Global Cycling Network: Are 30 Minute Rides Helpful, Or The Wrong Question?

It’s interesting to see the approach of 4 highly competitive types to the question: Half Hour Challenge: How Much Bike Riding Can You Fit Into 30 Minutes? (Aug. 22,2020)  And the designed-in humor notwithstanding, it's a good basic question.


To a racer, that translates into training values, but to the majority of riders, doesn’t that mean something very different? 


I don’t know what percentage of GCN viewers compete—I’m a former mountain bike racer myself, heavy on “former”—but in listening to how many of your episodes this year are directed at beginners, I’m not sure this particular episode, as entertaining as it is, is geared toward a newcomer, or possibly even most riders.


Look at all the racing taking place here: into kit, to the bike/trainer, and hammering away for about 17 minutes and 23 seconds before showering (while changing, one presumes) trying to get that ride in—really, more like getting in a training session from hell than a good ride.


So, it makes me wonder: won’t the vast majority of these new riders join the majority ranks of all riders, which is to not be a racer?  If the answer is yes, then the equation changes from: how do I get a training ride in 30 minutes, to, can I get a good exercise ride in 30 minutes?  The answer is very likely: yes.


Maybe we should start with Covert Bailey’s well proven guidelines for the basic amount of cardiovascular a person needs in order to remain heart healthy.  


His booklet, Fit or Fat, came out right about at the beginning of the exercise/running trend, but was quickly overshadowed by the orthopedic surgeon-enriching mantra, No Pain No Gain, which held sway for decades as exercisers got crippled and surgeons got rich.


Many exercise experts have settled back down to the more realistic, research-supported properties that Bailey proved out in the late Sixties: a minimum of 20 minutes of aerobic exercise a minimum of 3 times a week, as the base exercise need for cardiovascular health. 


And, if you’re already getting one or two good rides in a week, then adding 20 minutes in a flat spot in your week would greatly enhance the longer rides you’re getting.


Applied, then, to the vast majority of cyclists around the world riding for both exercise and stress relief, trying to change as fast as possible, run out the door or jump on the trainer, rampage for 20 or so minutes, then run back in to get ready for whatever comes next, seems self-defeating on so many levels.  


If the goal is to fathom a minimal number of training minutes, the regiment demonstrated by Manon, Ollie and Jeremy—not so much Coner—might work.  But…


Don’t most training methods focus on lowering stress than unnecessarily raising it?  If the goal is exercise and stress relief—two of the most important aspects of bicycles for most of us—then, as noted in the episode, something may be better than nothing, but…is it?


Going with the basic idea that 20 minutes of cycling advances the rider toward a healthier lifestyle, the benefits might be negated somewhat by cranking up the stress levels just to get the bike time.  


As part of the overall efforts most of us might employ during the week—I try to ride 4-6 hours a week, a fraction of what I did when training to race, but still a good goal—slamming one 20 minute ride into an otherwise crowded day would be better than nothing, but might not be necessary or even the right answer to an otherwise good question.


This time of year, can you—to ask a slightly different question—get home in time to get a ride in before home chores and darkness take over?  Or, an early ride or trainer session?  


So many GCN viewers must be up and out early if they’re taking inspirational sunrise photos on their pre-work rides, with which to make the judges bugle-eyed, surely 20 minutes not only enhances what the rest of their regiment is during the week, but improves general health.  Which means 20 minutes of aerobic riding is entirely doable.


Truly, an entertaining episode (Coner’s approach was the closest to what I describe here, and quite amusing), though I suspect one of us missed the point, and I blame me…I love the English accent, but it can be gently misleading to us (200+ years) former Colonists.


But, if the real goal is to get in a heart healthy ride, then adding a 20 minute ride into a part of the week when you might not get a “real” ride in, is not only perfectly doable, but pretty darn healthy.  And not just better than nothing.






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