I’m just trying to get some more time outside so I’ve started up my bike commute again. It is only half a mile and I go home for lunch so it’s four separate activities a day.
I usually do track it on the bike computer and just ignore it in Garmin Connect and don’t share them on Strava. So should I delete the four individual activities from the calendar or just leave them? Is there any harm other than some annoying clutter?
Well there’s two ways of thinking about this:
Which camp are you? Personally I wouldn’t even record it… all those little rides would drive me nuts (unless I raced home once in a while or something) but I know people who record walking their dog. It is all personal.
Thanks for the feedback. My radar and light are connected to the bike computer so it made sense to start an activity but having a ton of tiny activities is bugging me in the calendar so I’ll probably just not save them.
I used to have a 4mi commute (one way), with 600’ of climbing. I recorded those.
Now I have a 2 mile commute with a 1 mile middle of the day portion, with maybe 75 feet elevation, and I don’t bother recording
1/2 mile I’d walk it
I wouldn’t sweat it and just leave the data there. If you turn the computer off instead of saving the ride you can just resume the ride later.
Especially when commuting/running errands I’m always using my radar and do the same thing.
I go home for lunch and to walk the dog and walking back and forth just adds slightly too much time and makes everything rushed. Not to mention that crossing at the light at the only intersection I have to deal with means I get my life threatened even more than on the bike so it’s less fun.
From a training perspective: I just want to chime in that those rides aren’t really having a significant impact on your overall fitness. Especially if you’re keeping it in endurance zone for the most part.
I don’t personally record those types of rides (pedaling to the grocery store, etc). I like the simplicity of not having to start/stop my garmin and take it off when I get to my destination, having the extra ride files, etc. Just nice to not worry about it when I know there’s not a lot of weight in what Im recording.
From an Adaptive Training standpoint, don’t stress about those commutes. You can keep doing so if you have a TSS goal per day or something that you’re keeping track of for personal use. (Although even in that case I don’t think the 0.5 mile would make a huge impact).
Let me know if you have further questions!
It would not have thought a 7 minute walk add that much over a ride. By time to get bike out / put it away and lock it up at work walking wouldn’t take much longer. Plus walking gives you a good opportunity to maintain your bone health
I stopped. Even though my commute is a little bit long (9km @ 25-30mins) per journey. So thats almost 90km and 4-5 hours per week!
So I could have 9 hours on my calender and think ‘well done you’ve done 9 hours of training’ but in actuality I have only done 4 hours of ‘training’ which is below my target.
This is especially important when analysing long term training consistency. If you have 250+ hours a year worth of commute data within your training data; its gonna greatly skew how you precieve your training.
Maybe record on strava but keep 1 plateform (trainingpeaks, intervals.icu, trainerroad) commute free so you can see ONLY your training TSS.
If you’re cycling for your commute for 30 minutes each way, regardless of how low a zone you’re in, I don’t see why it’s not relevant for training.
I really just track my commutes with a garmin for total yearly mileage reasons, but it is good to be aware of just how much time you’ve spent on a bike.
OP’s case may be different as 1/2 a mile is too short to even bother cycling for most people.
Given my comuters are a fixed variable - i don’t consider it part of my training. Just like brushing my teeth and getting ready in the morning; its fixed and doesn’t play a role. For me its most important to track my training hours and TSS. Not my commuting.
However - if you do change your commute (sometims you drive or get the train vs cycle in) - maybe i would track it as its not a constant and could have an impact on your training.
i.e. when i commute, i keep failing workouts. or when i started commuting, my ftp went up. etc.
Part of me is hoping you are getting fully kitted up for this “commute”, part of me is not 
I’m not but I did buy some velo sambas so I could clip in with normal looking shoes. They look amazing but will absolutely destroy your heels if you try to do any walking in them.