What actually happens to your body when you ride every day. And why the people dismissing commuting as junk miles have it completely backwards. This is a solo Roadman Cycling podcast episode walking through the physiology, the group ride mechanics, and where AI coaching actually fits into a training plan.
Key Takeaways
A 70kg person cycling 30 minutes each way to work burns 2,000 to 3,000 calories extra per week. That's enough to lose roughly one pound of body weight per week without changing anything else about how you eat. Three and a half thousand calories to lose 0.45kg, five hours of commuting per week, the numbers work out. Anthony used to commute to college on the bike. The day he got a car, the weight started coming on immediately.
The mood piece is harder to put a number on but it's real. Every ride triggers endorphin release and lowers cortisol. Fred Wright told Anthony that two hours on the bike leaves him more energised for the rest of the day, but beyond that there's a tipping point where you come home and you're useless. Thirty minutes each way is nowhere near that tipping point. Peter Leo, coach to Jacob Alula and the Australian track team that broke the world team pursuit record at the Paris Olympics, uses AI to correlate Whoop recovery data with TrainingPeaks training loads to find patterns. For sportive-level riders putting in 6 to 10 hours a week, an AI coaching app like Breakaway costs about five pounds a month and gets you most of what you need. For cat one or cat two racers, it doesn't cut it.
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