As said above, mountain biking won’t get you fit for running but running helps with fitness on the bike. The cadence changes from running to biking, triathletes train to spin/run at similar cadence or the muscle memory screws you up. I find different muscles hurt running than cycling. I prefer running for fitness but biking for fun, it means I don’t care if my ride doesn’t leave me ragged.

Definitiely, running drops weight easier and that makes climbing on the bike easier.

I have had great service from Specialized, prompt warranty work fixing the fork (both times!) and they have been very professional and stand by their product better than many companies I have dealt with. Partly for this, I am loyal to them as a company so it’s frustrating to get an LBS in the mix who then let the relationship sour when they should enhance it.

I didn’t complain to the shop at the time as I have used them sporadically only and didn’t like the response when I was buying the bike back in Dec 07, got the bike finally in Jan 08. I tried them again as I was trying to build a local shop relationship I could trust given the bike needed a service, the warranty issue on Specialized own-brand and the fact I was thinking I could save my own time and have them fetle the whole bike.

When I got the bike back after the service it ran fine and I had no reason to believe the forks/shock were not properly serviced. The shop might well have done the job OK anyway (they are an FSR/S-Works centre)

I really hate that they lied to me about my bike, made up tales of the return from Specialized with the service when I was happy to pay for the exact service I wanted.

I’m lucky that Specialized stand by the product and dealer network, I did let them know what had happened but in reality it would end up with my word against theirs. I won’t name and shame as I don’t need any hassle and I can’t see how I would benefit from doing that. They have lost my business of course but hardly enough to make a big difference.

I’ve now had the forks and shocks serviced by Specialized and no issues with warranty work. I’m just annoyed I paid for a return to Spech service and the LBS basically didn’t do that, charged me as if they had and then I subsequently get a (maybe avoidable) failure.

It’s annoying that at the time I trusted the shop and now feel I was ripped off. The bike is well-maintained by me anyway so the service was mostly about ensuring the warranty was kept solid, the fact they are a Specialized dealer means I am OK on this as I can prove the service was in and paid for but you have to wonder at the motive for their actions.

Imagine yourself as the lowly-paid bike shop employee…

There you are, Friday evening breathing down your neck. Your thoughts are focussed on a weekend ahead, maybe all your mates are riding but you have to work Saturday. Your world is turned from a casual slumber by some errant roadie looking for vintage kit. Your mate in the shop has clearly slopie-shouldered it on to you, even though you have no idea other than “10 speed”.

No wonder you hacked him off, he was probably wondering why you didn’t just buy it from wiggle like everyone else.

A good employee would have picked up you probably had some old roadie clunker and had you play with the latest 10-speed wonders while he searched and eventually found a way to sell you a new bike or upgrade to the old.

Your 5 mile loop is also something to consider. If you always run the same loop then try a shorter route and up the pace on that.

I use Nike+ to do fartlek intervals as I don’t want to have to time myself and it works well. If you run silent right now, a god way to up the pace is to run to music and use the bpm to increase your pace.

You can find podcast specifically designed to tie bpm to pace, they are free and I have used them a lot.

At the individual level, people have over the last few years expected to be able to switch their credit card debts across to a different card at no interest. They have wanted loans to consolidate debt and those with savings have eschewed the regular banks for obscure Icelandic banks for an extra 1/2% per annum on pretty paltry amounts of savings.

The financial institutions have had to respond and accomodate the fickle nature of customers who expect everything interest free.

People talk about Goddwin’s pension pot but don’t mention the companies that pension pot will have invested in. They also don’t mention how much income tax Goodwin has paid over the last decade and the fact he has been taken to the point he can never work again.

These are not anti-capitalist, most of the protestors are simply hopeful they can “enjoy” a riot.

mass strikes have been shown to work in resolving economic issues before have they? please show me some evidence and also, what exactly is the issue you are proposing to strike over ?

I meant the victims are those who own cars that deadlydarcy thinks vandalising is OK.

I think working in somewhere like McDs or *$ seems to provide work for a load of people and they don’t seem like forced labour or victims of a system to me, just people doing a job – last I saw they could move on to something else if they wanted to.

I reckon plate glass might be a little stronger than that…dunno, I’ve only ever done Porches, Bentleys, Rollers etc in previous protests, haven’t really done the Starbucks/MacDonalds thing – didn’t see the point in scaring the shoot out of staff inside who are already victims of the system.

The victims are those who own property you think it’s OK to vandalise, not someone freely working in a fast food outlet.

Posts like this really demonstrate that some posters on here remain gloriously ignorant.

use it for every run, great product – simple, works 100%, accurate and the system is a good motivator for me. “losing a run” through user error (like not starting it, is actually quite hard to do but I would be hacked to lose a few km of effort. You get quite precious about capturing every km and building up your total.

Odd to see GB not able to front up to this, no authority in reverting to false grins and doodles in the face of this sort of criticism.

Imagine how Thatcher would have handled this, without getting caught up in a pro-or-not Thatcher debate, ever her most ardent critics would recognise the strength of a conviction politician in adversity versus one focussed purely on the possibility of being elected properly for a change.

Whilst I admire the speech, it does make us look bad on the global stage when the leader of our country sits there with a stupid grin. I would actually prefer a more US like stance where we might have differences on the domestic political stage but in public on a global/Euro stage maybe we should be more united behind the occupant of No 10 – even those of us who hope he moves soon !

Is anyone else on Nikeplus.com ? I could put up a challenge for STW posters.

I always use Nike+ to record every run and use the website to enter challenges and set training goals.

I agree with comments about running an injuries. I get more injuries running than anything else. Running really shows up how fragile some bits of us are and there is nowhere to hide with running, aside from your shoes there is no real equipment you can play with to make a difference. I am lazy about stretching post riding my bike but always make a real effort to sort our post run stretches and cool down. Also, I know now to stop running if I get an injury, the last time I ran through and ended up with no running for 4 weeks and sports physio bills to pay.

Having said all that, running is great fun and I really enjoy it so the 4 weeks of training shouldn’t be too bad. Nike+ is your friend !

If you just want a mobile for phone calls and have chosen to ignore/don’t feel you need other functions then the iPhone is not targetted at you.

You fit the iPhone user profile if you want to have the functions of other devices integrated in something that has great ergonomics and feels good to use. I couldn’t go back to a regular mobile from any other vendor without downgrading in some areas, I don’t have to compromise with an iPhone.

also, pornhub has an iPhone specific mode….

I think if you can run for 45 minutes already then you are in a position where with some dedication over the next month, the half is possible. I would think you need to be 100% committed and have a diet/training regime in place from today onwards focussed on being fit enough. If you try and run the half otherwise you’re probably going to get an injury with the shock of at the very least doubling your current max run.

Gordon Brown and the Labour machinery are happy for the great unwashed to direct their anger towards Sir Fred and the large sums that are still manageable to a lay person.

The process of having the Goodwin scape goat hung out almost daily and the way ministers pander to the Labour strategy on this is pretty nasty and imho typical of desperate measures of a government in sharp decline.

Spesh Stumpjumper, plenty of light frame choices and travel/intended use is right.

Obviously the components make a big difference in final weight but as a base it right for building a bike in the range you want.

I’m older..

Infected by The The

bookshelves wood doesn’t match – schoolboy error.

Would have been OK for you to join our group but we are going Sunday, if you can change to the next day then please tag along.

I could not care less about jealous types who don’t have an iPhone and make daft “it’s just a mobile” comments.

The iPhone is without doubt the one gadget/device that has made a dramatic difference to my everyday useage of mobile/internet/MP3/gaming/etc. etc. stuff.

As an all-in-one device I use my iPhone for a load of uses from video on my commute to facebook on the go etc. way more than I ever did with a regular mobile.

It’s so way beyond what I was expecting that I have become a complete iPhone fanboy. The detractors who have a go just aren’t bright enough to get it imho.

Def get checked out, those symptons are likely to be nothing more than age/stress/etc… but there are other things like Alzheimers which I would want to know about.

to add..

if they say no then you have effectively got them to state they have all they need to hire you, if they say “yes xyz is a concern” then you can handle that objection there and then and then repeat question 1.

I would close with a slightly different approach. Ask them “is there anything from today that would stop you making a positive decision and give the job to me”

are we talking Peaslake Village Stores fridge cake, the one that suffered a brief absence when “Maureen” (one assumes the chief-fridge-cake-makerer) was away on a coach holiday?

Also, off-road lycra looks fine, on-road baggies look wrong.

All my Endura baggies have inner shorts that are lycra anyway. The baggies outers are useful off road as an extra layer and of course pockets. I can see why just lycra is good, I run a lot and always run in lycra shorts as it feels way better than regular running shorts to me.

I’m middle-aged, I have 3 hardtails and 3 full sus bikes. As you get older, full sus is easier to ride for longer durations. I like a hardtail for twisty, fairly flat rides and full sus when the ride includes descending as it means the hardtail isn’t bashing me so hard up the Arsenal I might as well be drinking from the warm tap.

A more interesting question is how much travel becomes too much for UK XC and how much is too little. I think 100mm is the modern minimum and 150mm is the XC max. My first suspension fork had about 70mm iirc (a Judy SL back in the day).

Sarah Harding…

I have no contact with my parents any more and would not allow them access to my children. imho, sometimes it is better to sever a family tie than continue with something more damaging just because it is seen as correct in society.

never had this happen with Avid pads, have had issues with OEM pads and now only use Avid genuine – probably you will always have the odd bad pad, it’s a stressed part, suffers temp changes, dirt etc and sometimes you’ll have a failure..

I have used Conti Vert Pros (UST) for a long time. Just made a change on one of my bikes to Nobby Nics and really happy with these. They seem to grip really well, light in UST variant and so far holding up well.

that’s a “river” btw, not a road…

Clive’s preferred FR run at Swinley this weekend:

fork/shock oil

I have no sympathy with any violence handed out but I do have sympathy when the 4×4 enthusiasts are seeing the hobby they really enjoy being driven out.

On this forum there are anti-car fanatics who delight in stating there opposition to any motorised vehicles. Thing is we are in a glass house, the ramblers in some areas would like to see restricted bridleway access to bikes and we cannot have it both ways.

There are plenty of cheeky trails about and unless you never ride these then you can’t really have a pop at the 4×4 boys enjoying themselves. imho horses create more problems with my local trails in terms of damage in terms of volume of traffic.

I see comments like “the few off-roaders that are left are going to be by far the bloody hardest to get rid of” and I can’t avoid thinking the author (and Sooty and RudeBoy) don’t give a toss about eradicating what is for some a great hobby.

I put Traversee wheels on my Enduro as they worked out cheaper than a custom build and have a great spec.

Tried both custom and factory and both are fine, shop around and get what you like. I have factory mavics on a couple of bikes and these are pretty good, I am going to try Fulcrums to replace a wheel that is about to expire.

Marin, pronounce merr-rinn is correct, not marin as in maa-rinn

Michelin tyres – true for cars and bikes of course.

Rohloff

Those look like Series 3 – we have the whole of Series 1, some Series 2 and now a lot of Series 3 (inc the special editions).

I do a lot of exercise with weights, cycling and a I run about 4 times a week for 6-15km each time.

However, looking at your routine, I would say you are overtraining, not allowing for recovery and probably ignoring genetics as well. Without being too much of a downer, a six pack is not something you can build if your genetics are wrong, some people exhibit a six pack shaoe on their abs and some people are a lot flatter, even at low fat levels.

I use protein for recovery and after weights (like soon after – within 10 minutes), I also have used creatine, Glutamine and I take a vitamin supplement and Omega 3,6,9. I don’t expect this to make me any healthier or live longer but it works for me so I don’t care about the science really, it’s more a mental sense I get.

I have tried protien recovery with carbs but too much sugar and null calories for my liking. For recovery I prefer a protein shake and carbs from regualr food.