Just wondering what views are on me walking approximately 4 miles a day.
I commute by train to work (it’s about 40 miles away). The station is a mile away and once I’ve my caught my connections my workplace is another mile away. So 4 miles walking.
I’ve thought about a fold up bike but I don’t feel confident riding around London in rush hour, and 4 miles doesn’t really seem worth it.
However, I failed to complete my VO2 workout tonight (and I obviously need to blame it on something ) There are weeks when I could move my intense days for when I work from home ( no walking so I’m fresh) and schedule the endurance training for one of my walking day.
I think I prefer keeping my schedule the way it’s set up (so VOtwosdays/Tuesdays) but do other people swap their weeks around regularly?
If walking 4 miles a day is something you only do when you are in the office and your overall fitness is low i.e your HR is in Z2/Z3 when walking quickly it could be enough extra stress to make a difference.
I’d reccomend you start walking 4 miles everyday including your work from home days which should improve your overall health and wellbeing. Sitting down all day inside is a literal killer.
What is more likely to be causing workout failure is the additional stress and fatigue from the long hours of commuting. How many hours less sleep do you get when you commute vs when you are working from home?
Maybe it’s more the overall stress of commuting and a full day in the office than the actual walking? That being said, when a past job included 2x 30 minutes of walk-running through a busy city centre, I started to log that in TP, because I felt it added to the overall load.
To be honest, I’d swap the days if you can. Vo2max workouts after a long day is not something my brain likes to concentrate on.
Personally, walking/standing/doing physical labor has absolutely affected my training. If I’m able to sit all day instead, my legs feel way better.
Tyler Hamilton (former pro back in the Armstrong/USPS days) wrote in his book that he’d skip shopping trips/walks around town with his wife when he wasn’t riding so he could lay on the couch and focus on recovering. Don’t walk if you could stand, don’t stand if you could sit, don’t sit if you could lay down, don’t lay down if you could sleep…
Anyway…
I’d probably move my workouts around to be as fresh as possible for “key” sessions (like VO2, Threshold) each week. Just my personal preference, though. But I see the appeal in keeping your VO2 workouts locked in on VOtwosdays.
Affects me big time. I’m retired and every day would be a 3/4/5 mile dog walk after a turbo. When I changed it to walk first and turbo an hour or two later HR was always quite a bit higher for workouts.
I let it affect me yesterday. I usually cycle to the station in the morning 4 miles, take the train 40mins but get off when it gets busy and cycle the last 11 miles then come back and do a workout. There refurbing the bike cage at work and whilst there is some temporary exposed Sheffield stands but I decided not to use them and walked the 4miles instead and stayed on the busy train. I don’t know if it was because I was speed walking to catch the train or just it was a long day as I regularly walk a bit but my calves felt it and I skipped my endurance workout.
Good advice for a full time pro whose living depends on his performances and wasn’t cycling for any overall health reasons (based on what we know now probably the opposite). But does this apply to the rest of us? Walking I would have thought gives a recovery/low aerobic impact which is good for most of us.
It’s not a subject that I’m terribly knowledgeable in – as I said above, though, at least for me, my cycling workouts have always been easier if I’m able to limit walking/standing/physical labor during my “normal” day.
In the OP’s case, 4 miles per day is also quite a bit of walking!
I’m not a pro cyclist by any means but you should invest in good walking shoes. Also after a couple weeks your body should adapt to the amount of walking.
Are you eating enough? Losing weight? Is work stressful?
I walk an average of 4-6 miles a day for work, and wear expensive new balance nonslip shoes. Never had issues doing workouts unless it was stress or terrible sleep or didn’t eat enough.
@Pipipi I have to disagree with some of the comments given to you. it’s also very dependent on your age. I’m 60 and walk most days from 2 to 3 miles. At my age, walking DEFINITELY affects my ability to ride hard as I just do not recover as easily as I used to in my younger days. Even though I walk most days I still feel the fatigue from it.
seriously shocked anyone would consider not walking to get a better bike session. like what’s the point of life if you just lay on the couch then bike? I don’t get it.
we are built to walk. it’s great for your brain and body. it’s like the most natural thing a human can do.
also this 4 miles seems like it’s split up throughout the day and I seriously doubt OP is walking in Zone 3. who walks in Zone 3?
if your sessions are worse on a day where you work and walk the 4 miles vs a weekend, I really think it’s more the fact that you’re working all day than the walking. maybe trial hard sessions on a weekend where you walk a similar amount?
I’m the opposite. For me a rest day is often 45 minutes lifting weights, 30-40 minutes walking, and maybe 1.5 hours of rock climbing. I almost never have a day with no activity, and don’t seem to have any problems with recovery.
How important is getting a successful Vo2 max workout in vs overall health? Walking is very good for you and being only good at cycling very fast isn’t necessarily the only thing you should worry about for overall health. Having said that, if you don’t care about overall health, then going the route of doing nothing outside of workouts might help you be the fastest you can be on the bike.
Probably lots of people, when they try to make it to work on time or catch a train (or a connecting train). I definitvely was more running than walking, just slowing down when it was very busy and to not get overly sweaty and recover my breath just enough to pretend I wasn’t in a rush at all.
) There are weeks when I could move my intense days for when I work from home ( no walking so I’m fresh) and schedule the endurance training for one of my walking day.
