I used to be a middlingly serious runner and my advice would be to find places that you like to run and then run in those places as often as you can. Start out running shorter routes, then build up the distance and the speed will follow.

Lots of people go for things like hill sprints or intervals, which I guess have their place but if you don’t enjoy doing them, I wouldn’t bother. I used to do hill sprints because I enjoyed them, but hated intervals so I didn’t do them. I’ve spoken to a lot of people, most of them much better runners than I ever was, who have told me that though they did fartleks, intervals, whatever, they found that simply building up to doing more miles a week was the thing that made a big difference.

I happen to enjoy running uphill off-road, and I’m lucky enough to live somewhere where there’s plenty of that on my doorstep. If it wasn’t for that, I’d never put on my running shoes.

his overtake accomplished nothing

During rush hour, I’d be surprised if even half the cars that overtake me accomplish anything / speed up their journey by doing so. The one and only time I’ve banged on someone’s window for doing something stupid was overtaking me on a blind bend, then pulling in very suddenly in front of me when a car came the other way, all so that he could get to a queue of stationary traffic (that he could see) 1.7 seconds earlier than otherwise. This guy wasn’t “sheepish” – he just screamed at me to **** off, repeatedly.

I totally feel your pain.

I have to say on the very rare occasion that I drive I find high frequency flashing lights infuriatingly distracting. It’s like I can’t take my eyes off them, which I suppose implies that it makes the cyclist very visible, but I think the fact that they’re so distracting probably outweighs the benefit. It’s pretty much the only “cyclist behaviour” that irritates me and that I see regularly

(then the BMX knocking down a young tree).

Any tree that couldn’t stand being hit by a rider-less BMX was clearly not long for this world.

Manuals are wicked man, especially when you ride by a skatepark Lycra clad and still show the cool kids what’s up!

I don’t own any lycra, and I don’t make eye contact with anyone who looks under 25.

Do you have a clutch mech? You can’t manual with a clutch mech

Why not?

Bet his dad taught him that…..

He’s got his arms bent. You’re not allowed to do that (according to the internet)

I mean manual. I can do it (well, occasionally maybe 5% of the time I properly get my weight in the right place at the right time) but I don’t really know what situation I’d use it in on a descent.

I’m probably doing it for b) but I’d like to know when it’s useful for c)…

I live in Edinburgh and can be riding in the hills in 20 mins ride from the flat door,

This is also true for where I live in Yorkshire and I’ve always thought that I was a bit spoiled to have great riding on the doorstep and an art house cinema within walking distance. I guess there are other good places.

I have the solution to your not wanting to own a car – the Scottish Government is a supporter of car clubs and electric vehicles.

Do you think Nicola Sturgeon would mind if I put a bike rack on the back of one of the cars and then (later) put my muddy self inside the car?

They aren’t natural because a bunch of guys, including me, have made them.

Are they easy to find?

As per the mrs, we’d never really associated Yorkshire with sushi. Did Huddersfield or Northallerton change that much – I’ve not been back for a while..

I picked that because I happened to have sushi the night before from one of the three sushi places (that I know of) in the city centre, which is about the same distance from my house as the edge of a national park. Don’t think I’ve ever been to Northallerton. Huddersfield is much the same as I’ve always known it, although I don’t know it well.

I know it’s just another video, but if you can video yourself there’s a guy who’ll tell you what you’re doing wrong.[/url]

The trossachs off piste isn’t offpiste because there isn’t a piste, and the lines aren’t natural.

Sorry, I don’t understand this sentence. Do you mean that the lines aren’t natural because there are no lines?

The thing to get your head round is you can ride anywhere with our access laws so any hill could be a goldmine.

Yeah, I’ve done a fair bit of riding in Scotland on paths that I reckon wouldn’t be legit if they were in England, so this is a big plus for me. Out of curiousity, are walkers usually fairly understanding / accepting of mountain bikers? I’ve never encountered a problem yet but I am very smiley.

Just looking at the train lines that come out of Glasgow. They do seem to go to the more exciting places. Even the Hebrides looks middlingly accessible by train/boat if making a long weekend of it.

Perth is definitely looking very enticing too. I could probably (with work) spend a year in each.

All good stuff thanks. What are loch Lomond/ Trossachs like for riding?

Inverness. … really not a “city” in terms of night life, social scene, that kind of thing.

I was living in Inverness for about 2 months last “summer”. I loved it for the biking, walking, etc, and cycling around the city was pretty decent, but I don’t think I could live there. No offence.

I should add that I don’t drive – I can but I don’t own a car and would prefer to keep it that way – so bike or public transit friendly cities are more appealing

There is a lot of great riding around perth but i have no idea how easy it is to get sushi there .

Perth is definitely on the list. The sushi is also illustrative, I.e. is it the sort of city where you imagine sushi would be available or would you be surprised if there was a single Japanese person who live there?

For Torridon it would have to be Inverness

Yeah, I meant that as illustrative for the type of riding I like, rather than wanting to be near Torridon specifically. I imagine (hope?) that there are more places a bit like Torridon that I don’t know (yet).

For Sushi and National Park, that would be Glasgow.

Why G and not E?

What kind of biking do you do?

Wilder stuff rather than trail centres, but not averse to the tamer trail centres (not really into DH)

What kind of ‘city’ do you like?

I like cities where I can live equidistant between a sushi place and a national park.

EDIT: re biking, Torridon is pretty much my favourite place evar,

I went out on a (mountain bike) ride with a mate who’s new to biking the other day. The one, tiny bit of road we cycled on, we happened to get overtaken by a peloton of mamils who boxed my friend in and he almost cycled into a parked car.

I’m not sure what my point is, apart from the fact that this particular peloton can get in the sea.

later riding the big wheelers i still wore whatever TK maxx had going cheap in a skate/bmx style (usually under £20).

Do you not get wet feet?

Rideable. Sort of. Bit by the fairy pools would have made the best descent, but I went up that rather than down.

Also, bizarrely there was snow everywhere. Not sure what that was about.

I actually find it easier to bunny hop on flats

I’ve heard others say this. I have some weird anxiety with bunny hopping in spds that I’m going to unclip by pulling up too hard on the pedals and end up on my arse.

The fastest riders in the world ride clipped in. The best riders in the world ride flats. Who do you want to pretend to be???

Peaty, obviously.

For me, the big advantage of flats is being able to re-start on steep stuff when I’m not making a very good job of it. It also makes long hike-a-bikes more comfortable.

I think that was what I wanted from flats, along with a bit more confidence when jumping.

I also wanted to learn to bunny hop properly and just wasn’t getting anywhere with moving the tail of the bike around with flats on.

Skills

With burns like that, you should be prime minister.

Why do you want to ride on flats? I know plenty of people who can ride just as well on technical terrain clipped in.

I’ve no particular problem with riding technical stuff, if you count the trickier bits of the peak district as technical, but I get the impression that for the more trail centre/skills/jumps style then flats are the way to go. I guess there’s a trade-off to be had between the security of being clipped in vs the security of being able to put a foot down/separate yourself from the bike quickly.

Why? he has spent years helping youngsters

This is not a thing I know about. What has he done?

Why? he has spent years helping youngsters

This is not a thing I know about. What has he done?

yeah maybe. Decent shoes cost decent money unfortunately

Presuming it has normal dropouts, a Blackburn EX1.

+1 for the Blackburn EX1 disc/QR mount rack.

Just to be clear – there are no eyelets on the seat stay on my bike, but the blackburn rack comes with p-clips as standard so I won’t need them – have I got that right?

seat post mounted rack

Any recommendations / experience with them?

2 fingers bad
1 finger good
No fingers better

Tried this the other day at Blacka Moor and almost went straight over the handlebars when I had to stop for the gate half way through the descent.

Learn to weight your bars rather than turn them.

You what?

..and tried to put a gram of coke in my drip

Surely you were already off your face on much better drugs than coke if you’d just come out of ICU.