The proposal in the OP sounds perfectly reasonable to me and I would take that route, if it was me. I have a meeting this morning and I suspect I’ll be in a similar position as you (in a different context) and my plan is 100% to outline to my superiors what my concerns are.

Most normal youngish fittish men should probably manage 4W/kg

Yikes. 4W/KG is pretty exceptional for anybody isn’t it?

I only road ride now and personally would happily buy rim brakes now or in the future, can’t be the only one

I’m one of those people who literally only needs a laptop and internet connection to perform my work (and sometimes some privacy) and my mum just cannot get her head round why I don’t constantly work from the garden, pub, beach, Bermuda or local cafes etc. Unfortunately the rather dull answer is that I just find it easiest to replicate standard business hours in my own house. Even working in the garden on a hot day seems like a faff to me.

Its different for everyone but I think for me mostly its a work/life separation thing. I don’t mind my job but its hardly a lifelong passion and I wouldn’t be doing this stuff if I didn’t need the money so its very much like I want to keep it separate from things I would actually do for fun or in my own time.

There is an office available about 40mins away and go in there twice a week even if sometimes I’m largely by myself in there.

Forgive my ignorance but how would the Chinese know where the balloon would even go with any degree of accuracy?

Or would they just have collected intel on Greenland instead if it floated over there?

Loves getting grief from striking staff as he crosses their picket line to go to the library to do the work they’ve set.

This sounds completely implausible. I work at a Uni (not a an academic) and they are the politest picket lines you could imagine. Whatever people’s opinion on the strikes I just cannot believe that academic staff would give students “grief” for crossing a picket line to do their work.

Its literally a bunch of book-worms and scientists drinking tea and occasionally handing out leaflets.

In our office we are now back to the point where if if you haven’t tested positive for Covid and for whatever reason you can’t work from home then its just a matter of the old rules apply- nobody is getting ostracised for simply turning up to work with the sniffles if they genuinely have no choice on that day.

I am happy with this and it seems reasonable to me even though I took covid pretty seriously. Despite everything, I don’t think we can put off important dates, appointments etc just because you think you might be getting a cold.

If you’re visiting the hospital or have some reason to think it might be covid (over and above the fact that it happens to exist) then I think I’d probably re-schedule things or take some other action in that case.

With regard to the OP, to be fair it is a small piece of history. Or at least, it would have been. It it was happening down the road from me, I’d probably go.

The article linked in the OP doesn’t make uncomfortable reading for me- it just describes a scene/culture that I don’t really recognise at all. Maybe its like that in certain parts of the US but certainly I don’t see it here in the UK in any way and I suspect it’s only very small pockets of the US that are like that?

I’ve been cycling for fifteen years and could count the pub stops on one hand (literally). I can recall one single time where I had drinks mid-ride- a big ride in Yorkshire on the hottest day of the year and we had to wait for a guy who had a mechanical and took his bike into the shop as we passed through Skipton leaving us waiting around for an hour or two there. Even then, I think we only ended up in the pub as the ride that day was an odd mixture of “proper” cyclists and some other lads from my office who very much casual guys who fancied a day out.

As others have said, western/developed societies tend to have a drinking culture that is arguably problematic and cycling is part of those societies. You could only say cycling had a drinking problem if there was a demographic of people who didn’t really drink, or have a problem, were getting into cycling and then developing a drinking problem afterwards as a result of their participation. There’s just no way there’s a significant demographic of people who fit that bill. Personally, I drink loads less now as a “cyclist” than I did before.

Otherwise, are we seriously going to list every single recreational sport, activity, game or hobby that anybody might do and claim it has a drinking problem- we already know that society has an obsession with drinking, its unhealthy and that this permeates pretty much everything we do. Cycling is pretty far down the list of things that specifically encourage it.

I know its January but the introspection and hand-wringing on this one seem a bit much, it just doesn’t seem like its an issue at all to me.

I genuinely never read anything about the royal family at all as I just find it totally boring and its a mystery to me why they still exist but I don’t really care either way. Seeing a headline about Harry taking coke and fighting his brother though did sort of breach the threshold and I thought yeah I’m gonna spend 5mins reading that. Though neither of those things in and of themselves are in any way interesting or unusual.

Hi All,

OP here, there was a lot of useful advice and help on this thread I posted a month or so ago, so thought I’d post an update after some news in case anyone else is searching similar issues in the future.

I tried a couple of other home remedies for my lower back pain after my original post- various stretches and a fancy new office chair which whilst doubtless is a positive thing to do, still didn’t fix my pain. New pillows had zero effect too.

Went to a physio in the end and it seems my lower back pain is related to poor posture and I have a “sway back” posture. This is when your pelvis tilts forward and then (I think) your back compensates by counter-balancing giving a sort of leaning back natural posture which can strain your lower back.

Lots of things my physio said made instant sense to me and I accurately reflected the things I have been feeling, and, what sorts of things trigger those sensations.

Good news is it seems like nothing to worry about like slipped discs or sciatica or anything like that. Its treatable with correction exercises and I’ve been off running for the last few weeks (though started again this week)and been cycling throughout.

I’ve been working through the exercises but not sure I’d say it has totally gone away yet- though the things that triggered the pain in the past were events that involved a lot of standing around (as in, spectating at events, busy bars, work conferences etc) and I haven’t really done anything like that over the Christmas holidays so hard to say really.

Anyway, it seems I have a reason for the pain, a plan going forward and no reason to go to hospital or anything like that so probably a good result really, comparatively speaking.

Yeah I am keen to watch less news myself. I don’t think I’m anxious or hugely affected by it but as others have said already, it all goes in and is no doubt affecting your subconscious one way or another whether you’re aware of it or not.

The problem is my job involves lots of time spent reading and reviewing documents on a laptop, sometimes by myself if I’m working from home and reading the news is kind of my go-to break every hour or so inbetween concentrating on work. Not sure what I’d replace it with- there’s only so much cycling content and STW to go around on any given day.

I’m not keen on a total blackout but ideally I could stand to just read one serious news outlet maybe once a day and I for sure think that would be enough.

Ooh @Duggan I did the same Castle Howard race last summer.

Expatscot- nice, we may well have chatted to each other if you did the Middle Distance duathlon! I was impressed with the organisation, it was a great event. There is one in Cholmondeley Castle in Cheshire in June next year and I’ll aim to do that one next I think, as its closer to me.

Got a back issue at the moment though so depends on how successful physio is I think 🤞

I did my first one back in June at Castle Howard and like you I opted for the longer one straight off the bat- 10.5k run, 90k ride, 10.5k run.

I also am pretty keen runner and cyclist so neither of those thing are new to me. I did some brick runs to test if I had “wobbly” legs running after being on the bike but this was never an issue for me.

I did find that I underestimated the combined fatigue from doing both together though- the last run leg was tough, I would 100% reccommend doing a trial by yourself of a ride plus a run, at least 50 or 75% of the total distance you will do on the day just so you know what to expect. I also found that for some reason, on the day, my feet were killing me when pedalling the last 30kms…this has never happened to me before I can only assume they swelled up in the first run leg or something, I’ve cycled 100’s miles in those shoes before and they never hurt me like that before or since.

Practising for duathlon was also the only time I ever had problems with chafingbut I think that’s largely because I got drenched when cycling and then I immediately went out for a 15k run as it was drying up….never again.

I didn’t race through transition- in fact, I even went to the toilet and ate some food and relaxed for 5mins. I sort of regret that now as I finished way higher up the field than I expected and would have made more of an effort to reduce my time in transition if I knew! There’s no obligation to smash through it though unless you’re really pushing for a result.

It was great fun though, I’m planning on another one in the Spring.

46mins if we’re talking about the segment all the way up to Col Del Reis, in June this year. Was staying in Soller so wasn’t a huge ride to get there either.

In my defence I had just recovered from Covid about a week or so before, would love to do it again.

Yeah I take your point, not totally unregulated and I meant social media not the web really.

I’m sure you know what I mean though.

Just this place and Strava. I binned off my Facebook account about 6months after it came out and never bothered with anything else.

I think I’m probably well below low average on social media use and it’s purely because I just don’t feel like it’s a constructive use of my time and updating feeds just feels like another job to me that I could do without. Im not particularly bothered if people know what I have or haven’t been up to.

I don’t have really strong or militant views on it though. I totally get why people use it and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t missing out on some stuff- it’s cool to see photos of a wedding or stag do afterwards and I have mates living abroad whose lives are now I’m sure much more of a mystery to me than if I was on Facebook or whatever.

Overall though I feel like the time I (rightly or wrongly) get back from mostly not having it is worth it.

Perhaps more controversially, I feel like anyone who thinks that the various algorithms are somehow not affecting then or the output they see are kidding themselves tbh. It’s definitely a two way street in my opinion, however careful you might curate your feeds.

I honestly think in 100 years or whatever people will think we were nuts to have a totally unregulated web, the sane way it seems crazy that people could just drive around without a seatbelt years ago.

I do it and loads of people on my street do too.

I don’t think cold temperatures really affect having a cold like Mattsccm says up there^ but personally I try and avoid getting damp for any length of time as I feel like that could be detrimental perhaps

We have a quiz in the office at 12pm and then a sit-down meal somewhere nearby…after that it’s usually 3pmish and people are free to either stay out drinking or go home as they please.

I feel like this is the right way to do it as nobody has to travel anywhere they don’t usually go to to get to the office anyway and the only people who stay out drinking are the ones who actually want to be there, no pressure on anyone else.

I like my colleagues so it’s all good but I could imagine probably resenting any kind of forced corporate days out. I mean, I quite like getting smashed if I’m honest but much less so if it’s some sort of obligation.

Not lately, but twice in the past I have had lingering coughs that lasted for 12 weeks after an initial bout of cold/winter bug.

Yeah I do an hour of week of “strength training” but in reality its just 50-60mins of kettlebell squats, planks, press-ups, weighted deadbugs, that sort of thing. Not really sure if that counts, or if its enough at the age of 41.

Have a duathlon planned in February so don’t really want to give up either running or cycling but its real hard to fit everything in!

Thanks for all the responses, I’ll check these out, the yoga one looks worth a try. I do agree with whoever said that self-prescribing stretches likely carries a risk so I’ll avoid doing anything too outlandish.

I think if some general self-care stretching and a replacement office chair doesn’t work in the next couple of weeks then I’ll stump-up for the physio.

I’ve also come across several videos on Reddit/Youtube of cavers filming themselves kind of squeezing into impossibly tight and narrow spaces underground whilst they explore unchartered systems and I can say with 100% confidence that would in no way be fun for me, I get a tight chest just watching them.

I realise this is a serious answer to a light-hearted OP but I think people often mix-up “fun” with “fulfilling”. For sure decorating falls into the definition of “fulfilling” (not fun).

Running for sure, and I say that as someone who really likes it…its mostly boring and painful but there is a zen-like fulfilment.

41 and no vulnerable issues here. There is a pop-up clinic round the corner from my house which seems to be empty most of the time so I walked in on the off chance but they said no. I get the need for rules but I can’t imagine making it though all xmas socialising without catching covid so seems a shame really.

I don’t think people mean civil war in the traditional sense when they refer to the situation in the US right now. I understood it to be the idea that things could escalate to (e.g.) an assassination of someone in public life which could spark revenge attacks, sporadic sort of vigilante bombings of local infrastructure or public buildings, martial law etc type scenarios in scattered pockets across the country, that sort of thing.

Not sure if that fits the definition of “civil war” or if its something else.

I have a spreadsheet with my fitness/riding/running goals for the year listed on it. I put off doing this for ages as I didn’t want to be the sort of person who keeps fitness goals on a spreadsheet (I’m not sure why) but honestly it really helps and it takes like 5mins to do.

Funnily enough I did a quick google yesterday for events in 2023 so there is already a couple of duathlons and a fell race scattered into the 2023 spreadsheet and I know to save these dates now and also let my wife know I’m busy on them.

It doesn’t always have “proper” events in there though- sometimes its things like “ride up a climb that is new to me out of the 100 Greatest Road Climbs Book” or this winter there is a broad aim of getting out of Cat C and into Cat B on Zwift.

I think its normal to daydream or think about doing things you probably will never do- especially when there’s so much internet media where we can watch other people doing cool stuff. I probably actually do about 1 out of every 10 or 15 things I actually think about planning- but the key is to try and make that 1 event or plan actually stick. I find it only takes one action to do this- putting it in the calendar, buying the ticket, telling my mates I’m doing it or whatever.

Personally my club kit fails on all levels, fashion and function. If you put a gun to my head though, I reckon it fails less spectacularly with a black bike. I would like to stress this a happy coincidence rather than a well thought out strategy though before people think I might buy a 3k bike to match my 5 year old faded jersey.

Yeah I think you guys have missed the point a little here. I wasn’t suggesting people buy a bike to match their kit or vice versa. Rather, the silver-lining to a black bike is that anything goes with black, as the saying goes. Sheesh.

Much prefer colourful bikes but my current TCR was such a bargain that I had no choice but to buy black. It does mean that pretty much any kit you wear “goes” with the bike though.

Love that Specialized Aethos (I think it is) up there though^^^^^

Yeah I agree there should be no reason not to give people the option really.

I can’t remember when Strava was conceived but I think I must have been using it for fifteen years or so. I might be mis-remembering but I’m fairly sure Zwift wasn’t really a thing so I guess they never expected to be showing people riding under the sea on a laptop screen. Seems like it would be easy to change the options for people though.

Weirdly, I would probably find people’s Traineroad posts more interesting than their Zwift rides but that’s probably just me.

I sort of get why this bothers people but for me I find Strava useful for motivation so if my mates are smashing out rides loads of times a week, real or virtual, it kind of helps motivate me to get off my arse too. Its really very easy to just scroll past posts on Strava.

There are some super fast guys on my feed who regularly win time trials and hill climbs, one of whom never does a single ride indoors, ever, for anything. I find it fairly inspirational but honestly, the daily “Morning Ride” posts which are just a random 40miles of the same interlocking local lanes as they do their intervals are really no more or less interesting than the Zwift posts I see.

I guess we all like to see a big ride with photos and a funny story but lets face it for most people these are not what’s happening every time they leave the house on a bike.

With apologies to the OP as the thread’s been derailed.

It might just be me but if I simply “ride round for fun” then all my rides just gravitate to a general tempo/zone 3 ride of 3-4hrs. Are people really just going out “for fun” but properly smashing it for an hour one day and then slowly bimbling along for 5 hours another day? And if so, isn’t that basically just training anyway. Perhaps the difference is if you care to look at the numbers afterwards or not.

I find that Zwift races make excellent substitutes for V02 max sessions for me. Those sessions on Traineroad are a slightly horrifying chore whereas as if I just do a Zwift race I can hit higher numbers anyway almost without thinking about it. I’m still crap though.

Yes you can have a verbal contract, no he’s not going to be able to prove it. You can accidently make a contract through email correspondence which is more likely to happen these days and of course is easier to demonstrate.

Either way though if it was me I wouldn’t waste any more time on it, you’re not going to end up in the Hague.

I’d guess about 8-10 pints a week though in reality this would usually be 5-6 pints and a couple of vodka and tonics.

The problem is this will almost always be consumed in one go, at the weekend rather than spread out. I don’t usually drink in the week but will go to the pub or town on a Saturday teatime with my wife and/or friends and drink then.

I do exercise/train 4-5 days a week and take it semi seriously so wonder how much I’d improve my cycling/running if I reduced my intake. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t look forward to going out at the weekend though.

Case in point: I did 45miles pretty much as hard as I could on the road bike at 6am Sat morning and then spent 4pm- 1am later the same day out drinking with friends and then a meal out, followed by a gig etc. So, I’m not really sure what physiological benefit was really gained from the bike ride other than shifting a load of calories I then presumably immediately put back on, with interest.

My wife has decreed no heating on until October earliest but I feel like that is going to take a bit more determination than she is expecting

Yes went for a road ride in from Manchester into Cheshire this morning and my feet were freezing, couldn’t bring myself to put overshoes on though, seemed like an admission of defeat.

Hmmm…I’m a free member and happy to pay-up after reading this. I’ll be honest, the financial health or accounts of an internet forum I use are never really at the forefront of my mind so its just not something I’d ever considered before. Pretty much all the issues being discussed on this page are new to me.

I don’t ever view the main site and I don’t buy the magazine. I only road ride now but even when I mountain biked I didn’t buy it even then as personally I could never really get along with the writing style.

I’ll stump up for a sub but this is 100% based on the facts that I often get really helpful advice on the forum for training and bike maintenance and that type of stuff.

I avoid a huge amount of threads as they seem to be tedious arguing or people posting graphs or pie charts at each other. Also, despite the fact that I am also a lefty northerner who works in an office and so basically fit right in, it does strike me as a little odd that the forum seems so overtly left-wing. I’ve found myself feeling a little sorry for random people sometimes as it does seem a bit like people get immediately jumped on if their views don’t fit the narrative. Am I the only one who thinks this is a bit weird for a mountain bike forum.

Would I miss it if its gone? I think the people saying yes are likely people who have met friends here or had real-life help and whatnot whereras I don’t think I’m really that invested, though I do recognise a few names every now and then. It crashes my computer and even my phone on a daily basis and now I’m going to pay a subscription for that so I guess that says a lot about the value I place on the people and the help with training, bike maintenance etc.

Cheers
Duggan

For my road bike I’ve gone back to tubes. Life is too short.

+3 for this. Never seems worth it to me.