Another Runderwear vote here – the long boxers. The Decathlon boxers rode up and chafed me really badly in longer runs, the Rundies stay put.

Put in two orders a day apart – should have had it all in one but dithered.

Second order arrived by DPD a day after the despatch email.

First order still shows as Royal Mail awaiting handover of the parcel a week after the dispatch email…

1) A weary sigh and long frustrated look directly into the (imaginary) camera;
2) One hand, probably my left, firmly placed atop the button;
3) Another weary sigh and a barely perceptible shrug;
4) A very deliberate push down with the heel of the hand, holding it down for a second as if to make sure;
5) Release, pause a beat, then stand upright, turn on heel and walk purposefully towards the door.

Any recommendations for something warmish and waterproof for out and about casual use?

Like a Montane Prism but waterproof.

OMM Barrage jacket – https://theomm.com/product/barrage-jacket-green-black/?v=79cba1185463 – you may find it cheaper elsewhere

Day 10 – 1hr walk to a distant (but still local) convenience store to buy terrible Margaritas in a can.

Days 8 and 9 – Adventure Race training!

I’m claiming a 24hr event as both days. I need to work out the more precise distances but roughly 90km bike, 25km kayak and 25km trek.

24hr Adventure Race training event with a mate to help get him ready for Expedition Africa (AR World Champs this year) in a few weeks time. Race base at a little village hall near Church Stretton, so some decent hills nearby. Started Saturday lunchtime and did the following:

Bike 1: Ticklerton – Wroxeter(ish)
Kayak: Wroxeter – Ironbridge
Bike 2: Ironbridge – Ticklerton
Trek: Ticklerton – Church Stretton – Ticklerton

None of which, bar the paddle, were exactly a direct shortest route, either!

Got about 90mins kip between the second bike leg and the trek; got in off the bike about half midnight, ate, slept and headed out again about 4am. Didn’t get as far as we’d have liked on foot but conditions and time dictated heading back a little early. Still a very good long play out!

Day 7 – 40min walk. Packing up to head away this weekend but needed lunch, so extended trip to the local shop.

More exciting things for the next two days, fortunately!

Day 6 – 40min walk at lunchtime. Nothing hugely special, but extended a regular route slightly for a little bit extra distance.

Is he as much of a tit as that bloke with a fetish for bottom brackets?

Give Drac his sponge back.

Is that a euphemism? 😉

Don’t think I’d logged yesterday on here so:

Day 4 – 8km, 1hr run with the running club. I’m coming back from more or less 6 weeks off with a calf injury, so a nice steady run where nothing twinged or grumbled was a massive positive.

Day 5 – 3km, 35min walk at lunchtime. Didn’t even buy anything unhealthy at the Co-op to balance it out 😉

And I’m out at a talk on ‘Philosophy for Runners’ this evening, so I’ll be listening to people talk ankle running, at least. Probably doesn’t count though :)

And to the ‘don’t people on a bike forum do 30mins a day?’: I’m pretty fit and healthy, I race multi-day multisport races, but I don’t necessarily fit in at least half an hour every single day.  Stuff like this, Janathon, RED whatever month etc add a bit of accountability that’s a massive positive. I remember the early days of lockdowns and just how much difference to my physical and mental health two 25min walks, to and from my office, made for me each day.

That isn’t a euphemism, especially not in the context of that thread.

“Euphemism – noun: The substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant”

It isn’t even a dysphemism, which is what half the things people think are euphemisms actually are…

I’ve got a WTB Trail Boss and a Maxxis Ardent, both in tanwall, on one of my bikes.

Couldn’t give a toss if the shade’s slightly different. Only swapped to the Ardent because I kept putting holes in the other Trail Boss.

That would be great if it wasn’t pissing it down here…

Good effort eulach.

Very soggy 45min walk for me. Had a parcel to pick up from the local amazon locker so that got me out the door in the rain. Locker is only 500m from home, so took the long way round and did 4km.

Yesterday – couple of hours bouldering at the local climbing wall plus an hour’s yoga in the evening, since the weather was a bit pish

Today – couple of hours steady run/hike up on Ilkley Moor since the weather was a bit better :)

Count me in this year.

I’ve got the head tube (plus a couple of inches of top and down tubes) of an old broken Galaxy touring frame welded to a plate and bolted to my garage door. My other half didn’t get the joke when I referred to it as the Dawes handle.

Yep, another one like binners and ravingdave. I am ‘naturally’ really, really crap at budgeting. Only because I have a decent wage that I would find it very difficult to blow through without the aid of C&H do I no longer find myself totally skint with a week to go before payday. I’m slightly better than I was, but none of the advice from anyone above would have helped when I was at my shittest with it, it’s simply that I’m quite impulsive and don’t always think purchases through – it was definitely a “Ooh look, there’s a shiny thing I like the look of and I have the money to have it”, regardless of what else that bumped come later in the month.

The thing that *has* helped is curbing that impulsiveness and evaluating properly whether I need that thing, whether it has to be that one, whether I can find it cheaper somewhere else, whether there’s a cheaper alternative that scratches the same itch etc. Oh, and (after getting into a scrape or two with them) not using credit stuff like Paypal Credit/Pay in 3, Klarna etc, recognising that they’re not solving the issue, they’re just making it next-month Me’s problem…

Because it wouldn’t be the last place.

It still would be…

I’ve just switched over to one of the Shimano dropper post levers after the grub screw on my BrandX rounded out – easy, way better design like the clamp bolt on a rear mech.

Not done the L50 or 100 – the numbers running put me off a bit! Next year’s biggie will be The Lap, though.

I’m coming back from a month off running after a small-ish calf tear, which was a bugger as I’d been running pretty well up till then. Did a leg of the Leeds Country Way relay on Sunday, about 10 miles of trail, paired with a guy from our club who’s a bit quicker than me. Suffered in the second half because of the pace, the heat and the lack of prep, should have asked him to rein it in a bit more in the first half. Got there in the end, 1:57 for 15-and-a-bit km was about as fast as I was capable of anyway!

Managers who are only trained to manage but have never done the work themselves 😔

Equally, people who have been trained to do the work, and then due to either time served or ambition, have been promoted to management. Both are as bad as each other at times.

(And then there’s people like me who aren’t trained at either and have just picked both up as I go. I probably give everyone the heebie-jeebies…  :D )

Almost all of mine are the making of someone saying “I’ve found this system that we want, can you install it for me?” instead of “This is the problem I’m trying to solve, what can you find that fits the brief?”. People don’t understand that my little bit of IT doesn’t just involve installing stuff, it involves all the IG and Cybersecurity shenanigans as well. This being the NHS, we’re a little bit cagey about where our data goes, surprisingly enough, not that our management seem to understand that. And of course, I’m the bad guy when I say no and pick holes in the product they’ve hopefully not paid for yet…

In a fit of delusion somewhere on Mull last year, me and my adventure race teammates started discussing a horror story where a mad scientist  creates a midge-tick hybrid.

I thought this was going to be something else. Disappoint.

Someone beat me to Oysterband – Blood Wedding, but another bit of misinterpreted genius had a mate wanting REM – The One I Love played at his wedding, until someone pointed out the “this one goes out to the one I left behind…” part

I’ve got the Blackburn cages on mine, drilled an extra hole for the third bolt. Use them with Sea to Summit 5l ‘Big River’ drybags, but only for lighter stuff – usually my tarp and groundsheet, plus a few other light bits – so they don’t affect the handling too much.

No it applies to anyone processing the data of eu citizens regardless of where that processing takes place. Of course we ain’t eu citizens any more, but gdpr was integrated as part of the uk’s data protection act so if you are offering goods or services to customers within the UK you should still comply.

… And if you’re not supplying a good or service, but simply there to scam, do you think they give a flying <expletive deleted>?

Note also for those who are repeatedly quoting GDPR: It only applies in Europe. A little dude sitting in an office in Delhi where a large number of cold calls, and particularly scam calls, originate from couldn’t give two hoots about you trumpeting ‘GDPR’, because it’s largely irrelevant to them. The Indian equivalent is the “Information Technology Act, 2000” and it doesn’t include any specific reference to lawfulness of processing of personal data – see https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/gdpr-and-india. So, TJ shouting that people “can’t legally access his data” is only half right – whether they’ve got info through a web scrape or a lapse of concentration related to a consent button, they might not actually be doing anything illegal under the law in their country.

(Source: Had to go through a lot of this recently due to a potential outsourcing situation and it came up as an IG concern, unsurprisingly)

I use a Fork Cork with a CO2 and some tubeless anchovies stuffed up in the steerer as a backup. The anchovies stop the gas canister rattling, at least I’ve never noticed it being noisy.

Got there eventually! Thanks Mark and Hannah :)

Crap clue for anyone else – does not involve ‘Bandit’ as the first word… ;)

Future feedback! Any chance, where an answer is multiple words, that it could be indicated in the clue like the usual (5,3) format?

3 down is properly bugging me and not knowing how many words I’m looking for is mildly infuriating :)

Despite initial misgivings, I’m quite liking my Hoka Cliftons, and they were cheap on SportShoes.

Gigi d’Agostino – Bla Bla Bla ?  – Black & white, cartoon monsters, mountain (of sorts…)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrph2EW9VjY

(and for the Europop 80’s cover fans – The Riddle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvvd-9azD1M )

The 2010 XPD Adventure Race in Oz had a few brushes with that thing’s slightly less angry little brother, the ‘Giant Stinging Tree’. Treatment was using waxing strips to pull out the fibres, then laying hydrochloric acid-soaked paper towels on the affected area. Delightful!

( See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q5fhEa0lCc from about 3:00 in. )

It’ll be a laugh, it usually is.

I’ll be there in some capacity that isn’t riding :)

Great effort @IvanDobski – most essential part of being an Ultra runner is finishing, regardless of time!

I followed up the mile race above with a 5km PB at our Club Handicap yesterday evening. Slightly convoluted rules: you submit your own estimated time, slowest estimates start first, so in theory everyone should finish at roughly the same time, and the winner is the person who gets closest to their estimated time minus 30s. Anyone who runs more than 30s faster than their estimate is disqualified, presumably for lying about their estimate to get an earlier start time.

Turns out, you definitely get disqualified if you run a PB time 2:30 faster than your estimate 😂

In my defence, my estimate was based on being maybe a minute quicker than my last Parkrun. Hadn’t factored in that my last Parkrun was December, though…

Did someone click ‘convert to greyscale’ when they sent the designs through! 🙂

Sort of. They did selective colourisation of the interesting/exciting/unique bits.

Past couple of nights have been the opposite of my normal running – short and fast rather than long and slow!

Post Hill Relays in Pudsey on Tuesday night – 3.8km per lap and hilly trail relay, running as leg one for a Male Vets team, so pretty much balls out from the start and gasping through to the handover. Just under 21mins and handed over to my teammates not in last place, so happy enough with that.

Hyde Park Summer Mile on Wednesday night – 1 mile race, set off in ranked heats of 30-40 people based on your estimated time. I was in Heat 4 of 13 going off a 7:15 estimate, started 2/3 of the way back in the group, worked my way forward through the first lap, caught the leader with 400m to go and managed to pass and hang on for the win. Knocked 30 seconds off my estimate – 6:42 at the finish – so properly chuffed. Then got to kick back with pizza and coffee while the later heats of properly fast people showed us all how it should be done!

Especially coming off the back of a 50km Ultra a few weeks back and 100 miles on the bike for Ride to the Sun at the weekend, I’m really happy with how I’m running at the moment.