July 16, 2025 • 22 mins
OVERVIEW
Time-Crunched Cyclists have to get creative to integrate training into their busy lives. We get plenty of listener questions about various options for adding training hours to a busy schedule. In Episode 257 of "The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast", Coach Adam Pulford and co-author of "The Time-Crunched Cyclist" book, coach Jim Rutberg, discuss how and whether to integrate bicycle commutes and indoor cycling desks into your training.
TOPICS COVERED
- Question 1: How can I use my 30-60 minute commutes to improve my cycling training?
- Question 2: I can potentially add about 5 hours of low intensity training to my program by pedaling at a cycling desk in my office. Are these hours beneficial and worth the effort?
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Guest
Jim Rutberg has been an athlete, coach, and content creator in the outdoor sports, endurance coaching, and event industries for more than 20 years. He is the Media Director and a coach for CTS and co-author of several training and sports nutrition books, including Training Essentials for Ultrarunning with Jason Koop, Ride Inside with Joe Friel, and The Time-Crunched Cyclist with Chris Carmichael. He writes for trainright.com and his work has appeared in Bicycling, Outside, Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, Velonews, Inside Triathlon, and on numerous websites. A graduate of Wake Forest University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Exercise Physiology, Jim resides in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with his two sons, Oliver and Elliot. He can be reached at jrutberg@trainright.com or @rutty_rides on Instagram.
HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
From the team at CTS.
This is the Time Crunch Cyclistpodcast, our show dedicated to
answering your trainingquestions and providing
actionable advice to help youimprove your performance even if
you're strapped for time.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford, and I'm one of the over
50 professional coaches whomake up the team at CTS.
In each episode, I draw on ourteam's collective knowledge,
(00:30):
other coaches and experts in thefield to provide you with the
practical ways to get the mostout of your training and
ultimately become the bestcyclist that you can be.
Now on to our show.
Now onto our show.
(00:54):
For most of us listening andspeaking on this podcast, our
greatest challenge is figuringout how to integrate training
with a busy lifestyle whilestill having some fun while we
do it.
So, while we're living thistime crunch life, can you use
commutes and or an in-officecycling desk to enhance your
fitness?
We'll answer all of that andmore on today's episode.
I'm Coach Adam Pulford, andalongside me is special guest
(01:17):
and host, jim Rudberg.
He'll be here to ask me some ofthe questions and add in some
of his own expertise on thesesubjects.
If you recall from past podcast, jim, or Ruddy as we all like
to call him, is the editor andproducer of this podcast.
He's also a content creator forall things at CTS.
(01:37):
He's a coauthor of the TimeCrunch, cyclist and Training
Essentials for Ultra RunningRuddy, I'll stop there with all
the accolades.
Welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Thank you, adam, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah Well, I thought it would be kind of a fun little
uh twist of things If you couldask me the questions this time
and I will do my best to answeruh with some of the tips that I
have.
But because you have expertisein this area, I thought you
could chime in too.
So this will be a kind of a funchange of pace for listeners
(02:11):
here, even though the whole goalis to still rifle through all
these Q and A's that we'rehaving from our audience members
.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, absolutely, and I think you just wanted me to
have to edit my own voice in theediting booth.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
That's it.
Just give you a piece of yourown action, exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well, let's get started.
The first question for todaycomes from Denmark.
The question is aroundutilizing commuting as training.
I usually ride around one houreach way to and from work when
it's not raining.
So up to 10 hours a week bikecommuting and a lot of split
days meaning riding bothdirections.
When I bike commute, thatbecomes my training for the day.
(02:50):
I gravitate toward morning zoneto an afternoon tempo or sweet
spot.
Do you think it would be betterto keep all commuting easier
and instead reserve energy forharder or an uninterrupted
structured training sessions?
And that comes from Andreas inDenmark.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Well, I love some commuting on the bike whenever
possible.
So the fact that you're alreadydoing that is awesome.
I wouldn't change it, as leastright now.
And kind of depending on yourgoals, anything that you do
change on that really depends onyour specific goals timing of
training relative to say goalevents or something like that,
(03:27):
and then also the weather.
So I would say like high levelfrom a general fitness
standpoint and let's just sayyou don't have any races or kind
of specifics.
I'd say, just keep on commuting, because what you're doing
right now is is a very goodcombination of endurance like
tempo, sweet spot or you know,or medium intensity training
(03:48):
where you can rack up volume,tss and fitness pretty rapidly
and you're making good use ofyour time that you'd be sitting
in a car or transit or somethinglike that not getting that
fitness no-transcript and TSS,um, the trying to keep hard days
(04:40):
hard and easy days easy.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
It gets a little complicated when you're riding
twice a day, so sometimes thatseparation can also be something
difficult on the morning of oneday and the afternoon of the
following, so that you aregetting more separation between
those hard efforts.
And then the other piece thatwe actually have a commuter
(05:05):
training plan in the Time CrunchCyclist book and one of the
things that we incorporated intothat are exercises like power
starts, over geared riding,where you just take one of those
commutes and are just riding ina bigger gear with a very low
cadence and just muscling it allthe way to work, kind of a
thing.
(05:27):
Or standing start sprints kindof an idea, even high speed
sprints, depending on whetherwhat the terrain is like.
So things that are very shorteffort related can also work
into commutes relatively well.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yep, agree with that, and I think some of that the
shorter, bigger, geared stuff,everything that Ruddy just
described I'll incorporate thatinto anybody, anybody's training
where we're just logging abunch of miles.
And I want to change it up andadd some spice or add some
neuromuscular power to the mix.
Because one thing, andreas, ifyou're just riding endurance and
(06:04):
kind of tempo sweet spot foreight weeks, you just you kind
of get some stale legs.
You'll be fit, but you'll havesome stale legs.
And that leads me into if youhave specific performance goals.
You want to bring the contrastinto the training and riding
that Ruddy's talking about.
So here's where you could, um,you know, sacrifice a few of the
(06:25):
days of commuting and do indoortraining or just rest or
something like that.
Um, or, as Ruddy said, you know, put the hard effort in the
morning, super chill in theafternoon or evening.
Or maybe you just take thetrain home, you know, wheel the,
the bike on the train and hitch, ride home, that kind of thing.
And the reason for it is, youknow, intensified and specific
(06:50):
training means that you'lltypically you'll need a
reduction of overall volume,increased intensity and that
increased specificity of whichcommuting there's so many other
variables you can't control for,and usually when you're doing
hard efforts or power intervalsor something like that, if
you're carrying a backpack maynot always work.
(07:10):
So in that case, when you getreally specific and maybe you're
four to six weeks out from arace or a main competition,
maybe you limit the commutes anddo more individualized training
, either indoors or separatefrom the commutes.
That's my generalrecommendation.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
You know one of the things that you know.
It's been a very big topicrecently and again, I'm not
really sure what Andreas istraining for, but heat training
is a huge issue.
We've covered it on a recentpodcast.
Mornings obviously are probablygoing to be cooler.
So if you're going to be doingsome focused work, probably
doing it in the morning when youhave less heat stress to deal
(07:53):
with.
But a 30-minute type orone-hour type ride in the heat
of the day, sort of towards theend of a day in through the
middle of the summer, could oftowards the end of a day in, uh
uh, through the middle of thesummer, could be a nice heat
adaptation kind of ride and youjust have to keep the intensity
low, um, because there's noreason to cook yourself and also
(08:13):
go hard at the same time.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah, that's it.
So you play the weather game inthat way of um, if, if you need
to keep the training intensityor some sort of like quality
specific, do it when it's cooler, get that in.
But then, yeah, get those heatexposures Now if it's if it's
cold or rainy or icy orsomething like that, you know,
or we're talking about into thewinter months, at least in North
(08:37):
America, northern hemisphere,you know, I think that there's
still really good options forcommuting and I would say I
would encourage people to do it,so long as you have the proper
uh lights and and equipment andand uh gear for it.
Um, it's also just fun.
I think I'm a huge fan ofriding outside.
(08:59):
I'm not going to poo-poo onindoor riding, but I think it
makes you a very good overallrider as well.
So, huge fan of commuting, staysafe in the weather, whether it
is heat or ice or cold orsomething like that.
But in general, I'm a hugepromoter of using the commute to
get some fitness going, to getsome fitness going.
(09:25):
So, andreas, love hearing fromyou.
Thank you for that.
Uh and and let me know if thathelps.
Uh, bring some contrast orbring some new ideas on how to
shape up, uh, your commutestoward your goals, and if you
have any specific goals right inand maybe we'll talk more about
how to weave um uh, uh commutesinto that, some some sort of
like specificity of training, soready?
I think we got one morequestion to answer today, can
(09:46):
you?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
uh, so um time crunched.
Amateur cyclist active withinour local gravel riding club in
Collingwood, ontario, typicallyI can put in seven hours a week
of cycling.
I work Monday to Wednesday,have a cycling work desk which I
possibly could put in anadditional five hours per week.
While responding to lowpriority items during the work
(10:09):
day, I really can only get myheart rate up to about 100 beats
per minute before I can'treally focus or be productive.
I know that feeling, but it doesfeel like my legs are working
pushing on the pedals.
My question is would thisadditional five hours per week
have any training effect at all,or am I just getting a bit
sweaty at work for nothing?
Thanks again for theconsideration from Denver.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Pool, denver Pool and Collinwood, ontario, with a
gravel club led by Jody Wilson.
Yes, so shout out to Jody.
Absolutely love that guy, oneof my favorite people, one of my
favorite Canadians as well.
So great mention, and thank you, denver, for writing this one
in.
Yeah, riding while you workshould be a song in there.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I think there is one.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
There is, there's got to be one.
Uh, my advice if you haveflexibility, do it.
Definitely do it, cause there'sa ton of value in, in, in, not
only like gaining fitness, butlike just moving, exercising,
sweating, and there's some I'mjust a lowly coach, but there's
also some like psychology thatgoes into it.
(11:18):
So, rather than just sittingthere riding your chair for
eight to 10 hours a day, if youcan take a break, a movement
break, and incorporate some workwhile you do that, absolutely
do it.
I do this personally when I needto watch, say, catch up on my
continuing education units,right, or watch a video or
listen to a thing or jump on aZoom call.
(11:40):
We're pretty casual at CTS, sopeople can sweat with their
muted uh mic in the back and andget work done.
But I also take athlete callswhen I'm just doing like zone
two rides.
But I take those zone two calls, uh, with my athletes, yeah,
and they kind of like it,because it's like it kind of it
(12:00):
shows that you're kind ofwalking the the talk, and so in
that way, I think that,depending on your culture at
work and, and, yeah, how youweave it in, I think it can make
you more effective as a person,because those movement breaks
you usually come back from thatmore fresh to work on a problem
or or whatever you're working on, and I think too, from a health
(12:23):
standpoint, it's unlimitedpotential in the way of
utilizing those, those fivehours of which we'll talk about
kind of more specifically, but Idon't ready any any hacks.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Well, I mean.
So the the nice thing or theinteresting thing there is the
idea of 10,000 steps a day getsa you know, a lot of attention
in kind of the general healthand wellness space, and cyclists
particularly don't walk a lotbecause a lot of them have
office jobs or something elseand then they spend their time
exercising on a bicycle insteadof doing anything.
(12:56):
That's weight-bearing.
Now, it's not necessarily thereare some benefits to
specifically walking andweight-bearing but, but mostly
it's the fact that you're movingand you're exercising.
So 10,000 steps a day or ridingin your office are somewhat
similar in the sense that you'reat least doing something other
than sitting.
(13:16):
So I think there are somehealth benefits from that
standpoint.
So I think there are somehealth benefits from that
standpoint.
There's also the idea thatmoving your legs in the
cycling-specific motionconsistently and frequently just
makes every ride outdoors orevery purposeful ride, training
(13:38):
ride, easier to get into andeverything.
You're just less stiff.
So if you don't ride for acouple of days, where the folks
who maybe ride three times aweek and it's a couple of days
between each ride every timethey do it, yeah, those first 10
miles are kind of clunky andthey've got to get their legs
back underneath them andeverything but people who either
ride every day, like thecommuter that we were just
(14:00):
talking about before, or someonewho's going to ride a little
bit, just keeping their legsmoving in an office situation.
It means that when you do getout for a purposeful ride to do
some hard efforts, you get intothose hard efforts more quickly.
You're just used to thatpedaling motion.
The neuromuscular componentsare ready to go.
(14:20):
So, yeah, I think that training, availability and frequency and
repetition are pretty importantfor people, especially time
current cyclists, who, if youcan only ride infrequently, it
just each one of those ridesgets a little bit stiffer.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Definitely agree with that.
But part of the let's just say,devil's advocate here is a
typical athlete that I wouldwork with and if they would come
to me with this question, likeI have an extra five hours,
should I use them?
And then they'll just use them.
They'll get six right andthey'll do that year round.
I think the problem there,denver, is don't think that you
(14:59):
have to use those five hoursevery single week and maximize
your time at the you know theoffice bike, because you don't.
I think in general it kind ofcomes back a little bit to our
advice with Andreas, wherethere's a certain time in the
season where you're buildingfitness and it's just like a
general training plan.
(15:19):
We're incorporating these lowerintensity rides into, you know,
increased frequency of exercise.
Get more total time in.
That's going to be good.
If you need something specificor some, or you're coming into a
race season or something likethat, use these as recovery
rides and don't stress about itif you don't get them in,
because you know, once you'vebuilt your CTL up pretty high
(15:41):
and you and you're fit and thatfitness is established, now you
need freshness and you needperformance.
And, yeah, riding for 45minutes at a hundred beats per
minute, not knowing yourthreshold heart rate or anything
, but it's not going to add toyour fitness.
It's going to help with somemental stuff, it's going to help
for staying loose, like Jimsaid, but like it's not going to
contribute a ton to yourfitness said, but like it's not
(16:04):
going to contribute a ton toyour fitness.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Yeah, and I guess you know.
One question for you, adam too,is this you know, granted the
idea of hard days hard, easydays, easy, um, and you've done
a podcast before on the idea oftotal rest day versus active
recovery.
In some cases, would it beadvisable to sit as opposed to
pedal, um, just because you'renot doing enough work to be
(16:27):
really all that productive froma fitness standpoint.
And you know, energyexpenditures, energy expenditure
.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely there.
There are days where justsitting, resting or laying down
uh is is way better than gettingin that recovery ride.
And I think, in that way, whenwould that be applicable?
Well, let's just say you had ahard Sunday gravel race and you
died a thousand deaths.
I'm wearing a t-shirt right nowwhere that happened to me a
(16:57):
couple of weeks ago.
No recovery ride is going to bebetter than just resting.
So when you're absolutelydestroyed, just rest.
When you're stressed out fromwork or like you have so much
work to do and you just likeneed to get it in, maybe just
like stand up, walk around andthen come back.
So you're just taking theselittle movement breaks, but in
(17:17):
terms of like kidding up andthinking that you need to like
get that done, there's a lot ofexamples where a recovery ride I
said in the podcast before it'smore for your head than your
legs.
So don't don't think you'remissing out on any secret
recovery modality by skipping arecovery ride.
When you can do it and whentotal life stress is not so high
(17:41):
, then do the recovery ride.
When life stress is high, whentraining stress was high and you
just need to fully recover,then yeah, just lay down, get
more sleep.
Don't worry about the recoveryman.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
So I guess, in the grand scheme of things, when you
put these two questionstogether, the overarching
question is should atime-current cyclist do whatever
they can, or whatever they arecapable of doing, in order to
squeeze in a couple extra hoursof doing, in order to squeeze in
a couple extra hours?
Do the extra hours matterenough that they should really
(18:19):
always try to get them, or is itokay to keep the number of
hours a little bit lower, focuson quality instead and maybe not
take every opportunity to justadd a couple an hour here or
there?
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Yeah, it's a really great question and I would say
it's the game I'm playing withmy athletes and the question I'm
trying to solve with my ownathletes on a weekly basis.
But the direct answer and broadanswer for our audience and all
of our time crunch athletes outthere is it truly depends and I
think it depends on if you're,you know, building fitness and
(19:01):
if the plan calls for, hey,let's get more hours in and for
maybe half the season, that thatpretty much applies and that's
where you don't like, uh,sacrifice sleep or family time
or anything like this to get thehours.
It's.
It's look at your schedule andget creative with where you
could potentially fit some moretime in, just like Andreas in
Denver wrote in and say, hey, I,I have this unique thing going
(19:23):
on.
Is it helpful to incorporatethat?
And when you're buildingfitness and when you're building
CTL?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
yes.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
When you need to intensify training and contrast
your training to have hard dayshard and easy days easy.
That's where you can now reducesome of this time of, or extra
time of, commutes or, um, youknow the work desk, bike ride or
something like that, and putthe focus more on you know body
recovery, but also just gettingyour work done, so maybe you can
(19:53):
get the out of the officesooner and get back home to your
kids and everything else thatyou have going on in your life.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
You know.
And then we've also talkedabout, uh, people who are
training or exercising not justfor the fitness components but
because it's part of theirlifestyle, mental health, uh,
management, all of those kindsof things, and so we're not
going to tell anybody to.
You know, quit riding, don'tride, skip these things.
If you're doing maintainingthat structure or that frequency
(20:23):
for other reasons, you justhave to be, you know, realistic
and acknowledge that that's whyyou're doing those things, as
opposed to thinking that thoserides are all training related.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Yeah, exactly, and I, and I think my biggest um
hesitation of of the advice ofyeah, do the commutes and yeah,
do the uh, you know, office bikedesk thing is because most,
most people listening are goingto just hear that and want to
fully maximize it all the timeand really have to think about
um, you know, that is a strategyfor part of the year and then
(20:58):
that is not a strategy for theother part of the year.
And if you're adding in mentalstress or shaming yourself
because you could be writingright now, you're getting it
wrong.
You did not hear our advice.
So get creative with your time.
See when that applies to whenyou build fitness and then
intellectually, unemotionally,put your ego aside and realize
(21:19):
when you want to developperformance, focus on keeping
your hard days hard, easy dayseasy.
Read one of Jim's books andyou'll be set up properly.
So that's it.
That's our show for today.
We have a ton of athlete Q andA, so uh, ruddy's going to be
back with me next week to ripthrough a few more of those.
If you have a question for yourown, head over to train
(21:39):
rightcom backslash podcast andclick on ask a training question
.
Send them over and we'll answerthem here.
Thanks for joining us on thetime crunch cyclist podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
If you want even moreactionable training advice, head
over to train rightcombackslash newsletter and
subscribe to our free weeklypublication.
(22:01):
Each week you'll get in depthtraining content that goes
beyond what we cover here on thepodcast.
That'll help you take yourtraining to the next level.
That's all for now.
Until next time, train hard,train smart, train right.
From the team at CTS.
This is the Time Crunch Cyclistpodcast, our show dedicated to
answering your trainingquestions and providing
actionable advice to help youimprove your performance even if
you're strapped for time.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford, and I'm one of the over
50 professional coaches whomake up the team at CTS.
In each episode, I draw on ourteam's collective knowledge,
(00:30):
other coaches and experts in thefield to provide you with the
practical ways to get the mostout of your training and
ultimately become the bestcyclist that you can be.
Now on to our show.
Now onto our show.
(00:54):
For most of us listening andspeaking on this podcast, our
greatest challenge is figuringout how to integrate training
with a busy lifestyle whilestill having some fun while we
do it.
So, while we're living thistime crunch life, can you use
commutes and or an in-officecycling desk to enhance your
fitness?
We'll answer all of that andmore on today's episode.
I'm Coach Adam Pulford, andalongside me is special guest
(01:17):
and host, jim Rudberg.
He'll be here to ask me some ofthe questions and add in some
of his own expertise on thesesubjects.
If you recall from past podcast, jim, or Ruddy as we all like
to call him, is the editor andproducer of this podcast.
He's also a content creator forall things at CTS.
(01:37):
He's a coauthor of the TimeCrunch, cyclist and Training
Essentials for Ultra RunningRuddy, I'll stop there with all
the accolades.
Welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Thank you, adam, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah Well, I thought it would be kind of a fun little
uh twist of things If you couldask me the questions this time
and I will do my best to answeruh with some of the tips that I
have.
But because you have expertisein this area, I thought you
could chime in too.
So this will be a kind of a funchange of pace for listeners
(02:11):
here, even though the whole goalis to still rifle through all
these Q and A's that we'rehaving from our audience members
.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, absolutely, and I think you just wanted me to
have to edit my own voice in theediting booth.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
That's it.
Just give you a piece of yourown action, exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well, let's get started.
The first question for todaycomes from Denmark.
The question is aroundutilizing commuting as training.
I usually ride around one houreach way to and from work when
it's not raining.
So up to 10 hours a week bikecommuting and a lot of split
days meaning riding bothdirections.
When I bike commute, thatbecomes my training for the day.
(02:50):
I gravitate toward morning zoneto an afternoon tempo or sweet
spot.
Do you think it would be betterto keep all commuting easier
and instead reserve energy forharder or an uninterrupted
structured training sessions?
And that comes from Andreas inDenmark.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Well, I love some commuting on the bike whenever
possible.
So the fact that you're alreadydoing that is awesome.
I wouldn't change it, as leastright now.
And kind of depending on yourgoals, anything that you do
change on that really depends onyour specific goals timing of
training relative to say goalevents or something like that,
(03:27):
and then also the weather.
So I would say like high levelfrom a general fitness
standpoint and let's just sayyou don't have any races or kind
of specifics.
I'd say, just keep on commuting, because what you're doing
right now is is a very goodcombination of endurance like
tempo, sweet spot or you know,or medium intensity training
(03:48):
where you can rack up volume,tss and fitness pretty rapidly
and you're making good use ofyour time that you'd be sitting
in a car or transit or somethinglike that not getting that
fitness no-transcript and TSS,um, the trying to keep hard days
(04:40):
hard and easy days easy.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
It gets a little complicated when you're riding
twice a day, so sometimes thatseparation can also be something
difficult on the morning of oneday and the afternoon of the
following, so that you aregetting more separation between
those hard efforts.
And then the other piece thatwe actually have a commuter
(05:05):
training plan in the Time CrunchCyclist book and one of the
things that we incorporated intothat are exercises like power
starts, over geared riding,where you just take one of those
commutes and are just riding ina bigger gear with a very low
cadence and just muscling it allthe way to work, kind of a
thing.
(05:27):
Or standing start sprints kindof an idea, even high speed
sprints, depending on whetherwhat the terrain is like.
So things that are very shorteffort related can also work
into commutes relatively well.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yep, agree with that, and I think some of that the
shorter, bigger, geared stuff,everything that Ruddy just
described I'll incorporate thatinto anybody, anybody's training
where we're just logging abunch of miles.
And I want to change it up andadd some spice or add some
neuromuscular power to the mix.
Because one thing, andreas, ifyou're just riding endurance and
(06:04):
kind of tempo sweet spot foreight weeks, you just you kind
of get some stale legs.
You'll be fit, but you'll havesome stale legs.
And that leads me into if youhave specific performance goals.
You want to bring the contrastinto the training and riding
that Ruddy's talking about.
So here's where you could, um,you know, sacrifice a few of the
(06:25):
days of commuting and do indoortraining or just rest or
something like that.
Um, or, as Ruddy said, you know, put the hard effort in the
morning, super chill in theafternoon or evening.
Or maybe you just take thetrain home, you know, wheel the,
the bike on the train and hitch, ride home, that kind of thing.
And the reason for it is, youknow, intensified and specific
(06:50):
training means that you'lltypically you'll need a
reduction of overall volume,increased intensity and that
increased specificity of whichcommuting there's so many other
variables you can't control for,and usually when you're doing
hard efforts or power intervalsor something like that, if
you're carrying a backpack maynot always work.
(07:10):
So in that case, when you getreally specific and maybe you're
four to six weeks out from arace or a main competition,
maybe you limit the commutes anddo more individualized training
, either indoors or separatefrom the commutes.
That's my generalrecommendation.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
You know one of the things that you know.
It's been a very big topicrecently and again, I'm not
really sure what Andreas istraining for, but heat training
is a huge issue.
We've covered it on a recentpodcast.
Mornings obviously are probablygoing to be cooler.
So if you're going to be doingsome focused work, probably
doing it in the morning when youhave less heat stress to deal
(07:53):
with.
But a 30-minute type orone-hour type ride in the heat
of the day, sort of towards theend of a day in through the
middle of the summer, could oftowards the end of a day in, uh
uh, through the middle of thesummer, could be a nice heat
adaptation kind of ride and youjust have to keep the intensity
low, um, because there's noreason to cook yourself and also
(08:13):
go hard at the same time.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah, that's it.
So you play the weather game inthat way of um, if, if you need
to keep the training intensityor some sort of like quality
specific, do it when it's cooler, get that in.
But then, yeah, get those heatexposures Now if it's if it's
cold or rainy or icy orsomething like that, you know,
or we're talking about into thewinter months, at least in North
(08:37):
America, northern hemisphere,you know, I think that there's
still really good options forcommuting and I would say I
would encourage people to do it,so long as you have the proper
uh lights and and equipment andand uh gear for it.
Um, it's also just fun.
I think I'm a huge fan ofriding outside.
(08:59):
I'm not going to poo-poo onindoor riding, but I think it
makes you a very good overallrider as well.
So, huge fan of commuting, staysafe in the weather, whether it
is heat or ice or cold orsomething like that.
But in general, I'm a hugepromoter of using the commute to
get some fitness going, to getsome fitness going.
(09:25):
So, andreas, love hearing fromyou.
Thank you for that.
Uh and and let me know if thathelps.
Uh, bring some contrast orbring some new ideas on how to
shape up, uh, your commutestoward your goals, and if you
have any specific goals right inand maybe we'll talk more about
how to weave um uh, uh commutesinto that, some some sort of
like specificity of training, soready?
I think we got one morequestion to answer today, can
(09:46):
you?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
uh, so um time crunched.
Amateur cyclist active withinour local gravel riding club in
Collingwood, ontario, typicallyI can put in seven hours a week
of cycling.
I work Monday to Wednesday,have a cycling work desk which I
possibly could put in anadditional five hours per week.
While responding to lowpriority items during the work
(10:09):
day, I really can only get myheart rate up to about 100 beats
per minute before I can'treally focus or be productive.
I know that feeling, but it doesfeel like my legs are working
pushing on the pedals.
My question is would thisadditional five hours per week
have any training effect at all,or am I just getting a bit
sweaty at work for nothing?
Thanks again for theconsideration from Denver.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Pool, denver Pool and Collinwood, ontario, with a
gravel club led by Jody Wilson.
Yes, so shout out to Jody.
Absolutely love that guy, oneof my favorite people, one of my
favorite Canadians as well.
So great mention, and thank you, denver, for writing this one
in.
Yeah, riding while you workshould be a song in there.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I think there is one.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
There is, there's got to be one.
Uh, my advice if you haveflexibility, do it.
Definitely do it, cause there'sa ton of value in, in, in, not
only like gaining fitness, butlike just moving, exercising,
sweating, and there's some I'mjust a lowly coach, but there's
also some like psychology thatgoes into it.
(11:18):
So, rather than just sittingthere riding your chair for
eight to 10 hours a day, if youcan take a break, a movement
break, and incorporate some workwhile you do that, absolutely
do it.
I do this personally when I needto watch, say, catch up on my
continuing education units,right, or watch a video or
listen to a thing or jump on aZoom call.
(11:40):
We're pretty casual at CTS, sopeople can sweat with their
muted uh mic in the back and andget work done.
But I also take athlete callswhen I'm just doing like zone
two rides.
But I take those zone two calls, uh, with my athletes, yeah,
and they kind of like it,because it's like it kind of it
(12:00):
shows that you're kind ofwalking the the talk, and so in
that way, I think that,depending on your culture at
work and, and, yeah, how youweave it in, I think it can make
you more effective as a person,because those movement breaks
you usually come back from thatmore fresh to work on a problem
or or whatever you're working on, and I think too, from a health
(12:23):
standpoint, it's unlimitedpotential in the way of
utilizing those, those fivehours of which we'll talk about
kind of more specifically, but Idon't ready any any hacks.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Well, I mean.
So the the nice thing or theinteresting thing there is the
idea of 10,000 steps a day getsa you know, a lot of attention
in kind of the general healthand wellness space, and cyclists
particularly don't walk a lotbecause a lot of them have
office jobs or something elseand then they spend their time
exercising on a bicycle insteadof doing anything.
(12:56):
That's weight-bearing.
Now, it's not necessarily thereare some benefits to
specifically walking andweight-bearing but, but mostly
it's the fact that you're movingand you're exercising.
So 10,000 steps a day or ridingin your office are somewhat
similar in the sense that you'reat least doing something other
than sitting.
(13:16):
So I think there are somehealth benefits from that
standpoint.
So I think there are somehealth benefits from that
standpoint.
There's also the idea thatmoving your legs in the
cycling-specific motionconsistently and frequently just
makes every ride outdoors orevery purposeful ride, training
(13:38):
ride, easier to get into andeverything.
You're just less stiff.
So if you don't ride for acouple of days, where the folks
who maybe ride three times aweek and it's a couple of days
between each ride every timethey do it, yeah, those first 10
miles are kind of clunky andthey've got to get their legs
back underneath them andeverything but people who either
ride every day, like thecommuter that we were just
(14:00):
talking about before, or someonewho's going to ride a little
bit, just keeping their legsmoving in an office situation.
It means that when you do getout for a purposeful ride to do
some hard efforts, you get intothose hard efforts more quickly.
You're just used to thatpedaling motion.
The neuromuscular componentsare ready to go.
(14:20):
So, yeah, I think that training, availability and frequency and
repetition are pretty importantfor people, especially time
current cyclists, who, if youcan only ride infrequently, it
just each one of those ridesgets a little bit stiffer.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Definitely agree with that.
But part of the let's just say,devil's advocate here is a
typical athlete that I wouldwork with and if they would come
to me with this question, likeI have an extra five hours,
should I use them?
And then they'll just use them.
They'll get six right andthey'll do that year round.
I think the problem there,denver, is don't think that you
(14:59):
have to use those five hoursevery single week and maximize
your time at the you know theoffice bike, because you don't.
I think in general it kind ofcomes back a little bit to our
advice with Andreas, wherethere's a certain time in the
season where you're buildingfitness and it's just like a
general training plan.
(15:19):
We're incorporating these lowerintensity rides into, you know,
increased frequency of exercise.
Get more total time in.
That's going to be good.
If you need something specificor some, or you're coming into a
race season or something likethat, use these as recovery
rides and don't stress about itif you don't get them in,
because you know, once you'vebuilt your CTL up pretty high
(15:41):
and you and you're fit and thatfitness is established, now you
need freshness and you needperformance.
And, yeah, riding for 45minutes at a hundred beats per
minute, not knowing yourthreshold heart rate or anything
, but it's not going to add toyour fitness.
It's going to help with somemental stuff, it's going to help
for staying loose, like Jimsaid, but like it's not going to
contribute a ton to yourfitness said, but like it's not
(16:04):
going to contribute a ton toyour fitness.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Yeah, and I guess you know.
One question for you, adam too,is this you know, granted the
idea of hard days hard, easydays, easy, um, and you've done
a podcast before on the idea oftotal rest day versus active
recovery.
In some cases, would it beadvisable to sit as opposed to
pedal, um, just because you'renot doing enough work to be
(16:27):
really all that productive froma fitness standpoint.
And you know, energyexpenditures, energy expenditure
.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely there.
There are days where justsitting, resting or laying down
uh is is way better than gettingin that recovery ride.
And I think, in that way, whenwould that be applicable?
Well, let's just say you had ahard Sunday gravel race and you
died a thousand deaths.
I'm wearing a t-shirt right nowwhere that happened to me a
(16:57):
couple of weeks ago.
No recovery ride is going to bebetter than just resting.
So when you're absolutelydestroyed, just rest.
When you're stressed out fromwork or like you have so much
work to do and you just likeneed to get it in, maybe just
like stand up, walk around andthen come back.
So you're just taking theselittle movement breaks, but in
(17:17):
terms of like kidding up andthinking that you need to like
get that done, there's a lot ofexamples where a recovery ride I
said in the podcast before it'smore for your head than your
legs.
So don't don't think you'remissing out on any secret
recovery modality by skipping arecovery ride.
When you can do it and whentotal life stress is not so high
(17:41):
, then do the recovery ride.
When life stress is high, whentraining stress was high and you
just need to fully recover,then yeah, just lay down, get
more sleep.
Don't worry about the recoveryman.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
So I guess, in the grand scheme of things, when you
put these two questionstogether, the overarching
question is should atime-current cyclist do whatever
they can, or whatever they arecapable of doing, in order to
squeeze in a couple extra hoursof doing, in order to squeeze in
a couple extra hours?
Do the extra hours matterenough that they should really
(18:19):
always try to get them, or is itokay to keep the number of
hours a little bit lower, focuson quality instead and maybe not
take every opportunity to justadd a couple an hour here or
there?
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Yeah, it's a really great question and I would say
it's the game I'm playing withmy athletes and the question I'm
trying to solve with my ownathletes on a weekly basis.
But the direct answer and broadanswer for our audience and all
of our time crunch athletes outthere is it truly depends and I
think it depends on if you're,you know, building fitness and
(19:01):
if the plan calls for, hey,let's get more hours in and for
maybe half the season, that thatpretty much applies and that's
where you don't like, uh,sacrifice sleep or family time
or anything like this to get thehours.
It's.
It's look at your schedule andget creative with where you
could potentially fit some moretime in, just like Andreas in
Denver wrote in and say, hey, I,I have this unique thing going
(19:23):
on.
Is it helpful to incorporatethat?
And when you're buildingfitness and when you're building
CTL?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
yes.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
When you need to intensify training and contrast
your training to have hard dayshard and easy days easy.
That's where you can now reducesome of this time of, or extra
time of, commutes or, um, youknow the work desk, bike ride or
something like that, and putthe focus more on you know body
recovery, but also just gettingyour work done, so maybe you can
(19:53):
get the out of the officesooner and get back home to your
kids and everything else thatyou have going on in your life.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
You know.
And then we've also talkedabout, uh, people who are
training or exercising not justfor the fitness components but
because it's part of theirlifestyle, mental health, uh,
management, all of those kindsof things, and so we're not
going to tell anybody to.
You know, quit riding, don'tride, skip these things.
If you're doing maintainingthat structure or that frequency
(20:23):
for other reasons, you justhave to be, you know, realistic
and acknowledge that that's whyyou're doing those things, as
opposed to thinking that thoserides are all training related.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Yeah, exactly, and I, and I think my biggest um
hesitation of of the advice ofyeah, do the commutes and yeah,
do the uh, you know, office bikedesk thing is because most,
most people listening are goingto just hear that and want to
fully maximize it all the timeand really have to think about
um, you know, that is a strategyfor part of the year and then
(20:58):
that is not a strategy for theother part of the year.
And if you're adding in mentalstress or shaming yourself
because you could be writingright now, you're getting it
wrong.
You did not hear our advice.
So get creative with your time.
See when that applies to whenyou build fitness and then
intellectually, unemotionally,put your ego aside and realize
(21:19):
when you want to developperformance, focus on keeping
your hard days hard, easy dayseasy.
Read one of Jim's books andyou'll be set up properly.
So that's it.
That's our show for today.
We have a ton of athlete Q andA, so uh, ruddy's going to be
back with me next week to ripthrough a few more of those.
If you have a question for yourown, head over to train
(21:39):
rightcom backslash podcast andclick on ask a training question
.
Send them over and we'll answerthem here.
Thanks for joining us on thetime crunch cyclist podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
If you want even moreactionable training advice, head
over to train rightcombackslash newsletter and
subscribe to our free weeklypublication.
(22:01):
Each week you'll get in depthtraining content that goes
beyond what we cover here on thepodcast.
That'll help you take yourtraining to the next level.
That's all for now.
Until next time, train hard,train smart, train right.
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