I would like to improve my strength on the bike. Little spare time a so thinking how can I maximise the use of my commute.

In Jo order I would like to improve

1. Reducing jelley legs on long dh.
2. Climbing strength. (My climbing is pretty good already but don’t get to hit the hill very often).

Commute is 8 miles each way and flat, mostly gravel track. Thought adding weight might work?

Fixed gear with a tall ratio.

Add weight to bike and backpack. Change route so you get lots of corners – forces lots of acceleration back up to speed. Try and set markers on route to sprint between.

Doing all the above really helped me.

Heavy knobbled tyres and tubes. They drag you down all the time.

I can’t see how adding weight adds more benefit than just turning a higher gear?

The outcome is the same?

adding weight isn’t really going to make much difference. just go harder

Ankle weights?

Fat bike.

Adding weight will help on the hills but not necessarily on the flat. You could run higher gearing to increase power at a certain cadence on the flats. Changing pace – slow stint, accelerate for a stint, then slow down again. Or do a Froome and ride with brakes on!

As fisha says heavy wheels and knobbly supertacky tyres. Just remember to keep a fast bike ready for the one day a week that you need to destroy some guy that passes you most days.

Just ride harder/take a longer route.

Just ride harder/take a longer route.

I tried that it didn’t work out in practice after a shift.

Oops should be “no order” not “Jo order”.

Interesting it would not make a difference. Already ride an old heavy MTB for a commuter as I snapped my fixed gear! The weight of the hike seems noticeable on the gravel hence the idea.

Best bet sounds like doing sprint intervals, little chance of an alternative route.

Fartleks and sprint intervals.

Be wary of “training” on any road sections of your commute.

Watching your speed or time in commuting traffic can cause you to make choices that you would normally consider “unwise”.

Trust me on this.

“fartleks”?

Commute is mainly gravel and non of it involves weaving / filtering

Interesting it would not make a difference.

here’s a picture of Brad training on his super heavy weight bike…

See if someone you work with would like a lift. Buy a trailer, chuck em in it, charge em a tenner a week “petrol”. Job done, win win.

here’s a picture of Brad training on his super heavy weight bike.

Not what I was asking, I don’t have the opportunity for many other rides and a proper training sessions like cav, it was a question about ideas for making the most of the commute. Adding weight was one idea.

Resistance parachute that sprinters use?

http://www.networldfootball.co.uk/speed-chute.html?preselect=1&gclid=Cj0KEQjw88q9BRDB5qLcwLXr7_sBEiQAZsGja5tLH0IMkUlTU2GOyzeQ_3CRzmVu6nAgyV4n8O0CXyUaAh988P8HAQ

Should be safe if off-road (you mention gravel tracks), but wouldn’t use on road!

Not what I was asking,

It sort of is. you’re asking about a specific training method, think of it like this. Training on a heavier bike to get a better at climbing would be like doing 100 fingertip push-ups to practice for a piano recital. you’ll have really strong fingertips, but it won’t make you a better piano player. Those thing you want to get better at…do those things.

I’ve just got a scandal and gone full rigid and singlespeed to make my 8 mile commute harder. So far so good. Bike weighs a lot less than 10kg but it is certainly harder work. Not much climbing ( about 400 feet) but singlespeed really makes you work.

Fartleks and sprint intervals.

This would be my suggestion too. Acceleration in a big gear is what you need.

Jelly legs, need to do the sitting with legs bent 90 degrees back against the wall for a good few minutes and build it up

What fisha said.

Fat, heavy, soft compound tyres at low pressure. This way you have to push hard to just get home. There is no easy way out if you can’t be arsed to do sprint intervals for example or go the long way home. Ideally do all of the above!

take the saddle off
ride ss or fg
make the tyres heavy/slow
add backpack
add panniers

how far do you want to take it?

Problem on a long dh? Drive to work and hit the weights in the gym on the way home?

Usual training starts and ends with 15min warm up and 15 min warm down and then a variety of training in the middle. Your problem is your commute is only the length of the warm up&down so you would benefit by spurring off somewhere in the middle for a spot of training, even if for only 20-30mins mins and treat the commute as the warm up and down.

Big gear, out of the saddle sprints efforts. Ride standing till you feel like your legs are about to give way, sit and spin till the burn goes and repeat.

Watch for knee pain though

Commuting with this:

I feel* has really helped my cycling. My commute is only 7 miles on flat roads each way, all be it in central London, but I was getting a scratchy throat. Got given a respro and it feels like you’re being strangled, riding at pace takes effort and it doesn’t take much to get jelly legs.

Take the mask off and I’m a much stronger cyclist that I used to be*.

*I have no scientific evidence of this.

Squeeze your brakes on just a little ? 😀

DH tyres and tubes, trust me on this.

All time on the bike should be as enjoyable as possible. Ride light then throw in an occasional diversion that helps you meet your training aims.

Adding weight wouldn’t be something I would be messing around with. I would suggest having a read up on interval training as a way to increase power and fitness.
Some ideas:
Ride the hilliest route possible, go balls out on the climb, recover on flats/downhill
1 mile hard as possible, 1 mile recovery
1 minute sprint (no sitting down), 1 minute recovery
Try and hold a high pace the whole way, and sprint through designated sections of slow gravel

Any day where you have time try to add in a bit of extra distance or new climbs to mix it up.

Take it easy and build slowly, treating one ride per day as training and one as recovery (I work on the basis that if I’ve broken a sweat I’m going too hard for a recovery ride).

I’d have said this…

Just ride harder/take a longer route.

Or mix some intervals into your current route.

But…

I tried that it didn’t work out in practice after a shift.

How so?

1. Reducing jelley legs on long dh.
2. Climbing strength. (My climbing is pretty good already but don’t get to hit the hill very often).

Do some big gear low cadence intervals, preferably on an incline.

I’d argue that weight (or any kind of resistance) wouldn’t help much, all it does is slow you down, or make you push harder to ride at your normal pace. No different to just trying to ride a longer route on your current setup.

Except maybe it removes the natural inclination to take the easy way home again, on the other hand it might just make you hate cycling.

I’d just beast it, go flat out at your redline the whole way, 320miles a month at threshold will get you fit*!

*At least in terms of your ability to do 10 mile TT’s anyway.

Singlespeed the commute, sometimes choose a low gear others a high gear then you work different muscle groups. As others have said: fartlek or intervals will work as well. Training involves providing stress in the form of change, just going along the same route all the time won’t provide that stress.

I find it hard to believe that you *can’t* change or modify your commute, that would imply that there’s one road/lane between home and work with no junctions of any kind. My “normal” commute is almost a straight line when looked at on a map (it probably deviates by about 200 metres at most from the actual straight line) but I can nip up hills to either side for a bit of variety.

I find it hard to believe that you *can’t* change or modify your commute, that would imply that there’s one road/lane between home and work with no junctions of any kind

Pretty much. Road is a duel carage way, with 4 merging lanes St one point, pretty much unridable. Off road is a discussed railway, odd junctions that spit you out on to main road again or small plantations dead ends on marshy land. Railway line is on raised bank all along. Alterative road routes have to go over one of two bridges each about 12 miles apart and also bussy rat runs. Road diversion would be of the order 10 + miles. Possible but not easy todo regularly.

20/40 second sprint/recovery sessions. If yo yucan manage 10 in a row then you are doing very well. I ride mine fixed on a reasonably large gear.

A heavier bike for a flat commute is not the answer.

Fair enough – unusual but if that’s what you’ve got.

Ride the direct route in to work – just bimble along then do the road diversion to get home. You’d only have to do it a couple of times a week. Either find Strava segments to test yourself against or work out your own efforts. Unless you are at Olympic level then being absolutely precise about work expended, etc., is of less use than actually making the effort.

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/knowledge/training/article/izn20130321-Making-the-most-of-your-commute-0

The bit at the bottom about Tabata might be a good way to make the most of a shortish commute.