Pedant alert: Isn’t that Erdinger grapefruit stuff technically about 2.5% abv? I mean still chump change but not an AF beer.

I did an FTP yesterday (first in a three years…) and beat my all time high from around 2018: I got 318W! Just don’t look at the watts per kilo…yikes.

I am quite amazed that I had managed to remain quite aerobically fit whilst putting on far too much weight and only doing intermittent unstructured riding since about 2020. My main goal is weight loss at the moment, but if I can lose 12-15Kg this year whilst not knocking *too* much off that FTP I will be pretty happy.

Climbs have been an absolute struggle these past years.

Horrible and sorry to read that. I was absolutely inconsolable when my cat had to be put to sleep at 21 when I was about 7.

Had a dog after that, who lived to 15 (which is mad I think – especially as my dad had a habit of buying him a weekly chocolate mini milk). Loved him too. For the last 2 years of his life though he was in a sorry state; anxiety, dementia and reduced mobility –  I think my mum probably kept the poor bugger plugged in for a lot longer than she really should have. It was a blessing for us when he was put to sleep, and horrible to see him like that before. In your case I hope that you can take some solace in that yours lived life to the full to the very end!

41 years…

My time spent actually working has reduced a little bit.

It might be because I love bleak, rural set gritty dramas, but the latest Season of Fargo has been possibly the best TV I have seen since 2019’s Chernobyl. Fantastic characters with a big slab of folk horror influence and an unsettling tone, alongside the usual Fargo-y comedy and funny accent. Acting is top notch from everyone especially Juno Temple.

It’s very Cormac McCarthy-esque in character, story and dialogue. Might not be for everyone but close to perfection for me.

That’s on Jeffy B’s Streaming Service though, not Netflix.

As well as the repeat games, there were too many fixtures that had teams sending “second XV” s.

Like Toulon at the weekend against Glasgow for example.

There’s the same Boardman full bike as my frame on FB marketplace right now with GX 1×11, REBA RLT, Guide 4-pistons for £200. Absolute steal.

I did the same with a 2017 Boardman X9 Pro hardtail frame. The thing is light and absolutely rapid, I love it. Mine’s about 11.2Kg with Reba fork, Fulcrum wheels and XC tires (still experimenting). I reprayed it matte black from the rather grim lurid lime green and black, chucked a -20 deg stem on there and from a distance it looks pretty pro too.

My commute is only about 2 miles but wind in Edinburgh generally has a multiplication factor of 5, even if the anemometer does not reflect this. 

Sair tempted to get the road bike off the trainer and point it eastward and see what kind of avg speed I get. 

Went to the pub on the weekend – BOTH nights. Observations:

Still had a decent enough time with my OH and mates

Did start to get quite bored and wanted to go home earlier than the others

Guinness 0.0 is pretty nice but it would be nice if more people had it on draft.

Apart from the people I was with – the other rowdy folk in the place really started to annoy me. I was really trying hard not to be self righteous as they’re just having fun and I’ve been there a million times but secretly harboured annoyance and smugness.

Not sure what I will do when January ends. I never set out to never drink again and I have a weekend in Torridon at the start of Feb for some climbing. But I really feel much better.

Current 6M fave is Shadow of a Doubt by Sprints. What a tune.

I am tempting myself to get a set of Trailcross for summer, so I don’t have to wear my big chunky Etnies Culvert Mid – they’re fantastic but get so warm!

A lot of tattooists will apply Second Skin or some variety now, depending on the place. I got a forearm tattoo recently and they put a big square of this on and it was unreal – just set and forget for a week, take it off and it is more or less healed.

Some interesting stuff happens too – you get a “bag” of ink and fluid caught in the thing which eventually dries out when it’s time to remove it, kinda gross but fun and aids in healing.

I would probably advise against putting it on yourself though if the tattooist doesn’t – unless you can ensure it is fully sterile. It really seals everything in so if you catch some nasties they will get in there and infect it.

Can do about 3 chin ups at the moment. Weirdly even when I was at my strongest and fittest a while back I could barely do about 8 without having to jump and do negatives for the rest of the set.

Not *super* critical but still gets a laugh thinking back:

I was 23 so about 11 years ago. Living with my mother in the highlands at the time after Uni to save some money and work – my mother who was away that particular weekend.

Note that I used to be a pretty good archer, entered competitions etc before I left for uni. I had a couple friends come to stay and we spent it as young lads in the highlands do – larking around and smoking joints. Beautiful day so I decided it would be a great idea to get the archery kit out and fire some arrows at an old sofa. It was great fun, but these fibreglass arrows were about 12 years old at that point and were being shot straight into hard sofa backing.

After a while of this I nocked an arrow, drew the bow back and loosed it. Immediately the arrow shattered in half, the front going haywire and landing to my left in a field – and the back half sailed straight into my bow hand. Entered on one side of my left index finger, and exited on the other. It didn’t hurt too badly, I thought I just got slapped with the string at first, but noticed when one of my mates went deathly white. I just kinda laughed to be honest.

We called the local community first responder.  He turned up after ten minutes, took a photo for posterity and told us to get to Hospital. Very much illegally we did drive to hospital whilst the first few pisstaking texts started to come in. Still in high spirits.

At Raigmore hospital I was seen by a junior doctor who immediately got her incredulous mates around to come and see – just out of curiosity – a guy with a bunch of arrow sticking out of his hand. The consultant then came over and things took a bit of a darker turn. He said it’s possible I have severely damaged my finger tendon, and also I would require surgery the next day to cut open a bunch of my hands and flush out tiny glass fibres which could have spread through my bloodstream quite readily.

Woke up after surgery pumped full of morphine, and was off work for 6 weeks afterwards as it had problems healing. Now have a gnarly scar on my left hand. Luckily I avoided the tendon proper, but cut the tendon sheath. I did have mobility problems in that finger for about a year afterwards, and get the occasional “trigger finger” in it now in different weather.

Fun story to tell – not many people have managed to shoot themselves with an arrow!

Interesting idea – although I’m not sure it would work for me super well. The cable port on the seat tube for internally routing the thing is only barely big enough for a gear cable. I was shaving very thin ribbons off it when threading it in!

Kind of unsettling observation:

My average resting heart rate has dropped from 57-60bpm in the days around Christmas, to a weekly average just updated to 49bpm this morning. Slight pinch of salt as only from a Garmin Fenix watch, but a very clear trend downwards. I did not think that would happen in 3 and a half weeks.

I guess processing all that salt and fattiness in the Christmas fayre would have spiked it a bit but still.

Still no real cravings – although I realise it is actually a bit more boring than I thought watching TV on a Friday night.

I see a larger amount of Spesh Enduros than anyone else. Usually the 27.5 version with the crossover-y top tube thing going on.

I have a pair of Endura insulated gloves – I think the Strike Gloves. They don’t look massive but are warm enough for everything I have needed to do this winter.

Only issue is they are not super breathable. Don’t notice the dampness riding and the wind doesn’t seem to get to it, however they can be annoying to take on and off when it is like that.

Outdoor thermometer was reading -8  at my house when I left in the shady back garden. I posted about dropper post freezage yesterday – ride the MTB again today as prefer the idea of bigger tires in icy conditions. Didn’t have time to change my cable last night and same thing had happened, was out the saddle all the way to work haha. At least I wasn’t cold.

But yeah it is so cold. It is lovely though, everything is really still and quiet – frozen in time!

Thanks, I guess that makes a lot of sense actually. Little drops of water on my bottle were freezing in minutes between sips.

The lever end of the cable lost its crimp and is frayed enough to stab me loads of times so I will be changing it anyway. That’s just expedited the process up my to do list.

My mate was saying I should piss on it but unfortunately I couldn’t have squeezed out a drop of I wanted to…definitely had an innie at that point!

Wet lad here too.

I see you are using a POC, as I was coming in to recommend a POC Tectal to be honest. I’ve had it 2.5 years and love it for that reason – had endless sweat issues with my Endura helmet and the Smith one before it but this one is at worst tolerable. I have only had to lift it up to perch on top of my head in summertime when winching up the climb at Inners. Plus they look fairly cool too imo.

Glasses: I am using Oakley Sutros, which admittedly I bought when I had more spare cash because I thought they looked cool. They are relatively airy in there but on hot days I do find myself with streaks of sweat down them.

A while back I had a pair of knock-off Oakley Flight Jackets – these have a little lever on the nose that pushes the frame away from your face and increases ventilation. I only bought different ones because they didn’t play nice with the road helmet I was using at the time, but even on the fake ones it worked well and the build quality seemed fine. Can only imagine the real ones will be even better.

Lmao! Louis, my dude, what are you doing?

I hope it does work out for him but it does seem a bit nuts to sack off rugby (which he is excellent at, and a fan favourite) to maybe break into an NFL practice squad. Mind you he will probably get to still earn loads and live somewhere glamorous for a few years.

Just as a counterpoint – there are plenty of people who get caught out in bad weather thinking that they won’t be affected. You only need to go as far back as 27th December, when there was miles of stuck cars on the A9 in a snow closure – with all other roads to the north of Scotland closed. If a yellow weather warning for cold weather and snow means people might think twice about their journey or even their tire choice on their car it is better safe than sorry.

The Transition Spur is a super nice looking bike. Same with all of Transition’s ones actually – I like the angular sort of tubing style they have.

OTOH I have never liked Orange bikes to look at personally. Always thing they look like an industrial crane or something.

Onto the third week! Went out for dinner in the local with OH and a couple friends after watching CX nationals on Saturday, and to be quite honest was expected to be tempted as I love that place. However I ordered an Erdinger Blue which I have always really liked, and after about two sips realised I was quite content not having 2 pints alongside my massive burger. It’s funny with AF beers or just soft drinks, in that you feel appropriately quite full after having half a litre of liquid, but with normal beers it doesn’t seem to affect me haha. Funny to think people including me will go out and have like 2.5L of beer in a short time period – imagine doing the same water.

Interestingly I have also been eating very light and healthy meals since New Year too, and I felt almost as bad as hungover after that big greasy slab of mince the next day. Went to go a ride but had to turn back and spend some time on the throne.

Down about 2.5Kg but feel like I have less bloating too. Jackets feel and look looser. All good so far.

Thanks bud! Just my experience so far after a very short time indeed. I think a lot of it is a mindset thing – I’ve tried to sack it off for a break a couple times but it feels like it has a bit more weight behind it this time for whatever reason.

I’m doing *At least* dry January. I have drunk arguably quite a bit too much since I discovered that, during first lockdown when pubs are closed, I could just buy beer and drink it in the house. Never been a “problem” drinker i.e. getting belligerent or blacking out etc, but especially if you like fancy Belgian beers the fun hobby begins to turn into a bit of a habit. I was finidng myself having a couple strong beers alone of a weekend towards the middle of last year, and was starting to look forward to it too much. Before covid I used to look forward to going out on my bike!

I’m actually nearly 3 weeks in (ill over Christmas so didn’t want any rich food or booze) and I may be imagining it, but I can feel my serotonin levels normalising a bit. I am spending less time on my phone on the couch and I have a considerable amount more motivation, appreciation, and concentration. I am getting less bored and frustrated with things too. Many times in the past couple years I’ve gone out riding and wanted to sack it off halfway through but I have enjoyed every ride so far this year like a child. Who knows what forsaken other hobbies I might pick up again.

Weight is noticeably coming off too. My nice Rab hardshell jacket was becoming too tight before November when I last dared to try it on. Now it is starting to fit again with a fleece underneath!

I’ve not found it particularly hard, I think because I can feel some tangible benefit, which in turn is helping me to choose better food choices too. I’m not saying that I will not ever drink again (I do like a pint or two at a wedding for example) but who knows – maybe exploring my relationship with alcohol is actually not scary but really interesting and beneficial. Conclusion thus far is that I am seemingly happier without and I don’t think I am in denial!

Result doesn’t matter too much but want to be able to put in a good shift for the duration. Top half of results would be nice and as you say I don’t want to be suffering up every climb.

I think my style on the hardtail is slightly more competent than mince…possibly stewing beef at best, though I can indeed already ride a bike thanks. I’m just looking for any info anyone has really as it is thin on the ground.