Optimise my commute!

March 23, 2023 10:32 AM

I have been in a new job for 3 months where I have a 1 hour (1.5 mile) commute to work and back, which I can do either on foot or by bus, each way. There is a considerable uphill incline on the way there, and I carry my laptop in a rucksack there and back. I am not super fit. What would be the ideal way to tackle this?

I did take a break from walking there and back when it was heavily snowing and when I had a bad cold, and then it felt so much easier taking the bus...but I'm sure I've got to be benefiting more from more walking. I feel like there's a balance or graded increase in exercise that I could do to get fitter while not getting exhausted? Or maybe more stretching or other exercise in my spare time to make the hill less sweaty and daunting?

posted by MarianHalcombe to Health & Fitness (18 answers total)

An e-bike might be a good solution depending on the route. You could turn off the motor or lower the assist to get more exercise.
posted by thewumpusisdead at 10:49 AM on March 23, 2023 [4 favorites]

Would it be possible to walk and take the bus? For example, walk to the next bus stop, then get on. As you get stronger, walk past two bus stops, etc.

For the hill... I'm just a sweaty person, regardless of level of fitness. So I would just have to pack a change of clothes, some wipes, and deodorant.
posted by skunk pig at 10:51 AM on March 23, 2023 [13 favorites]

Bus to work, walk home?
posted by kickingtheground at 11:00 AM on March 23, 2023 [19 favorites]

Best answer: I'd start by walking home consistently. It's downhill and a nice break to clear your mind before you get home.

Then I'd start to walk to work as well. Depending on the exact location and gradient of your incline - figure out how far you can walk and then take the bus for the rest or how soon you may want to get off the bus to walk the rest. The aim is to increase your walk over time.

Consider how much stuff you really need to carry in your rucksack with the aim to minimise weight. What can you leave at work etc. Also, not all rucksacks are equal. Consider fit. Consider the benefits of a chest straps and hip belts. I realise the more 'business' end of the spectrum may have neither but most people with the business kind do not walk for two hrs.
posted by koahiatamadl at 11:00 AM on March 23, 2023 [4 favorites]

If you were starting from scratch, I'd suggest maybe starting with a walk home (downhill) twice a week. Then add a third, fourth, and fifth day of walking home.

The total distance each week is 5 x 2 x 1.5 miles, correct? That's fifteen miles total. Limiting increases to 1.5 miles/week is entirely reasonable while you get fitter. Feel free to take weeks with no increase or even a slight step back.
posted by TORunner at 11:02 AM on March 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

I think the ideal way to handle this is just to commit to walking all the way there and back every day, probably wearing something other than your work clothes so it's okay if you get sweaty. That will be the quickest way to get to the point where walking there doesn't exhaust you. It's a pretty reasonable distance for even an out-of-shape person to tackle. The hill and the weight on your back make it more of a challenge but it sounds like you're already capable of doing it. It will only get easier as time goes on and it won't take long. I'd expect it to start feeling noticeably easier in a few weeks.

If you find the walk there is just so exhausting that it keeps you from functioning well at work or makes you dread getting up in the morning, then you could start out by taking the bus to work and walking home. Maybe a couple of times a week (on the weekend or after work) you could walk partway up the hill and then turn around, gradually increasing the distance you walk.
posted by Redstart at 11:08 AM on March 23, 2023 [4 favorites]

My guess is that if you just walk it every day, you'll get used to it. The problem is that walking generally isn't challenging enough to cause us to get fitter, so if you want your work-walk to be faster, you may need other exercise to achieve that, which might not be what you have in mind. There's also a natural limit on how fast we walk, unless you get into race-walking, so if you're looking to make your commute faster, walking probably just isn't it.

A bike (doesn't need to be an e-bike, just one with multiple gears) is the most efficient form of transportation, and even at a leisurely 10 mph, you'd arrive at work in 15 minutes.

I second the advice to optimize what you carry and how you carry it. I bike to work and leave a set of shoes at work, and have duplicates of a few other things so I don't need to carry them.
posted by adamrice at 11:09 AM on March 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: You say "optimize", but it's not clear which variable you're looking to optimize. Time? Take the bus. Fitness? Walk. Minimizing sweat? Bus. Sense of accomplishment? Walk. Of course it's going to be a combination of those (and maybe others), but you have to decide the respective weight. If, say, minimizing sweat is most important, fitness is somewhat important, and time is not important, bus to work/walk home is the best option. If the order is more like time-minimize sweat-fitness, take the bus and join a gym.

I will say, I used to live in a city with terrible public transportation when I didn't have a car. I came up with a game, "beat the bus", where I'd start at my stop at the time on the published schedule, walk along the bus route, and see how far I could get before the bus caught up to me. My record was seven miles. (Flat miles, so it was only about two hours, but that's awfully late for a bus.) Since your distance is much shorter, that might be something to try.
posted by kevinbelt at 11:10 AM on March 23, 2023 [9 favorites]

Best answer: Good shoes and a decent backpack.

One thing you might enjoy would be tracking how often you do the walk and how long it takes, maybe including info from a fitness tracker? A friend started walking home from work every day and the said at first the walk took her more than an hour and after 6 months or so it takes her 40-45 minutes.
posted by vunder at 11:11 AM on March 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I feel like you'll quickest get to a point where you can comfortably walk your commute if you try to do some walking or running separately. The reason being if you are only walking your commute then yes your body's "capacity" will increase and you'll be able to do more but you're always at the edge of your capacity. Say right now you're getting exhausted after 0.5 miles. On the weekends try to go for a 0.75 or 1 mile walk. Or do a combination of walking and running over that distance. Once you're able to do it your capacity then is 0.75 or 1 mile so the 0.5 mile segment will be relatively easy. I cycle to work and over the winter that's the only cycling I do and so my cycling capacity decreases. I know that once I do my first couple of long rides in the spring my capacity will increase again and my commute will feel much easier.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:38 AM on March 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

Walking is such great exercise. I'd go with the other suggestions here, and bus in and walk home, especially on nice days, if that is an easier task to manage. Or maybe walk in on one nice day a week to start, and add another day every two weeks or so. I know you have a lot to carry, but can you keep some office shoes at work and wear dedicated walking shoes on the way in? Do you have to take your laptop each time?

A hill is going to be a slog no matter what. Bring some water and take lots of breaks.
posted by bluedaisy at 11:49 AM on March 23, 2023

Best answer: Possibility for building stamina and strength. Stair workout (in addition to just going up multiple flights of stairs, including varieties like taking two risers at a time going up) and stair workouts with body weight exercises. If you have stairs at work, try some mini workouts?
posted by spamandkimchi at 11:52 AM on March 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

Leave your laptop and any other heavy stuff at work, if possible.
Take a slightly longer route with a more gradual elevation gain.
Take breaks. Like literally stop halfway up the hill and just take a minute or two before you start walking again.
posted by tinydancer at 12:03 PM on March 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

What about a backpack/briefcase/small suitcase with wheels? Does the walking surface lend itself to rolling something behind or alongside you instead of carrying on your back?
posted by misskaz at 12:12 PM on March 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

Back in the day, I had a similar commute distance which I did, most efficiently, by bike. After a bit, it seemed pointless to be racing between two places, so I parked the bike and walked. It was rather wonderful to integrate the journey[s] into my day in an intentional hello trees hello sky sort of way. This was before talking books became A Thing; so I made a point of paying attention to the panorama scrolling past. A necessary chore became something to which I looked forward. It was also when I gave up the old wrist watch because I caught myself obsessively checking how long it was taking to get to each intersection.
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:21 PM on March 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

I've had a similar commute for a year, except my bus route involves almost a mile of walking to bus stops so I get some steps in either way. I change it up, but most often I walk the whole way in the morning and take the bus route home. For me the morning walk is mostly downhill and it doesn't usually get too hot before 9 am. On the way home, the bus takes me up the worst of the hill. I'm not as worried about timing so if I don't have the energy for the hike home I don't mind waiting if the bus is late. An investment in ugly comfy walking shoes was very worth it.

The best way to get better at walking is to walk, but doing other exercise that focuses on strength and flexibility a few times a week definitely makes the commute feel easier. The fact that it's exhausting you is a good sign, your body hasn't "acclimated" to this activity yet so you're still getting lots of benefits.
posted by doift at 4:38 PM on March 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you so much for all the answers - these were all really helpful. I'm very clumsy as a person and I have never managed to learn to ride a bike unfortunately, but I can definitely use my chest strap on my backpack and minimise weight however I can. I think doing stair exercise and consistently walking back, then working up to doing the hill once a week, sounds like a really good idea, because the anxiety of trying to plow up the hill fast enough to be on time for work was not helpful. I'm also gonna try timing myself on the way back and gamifying my stamina/fitness a bit to try and emphasise the positives and hopefully begin to feel a bit of benefit from this.
posted by MarianHalcombe at 8:26 AM on March 24, 2023

gamifying my stamina/fitness a bit to try and emphasise the positives

There are probably more focused apps out there but Pokemon Go isn't bad for walking gamification.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:23 PM on March 24, 2023