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Fitness improvement from cycling

Old 09-21-20, 08:40 PM
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disco_kevin30
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Fitness improvement from cycling

Hello! I have recently moved and I am quite a bit father from work then I use to be; the ride will be 22 miles round trip. My current fitness level is moderate at best. I have made the ride a few times and I generally can make it in about 50 minutes one way if I am pushing. My goal is to eventually do this 5 days a week.

So my question is, how much fitness improvement will I see without a concerted effort to train (for lack of a better word). The route is moderately flat with some slight hills in both directions. When I ride it I am certainly not cranking as hard as a I can, but I have found a pace that is pleasantly uncomfortable. I don't have a power meter or anything so I can't really convey the effort in physical numbers, but Im breathing heavily the entire way.

What fitness increases will I develop from doing this consistently every week? Will it just be endurance? Strength? Will I get faster? Or do you have to make a point to actively pursue those goals?

Sorry long post. Thank you for reading.

Last edited by disco_kevin30; 09-21-20 at 10:03 PM.
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Old 09-21-20, 08:43 PM
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Riding 5 days vs not riding can make a big difference. When I rode to work, I sometimes took the long way home, for extra workout.
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Old 09-21-20, 09:02 PM
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Women will want you, and other men will want to be you!

joking aside, the almost 2 extra hours of cardio and fresh air has more benefits than I can list. You may also go through an initial break-in period where your body adjusts (muscle cramps, seat discomfort, energy balance) but in time that will pass.
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Old 09-21-20, 09:41 PM
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You ride 22 miles (35 kms) in 50 minutes with moderate fitness? If you can sustain 40 km/h over that distance, I'd say your fitness is more than moderate.

I have been riding 30 kms to work (and home) for a good 5-6 months now, basically daily, although I had a 3 week break due to bike path flooding and torrential rains during 2020's super monsoon here in South Korea. I average about 1 hour and 30 minutes and usually sit on 23-25 km/h, but I ride a heavy steel touring bike, with, depending on the day, a full load of weekly lunches and work clothes, towels etc. Are you on a carbon road frame with a light backpack?

Look man, 35 kms in 50 minutes is really fast. Peter Sagan averages around 40 km/h in some races, so at that distance in that time, you're right on his pace. To improve your "fitness" you'll probably need to look into EPO.

Last edited by PDKL45; 09-21-20 at 09:45 PM. Reason: Checked Strava and my estimated average was optimistic. I'm not that fast.
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Old 09-21-20, 09:47 PM
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disco_kevin30
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I make 11 miles in 50 minutes. Sorry, I should have been more clear about that. If I could do 22 miles in 50 minutes I would be really happy.


An hour and 30 is good time for 18 miles, in my opinion. I ride with one pannier with work related stuff. I can definitely notice the difference when my bag is more full though. I think it's rad you are commuting that distance.

Last edited by disco_kevin30; 09-21-20 at 09:57 PM.
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Old 09-21-20, 09:55 PM
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You'll get massive improvements at first. Then the rate of improvement will slow and your fitness will plateau unless you make a concerted effort to go harder. That is because the human body is efficient and doesn't like to get fitter unless taxed beyond its current capabilities.

I had (until indefinite pandemic WFH) a 31 mile round-trip that I could do up to 4 days a week, but rarely did that often because I went hard every time and needed more recovery. After commuting 2-3 times per week for half a year, I'd gone from a casual rider tired riding 5 miles if there were some slight uphill stretches to someone who could complete a solo century and hang near the front of the 18 mph pace group doing real climbs on my very first foray with group riding. A year after, I stopped seeing improvements from just riding. Nowadays, only really pushing with structured training and a powermeter will lead to a boost in fitness. Any major time off the bike and I lose that hard-earned fitness fast. I'm still far from maximizing my capabilities, and I enjoy working at it, but the easy gains everyone gets at first are long gone for me.

In contrast, I had a coworker with almost the exact same commute as me, riding with almost the same frequency. The difference was he never pushed as hard as I did, and after a year he was nowhere near as improved as I was. Though for both of us, the 1700 ft of elevation gain became far easier to handle, and we routinely passed other people when our schedules aligned and I slowed down to ride together at his regular pace, which was low Z2 for me.
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Old 09-21-20, 10:04 PM
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That time and distance makes a lot more sense.

Look, commuting is amazing for fitness gains. I have become faster and am a stronger cyclist for it. For example, where I may have been content to noodle along in my 32t middle chainring in the past, these days I am in the 44t big ring and riding 4-5km/h faster than I previously would have. Combined with diet, intermittent fasting and a few other things, my general health and well being have really improved, backed up with solid numbers from workplace health testing (done every couple of years for people on government-company single payer health insurance in Korea). I also really notice the dopamine high after my morning ride, when I am freshly washed, have a coffee and am reading the news at my desk before the time hits 8 and I am on the clock.

One strange thing I notice is that without consciously training like an athlete, my fitness builds, peaks and falls off a little at times. I had reached a fitness peak at the end of July, when the torrential rains started and I had to take the subway to work and walk 6-7 kms per day. It's shocking how fast your conditioning falls away, and I am still not back to where I was just over a month later. Still, that month was broken up by a couple of typhoons and some leave to attend to family matters, so that I didn't have the same 5 days a week unbroken streak of morning and afternoon commutes. It's interesting to see, though, and you suddenly understand how important it is for athletes to work up to an event and peak at the right time.

To improve you can think about HIIT intervals, etc.

Have a look here: https://www.cyclingweekly.com/fitnes...g-plans-153049
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Old 09-22-20, 03:12 AM
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Originally Posted by disco_kevin30
My current fitness level is moderate at best ... how much fitness improvement will I see without a concerted effort to train (for lack of a better word).
Hard to say.

As others have suggested, during the early phase of fitness, you're likely to see greater improvements. As the body adapts and gets stronger, further gains will become more difficult (IOW, you'll have to push harder to get similar gains).

Having lived with old leg/hip injuries for decades, one of the best things I can do is cycling. Failing to be on the bike for a few weeks, I notice a severe drop in my leg strength. And I can ramp up the cardio, noticeably, if I keep my pedaling cadence higher.

Myself, I typically do: leg strengthening exercises (in the gym); hard cardio stints with a variety of activities other than cycling; then, on the bike, I strive to keep my cadence @ ~90+ rpms, incorporating a tolerable number of hills, for a distance that gives me a good overall workout (cardio + strength) for 1-2hrs several times each week. That's about all my old legs can tolerate, these days, but it's clear that cycling helps both with cardio (if at high enough cadence and difficulty for a great enough distance) as well as strength. Done "right," I can be huffin' and puffin' harder than in the gym on any piece of "cardio" equipment, and the route and how hard I go after it definitely address strength.

I'm assuming that if you structure your sessions appropriately (route, length of time in the saddle, how hard you work, and your cadence), in time you'll likely gain in both cardio fitness and strength.
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Old 09-22-20, 05:58 AM
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VERY generally, since everyone is different:
- 11 miles in 50 minutes for commuting is very respectable. I wouldn't worry about speed if you're just starting out, it sounds like you're starting out at a good level.
- Commuting is about getting to work and home at the end of the day. Consider taking it easy on the way in to work (so you arrive refreshed and relatively fresh, instead of tired and sweaty) and saving the "exercise" for after work.
- If you are new to cycling, it is wise not to go too hard too often right at first. This allows your body to acclimate to the stresses of riding a bike. Muscles and cardio can adapt fairly quickly (weeks to months), but supporting structures (tendons, ligaments) take longer (months to a year) to strengthen (especially if you're on the far side of 35 or so, and it goes downhill from there).
- There are various ways to categorize level of effort vs. type of fitness benefit. I would do some reading, a simple Google search of the term "training zones" or similar will give you more information than you want. Very generally, if you want to improve endurance and lose weight, you'll probably be putting out less effort than you think you should (IMO, this is where you should focus for at least half to one year if you're just starting out, to build strength so you can do harder efforts later without injury). If you want to improve speed and power, you'll probably be putting out a lot more effort than you think you should (you may feel like puking after a Z5 workout). Most of us spend far too much time in the middle - it is not easy to talk while pedaling (it feels like we're EXERCISING), but we can keep up that level of effort for a couple of hours. If you don't have any particular goals, though, and you find it fun to push yourself, and you have the strength and cardio to support it, then knock yourself out. Just be aware that you may not progress as far and you may reach a plateau pretty quickly.

Again, these are VERY GENERAL guidelines. Different people react in different ways, and there are many, many, many variables that play into this.
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Old 09-22-20, 06:19 AM
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Any additional activity above your "norm" will increase your fitness. You'll notice interesting changes to your body and your ability to ride longer/faster as you put more miles in. As someone who went from never cycling pre-covid to cycling ~100 miles/week, the first thing I noticed was the muscles in my thighs and around my knee are much more developed. I also noticed how much easier the hills are getting each time I ride. If you want to compete against yourself, log your commute on Strava and see how much faster you get over time with the same amount of relative effort.
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Old 09-22-20, 06:47 AM
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I'm going to play dumb, so bear with me.

What do you mean when you ask about fitness improvement? If you expect to drop commute time to 30 minutes each way, good luck! I think of my 10 mile commute as "typical" -- through downtown, some other business districts, and suburbs. With traffic lights and stop signs, on a very good day at the end of a very good summer I've dropped my average 45 minute commute down to just under 40 minutes. On a cold winter day with headwinds, it still goes up to 50 minutes.

Or do you mean it gets easier? If you're willing to take the same 50 minutes for a one way commute, in 3-6 months you won't be breathing nearly as hard. (Equipment makes a big difference -- slicks roll much, much better than knobby tires!)

Or does fitness mean long term health? Diet will impact your weight, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels a lot more than how much you ride. OTOH, you will improve your lower body and cardio fitness. In the one month checkup after my heart attack, my cardiologist told me, "The reason you're alive today is all the cycling you've been doing." And a half to three quarters of that, for the previous eight years, was bicycle commuting.
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Old 09-22-20, 06:49 AM
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Several things: Heart, lungs, oxygen level in blood, arteries, muscle development to stress.

If you watched the Tour de France, several things come to mind. Riders even on the break-away, their breathing patterns for the most part are very steady. Their ability to transfer oxygen from the lungs to the blood and then to the heart using the arteries to supply the fuel to the muscles is what I think is happening. And its done with efficiency, only through training.

You will get that too. Of course, it will be to a lesser degree; nontheless, you'll get that. As long as you continue this activity, the benefits will be apparent during your non-riding times.

The body needs to adjust as it does in most situations. Give it time making sure you get plenty of rest. Don't be concerned with taking a nap; its good for the body.
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Old 09-22-20, 07:06 AM
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Originally Posted by disco_kevin30
So my question is, how much fitness improvement will I see without a concerted effort to train (for lack of a better word).
Quite a bit, IMO. If you're riding 22 miles every day, you're going to find yourself becoming a lot more fit than you are now.

When I started riding, I started out just riding a few miles here or there. Didn't help out a lot. When I decided to make an effort to ride 10 miles every morning, I noticed that my fitness level went way up. I first noticed it when I could actually run 50 feet without becoming winded. But I just got out and did it, no real concerted effort to train, maybe a little of trying to get faster than I was, but my main goal was and is just to put in the distance every morning, even if I go slow. Just to get out there and get the heart pumping for 45 minutes is a positive change. If you're doing 11 miles in the morning and then 11 more miles in the evening, I think you'll find yourself being in better shape than you have been in a while. Basically, anything's better than driving every day.

Last edited by Milton Keynes; 09-22-20 at 07:11 AM.
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Old 09-22-20, 07:24 AM
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I have been bike commuting to work most days for 28 years...12 miles round trip for the first 8 years, 18 miles round trip for the last 20. I started when I was 30 years old, now I am 58.

When I started bike commuting I had a nearly full head of hair, now I am bald...like Peter Boyle bald.

When I started I had single-vision glasses and could read without them in a pinch...now I have tri-focals and can barely see without them.

When I started I was 5'10", now I'm 5' 9".

I have wrinkles and age spots.

My average speed has dropped just over 1 mph.

However, my cholesterol had also dropped and has stayed low.

My resting heart rate dropped and has stayed low.

I am able to keep up activity-wise with my kids and grand kids.

I have a positive outlet for life's minor frustrations.

---Don't worry so much about fitness goals...fitness is a means to an end and that end is enjoying life. If you can bike to work for a couple-three decades, you will enjoy life more than if you don't.

Be safe and enjoy your rides!
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Old 09-23-20, 05:46 AM
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You will see a definite improvement in fitness. If you ride every day, and make it a habit, you will try to keep riding every day. When you are riding every day, you can mix intervals or sprints into your ride, these will make you faster. You can also add distance to your commute to increase endurance.
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Old 09-23-20, 07:09 AM
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Originally Posted by disco_kevin30
I make 11 miles in 50 minutes. Sorry, I should have been more clear about that. If I could do 22 miles in 50 minutes I would be really happy.


An hour and 30 is good time for 18 miles, in my opinion. I ride with one pannier with work related stuff. I can definitely notice the difference when my bag is more full though. I think it's rad you are commuting that distance.

I don't think there's much doubt you'll see fitness improvement from the daily commute then, the question is just how much. One trick I do is to push the ride home a lot harder since I don't have to be worried about looking ragged out like I do when I get to work. My commute is much shorter--2.4 miles one way, but I tend to add an extra 22.6 miles on the evening ride to make it a work out so I'm doing about 5 miles more per weekday than you are. Your commute is long enough, you might get similar benefit from just making the 11 mile ride very brisk.
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Old 08-18-23, 09:42 AM
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Moving further away from work definitely provides you with an opportunity to incorporate more physical activity into your routine. With a 22-mile round trip, you're definitely putting your endurance to the test. Regular biking at this distance will gradually improve your cardiovascular fitness. Over time, your body will become more efficient at using oxygen and delivering it to your muscles, allowing you to maintain the pace without feeling as winded. This is also a fantastic way to strengthen your leg muscles, particularly your quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, and most likely upper butt muscles. While your route might have some slight hills, the consistent pedaling against resistance will definitely help build leg strength over time. And even though this isn't being talked about often I can tell you that this will be a huge boost to your mental health.
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