I tried a dropper recently and fell in love with it so much that I ordered one straight away

Maybe its because big people shouldn’t ride and its actually a conspiracy

Love my mk2 but this has me considering an upgrade mainly for the dropper post capability

Rad! ;)

Always do a loop or two of Berm Baby Berm when doing the red. It rocks up there.

Awesome to hear how much she enjoyed it, cant wait to get my kids riding too. What did she enjoy most?

Spam!

Cranham is ace at the moment. Got a nice little loop coming together and another one came to mind which takes in two runs of the Wall so will be trying that soon.

Haven’t read all of this so this may have been covered…

A few years ago I was finding I was exercising regularly but my fitness was getting worse and worse, plus I would get a cold after every ride. I went to the Docs and was brushed off with a “there’s a bit of it going around”

Looking back now I was seriously over doing it – I would rarely rest up and would always be on the go – riding or something for a few hours at least every day. My idea of exercising was full on all the time rather than training in my HR zones. I look back now at my HR logs and see that I was constantly up at my MaxHR everytime I went out with no real aerobic training / time. In fact my idea of resting was to go trail building which would be 4-5 hours digging or clearing.

Then I’d get home and with two young kids and a stressful job it wasn’t like I’d put my feet up – but I’d say MTFU to myself!

Everything finally came crashing down when I caught a virus and rode for two days over a weekend – I spent the next 18months with PVF/CFS/ME whatever you want to call it and gave me the biggest learning experience of my life.

Looking back, I wish I’d spent more time training to build that base aerobic fitness, spent more time recovering and listened to my body rather than pushing on through it.

Had a couple of reasonable sized rides (For me) including the red at GT.

Don’t know if it is or not but the Torq recovery stuff seems to work a treat – not has that groggy feeling even half as bad, admittedly it is still there but mild compared to what it was.

Happy days :)

LOL!

is your cornering technique more “natural”

Tony’s technique is so natural that it will slide into your subconcious without you even noticing! ;)

Does the rain make it slippy though?

My hair will get wet too!

Really interesting stuff. I’m starting to think it is down to the electrolyte aspect which is affecting me. Its only in the past month I’ve been able to ride at a good pace for an hour.

Riding that far on saturday (with someone on a CX bike who is an industry bod and quite fit) perhaps wasn’t the best idea but it has given me a good view on my next obstacles to overcome on my recovery.

Think I might be getting a container load of Torq recovery powder for after my BMX rides with Jedi ;)

Interesting stuff – when I was in bed I was asleep but felt like I was only getting quite light sleep – tossing and turning all night. Leg spasms are common for me after a hard ride.

Been looking at electrolytes and salts as I think this might help. Thanks for the ideas – I was actually looking at the Torq one this morning down at my local bike shop Fetish.

Jedi – FACT!

Not sure how much I drank, probably about the same if not slightly more.

She’s in sales – what sort of union could she join to get their support?

She’s just phoned me on the way back so I don’t know the full details of if she has just got one or if there are going to be some meetings.

The company is having loads of issues and seem awful to work for from what I can see (its a Pharma company)

I’ll see if there is a union she can join to get some support.

The strange thing is she works from home and works hard, if she wanted to skive she’d just skive rather than call in sick.

I think she may be being slowly shoved out by making her life very difficult. They seem to be on her back about everything at the moment, but a lot seems unjustified.

Shocking that it is written into some contracts…

Where I used to work we were allowed 25 days a year sick – my colleague used to use them all as extra holiday.

Thanks for the input – looks like I’ll be OK mixing it up as long as I keep the majority aerobic.

I’ve been ill for 18 months and just recovering, during this time I’m lost both my fitness and part of my condition has led me to also lose my confidence in my physical abilities (not skills but ability to recover).

So I’m not really training for anything specific other than to prove I can ride and recover and also to enable me to know I can ride for 3-4 hours again without having any nasty side effects.

Part of the onset of my condition was due to overtraining and not listening to my body so I’m really keen to do it properly this time so I don’t relapse.

Cheap? I wouldn’t argue that with these guys…

I go to a few black tie events and there is a right mix – some where bowties which are all colours under the sun and others where straight ties but always black (as above). I don’t think it matters. Its more about the dressing up in a DJ that counts. Although I know people who have worn a normal suit with a black bowtie

We could get all Banksy on it :)

Nice ride this morning checking out the allowed trails with Rog. Good to be back on the Wall and Teachers. :)

I would say the biggest advancement has been the refinement improvment and general range and availability of all mountain bike components. Yeah, we had this andthat a few years ago, but now so many companies are competing in the same space there are some great products out there that may not have happened had there only been one company producing them.

So I’d not say one thing but the overall mountain bike market is awesome now. So much selection of so many great products lead by people riding and different styles of riding.

Mboy – just to play you at your own game – I’m sure we had tyres 10 years ago ;)

Teachers is OK to ride.

Is Popes wood out then?

So how is everyone doing?

Personally I’ve been blown away by how quickly I’m recovering (although 8 weeks isnt really fast but is when you think 9 months ago I thought I’d never ride again)

OMG – I can’t believe a Merc estate is cheaper to lease than a Skoda Octavia Estate!!! WTF!!

Liking the idea of second hand…

My soul skips occasionally but I just replace worn drivetrain and its fine. ;)

Any slack on the drivetrain would be taken up by the mech anyway to ensure the drivetrain retains the desired tension

Rog – not sure if they have been already or not, but is it worth getting some of the FOLK guys (Thinking Julius perhaps) to speak to NE et al, to explain the impact we have on a place like Lecky and how the agreement works which we have there?

The feel isimportant as I like to know how my foot is positioned. Will have to seeif I can try a few.

Nah, building up my fitness first as I’ve lost it all. Hoping to be on the small wheels in the very near future, but I’m not rushing things as I want to make sure I do it right.

Hi

Everything is good here. Been out nearly everyday for a ride, mainly 30 or so minutes of road riding (avHR 140bpm) but have had a couple of MTB rides up to an hour or so which have been exzcellent.

Bit hungover today after getting leathered at the conference I went to last night otherwise all is good.

Smiling is good soul food.

Cheers, I’ll give those ideas a try and see what happens.

:)

IHN – I think you’ll be alright without one ;)

By the way, Fetish Bike Company in Leckhampton has a sale on Urge but also have a range of helmets in stock other than those LL have.

Remember there’s the meeting tonight!!!

I look forward to hearing how generous they have been ;)

Interesting… Not really interested in having maps so more for distance / speed etc.

Also, after something I can just put on my wrist and forget about.

Looks like the Forerunner could be a front runner

cp – I was just trying to find that link after spending some time on it yesterday. thanks