As im wanting to start commuting to college to get some more time on the bike, but is 30min going to be benifical to me or isnt it enough?
I was thinking: 5min Zone 1, 5min Zone 2, 10min Zone 3, 5min zone 2 and finaly 5min Zone 1 and the repeated on the way home, the terrain is pretty flat.
Is that any good? could i increase the intensity?
If not whats the shortest amount of time you need to spend on a bike to gain some benifit?
Any imput much appreciated.
Nathan.j

one of my fastest years was a few years ago. I was strapped for time and could only realy train in th am before work. so I would do high intencity workouts for about an hour. And do longer distance rides on the weekends

In the very least, it's not going to hurt. Any time you can spend on your bike is bonus, you're having fun. Bikes are fun. I totally wish it was feasible for me to commute to work by bike. As for the training effect, that can be somewhat debatable. For people out just starting training, any time on the bike is beneficial. The more you ride the more fit you become and you will get faster. The more structured training addresses demands of racing where intensity and sustained power output is foremost. Your body adapts to the power demands put on it. You can benefit from intensive power workouts in short periods of time but you probably don't want to be entering your classes (commuting to/from college) all sweaty and out of breath.

I'm from that school of thought that says that ANY time spent on the bike makes you better. Thirty minutes commuting time may not be the most efficient training method, it may not optimize every aspect of your fitness but it certainly won't hurt. In fact it may provide a very useful way of getting in recovery ride time.

I guess you could benefit a bit from just 30-minutes.

Lets assume you can warmup prior to this 30 minutes?

One day start at the bottom of a climb and climb for 30 minutes.

Another do some fartlak. 4-3-2-1 with 1 minute rec between and 2 minutes between that before you start doing 1-2-3-4.

Another day, hit the trail for 30 minutes of technique work, or doing a 30 minute TT.

Fina a small hill that takes 2-3 minutes to climb and ride it 5 times, do a short warm up/down..

30 minutes will probably never be enough but its time to do something I guess.


Trevor!

As im wanting to start commuting to college to get some more time on the bike, but is 30min going to be benifical to me or isnt it enough?
I was thinking: 5min Zone 1, 5min Zone 2, 10min Zone 3, 5min zone 2 and finaly 5min Zone 1 and the repeated on the way home, the terrain is pretty flat.
Is that any good? could i increase the intensity?
If not whats the shortest amount of time you need to spend on a bike to gain some benifit?
Any imput much appreciated.
Nathan.j
You are right that with limited time, the best training would be at a high intensity. Sprint type workout, or intervals which helps recovery, can be done in that time, but I don't know how good that would be as a commute? A heart rate monitor is important in this type of training. I wouldn't like it, but if you are serious about it, maybe you could get a shower before classes....

My last workout was only thirty minutes (plus warmup and cooldown) and I hope I got some benefit! I would stick to training one aspect of fitness for a few weeks then move on to the next. The order depends on which school of thought you buy into, but something like this:

3 weeks of intervals
1 week taking it easy and testing for improvement
3 weeks of muscular endurance training
...etc...
Do race simulation on the weekends. You should be able to maintain all aspects of fitness on the weekends, so your commute should be very focused. I believe it was Joe Friel who said, "Mixed training produces mixed results."