Keep riding through lockdown with some tips from our General Manager of Commercial, Glen Janetzki.
While not entirely unexpected, the latest stage 4 lockdowns in Melbourne came as tough news for many. Overnight our daily rides were capped, restricted to riding within a five kilometre radius of our homes, for no more than an hour a day.
However, rather than focus on the negatives and pining for the roads, trials and paths we're all desperate to ride, now's the time for some creativity.
While 60 minutes might feel limiting, it's still plenty of time to get a solid dose of exercise on the bike. Riding a bike for one hour each day is more than enough for both children and adults to get the exercise we all need to maintain our health and happiness.
And you may be surprised - when you look at it on a map, a 5km radius from your home covers a lot more than you may think.
So whether you're riding with your kids, going for a solo spin or simply getting some fresh air, fun and freedom, we've got some inspiration to keep you pedalling.
Something for the kids
As a parent of two young boys, I know it can be tough keeping the kids active and entertained. Something that works for me is making a game of it or setting a challenge.
One game we play is 'Roll the dice and ride'. Roll a dice and if it lands on a four for example, we ride around our local streets looking for as many houses with the four.
Alternatively, you can pick a colour and head out on an adventure to find as many cars, signs, houses in that colour as you can. Bonus points for finding bikes.
The Ride2School page also has more great resources like the Active Challenge which encourages kids set a goal to ride a certain distance or complete bike related challenges and compare it with the fun list of milestones (4km equals four laps of the MCG).
You could also join us for Park it for the Planet on Wednesday 26 August and pledge your ride to see how much CO2 is saved by choosing the bike over a car.
Pledge your ride
Something for the adults
By now many of you will have heard of the new trend ‘burbing’ which involves riding every street in a suburb and recording it to Strava to complete the map.
Unless you live in a very small suburb this probably won't be possible within an hour, but you can do it sections, or ‘progressive burbing’.
Strava allows subscribers to continually add to your map under the heat maps setting. If you’re not a subscriber, you can pause your activity each day and keep adding each ride before downloading.
If you don’t have Strava - no worries. Map my ride or a good old hard copy map will do the trick.
This is a great way to continually change things up and keep it interesting with new sites and places of interest within your neighbourhood you maybe never knew existed.
You could also have a crack at riding your five kilometre radius. It might take up to the three goes or more but it's just another way to mix up your rides.
How many one hour rides will it take you to complete the whole suburb? Can you do every street in your five kilometre radius?
Share your ride with us on socials with #aroundtheblock. Follow us and #aroundtheblock on Strava to check out some great local routes for more inspiration.
Follow us on StravaSomething for the more ‘serious’ cyclist
One hour might not seem long, but you can fit in enough activity on your bike to gain and maintain high levels of fitness.
Ensure you spend 5-10 minutes of every ride warming up with some easy spinning and another 5-10 minutes to flush the legs out at the end. The remaining 40-50 minutes can be used efficiently if you get creative with methods such as interval training.
Find a safe road that ideally has a slight incline in one direction. If it takes two minutes to get up, pedal hard for two minutes up then safely turn around and roll back down spinning lightly. Repeat this for the time available.
Over the few weeks, push yourself a little hard each time. Complete more efforts in the 40 minutes, make the efforts harder by using a bigger gear or make the recovery time shorter.
Explore the five kilometre radius to find other suitable streets for a change of scenery or to increase/decrease the difficulty.
So many choices and opportunities for creativity
There’s so many options open to you within a hour ride. Even better, it's great that we can still get out and enjoy an activity that we all love. Not forgetting to mention the stress-relief, sense of freedom and change of scenery benefits that come with it.
Let us know what you’re doing to keep active on a bike or any tips you have make the most of your one hour using #aroundtheblock.
Don't forget to cover up, keep it local and keep your distance.
If you're after more information about what you can or can't do under the restrictions in Melbourne, please check out our website - 'Can I still ride my bike outdoors?'