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How to Find
Time for Cycling
By Fred Matheny for
www.RoadBikeRider.com
We shouldn’t feel
excessive admiration for pro racers who log 600-mile
weeks. They have plenty of time to ride and
recover—that’s their job. The real heroes are people
like you, who find time to ride while still having a
life away from the bike.
Full-time work, family
commitments and cycling can be efficiently
interwoven into your busy day. All it takes to
schedule everything into 24 hours is maximum use of
time-budgeting techniques.
Here’s where to look for
time slots that can accommodate your love for
riding:
Riding your bike to work
or school and back may be the best way to create
time cycling time.
When you commute by
bike, time normally spent sitting in a car is used
productively as part of the training day. An
eight-mile ride to work or school takes about 30
minutes each way. Even if you do no other riding,
that’s still an hour of cycling each weekday. The
trip home can be lengthened as much as time,
daylight and energy allow.
Another benefit is
arriving at your job refreshed and alert. It may be
tough to get up earlier for the ride in, but the
physical and mental lift of exercise will carry you
through that 10 a.m. letdown that your sedentary
colleagues experience. Then you ride home, clearing
cobwebs and blowing away job-related frustrations.
You’re refreshed and ready for evening
responsibilities or family fun.
Commuting Logistics
-
Play on the way
home. Scout out a longer route and ride for
an hour or more as time and commitments allow.
Do intervals, time trials, or hit the hills hard
to get a great workout while you’re homeward
bound.
If commuting simply
won't work for you, here are two popular options:
Early Bird Special
Consider an
early-morning workout. By the middle of March it’s
usually light enough to get in a ride before work.
At dawn there are few cars on the road and the day
is brightening every minute.
Getting up in the
pre-dawn hour may be the ultimate test of whether
you really want to ride. Roll out of bed the minute
the alarm rings and don’t think about anything. The
longer you lie there moaning about how early it is,
the harder it is to extricate yourself from the
sheets.
Sleep loss is the
biggest risk. Make up the deficit with an earlier
bedtime because it’s vital to get enough rest. Lack
of sleep can lead to deep fatigue and poor
performance in everything you do.
Evening Rides
If your schedule
prohibits riding most of the day, try from 9 to 10
or 10:30 p.m. For most people, the kids are in bed,
the chores around the house complete, and you’re
probably wasting time watching TV.
To make this work, eat a
moderate dinner at 6 or 7 p.m., allowing the food to
digest by riding time. As an additional benefit this
provides motivation not to overeat.
Riding in the dark used
to be dangerous because lights were poor. You
couldn’t see road hazards clearly, and motorists
couldn’t see you. Modern lighting systems make night
riding safer, but it’s still smart to use
lighted parks or suburban streets if they’re
available.
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