Ride Six — Half an Hour Before Dinner
Thirty-two minutes on Zwift before dinner — 13.07km, 101m of climbing and no faffing with lights or kit. The shortest ride of the challenge so far, and the easiest one to say yes to.
Not every ride needs an hour.
Ride six of the Cycle the Month Challenge for Prostate Cancer UK was 13.07km in 32 minutes and 4 seconds, with 101m of climbing and an average of 24.5km/h. Big Flat 8 on Zwift again, done before an evening with the family.
Half the distance of ride five, in just over half the time. I enjoyed it every bit as much.
The Ride That Fits in the Gap
Outdoors, half an hour is barely worth the trouble. By the time you have found the kit, checked the lights, worked out a loop that gets you home again and cleaned the bike afterwards, the admin has taken longer than the ride.
Indoors it costs about two minutes. Shoes on, bike on, go.
Which means the bar for deciding to ride drops a long way. You stop asking whether you have time for a proper ride and just get on the thing. And that matters more in a month-long challenge than it sounds — most of the rides I have missed over the years were not missed because I was unfit. They were missed because the gap I had did not look big enough to bother with.
The Same Road, Ridden Differently
This was my second time round Big Flat 8, and knowing the route changed the ride completely.
Last time I was sightseeing. This time I already knew what was coming, so I put my head down and just turned the pedals for half an hour. No stopping to look at anything, no wondering what was round the next bend. Shorter, but the whole thing was work.
The odd number is the climbing. 101m in 13.07km, against 84m across the 25km of ride five, on the same route. I have no explanation for that beyond the road choosing a different set of rollers to throw at me, and it certainly did not feel like a climbing ride while I was on it.
The other number that made me laugh was the maximum speed. 64.7km/h, in my garage, going nowhere.
Short Still Counts
A month adds up in kilometres, not in rides. These 13.07 count exactly the same as the 30.72 I did on the good evening a couple of weeks ago, and they took a third of the time.
There is a version of this challenge where I hold out for the big ride, find that the evening has gone, and do nothing. Six rides in, I am fairly sure that version raises less money than this one.
And there is something to be said for a ride that finishes early enough that nobody else in the house notices you went.
Every kilometre this month, long or short, is raising money for Prostate Cancer UK — funding research, raising awareness and supporting men and families dealing with a disease that affects far too many people. Half an hour on the bike still puts kilometres on the total.
Six rides down. And no more excuses about not having the time.