Arras is an hour south of Calais and is lovely.

http://app.strava.com/activities/99546468

This is the best bits of the black/red as per miketually (with a couple of off-piste bits thrown in for good measure).

The obligatory tyre choice post:

Would any locals care to comment on whether the best combo for this weekend is a Baron/RQ, or Ardent/Advantage, or some unholy combination of different tyre manufacturers?

https://www.hearinglink.org/hearingtests

I’m not an audiologist/ENT doctor, but it looks like the right ear is essentially normal and you have some mild high frequency hearing loss in the left ear.

After enduring my worst day on a bike ever last year, I’ve somehow signed up to do it all over again 😕

Any link to those Homebase mesh grills, catfood? We had the same problem in our Victorian house in the summer and I think they were getting in through the airbricks too. It’s a horrific experience to come down to the kitchen to get some water in the middle of the night and stand on a nice juicy slug in your bare feet 😕

The British Heart Foundation run free Heartstart courses around the country, just search for your local one on their website. If you do nothing else, please watch the BHF Vinnie Jones CPR advert that was run on tv a couple of years ago (you can find it on YouTube or on the BHF website).

Ski Tracks is a fantastic app – loads of data to geek over! 73kph top speed today…

My top recorded speed on skis is 108kph, but I have DEFINITELY gone faster as a teenager without an app to tell me how fast I’d been. I think I ski slower now I know that I go over 100kph!

So Trainerroad have announced on Facebook that they are close to releasing a MTB training plan. Frankly, it can’t come soon enough for me – the cyclocross training plan is killing me!

The ladle is almost identical to the spoon but 153mm wide

Decent show here in the Tyne valley – got a few pics from near Stocksfield

I’ll happily ski downhill at 70+mph (sans helmet 😯 ), but anything above 30mph on a bike (road or MTB) makes me feel all queasy. I loved the Courchevel couloirs on skis, but mince down anything more technical than a fireroad on my bike.

But then, I’ve been skiing since I was 4, and took up mountain biking at the age of 28.

It’s all about relative experience. The more you do of either, the better you’ll get.

I’m not a massive fan of the ladle. It’s OK for short periods on the MTB but anything longer than a couple of hours starts to get uncomfortable. My most comfortable saddle is a Spesh BG something in 155 width – I think the ladle is just a little too narrow for me (it’s quoted as 153mm wide).

I have an XS Canyon Nerve XC – I’m 5’5″ but have really short legs. I played around with the online calculator when I was buying mine to see how much taller (or how much longer my legs would have to be!) I’d have to be to need the next size up.

I did my first proper 8 min test back in November and thought I’d gone as hard as I could (I even did a practice test a few days prior so that I could get used to it). After 6 weeks of doing a couple of sessions a week and getting used to the whole turbo thing, my FTP jumped from 146 to 183 – and I’m sure it wasn’t all fitness!

I definitely think there’s a learning curve (I’ve just done my 4th 8 min test and my FTP went up to 195 – a much smaller jump).

I know it’s not one of the trail centres you mention, but Mabie was completely clear of snow and almost dry on Sunday. Very small diversion due to tree felling on the final singletrack climb on the red.

I did a lap and a half of Mabie too 🙂

Awesome little trail centre, well worth the drive from Newcastle

I was at Mabie today and it was lovely. The snowdrops were out and it felt properly like spring. And I saw lots of off-piste stuff that I’ve made a mental note of to go back and explore.

Any update on conditions at whinlatter?

Bleurgh. 8 minute tests are hard!

FTP up from 183 to 195 though, which is 3.26W/kg. I’ve no idea if this is in any way accurate, but it certainly feels like I’m improving (if nothing else, it’s training me to be good at 8 minute tests!).

Has anyone got any suggestions for what to do now I’ve done the sweetspot base programmes? There are no XC MTB specific training programmes, so I was thinking of doing the low volume cyclocross one, starting from the second base week (week 4). The ultimate aim is to try and beat a few of the boys at the regional short course XC series, starting in April.

Whilst I am not a fan of statins, there is a lot of evdience to show that statins clearly work in lowering CVD, but not through lowering cholesterol.

However, they also do not lower overall mortality.

From the 4S study mentioned above (all cause mortality)

Somebody is getting very rich from this.

The patent for simvastatin ran out in the UK in 2004.

A month’s prescription for simvastatin 40mg costs £1.16.

Can’t believe I’m going to get sucked into this, but here goes.

The evidence for statins in preventing both death after a heart attack (secondary prevention) and death in those without known cardiovascular disease (primary prevention) is overwhelming. Their mode of action isn’t fully known, but we know that it’s not all about absolute reduction in cholesterol levels (because non-statin drugs like ezetimibe reduce cholesterol but don’t save lives).

However, we’ve known that there is a link between high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease since the Framingham Heart Study in the 1940s. This was the first study to observe the link between smoking, high blood pressure, lack of exercise, obesity and high cholesterol with cardiovascular disease.

We’ve known that statins work since the mid-1990s with some very big trials eg:
1) 4S study – a Scandinavian study of >4000 people WITH cardiovascular disease showed that treatment of 100 patients for six years would prevent four deaths of the disease and seven non-fatal myocardial infarcts (Wiki link)
2) WOSCOPS – a study from Glasgow that looked at >6500 patients WITHOUT cardiovascular disease and showed that statins prevented death from cardiac causes (compelling evidence here)

From a personal, anecdotal, point of view, it’s a well held belief amongst my cardiology colleagues that statins have contributed significantly to the decline in major heart attacks that we’ve seen over the last 20 years. And that can only be a good thing (unless you’re training to be a cardiologist and you’re worried that statins might put you out of a job…)

Whinlatter Challenge is £28 as a comparison – I think that’s about right for something like that

Well, I’ve managed to complete both Sweet Spot base programmes and will do another 8 minute test later this week.

I’ve started to really enjoy going on the turbo because of Trainerroad – it appeals to my geeky side that loves graphs and data. I even enjoy the pain it inflicts… I think I might be a bit mad!

I’ve definitely either maintained my fitness from the summer or improved it and hopefully that will be continued into the spring and next summer.

And the best bit about it is that my bike-hating boyfriend has seen the improvements and has started going on the turbo with trainerroad too, in an attempt to get fit enough to join me on outdoor rides. I’ve used the workout creator to design some short workouts to get him into it and used to being on the bike.

“the car almost had to enter the right lane of traffic” – What an unbelievable misunderstanding of the primary position.

What’s even worse is that the public can’t complain about the ruling – only the advertiser or one of the original complainants can do that. We should be lobbying Cycling Scotland to get this reviewed.

http://www.strava.com/activities/15283885

I have that decathlon sensor and it works fine with trainerroad. However, the speed magnet has to be REEEEALLY close to the sensor otherwise you get nothing. I twist the magnet so it’s sticking out from the spokes.

I have this picture stored on my iPhone so I can look at it when I’m having a crappy day 😳

Dates for the NE XC races mentioned above (venues to follow).

I have a pair of Scott MTB shoes from Start Cycles that have done me well over the past two winters, but when it’s really cold and wet I use my goretex lined north face approach walking shoes with ski socks to keep warm AND dry.

There’s lots of bridleways and fire roads up on hexhamshire common, although I don’t know what kind of condition it’ll be in after all this rain. Here’s a ride I did a couple of years ago: http://cyclemeter.com/bafca21a4c23eef1/MountainCycle-20111016-1339?r=s

I’ll try and dig out the GPS files of the Beyond Hamsterley rides

My understanding of the SMART regime is that formoterol, the long acting beta agonist in Symbicort, actually has almost as fast an onset as salbutamol, as well as being long acting. This means that Symbicort can be used as a reliever as well as a preventer inhaler, with the added benefit that you get a little extra steroid when you are using the preventer more ie when you are unwell.

http://www.howdoeshomeopathywork.com

Just sign up to sportpursuit dot com

It was a sportpursuit link

I bought the Elite Superchrono one that you mention above about 3 months ago. It’s incredibly easy to set up (and to take the bike back off again). A bit noisy as you get faster, but mine is set up in the garage. It links in with Trainerroad well and I’ve used it quite a bit in the last couple of months. It seems stable, even when standing (although I’m not exactly a heavyweight), and has 8 resistance settings (I use the second one – can barely turn the pedals on number 8!).

My 2 good friends at Uni were:
Scary Dave (occasionally known as Big Dave if introducing him to parents)
Other Dave (liked to be called Delvin the Wizard, for unknown reasons)

Dan Small was the guy running the Friday night XC races last summer. His contact details are on the BC website.