Does commuting count as training?

From the winter training thread babydinotrackboy on commuting+training

A girl I have been coaching this year commutes to and from work in central London and was doing the same last year. We got her to improve massively this year by cutting her down to every other day and tubing in on the rest days. She was fresher and therefore could work harder on the days she did ride in.

The "fat burning zone" is a myth and the statement that 50 yard repeated sprints only make you good at 50 yard sprints likewise.

http://jp.physoc.org/content/588/6/1011.full

High-intensity interval training (HIT) induces skeletal muscle metabolic and performance adaptations that resemble traditional endurance training despite a low total exercise volume.

What is most intriguing about these findings is that the volume of exercise and time spent training were ∼90% and ∼75% lower, respectively, with HIT compared to ET. This suggests that HIT is a potent and time-efficient strategy to induce skeletal muscle metabolic adaptations and improve functional exercise capacity.

Given that ‘lack of time' is the most commonly cited barrier to performing regular exercise in a variety of populations (Godin et al. 1994; Trost et al. 2002), low-volume HIT may represent an alternative to endurance training to improve metabolic health and reduce the risk for chronic diseases.