Return to work on the bike - Slower

[Caseih4240xl]

Morning all,

So this am i hopped back on the bike and rode the 53km to work, which included 700 height metres. I noted from strava that i did the route in 2 hours and 23 mins, down from 1 hour 55 mins in 2019. The following would probably contribute to the slowness:

1. I'm 5kg heavier at 73kg than i was in 2019
2. I was carrying a backpack this morning with a laptop and ipad. These i would not have had to haul in 2019.
3. It was my second ride this year. I run these days, and have clocked up over 1000km this year to date so its not as if ive fallen off a cliff fitness wise.

Question: which of the following would have contributed the most to me being donkey slow relative to previously this am??

[JayRidesBikes]

All of it. More weight means you will need to produce more power than when you previously did the commute and if you aren't cycling you're gonna find it tough to do the power you require to match that time.

[anonymous-user]

All the above plus maybe increased or rerouted Traffic? Road, traffic light or other infra changes?

[boyse7en]

Fitness wise running ill keep your aerobic fitness up, but your muscular fitness (for cycling) will have dropped as you don't use the same muscles when running

[Gary29]

I'm back riding regularly now after a couple of years off the road bike, I'm 15-20% slower than previous.

It's a tough pill to swallow, but the reality is it's going to take consistency and hard graft to get the bike fitness back. I'm just enjoying the riding at the moment rather than trying to kill myself every ride and beat myself up about the numbers.

[Daveyraveygravey]

As Pablo said, plus mentally, you probably took it more easy this time than before when you did it regularly.
And that route sounds like quite a tough commute, long and quite a lot of elevation gain. Presumably you rose back at the end of the day?
I'm mainly a cyclist with bouts of running. By which I mean I sometimes run for 6 months at a time, starting from scratch and working up to 2 hours or so. Not particularly quick, but I don't find running really helps cycling, especially as I get further into the running. I usually give up with the running as it feels like the recovery puts longer gaps between rides.

[MOBB]

Compare wind direction and strength too, makes a big difference to my commute

[snotrag]

Caseih4240xl said:

Question: which of the following would have contributed the most to me being donkey slow relative to previously this am??

Caseih4240xl said:

3. It was my second ride this year. I run these days, and have clocked up over 1000km this year to date so its not as if ive fallen off a cliff fitness wise.

The running is not that relevant once above a 'base' level of fitness.