Originally Posted by
JoeyBike
I did 36 miles round trip for 18 months in my late 40s on a road bike no assist. Somehow I pulled that off without overuse injury. It was too much. I'm a pretty serious rider but still, 5-8 miles is my comfort zone. But I'm not You! If you don't have anything better to do with your time and you love cycling, why not? It helps if your boss gives you flexibility to be late or not there on terrible weather days. If you MUST get there on time without fail, likely a recipe for disaster commuting that distance.
On long bike tours I average 60 miles/day and can do 100+ if necessary BUT....I don't have to be productive beyond that. Wouldn't want to sandwich those distances with an 8 hour day at work.
I'm my own boss (I work alone as a psychiatrist), but I must have a somewhat professional appearance on arrival !
At the moment, I'm gathering infos about where I could have enough inpatients as near as home as possible. There are 2 places : one at 6 miles, the other at 18. With my electric assisted cargo, 20 miles is a bit less than an hour (tried and tested at every time of the year). There's real a big difference between 20 and 26 miles : after 20 miles I'm able to work, but 26 mi. needs at least one hour to recover...
When I settled here, in my small village, I never imagined that temporary work in hospitals would be so harshly regulated : from September, it's going to be paid 30 euros per hour. If I settle, I'll earn at the very least 25 euros per consultation, it's a net income. I think it's even worse in the UK.
I know these sums are totally ridiculous compared to US doctors, it's probably the reason in France we had a very affordable and really efficient health system. But our salaries in hospitals are at nearly the same level since 30 years ... I can compare with my dad.
Many young doctors are quitting.
It's worsening at an extremely high speed : last week, near Nice/Saint-Tropez, a German tourist died in his car from a heart attack in front of a closed emergency ward.
A lot of small hospitals in touristic areas are "semi-closed", the official word is "regulated" : you have to call before arriving, the people taking calls are not necessarily fluent in foreign languages.