I always notice other peoples bikes before the people riding them too

Since acquiring my Orange Alpine I know what it is like to be a well endowed woman wearing a low cut top. Why don't men ever see "me"? 😆

Btw, I'm in the fair play, "hello", or probably not even noticing camp.

I can't keep up with you all, too many words. 🙂
I'll go check out the other blog, Tiger, nice work. Seriously. Slow and steady is where I'm at too – I'm losing inches and putting on weight but I prodded my forearm the other day and found a weird lump – it's muscle! 🙂
At the moment the only person I ride with is my OH, cos I hate people waiting at the tops of hills for me, but that'll change, I'm already fitter than I was.
It doesn't take balls to ask an opinion and listen to it. Mountain bikers en masse can be quite…intimidating is not the right word, but walking past the Hub a few weeks ago is perhaps one of the hardest things I've ever done, far harder than getting up the hill. You assume people are judging you – all I've seen in this thread is a lack of judgements, instead there are a few harsh but fair comments, and mostly kindness and thoughtfulness. If the same ratio exists on the trails, I know I can stop worrying about everyone else and work on getting my ass up the hill faster and more efficiently.
Honestly, this question has been bugging the hell out of me for months. I'm damn glad I asked.

It doesn't take balls to ask an opinion and listen to it. Mountain bikers en masse can be quite…intimidating is not the right word

Stupid? 😉

Honest answer? I struggle with a mere circa 20kg of excess weight. I look at them and emphasise and think good on you- you have MORE will power than I do.

The ones that sneer, give odd looks etc were brought up with bad parents.

The ones that sneer, give odd looks etc were brought up with bad parents.

🙄

My parents taught/corrected me as child on how I should behave towards others.

A child says something, you don't correct the comment. What happens?

Given my height and weight I fall in the obese catagory, I love it when people point and laugh just before I procede to rip their legs off on the climbs and then I wait for them so I can terrorise them on the descent. 😀

Lou, I think have told you before if some one gives you crap/make you feel bad, you need to use The Famous Windmill 🙂 got you keys use em…

seriously, I would never give anyone crap for anything on the trail (except people being ignorant ie when you say hi they just ignore you etc…)

Lou you need to get out with me and suzie i think we are going to do gisburn soon if you fancy it 🙂

Given that I'm carrying a little 'excess'* I'd probably ask if they have a spare iced bun.
Seriously if they're proper exercising good on em. If they've bought a 'rig' so they they look cool as they eat their MacD's then lard@rse.

Some chick I used to work with who was in imminent risk of being bed bound category said she wouldn't swim cos she would look stupid.
I think that she was just worried greenpeace wouldn't let her get out…

*Understatement of the year.

Just had a flick through your Blog Lou. Very good. Your sketches made me proper belly laff.

😆 😆

🙂 I can't actually draw, but am managing to express things with three circles and two lines at the moment. Glad they made you laugh though – they all get tested on my other half first to make sure they are silly enough.
Nezbo> Deal. Gief date. The red terrifies me, but the blue will do nicely, it's gorgeous.
It's funny you know, the amount of discussions about cake which people start with me. I'm not thinking of cake when going up hill, I'm thinking of fitting into mtb baggies :O)

The ones that sneer, give odd looks etc were brought up with bad parents.

that suggests we are helpless putty in the hands of others – in fact the reverse is the case and parents have relatively little influence on the personalities of their children. Certainly we were able to recognise some of the characteristics of my daughter before she was born 🙂

Option 3 – no interest.

I might possibly feel a shade of sympathy, knowing how much more they would be enjoying themsleves if they weren't obese, but maybe that is patronising?

I'd be thinking "Go on my son" of course may have childish digs once out of ear shot about how string the bike will have to be. But anyway good for you and keep it up, there's always dicks out there who have a go at people. I've the opposite problem I'm a skinny git but I'm immune to the digs now had it for so many years.

They'd soon stop when I'd pass them on climbs waiting for them at the top, well that was when I was fit.

It's worth saying that it doesn't matter to anyone else what you think, only what you do…

What I do? Ride every other day, be it pootling, moderate or full on knackering. I tend to ride once a week for 3-4 hrs at full on knackering mode, then during the week switch between hacking it along some nice singletrack next to our local canal, or pootling along next to my other half who runs but in top gear in the top cog so my muscles are getting a workout.
It's cool – no one knows what I'm doing when I'm out riding, they see what they see, which is a fat girl going bright red getting to the top of a hill. They don't see anything else.
Parents – I'd be a bigoted racist idiot if parents shaped us with no choice of our own. I'd also be on the dole. You choose, I think, and that applies to everything.

Personally, i think " fair play"

then wonder how the bike takes it.

I think i would just smile and call them a fatty when i got back to the car.

at the end of the day if you're out doing something its got to be for the good. i think that one of the good things about mountain biking is any body can have a go. its not exclusive – you can be long short , male female , old ,young and fresh air is free, I'm a short arsed old git and i don't give a **** if anybody thinks i look stupid, soon i'll be senile and will have forgotton.

couple of things to mention.
the climbs always hurt. the only things that change are how quickly you get up them and how quickly you recover.
get used to being waited for. if things go to plan, you'll be waiting for others in the future.
anyone you ride with, who doesn't like to wait for others, can go ride on their **** own. 🙂

I see a top heavy blerk most mornings giving it beans up BirdHall Lane (no Flash it's not you). I'm jealous that's he's doing more riding than me. Fair play to him.

"Catch me if you can lardy as I pass!" 😉 Nah…"Usually Dig in Fella"…used on Sunday on the Marin…..but I'm friendly and talk to all cyclists 😆

I'd just pass them and say hello as I would anyway. Good effort on their part for getting out on the trail IMHO. If anybody would pass them and take the pxxs out of them for it they deserve a very hard slap.

If anybody would pass them and take the pxxs out of them for it they deserve a very hard slap.

violence is rarely a solution 🙁

particularly if you like getting slapped around…

Well I was abused for being slow on a climb by a reedy-looking fella. Good job he knew he could climb/keep going away from me 😆

Hora – there's a solution for that, which I may or may not have used. Catch them at the top when they're sitting chatting with their mates, wait til they wander to the descent and coming hacking past them. Repeatedly. By going past, stopping for a breather (it's legitimate, you're slow, you need a breather), letting them pass, catching them up again, whizzing past, stopping again…..
In all seriousness, I'd never do that. But oh my gosh it's so tempting sometimes.
There's a lot of comments about how the bike takes it. It's interesting. Mine seems quite happy with me, it's odd. Tyre pressure is same, fork rebound definitely not the same. Cockpit I need, def. not the same. Brakes – need to be good. Really good. And my control of them needs to be better 🙂

I am easily the biggest guy in my irregular riding group but they are completely OK with my inability to hack it up climbs, they don't let me stop for a breather on the hills though and are encouraging 100% of the time (although they have banned me fromm sausage rolls at Peaslake) I find being a group that really push on is a good way to get fitter and leaner. My saving grace is gravity which is deffo my friend on the way down, I may even have some skill.

All it took was one mechanic laughing his ass off while pointing at me to ruin my day.

I'd have gone over and had some words. Wouldn't be too hard to make him think again with a bit of confrontation, probably.

My wife is reasonably chubby, and she wants to ride but is in a bit of a pickle. She's had a few minor health problems ever since being pregnant, so her ability is way way down to the point where she can't really do much at all in the way of hills, but we live in South Wales where it's pretty hilly. She's too technically proficient not to be bored by flat rail trails, but anything interesting is too hilly. Plus getting out is hard with the little one. She could probably manage if she was really determined but she also has confidence issues…

Still, I'm making her bring her bike on holiday so we can get some riding done with the kiddie trailer…

I think "nicely done" despite being a fat free fitness bore all my adult life. So while I struggle to "get" obesity, I really do respect those who are dealing with it head on.

A lad down here was over 20 stone (at a guess) a couple of years ago – he constantly ran, walked dogs and was generally very determined. I reckon he's about 12 stone now – massive achievement.

One thing that really riles me and I'm seeing more and more of – mates who are really pushy to their other halves about doing exercise not long after they've had a baby. Constant hints, comments and some odd desire for their OH to drop to a size 10 a month after they have given birth. It's really not fair. My wife is a bit of a fitness loon too so just did stuff of her own accord (like a triathlon 8 months after having our boy – 2nd female and 6th overall) but even so, being over pushy to your girlfriend/wife is pretty out of order.

Small rant over.

Surf-mat – I agree totally. Absolutely. I also find it frustrating that people always assume medical reasons for fatness include thyroid problems. There are many other reasons too. It's peoples nature, I think, to see fat as always 'not caring enough to do something about it' and never understand that maybe looking after a new born and sleeping might have gone up the priority list.

My wife is reasonably chubby, and she wants to ride but is in a bit of a pickle.

Hi. Me too on the health problems. Which I wont go into, but they're very there atm. I don't know if it will help, but the way I see it, my body hurts a lot. Nothing to do with being fat, it's other things, endocrine, neurological, CNS…not being fat. But the pain created by exercising is mine. I created it, I chose it, I took control of it. It's mine. It gives me control back of something which wasn't, because I chose. You walk the hills until things get better. You push as hard as you are comfy with, relearn to listen to your body, and you go home at the end of the day knowing you chose a battle on your own terms, fought it and won. Sorry, I know this is a bit earnest, but pass it on if you think it would help, because I cam empathise with her completely. It's a mental thing, not a physical one I suspect, and sometimes thems the hardest, but the hardest things, they're also the most rewarding.

Nice one loulou! Stick at it.

I think part of it is that she doesn't feel able to flog herself like she used to do. She was doing pretty well until we got pregnant and then she had such bad sickness that she couldn't eat enough to exercise. We had one good ride between when that passed and when the pregnancy got too much, about 6 months – it was a great ride too and had loads of climbing in it 🙂 Then after Meggie was born she became very anaemic and didn't spot it for a long time, so that was trouble too. Then she was ill all winter, like most people it seems, and now is so unfit and has so much extra weight that it's hard.

Mol – my wife and two of her mates (both mums with young children) now run together twice a week. TBH all are all reasonably fit anyway but they really do motivate each other. I think if you can find someone in a similar boat, you are halfway there.

Loulouk – inspiring second paragraph!

I'd worry that they could smell the cake in my camelback and would then chase me steal it from me 😉
Seriously though. Who cares???

It's odd, I always notice other peoples bikes before the people riding them too

i don't think there's anything odd about that at all!

i don't think there's anything odd about that at all!

and I think it very strange indeed, as I rarely notice people's bikes unless luridly coloured 🙂

It is a bit odd when you don't recognise someone until they tell you that they've got a new bike and use to have a *insert bike name here*

True enough Surf Mat, but everyone we know is either much fitter or annoying 🙂

"Yay, good on you" – in all honesty. fat people that excercise become thinner, healthier people, all positive stuff. at least they're trying it out.

Mol – I think surf-mat has got a point. My OH is 10 stone nothing, but before he started running, he wasn't fit either. One of the most reassuring things is knowing the person you're exercising with is struggling sometimes too, that those rest breaks are not just for your benefit but for the other persons too. The other thing is, baby steps. If you try and do something full on straight away, you'll fail and get miserable about failing. Setting yourself realistic goals, even if it's running a mile and coming home, those are the foundations you build on.