Having a bad commute is a killer for your running performance. Even if you are training hard you can be running disappointing times because your commute drains the life out of you. I envy people who live a short walk away from their work. You would literally be able to run way better. It is probably difficult for people because usually their work is somewhere where the rent costs makes it not possible to living. I blame the government for this.
I know someone who commutes from San Jose to Sacramento. That's at least two hours each way, and no telecommuting options. He works for a State agency.
exaggerating. wrote:
I call BS on this. You lived 20-ish miles away in South San Jose, so Almaden? Santa Teresa? Regardless, it doesn't take 2.5 hours to get to Palo Alto from there at 6am. If you said it happened once or twice, I'd believe you. But if you really left at 6am you'd get there in 45-60 minutes tops.
Get a new job wrote:
Got a job at Stanford while living in South San Jose. It took me 2.5 hours leaving at 6 am to go the 20+ miles to get there.
Tried Cal Tran, 101, 280, 85, El Camino, riding my bike. Nothing was better than the other.
I quit and got another job a couple months later. Don’t waste your life in a car no matter how good the job.
I’ll also call BS on the 2.5 hours from S. San Jose to Stanford... unless from “tried Cal Train, 101, 280, 85, El Camino, riding my bike” you meant you biked up the Cal Train tracks, then biked from 101 to 280, then from 280 to 85, then some how got on El Camino and went north to Stanford, all on your bike.... I can see that taking 2.5 hours
WHY would anyone do it???
I get up at 6:30a, leave my house overlooking the lake at 7:30a, drive 3.1 mile from the "suburbs" all the way to the center of town and arrive at 7:37a. However, I do occasionally have to sit in traffic for 3 minutes at a train crossing. I've got great colleagues, it's 72 degrees all day long (indoors), I have my screen-saver showing me beautiful Oregon/Washington scenery pics, I've got an Alter-G treadmill and Velotron cycle to work out with if I don't want to go outside (fricking hot and humid for 4 months of the year). Life is a series of decisions with consequences, good or bad. Which kind of consequence do you want? Money typically comes at a price! For me, life is way too short to spend it on an interstate looking through a window 3 hours each day of the 40 years of my working life...this is 6000 hours!
Living in a vanilla, putt-putt town is wonderful! I love my life!
When I lived in California (both northern and southern) I was often amazed at the commutes people dealt with. I knew many road warriors racking up 2-4 hours every day on commuting. All sorts of factors in play that drove this, but I no longer live in Cali at least in part to get away from the incredible density and driving times.
My commute is worse than yours. I’m up at 2am to walk to the bus stop (5 miles uphill, 15% gradient and usually snowy), then I ride the 5am bus for an hour (rough crowd, I get stabbed and/or robbed most days), then at 6am I swim across a freezing cold river (it’s downstream from a chemical processing plant so I do my best to keep my head above water), then after my swim I arrive at my work by 7am, where I labor all day long (no breaks). At 7pm, I do everything backwards and arrive home at 12am. I spend the next 2 hours on letsrun and start everything over again.
For the first two months of one of my jobs I had a horrendous commute - I found out I'd got the job just after I'd moved into a houseshare. Down the worst motorway in England, rush hour just unbelievable then around ring roads and awful roads the other end. It was truly horrible. I managed because I knew I'd move so it was short term. I then took an apartment within walking distance of the university I worked at. Even though I didn't walk, knowing I had that option helped and it was minutes away.
When one of my friends got a job in London, his criteria for accommodation was within one mile radius of his office, so he could walk to work. He didn't look at anything else. Saved a fortune. There are people paying out £8000 a year on train commutes here, it's nuts. I know a lot of people where one of their biggest expenses is their travel costs.
I also remember being on a plane to Belgium and a lot of the passengers were commuters from the UK.
Yeah, well, you have shoes though.
Mine is worse wrote:
My commute is worse than yours. I’m up at 2am to walk to the bus stop (5 miles uphill, 15% gradient and usually snowy), then I ride the 5am bus for an hour (rough crowd, I get stabbed and/or robbed most days), then at 6am I swim across a freezing cold river (it’s downstream from a chemical processing plant so I do my best to keep my head above water), then after my swim I arrive at my work by 7am, where I labor all day long (no breaks). At 7pm, I do everything backwards and arrive home at 12am. I spend the next 2 hours on letsrun and start everything over again.
track chick wrote:
I also remember being on a plane to Belgium and a lot of the passengers were commuters from the UK.
I've heard of people working in London who live in different cities like in the East Midlands because it is cheap there but too expensive to live in London. Some people get cheap flights from mainland Europe to go to work in London. Then again look at Bekele. He flies from Addis Ababa to lots of big cities to work such as Helsink, Berlin, Beijing or Paris to name a few
This is what the kids call "weird flex."
Fjdjdk wrote:
My commute is bad, but awesome wrote:
What?
I leave at 5 a.m., and drive 30 minutes to a train station. I try and get there with minutes to spare, but need to prepare for traffic slowdowns, so typically stand on the platform for 10-15 minutes. The train ride takes me 55 minutes.
From there, I jump on a bike and ride 13 miles to my job. I do this in just under an hour.
I do the reverse getting home, between 7:50 and 8:10 on a good night.
Do you even run anymore?
To answer a lot of you guys:
I run a few times a week, two or three times very late at night (one time is Friday), and once on the weekends.
I live in a part of the country where I get rained on during this commute maybe two or three times a year, and it's never so cold I can't just throw on a windbreaker. The darkness gets to me a bit in the winter months. I listed to a TON of audiobooks.
WHarding wrote:
Rich is relative. My commute to work on a bad day is maybe 5 minutes, and that’s on my bike. Having all the money in the world...
One of my biggest regrets is voluntarily leaving this situation. The grass is always greener...
This guys, James, Robertson, probably has the worst commute. He takes buses and walks a total of 21 miles, often at night, to and from work from Detroit to the suburbs and back:
Your mission - if you choose to accept it - is to get a job driving that van.
Getting to and from his factory job 23 miles away in Rochester Hills, he'll take a bus partway there and partway home. And he'll also walk an astounding 21 miles.
Five days a week. Monday through Friday.
Trying to figure the logistics. Guessing he's walking 21 miles each way??♂️ From the pic, doesn't look like he's moving too fast, maybe 3 mph. So 14 hours spent walking and 8 hours working leaves 2 for himself.. Barely enough time to get ready to turn around and do it again. Something's not right or the article is not 100% accurate. If it is, dude needs to find a place closer to work.
seilogramp wrote:
Getting to and from his factory job 23 miles away in Rochester Hills, he'll take a bus partway there and partway home. And he'll also walk an astounding 21 miles.
Five days a week. Monday through Friday.
Trying to figure the logistics. Guessing he's walking 21 miles each way??♂️ From the pic, doesn't look like he's moving too fast, maybe 3 mph. So 14 hours spent walking and 8 hours working leaves 2 for himself.. Barely enough time to get ready to turn around and do it again. Something's not right or the article is not 100% accurate. If it is, dude needs to find a place closer to work.
Sounds more like he walks 21 miles each week as part of his commute, or just over 4 a day. I agree there's zero way he's spending even 20 hours a day working and commuting.
tarckstar wrote:
seilogramp wrote:
Trying to figure the logistics. Guessing he's walking 21 miles each way? From the pic, doesn't look like he's moving too fast, maybe 3 mph. So 14 hours spent walking and 8 hours working leaves 2 for himself.. Barely enough time to get ready to turn around and do it again. Something's not right or the article is not 100% accurate. If it is, dude needs to find a place closer to work.
Sounds more like he walks 21 miles each week as part of his commute, or just over 4 a day. I agree there's zero way he's spending even 20 hours a day working and commuting.
And in reading the story again, what?
They say he walks 7 miles to a bus, takes the bus, then walks 5 miles. Twice a day. Or, 24 miles a day.
They can't even get that part right. Total BS.
tarckstar wrote:
tarckstar wrote:
Sounds more like he walks 21 miles each week as part of his commute, or just over 4 a day. I agree there's zero way he's spending even 20 hours a day working and commuting.
And in reading the story again, what?
They say he walks 7 miles to a bus, takes the bus, then walks 5 miles. Twice a day. Or, 24 miles a day.
They can't even get that part right. Total BS.
Read it again. This time taking copious notes.
These details we know for sure (left out details that made no sense)
* It's a 23-mile commute
* Usually takes him 4 hours each way
* Rides the buses part-way then walks the remaining miles
* From work (12 miles walking) - 7-mile walk to the bus stop, then 11-mile bus ride, then 5-mile walk from the last top to home
* Frequently gets a ride from a kind banker.
If I missed anything, too bad. LOL
seilogramp wrote:
tarckstar wrote:
And in reading the story again, what?
They say he walks 7 miles to a bus, takes the bus, then walks 5 miles. Twice a day. Or, 24 miles a day.
They can't even get that part right. Total BS.
Read it again. This time taking copious notes.
These details we know for sure (left out details that made no sense)
* It's a 23-mile commute
* Usually takes him 4 hours each way
* Rides the buses part-way then walks the remaining miles
* From work (12 miles walking) - 7-mile walk to the bus stop, then 11-mile bus ride, then 5-mile walk from the last top to home
* Frequently gets a ride from a kind banker.
If I missed anything, too bad. LOL
Then just watch the video and it makes more sense.