Covid19 - How far should we cycle each day?

[RedglovesMike]

I am taking the govt advice and using cycling as my one form of daily exercise, not going within 2m of any other person, etc, but what do people feel is a reasonable distance to cycle in any one day? 10 miles, 50, 100?
Surely the actual distance is irrelevant, but anticipate a word from the police if I go 'too far' in their opinion.
Your thoughts?

[Mike Sales]

I am taking the govt advice and using cycling as my one form of daily exercise, not going within 2m of any other person, etc, but what do people feel is a reasonable distance to cycle in any one day? 10 miles, 50, 100?
Surely the actual distance is irrelevant, but anticipate a word from the police if I go 'too far' in their opinion.
Your thoughts?

I'm afraid the average bobby, like the average driver, thinks that five miles is too far for them to cycle.

[fullupandslowingdown]

The advice from the proper health advisors is that you continue to do what you normally do. No doubt based on the idea that if you taper off significantly, so too will your health and natural immunity or resilence to infections, making you a greater candidate to falling ill when infected with covid-19

So for le Tour riders, that's 50 to 150 miles a day, for armchair cyclists; 5 miles. If the rozzers stop you and suggest you're exceeding your limit, point them politely in the direction of the health advisors.

[tatanab]

Perhaps better thought of in duration rather than distance. i.e time of potential exposure.

I pop out for an hour before breakfast. I see a few dog walkers on urban streets but when I reach the lanes there is nobody.

[pwa]

I am taking the govt advice and using cycling as my one form of daily exercise, not going within 2m of any other person, etc, but what do people feel is a reasonable distance to cycle in any one day? 10 miles, 50, 100?
Surely the actual distance is irrelevant, but anticipate a word from the police if I go 'too far' in their opinion.
Your thoughts?

I'm afraid the average bobby, like the average driver, thinks that five miles is too far for them to cycle.

To which you reply that at a sedate pace you do X miles in an hour and to maintain fitness you do Y hours, and starting from your doorstep that makes a circuit of Z miles along lanes that you have been cycling for years and know like the back of your hand, and which you consider "local". By that point the officer may well be bored and ready to move on.

[Bmblbzzz]

What's important is not the distance you ride but how far away you go and how many people you might come into contact, directly or indirectly, with. So if you ride a circle 1 mile around your house, you can do that 200 times a day. You're not going out of the area in which people might come into contact with you anyway. Ride those 200 miles in a straight line and you're spreading your virus into new areas. It's easy enough to treat others as being potentially infectious, harder to remember that we ourselves might be carrying a potentially fatal virus.

[Ray]

One of the riders I passed while out on Thursday posted his 130km ride on Strava, under the title, "Boris made me do it". Buck firmly passed.

[ossie]

I am taking the govt advice and using cycling as my one form of daily exercise, not going within 2m of any other person, etc, but what do people feel is a reasonable distance to cycle in any one day? 10 miles, 50, 100?
Surely the actual distance is irrelevant, but anticipate a word from the police if I go 'too far' in their opinion.
Your thoughts?

How would they know how far you are going ?

The issue I see it is that anyone on a road bike, in suitable gear will soon be a target. The public perception that 'lycra louts' are allowed to cycle is gaining a great deal of Interest.

Take this report from my local paper and the comments section. Its about someone getting a rollicking for painting their beach hut and other excuses. It then develops quickly into a mass argument about why cyclists shouldn't be cycling under the current circumstances

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/ ... nts-anchor

Exercise for me is at the very least a 30 mile ride, the Daily Fail brigade and public pressure will mean I'm back on the turbo.

[RedglovesMike]

Thanks to one and all for your interesting points of view, I appreciate the rapid responses and will definitely be out tomorrow for at least an hour, or two...

[tykeboy2003]

I've been doing between 15 and 20 miles (1 to 1.5 hours) I think that is reasonable. I'm also killing 2 birds by calling at the shops on the way home.

[Pete Owens]

You shouldn't think of it in terms of time spent, but in terms of the number of people you encounter.

The purpose of suggesting a limit on the amount of time people are out exercising is reduce the number of people exercising in the same place at the same time - It assumes people will be exercising in vicinity to where we live (ie using the same place as all their neighbours). It is a not just a linear relationship - if only you are out on your street for twice as long you double your exposure; if everyone on the street is out for twice as long then you encounter twice as many people per minute.

Of course by cycling we can minimise this by riding into the open countryside where we are less likely to encounter other people and also by riding on roads we have more space thus reduce the proximity of those encounters. So definitely do not ride round and round your block, but head for the open spaces. And use wide roads rather than narrow lanes or paths so when you do encounter others you can keep well clear of them.

[gxaustin]

I rode 70 miles on Thursday and hardly saw a soul. I went for a walk locally and passed several dozen people within coughing distance.
I was pilloried for the ride by fellow club members though - and it got nasty.
Then Michael Gove said: "Asked to clarify how much time people could spend exercising outside their homes, Mr Gove said: "It depends on each individual's fitness." The government has not so far issued a time limit for exercise, but has urged people to stay local."
And keep local means start from home. Don't drive to the Cotswolds etc.

[Paulatic]

My neighbours a runner he was out this morning clearing a route around his property. He has now got a 0.2 ml route around his garden complete with small hill. So he’s got his own park run in 15 laps.
If we get a total lock down my property is about 2/3 of an acre think I could build a cyclo cross course. I’ve got steps I can’t ride up and a hill I can ride up.. Just need to put a couple of sleepers on their edge for a jump or dismount section. Only thing I’m missing is a sand pit.
All this madness after one week Imagine what we can come up with in a months time

I think @ Bmblbzzz has the right interpretation. "The virus doesn’t move people move it" should always be uppermost in your mind.

[foxyrider]

i would consider anywhere within @ 50km/30miles to be 'local', from where i'm sat that could be Gloucester, Newport, Weston s/m or Devizes! Local for walking puposes would be @ 8km/5miles from home, thats me though, i do a lot of riding, since the New Year my shortest ride has been 62 miles, i don't balk at walking a couple of miles or more for shopping, whilst i may have some health problems i'd consider myself, on balance to be fit and healthy.

Fitting in a long ride within my 'local' isn't too difficult and i can avoid potential contacts much more easily than if i was confined to say 16km/10miles from base. For example, shopping on Friday, i reckon that, largely due to queuing in and out of stores, i was in fairly close contact with @ 150 people for upwards of an hour. My Saturday ride, three times the duration, i don't think i even saw 100 people outside of tin boxes let alone be close enough for long enough to be concerned, my route was able to avoid busy towns/villages (so okay everywhere is quieter) there was only one short stretch of cycle route that seemed to attract a few bodies.

I know people whose usual walk is 4/5 hours, providing you are sensible in where you ride i can see no reason to enforce a particular time or distance element if its what you do 'normally'.

Note though, i'd be a lot more circumspect if the infection rate was higher locally.

[fullupandslowingdown]

....
https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/ ... nts-anchor

Dorset Brides eh? what exactly is this publication?