Welcome to the blog of cyclists on the move! If you use your bike to go at work and you're wondering if it's a good way to train, listen to the following video. But just before, think about subscribing on the button right here below, and in the description link too, dac '. Hello, friends, today I answer a question that is often asked to me increasingly also on the YouTube channel, on the Facebook page and of course in blog comments. Is the bike-taf a good way to train? But first, Nicolas, what is the bike-taf? Well the bike-taf is using your bicycle as a means of transportation between your home and work. Obviously, if you work 500 m from the house, it is not very useful. But sometimes, some people have 4 or 5 km, 10 km, 20 km, I have some who tell me about having 20 km between home and home, so you do at least that once to go once to return, it's 20 km per day, 40 km per day, etc. So what is the point of training while going to work? Very clearly, the interest in health is obvious, rather than lugging around in a car you will by bike to work, even if it's 2 km it's still a good thing because that you know that to be healthy, if you do 30 min of physical activity we don't talk about sports or training a day, but about physical activities a day, you are going to be healthy because you activate your heart, you move your muscles, you get oxygenated, that's fine. Be careful, right now it's winter, sometimes it's also an opportunity to take a good break because when it's cold, ride a bike with speed, the relative cold loses 5 to 10 °, so it can also be an opportunity to catch cold. But on the other hand for full health, it is obviously a good thing. Now for training it's more questionable, and for two reasons. First reason, it is clear that when you go to work by bike, in general, in general of course, but that may not be the case for everyone, but if there has red lights, stops, protected passages, vehicles, traffic, etc., it is not always easy to be able to do a qualitative training during your journey. And so, well, there, it becomes complicated to be able to do exercises, fractional, endurance work, etc. So hey, ideally, we could consider depending on the transport time you have that you can do a workout, but in reality it's very difficult to do something structured, especially as you have a minimum of warm-up to do. So some people who bike-taf tell me that they warm up before on the home trainer and they use the bike for training or vice versa, when they come back in the evening they use the bike as a warm-up and immediately when they come home they do a home-trainer session, so it serves as a warm-up. There, I would say why not, but you see that it is difficult to make real training sessions a priori in bike-taf sessions for reasons of duration, we're not going to work for hours and also it's complicated to slalom between cars, red lights, etc., so that you can really do structured work. Sometimes it's also complicated if you really put the intensity to get to work, not everyone has a shower and something to change. And so, that's things, if you have everything optimally, why not, but it is rather rare. The second reason that makes me say that training is not ideal is often questions of distances and questions of kilometers. Clearly, if you ride a bike for hours and hours of extra saddle because it can be quick an hour a day in cumulative, well an hour a day on five days of the week it's already been five hours of cycling, even at an average of 25 km, well it's a hundred terminals, it's not bad, if you then drive on weekends, you say: wow, I did miles! Except you know me at The Best Cyclosportive I claim and I think all coaches today really this speech, in any case all serious coaches of a good level, is that if today we asked all coaches and athletes who are over forty: you find yourself 20 years earlier, what advice do you give yourself? you have almost a hundred percent of coaches and top athletes who would say to you: Make less volume. I did too much quantity, I gave too much importance to the quantity and not enough in quality. So it leads to injuries, so it leads to progression levels, etc. Except that in cycling there are still a lot of people, and I regularly see some who talk to me from another century and they stay in their trip because, it's true that they always take the example of people who have time, who have abilities physical outsized, and who say: Well, they make bounds, bounds with tray, thing, etc., and they're very good. Okay well, but it's an exception and then it's people, ultimately, who do not have a very very high level, often people who drive 20-25,000 km per year and which are very good for racing around your home, or even who on bikes are in the top ten. Yeah great. "Quiet. Quiet start guys. " Good 20-25000, there are pros who are in the best in the world, you see. I mean, again, and even more if you work alongside, if you have Forty years, favor quality, damn it, rather than quantity! As I said just before, it's hard to make quality with the bike-taf and if you do that just for miles for miles, I would say despite all that it's not qualitative kilometers because it's relatively short and on the contrary it will generate fatigue which means that you will not be able to do a qualitative session right after because you have accumulated fatigue for nothing. I give you an example, in training today we do warm-ups which last 10 to 15 minutes well targeted, qualitative, with changes of pace, gear shift, etc. But 10 to 15 minutes because we realized that driving 45 minutes, an hour, an hour and a half like that, it jeopardized your potential to do more sessions harder and more demanding afterwards. So roll to roll, why not. Again, I’m not throwing the baby out with the bathwater, I’m telling you that the bike-taf is not bad, if you like that, it's good to be healthy and you have to be good health to be successful, I have already said it in several videos, but by against it is really not ideal for training to be efficient. So if you do this once or twice a week to add a little mileage, to recover or to use it as a warm-up for a session in the evening, again why not. But don't get into your head that doing miles and miles in Vélo-taf is a good idea. Kilometers for kilometers is not useful, that's it. What I recommend to you is to have structured training and you can get lots of advice on exercises or downright on planning on the blog The Best Cyclosportive. You can register elsewhere just below in the description of the video, you will receive a free bonus and in addition each week advice from The Best Cyclosportive, that, of course, if you haven't already registered. If you are already registered, wait until next week, you will receive your advice. See you soon friends. And now, it's your turn !