Good to know, especially as I’m handicapped by ridiculously short legs.

have decided to celebrate my new found running ability with a bottle of rioja..

I’m glad someone else gets green poop after red wine. Sorry, can’t help with the running question

yeah I had to google that. But worrying when you first see it!

why are you running anyway?

my mental health is at rock bottom. For 26.22 minutes the only pain I had was in my legs which was nice. Cycling is great but my mind wanders far too much if I’m not absolutely caning it.

Intense exercise also gives me a nice buzz. For me it’s  a bit like coke, but without the health impact (and associated hookers)

Yeah it wasn’t remotely enjoyable, but certainly focused the mind which is what I needed

The advice far starting running after a 14yr break is usually start slower

not being funny, but my perception was if I went any slower it would have been more akin to fast walking!

no doubt my legs will be aching in the morning..

Yeah well that conversation has been had and it was as painless as possible. 2 bottle of red have diminished the pain somewhat. Tomorrow will be an almighty hangover but a new start.

Many thanks all

I suppose the real question is, are you wanting to tell her you can’t be friends because you don’t want to keep her in your life if she moves on, or because you want to get back with her and are hoping she actually feels the same and will come running?

fair point, it’s a bit of both really. I already know the answer to the second one really,  however I should have grown a pair and asked her months ago, rather than putting off the inevitable

I guess I’d rather know for sure and then make the break, than always be asking myself ‘what if’.

I assume she is paying for her holiday

yep..

but I do think that her going on holiday with you is a bit rich on her part.

tbf we pretty much did everything together, so much so that a good few of our mutual friends assumed we were still dating. I’d be the one acting as the surrogate boyfriend when it came to pretty much everything, from house hunting, to diy, to driving half way across the country to pick up her new car.

None of which I regret doing, but on reflection it was probably less about wanting ‘me’ to help her, and more about her needing a stand in boyfriend during a not particularly great time in her life (without any of the benefits!)

Emotionally it felt like splitting up again but I had to accept that she had not really done anything wrong

yeah it does feel like that tbh. No idea why as it was always on the cards. I don’t bare her any ill will at all, she hasn’t done anything wrong

And like you I’ve met a few girls over the past couple of years but my heart was really never in it. So I will try to see this as an opportunity to start a fresh new chapter!

OP did you split up with her, or her with you?

her with me. 

that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”

in fairness I did know what I had when I had it, hence I wanted her back! But it’s a great tune all the same…

What’s the betting that OP will do nothing, end up letting the new boyfriend join her and the group of friends on holiday, and have to watch them being all loved-up for a fortnight?

I’ll happily take that bet because it won’t be happening! 

I think honesty is the best approach, I will call her tonight, then drown my sorrows with a nice bottle of red…

thanks for all the opinions folks👍

She’s not actually his friend

well she was before we hooked up, and she still is now. But I’ll admit I wanted it to be more than that

i absolutely need a clean break, I should have had one 2 years ago. It’s just occurred to me we are meant to be going on holiday in a few months to meet up with some friends. I’ll need to bin that off and try to get a refund!

Yeah you are right ghosting is not going to be the done thing here. She hasn’t done anything wrong and deserves more than that.

Be upfront for nothing else than your integrity. You avoided the difficult part first time around, you have to face that down now.

unfortunately this is pretty much spot on.  Should have moved on at the time. Always knew I was just putting it off until latter down the line, need to just man up and get it over with

Tell her how you feel

tbh if she doesn’t know that already she must be an idiot. I don’t think any great proclamation of undying love will serve any purpose here. It’s time to move on and cut ties. 

The simplicity of darts is the best thing about it imo

there are no tactics, it’s fast paced. A casual viewer can tune in to one match a year and still get excited. As I did. The nerves of these lads is phenomenal

If that Luke lad is 16 however, then I’m the king of England..looks about 28.

I got to 4.2 watts per kilo back in 2020 with no structured training and about 6 hrs on the bike a week, so thought I’d try to get back to that standard again start of 2023, and expected to exceed it fairly quickly. Even hired a coach for 6 months

i never got anywhere close..then got injured and Covid, then injured again

Did a full on hr effort the other day. 3.4 w/kg and it absolutely ruined me. Fairly depressing tbh.

Got to agree with convert on this one!

nearly every sport has rules, and an umpire or ref to ensure they are adhered to. In football there may be some subjective assessment of any infringement, however if that’s a barrier to it being defined as a sport then you could argue that really nothing is technically a’sport’

After all if it’s determined little Jonny jumps the gun on the way to running 13 seconds during his school sports day, surely that’s a judgement call? See also any tennis tournament that doesn’t involve hawk eye. Or cycling when Sagan barged cav into the barriers and was subsequently disqualified as the officials determined he’d been reckless

I’ve flown numerous times with my very expensive carbon road bike in a (cheap) hard case and never had an issue. Neither have any of my club mates . I pack the box with my cycling kit to ensure it’s not juggling around in there

i have used a cardboard box in past for my alu mtb, but no danger id consider that option for anything made of carbon that I valued

Agree with swimming and track cycling. Any sport where people can win numerous medals in one games illustrates that there are far too many similar events . It’s no surprise that all our most successful Olympians are track cyclists

id also remove any sport that doesn’t pass a certain threshold for countries that participate. Using the example of track cycling, you are competing against a tiny pool of countries who take it seriously. That combined with the fact competitors have 3 or 4 chances to win a medal against very limited opposition makes it utterly pointless

cant see there can be any argument for paying for what is a potentially lethal pothole

doesnt it need to have been reported previously for them to have any liability?

Boxing is clearly a sport, despite judging being involved (although the judges usually ruin it tbf)

also, last time I was in a fight I had a kebab in my hand at the time, so clearly that’s not a disqualified either..

add golf

Try hitting the ball 300 yards  on the fly or swing the club at 180mph and then come back and tell me that you don’t need to be fairly athletic to be a top golfer. The game has moved on since the days of fatties winning anything in the pro ranks..

That 105 is a decent deal but I want a single ring and they aren’t easy to come by in shimano bolt spec

im looking at the senicx pr3 for about 50 quid. Can’t tell if it has a steel axle however..

Do the senicx cranks have a steel axle? I’m wary of a 24 mm alu axle snapping

Ffs..I am an utter moron..

In a moment of inspiration I realised that the rear brake cable was routed internally. As I don’t have a front mech I could reroute the brake cable on the outer cable guides, then thread an internal dropper cable down the down tube, round the bb, and up the seattube.

so I bought a internal dropper and spent hrs working out how to reduce the travel so it would fit my bike, and paid the lbs 20 quid to reroute and bleed my brake cable

feeling smug I removed the bb only to discover the obvious, it’s impossible to thread the cable from seattube to down tube as the bb shell only has tiny holes in it, which you can get a cable through but the bend is far too tight for a gear cable

so I’ve wasted a ton of time, money rerouting a brake from where it’s meant to be (internally) to where it’s not meant to be (externally). And to make things worse I inserted the post into the frame so it’s now scuffed and can’t be returned 

I am an idiot..

(although in my defense the lbs, when told of my cable routing plan, did confirm that it would work)

The brass key channels?

well there are no brass keys that I can see but the principle is the same as the old model it would appear, just less slots!

next issue is the remote it came with is clearly for a flat bar, won’t fit any part of my drop bar, which is a standard round 31.8 bar!! But of course now I’ve fitted the post it’s got some scores on it so can’t be returned

bollocks..

No they can’t be

Prepare to be amazed!! Digging around there were 2 channels. With a bit of jiggery pokery and 2 tiny zip ties I’ve managed to reduce the travel from 8.5 to 7 cm

no idea how I’ve done that, nor if the post will fall apart within minutes of fitting, but it seems to work!

You need speed play pedals for double sided road use

that said though, I also use spds and I can’t tell any difference. You mention stiff shoes..I have recently swapped my old spesh rimes for a pair of ultra stiff spesh recon (apparently the sole is as stiff as their top road shoes), and I can’t feel the difference there either!

So the shaving of the outer is only to help thread the cable outer initally? Didn’t realise a full cable would get through a bottle boss hole . Will give it a go!

@jamesoz

i found this hack from you from a few years ago..

I’m going to make my usual suggestion. Assuming a cable dropper, thread it though a bottle boss. No need to drill anything. Use a thin outer, shave the plastic off the first couple of cm of the outer. Feed it through a boss with a cable to stop it kinking. Might need a bit of grease to help it along.

can you elaborate a bit on this please. Surely you’d need to split the cable outer either side of the hole, in which case surely you need some kind of cable stop either side of the hole as well? Also..Does a thing piece of inner stop the cable abrading the frame?

Would enable me to run a brand X cx dropper if I can figure out how to do it correctly!

Im fit, do a bit of racing. I wouldn’t use an e road bike. But If someone gave me an e gravel bike I’d use it in a flash. Gravel biking for me is about getting out in wilds, chatting with mates, cake stops and seeing the countryside. Having to bust my ass on a climb after 2 pints and a burger adds nothing to the experience. If I want to get fit I’ll take the road bike and worry about watts, heart rate etc..but if I just want to have fun I’ll take the gravel bike

and I’ve certainly not given up..

Not AF (hopefully) but does anyone get a racing heartbeat occasionally for no reasons? I had an episode this morning, came in from a dog walk and my pulse was showing around 125. Pulse was steady (confirmed by an app I have on my phone), just about 20 beats per min higher than I’d expect it to be. I’m thinking too much alcohol over past few days and not enough water maybe the cause. Went down fairly quickly after a sit down

Brilliant road bike and makes much more sense than a Tarmac for an average non-racing rider. 

why does it make more sense than a tarmac? From what I can tell the geo is fairly similar. It might be fractionally lighter, but it’s not as quick 

some people may like the external cables but I far prefer them hidden. Plenty of space for big tyres on a tarmac for comfort. 

I still say the best endurance road bike out there is the defy, looks great, comfortable, value for money. If you can put up with it being a giant it’s a no brainer imo

Bono…

Can only comment from a road bike perspective but..

3 of my road bikes have 165 cranks

1 has 172.5 cranks

the gravel bike has 170 cranks

the tt bike has 155 cranks

I can’t say I’ve noticed any difference at all between them when pedaling.

Cool thanks

stipid hotmail won’t allow me to change my password for 30 days as the number I have on the account which it wants to send a code to is out of date. Despite me having the existing password! Luckily I didn’t enter the password in the scam email!

I’ve run a scan on phone using something called ‘avast’ and it’s found nothing untoward

really should have MFA

What’s that?

Fair point.. how on earth did they know I’d just set up the other account however, coincidence ?

do I need to do some kind of virus sweep given I clicked the original link? I’m using an I phone 

ta

Giant with their warranty shenanigans would not get a penny out of me I’m afraid.

I have 3 giants and doubt I’d buy another for this reason. It’s a shame as all are excellent. I have a defy and it’s a great all day mile muncher

I also have a tarmac sl7, great bike, it’s on the racier end of spectrum but far from uncomfortable. Not a fan of the looks of the roubaix at all, and it’s far more expensive than other brands

Any Modern endurance bike should have room for large tyres which takes care of the comfort element. You could always add a redshift stem which is excellent, on par with the future shox imo, and saves on the spesh tax