We have had much fewer cases than expected here in Aus and all elective surgeries were stopped. My sister is a nurse and had to take annual leave, bank nurses had no work. They have now opened up some elective surgeries an are going to gradually start easing restrictions. Teaching from home sucks

A block of chocolate, however now need to explain to my wife how the mice opened it, ate it all and put the wrapper in the bin. Might need to invest in some mice traps (or less chocolate)

Ride once a week in the dark, although more dirt road/fire trail now than single track as don’t want to come a cropper on my own in the dark well away from rescue. I use a phone app called ROAD ID which is a tracker and sends a messsage out if you stop for more than 5 minutes.

Wifes family moved there when she was young, they had posh southern accents, double barrelled surnames and were a foot taller than the locals (she is 6’3″, her brothers 6’5″ and 6’7″). Her brother says the highest point in town geographically and culturally is the slag heaps. The plus of growing up there was spending lots of time in the lake district though.

Wife has a set on her roadie, aero light disc. They have been great, although not had heavy use so far. She is really happy with them as am I as I have to fix her bikes when things go wrong (if she remembers to tell me)

Worst was about a year ago, just coming down a fire trail, not technical just a bit steep. Think I washed out the front wheel and over the bars, luckily was riding with a a mate. Unconcious for about 10 mins then walked out to the ambo (wanted to ride home apparently). 3 column break of T11 and broken occipital condyle (base of skull where spine attaches). Don’t remember the week in hospital afterwards. Luckily no long term issues although the head injury does worry me.

When I was off last year in neck and back brace for months I walked lots (initially very slowly) and then got onto zwift on the smart trainer while sitting very upright, very gently keeping power right down and just turning over legs.

We did the nit combing with conditioner weekly/biweekly for years, had constant re-infestation from nursery/school. I never got infested but the wife did from the kids when we left it a bit long. It eventually stopped. The poinsons aren’t great and you get resistance in the nit population to them.

Unfortunately here in Melbourne Australia the local shops to me don’t have ones I can test ride, the advantage of the Spesh is that the shop is closest and I’ve a good relationship with them, cannondale dealer is a pain to get to. Bit of a cannondale fan, have a scalpel as my mountain bike. However managed to break myself fairly badly on it a year ago (broken vertebrae and base of skull) which has slowed me down descending and led to me wanting disc brakes on the roadie (I know the traction limit is the tires, but the brakes do make a difference for modulation etc) plus I want a new shiney toy and the big birthday seems a good option given I don’t really do parties. Thanks for the advice.

My 50th in a few months, planning on a new shiney (fairly expensive) new road bike. Want disk brakes and Di2 shifting, old road bike was second hand 7 years ago (and the only roadie I’ve ever owned). Also will be camping with family in a national park near the beach (it’ll be summer here). Probably do a relaxed pub night with a few good mates when we get back. Not really into big parties.

50 this year, broken bones in double figures (including Vertebrae, base of skull, cheek, heel, wrists and shoulder) in a number of daft activities. I do need daily prescription anti-inflams, but have for over 10 years due to alkolysing spondylitis. I don’t sleep well without them. I do have to keep active or I stiffen up, but definately ache less than mid 30’s. Staying active and taking my pills (as directed both by doctor and doctor wife). I get no sympathy at home from doctor wife or teenage kids either.

Had two in the last 3-4 years. Take time off work and bin the helmet, take things easy longer than you think necessary. First one was in a lap XC race, don’t remember the crash or about 15 minutes afterwards, got back on the bike, started realising where I was and what had happenned half way through the next lap, rode very carefully through the rest of the lap to transition and stopped, saw first aide and got driven home. Had 3 days orr work, should have taken 1-2 weeks as I was not with it when I came back. Second one had much longer off as I also broke vertebrae and base of skull.. Don’t remember most a week in hospital and still a year later think it still has effects on me. Would rather never have another one. First one didn’t even hit the helmet as the blow was side and base of head, second one the helmet got binned, but had a big hole in it anyway

We had the ‘unnecessary scan’ offered also for a paralysis disease in our old dog, suggestion being she’d eaten something bad or been bitten by a snake. We’d already done the emergency care vet overnight stay at that point. The only benefit of the scan would have been to say she’ll die or not die. We didn’t go for it, she recovered over a period of weeks with home care (at times very messy) and went on to live many years longer. The vets were great and very open about costs/benefits.

If you go phenergen, do a test run first, apparently it can make some kids hyper rather than sleepy. We carried it on a flight to australia along time ago when we had two under 2’s so they would at least sleep some of the time but didn’t end up using it.

Its just for identifying routes isn’t it, not for fitness tracking.

Have an elite direto, it is great. I started off with sufferfest, great for training but moved onto zwift as I find it more engaging, although not as good with training plans. I like the changing scenery and other people riding rather than the vids for sufferfest (although I think that is a better training system). I just use my laptop with ANT dongle. Seems to generally work well, had a few issues with the laptop picking up the trainer but think that is due to dodgy USB ports on the laptop.
You will sweat, alot. Get a good fan

Here in Aus it is kangaroos, they see a car and jump from teh verge onto the tarmac and skid sideways. Alway told never to swerve to avoid one at speed, you’ve a good chance of putting the car off the road and into a tree on country roads.Panel damage to the car is significantly better than the risk of serious injury or death.

feet face the door mainly because if I jump (or fall) into bed from the doorway or close to, thats the way I land. Haven’t learnt to do forward rolls in the air and worried I’ll injure myself.

After having a serious concussion (amongst other serious injuries) and not remembering a week in hospital (possibly the best way to spend a week in hospital) I’d go mips. Didn’t get one when i replaced the helmet as the store I walked into didn’t have any. Waiting to see it the bontrager new system is all it is cracked up to be, if so I’ll lash out for a new one even thougn the older one is only a few month old.

meant ‘ not 97

I did it in 97, did the camp option. Showers were a bit hit and miss, ice cold one place, too hot to stand under at another (a first for me). Bring a good sleeping mat (I use an EXPED one), and be prepared tpo go with dirty clothes as there isn’t places really to dry clothes other than over benches in the gyms, I bought 3 sets of gear. Food was OK, cafeteria style, pasta dinner from memory, breakfast was fine. There was lots of food out at the food stops. Often got into the final destination and went for a beer and snack with some of the other rides I met (the brits usually), before dinner. Depends on how seriously you are taking the racing. I really enjoyed it, but have never done anything similar. Doing the Pioneer in NZ this year (held over from last year due to a serious crash late last year) so will be able to compare.

I understand where you are coming from, been 6 months since my stack breaking vertebrae, occipityl condyle and serious concussion/head injury. I luckily healed well, although I still worry about the head injury whenever I forget something or struggle with a simple problem. I’m still not as keen on mountain biking, although I’m going to get back into social racing as that is where I catch up with a number of friends. I haven’t ridden the mountain bike a great deal, not helped by the fact it keeps breaking every time I go out one it (maybe its trying to tell me something?) but I have been zwifting and doing some road rides I’d been wanting to do but kept putting off. I find indoor stuff dull but helpful, and not as stressful as outdoor stuff.
Traffic definitely makes me more nervous these days and I have to push through the lack of motivation, but I have got the New Zealand Pioneer booked for the end of this year (held over from last year due to the injuries). Having a big goal definitely helps, especially as it is a pairs race and I don’t want to let down my partner.
Hope things improve for you, at least you are coming into better weather which should help, we are going the other way here in Aus. Things do get better slowly.

To be fair I teach in a catholic boys school in Aus (I’m not catholic) and our school came out and supported it and supports gay students.

wedding ring (comes off for climbing, stays on for riding but I wear full finger gloves), watch (black citizen ecodrive thingy) and 2 earings (small stainless rings)

For rides up to 5 hours, museli bars, snakes and water. only use gels if racing as they are a very expensive way to get a quick dose of sugar.

Been riding 20 odd years, up till 5 months ago I could say the worst was 2 broken fingers, lots of bruises and bits of skin over many minor stacks. 5 months ago, on a fire road and not going stupid fast, came off, broke T11 vertebrae (3 column break) and base of skull. Don’t remember my only ambulance ride or most of the next 5 days in hospital. On the bright side, all healed now and doing my first 100 km mtb ‘race’ tomorrow, the otway oddysey. will be done a bit more gently than in the past.

riding, crashed, broken, healed, riding

Snakes are always a worry (brown or tiger mainly), or spiders (redback being the bad ones here in Victoria)

Better he is shit at home and great away from home than the other way around (although hard), which ours luckily have been. Bastards though they can be (lovable ones at times), we hardly ever have had issues at school and never major ones.

It isn’t easy. As a teacher of teenage boys and a parent of one it can be a pain in the ass, and ours only has one set of rules. We do the no technology upstairs (where the bedrooms are) and follow this ourselves so there is no ‘but you do’ comeback. Had all the screentime issues and screams/threats. The thing which calmed hime down I think was when he screwed up royally. A few years ago he ran up a $AUD 1800 bill on our credit card on an online game (legalised gaming aimed at kids). He lost his computer for 6 months, and had to pay us back out of his pamphlet round money/christmas birthday money etc. Took him almost a year but he did. I didn’t chase the debt with the company as I had the view he’d run it up, he had to pay (we didn’t know he had the credit card number and took eyes off the ball over a week). We now occaisionly take the modem and lock it in the car, means no netflix or internet for us, pain in the ass but managable).

Only done two races so far, one a week as I’m also doing a training plan so whenever I get onto zwift I seem to have a workout ready to do. My focus however isn’t on racing but on regaining fitness lost through injury for riding outdoors and doing the odd mountain bike race (as a make up the numbers type racer). Did enjoy the zwift races I’ve done though in a masochistic ‘whip me a bit more’ fashion, although I finished well off the back of B group (my FTP puts me at the bottom end of the group so not too surprising)

Ah, makes sense if they had been upgraded.

Cheers

Did the WBR london 4 lap race today, at the border between C and B so decided B. Dropped after 10 km which is 5 km better than my last race. Was at at the back of B, 2 minutes off the B leaders, but also 2 minutes ahead of the C leaders so guess I picked right.
Curious though how 2 people in B with better times based on zwiftpower leaderboard finished behind me. Also set a new FTP.

I’m sorry but your leg will have to be amputated. It can be done at home with a bottle of scotch (or tequlia for more fun/hangover) and a kitchen knife/chainsaw. remember to use a vaguely clean tea-towel as a bandage and a few big rubber bands to minimize bleeding.

Didn’t make the race I’d planned this morning, so instead did the 1 hr FTP test. Was good to get some hard numbers, FTP has dropped 10-15% since my accident, unfortunately puts me right on the border between C and B (3.182 W/Kg). Have to do some training I think. I assume the FTP test doens’t take into account gradient to alter effort.

Won’t be able to hold high power for sprints, don’t want to stress the back too much yet and will be at the lower end of the power band. Haven’t done a FTP test since the accident but was around 300 ish before. Will try for either the 9.05  am or 10.15 am melbourne time ones and cruise it if I get dropped too quickly. I was going to do something this evening but pizza and a cold beer interfered.

Moved from Camberwell, London to Warrandyte, Melbourne Australia (near to where I grew up) about 10 years ago. On the banks of the yarra river, mountain biking from the door, good road riding from the door also. Kayaking in the river, off lead dog walking down by the river (important for the dogs) and 20 minute commute by bike from work. Even got a decent pub within walking distance. Choice seems easy.

Finally out of neck brace and back brace only as needed. Can finally grip the handlebars. I might try one of the WBR races tomorrow. First ever zwift (or road) race. Thinking Cat B. Done two Cat C group rides last few days and found them fairly relaxed efforts so hoping I won’t be dropped of the back too quickly.

Good to see you ahve maintaned the presence of mind to kick off a good debate, speaks well of the recovery from concussion (caused or not by the helmet). Hope all going well and rest of recovery proceeding well.

I love our Mazda 6. second one we have owned, although avoid the diesels.