[background music] Conor Dunne: Riding can take all sorts of
shapes and sizes, but if you're really pressed for time can you fit in a proper ride in 30
minutes? Manon Lloyd: Well, we thought we'd give it
a go and see if we can do a proper ride in just half an hour. We thought we'd also do
a poll in the GCN app. Whose ride did you prefer?
Jeremy: Seeing as no one's circumstances are the same, we're going to show you some real-life
examples of what we do as the GCN presenters when we've only got 30 minutes to make it
happen. Let's go. [music swells]
Manon: I've really done myself over here with this session.
Conor: [singsong] I've got wet, wet, wet, wet, wet cycling shoes.
[background music] Manon: 30 minutes. Now that isn't very long
to do a road ride. I think it takes me 30 minutes just to get out the door by the time
I've got my kit on, faffed around with my bike. That'd be pretty pointless for me. I
reckon a turbo session. I reckon I could do a really decent session in 30 minutes on the
turbo with getting changed and showering after. I reckon a short, sharp session, 20 40s, and
I'm just going to do that as many times as I can with a warmup and a cooldown, so I reckon
10, 15 sets. I could do that. Going to have to be organized, though, so I'm going to go
and get ready. Get my kit laid out and my bike ready.
[music swells] Manon: Okay, I think that's the quickest I've
ever gotten changed before. Just over two minutes and time is ticking. Then to the garage.
Just going to get my shoes on. Get my session started. Get my Wahoo on. Okay, so I'm on
the bike. It has taken me a little bit longer than I anticipated. Nearly four minutes, but
I'm on, and I actually really need to turn that fan on because I have a feeling it's
going to get pretty hot so going to turn that on. Okay, so I'm now 4 minutes and 30 seconds
into my warmup. I've got 20 seconds before I start my first effort.
I feel okay now I'm on. I feel a little bit less stressed. I mean, I haven't had the best
warmup. I usually have a good 10, 15 minutes, but, yes, I guess we'll get into these first
efforts. I'll take them a little bit easy to begin with and then we'll get into them.
I've got four seconds, so I'd better go. [background music]
Jeremy: Most of the time I don't even know what day of the week it is, so give me 30
minutes and you know it's going to be a smash fest. Whether it's cold outside, and I don't
want to be out there for too long, or I've got something going on with the family, I
know that I've got to make it happen quick, so I usually pump up the jams to get in the
zone. Got to get changed. We got to hit it. [door opens]
Jeremy: We got to go. [door shuts]
[music swells] Jeremy: All right, so right when I get out
the door no messing around. 2, 3 minutes just to blow the cobwebs out of the legs to get
warmed up, get comfortable on the bike, and then after that 5 minutes tempo heart rate
120 to 140 just to get moving so I can get primed for the workout that I'm about to take
on. [music swells]
Jeremy: All right, so we've got three minutes in. I've pushed the lap timer just to get
up-- Next five minutes I want to keep a nice high cadence. I don't want to put too much
stress on the muscles, especially with not a lot of time. You don't want to focus mashing
a big gear to get the heart rate super high out the gate. You want to just keep a nice
light cadence. Get your tempo high. Work on the cardiovascular system, not necessarily
stressing the whole body. That's going to come later in a couple of minutes.
[music swells] Conor: Fitting in a ride in 30 minutes is
going to be difficult, but I think it's doable, and I want to use this as an opportunity just
to have a nice bike ride. Open my legs out. Get my lungs working, be at one with nature.
A peaceful moment in the middle of perhaps what is probably quite a stressful day at
work. Yes, my days are stressful. They are. Better get changed.
[background music] Conor: Whoa, hold on. Hold on. You're not
being here for this bit. Look away for a second. Bit of privacy. All right, that's on. Helmet.
Check. Whoo. Shoes. I'm not going to ask to put these on here. I'm not allowed to walk
on the stairs. The mother-in-law will absolutely go spare with me, so see you downstairs. Okay,
I'm ready. I'm off. I'm out of the door. I'm out in the open air. Oh, feels good to be
out. Now, it took me two minutes to get ready because I cut out all that faffing. Just get
on out the door on the bike, and I've allowed myself 13 minutes riding time, which I'm going
to do in one direction on my local lanes. I've done this because I don't want to choose
a loop which might end up being longer than it probably looks on paper, and also because
I'll know that I'm just going to turn around and come back, so I'll be back on time. If
I do 13 minutes in one direction, 13 minutes back, that's 26 minutes total riding time,
allowing for that 2 minutes to get ready. Allowing myself another 2 minutes to get changed
afterwards because I do have a very important meeting after this, so I do need to make sure
I'm back in time. All being well, should be able to bang out an absolutely quality ride
in 26 minutes riding time. I've escaped for half an hour. I've got wet
cycling shoes, but I don't care. I've started to write a song about it. [singsong] I've
got wet, wet, wet, wet, wet cycling shoes, and it's really wanted me to sing the blues.
[background music] Oliver Bridgewood: Now, for my 30 minutes
workout I'm going to come outside and ride up a couple of the hills in Bath where I live
because they're really close. Hopefully, I can get a good 10 minutes of kind of VO2 max
effort done in that window, which I'm going to have to because it's taken me 10 minutes
to get ready, so I've only got 20 minutes left. Oh, God, and I've got to ride to the
hill. Yes, and it's raining. [music swells]
Ollie: My climb of choice for my effort is Ralph Allen Drive, which at the pace I'm going
is about five minutes climb. That averages 10%. [bleh] It's hard, but I reckon I can
get two decent reps in here. About 380, 400 watts, and then that's about 10 minutes at
that kind of VO2 max effort for me. That's a good workout, 10 minutes of that, and then
cool down. Rollback to my house at the end. [breathes heavily] I've got to stop talking.
[background music] Manon: I've been on the turbo 19 and a half
minutes now. I've lost count of how many 20 second efforts I've done, but I'm starting
to work up a sweat. My heart rate is going up, so I'm getting a good workout. I reckon
I can fit five more in. Then that'll give me another five minutes-- Oh no, I need to
cool down. Yes, five more and then two-minute cooldown. Real easy, spin the legs, and see
if I can get changed in just three minutes. That's going to close. All right, let's get
a few more efforts out. [music swells]
Manon: Kind of wish now that I just went out for a nice easy 10 minutes on the road. I've
really done myself over here with this session. Whoo. [breathes heavily]
Ollie: [breathes heavily] I've done my second rep, and the clock's at about 26 minutes,
meaning I've got 4 minutes to get home [laughs] and get changed. This is a stupid idea. [laughs]
Oh, God. Oh, I better get a wiggle on. So much for a cooldown.
[calm background music] Conor: Okay, so I'm only about seven minutes
into my ride, but I thought I'd just stop for a little bit because I found some lovely
blackberries. I mean, I normally come picking here in the autumn. I didn't expect them to
be here so early in the season, to be honest, and I've just noticed them here. I've got
to stop and see. I'm just going to give them a try. See, they're very juicy. [lips smack]
Still a little tart. Bit sour still. They could do with being left for a bit longer.
Tops two weeks, I think. [lipsmack] Yes, good to know anyway. Right, I better crack on because
this is kind of easy enough bit of precious time.
I'm very lucky to have this as a little cheeky ride on my lunch break, tell you. Seskin Hill
is a steep climb. Do not underestimate it. Right, I've made it to the midpoint of my
ride. I'm in Carrick on Suir, and just on the bridge just over the river now, and as
you can see absolutely wonderful viewpoint from here. The river is quite swollen actually.
We've got a lot of rain, so it's looking quite an angry dark kind of brownish-red.
[music swells] Conor: This poor fellow's canoe's had a bit
of an accident. Don't think he's going to get a canoe ride in half an hour. Half an
hour? Oh. Lost myself a bit there. I better get going back actually because I got distracted
talking and to be honest I've got a bit carried away myself because I've come down Seskin
Hill, it's taken me 30 minutes to get here and it's all uphill on the way back. That's
not in my plan, haven't thought about that one. Haven't thought it through at all. I'm
going to have to get a move on it if I'm going to make this meeting because it's actually
an important meeting. Ollie: 30 minutes. Made it.
Jeremy: All right, I just finished up that set. Now, two minutes threshold, last 30 seconds
I'm going to hit it hard and I'm going to take two minutes rest. 30 seconds all out.
[music] That first two-minute effort's done, now I've
got two minutes off and I'm basically going to just cool down then I'm going to hit it
again, another two-minute effort. I came in here in this local sandpit just to get in
some good effort, keep it exciting, and have a little bit of fun going off-road. For me,
that's how I really enjoy spending 30 minutes of my day, probably like many of you as well.
The off-road component is not insignificant. I've got another 60 seconds to rest then I'm
going to do two more of those two-minute efforts, then I'm going to do some off-the-bike work
as well. Let's start this second one up, here we go.
[music swells] Second set done. Got another two minutes and
then I'm going to hit it out for me last set of this threshold VO2 [unintelligible 00:11:40]
Manon: I don't have a lot to remember for this session. Needed my kit, my shoes, my
bike and I forgot my sweat towel. Three more. I can do it.
[music] One more effort to go then I can cool down.
I would always recommend having a good warmup and a good cool down when you do a session
like this. I thought I thought it through but I clearly haven't. Oh, God.
[music swells] Coming up to 27 minutes and I just realized
that two minutes cooldown is not long enough after such an intense session. My legs are
still burning, my heart rate's still quite high and if I get off now, my legs are just
going to hate me tomorrow. I'm going to stick on the turbo for an extra few minutes just
to do a proper cool down just so I'm not in pain later. What was I thinking? Three minutes
to get off and shower and change. Turns out I didn't plan this so well.
Connor: I'm going as hard as I can to get home up at Seskin Hill. Power on.
Jeremy: All right, those intervals are done. Now, it's time to do some off-the-bike work.
Now I'm going to put the bike down, and now I'm going to hit out another 20 seconds. As
I'm working my way back now, I'm just going to keep doing these efforts. Now another one.
Conor: I feel sick. [music]
Jeremy: [unintelligible 00:13:45] I never really left the area that I live in, that
way I was never too far away from home. I've got one last effort to do. I'm going to do
that just on the side of the road as I make my way back towards my house. Now 20 seconds.
Connor: I've made it over Seskin, I made it over the climb and I'm on my way home now.
I think I'm in the clear. I've got 25 minutes riding time so that gives me three minutes
to get home, two minutes to get changed and then I'm back into work. Half an hour ride
done so I'm feeling confident now. See you at my desk.
[unintelligible 00:14:33] I did only just made my meeting and I might not have done
the most epic of rides but that doesn't matter because I got out, I've got some fresh air
and I've got a little bit of a workout. It's better than nothing. Sometimes in life, we
don't do something because we can't do everything. We'd rather do nothing than do a little bit
of something. Sometimes all you need to do is just to get out there, twiddle your legs
and give it a go. That's the magic. Ollie: I'm making my way back, incorporating
everything into my ride fully, so I'm about a couple of minutes back to my place and I
know that I've already done my three-minute warm up, I've done my small amount of light
tempo, I've done my two minutes on, two minutes off, off-the-bike running with sprints. Now
I'm going to do a couple last sprints to finish this off. Last one. That is what 30 minutes
with me looks like. If you guys can, jump out there, do it. You'll feel better, you'll
get the blood flowing to your brain, you'll feel very positive, you'll feel good, you've
got something in. A little bit is better than nothing, it's what I always say. Have fun,
be safe. Connor: Thanks for watching everyone. I hope
you've enjoyed this one and I hope it's inspired you to get out in your bike and enjoy those
smaller rides. Please let us know in the comment section below, do you have any favorite smaller
loops that you'd like us to do or favorite training sessions, or favorite little rides
in the country lanes like myself? I'd really love to hear from you as we all would. Please
let us know in the comment section below. We'd love to hear your inspiration. Right
now I better get back to my meeting because I've just put them on hold there. See you
soon. Thanks for watching everyone and enjoy the riding.
[00:16:21] [END OF AUDIO]