Any updates from Bath? I’m supposed to drive across for a 112k Audax tomorrow! 😈

Anyone seen that film Doomsday? 🙂

Oooh, and here’s a picture of it in its best incarnation (minus the saddle bag)! If anyone sees it out and about let me know eh?

I’ve had a 5.5EVP, and it felt steep with 120mm of travel. I slackened it out to 160mm with a pair of Fox 36 Floats, and it was just a little too slack.

IMO 150mm is the sweet spot for that frame – and it’s an absolute ripper with that much travel. I was running a CCDB coil on the back and Float 36RC2s on the front and it ate up everything I threw at it. Set up as 1×9, E13 full guide, 65mm stem / 710mm bars. Really regret selling it!

Slipknot – Iowa was probably their best effort.

Haha I remember this! That’s the album with “People = ****” as the second track. Genius. Weirdly, my enduring memory of Leeds in 2001 was watching Slipknot on a stage and this kid walks past wearing massive boots and huge baggy jeans… complaining to his accompanying mother about the mud getting on them. Good times 😆

I think one of my parents bought me “Seventh Son” on cassette when I was 7 years old. Memories are hazy, is that worth a (re-)listen??

Death Magnetic is surprisingly good compared to the preceding albums. In fact, that’s my afternoon tunes sorted!

As has been mentioned before, waistline dims, scale weights are basic, possibly even crude markers of good overall physical health. imo

Yeah, but I’ll have abs and then all the girls will think I’m fit. That’s the point, right?? 😛

Easy to follow? I seriously don’t think so, since everyone knows it and most people fail to follow it.

It’s easy to follow if you track exactly how much you eat and know what the calorific value is AND have the willpower to not overeat.

It is not easy to follow if you enjoy the taste of cakes. I think that’s almost certainly the overriding factor!

It’s a shame really, as the bikes do ride really well. But it was (is?) apparently a bit of a lottery in terms of getting a straight frame.

To reassure you, I’ve had:
– 2006 Uzzi
– 2007 Socom (still going!)
– 2009 5.5
– 2011 Tazer

And they were all straight with no issues. Hoping the Tracer 2 I’m picking up to replace the Tazer will continue the trend 😀

WHY weren’t there better systems in place so that couldn’t happen?’

Because not everyone should be forced to cater for the bottom 1%?

Yep!

A set of digital kitchen scales was a major eye-opener for me.

Lots of foods have big stars on them boasting “only X calories per serving” – but the scales reveal that their “suggested serving size” wouldn’t feed a baby robin.

Digital scales told me that I was actually eating two servings of breakfast every day. D’oh!

That link to Huffington Post is the biggest load of guff I’ve read in a long time!!

Fat. All fats release nine calories per gram when burned. But omega-3 fats are heart-healthy and will save your life, while trans fats clog your arteries, leading to a heart attack. Because a calorie is not a calorie.

Calorific value is not directly related to nutritional value, HOLD THE **** PRESS you heard it here first folks

I’m using Ultegra pedals – lovely bits of kit, £75 a pair. Should give you enough leftover cash to find a reasonable pair of shoes – I’m using Shimano R087s in a 44 wide fit (just under £70). Work well as a combo, although I’ve had to buy shoe covers for this winter.

Alternatively, 105s will work almost as well and give you an extra £40 for shoes if you want something a bit stiffer / more race-y.

Definitely being put off by the cold this week… I was ill last week so skipped a load of training, feeling better this week but absolutely no desire to go out in this temperature!

I’m supposed to be running to/from work as well, and that is not happening. Even with gloves and ear warmers on!

Predator Flex fan here as well – comfy, good visibility, not silly expensive.

I went for a handbuilt option from JRA… Chris King hubs, CX-ray spokes, Stans Alpha 340s. Light, blingtastic, noisy.

Also – loads of spokes so less likely to go out of true, and easier to fix if they do. Could have gone for a lower spoke count but I wanted something that would last 🙂

Less obvious… Fox 36 Float spaced down 10-20mm. Love my RC2s 🙂

Umm… the launching of applications isn’t hidden? Start screen pops up, you can configure what apps you want there. Put the ones you use up, Bob’s your uncle.

If you’re looking for something specific, press Winkey and start typing… just like Windows 7.

If you don’t like the whole Start screen when you fire up Windows, you can press the Winkey to jump to the desktop. What would you do next though – launch an application? So you need to go back to the Start screen I guess….?

Like I say – I did NOT like Win 8 when I started using it, but some of the UI changes are actually really handy when you get used to them 🙂

What exactly are you having trouble with?

Just think of it as Win 7 but with a full-screen start menu, instead of a tiny series of menus that you have to dig through. It drove me up the wall for the first day or so, but now I really enjoy using it – the full-screen, interactive Start menu is fab 🙂

Hand inside plastic bag, pick up carcass, invert bag, tie top.

Of course that implies you don’t mind picking up a bird with an extremely thin layer of plastic between you and it. Freaked me out when I had to do it! 👿

Edit:

Quick question – if a cat was interested, would it eat the head? I might possibly be able to cope with feathers if there’s no head.

If you’ve got a kitchen knife I may have a solution for you

Dogs all day long:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattbellassai/the-40-greatest-dog-gifs-of-2012-6z51

Yhe biggie if you don’t have kit is to make sure Mrs J doesn’t get nude in the transition – that’s a big no-no! So you need to make sure Mrs J has a layer she can leave on the whole way through the event – be it a tri suit, swimwear, whatever.

Other than that, just have fun! As above, sprint tris are very inclusive – I’ve seen two 50+ ladies on shoppers having a chat on the way round the bike loop, and a Blur with knobblies in transition waiting to go out. It’s all good 🙂

The bit after the bomb’s gone off? It’s basically a big long quicktime event, you need to push the right buttons to get Max to walk up the stairs. I think it might be a left/right waggle or L and R, but can’t remember exactly – it’s been a while since I played!

I’ve done this route (or very similar) before, and it was quite nice. Only iffy bit is the off-road section (Mardock’s farm) – a mile or two of quite bumpy singletrack. My roadie handled it just fine, you just need to stay light on the way down 🙂

http://www.mattababy.org/~belmonte/Home/Bicycle/Cambridge_to_London/

Thanks – new trainer tyre and HRM strap on the way 🙂

It’s all DH 🙂

The Specialized FSR DH that Palmer rode was a work of absolutely beauty. I reckon it’s a great looking bike – even looks good by today’s standards (bar the enormous 46t front ring!)

Cannondale Gemini DH – with two shocks for 18 square inches of travel. A fantastic bit of out-of-the-box thinking, although apparently it didn’t work well enough to warrant the extra weight. Would love to have a ride on one though.

Yeti 303. Very 2006, but I loved the look and the idea behind the rail-driven shock. Nearly got one as my first DH bike before I went for an Intense instead!

I was down to sub-80 kg before I went skiing. A week in the snow plus a whole load of cheese means I’m back up to 84kg.

It’s almost certainly all muscle 😆

I’m 31.
All down hill now

Right there with you… except that DH is the best part 🙂

Also: I’ll be doing an Ironman just after I turn 32, which is definitely the hardest thing I’ve done in my life so far. It’s all on the up 🙂

Twirls are brilliant. But I still mourn the Spira 🙁

So I take it you will not be coming on the STW forum again in protest at the proliferation of ads that appear that fall into the categories you describe?

I would have thought the best course of action would be to report the ad, rather than just avoiding the problem. No?

Lille is quite nice – a little touristy, but the food is great (if you like Flemish food, so meat-heavy). Last time I was there I had mature cheese and whiskey as a starter. 8)

The three I’ve got now, I guess:

1. Carbon road race / TT bike (2 sets of wheels, 2 seat posts, clipons)
2. 4″ full sus play/XC bike (Tazer)
3. 8″ full sus DH bike (Socom)

I don’t do hardtails any more (they are not comfy enough) and I’m fit enough to drag round a 4″ one-ring bike all day 🙂

It’s not like roadie jerseys are exactly high fashion:

What are you on about, that Grover one is amazing 😀

I’ve had two sets so far – the Parabolica Unos (1 bend) that you’re looking at, and now the USE Tula boost (S-bend). IMO it’s down to personal preference – you really need to try and see what best fits you / your bike / your most comfortable wrist position.

There’s some good stuff on extension shape here: http://predatorcycling.com/bike-fitting/the-legacy-of-the-aerobar/

Incidentally – IF you decide you want 1-bends, I’m selling my old set of Parabolica Unos 🙂

I think the key thing is to get into the mindset that they haven’t gotten rid of the start menu… it’s just that now when you press the Windows key it takes up the whole screen, not a piddly little menu bar.

Think of the Metro UI as a bigger, easier-to-navigate start menu and it starts to make a lot more sense on the desktop 🙂

My PB (at a parkrun last week) is 26:01. I’m with the slowcoaches here, I reckon a 20min 5k / 40min 10k is pretty fast from where I’m standing…

If you can already pull out 400m / 20k / 5k then you don’t really need to train for a tri sprint!

In terms of training plans – have a look at trinewbies: http://www.trinewbies.com/tno_trainingprograms.asp
If the training plans there are less (distance-wise) than you normally do, try doing the shorter distances at a faster pace?

Also, as MSP says – if it’s an Open Water tri, getting a bit of OW practice in is definitely a good idea. You might also want to practice your transitions (Swim->Bike, Bike->run) and do a couple of ‘brick’ sessions, where you do two exercises back-to-back. Run into bike is always interesting!

I’ve put on 2kg over Christmas, so now up to 83kg at 5’10”. I’ve got an Ironman in October, so aiming to get down to a race weight around 75kg.

I’m in with the weight loss program! Kickstarting it this month with an alcohol-free January and hopefully a whole raft of swimming/running/cycling 🙂

Far Cry 3 is GOTY for me. Not cheap on sale or owt – it’s a new release – but it’s brilliant if you’re an FPS fan.

Plus they content has been cracked wide open, so there are quite a few mods out already 🙂

Massive