Should You Push Harder or Ride Easier? A Real Question for Commuter Cyclists
If you commute by bike, you’ve probably faced this question: Should I push harder to get faster? Or should I just ride easy and not worry about improvement? For a long time, I wasn’t sure either. Some days, I wanted to ride harder, increase my average speed, and feel like I was making progress. Other days, I felt tired, and pushing didn’t feel right at all. So which one is correct? After months of commuting, I’ve come to a simple answer: Both matter — but not at the same time. — Forcing it every day doesn’t work It’s tempting to treat every ride like a training session. You push harder, chase speed, and try to beat your previous average. It feels productive. But in reality, this approach is hard to sustain. Your body doesn’t recover fast enough, your heart rate stays high, and eventually, you either burn out or lose motivation. In my own experience, pushing too hard too often didn’t make me faster. It just made riding feel stressful. — Riding easy is not “wasting time” On the oth...