Training on the commuter?

A few days ago there was a post to the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition mailing list by a cyclist celebrating 1000 miles of cycle commuting this year. That spawned a lot of comparisons by other members on the list of their mileage for the year, and a subsidiary discussion of lengths of commutes vs. frequency of cycle commuting. The end of the year is in sight, and my mileage for the year is a bit meager; a mere 6K miles or so total for 2007, compared with nearly 9K miles the previous two years. And this year a higher proportion of the miles have been on the commute on routes that are flat and uninspiring; I occasionally have to ride the morning trip to the train station as if it were a time trial to keep from being too bored. But for the most part the commute is utilitarian transportation; less stressful than sitting in a car on the 101 parking lot, but not exhilarating and not a way to achieve great racing fitness.

The 2008 racing season is nigh. I plan on riding the San Bruno Mt. Hill Climb on 1 January, unless the weather is hideous, but have not had the time or inclination to get out and actually train yet. So I will race it without any expectations, just a chance to get out and socialize while burning my lungs into oblivion. After that I will have to get serious about doing some intervals, and other good training type rides. And the question arises, how do I weave that into my daily commute? The commuter is a bit of a heavy beast, and it is now a fixie. I could alternate days with the touring bike, which is also a beast. Or I could try to commute on the Colnago and put the monstrous laptop and other necessities into a messenger bag or backpack. None are ideal, all are compromises, especially during the months of interminable darkness. And what about days to rest and recover? Can I plan to work at home 1-2 days/week? I need to plan this out. Especially important as my weekend schedules are tightening up so much of what I do for ‘training’ will have to happen during the week. I do plan on spending at least one night on most weeks at Hellyer as soon as Larry Nolan’s ‘Points Race Series’ resumes.

For the rest of the winter I will be spending some time in the garage on the rollers or the trainer. Not the ideal, but then again the rollers do tend to reinforce some good habits. The Wife has even tried the rollers; she did about 5 minutes last Sunday and seemed to deem them evil. But she reports she spent an hour on them this morning. Perhaps we can get the neighbors to provide entertainment while we spin in place, at least until the evening light is sufficient for some decent rides into the hills.