Tim Ferriss, writing in Tools of Titans, maintains that in order to feel the first benefits of a regular meditation practice, you need to meditate daily for a minimum of 7 days. Anything else, he says, and you’re really wasting your time.

This got me thinking: I’ve long heard folks extol the virtues of regular meditation – no argument there. But, I wondered, what effect  would a regular practice of mindfulness and meditation make to my cycling?

Let’s say that I decided to meditate for 30 days straight. What would happen? Would I cycle more often? Would I cycle less? Would I be more focused or less focused? Would I go faster? Slower? Would I just mindlessly cycle into a canal?

I’ve long suspected that the bicycle, in addition to being a highly sociable, sustainable form of transport, could also be something of a silver bullet for a myriad of ills. In a recent conversation with a friend I argued that my bike was the ‘ultimate lifehack’, the one-shot cure for an assortment of ills and issues. It is, I’ve come to believe, my mental and physical therapist in one object, with the cognitive benefits being a welcome by-product of regular exercise.

But what if I decided to make a more conscious effort to use the bike as a tool to train not just my body, but also my mind? What if I deliberately set out to use the bike to help fine tune my brain? To increase my basic human performance? Could I consciously try to engineer myself to have a better-organised, optimally performing brain by combining some form of meditation and cycling? Could I combine the two to be a force-multiplier?

Or would it be a complete waste of time?

Well, let’s see what happens, shall we?

Over the next 30 days I’ll try to meditate every day, for a minimum of 10 minutes at a time and try to track what, if any, effect this has on my bike riding. I encourage you to join me and let me know what you think, using the hashtag #MeditateFor30

I’ll be posting regular updates here on how this little experiment goes. Wish me luck.

#MeditateFor30