I’ve got an hour to train. How much cycling can I do?

Those long, hot, sunny days of summer are over. Well, they were long, anyway. Now that the nights are drawing in, the riding time feels more precious, and if you’re looking at hitting your goals for next year – or just hoping to hold onto that summer fitness until it’s nice out again – then you want to make the most of all the time you have for training.

In the winter, with the daylight hours getting shorter, it’s often harder to fit a ride in. Maybe your lunch hour is the only time you can find in a weekday when you can actually get out, or maybe an hour before or after work. But how much of that hour can you actually spend riding? And what can you achieve?

Riding outdoors vs riding indoors

There are loads of reasons to ride indoors on platforms like Zwift. The weather’s not a factor, for a start, and you can easily find a range of different sessions. The main reason, though, is time: it’s a really time-efficient way of getting some miles in your legs. To demonstrate that, I’ve given myself exactly one hour for riding indoors and outdoors, to see how much actual training I can get done. Stopwatch ready? Let’s go!

An hour outdoors: my timeline

So let’s assume you have an hour before your boss is checking that you're back at your desk. How much riding can you actually do? It’ll depend, because everyone’s circumstances are different. But here’s how it worked out for me, after I set the stopwatch ticking…

Finding the right clothing and getting changed: 3 minutes

A quick check outside to see how much I need to be wearing, and a dig through the cycling gear chest to find something that’ll work. It doesn’t matter how many times I carefully pair them up, by the time I actually need them my arm warmers are always at opposite ends of the box…

Pre-ride checks: 2 minutes

It’s always a good idea to check your tyre pressures and give your bike a once-over before you head out on the road. Sometimes the chain can use a bit of lube too. I’m out at lunchtime so lights aren’t a necessity, but after work (or on the early stint) you’ll need to dig around for those too.

Riding to somewhere you can actually train: 3 minutes

I’m really lucky here, as my house is at the top of a large and reasonably quiet hill which is ideal for things like hill reps. There’s also a lovely road cycling circuit just round the corner that’s not booked most of the time, and you can pay a couple of quid and rant round it to your heart’s content; normally I’m the only one there.

This is a best case scenario. If you live in the middle of town and you need to get somewhere quiet to train, that might take a significant chunk of time. Still, you’ve made it: you can hit the gas!

Riding back again: 3 minutes

It stands to reason that whatever time I spent getting out to my training spot, I’ll need to account for the same going back again… maybe more if it was a hard session!

Cleaning your bike and putting it away: 3 minutes

If the weather’s nice and the roads are dry this won’t take up too much of my hour; if I’ve been rained on and the bike is grubby it’ll need a bit of attention to stop bits rusting and seizing, and keeping the drivetrain dry and clean will reduce wear, saving money in the long run.

Shower and change: 5 minutes

So long as I’m back five before the hour that should be enough time to jump into the shower and get myself looking respectable for my afternoon commitments!

Total training time available: 41 minutes

It all adds up. Only about two thirds of the time I’ve got is going to be time I’m working hard. You might even get less than that, and it’s unlikely you’ll have more.

An hour indoors: my timeline

In the same circumstances, how long do I get on Zwift if I’m clocking off for an hour’s lunch and there’s no option to slide back in a bit late?

Change into training gear: 2 mins

It’s a good idea to launch Zwift and get changed while it’s booting up to maximise your time. My clothing list normally reads thus: a pair of bib shorts. In the pictures and video in this article I've put a sort of indoor training singlet thing on for decency’s sake, though. Although it has quite, erm, sheer leg panels, so it's not that decent...

Getting set up: 1 minute

If you’re lucky enough like me to have space to keep your trainer set up permanently, then it really doesn’t take any time at all. My current set up is the Zwift Ride Frame and KICKR CORE Zwift One trainer, which is a dedicated setup designed to work seamlessly with Zwift: virtual shifting is handled in-game, and all the controls you need to access the menus and the functions of the game are built into the handlebars.

A dedicated setup like this is doubly helpful, because when it is a nice day and you do have a bit of a bigger window for a ride outdoors, there’s no need to wrestle your outdoor bike off the trainer and fiddle with the gears to get them working right. If you already have a Zwift-ready trainer with the singlespeed Zwift Cog – or one of the growing list of trainers you can convert – then the Zwift Ride Frame is also available on its own as a pain cave update.

Get 10% off trainers at Zwift.com with code ROADCCZ10

So, setup for me is basically turning the control pads on. Although I’ve added a minute because I’ll no doubt forget my water bottle, or my phone, or my headphones, or my HRM strap. Like every other time, ever...

Pick a session and get going: 1 minute

There’s plenty to do on Zwift, and further down we’ll run through your different options. One tip worth knowing though is this: you can use Zwift’s new “My List” function to collate your favourite workouts and routes, and when you log into the game they’ll be right at the top of your home screen, saving you even more time. Ready to go? Time to get sweaty!

See what I mean about those leg panels?

Finish, shower and change: 5 minutes

Once again, I’ll give myself 5 minutes to shower and cool down so I’m projecting “healthy glow” instead of “sweaty mess” at the all-hands meeting. 

Total training time available: 51 minutes

By my calculation, hopping on Zwift has given me 24.4% more usable training time! They’re all gains, remind yourself of that. Depending on how far you are from somewhere you can actually train, this figure could be considerably higher for you.

What are you going to do with your hour on Zwift?

So you’ve decided to maximise your training window and hop on the turbo for a bit of Zwift time. But what are you actually going to do? Well, there are loads of options for you. Here’s what I’d consider if I was heading out to the shed for a lunchtime session…

Ride a route

The simplest thing to do is just go and ride. Pick a map and a route that’ll work for the time you have, and tailor the type of virtual terrain for how you’re feeling. Recovery day? Find a nice flat loop. Want to go harder? Throw in some elevation! If you’re new to Zwift (or just stuck in your ways) why not try and tick off all the routes one by one?

Find a pace partner

Pace partners are a great option, because you’re straight into your work and there’s no let off. Pick one who’s riding at a level you can sustain for an hour, get in the blob of riders and settle in for a steady state effort. You also get extra XP this way, so if you’re saving up for a posh new frame it’s a way to boost your balance.

Climb Portal

The Climb Portal is often a climb that can be done in under an hour, so check what’s available when you log in. It’s a different feel to the rest of the game, with much more colourful and abstract graphics; just the thing to distract you from the fact that it’s every bit as hard.

Do a workout

There’s a huge library of workouts on Zwift, and you can find anything from an easy spin to something that’ll turn you inside out. And if even then you don’t find what you’re looking for, you can use the custom workout builder to construct something exactly to your liking. Remember to use the “My list” function in the Companion app to pin them to the top of your home screen, so the workouts you want are easy to find.

Race!

If you want to look a bit peaky in your after-lunch interactions, then why not find a race and go hard? The monthly ZRacing series has been designed so that you can warm up, race and then warm down in an hour or less, so those are good events to look for, but most races aren’t long.

If a race at lunchtime feels a bit excessive, there are always group workouts or steady state rides you can join, and that can be more of a social experience than rolling round on your own.

Climb the Alpe du Zwift…

Okay, a bit of a stretch, this one. Assuming you had all of those 51 minutes available, and you could start bang on the KOM marker (maybe ride there in the morning before work and leave your avatar waiting!?) you’d still need to average nearly 4W/kg to make it to the top in time. If you’re not prepared to be that prepared, the Road to Sky is the shortest route featuring the Alpe, and it’s 5km to the foot of the climb. That’s probably 8 minutes gone, and 43 minutes up the hairpins is somewhere around 4.5W/kg, even if you’ve picked the lightest frame and wheels you can. So choppers like me who can just about do it in an hour need not apply. Maybe try the Epic KOM instead!

Try Zwift free for 14 days

As you can see, there’s plenty to do on Zwift even if you’re pressed for time. And, of course, if you’ve got all day free then routes top out at the full Ride London course at over 170km!

If you want to try Zwift then you can currently get 14 days for free when you sign up for a monthly plan. And if you’re in the market for a trainer, use the code ROADCCZ10 for 10% any trainer at Zwift.com