I cycled for my job. Royal Mail! Only cycle about once a week now. Hour in the winter. Twice in the summer about 2 hours at a time. I’m nearly 75.
Great to hear you're keeping the ride going 🙌Riding for work must have been fun, were you out in all weather?
When I was commuting 5 days/week, I'd ride easy in the morning and increase the distance/intensity in the afternoon. I did this for 5 years with the only exception being in the winter when the roads were ice/snow-covered in Colorado, USA. Thankfully, this was rare.
Those are some good advices! I bought interactive trainer last month and it is a bliss, riding 25-50min 4-5 days a week, combining it with upper body and core strength training. All my numbers are going up instead of declining during the winter months. Additionally from short sessions on the next day you are recovered and not too tiered to do chores or work.
The Q-factor on those glasses is massive 😎
Been doing split days for more than a decade - courtesy of the cycle commute.
The best version of it was when the kids were young and I had to get them from school - I'd always be late leaving work and their school was close to the top of the highest "hill" in Brussels - so max effort for 20 mins (with micro rests at traffic lights) really boosted my fitness. Meanwhile the ride into work, largely downhill and leisurely, added to my overall training load in easy zone 1 / 2 . Kids now at university so I miss out on the high intensity rides as I've now got much less motivation than the school run gave me!
When just putting on winter gear is already a training session in itself, I don't think I can fathom doing it all over again later in the day. Save this for summer... :)
Wow! Thanks Science Si and gcn!! Love these deep dives into fitness research and applications to cycling! I have regularly done splits with commuting. What a great affirmation from the research. It's like the McMaster/ UCLA ground breaking research that took couch potato males, sent one group to the gym for at least an hour and took the other group and gave them a 10 minute workout on the bike with 3 spaced out 20 seconds as fast as you can go bursts. Upshot? With HIIT, you don't have to take as long as you think to get benefits, so there are no time excuses! Love this balanced approach here and the reminder that if your HR is elevated in the morning, you need to take a rest day. Short more frequent sessions fit better in a day. Love this fitness science content! More please!
Thing I have against split training sessions is that I have to use 2x of everything and then times that by 5 each week. So, each day I have to use a bib, shirt, socks and then a fresh dry one for the 2nd set later in the day. Needless-to-say that often times my gloves aren't even dry, have to get another dry towel, plan the training blocks etc. I guess I'm in the ride 3 hour straight camp than the rinse and repeat camp.
I did some two a days last year and man, I saw huge gains but the mental toll is for real. I had never done such workouts and I underestimated just how much it was wearing me down.
For 2024, going to be smarter about that.
I did split days over my Christmas break and loved it. It is much tougher for me while I am working to do that as I was doing 2 x 1 hr sessions.
For 2 years pre-pandemic, I commuted to and from work in a similar fashion to Si. Leisurely 20 km into work, which I used to plan my day, and then return trip was a speedy ride to get the workday’s frustrations out of the system. Best two seasons I have ever had. Trying to get back into that mode now.
That's how to do it 🙌 The commute is such a great way to fit training in around day to day life.
Having a newborn at home has required me to balance time optimally and squeeze training time whenever I could. Basically what was said; even though the quality of each session is not the same it's still a similar volume of training but being spread over the day makes recovery easier. I was expecting to lose a fair bit of fitness/form during parenthood but it started to go the other way around just because I was giving my body a bit more time to recover and taking away a bit of intensity. Basically, for endurance sports, volume > intensity.
Been commuting to work for 15 years now: 2X22Km and it just became a habit now, I feel weird when I don't cycle every day xD
I do a 20 mile (each way) commute to work. can only really do it at most 4 times a week, or 3 on a lower intensity week. Quickly builds up fitness after a holiday or illness. Trick is to eat throughout the day, not just a few big meals. I do the morning commute fasted and have a bar ready for the ride home. Plenty of rest in between is needed but a great way to keep fit doing a necessary task!
I would need a shower at work then…profuse sweating
Thank you for this! Sometimes i commute to work 25 km one way but I used to think that 2 x 25 is much less then 50 in one ride. After watching this i will be more dedicated in those rides.
I love your uniforms. Very professional and recognizable. Although even if the topics are such simple, some of us do dress casual on a regular basis. I guess it'll be a big change for the whole presentation sometimes to portray common person rather than being too athletic based on your attire.
Fully agree. In Ultramarathon, which is very similar to cycling (long hours, mid hrm) back to back training is very common and effective
I have zero performance ambitions and don't care about zones and watts. I still do three split days a week because of my commute. I can tell it does me good because of how I feel. Sometimes I ride the commute hard, sometimes I extend the route home and sometimes I just take it easy. Depends on traffic, time of day and how I'm feeling.
Back in the day, I would do a 20 - 30 min ride to work, depending on traffic, and ride the same back to a 1 hour session with my fellow cyclists almost every weekday except Mondays. The sessions were mostly tempo work.
We would ride the weekend rides as well, Sunday being the harder day as it is in most parts of the cycling world.
Best cycling shape of my life.
Nice presentation, practical and backed by science. This is GREAT content.
I use my 7.5 mile commute as my training. 5 days a week and I try to go for it each way. Racing cars up hill are fun. The need to get to work takes it the 'should I'. Mental health benefits as well. On the way to work 'what do I want to do, how will I handle this situation' on the way home 'what a day'
My most successful seasons in multiple sports were achieved by doing split days. Road racing in 1978, set my marathon PR in 1987, and fatbike winter ultras in 2008. I would do split days 5 days a week, one long single workout day, one day off, for 6 months leading up to big event.
Work commuting with two rides a day I have done many timmes. It works! I also will say that doing one short ride a day is far better than none. A new Idea thanks to getting indoortrainer and this video is several minirides a day. What about having several short bikingbrakes on the trainer when you are doing homework or homeoffice? 15 minutes is a good distance, and 7 minutes is also something. Those minisessions, it got me very fit as a child, skiing 1,2 km laps between the schoolhours. Some days I got 7,2 km crosscountry skiing during the schoolday in the brakes, followed by 10 km or more in the evening.
I do double days quite often, especially during the warmer months. Sounds counterintuitive, but I live in Colorado at 2840 meters elevation, so even during the “warmer” months, mornings are quite cold. As an early riser, since it is cold and dark outside, I generally ride for 60-90 minutes on the indoor trainer at around 5:30 AM, have breakfast and coffee, and then ride outside for another 1-2 hours (or even more!) at around 10:30 AM when it is much warmer. These double rides do render me much fitter and very quickly as well. Oh…I am retired, so finding time is not an issue…but I still love the double sessions!
Great script and delivery Simon R!
Used to doing 3-4 hours a day (on the trainer now!) before an evening shift of 3-11pm. Now switching jobs where I start around 8am. I wake up at 4am, start by 4:30 and do a 2.5 hour session (intervals first, then high z2 afterwards). After getting home with a light snack, I start at 5pm and do steady riding in low z2 with technique work or surges for an hour or so, aiming for bed by 8pm, letting the heart rate settle down.
Im commuting 3 days a week to work which gives me 6 training sessions of 1 hour if I don’t feel like taking a detour. But the best part of this is that I receive €0.21/km which is €12 a day and around €1800 a year! I really think all employers should pay their commuters at least the same amount as employees that travel by car or train.
I have occasionally done them just before the CX season. One session focusing on more intense efforts, and then a second session targeting skills. Don't have to find one location to best suit both activities that way.
Thank you for this video. My commute to work takes about 25 minutes each way. I like that the this is a benefit.
I just started this for my morning routine. Up, out of bed, shorts on off to the bike & out the house for 30 mins. Whatever I've got planned in my day at least I get a minimum of 30 mins in. It also centers my morning routine & gets me sun (in the summer)
I've done this for weight training with large volume. I found that I was fresher for the second half. I could see how this could be beneficial some days if you don't feel up to a longer ride. Get in an hour. Rest, eat, recover then get in another quality session. Or breaking up a Z2 session and intervals or if it just works schedule wise. Probably good tool to have in the arsenal and adapt when necessary.
I do 2 short rides a day through necessity. I commute by bike to work Monday to Friday. 13 miles in 13 miles home, 26 miles per day, 130 a week. Not a massive amount but in the 7 years I’ve been doing it I’ve lost 25kgs and got a resting HR of 60/62 bpm. Use a road bike in decent weather and a 29er in the winter if ice or snow. Admittedly, by Friday I’m ready for a Chinese and a couple of Guinness and I do need to stretch and foam roll daily these days, but as I’m 58 I’m allowed!
After 2 years of commuting I went from having to stop at the top of a 200m incline because I was out of breath on my single speeder to buying a road bike and doing London to Brighton non-stop with no major issues. Its just a 15min commute each way.
My car broke down last week so I'm cycling 10k to and from work every day. It doesnt sound like much but previously i would go on like one long ride around fortnightly. I already feel sooooo different every day and the route is getting easier and I am getting a lot faster. It's something I look forward to now
I regularly do split training days. Three or four weekdays I'll generally run in the morning for 30 mins max and then do an indoor turbo session in the afternoon/evening. Weekends generally reserved for long outdoor rides. I feel it works well 👍🏼
Wow that's some great training setup 👌- How do you find running and cycling? Do you think they compliment each other well?
@gcn thanks 👍🏼 well, I used to do more running than cycling (until I grew some more brain cells 🤣) so that comes naturally to me and is great for cross-training and just general fitness. I find it really boosts my aerobic and anaerobic capacities so I can smash it out harder on the bike. Serves me well 👍🏼
Yes split days all summer long by commute to work, 26km each way, definitely got me pedaling faster and so shows that I got fitter. Nice distance to do in a 'fast burst' rather than a sustained effort of 100km ride for example. Hate winter when I can't commute (my route is small country roads and so I feel it too dangerous to do in the dark, even with good bike lights)
Winter commuting can be really hard work, maybe that's turbo season?
I've definitely done a morning indoor session when it is cold then take the bike off and ride outside when it is warmer. The morning is usually the "workout" and the outside is "for me"
Morning Zwift before work, Evening post work 1 hour ride before heading home. I feel great when I can make this happen. Wakes me up for work and then I get to blow off steam before I come home. My wife has noticed a difference in my general mood
Work from home, 'commute' on Rouvy, in a magic world where your work and home are linked by classic climbs and are both uphill from the other. Alto D'Angliru to work, Passo Del Stelvio home.
Came back to the bike after Christmas of a couple of weeks doing nothing. Due the storms I thought; why not start a Zwift FTP builder plan. For now, the longest have been 67minutes, but it was already my 3rd of the week. Got to give it to the shorter sessions. Especially in winter, now the weather is completely nuts, and to keep motivated to prepare for bikepacking in summer.
I hate to admit it GCN was right. I’m Canadian and currently my part of Canada is having a very British winter. It sucks! Give me snow and cold and sun over around freezing drizzle and grey any day. IMO it is easier to ride outside when winter is colder with snow and sun.
Commuting for me changed everything. As a mountainbiker I really only get out when I have a lot of time. So getting a gravelbike and biking my 25km to work gives me ca 2hrs of biking three times a week! Saddle time increased several 100% 😅
years ago i was surprised how easy it was to take a bunch of cycle commuters on a charity coast to coast ride (uk). a few longer training rides and they absolutely smashed it, sometimes leaving us (experts!!!) hanging.
my current training plan is as follows
Mon 60 min strentgh gym session - 10K lunch run
Tues - 10K lunch run - 15 minute core session (evening)
Weds - 60 min strength gym session - 10K lunch run
Thurs - 10K lunch run - 15 min core session (evening)
Fri - 10K lunch run - 15 min core session (evening)
Weekends will generally be a 40-50K mountain bike ride,
All of the above running is done at 4.30 easy pace.
THis is the look of things in the colder/wetter winter months, but once spring comes around, Ill add in 50K+ road rides every other weekday, and then a 100K ride over the weekend sometime.
Now or in the road riding months, I rarely feel fatigued so I have to assume its sometning that my body is able to handle.....so much so that now and then I can add in a longer run or ride, for example last week I went out for a 3hr run and covered 34KM.
At the end of the day, the most important thing is this...if you feel tired, either miss a run./ride or go very very easy...its served me very well for the past three years where with running along I have covered 8600KM
Sounds peachy but no ride is just 30 minutes for a normal person. Getting suited up, showering, geeking out on your Strava stats... That's an hour easy. I'm pretty sure that's why people generally do 1 longer ride..
Not to mention how often you've gotta clean your kit.
I like the fact that I can change to a more comfortable position on longer rides. It's something you need to get used to which ever you use 😄
i mostly do splitdays. longer rides are hard to fit in my work/family schedule.
i keep them for some planned-ahead weekends.
when i do splitdays, i usually do one cardio ride and the other one is the fun ride to fool around.
The best summer of cycling I had, I was semi-employed. I rode in the morning, about 20-30 miles, on my vintage steel Davidson road bike. I then ate, rehydrated, and took a nap. At 3 or 4, I ate a light meal, and then rode between 40 to 50 until dark. I am now thinking of those halcyon days, as the cold makes it impossible to ride.
for me split training is more a combo - that e.g. is a quick run morning, like 4 km, and then a proper biketraining session evening. But that also tire me down actually. So I have included walking ....
I’m commuting to work every day - 30 km one way, 60 km a day. During Covid, when I had to work from home, I still went out on ONE ride every day, about the same total distance and it felt VERY different. I think I lost some of my fitness then. So, I do believe that splitting has a place. On the weekends however, long rides are a must.
Seconding everybody who's talked about commuting/extending a commute. I only manage one proper long ride a week on average, but I usually try to get my daily time to somewhere between 1-2 hours between the midday sesh and the night sesh (yay for working 1-9pm most days), and get several punchy climbs and a couple of longer ones in the rotation. Result is that I sometimes find myself on group rides feeling like I'm out for a Sunday stroll while the people around me are getting real workouts in.
I watched the whole video all the way through. Today will be a "split day" for me (all indoor cycling), and I have already done the first workout. I think that if an individual gets in a workout not long before bed, the quality of sleep will be higher, meaning it will be much deeper. This has often been my experience with late-night workouts. Some thoughts that came to my mind include that a split workout day means the individual can get some good nutrition and rest in between cycling. Also, perhaps one can reach a higher level of intensity with multiple workouts, each being shorter. You covered this idea when you discussed commuting, with the intensity occuring during the ride back home. Of course I also think that longer rides have their own training advantages, and these might be missing during split days. However, you also covered the idea of listening to your body, which is really fundamental and essential. Therefore, perhaps my body might lead me to suppose that we could have some long days that are not split, and other days that are split. I may have missed expressing some thoughts in here, yet a good concluding one is that for the new year (2024), perhaps I could be trying some additional cycling in the form of second workouts on days that would otherwise not be split.
I just started doing split days again. 1 hour in the pool 4 days a week and about 30 mins on the bike everyday. I am fairly new to both sports.
I've been commuting for many years. Not really training as such but the mornings are normally a rush (!) and the evenings I do a longer route back - c50kms a day. Some days longer, some days in and out the same so shorter. The main thing is my fitness. Not boasting but I think it's good; not pro standard but good. However, I find longer rides at the weekend hard to arrange - I love them when I do them but more often that not I'm tired and/or busy with other stuff.
I miss my london living city commute. it was the best 50mins each way 4 days a week.. awesome
This was an excellent video for me. My challenge is on!
We can't wait to hear how yo get on 🙌
With my current schedule of 1 hr Mon-Thur (2 hard and 2 steady-state) and then 3-5 hr on Sat (zone2 with sub-thresh intervals) and Sun (steady-state zone2), I don't know if I could handle adding any more... LMAO!! Good stuff though!
I do 1x split a week on a Tuesday the day I commute 1hr each way Z1/2 works great for those zones as there’s a double reason👌
Use to train on a record rally sprint the aerospace.
contoured one ,back in the day. ended up been semi pro doing 60 mile a day 6 days a week it got me fitter.
doing two runs, of 30 mile out in the strines south Yorkshire. speaking of carbs i use to carb up before
and during the ride
I used to have an hour long commute in the early morning with an hour and a half return in a different route to avoid rush hour traffic. I would then sometimes do a group ride directly after the commute of about an hour and a half to two hours twice a week in addition to club rides on Saturday mornings.
As others have stated, this was the height of my cycling fitness.
I recently took up cycling again. I have a 40 minute commute ride and it's helpful, but I didn't really listen to my body and it did burn me out a bit. 80 minutes 3 to 5 times a week is quite intense after a long time of doing very little. Be kind to yourself folks, rest when you need to
I used to be about a 350-400 hour a year rider. That’s a lot in itself, but I realized my door to door commute was an hour. That’s a lot of idle time.
I dabbled prior, but then in 2023 finally committed to bike commuting. I got just shy of 600 hours in 2023. It’s definitely a lot for day after day, getting up at 330a and riding in the dark, pack and unpack, but I made the call that more volume can’t be bad no matter how it’s done.
It is tough though on workout days, I still do it but ride very slowly, the shortest ride I can do is 10 miles which is still a lot, twice, before you need to get on the trainer.
Regardless, if possible, more riding is better than not.
Very interesting Simon, doing split sessions is something I've been contemplating. I'm not crushed for time and can ride as often and as long as I want for me it's more about the fitness benefits. Is doing split sessions really beneficial. I'm thinking swimming and riding! I ride 5 days a week. So I'm thinking shorten 3 of those rides say from 2 hours to 1 but use the other hour for a swimming session! I'm going to try it out👍 thanks for the info!
Being a triathlete makes split days easy and necessary. You have to do it. I would swim every day at lunch and then either run or ride in the morning or after work. I was very fortunate to live and work in a place that allowed for that lifestyle. Those days are long over.
I find that ridding to and from work is helping me with my longer rides. As for upper body workouts, that comes with my job of lifting heavy bags of garbage.
I do think that commuting helped me prepare for some long sportives - and that's without making the commute a specific session, just accumulated time in the saddle (and living in a hilly city 😄)
Also, if you think running events tend to be shorter you've missed a whole world of ultra running! Montane spine races start on the 14th Jan, check out that insanity!!!
I have been doing this since past month, I find it great (gym and cycling). Nice bike, by the way.
It's content like this that makes me wish GCN went away and GCN+ was free on TH-cam.
Hi Dave, sorry to hear you thought this sucked. Aside from wanting GCN+ back, what would you want to watch?
@@simonrichardson5259 you would go out of business if you built your content around my suggestions. But since you asked, it seems like there is hyper-focus on the quantitative side of cycling and less on the qualitative side. So many fast bike riders but so few cyclists by which I mean, those who know how to drive a bike.
@@davehause8571 Thanks for letting me know. We do try to keep a balance in our content so I’ll check what we’re got coming up.
I don”t know about the everyday commment. I know many people who commute (5days x 2 in and out) every week (say 48 weeks per year) and do long tough session in group Saturdays, then a slow family ride Sunday. They are all super fit and absolute machines.
When I was a competitive swimmer, almost every day was a double day. Morning sessions and evening sessions. Usually in the pool, but including strength sessions every other day. I have never been fitter! Not sure I could manage it now in approaching my 60s though!
I did split days biking to work everyday rain or shine. Now that I am retired, no split rides and average 250 km per week and am very fit with only minor aches which I treat with daily yoga exercises. BTW I have reached age 78.
Most cyclists do double days if they commute and probably do not realise how much benefit this gives.
THIS! The commute is the hidden cycling training tool 🛠
I find 2 x25 miles a day better than a 50 mile because I get bored riding bike alone for more than 2 hours.i find my average is 1+ mph more second session same route - miles .done it for 30 years. Done 3 times a day when warmer days come .only do 50 to 100 mile long rides with mates
Yes, that is why commuting is a great way to get fit
Split day training works best for days where you want to get lots of high quality intensity intervals work in. Works really great after a rest day.
I always find I go better (more power) in the second session in a day. The first session of say zone 2 seems to serve as a warm up, and the second session of, say zone 4 is better quality than if I had just done the z4 session that day. The down side is two lots of kit to wash!
I recommend split sleep sessions
Tell use Sensei, what is the secret to waking up from mid afternoon naps without a headache?
I could be completely wrong but I actually find split days easier to recover from. I commute 20k each way to work and ride every day. I am very strict to stick to zone to (the only exception the 2 climbs to get home). I will also on average do an hour zwift session with my wife on 3 of those evenings. I usually get off the bike on commute rides not feeling like I have much to recover from. However, if i were to do all 3 sessions in 1 ride, my legs would definitely be sore. Granted, commuting in zone 2 helps but physiological demand is not linear. The toll per km will be higher after 100km than after 10 and this may be harder to recover from