Some comments here won’t look very clever when death rates are over 500 a day.

And that’ll be one of them.

The banner on the forum from STW Towers captures it best.

No Car, No Gnar, Not Far.

Agreed. Sums it up perfectly.

No Car, No Gnar, Not Far.

Not sure about that last one. Why are we imposing limits on ourselves? I generally go out at night .. if I got out on rural lanes and bridleways from my house, I can use some common sense and I do not generally see anyone out while I’m doing it. Not far my arse! define far! ‘Far’ for a roadie or ‘far’ for a mtber? coz the two are greatly **** different.
And we should also be educating anyone coming out with this misconception that we can only go out for an hour.

Sigh, it’s all been covered many, many times. “Far” is a general term, i.e. if you’re 50 miles from your house, that might be too far. Or a 100 mile ride. Also probably too far. 20 miles, all within 5-10 miles of your house? Knock yourself out. But don’t knock yourself out.

And on that note, (and in my opinion) I would probably refrain from solo night rides – too much risk of taking a silly tumble and needing people to come look for you/patch you up.

It’s all just about going out, but for a reasonable distance/time/effort. Not hitting max HR, or doing a 6 hour epic ride over a mountain pass, or going for a 100 mile road ride. Just don’t take the piss. Simples.

Or not simple, according to this thread.

Some comments here won’t look very clever when death rates are over 500 a day.

20,000 deaths is the current estimate discussed at today’s briefing if we all strictly implement the measures. Described as a ‘good result’.

That purity spiral concept is interesting, enviously looking at various friends and co-workers rides on Strava today, they’re barely any different to their normal Saturday AM rides!

That said, they’re all local, all solo, and all early morning. The only difference is where I’m worried about going out for 2hrs (and would have kept it private if I did) they’ve all been out for 3-4hr efforts, slow and steady.

I suspect the difference is that they’ve taken the government advice at face value rather than tying themselves in knots trying to gain the approval of internet fora.

I’d have a wee go at them but one is my director, one an associate of a company I might like to work for one day and one is merely my immediate superior in the office. Maybe I need some new riding buddies…

yes.

Maybe I need some new riding buddies…

We’re all solo riders now 🙂

I’ve just been put for a local spin on the road. No chain gangs. Riders in ones and twos only. A few family groups, which surprised me a bit as today was overcast and windy. I hope they keep it up after this is over. Very light traffic which was an absolute joy.

I went out on the MTB this morning. I saw 3 roadies (separately), 2 cars and a bus (all >5m away at all times). It was properly quiet. And the trails were dry. Lovely.

Just unfollowed on Strava a semi pro rider who is posting up daily 80 plus mile road ride most days, idiot 😔

Well I’m getting a bit angsty now as I’ve only done a few spins with my boy who is 9 for the last week or more, the turbo is not the same….mrs anagallis is going to have to do the dog walk soon so I can go out.

20 miles local mtb morning ride & never more than 3 miles from my house. Saw maybe 6 solo cyclists and a smattering of walkers (all making an effort to give a 2m distance). Possibly due to the cold wind & odd light shower.

May have been discussed but national guidance on treatment of injuries is now ‘don’t operate unless life or limb threatening’. Or in simple terms injuries that normally get operated on will now be treated without surgery even if there is a risk of a worse outcome. This is to reduce the burden on the NHS nationally.

Very good advice to ride steady and not push it!

jet (orthopaedic surgeon)

I’m just doing 20-30 miles on local roads/trails on the CX. Either very early morning or early evening.

Lovely and quiet on the roads now – partly its reasonably rural around me anyway and partly I suspect the time of day that I’m out. Driving standards seem to have improved too – the initial occasional “ragging round like an idiot” driver has gone and of the few drivers out on the roads now, everyone has given me a wide berth and been driving (relatively) sensibly.

I said I was out, but I’m now being referenced in other threads by people I don’t know just because I have a different opinion – which is neither that outlandish nor unshared by others.  That knitting article is very relevant. Please stop, this place has a tendency to quickly descend to hounding and I’ve seen alternative voices on Brexit result in long term users driven off the site. The same is starting to happen here.

The government guidelines are fairly clear: don’t drive somewhere to exercise and do it locally and on your own.

This isn’t about purity spirals which concern values, but simply following some rules to safeguard the wider population. Nobody here is boasting about isolating themselves in their home.

Hell, there are people posting who don’t know the difference between spreading and transmission, and who are claiming that epidemiology is just ‘common sense’ and that they alone just ‘know’ what they should and shouldn’t be able to do.

From the knitting article:

A purity spiral occurs when a community becomes fixated on implementing a single value that has no upper limit, and no single agreed interpretation. The result is a moral feeding frenzy.

If the government had imposed an upper limit (edit: as has happened in ROI), these arguments would not be happening.

I rode from home today – 24 miles, few people out (almost all ones and twos), few cars on the roads that all behaved impeccably. Actually quite pleasant in spite of the cold northerly wind.

A police force has had a surge in calls from people reporting their neighbours for “going out for a second run”.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-52052830

Cabinet Minister Michael Gove said on Tuesday that “people can go for the standard length of run or walk THAT THEY ORDINARILY WOULD HAVE DONE. But… the important thing is, once a day”.

My caps. No wonder there is much confusion.

What about 200km but never further than 3km from home?

So I went for a slightly abridged version of my normal saturday morning ride, cutting out the bit of built trails with a few jumps. No car, no gnar and not far. About 21 miles in total.

More positives than negatives.

Positives.

Hardly anyone seemed to be out in groups that didn’t look household based.

The very few people I encountered close enough to have to worry about social distancing were cheery and we gave each other a hugely wide berth.

Car and van drivers were behaving impeccably.

It was cold, but a nice morning.

I saw a Great Crested Grebe in full breeding plumage.

Negatives.

Although I only saw about 20 people (and only passed four or five close enough to have to make an effort to distance) at least half of them looked over 70. They were mostly taking their dog for a shit walk, but the thought did occur to me that they should be asking themselves who will take the dog for a shit walk if they are dead.

One or two parked cars on verges near closed country park car parks. Presumably people who need to drive to take the dog for a shit walk.

From jam bo’s linked article:

“My wife doesn’t think her job is essential but I do and she’s working from home. Is there anything I can do?”

Haha, some bloke has obviously had enough of his wife already…

Also, I can only imagine the calls the police are getting from the curtain twitchers. “Look derek, that bloke from number 19 is getting into his car for the THIRD time today, quick call 999!!!”

I must be setting off the nosey ones on our street, as not only have I been driving to work all week (until Thursday, back in tomorrow – Key worker for a bank, and 500 laptops aren’t going to build themselves…), I went out to do a weekly food shop yesterday, and drove my mum to and from A&E on a GP’s orders (ankle issue which could have been a bad infection but the week of antibiotics hadn’t done anything) and have been out for a cycle ride yesterday, run today.

What about 200km but never further than 3km from home?

Erm…

Not sure whether to be impressed or outraged.

Blimey, this place is fun !
(came here because of a few references on other threads)

In strict terms of virus transmission, driving in a “sealed” car to an empty rural venue to take exercise makes a lot of sense in comparison to doing it out of your urban door, passing relatively close to multiple people doing the same (plus some dicks who probably get too close, may have still been doing so in groups all along and are more likely to be carriers than the national mean).

It’s to our national shame that the rule is clearly there to stop people taking the piss and so I do think everyone should follow. (it’s unfair on city dwellers who don’t own a car etc etc and potentially entitling to dickheads who’d fancy a 50-mile drive for a chage of scenery and fish&chips at the seaside/walk up PenYFan/.., where they’ll sit right next to some more dickheads who thought the same – did you see the “spring break phone tracker”?).

BUT, the advice is (granted, my bold and I suppose it could’ve been updated as this was yesterday)

stay local and use open spaces near to your home where possible – do not travel unnecessarily

IMO “open spaces” is the most important of those, well above “stay local”. Yesterday I watched 2 similarly paced runners, one 3-4m behind the other when I was coming home from work. What the rear one was potentially inhaling makes for slightly scary thinking. They were both well within the letter of the advice and so anyone on here shouting that it’s totally clear needs to shut up and not crticise them at all. Me, I think the rear one was foolish.

If you can travel safely to a (minimally distant) open space in preference to using a more crowded local environment, I say do it – in fact I’d argue that it’s necessary. Colleague of mine takes her kid out to the local city park. It’s rammed during any of the times you can sensibly take a little kid. I’d be in the car and out to somewhere emptier every time.

Following the advice in the way some on here are insisting is NOT best protection in my view.

Want to do more than your bit for reduced transmission? Turbo in the garage and keep your virus properly to yourself; don’t get all precious just because your 59.9 minute bike ride only polluted your local area with virus. Similarly, riding to work HAS to be higher risk for environmental loading than driving, so why would any idiot do that ?

Trials riding is what we should all be doing. You can do it anywhere. Straight out of your front door. Or inside your garage/shed/barn/front-room, so ultra-local. It’s not about distance/endurance whatsoever. It gives you a full body workout. It challenges your balance skills. It’s about problem solving. Experts at the Centre for Perioperative Care (CPOC) say: “Take exercise unless you are unwell with the virus: ideally a brisk walk, cycle or jog. Strengthening and balance exercises are also recommended” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52076856

Unfortunately although our household generally eats healthily, there’s some problems with portion control and pudding. But on the plus side I’m even less fussed about alcohol since this started.

I think the words of Harry Day apply here:

“Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men”

without wanting to sound like I think  knitting is unethical or that I’m terrified and full of hate, but what happens if a fool sees a wise man being guided by rules and being a fool, thinks to himself I’ll do something similar and ends up doing the wrong thing? Or something

Similarly, riding to work HAS to be higher risk for environmental loading than driving, so why would any idiot do that ?

Becsuse the risk is probably so far off the bottom of the scale you couldn’t calculate it.

The measures are going to reduce the risk to an acceptable level (one that results in infection rates the nhs can cope with).

You may as well ask why people weren’t sealing their houses today because it was a bit windy and that could blow droplets containing the virus miles into the open windows of people at home on their turbo trainers, idiots.

Like worrying about catching the clap off a toilet seat, its probably possible, but far more likely as a result of getting a lot closer than 2m to the wrong person.

And you do know cars aren’t sealed, all your breath goes somewhere.

In strict terms of virus transmission, driving in a “sealed” car to an empty rural venue to take exercise makes a lot of sense in comparison to doing it out of your urban door, passing relatively close to multiple people doing the same

Dont come here talking sense.
The problem is most people completely lack the ability to think of quieter places to go, they congregate at honeyspots. I took my son out for a ride on monday, we rode up to Greenham Common, it was very busy what amazed me was the walkers all walking round the main perimeter track, some walkers with half a brain worked out they could walk 10m off the track and keep away from others. They boy and I dived off down some of the trails round the edges and then buggered of elsewhere asap. Havent been back but I heard the carparks are closed.

Trials riding is what we should all be doing.

I was thinking that as I have a good sized garden, can make obstacles etc,. and a good excuse to bu a trials bike the I always wanted. But on second thoughts it is not something I have any skills at and am VERY likely to be falling off and breaking or injuring something. Clearly not a good or wise time to be doing that…

Becsuse the risk is probably so far off the bottom of the scale you couldn’t calculate it

I’m not proposing it; it’s a response to the zealotry exhibited elsewhere on here – and anyway, it’s incalculably HIGHER, I bet. The point is that vilifying people for doing one thing that adds incalculably to the transmission, while continuing other similarly (not)risky behaviours is a nonsense – especially when the (IMO) correct interpretation of the govt advice actually supports this person anyway

To the OP, the answer is no unless you are riding to work.

Just back from an hour ride. Saw less than 10 cars driving about but did see another 10 parked up in a dog walking area so 10 people had decided that essential travel means driving to somewhere to go for a walk. Only saw 2 other cyclists though but it was horrible out, 40mph motherly wind was not nice for cycling.

A motherly wind? Is that one that keeps telling you up put another layer on or you’ll catch a cold?

I’m not so sure the problem of cars is the driving but rather the parking when you arrive.  Here the car parks were all rammed at the end of week 1 and people were squeezing between cars to get to their own.  It was spread central 😞

@scotroutes when I was a youngster, my friends were seriously impressed by my mother’s farting prowess.

Haven’t the NHS stated that they want people to get exercise as it strengthens the immune system and helps to fight the virus? A quick “stretch your legs” from the front door is not going to help significantly with this – more for mental health. This is going to go on to, most likely, June and stopping your exercise for this length of time is going to be counter-productive.

Also found this article which I found interesting – debunks the still common belief that endurance training suppresses the immune system (and I’m NOT saying we should all be training at max – this is not a good idea at the moment for many other reasons including injury/ heart attacks etc). Just interesting.

Also found this article which I found interesting – debunks the still common belief that endurance training suppresses the immune system (and I’m NOT saying we should all be training at max – this is not a good idea at the moment for many other reasons including injury/ heart attacks etc). Just interesting.

This is the recent UCI mail-out that talks about intensity, nutrition during training and a few other bits and pieces that might be useful/interesting for anyone training hard – I’m guessing mostly on here people are ‘just riding’:

https://mailchi.mp/uci/uci-newsletter-special-edition-coronavirus-2-march-2020-ja61fseeyi

There’s also a study somewhere, which I’ve seen referenced a few times, that purportedly shows that regular cyclists in their 50s have an immune system comparable to that of someone approximately 20 years younger – I’m paraphrasing, but that’s the gist of it.

and I could be wrong here (and please do correct me if you are talking from a position of expertise) but are we (the 50’s crowd) not in danger of losing/ reducing our, supposedly, “better than average” immune systems if we stop exercising regularly for the next 3 months? Is not maintaining our level of fitness actually to the benefit of the the NHS if there is a higher probability of staying out of hospital?

Why do you need to stop exercising. Run, walk or ride from your door. Do press ups, setups etc,. inside the house and so on.