And now this stupid website won’t let me delete my replies. Why do I even log onto STW anymore? I hate it.

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Ah hell, I said I wasn’t going to get involved any more. Should never have opened this thread.</p>

There are a ton of brilliant things out there. If you can’t motivate yourself towards any then look to yourself and start the process of healing yourself with therapy.

Thing is Kryten is that you’ve posted on here about a million times about how worn out you are with training and racing, and for about a million  times people on here have suggested stopping and finding something else.

At some point you have to take responsibility for yourself, acknowledge you’re not happy and flipping change something! Bike riding was your hobby now it’s your prison cell. Get a grip man!

Yes I know I’m being a rude **** but seriously!

I rode it earlier this year (Had a sneak preview). Took us 2.5days, and was an amazing ride even in crazy wet and windy weather. The descent through the slate mines in gale force winds was epic! Brutal last half day just when we thought it was almost done. Travelling S to N btw.

Planned to get a train back from Conwy to Mach but there was a train strike, so after a much needed lunch in a cafe, we followed a ‘gravel’ route suggested by komoot for our return. This meant another overnighter but was equally brilliant.

In summary; bring your climbing legs and enjoy the views. Allow 4 days for the loop.

Strengthlog app. It’s free and works really well. Even offers about a third of its programs for free too. It sets all your targets based on previous lifts and is very intuitive to use. I’m so impressed with it.

Well I love it. Keeps everything nice and green. The air is warm and the ground is only damp really in the big scheme of things. It’s not like true winter slop.

Hate it when it’s too hot. Last year was awful. Everything went brown and dead until it finally started raining in September.

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Couple of young lads with mandatory balaclavas zooming around the kids playground at our local park tonight. It’s effing ridiculous that the police aren’t all over this. It’s 500m from their station yet I’ve never seen one in the park.</p>

I pulled out after lap 2 as well Kryton. I was absolutely wasted by that point. Hard course with all the little bursts of power needed to maintain speed. Am philosophical about it. I’ve ridden a total of 6hrs in the last 4 weeks and none the month before that. Have run lots but that only got me so far.

Brilliant course. I absolutely loved the techy stuff of which there was plenty.

I’m proper excited now we’re having some rain. Softened up all my settings a touch and dropped the tyre pressures. Love it when it gets a bit wild!

I’ll use the first lap to get my eye in and remind my legs how peddling works, then give it the beans for the remainder.

Pretty sure that’s a yes DrP

I’m sure there’ll be plenty of people to team up with.

I’ve signed up for the champs! Silly really as all I’ve been doing recently is running, but it’s not every day a nats comes to your back yard.

I figure if I start near the back then I’ll get a good clear course for a while before all the other cats join in. I love riding at Pippingford, it’s a really fun course.

He’s still got a turn of speed on him hasn’t he! He was miles back with 1km to go. If he’d got lucky and been able to launch slightly later he’d have got it. Aaaaaargh!!!

Bloody Eurosport put the result on their YouTube thumbnail. I was looking forward to watching the highlights this evening. God it winds me up.

Just reading the question made my heart beat faster, so yes, racing does make me anxious.

My entire goal for this year is to try master that so I can enjoy it more.

I’ve always struggled to buy into the Sunday club ride or race being bad training. For me a full gas group ride is the ULTIMATE training.

I was in a mischievous mood last night but I do stand by my beliefs.

Good example this morning: I’d planned a hard run in the classic Thursday threshold session style. However I was tired and sore from previous sessions (and my job) so I just jogged down by the river instead, stopping occasionally to enjoy the dawn.

If on a prescribed program, it would have considered that a missed workout and my jog as unproductive. However in the circumstances my choice was by far the most productive thing I could have chosen for my long term training goals, both physically and mentally.

Pre packaged plans and electronic gizmos cause people to make dumb choices. I believe their net affect is more negative than positive in the long run. This is coming from experience having done both styles of training and talking to many fellows over the years.

Think of me as Neo if it helps.

Nah just gut feeling and experience.

Indeed the thread title is “unproductive” training. The OP has seen The Matrix hence the “”.

Molegrips. I don’t think you’re getting my point. I’m not invalidating training. I’m disputing the term unproductive that the OPs garmin account was suggesting. That I think is garbage.

Thanks munrobiker. I’ve ridden and trained in every which way for the majority of my life. Race results are always pretty uniform.

I started running two years ago. Am dogmaticaly sticking to no data whatsoever. Just a wristwatch so I’m not late for work. I’d say most of my miles would be classed as junk miles by the definitions people use, yet I love going out with a friendly bunch and running to feel. I’m getting pretty quick off it too.

No, it’s not that.

It’s this rubbish about ‘unproductive’ training. Every mile, every ride, every run, walk, sleep, lift, meal, contributes towards your fitness and overall functionality.

An easy bike ride with a mate? A year of easy bike rides? Of course they are productive.

Feel good ride fast, feel tired ride slow. Its so simple and we all did it like this until the magazines told us not to and then the tech companies got all excited and sold us lots of stuff.

I think the whole thing is a lie.

Unproductive, junk, blah blah blah!

It’s all so companies and individuals can sell you something.

And everyone has bought into it and in the giant echo chamber of the Internet it has become fact.

<p style=”text-align: left;”>I’ve had this during a wild gale. At work in a garden I put my gloves on the ground whilst drinking a cup of tea. Something caught my attention and I looked up to see the sky full of tree. It was the entire top of a chestnut that had sheered off. Myself and my co-worker legged it in opposite directions and escaped. One of my gloves was speared about a foot into the ground.</p>
It was the lads first day. He’d been blown up and shot in Iraq. He was looking for a safer career. We laughed hard about that!

Track session last night with the club. We were running 400m reps with 2.5min recoveries. Hit 70s a lap for 6 consecutive reps before the legs mired in treacle on rep 7 when someone upped the pace and I followed.  Haven’t experienced that before; such total shut down. Fun evening.

Had a look on a pace chart. 70s/400m is equivalent to a 2.03 marathon. The mind boggles!

With no financial skill whatsoever, we took out a 10yr fixed in 2021. Nice to win for a change after many years of not reaping the rewards of very low interest rates due to having fixed mortgages.

Guess it all nets out in the end. Have always been cautious so fixed was always the way for me.

GCN stutters constantly on my TV with Firestick. It’s frustrating. OK on phone but I’d rather watch it on the telly.

Starting to really like Cedric in commentary. Made me laugh a few times with his enthusiasm.

Surely plasters are the solution? Applied beforehand.

Bigdaddy has highlighted one of the attractions of racing between the tapes. You can assume the course will be free from walkers or dogs.

I remember a particular corner at a southern xc where I knew I could take a blind corner at full speed because there was a rut on the exit to catch me. I wouldn’t do that on public land but that day I loved the feeling of launching into the unknown without worrying about hitting anyone.

I look at Trainerroad forum quite often and think what a neurotic bunch of people they are, obsessing over every detail and arguing all the time about definitions and protocols etc. It’s clear that training can be as addictive as any class A drug.

I don’t look down on them. I used to be exactly like that. But I do feel relief that I escaped.

All my experience has been on the endurance side of things. I tried an enduro once but all the waiting around ruined my flow and frustrated me.

I used to chat to racing mates about this. Once you’ve done some degree of training, you are about as good as you’re going to get. Sure you can improve slightly but essentially whatever we tried we’d always be roughly in the same place in the field.

Now when I turned 40 this was fighting for the podium at London League cx, however the usual winner Steve was always 2mins ahead of me, so essentially in another league to me. I got 13  podiums in two years I think but never stood on the top step.

It was a fun and wild few years but gradually the training and stress wore me down to the point where I hated racing. So I stopped. It wasn’t easy, felt defined by my abilities but I gradually weaned myself off my dependence. Getting into race promotion was a real balm and after putting on our club race at Sommerhill a few times I realised that I loved this more than the actual peddling and still got to see everyone.

5 years later I’ve got into running. Turns out I’m reasonably quick (17.46 parkrun pb so far), but I’m very cautious about where I take it. I love the feeling of fitness and power, adore the structure of training, and enjoy working with others in a group to get the best out of myself. So to this end racing may figure again. However I’ve set personal challenges as my main goals. The simple target of ‘can I cruise through the landscape all day at a reasonable pace?’ is an alluring goal and worthy of a lot of work. If I use ultramarathons to help with the logistics of this then fine, but I’m wary of chasing times. I don’t wear any data devices and run purely on feel. An occasional parkrun shows my progress but once again my pb has only come down 30seconds in the two years I’ve been doing it. I actually spend more time helping out at parkruns. All the laughs, none of the stress, one big happy family at my local event.

Getting older (now approaching 50) has its benefits. I’ve made peace with myself and I’m not defined by my results. Friendships are friendships regardless. They’d be piss poor if they were dependent on a number.

I think if you’re in the right mindset then xc racing can take you to places mentally and physically that you couldn’t go alone.

Cx bikes are way more fun when amongst a mass of other cx bikes fighting their way around a muddy course. Fact!

Do I still race? No, not really. Not prepared to train hard enough to be at the pointy end anymore and It’s just too darn expensive these days. I can get my kicks for free by running at either a club track session or a parkrun.

That said I’ll hopefully be bothered to race some cx again this season. It is really good fun.

I’m always up around now. Favourite time of day.

Just having a coffee then heading out for a ride. Sounds like a nicer morning than yours.

Stuttering like hell for me on Firestick.

Cheers lunge. I’ll probably get another pair of clifton 8s as my everyday shoe at some point. They’re down to about £70 now and I really like them.

Yeah. I’ve given a mental shrug and look forward to when I get to race in super shoes. I bet if you’re on a good day it feels amazing.
It’s why I’ve come to love track night with my running club. Even in Cliftons you feel so fast and springy.

I think it’s the £200+ price tag plus the fact that they are only recommended for a couple of hundred miles use that seems a bit vulgar.
I was genuinely a bit gutted when after leaving the arms race of cycling, I discovered that carbon had sent running down the same path.

Thing I’m finding is that you just have to throw a few eggs at a wall and see what sticks. Currently I see my Clifton 8s as my super fast, I’m going to kick ass kinda shoe. To me it feels light and springy, despite being almost 2 years old. I use it at track night as well as on club runs and enjoy trouncing the super shoe gang. It’s all about the legs really isn’t it?