Will this commute be too exhausting?

[Mad Kate]

Forthcoming in February, our office will be moving to a rural area, to cut cost in fees. That means that my daily commute will increase to about 33 kilometres (20.5 miles) one-way or 66 kilometres (41 miles) round trip. About 28 kilometres of the route is on a light-traffic single carriageway with a speed limit of 80 km/h. It is a straightaway with some rolling hills of about 3 to 6% gradients. My partner, Yin is suggesting that it will be too strenuous for me to ride at least 66 kilometres each day, 5 days per week. Moreover, it will be impossible for me to keep up (motor pace) with her car. How accurate is her assessment?

[cylegoddess]

how often do you ride now? what is your state of health? do you do anything after work?
I know two people who do that. They dont do much else though!!( that involves standing up). They like it and do it rain or shine. I cant keep up with them.

[OakLeaf]

Motorpacing can be pretty dangerous, so I wouldn't do it unless she has experience as a motorpacing driver. And I would never do it during commuter hours.

But other than that, what CG said. Whether it will be too many miles for you depends entirely on how many miles you're doing now, and if it's much less than your future commute, how hard you want to work to get there, and how much extra time you want to spend on your bike. Remember that it'll be more like two completely separate rides of 33k than like one ride of 66k. After four hours' recovery, your body is pretty fresh again.

[redrhodie]

I ride a similar length commute, so I don't think it's too long, but some days it can be. On those days, can you drive part of the way, or take a bus with your bike, to shorten the length? We call that a hybrid commute (Indigoiis' term).

[indigoiis]

I have a full 30 mile one way commute that is similar but do not do it every day. I do hybrid commutes - like RR says. I will ride to the bus (5 to 15 miles depending on which bus stop) or ride my mountain bike up through the woods to the bus on old fire roads (8 miles) or drive to the park and ride and ride half way in (15.5 miles.) It depends on the day, the weather, what I did the day before (did I run? Did I mountain bike? Did I ride 60 miles? Am I healthy? Do I have to pick my daughter up?)

I would not force myself to do that kind of mileage every day. Besides being boring after awhile, it's a lot of time to dedicate to the commute. But that's just me. I like the flexibility of varying plans.

[tulip]

I don't get the thing with Yin and motorpacing. You've brought it up in at least one other post. I figure it's a joke, but it keeps coming up. If you clarify that part of your question, the situation will be clearer.

[Mad Kate]

After reading Susan Otcenas’ suggestion on Personal Safety, I decided not to place a photo of myself as an avatar. Regarding these long silly chases against my partner, Yin’s car, perhaps, I just enjoy doing it. You could think of it as a fixation. We usually use single carriageway with least possible traffic. Anyway, she mostly just leaves me in the dust, but I still enjoy taking a crack at it.