Do you get annoyed...

[lazyfatgit]

What annoys me is that most of them don't actually have a clue about distances. They have a vague notion of places they visit intermittently enough to make the trip a bit unusual, probably know how far away their workplace is and the rest is beyond them.

I bet if i asked any of my neighbours the distance of the round trip to the local shop and back they wouldn't have a clue. they all drive there - but it's so close they don't need to know if their fuel load will get them there and back.

I think anyone doing an activity involving like cycling/walking/running is much more aware of speed/distance/time than the general populance.

Car travelling friends are much more likely to give an answer as to time it takes them to get somewhere, on average.

 

[zacklaws]

http://i30.tinypic.com/2rc3es7.jpg[/IMG]

The idea of the circle on the floor is that if yourself or your whole family can stand within the boundary of the circle your not classed as obese

 

[Arch]

(hope it doesn't sound like I'm bragging, cos that's NOT the intention).

At the beginning of November 2005, me and a mate started cycling from Sweden to Gibraltar.

At a youth hostel in Denmark, a woman working there started a conversation with us, which went a bit like this:

Her: Where are you heading?

Us: Gibraltar.

Her: When do you expect to get there?

Us: Just before Christmas

Her: WHAT? THIS Christmas!?!?

It was very funny to see her incredulous expression, and the fact that she thought we'd get there the following Christmas!

Brilliant. When I told the lad in the cafe in Market Wieghton I was heading to Beverley, his amazed response was "Today?"

It was 2.30pm, and Beverley was about 12 miles away.

 

[dellzeqq]

...with people cooing about how far you ride?
....

to a degree, because I think to myself 'you could be doing this too'.

 

[HelenD123]

to a degree, because I think to myself 'you could be doing this too'.

Too true. I was hardly the most athletic of people and was quite a nervous cyclist but set my mind on cycling to work and did it. I can now do over 100 miles in a day. There must be many more people out there that could do the same.

 

[Globalti]

On the odd occasions when I cycle the 21 miles from home (Blackburn) to work (Bury) the factory guys in the changing room are astonished. I think it's more to do with the fact that Blackburn is a place well outside their normal territory, somewhere over the hills oop north.

I was amazed at the numbers of crap bikes and overweight riders on the Manchester-Blackpool ride recently, I can only say that those who managed the full 60 miles - the last ten in a strong headwind - must have made far more physical and mental effort than I did on my lightweight racer. I wonder how many packed or broke down? Some were walking up even the slightest hills within 20 miles of the start.

 

[ColinJ]

Yup, it irritates me too. Especially when you know that the person expressing awe at your athletic prowess is going to drive a couple of miles to a gym.

And then they take the escalator up from the car park...

 

[Dan B]

I think anyone doing an activity involving like cycling/walking/running is much more aware of speed/distance/time than the general populace.

I think you're right about this, though I find it hard to get annoyed. A teenage girl, exemplar of probably the most exercise-averse population segment anywhere on the planet, might spend two hours shopping on a Saturday afternoon: even at a gentle pace and assuming half that time is spent standing still looking at clothes racks or mirrors, that's a three mile walk.

 

[magnatom]

I suppose I have recently had a moment of clarity. It occurred when I first started training for my 100 mile ride. I plotted a route from my house over the Campsie hills, which until then I had always thought of as being a 'fair distance' away (I had never ventured there...bad me!).

So I do the cycle (40 miles circular route) leaving about 8:30am and get back for lunch. My wife was surprised, as was I at how soon I had returned. At that moment I realised just how close some amazing countryside was to me and just how easy it was to cycle there and back. Soooooo much more fun that going to the gym!!

Since then I have been discovering new places north of Glasgow that I just hadn't realised existed. In fact it has encouraged us to think about moving house!

 

[User482]

I had a good one last Saturday. I'd stopped at a pub for a drink, about 75 miles into my ride, and got chatting to the landlord.

"So you really rode all the way from Bristol?"
"yep"
"really?"
"yep"
"stay there a minute. I've got a mate who's a car dealer - let me phone him for you"

 

[Kirstie]

On the odd occasions when I cycle the 21 miles from home (Blackburn) to work (Bury) the factory guys in the changing room are astonished. I think it's more to do with the fact that Blackburn is a place well outside their normal territory, somewhere over the hills oop north.

Too true! That reminds me of when I used to work at Airtours in Helmshore. A lot of the people were from Accrington and Haslingden. They used to ask 'Have you ever been to Bolton'? I'd say 'Yes' and they'd say - in wonderment - 'What's it like then?'. Just a territory thing, as you say, but still odd when you encounter it.

 

[ColinJ]

Too true! That reminds me of when I used to work at Airtours in Helmshore. A lot of the people were from Accrington and Haslingden. They used to ask 'Have you ever been to Bolton'? I'd say 'Yes' and they'd say - in wonderment - 'What's it like then?'. Just a territory thing, as you say, but still odd when you encounter it.

Years back, I went to watch the Leeds Classic finish in Leeds city centre. While I was waiting for the riders to arrive, I got chatting to an old man, probably around 80 years of age. He said that I didn't sound local and asked where I'd come from...

"Hebden Bridge."

"Never 'eard of it!"

That was a bit of a shock. It is only 20 miles from Leeds and it is less than an hour away by train. In those days, a return rail ticket was about £2.50.

"It's down the road from Halifax."

"Well I've 'eard of 'alifax, but I've never been there."

That's 15 miles from Leeds and 40 minutes by train.

"If you go to Bradford, and carry on a few miles you get to Halifax, a few miles more and you get to Hebden Bridge."

"I went to Bradford in 1953 but I didn't like it!"

Blimey, talk about parochial - it sounded like he'd hardly ever ventured out of the city!

Another time, I was out on my mountain bike and got chatting to an old farmer in Luddenden Dean (a scenic valley in the hills, equidistant from Halifax and Hebden Bridge - about 4 miles each way). He had never ventured that 4 miles to Hebden Bridge and only occasionally went to Halifax.

I've only lived in this area for 23 years but in that time I've covered vast swathes of Cheshire, Lancashire, West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and Derbyshire on my bikes.

 

[User482]

Perhaps Colin's post illustrates why Prof. Steve Jones believes that the bicycle is responsible for widening the gene pool...

 

[purplepolly]

the bicycle is responsible for widening the gene pool...

Does that mean people who don't cycle will have inbred children?

 

[Maizie]

It only annoys me when people follow it with 'Gosh you're brave' or something similar. Sigh, why must the myth remain that cyclists are danger junkies when some of us just want to get to work on time and possibly lose a bit of flab while we're at it.

Sorry to arrive late on this one...I don't mind being coo-ed over for distance, in the right context. My mother cooing when I drop in to her house on the way home, and she gives me an ice cream and some juice while I help her place an order with Amazon, that's one thing. My mother cooing over me riding Ten Whole Miles each way to work when we are in the LBS, that's different (and mortifying, although the LBS lady did share a smile that suggested this wasn't the first Proud Mother she'd met!)
People at work, if they want to see it as a great achievement, I don't mind. I know that in cycling terms it isn't that great, but I also know that for me it was a great huge enormous thing at the start to even imagine I could do it, so being reminded that it's an achievement is still nice.

But the 'brave' thing...that does annoy me. But I thought of a way round it (which I have used once at work). Now, we cyclists, we know there was that BMJ article which says that health benefits of cycling outweigh the risks 20 to 1.
Thinking about the equivalent numbers for cars...perhaps the direct risks for cars are smaller (i.e. less chance of injury in an accident), but I can't think of many (any?) health benefits to driving. Therefore, a car drivers benefits are a lot less than 20 times the risk.

So, the last person who told me I was brave, I said to them 'Do you drive to work?' 'Yes' 'Well, then statistically you are far braver for getting in your car that I am for getting on my bike'.
I don't know if they got what I meant, but it did at least shut them up