Mid life a bitch ain’t it!

On a serious note, some of you may know my real name and might even see me pop up in races (very occasionally).  Since 2019 I keep trying to train to race pace, most years I get myself into some resemblance of race fitness.  Come race season life responsibilities take over and I may get one race in.  This inevitably makes me depressed, all the wasted time and effort for nothing.   There have been I’ve had further complications with health issues (which hopefully are resolved).

• What have I learnt from all this (and this is only learning applying to me)?
• Reduce or remove the personal pressure to attend key events
• Stop rigid training plans/structures (I follow my nose here based on previous plans and knowing what works best for me)
• I stop comparing myself to my peers (Strava is my enemy, seeing my racing cohort and what riding they fit in compared to me – the how to they do this with family/work stresses?
• Recognising that my body is changing as I age.  Reducing the endurance load and intensity load. Changing the training sessions accordingly.
• I recognise that I am not a 6% body fat racing snake – I don’t rigidly control what I eat now (looking back I possibly had a few issues here).

I’m not sure if this is going to help, or even answers the question for you.  I guess my ethos now is purely focused on the enjoyment, whether that be training or racing.

Enjoy @Ambrose!  I grew up riding the tocks, went back for a week ends riding in late July and it was bloody amazing! I really miss not living 10m down the road now.

The neighbour that gets some chickens, and one turns out to be a Cockerell.

Short cuts are all too common.  I currently composing a polite email to a customer to note how disappointed I was at a site visit with their contractors lazy approach to safety i.e. hard hats missing/damaged, dumper truck driver driving no handed, no seat belt, no banksmen on reversing vehicles, un marked deep excavations, no safe walking routes, etc.  It was truly shocking.

It flew over me on a bike ride, utterly brilliant.

Hampshire, circa 1600.

I’m.not sure if bad is quite true. Maybe room for improvement? A lack of real world rider testing should have resolved all the jiggles I have (which are few)

– micro USB port is crap (moves, liable to break). Change to USB c?

– front light needs a hood to prevent glare to the rider

– lack of warning when the light will fail (mine just turns off).

Apart from that it’s small, light , robust, bright,. Etc. Just annoying that a few small changes could have made it near perfect for me.

@Crazy-legs – your not in the Lune RCC are you?

As a business dealing with BT Openreach, their project delivery team are the thing of nightmares.

Fingers crossed for you.

I have worked for SSEN for 7months now. Renewables/transmission/Distribution is a massive growth sector and screaming for solid, reliable people. And the organisation has a massive presence in Scotland. Within SSEN there is potential to move around within to try new things. Feel free to reach out and I can likely find someone you can talk to

Got one 4 years ago and love it. If Mrs Ernie left me and took the thermy, I’d buy a new one. We use it almost daily, cooking anything from chicken and mushroom balti, coleslaw, bunt cakes, chocolate caramel shortcake, casseroles, soups, the options just go on. The on line menu makes finding new recipes very easy and has the ability to create a shopping list (and you can export to your online grocery order).

Having been sceptical when I was told we were getting one, I am a convert.

Nah, you can’t stop now. There are 4 or 5 of us hooked.

When you first stated your intentions, I thought you were mental. That poor 911! However, things are progressing and I admire your perseverance.  You’re still a bit juts though!

I actually live in Tadley, on the edge of Pamber Common. Tadley has a bad rap, but I have felt more part of the community here after 4yrs, that I did in Reading or Spencers Wood after 15yrs.  For riding on the road just head any direction: east for flat rides, west/north for lumpy rides. There is a good running club for all levels, volunteering for woodland trust working in the woods.  Depends what you want to do…

So we have Nove Mesto in two weeks (assuming there is no coverage of the Southern XC).  Anyone want to take  a punt at the top 3 in the elite men/women XCO?

I’ve thought this over through the day.  I very rarely race and just need a platform to handle my training work outs.  Ordinarily I don’t interact with zwift using the chat, I don’t race, I don’t complete the challenges.   I use zwift as there was more of less only one option.  Now there appear to be several which will fit my requirement, I guess this means I’m heading down the route of binning it.

This is taking the biscuit!  I rode 10,000km last year, of which ~6000km were indoors on Zwift.  I love it, its easy. Its entertaining.  It works with my life.  However, 90% of what I use it for are personal workouts.  Am I right in saying I can use the Tacx software to re-create my personal workouts?

How about Radiohead. In my teenage agnst days, Pablo Honey amazing, The Bends and the OK computer.  After that, for me they…..what was the saying ? ‘Dissappeared up their supermassive arseholes’

I’ve used the public car park opposite the hover terminal several times for weekend trips to the iow. Very easy and no issues to date.  The hover craft also gets you into central Ryde which for me, is preferable to Fishbourne.

Just Park has been excellent. Used it many times for finding parking in London.

She thinks autocracy is a bad thing, and then says

“In short, she thinks power of judicial appointments should lie with elected politicians.”

Isn’t what she says about heading down that rocky road?

Go the OC! Enjoy fellas.

I was chatting to my neighbour about this subject just the other day, he was a sparky and basic rules were clean workspace and clean afterwards.  I’ve possibly been fortunate that when we have had work done the trades have all tidied up. If one didn’t I would be giving them a warning that money would be with held if they didn’t clean their shit up.  Fundamentaly it’s part of what you are paying for, to not tidy up is just lazy

This is a question I am still trying to find the answer to.  Through Jan 23 to April 23 I was training well and hitting some great numbers with little stress e.g. 2x20min at 350w, 4x4min at 450w, 8x1min at 550w.  The last FTP test was an all time record at 398w resulting in 5.23w/kg in mid April.  That is close to what I was hitting when I was elite!

In late April I was down with covid for a week and close to being admitted to hospital due to my low blood O2 sats, I think it was only my fitness that kept me out.  I then had four chest infections over 6 weeks, likely all the same bacterial infection that I just couldn’t shake.  Through the entire summer I was coughing and struggling to breath with no great success from the GP or asthma clinic.  I struggled to exercise and event walk the 1kn to work on some days.  To this day I still have a low level cough which I cannot shake.

Although my peak power figures seem to have recovered and in some instances beaten last years figures, my FTP is not recovering.  I can only conclude that the cough impacts that tt style effort but I can survive the short intense efforts as its more lactate tolerance and not wholly reliant on the aerobic system.

Its interesting reading others experience with covid and the impact on fitness/exercise.  For me, I’ve written off racing over the next few months but may try and ramp up towards August for a local race.  Its more about testing myself and seeing how my body reacts.

Covid really is the gift that keeps giving and it irritates the hell out of me when f##kwitts state its all a conspiracy theory.

ernie

My first time of a velodrome was piloting a tandem for paralympian try outs. We did a bit of moto pacing, sprints, rolling k’s, pursuits. It was brilliant.  Tracks are so dam quick, and on a tandem….

Nice work WCA! I’m enjoying this series far more than most things on TV.

It’s a race I’ve grown to like, ignoring the first 200 odd km. This edition, pog had a plan on the Cipressa (remember they dropped Philipsen) but ran out of matches over the top enabling JP and others to get back on. MVP burying himself for his team mate. Ganna again made the front but had a mechanical.  MMatthews with 2nd again ( he really does deserve the top step one day). Pidcock – could he have attacked the descent if he was closer to Pog and MVP? His flyer was close and ‘might’ have made if Philipsen and the other Trek/lidl rider hadn’t made it into the reduced group.

I built a 5x4m garden room. I went direct to a concrete pad with rebar.  This gave confidence that any ground movement would have minimal impact on the ‘room’.  Also, I knew the land had previously been brown field site and had no idea what was under the ground.  Biggest challenge with a concrete base being getting the much in, if you can get the lorry to pour direct that saves a world of pain, if you need to barrow it in get a few friends to help.  Cement lorries normally allow 30min per delivery, you pay for anything beyond that.

Ground screws – I used them a lot on a Network Rail project with great success.  They provide a robust foundation and again (to date) I have not heard of any impact from ground movement.  I used them a lot when installing steps on embankments and would be supporting GRP stairs.  Biggest challenge from the install team was getting them in the ground i.e. a lot of leverage can be requried and can be impacted by subterreanean obstacles i.e. rocks/roots/sleepers/rail.

I would be very nervous of using a wood stake cemented in the ground.  Wood fence posts dont last so why should these?  As pointed out, if one rots you have a very difficult task to resolve.

It’s going to be a great year and really excited about the IOW race. Hopefully by July I will be living on the island and it will be my local race!

I’m still on the wagon and finding it quite easy going. I’m also trying to eat better which is pretty easy going after I scoffed the entire Xmas cake in 3 days. Nett result is I’ve lost 1kg in about 8 days and certainly sleeping better. I feel brighter in the morning and don’t have any brain fog in the morning.

I used an old bike as the basis for my eldest daughter.   Now I need to start preparing one for the younger. If anyone has a smaller framed bike let me know.  I love seeing the old bike still being used by my daughter, knowing its used, appreciated and not lost on ebay to a nobody. 

We should meet up for a ride.  Any time before xmas?

Very shortly more and more people will come on line and comment on how good Nuaire Drimasters are.  Believe the hype; for our old Victorian House it removed condensation, helped resolve the mould issues (damp proof issues as well), and provided clean filtered air into the house.  It does require vents in the roof (i had to install soffit vents) pre Nuaire install. 

I moved from south of Reading to the border between Tadley and Pamber Heath. 

For riding its brilliant here.  I tend to head south towards Kingsclere and use the lanes over Watership Down (from there either west or east).  I also know the area west of Burghfield very well having had a previous job in Compton: again great riding though prone to flint on the road in wet weather.  I typically use the CX bike on the road, so am able to head off down any track I like the look of.  The woods north of Upper Buckleberry are great for this (quiet roads and off road sections).  I stumbled across some mtb tracks in the woods to the east of Hermitage during the summer (think jumps and berms); worth exploring.  The ridgeway is also on hand just avoid it when wet.  

I very, very rarely head east towards the roads over the Chilterns as I find it just too busy and congested with other road users (its also horrible mtbing in the west).

If your looking to move; my house is up for sale (moving to the IoW).   If you fancy meeting up I am more than happy to go for a ride. 

My wife does dress making as a hobby.  I have tailored boxers.

CB, I worked for the EA for a couple years in reg team and also in a subsequent job applied for a new discharge consent to TW sewer.  This involved some negotiation with TW.  Happy to try and help where I can (or remember).

@ernielynch you are right, we don’t know what the cm financial situation is and I didn’t implying anything about their situation. My point stands that making a decision that affects your business and income without first testing the market is silly.
If you consider I have implied anything, that’s your perogative.

This sucks! I’ve used them a lot over the past few years. Being able to shop one site for the niche xc parts is brilliant. Their site (for me) worked so well with filters and stock listings; is their a UK based equivalent (and please dont anyone mention ‘poshbike’). Very annoying.

@jonm81 Its an interesting and emotive point (based on skim reading some of the comments above). I spoke with our former child minders who I remain in contact with socially. They considered it a risky move by the CM. You and other parents are a customer and the question needs to be asked if they considered the impact of having a new pet on their customers i.e. what if a child they mind has an allergy? They should, from a business perspective have raised this with their clients first.

OFSTED – have they updated their R/A? OFSTED take a very dim view on this and it will hit their rating which again hits their market. Did they could manage the risk? Again, going back to the allergy point (my kids do have severe allergies), did they check with clients if the children had allergies?

Conclusion: It is completely their decision to get a dog. It is completely your decision to remain with them. From personal experience I know how difficult it is to get a good child minder and you are now in the position of trying to find a new Minder on short notice which I know creates a whole world of stress. The CM has alienated a potential customer base through either ignorance or error and this could prove costly for them i.e. losing at short notice a chunk of income in a cost of living crisis.

I saw it last week. Definitely along the Inglorious Bastards theme, less dialogue and simpler storyline. Entertaining for an evening

Seaview Hotel is also really nice. If you can put up with the Raah crowd head to the Old Fort. If you like gin, try the distillery on the road out of Nettleston. In Ryde, try the Heron. Oh I could go on….

Ganders in St Helens. A lovely small restaurant with superb food and wine. Within an easy walk of Bembridge as well🙂
Leave the garlic farm for the tourists.

I broke the 100kph barrier on a tandem in Spain. I backed off after that ride as the thought occurred to me that crashing and damaging a medal contending paralympian who was stoking, 4 was out from the London games wouldn’t go down well. I was captain sensible after that.

Oh boy do tandems roll well downhill!