Which is better - 100 miles or 5x20 mile round commutes?

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Just wondering really as I've started adding distance onto my normally flat 3 mile commute (quite amusing on the map, I do a 7 mile loop to get 400 yards!!) to make it a 10 mile trip or 20 round trip.

Casual interest more than anything but over a week, which has the more beneficial health and general fitness (rather than training for an event) - doing 100 miles over a week with 10x10 mile trips, or doing 30 miles commuting then a 70 miler? And how much difference is there?

I'm guessing the latter but for now, the former at least means I'm getting the miles in as I'm not up to doing that 70 miler yet....

 

[HLaB]

The difference is massive 10 x 10 is at least 9 rest recovery periods but a 30 then a 70 is only one or two. I'd say if you can manage it if you can do the 70 miler you are a lot fitter. No harm in the shorter runs though to build up fitness and keep you ticking over.

 

[jimboalee]

If you do the 20 miles per day, 10 in morn, 10 in evening, you won't need to eat anything for this. You can ride it casual or get a stink on to feel your legs working.

If you do 10 x 3 miles and a 70 miler at the weekend, you'll need to eat for the 70 miler, and it will cost 5 hours of your weekend. Only a 3 mile commute won't even get your muscles warm, so there is buggerall training unless you go full blast cold and risk injury.



In my experience, a 10 mile commute is not enough to prepare for a 100km ride.

There needs to be a hill on the commute that is tougher than anything you will see on the 100km ride.

Prep for your 70 miler needs a training route where the uphill terrain is worse.

 

[arallsopp]

Personally, I like the regular commutes for the following reasons:

• Gets your heart and lungs going at either end of the day.
• Is easily integrated into your lifestyle (doesn't eat weekends).
• Does not require any special fuel or planning.
• Does not get cancelled if it rains.
• Does not put your mile eggs in one basket.
• Doesn't risk you running out of road/effort/fuel/maps 40 miles from home.
• Soon becomes routine.

With a solid commute foundation, the build up to 100 mile rides and beyond gets a lot easier. I have a pretty hilly route in and out of work these days, and it was a very useful basis from which to target silly distances last summer. I maybe eat a little more than I used to, but its nice to know I've got 20 miles in my legs just waiting to be used, and that if I need to whip out 10 times that, its still in range.

 

[Bill Gates]

IMO the longer ride will do more for general fitness than multi shorter rides.

 

[Fiona N]

I'm with Arallsop on this one - regularity is the way to improved fitness. While doing occasional 10 mile rides wouldn't be enough training to then do a 70miler, commuting day in, day out, especially if you put some effort into half of the rides (e.g. take the morning ride moderately but push it on the way home), is enough to not only do the longer ride but enjoy it too. Aerobic fitness is about getting the miles in - at least up to a certain point - and 10 miles is enough to see benefits.

I know this from my own experience when I lived in Switzerland as, in the winter, I would usually just ride straight to work in the mornings (5 km mainly downhill) and straight home in the evenings but at lunchtimes I'd either run 5km in the woods or get out for a short but intense mtb session in the same (steep) woods. So each day I'd be riding for less than 1 hour in total (a bit more total time on the running days) but three sessions a day and a longer run (10km usually) on the weekend was what I did for 4 months of the year. But come the first good Sunday in late Feb or early March, I'd be out in the southern Black Forest doing a fast, hilly 120km ride with no problems. And two or three weeks later I'd be training with the club on the big climbs in the Alps.

 

[lukesdad]

Do 3x 10 s and the 70

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Mixed responses...I hadn't expected that...

I hate the weather though...I got myself all psyched up with mention of hills (no shortage of them here) for a 5 mile climb to 800ft then a reward of the next 5 miles downhill, better than my normal flat 10 miles

Left work, got round the corner, the wind hit me and blasted rain into my face so the advantage/disadvantage of not HAVING to do 10 miles either way got me and the direct 3 miles was taken.

Really disappointed now as it's bright, sunny but cool and ideal for a ride, but the bike is now away, took the time to finish sorting out bits in my shed..oh well, at least this morning was 13 rather than 10 with a bit of a climb thrown in

 

[amnesia]

I would go for the 10mile commutes twice a day, and then the 70 miles at the weekend when you feel ready... (it won't be long).

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

I know I could do a 70 - with a couple of stops - but I would HATE it around here where you can't go 5 miles without either a big bloody hill or a long slow uphill grind...I sometimes envy those who go out looking for a hill to climb and I will be honest, having to tackle a hill at the start of any scenic ride out before even getting anywhere does kind of spoil it for me and put me off

That said, I'm hoping for a nice morning tomorrow to set off early and make up for tonight by heading straight out this way....it's the only way I will get used to the hills and stop them spoiling a day ride out

I need to take a day off work, sling the bike in the car and head off up to Hull and head out into the gentler inclines of the edge of the Wolds on my old routes that I used to clock up the miles as a teenager..I looked at the "big hill" that I used to climb and it's a right piddly little thing

 

[amnesia]

I need to move - the biggest hill around here is only about 400ft elevation.

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Well, even after only a week I've sure noticed a difference, being really chuffed with my ride home, a steady incline of the sort that would have had me grumbling and wondering why i took up this silly habit, was a casual spin up with chance to mull things over in my mind and enjoy the ride...

 

[jimboalee]

I'm with Arallsop on this one - regularity is the way to improved fitness. While doing occasional 10 mile rides wouldn't be enough training to then do a 70miler, commuting day in, day out, especially if you put some effort into half of the rides (e.g. take the morning ride moderately but push it on the way home), is enough to not only do the longer ride but enjoy it too. Aerobic fitness is about getting the miles in - at least up to a certain point - and 10 miles is enough to see benefits.

I know this from my own experience when I lived in Switzerland as, in the winter, I would usually just ride straight to work in the mornings (5 km mainly downhill) and straight home in the evenings but at lunchtimes I'd either run 5km in the woods or get out for a short but intense mtb session in the same (steep) woods. So each day I'd be riding for less than 1 hour in total (a bit more total time on the running days) but three sessions a day and a longer run (10km usually) on the weekend was what I did for 4 months of the year. But come the first good Sunday in late Feb or early March, I'd be out in the southern Black Forest doing a fast, hilly 120km ride with no problems. And two or three weeks later I'd be training with the club on the big climbs in the Alps.

Once upon a time, for several years, I worked 17.5 miles from home. The ride in the summer months was OK and the view from the top of the hill was pleasant; the gas works, oil depot, power station, high rise flats and about eight church spires.
Through the winter, I would ride until my route met the country bus route; and the bus driver man would stop so I could lift my bike on the bus and take a seat for 12 of the 17.5 miles.
At lunch time, a works colleague and I would take a 5km run along the lanes to the next village ( in shorts and vest top through the snow and bitter cold rain ) to keep our fitness.
When spring arrived, the first big Audax was the Castleton Classic 200 up into the Peak District. In retrospect, the constant, every day slogging though the cold weather was what made the Castleton Classic possible.

 

[Fiona N]

Once upon a time, for several years, I worked 17.5 miles from home. The ride in the summer months was OK and the view from the top of the hill was pleasant; the gas works, oil depot, power station, high rise flats and about eight church spires.
Through the winter, I would ride until my route met the country bus route; and the bus driver man would stop so I could lift my bike on the bus and take a seat for 12 of the 17.5 miles.
At lunch time, a works colleague and I would take a 5km run along the lanes to the next village ( in shorts and vest top through the snow and bitter cold rain ) to keep our fitness.
When spring arrived, the first big Audax was the Castleton Classic 200 up into the Peak District. In retrospect, the constant, every day slogging though the cold weather was what made the Castleton Classic possible.

I reckon you're right - the discipline of training (or commuting) regularly is more than half the battle

 

[automatic_jon]

I reckon it depends how hard you ride, short high intensity rides are a different type of training to longer more relaxed rides. I only speak from the experience of having different bits of me ache after different types of ride.