I watched Boss season one on a plane recently, Kelsey Grammer is tremendous, very scary guy….who would have though that?

Am I the only one to have seen Bodies? Very dark (and funny) British drama set in the NHS. Max Beasley, Keith Allen, great cast. It was tucked away on BBC4 so hardly anyone watched it. Must see.

Mate I spent the whole of 2008 unemployed and stressing my t1ts off. No smugness here I can assure you.

Its OK, Binners knows that we have been living beyond our means for way too long, am sure he has some suggestions to cut the defecit that doesnt involve cutting public sector jobs.

Oh hark at her!

All of the above true, just go along and do a few laps in a Fun category, never experienced anything but positive welcome from organisers of the Eastern/Thetford races……people genuinly glad to see you there.

However. Has anyone ever entered a XC race and not been shocked and sickened at how fast people set off? My cherry was Drumlanrig in about 2006, lots of proper Scottish hard men tearing the place up.

Well done to fervouredimage. Losing a job can be a hellish experience but getting a new one is great.

Unemployment is starting to drop and the private sector is not in recession, it is civil servants that are taking most of the job losses. Very very hard for them as individuals but we know why that is happening.

You will all be glad to know that the evil (EVIL I tell you) banking sector has taken a proper knock in terms of size which it isnt coming back from. Financial services did get too large as a proportion of the economy and it was always a little depressing seeing all the incredibly clever and motivated young kids come into the banks rather than doing something a little more useful. One of my clients (a young fund manager) did an engineering degree at Imperial College, London. Not one of his classmates has become engineers……every single one of them is working in a bank or a hedge fund. Hopefully we will see less of that in the future, we have a fantastic engineering and manufacturing sector we should shout about more.

cool.

….and we need more PE investment, not less. Thats a sector of finance that has a fantastic story to tell but does a lousy PR job.

They ought to be thanking their lucky stars that Audi gives a monkeys enough to spend time and money on them.

Both pairs bought from STAG (those in That London will probably know this shop)

bikebouy you mean Son of a Stag in Truman Brewery or somewhere else? (SOAS maybe my favourite clothes shop on the planet)

No Brown In Town was always utter bull Flashy and is now, thanks to our near Gallic and Latin neighbours only for old farts who break their own rules on Fridays. <See Red Jeans thread>

Damn right thats OK. Man wearing man shoes.

Good news from Shoreditch is that high quality gents footwear is both de riguer for a well dressed chap AND sisters jeans wearing hipsters. Brown brogues, red socks, Edwin jeans rolled half way up their under-developed calfs.

Grenson rubber soled boots are good for winter but I think their regular shoes are nothing special, not impressed with a pair I have.

Church are worth the money but get them in their excellent sale, usually 20% off. Each to their own but I like good shoes, I have a pair of Oxfords on I have had for 9yrs, resoled several times and look better than ever.

Saving my pennies for a pair of these, Edward Green of Northampton.

+1. The best place to buy Schwalbe tyres for sure.

Yes, £15 is a total bargain for an event as well run as HONC.

I’m actually gaining weight.

Does anyone else see their weight go up and down on a weekly cycle? I do a big ride usually on a Sunday, Monday morning my weight spikes up by 1.5-2kg and then drops through the week until Saturday before leaping up again after exercise. The trend is downwards so I dont worry about it but does anyone know why that would be?

I’m 191cm, (6’3) have got down to about 85kg but year after year I never seem to be able to get lower than that. About 15% fat.

Argentina may well have huge reserves of hydrocarbons but to get at them requires billions of dollars of investment year after year, money the Argentine state just doesnt have and can’t borrow. Quite apart from being illegal, grabbing a private asset is utter madness. Singapore has been a success because foreign investors in Asia know that if they set themselves up there they will enjoy the full protection of an efficient and impartial legal system. Kirchner is making Argentina look like a place to avoid and it is the population that will suffer.

Did HONC…..have a sportive or endurance mtb event every weekend until the Dragon in mid June. Four of us from Epping Forest are doing Transpyr first week of July, Med to Atlantic by mtb along the Pyrenees. Look at day 3….’kin hell.

http://www.transpyr.com/2012/en/02.html

We’ve all done big days on the bike but never one after the other like this. HONC was a reminder to start taking things seriously. Want to enjoy as much of it as I can, not be hurting all day every day.

I had 200g of mueseli for breakfast. Probably 700 calories. I try and just have boiled eggs but after a big weekend on the bike (100km mtb) I’m STARVING in the mornings.

Genuinely don’t get Twitter. I mean, I completely understand the purpose, but I’m not interested in anyone enough to want to hang on their every word and be updated on each pronouncement they make.

Luddite? Probably. But I just can’t be bothered to invest any time at all in the world of celebs.

Thats what put me off but it isnt what it is all about honestly. I quite like following politics for example, so I follow all the Fleet St hacks and some of the bloggers like Guido, Conservative Home, Liberal Conspiracy and so on. They all post their own blog updates, retweet interesting stuff, it eventually starts to feel like a general “narrative” (straight to Pseuds Corner) that you dip in and out of. If you are say into science, or the arts you will build up a critical mass of the most interesting people to follow. Its good.

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Edinburgh Playhouse 1986 – waiting outside after for my pal’s dad to pick us up we watched a guy get hit and killed by a guy on a motorbike.

Meanwhile over on twitter Ken Livingstone’s old friend and advisor on race Lee Jasper is blaming the Norway killings on the Tory party.

“Its your divisive politics that creates the enviro where the Breviks of this world gain the courage of their racist convictions”

Proper Twitterspat yesterday, he really thinks white folk are basically all racist.

THM thanks, will look at Karvonen

So….for a HRM newbie. I want to be able to sustain a healthy pace for 5-7hrs over hilly terrain on sportives, mtb events. Did HONC yesterday and red-lined early on, really felt it later. As a very broad guide what % of Max HR would you guys look to stay at when you are

– spinning along on the flat
– climbing (long climbs)

Crouch End, N. London. Epping Forest 25 mins drive or 1hr down to Surrey Hills in the Volvo.

Nah 605 doesnt take HRM……and its bust.

I needed a new gps with mapping…..HRM yes/no was the issue, price wasnt that much different.

Thanks…..I’ve just ordered a Garmin Edge 800, comes with a HRM and Cadence (which I cant see me using). I’m going to set it to alarm if I red-line, try and stay in a more comfortable zone. I guess people use them on turbos during the winter…..

Lots of 29ers going past me on the rough stuff at speed. Starting to see the point of those big wheels.

grahamh…..like I said and am happy to repeat, many thanks to all the organisers. Me, personally I think the signage wasnt fantastic. If you only want to hear the positives from participants fair enough but thats my tuppenceworth on an otherwise terrific event.

rootes1 – Member
^ i have found my 500 completely hassle free.

As training aids they are terrific but trying to use them as mapping devices is ugly. I’d really like only to have a 500 but I need the mapping functions and thats where the trouble begins.

I was on my lonesome, riding up over the road from Cheltenham at about 2pm……on the drive out we saw a pair of poor buggers about an hour and half later had done the same as me were all the way down in Cheltenham, I wonder if they know what was coming, really nasty.

Good event but I couldnt get the gpx to work in my GPS and am afraid the signage was very poor. I missed a couple of other turns, was saved by shouts from riders behind me. I know they want to keep the impact on those lovely Cotswolds villages to a minimum but when you are riding balls-out for 100km mtb you aint always going to see a small yellow sign. Need to either make them MASSIVE or maybe have a couple as you approach the turn.

Other than that, really good day, many thanks to all the organisers, very slick around the Start/Finish.

Garmin can be shockingly bad at supporting their product. I’ve had many stressful nights in front of the computer trying to make it work…..has let me down on the trails a lot too. That said I cant find an alternative so about to replace my 605 with a 800 if I can find a decent deal.

All that lovely easy userfriendlyness of Apple that we get on our iPhones? Garmin is too often the opposite of that.

You know sometimes you know you are just for a bad day at the office? That was me…..wearing the wrong clothes, puncture before I got out of the castle, never warmed up, miserable git all day. Managed to miss a turn so ended up standing beside a sign saying “GCHQ” then compounded my mistake by thinking best just to go down into Cheltenham town and ride along the road to Winchcombe……bit of a bump to get over I hadnt figured on.

Good event, we drove up from London, will do so again.

Thanks

Reason I ask is because the maps are registered to a specific device to stop us from sharing them…..I had a warranty replacement on my 605 a while back and it was a hassle getting the maps running.

I got some SLRs on a new Canyon. They look nice but I cant see why you would shell out so much. Handbuilt Hope on Crests would be lighter I think and whole lot cheaper.