Cycling brings huge benefits but can we reduce the hostility?

 Clouds over the Cairngorms @Kincraig 

The A9 in the foreground –
a great backdrop for a ride!

After riding around London and the South East it is a pleasure to be cycling up here on the roads around Newtonmore, Kingussie and Aviemore. With rare exceptions drivers give you plenty of room when overtaking, although I'm not always sure that they can see sufficiently far ahead especially when overtaking. 

When riding in London you are always aware these days that you could be killed or seriously injured through dangerous, impatient driving. You can never relax. Clearly one of the differences up here in the Highlands of Scotland is there is much less traffic, especially if you avoid venturing onto the busy A9. 

This means that both motorists and cyclists are less stressed and more relaxed, which is doubtless the problem in London where there are high levels of stress and impatience. Sadly there are often high levels of hostility between motorists and cyclists partly from a level a mutual incomprehension, which is odd as many motorists either cycle now or have done in the past – even if this was when they were kids. Equally many cyclists also drive. 

it is very important that we try to resolve and break down this hostility and look to towards what Holland has achieved where cycling is the norm and there is a proper and accepted cycling infrastructure. 

Why is it important? 

Because encouraging more cycling can help to reduce pollution in large cities like London and equally important can dramatically improve the people's health both improving their quality of life and substantially reducing demand on the National Health Service as shown by this report published in April 2017:  

'Research has consistently shown that people who are less physically active are both more likely to develop health problems like heart disease and type 2 diabetes, and to die younger. Yet there is increasing evidence that physical activity levels are on the decline.

The problem is that when there are many demands on our time, many people find prioritising exercise difficult. One answer is to multi-task by cycling or walking to work. We’ve just completed the largest ever study into how this affects your health. 

Published in the British Medical Journal today, the results for cycling in particular have important implications. They suggest that councils and governments need to make it a top priority to encourage as many commuters to get on their bikes as possible.'

Staggering results from the study:
'We found that cycling to work was associated with a 41% lower risk of dying overall compared to commuting by car or public transport. Cycle commuters had a 52% lower risk of dying from heart disease and a 40% lower risk of dying from cancer. They also had 46% lower risk of developing heart disease and a 45% lower risk of developing cancer at all. 

Walking to work was not associated with a lower risk of dying from all causes. Walkers did, however, have a 27% lower risk of heart disease and a 36% lower risk of dying from it.'

   

Clearly not everyone can commute to work by bike but we can put encourage many more to do so by taking out the fear factor as they have done so in Holland. If we can persuade people to be more active we can reduce obesity before it becomes a big problem. Once you are very over-weight it must be very hard to reduce your weight significantly to do so requires incredible and laudable dedication. 

Walking to work has some of the benefits of cycling but they are less marked. This may be that for most people cycling is more strenuous exercise than walking. Also people may well consider longer distances and for longer than they would walk. 

More recently Christian Wolmar posted this plea for Labour to promote cycling:

'One of areas where the Labour manifesto needs improvement is transport. It is rarely a frontline area at election time, and although the nationalisation of the railways proved a popular pledge, there was little on how Labour could make a decisive shift towards a more environmentally friendly policy that would also improve people’s journey experience.

Cycling received barely a mention, and among Labour activists it is often thought that cycling is a minority concern, and a policy encouraging its use would not attract any new voters, and, furthermore, would alienate some existing supporters. That is a mistaken view.'

Ideally the desire to promote the substantial benefits of cycling should have all party support and not be contentious. Being more active would bring such advantages:

One in four British adults is obese, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, prompting fears that the UK has become the "fat man of Europe".
 
The UK has the highest level of obesity in Western Europe, ahead of countries such as France, Germany, Spain and Sweden, the 2013 report says.

Obesity levels in the UK have more than trebled in the last 30 years and, on current estimates, more than half the population could be obese by 2050.

Europe's obesity league:

• UK: 24.9%
• Ireland: 24.5%
• Spain: 24.1%
• Portugal: 21.6%
• Germany: 21.3%
• Belgium: 19.1%
• Austria: 18.3%
• Italy: 17.2%
• Sweden: 16.6%
• France: 15.6%

Fit for life!

 The restored Forest Hill Pools and fitness centre

 

I have been intending to write this post for some time. Reading Olly Smith's inspirational post on losing four stone and running marathons (http://www.ollysmith.com/losing-it-11210/) provided the necessary impetus.

I can't claim to have lost four stone but I can celebrate losing around 10 kilos and regaining a level of fitness that makes me feel so much better than I did a little over two years ago in September 2012.

There was a time in my early 30s when I was very fit, training regularly for cycling time trials and racing all distances from 10 miles to 24 hours - 412 miles if you ask -  though this was well off the winning distance. I was able to climb reasonably well and chalked off a number of the famous Tour de France ascents including the Tourmalet, L'Alpe d'Huez and the Ventoux.

When in 1988 I changed from teaching English to writing about wine I ceased to ride my bike to work as I was now working from home and it was hardly convenient turning up at tastings lycra clad and trying to find somewhere to secure the bike. Not to speak of the fatigue after tasting and spitting up to a 100 wines at some sessions. Although it has to be said that some writers do cycle to tastings.

Apart from walking around London – mainly walking down to the station and then walking around Central London, I did little exercise with the exception of a few walking holidays. I kept a level of natural fitness but imperceptibly and inevitably I put on weight. A 32-inch waist became 34” and then 36”. Clothes I could once wear went to the charity shop.

At least ten years I ignored a first warning sign when my doctor put me onto a daily blood pressure tablet (Bendroflumethizide). It didn’t help that he was a curt and unsympathetic character. I took the daily tablet and didn’t change my life style.

Starting a blog in August 2008 was a further blow as I then spent further hours in front the laptop. I was becoming paunchy – overweight but not excessively so. An insidious process…! 

In June 2012 I was invited by InterLoire to join a bloggers’ cycling trip to Vouvray and Saumur. I put in a few short training rides in Touraine and found short hills I once wouldn’t have noticed had become a struggle. The cycling legs were still there on the flat but it was a very different matter when the road went uphill.

I enjoyed the two-day bloggers’ trip – the hills remained problematic, especially some steep ascents around Rochecorbon where I had to get off a walk up the last section of at least two hills. I enjoyed being back on the bike and felt good. We rode mountain bikes, which Carole and I had long intended to buy but never got round to it.

Plaque to commemorate the opening of the original baths in 1886

I should have kicked on from there but didn’t. In part this was due to the delayed opening of the renovated Forest Hill Baths. These baths and pool, originally opened in 1886, were closed in 1996 and Lewisham Council planned to demolish them. Fortunately there was a local campaign to save them. Eventually the Mayor and Lewisham Council managed to find the necessary funds – thank goodness for elections! The old Victorian frontage of the baths was retained and two new pools built, one 25-metre and a learners’ pool. In addition a fitness gym and a couple of studios were incorporated on the first floor of the building.

The new pools and gym facility were due to open in June/July but this was delayed until mid-September 2012.

In early September 2012 my annual check up diagnosed me with borderline type 2 diabetes. I weighed over 85 kilos and my blood pressure was often at 135-140 or over. Fortunately I had changed my doctor and got the necessary advice and encouragement. It was time to do something and this coincided with the opening of the Forest Hill Pools and gym. I had never been interested in going to a gym but, having discovered that it is free to Lewisham residents over 60 years old, I started going early every morning. I would do about 30-40 minutes on the cross trainer, the bike and some of the weight machines plus the occasional row. 

Gradually the weight started to come off – 84 kilos – 83 kilos. A dose of Stalin’s revenge at the end of the European Wine Bloggers’ trip to Georgia took me down to 81. Mid-January 2013 I was down to 79 and briefly to 76 by mid-March. At which point I had to go to the shoe mender to get him to put an extra notch in my belt! At the same time my blood pressure dropped to regularly well below 120. 

In January 2013 we bought mountain bikes, which we ride when we are in Scotland or the Loire. I really enjoy the versatility of a mountain bike. They are also an excellent way to look around the vineyards as the Loire has lots of passable tracks through the vines.   

By the time of my annual check up in September 2013 my weight oscillated between 75 and 77 kilos. The results showed that all the figures – blood sugar, cholesterol, etc – had all moved markedly in the right direction. I came off the Bendroflumethizide and the daily dose of statins has been reduced by half.

Now in mid-November 2014, I can look back on cycling 1078 kilometres down the Loire in eight days in mid-September, while climbing 6300 metres in the process.  Most importantly I feel so much better, more alert and I now have to buy some new trousers with a 34-inch waist.

After 1078 kilometres – finish@La Baule

I haven’t changed what I eat as we have always cooked with fresh ingredients and had never bought prepared meals apart from occasional things like ready-made tortellini. The improvement was down to regular exercise with a consequent increased metabolic rate. I have always been doubtful about diets, especially extreme ones that can lead to rapid weight. It is rare that such rapid weight loss can be sustained without increased exercise. I was lucky that, although I was overweight it wasn’t excessive and I still had some residual natural fitness. Had I been grossly overweight I doubt if exercise would have been sufficient.

I’ll be down the gym tomorrow morning ...