Right. I’ve been making a concerted effort of late to cycle to work. I’m generally doing at least 3 days a week (usually mtb on the other days so drive when I’m tired) and I am enjoying it.

I am also enjoying the little boost in my fitness as it’s hard to actually mountainbike his time of year if you’re not prepared to night ride.

Since I’ve noticed an improvement in fitness, it’s got me wondering how much extra can I do on my commute in order to improve.
My commute is about 20k each way. Relatively flat but with a long climb at the end.

At the minute I am just monitoring my ride with a watch and strava. my question is do I now need to buy a computer or HRM to get more from it? I’ve not trained with heart rate or cadence before so it’s all new to me.

I’m also not sure I want to add masses of complication to proceedings. Main goal is to build stamina as I’m planning on a racing Enduros next year and want to improve on this years results.

Is this making sense?

A heart rate monitor will help you maximise the benefit from a regular 20km commute if used properly.

I’ve recently got a polar off the classified on here but not got on with it due to my man rug!

Pm me if your interested. Boxed watch and chest strap and I’ve got a proper bike mount for it to. Looking just to get the £30 I paid for it back.

Kid Cragg
A heart rate monitor will help you maximise the benefit from a regular 20km commute if used properly.

Says the man selling one 😛

That kind of prompts me to ask then, does it become a matter of getting my heart rate into a certain range for the whole commute? Is it distracting to do this on roads? Pardon my ignorance.

The Time Crunched Cyclist book has one training plan centred around commuting. It’s not bad but it is hard work. Effort is based on HR or power. If you have an ANT computer (e.g. Garmin) and you fancy HR, I personally like the PowerCal HR-based power meter from Power Tap. For commuting and relatively steady efforts, it’s pretty good, better than I expected, and much better than a HR monitor. I also have a power meter but seldom commute on that bike.

Could I just get a cateye and monitor my average speed as opposed to a power meter or HRM?

It depends on what type of commute you have. I wouldn’t think concentrating on your HR while mixing with traffic is a good idea. Save it for rural training rides.

As above. My commute is flat and has some long unbroken quiet roads. Most training focuses on intervals of some sort and I can go full out on these sections.

Average speed will have far too many variables for an accurate measure of fitness improvement beyond the “yes I’m faster now than I was three months ago”. It’s also pretty frustrating chasing an average time when you are held up 😉

Yes a HRM will help you monitor your rides and make them more useful. As you have a smart phone get one that’s compatible so you can feed the HR data into it. You should keep a log together with notes (not every ride will be an improvement, wet days, dry days, windy days etc) plus @imnotverygood makes a very valid point about traffic.

Haha says the man selling one indeed!

I brought mine to help me out on the road bike as I’m sick of blowing up on hill climbs. It was recommended by a friend who races, reasonably successfully on the road. Working in intervals in certain heart rate zones will maximise improvements as I understand it. Depends on the nature of your commute, probably no good if its a stop start job.

As for selling it, as I stated above it doesn’t work well with my hairy chest. It interferes with HRM readings and I believe a common problem from what i read on google!

If it worked for me I’d keep it, I’d rather not shave my chest!

I have a HRM but don’t use it on the commute. For people that do – do you aim to do steady pace, time in zones, what?

My commute is only short (6 miles) so I’ve been trying to do the equivalent of intervals – ie cruise on the flat bits but sprint up all the hills/slight rises. Don’t really need a HRM for that though.

For me the HRM means you can be more scientific about your excersize, it’s the next step on from timing the ride. In its most simple application you have a zone you are aiming to stay within and you set the intensity of your effort to remain in the zone. After time (possibly not long) you develop a feel for how hard you are working but the HRM provides actual data. As your fitness improves you should be able to work harder (ie complete the ride faster) at same heart rate. That’s one of the things you are looking for in monitoring the results. As above you can use HRM to monitor / control interval training. Setting the zones is part art / part science, depends upon age, weight, fitness but that you can tweak yourself.

^ good points.
A HRM would be good if there’s not too many hold-ups on the route. I like them for keeping my HR down as much as for harder training. It’s good to do low level (sub 70% / in Z2) rides on mondays after a weekends riding and a mid-week hour at Z4 into 5 is useful too – maybe not one for a commute but if you have a HRM it can become a more effective hour.
‘To go fast first you must slow down’ may be the most useful bit of advice anyone told me (Joe Friel originally I think) and a HRM with an alarm will help you stay steady.

At some stage I think I’ll surely have to buy one as the idea seems abstract to me at present. A lot of my commute is tow path so I may be able to use it

Just smash yourself, you ain’t going to be staring at an HRM during an ENDURO stage so why bother. Set up a few Strava segments taking in different characteristics, short punchy climb, longer climb, long flat section etc and get yourself breathing out of your arse, learn what it feels like and then learn what you can do when you’re breathing out of said orifice. Once you feel like you’ve taken this approach as far as you can then start thinking about structured training with an HRM.

It’s not obvious whether this is in traffic or not – I would be very wary of trying to beat times/Strava etc when commuting in traffic. It can affect your judgement at junctions and stop you concentrating on what is around you.

I would imagine. 😳 (Fastest into work 40:13, fastest home 50:27. Pre tram works/A453 chaos)

Not sure if its available in the UK yet, but a stages power meter would be the best way to train.

It may seem overkill but its transferable on Shimano cranks and garmin and smartphone compatible.

Power monitoring will make you a better and smoother rider, which you can measure accurately and see real progress without HR spikes.

Not sure if its available in the UK yet, but a stages power meter would be the best way to train.

Why specifically Stages? Why not any power meter? Considering the small price differential these days I’d look at a PowerTap,needn’t worry if your output is even then.

I’d suggest it may be overkill for a short commute. If you want to start training properly then I’d consider it, but not worth it to maximise a 40 minute ride!