Your Commute Is Secretly Killing Your Fitness (Here’s the Fix)

[00:00:00] You’ve got two legs. They run on food that you’re already buying, and every time you use them to get somewhere instead of your car, you’re not just saving money on fuel, you’re banking, aerobic fitness that most runners pay a coach to help them build. That’s the whole video. That’s the nugget. Everyone online right now is yelling about gas prices.

[00:00:17] I’m not gonna do that because. You can feel it at the pump. What nobody’s saying because they’re probably not runners, is that the fix and the training are the same thing in this episode. You’re gonna get the real cost of driving daily stuff. You don’t even know about the math that turns your sitting commute into 180 free runs per year.

[00:00:35] Yeah. Got got the algorithm right there, the lifestyle shift that will save. Thousands of dollars wherever you’re at. A free cheat sheet to run or bike commute to your regular destinations If you want it now, you know what? Just go scan the QR code here, or get the link below in the description, wherever you’re watching or listening.

[00:00:51] And a bunch more from my guest cohost slash video editor, Remy, be real. I’m Daren Delegue, certified running coach, and I’ve been biking and run commuting for the last. 20 years of my 30 years of running. While some people’s heads explode at the idea of using your own human power to get places, I’ve been reaping the benefits of this life hack by having a dope aerobic base engine.

[00:01:12] And even when I don’t have any time, I can still get in a workout. No excuses, it gets done. Let’s get in to the episode. Alright, we’re gonna get Matthew and run the numbers that no one wants to run. Pun intended. Doesn’t matter where you are right now. Sydney, Australia. Where I am. London, New York City, Toronto, Berlin.

[00:01:30] We could do all the major cities. Japan. Pick your location. Fuel is trash. Pick your currency. The story is the same. Let’s keep it simple. There’s gonna be a lot of numbers on the screen. Highly suggest you watch this. The average commute across most of the Western world is somewhere between 10 and 25 kilometers.

[00:01:46] That’s five to 15 miles for Americans. Each way, whatever your local fuel price and whatever your car drinks, you’re looking at roughly 50 to 80 cents per kilometer. That’s about us, 80 to a dollar, 30 per mile. And that cost is once you stack fuel, parking, insurance, and the depreciation of your vehicle that no one likes to think about.

[00:02:05] And don’t forget about running shoes. This is huge. A decent pair will get you about 500 to 800 kilometers, give or take. So three to 500 miles for us people of life. Let’s let the math start matting. That’s roughly 30 cents per kilometer, 50 cents per mile, and your legs don’t need oil changes, registration, tax, or a parking spot.

[00:02:24] But here’s the part that actually matters for you as a runner, those 15 to 30 minute easy runs or cycles, if you’re coming from farther out, that’s not junk distance, aerobic base, the stuff that makes every. Run better. Your long run, your tempo, your intervals, all of it builds on top of a strong aerobic foundation.

[00:02:43] All those zone one and zone two runs and even walks will help you and most runners honestly don’t get enough easy volume to build it up properly. Think about it like this. Run commute twice a week both ways. That’s four runs, four 20 minute easy efforts. Compound that across a month. That’s 16 sessions.

[00:03:01] You weren’t counting across the year, you’re looking at 180 runs that cost you exactly donut. Zero extra time because you had to get there Anyway, that’s not a training bonus. That’s a training plan. And yes, I hear the folks in the back right now drinking haterade and getting ready to yell at me in the comments typing, Mr.

[00:03:18] YouTube, man, I’ll be sweaty. Daren, I’ve gotta carry stuff. What about my hair bald man, you don’t have to worry about that. I wear a suit dress. Nice clothes. How do I get them to work? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Excuse excuses. Don’t worry. We’re gonna get into all of that. Remy and I debated this properly and we got audience takes that I’ll cover.

[00:03:38] Basically every single scenario. But before we do that, there’s a bigger point underneath all this. The people who’ve really solved this aren’t just swapping their car for sneakers on the same route. They restructure their life around shorter commutes, walkable neighborhoods, or remote days they can use to flip their errands into an easy run.

[00:03:54] That’s the shift. That’s where the real savings are. We’re talking thousands a year in your local currency, not just fuel money. I get it. Everyone can’t do that. It’s not possible for every single person, but you might be able to make one small change. You might. You might. I talk about that your commute is either costing you money while you sit or it’s building your fitness for free while you move.

[00:04:12] Pick one. Before we get into the debate though, ’cause I just talked about lifestyle changes, if you want to actually start doing this run commute thing, I put together a cheat sheet for you to be able to set up your life logistics to get some free base training. You’ll also get a free base training plan.

[00:04:26] So it’s like you gotta put it all together that shows you how to structure your training in a way. That builds up your body the right way. Get it at the QR code here or the link below in the description. I’ll wait. I’ve waited. Let’s get into the debate now. These are topics near and dear to the both of us, as we both do a fair amount of commuting and have a slightly different take on it.

[00:04:48] So Daren, why don’t you tell us what you prefer? Alright. You know what I’m gonna say running’s better and here’s why. I mean flat out, it’s just easier. Like think about it, you literally have two feet. If you have any form of decent shoes on, you can just start running. So you can literally run commute anywhere.

[00:05:05] But I know there’s a lot of objections. I know that there’s a lot of variables and you know. Everyone can’t do it, and I’m address them in a second. So when we talk about run commuting, let’s just talk about commuting to, uh, work or school or something. Somewhere where there’s a stable place that you go to.

[00:05:20] Many times I also commute to the grocery store. I commute to other different places like the beach and all this stuff, but we’ll just keep it simple. And yes, there are logistics involved. With run commuting somewhere. But if it is a stable place that you go to a few times a week, many times per month, then you can make it work.

[00:05:38] Oh, you’re gonna come into a place, you’re gonna be sweaty, you’re gonna stink. Here is how you do it. This is real quick. There’s a lot more to this. Make sure you take a shower right before you leave to your, uh, your destination. Um, wear clean clothes when you go out. I definitely have clean clothes and a towel.

[00:05:54] When you get to the place. Sometimes I can’t take a shower, but if I am already, uh, clean before I get there, I bring some deodorant. If you’re into deodorant, it’s all different types. Um, I’d say please wear deodorant and you have a towel and wet wipes. Those are your friends. Go into any bathroom or even just a water fountain.

[00:06:11] Yes, I know this is getting a bit. Yeah, yeah. But you know what, I don’t, I don’t mind doing that type of stuff because that’s just the type of person I am. I try to be minimal. I try to be simple and. That allows me to just wipe down, done a rebuttal that a lot of people say is, you know, oh, I’m a man or woman, I’m into hair and makeup, et cetera.

[00:06:27] Uh, you know, clothing, nice clothing. So I wear this type of stuff as much as I can. Fortunately, again, I designed my life to be around this, but if you have to wear suit or something, have it at the destination, you can also pack suits. I’ve seen people running with, uh, run commuting with a suit. Hanger the suit on the back of their backpack.

[00:06:45] If, if, if there’s a will. There’s a way if you really wanna do it, but have your stuff there. You can use dry cleaners if you’re in the city or suburbs or whatever, if your office is there or your, your, uh, your place, your destination place. Um, look, you gotta be minimal with the hair and makeup. Look at that.

[00:06:58] I’ve got short hair, sometimes I’m bald. And I do that on purpose to be minimal. I know most women and men can’t just shave their heads, but just think about it. Maybe once in day when you can wear less clothing, or maybe it’s a day where you can just dress down a bit, uh, that might be the day where you run commute, or again, you can run commute home.

[00:07:14] That could be something that you do. So home is easier. ’cause then you can just go straight in the shower and it’s the end of the day. So there’s a lot of variations, a lot of different ways you can do this. I’m just touching the tip of the iceberg. I’ll take this over to, whoa, I’m sorry. You wanna do what?

[00:07:28] No. So what, what are we prehistoric man out here? What do you want me to grab a spear and stock an antelope behind the bushes on my way to work too. Man created the wheel. So we’re gonna use that tool and use the bike to commute. So many reasons why. We’ll just list a few. Number one, the efforts can be as intense or as relaxed as you want it to be.

[00:07:53] You’ve got gears. You can optimize your route. You know, you don’t have to go the same way that. A car or a bus would go. You can really take a nice scenic route the long way. If you want to get a workout, find the shortest way possible. There are bike paths. You can even ride an e-bike and make it real chill.

[00:08:12] You don’t even have to change the way you dress being number two, right? Like you can dress in cycling gear if you’ve got a place to change, or you can just keep it cash. Slacks and a shirt, uh, polo and some khakis, t-shirts and jeans, shorts, and just ride as you would and arrive without having to change if you don’t have a place to change.

[00:08:38] And three, probably the most important, you can get so much further on a bike than you can running, uh, depending on who you are. You don’t have to worry about that endurance and fitness and fatigue. A bike lets you cover so much more ground while also having storage options, whether that’s frame bags, saddle bags, a backpack that you can use to lug your stuff around.

[00:09:04] So whether you are commuting to work the post office to run some errands or out to the grocery store. Using the bike just makes a lot more sense. Alright, so let’s just go straight to the polls because I polled the Instagram community and I wanted to see what, what people thought. Like this is, this is the beauty of this whole thing, is that we wanted to really crowdsource a lot of this information and data, um, and see what, what people thought.

[00:09:28] ’cause you’ll get really interesting ideas from people. That you may have not thought of. And their whys are really, really important. And we’ll get to actually some, some community wise in a second. But I’m gonna go to my screen over here. Uh, the poll, would you rather bike commute 61% and running 39%? Um, that’s, that’s interesting.

[00:09:51] Um, it actually makes sense. I think it’s interesting. It’s interesting because running is so high. Like if you look around. Ain’t nobody run commuting around here. Like I look around, you know, New York City, ain’t nobody run. You might be walking like, I think I saw one roller blade commuter, like in all of New York City where it’s like the best place to damn roller blade.

[00:10:10] Um, ’cause it’s just pancake flat and the road’s huge. Mm. But like run commuting’s really weird. Like it’s just ride your bike, walk, run, commute. So only runners would really run commute. Only hardcore runners run commute casual. People can ride their bikes like. You know, you don’t, it’s not, it’s not just people ly right up, ready to tour, tour to France that ride their bike.

[00:10:30] Yeah. You know, everyone’s riding their bike, but run commuting’s a weird one. Here’s some responses. So quicker from res rise, Bob, uh, quicker get less sweaty and can commute from a longer distance. So they’re probably obviously saying bike, uh, bike is less sweaty afterwards and less exhausted. Anonymous because bikes are dope and that, oh, that’s you, uh, scared of cycling on the road and prefer running.

[00:10:57] Okay. That’s, that’s for running Amy t Triathlon. And the reason why I’m reading this out, I know all you people are watching on YouTube is because this is also a podcast we believe, or I, I, I believe in holistic learning experiences. So this will be available obviously as a video if you’re watching. It’s gonna be a podcast audio if you wanna do it, you know, on the go or whatever.

[00:11:13] Um, and or it’ll be written. So there’s a lot of ways where you can consume this. I like doing this stuff, it’s fun. And, um, I wanna make sure that you, you absorb it all in as many ways as possible. Alright, so we heard from the polls from Instagram. Let’s actually get some real world reactions from the community.

[00:11:30] Bike. Commuting or run commuting. Me, I’m a bike commuter. Why? I can pop on my normal clothes. I can put my lunch in my bag. I got my laptop on my back. I even have a little basket and I can just leisurely bike in, show up to work, and I’m ready to go run commuting. I show up. Sweaty is all get out and then shower.

[00:11:53] I gotta do my hair, gotta bring my hair product, gotta bring my deodorant, gotta bring my shampoo, gotta bring a change of clothes. And then like, what time am I really saving? I come out for a meeting, my hair’s all wet, and people are like, what did you just do? Right? Complete mess. Okay. You’re running, like what?

[00:12:12] You’re running with your lunch. You’re running with your laptop. It is just, it’s a whole lot of action. People who I know who do run commuting, maybe they don’t take as much time with their hair as me. Maybe they have like. Simpler clothes. Maybe they have like a whole cupboard at work where they keep all their fancy stuff and it doesn’t take them all that much time, whatever.

[00:12:34] It’s not me. I do my bike. I just go in. I get started and I save my running for at home when I can come home and use my own damn shower. Actually, that big cycling, I can fit all my things on the bike and it will interfere with my. Actual training less if I’m running and I have to put a ruck sack on, it’s interfering with my natural form.

[00:12:58] Uh, and I don’t feel that I can run naturally carrying things when I’m running. So if I could run and actually go from my door to where I’m planning to be, and then have. All the clothes and everything set up there, run, commuting is good, but I just hate the fact that I have to carry things in a ruck sack, uh, and can’t run naturally, uh, as I like to run.

[00:13:18] So that’s why I’d pick cycling of a running. So we heard from the community, and I gotta tell you, they made some, uh, pretty compelling arguments that making me rethink my stance. What about you? Look, a lot of people said some really. Factual things. Like I honestly, I go between bike commuting and run commuting, and if it’s hot and I gotta ride far, I gotta go far.

[00:13:39] Then the bike wins all day long. If I, uh, I don’t wanna run, I’m recovering. I don’t wanna put all those, you know, miles on my legs. Um, I don’t want to be sweaty, too sweaty. I don’t have a shower where I’m going. And, um, that’s pretty much it. Like, it’s, it’s. It’s a combination of both is, you know, I’m al I’m always both like I’m, I’m rarely ever polarized and hard left right.

[00:14:03] But, uh, I would definitely say the bike wins if you’re just not a fast runner. Also, like, let’s say you’re extremely slow runner and running does just doesn’t make sense to do three or four miles, then obviously the bike would win. So there is a time and place for the bike. Yeah, I hear that. And you know.

[00:14:18] Biggest thing is the more options that we have for commuting, the better off we’re all gonna be. Right? So it doesn’t have to exclusively be bike commuting ’cause there’s also maintaining that bike and you can get that flat tire or it can just be raining or snowing or depending on where you’re going and there just isn’t the infrastructure for it.

[00:14:40] There’s nowhere to lock your bike up and, and you know, all these challenges that happen. So running. Can make an awful lot of sense where if you do have the time, you can leave a little earlier and running doesn’t have to be your 5K pace. You can take a gentle jog, you know, you can get off the bus and it’s like go those last two, three miles by foot.

[00:15:04] It does have a good appeal where. There isn’t a whole lot of extra gear you need to get. You don’t have to take special care of your run shoes or anything like that. You can just pick up and go do it. So try it. Any parting words on that? Uh, any final thoughts on that? Daren, uh, always got a lot of thoughts.

[00:15:22] We could have this go for another 20 minutes. This is like a really big, um, thing that. That holds near and dear to my heart. I’m, I’m big in sustainability. I mean, most people are, most people compare care about the, the world and, you know, having a better future for ourselves and, you know, the, the, the, the youngins the kids out there.

[00:15:39] So I think this is one part of the piece of a bigger puzzle of. Of a circular economy, and if we’re sharing things more and living in cities and living closer to cities, then you, if, if you have that opportunity to live close to a city or a town or whatever, then you should then take that opportunity to make sure that you are not jamming up the roads because, uh.

[00:16:04] It’s a bad experience for you. Obviously people on buses, you’re making it worse for them because you’re driving your car by yourself, where there’s four people there. Um, so this is more zooming out and why you should run and or bike commute. And again, this is a conversation for another day. Yeah, I could go a rant, but just, you know, if you’re gonna pick one, that’s great.

[00:16:22] Don’t, don’t not do either one because Oh, I’m gonna get, like, just, just try it. There’s, there’s so many ways of doing it. Um, what you gonna say? You, you, you’re chomping at the bit Yeah. Figure this out. You are not stuck in traffic. You are the traffic. So if you are just not. In the car, it’s going to be better for everyone else.

[00:16:42] The more people who have the cars are a tool that the more people who have them, the less useful they are. So the less cars that are on the road at a any given time, the better it is for everyone. Full stop. So yeah, whatever fuel costs where you are right now, your legs are still free. 99. Run it, bike it, walk part of it, just stop sitting in that car alone, burning money while your aerobic base goes nowhere.

[00:17:07] Go and get that free cheat sheet and base training plan at the QR code here or the link below. I talk about base a lot. I have, and I constantly will. So if you’re interested in running. Farther faster with less effort. Go and check out the deep dive that I did on base training and why we need it, and all the stuff that’s happening in your body, et cetera.

[00:17:24] Go click the video below on YouTube or link a description. If you’re listening or watching somewhere else, happy commuting. Whatever you do, get outta that car. Go enjoy nature.