Assuming you are fairly time constrained, I’d suggest getting a triathlon training plan and omitting the swimming, and either using the gaps for recovery (probably most sensible) or more brick sessions.

If you have or can build some fitness, getting used to running off the bike is very handy. It feels pretty odd. I did circuits of running/riding repeating about 3-4 sets of 20 mins run/20 mins ride.

I also went for a shot run after nearly every ride.

I followed a combination of ‘Time Crunched Cyclist’ and ‘Run Less, Run Faster’ with some added brick session in there. It was really hard to actually train both disciplines, but I was happy with the results. Got me as fit as I’ve ever been.

Guess who has a few tend of thousands in a UK account that I need to move to the US for a house deposit by the spring. Guess who thought that there was no way Bexit would happen. Guess who thought the pound would bounce back.

For those of you old enough to remember, at least I own a Volkswagen. But it was built in Mexico and bit keep dropping off.

🙁

Second Granville Island – cool market and a brewery.

Eating and drinking can be as cheap or expensive as you like.

Eating out is generally cheap at the low end (you could get away with $50 per person per day easily) good food from a supermarket is generally expensive (decent bread is $4-5).

Make sure you have *good* insurance and it covers you for mountain biking, and includes helicopter rescue etc. You really don’t want to be paying US medical bills.

I tried it, it was far too sticky and attracted a huge amount of goop.

A worthy experiment but not for me.

A bit slimmer – but also I found a but smaller in general. I bought the same size as my standard Freeriders but my toes are a little pinched 🙁

If you intend to keep riding your bike then use that for recovery.

If you’re up for a ‘death or glory’ approach then:

3 runs a week, one long (build to 10 miles?), one mid distance (4ish) but at or near your ‘race pace’ and one where you do some short intervals, say 3-6 X 400m with a rest in between. With 6 weeks to go I might build up slowly for two weeks – (do some, but not too fast intervals), have two weeks of harder work and then taper down for two weeks. You can keep the fast running in there as you taper, just cut the number of intervals.

The intervals are the sessions where you stand to gain most but also are the risky ones. You don’t need to go all-out – if you do then something may well go ‘ping’. Try and complete each one at the same pace each session, and just run at an ‘uncomfortable’ pace, then rest, then do it again.

When you get near the race, *then* you can set your goal. Based only my personal experience, take your last long run 10-11 mile pace, then take maybe 10-15 seconds per mile off of that (to account for that boost a race gives you).

Don’t run faster than that, at least for the first 8-9 miles. If you are feeling great at mile 8-9, try pushing the pace for a mile or two, if you feel good at mile 11, push it again.

Do it that way and you will be passing all the people who set off 30s a mile faster than their longest run pace and have now blown up. It’s far more motivating to be reeling in a steady stream of runners for the last 5 miles than to be passed because you have gone off too hard.

Just my 2p’s worth.

Gravity dropper if your eyes can take it. Just works and when it doesn’t it’s easy to fix. My only complaint is the stupid 050 hex you need for the grub screw in the lever, but to be fair, they do send you one with the post. Plus they are made in a shed somewhere, which I like.

I’m on my third (different bikes and diameters).

I live in the US, so alarmingly easily. While buying the weekly shop at the supermarket. You can get smaller ones in pink or blue for the youth.

Actually, as a non-citizen it would be harder, but with a small amount of effort I could still legally get an AR-15 or whatever.

I keep meaning to go on a gun safety/basic training course. I’m not planning to get a gun but knowing the basics seems like a good idea around here.

Cheer up, my GMC suburban 2500 managed to outdo itself the other day by returning 9.74 miles per (US) gallon.

I’m sure twigletmonster will be along in a minute (assuming he is not stuck up a tree somewhere looking for a geocache) to give you the low down on local riding/groups – but as belugabob says, there are quite a few @rsers around there.

I think maybe you want a ‘mountain bike’.

Although exactly what that means has changed over the last couple of decades, today I would say that today it’s a 100-120mm (FS or not) 29’er. With slacker than a race bike but not quite ‘enduro’ angles.

Something you can ‘leck about on on t’moors’ as Brant would say. Ride it all day, ride the odd race for fun, do the odd drop/jump but nothing with too high a penalty for failure.

Ha, I’ve got 20.5 hours to get fit for my first race of ‘the season’.

The packet pickup is in a brewery.

I’m F’d, aren’t I?

We’ve sent loads of stuff to the UK with USPS, never had a problem.

Nothing worth more than $50 or so though.

Either way, I wish the Democrats had a more inspiring candidate.

Bernie Sanders! It’s a shame he’s not going to quite get over the line. I stay out of political discussion here as I’m just a visitor, albeit a long term one.

I heard someone say “Bernie Sanders, he want’s to turn us in to Cuba or something” I had to counter with “Or Norway”.

I really like this place, but some things are totally f%$ked. It feels like there are extremely powerful forces that back the status quo of steady widening of inequality.

Meanwhile any suggestion of change is met with fear or hopelessness.

USA, Seattle (after a few years in California). Before that Surrey, before that West Yorkshire, before that Lake District, before that NY Moors, before that London, before that Cardiff, before that Surrey.

Easily bored.

I feel bad for ordering form theme really – I generally like to shop locally – although it’s taken a few months to find a couple of bike shops worth visiting.

But I couldn’t get these locally and was going to order online anyway, so why pay extra and have a similar delivery time? Seems odd that CRC can beat Amazon on stuff, but I guess they have the inventory.

If you don’t care about aesthetics get a Gravity Dropper. They just work, and if they don’t they are simple to fix.

Mechanical, repairable, reliable, ugly.

Only real complaint is the tiny 0.050 (American) hex grub screws that hold the cable and the bar mount clamp which you can break if you over tighten, but they send you a wrench and a couple of spares with the post.

Spares are available on CRC for a few quid and if you have a failure out on the trail you can probably botch a repair to get you home.

@markgraylish – I think you have hit then nail on the head, but it’s not totally apathy – it’s a lack of necessity.

I moved to the US from the UK about 4 years ago, I’ve lived in California and now the Seattle area.

I’ve been constantly surprised how poor and contentious trail access has been.

Yes, there are excellent trails, I’m lucky to live right next to a little park called Duthie Hill which has a bunch of freeride and xc trails. The thing is there is no legalized national network of trails like we have in the UK. Access is fought for and often lost – look at the stuff going on with the Wilderness Act (roughly equivalent to banning MTB’s on all trials in National Parks in the UK). Riding in Marin – where the US branch of MTB started is now far more restricted than it was in the days of the hippies tearing down repack.

The work that the Evergreen MTB Alliance do around here is excellent, as was the BTCEB in California. But if they weren’t doing it, there would be far fewer places to ride.

It’s a constant annoyance that I live near some epic mountain locations, but can’t just grab an O/S map and go exploring along bridleways. There just isn’t the network of trails. We are so lucky that the national network of ROW’s exist. See also: The NHS.

Just my 2p/c’s worth.

Night rides are the way here. I used to do bedtime and then get out for a couple of hours.

If your wife gives you a lot of pushback (in the absence of good reasons like sick kids/sick her/mental health issues/you not pulling your weight at other times/having more free time than her) then tell her it’s that or a divorce. Be very clear that you mean it.

You’d at least get every other weekend to ride, even if you were poorer.

Late to the party but here are mine:-

14/5 Stottlemeyer 30 (Port Gamble WA)
27/8 Capitol Forest 50 (Olympia WA)
17/9 Just Another Bike Race (Squamish BC)

I might sprinkle some local XC races in there too, but these are the main ones.

Aiming to finish and maybe not come last…

Be grateful.

I’ve had to fit a little jingly bell to my bike because I’m worried about them eating me.

Looks like he is testing the practical boundaries of the N=D-1 formula (D being the theoretical number of bikes you can have before your partner divorces you).

Always tricky finding the limits without destructive testing….

Only way is to brazen it out at this point and enjoy the ride.

I definitely go round corners better on flats. I have absolutely no idea why. All in all I like them, but I stick SPD’s back on from time to time if I’m racing.

Got a multi-day bike packing trip on an old rail track planned for the summer and I can’t decide which to use now.

I got all excited but it’s the wrong side of Canada for me :-(.

Oh well, I’ll have to find another use for the money now.

@thegreatape – Thanks! – I read the blurb on their site which said

“Sizes available- 26.8, 27.0, 27.2 and 30.9 Shims available for larger Posts “

But if you go to order there is a 31.6 no shim option. Sorted.

@Northwind – thanks for the reply – I’m a short @rse and I think that 100mm will actually do me nicely (will need to look at what I ordered last time).

Cheers all.

In typical STW fashion I’d recommend an El Mar as that’s what I have.

It’s a great bike, and gets good reviews.

Rides, err, like a bike.

I live in a state where cannabis is legal.

I’m pretty sure that if you were smoking it outside a school here you would be incarcerated in almost no time.

In some ways legalizing it makes it easier to enforce common sense laws like not smoking it outside a school full of kids.

I’m sat in my beige cube right now. If I bob my head up I can look out onto the rainy Seattle street below.

I’ve been in the US for around four years now, the first three and half in California, then up here since August.

It’s truly a great and terrible place, with winners and losers all around. I’m not really sure how I feel, I love it and loath it. Most of the people I know are pretty chill, and not very angry – but to be fair I mainly know middle class, middle aged, high tech workers.

I get 26 days PTO (N.B.this includes sick days), decent money and I work 8-4 most days with subsidised travel from my (just a bit too nice) suburban home (conveniently near a fantastic little MTB park). My wife has just had knee surgery arranged at a time to suit her in a beautiful new hospital. It will cost half a new bike, (insurance will cover the other $100k). My kids school is newish, has reasonable teachers and decent facilities. The skiing is 40 minutes form my house, and I see mountains whenever the clouds let me.

Every day we drive in past big homeless encampments, about 2/3 of the country are 3 paychecks away from joining them. My employer can fire me for wearing odd colored socks. My kids have ‘active shooter’ drills at school. In many states a poor person can only get treatment at the local A&E. A significant portion of my pay (which is progressively taxed at 28% – no state tax in Washington but it was another 9% in California) goes to fund the world’s largest military which is routinely deployed in ways I don’t approve of. If I mess up in some way my family could end up on the street/living out of a car. My kids might grow up in a country with restrictive abortion rights (I’m looking at you Republicans). Our household income is pretty good (probably top 5%), but if we (I) earned much less life would be significantly less comfortable – and I don’t mean buying a smaller yacht – I mean thinking about paying the bills at the end of the month.

I’m not angry – but I can see how people get that way, and I think it will be an interesting election year.

I agree with CFH – and I actually like the handling – especially with the weight in the bag on the front.

It’s genuinely my favourite bike. Mainly for the sens of freedom you get in town when everyone else is stuck. It saved my evening more then once when I was a London commuter. If the trains got stuck half way home – ride! Snow has everyone stuck in the station car park – ride! Late for a meeting a mile away and no cabs/traffic gridlock- ride!

I’d go so far to as as it’s one of the best, most useful things I own.

I used to commute on my Brompton daily – from Surrey up a hill to the station then a short hop from London Bridge to Old Broad Street.

I went for a S2L but got a smaller (50T) front ring – I think for a cyclist this works well – it’s easy enough to get up a moderate hill without getting too sweaty and you can spin fast enough on the flat to make decent progress. I don’t miss a 3rd gear and it’s lighter.

No experience of this, but my dark secret is occasional hanging out on mumsnet (the shame) where I hear Al-Anon[/url] mentioned a lot. It’s support for the families of alcoholics.

Good luck.

Plus, if you have some nice waterproof and warm walking boots, then you can wear them.

I remember a snowy ride up on the North York Moors 20 years (gulp) ago, I was laughing at my mate in clips and straps with his silly leather walking boots while I was on my ‘pro’ Onza HO pedals and Nike N’Guba shoes.

Cut to a couple of hours later and the rest of us are practically crying with frozen feet and he had this big grin.

If you have kids then the ‘Flying over Canada’ thing at Canada place is cool. As others have said, Granville Island public market is good, Gastown, Stanley Park.

We were there for New Year – it was really cold, because of the humidity mainly, the damp seemed to seep into you.

We really liked the place – but possibly because it was a little bit British (coming on for four years living in the US).

Only had the US version, good – but not as good as In ‘n Out.

Do you remember why we banned handguns? Dunblane/Hungerford?

I live in the US. My middle school (11-14) kids are trained in what to do if there is an active shooter in the school. There have been 52 school/college shootings this year, leaving 30 dead.

I’ll take the risks of terrorism over an excessively armed population with poor/non-existent mental health care, shoddy background checks and a shortsighted obsession with selective constitutional rights any day.

Ski more this winter (if we have one)

Half Marathon in March

Cycle from the Idaho border to home (east of Seattle) on the John Wayne Pioneer Trail – bike packing style.

Do some mini bike overnights after work in the summer.

Do some of the NW Epic long distance XC races.

?Seattle Marathon?

Get Green Card

This cannot be posted enough every time the show airs:

Snow is my favo(u)rite and my best. I love it.

I’m currently living in Seattle, and I’m hoping for a decent winter, but it’s not looking that good over here 🙁

Maybe I should stop driving my 7.4l 2100kg climate killer….

Here your choices are usually 16 or 22oz neither of which are a ‘proper’ pint.