MMFy

Quite a few decent climbs... http://app.strava.com/activities/148097823

I ride with a helmet on the road, but rarely bother if I'm riding cycle trails (paved). As already said, if you get hit by a car, any protection must surely be better than none. I always wear a helmet snowboarding as well, despite people thinking snow is soft and harmless, there's a large number of head injuries sustained, and I do not want to become part of that statistic. On a more cheery note, I did my first sportive yesterday. Only a 50-miler (my usual weekend rides are now around 60-70 miles) but it had some ridiculous climbs. Over 1800m in total. I can barely feel my legs this morning!

Can't say it's ever bothered/affected me. It will however massively improve fitness and stamina though...

Good intel. This rules out Lieutenant Dan and the human centipede.

Trust me, you will get addicted to it! I've passed the 1000km mark since early March and I'm going to get 5000km+ in this year. Got to better the 4000km I got in last year...

If your budget is £700 and you ride for distance, there's a bike shop in Leeds selling Cannondale Synapse Tiagra. It's a good bike for distance and retails pretty much everywhere else in the country for £900-£1000. A friend bought one three months ago and she absolutely loves the thing. After a quick check though, I can't find it. They do have a Synapse 105 for £800 though. The 61cm frame may be a touch too big though. I'm an inch taller than you and I ride a 58cm Cannondale and love it. http://www.drakescycles.co.uk/m1b0s6p4150/CANNONDALE_Synapse_5_105_C_2013

I wouldn't worry too much about text flowing from a company that broadcasts the intellectual delight that is ITV2.

Finally, three weeks later...

And just to skew the thread...

I got an excellent one atop the Empire State Building on Sunday as well, but it's sitting in my SLR, so no posty until home.

Some of our New Yorker posters might recognise this lamp post (I'm in New York this week).

Ah, working nights on the track at Land Rover. If you want to see how much of a word removed you can be, that's one sure fire way to bring it out. Did that for years, swore I'd never work a night shift ever again.

I can't say I've ever had a really shitty job. I've had a couple of boring jobs I should have left long before I eventually did. I have worked for a couple of absolute rocket polisher managers in the past though. One waged a two-year war against me after I had reported him for letting me down badly on a job opportunity. I was due to work in Tijuana for three months, teaching the local people how to use x-ray equipment to inspect ducting for aeroplane engines. I turned down another job to do this, knowing I would pretty much earn £1000/week for the three months. It never happened, and he then tried everything he could to stop it happening. I reported him to a counsel within the company, but at the head office in the US, and the investigation filtered down to him rather than the usual grievance procedure which never works anywhere ever. He got a massive bollocking for his behaviour towards me, and I got a compensation payment. After that, he stopped my overtime, took me off the shifts I had worked for years, lied about risk assessments (that never happened) to try and make me wear different clothes at work (seriously) and regularly called me to his office (a good 5 minutes walk from where I was working) just to give me demotivational bollockings. It was known around the company that he had an issue with me and wanted revenge for me reporting him. Two years later, I reported that another guy was doing a job outside of the procedure which had been agreed with the customer to prevent a product recall and he ignored it. I tried to get evidence that the other guy was not doing his job right, and he used it against me, saying I had sabotaged a product. I hadn't. I got sacked. It was the best thing that has ever happened to me. I see the guy now and again in the local area. He pretty much shits himself when he sees me but I just don't acknowledge him. He is a cockmaster of epic proportions, who I wouldn't even give the steam off my piss, let alone the effort it would take to make eye contact with him. Another manager at a different company a number of years ago had handed a couple of projects onto me with one of our more difficult customers. I did everything that was asked of me on the project, but he failed to notify the customer I was working on the project. When it came round to the annual appraisal, he had printed out 92 emails from the customer, and sat with the technical director and HR manager, with the pile in front of him, asking why I had not responded to them. I hadn't even been sent them! My name didn't appear on any of the emails. I walked back to my office, collected my laptop and returned to the appraisal, with Outlook on the screen, and proceeded to show all in the room the folder I kept for emails from that customer, and the response times/dates. Not one email had been with me for more than two hours before I had investigated and responded. His recourse? He told me I should have contacted the customer to introduce myself as the new project engineer. This was not possible. This is a major, if not the biggest, automotive manufacturer in the world, and employs hundreds of thousands of people. There was no way I could possibly even locate the correct contact, other than to go through my manager, which he should have done at the project handover. Three weeks later, I was told there would be one redundancy in the team, and that my position was the one to go. Not that fussed, I was looking to leave at the time, and the redundancy pay-off made my relocation to the south west a bit easier...

I'd rather approach a pack of salivating rottweilers with my pants stuffed full of bonios that listen to one second of ABBA by choice. Absolutely can't stand them. Right up there with Paul McCartney.

I've never seen the hype with the Beatles. John Lennon was good, but listening to the White Album you can pick out what was written by Lennon and McCartney separately very easily. Without Lennon there wouldn't have been a Beatles, and without Lennon, nobody would have ever heard of Paul McCartney. Which would have been good. I really can't stand Paul McCartney.

It was that colour as well. First car I remember my dad owning. K plate. Now he's driving a brand new Freelander, while I'm driving a £400 Clio. I'm not knocking the £400 Clio, I've got better things to spunk money on than cars...

The Beckhams are insufferably boring, but I hope this works out for them. He's got the connections in the industry to pull this off, and I hope he does well.

With Dave Lee Travis and Paul Gambachini right amongst the thick of the Savile investigation, Savile's driver's suicide, the alleged arrest of another bearded former Radio 1 presenter this week, I still reckon there is legs in this one.

35? I only managed to get to just about being able to complete it though. 5.12 finish. But I didn't do anything serious like a good diet or targeted exercise or anything, just upped the distance every week at 10 mins / mile. About the same here. I had never run more than 8.5 miles before I did my half marathon. You've only got a three year advance on me so I should be good for a marathon by next spring. Hoping these I bought his afternoon will help on Sunday morning...

Stoke win, all over. Hopefully forever.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/gb/bideford-eng/bideford-10-route-878829 A massive 121 feet total climb. I'm not going to predict a time for this one, but I would like to better the pace I achieved in the Lisbon Half...

The Bideford 10 is almost exclusively flat. I'll dig out a Strava map for it if I can find one. It loops around both sides of the River Torridge, out to Yelland on the Barnstaple road then back to Bideford via the Tarka Trail; a former railway line which is tarmacked and forms part of the NCN27. As it turns out, a friend has had to drop out of this one due to a recurrence of an injury, so I'm having her number and I'm in. The advice is much appreciated - I don't want to burn myself out and a few other seasoned runners have indicated it could be the sport that is more likely to achieve an injury. I hope not! A quick swim yesterday was the perfect recuperation after Sundays run. I'll be swimming again a couple of times before this Sunday. Should get out on my bike again soon as well, I haven't ridden since September!

After not running at all in my 37 years, I started running in July after signing up for a sprint triathlon. My aim was to be able to run the 5km after an open water swim and a 25km cycle. I've been swimming and cycling for years, but always intended to start running when I shifted some weight. So, from my humble beginning in July, I managed to get up to 12km within about a month. A friend challenged me to do a half marathon which I completed in Lisbon three weeks ago. I did a 12km cross country run yesterday and I'm planning on doing the Bideford 10-miler this Sunday. I never expected it to be so addictive, but it's definitely got me now. So begs the question: How long would it take to train for a full marathon? I've got the fitness to swim and cycle significant distances, which seems to transfer over to the running quite well. I've got my eye on a couple of weekends away in Europe next year, and there is a first marathon planned for Barnstaple in September next year...

Thread needed to be resurrected...

I don't think there's many keen on the Daily Heil either. Redknapp fits right in there.