fetcheveryone

Ah. Is this why every time I copy and paste an OTDIFH (text)update from OneNote it also appears as a jape egg in my gallerarry? Not a big fan of that, me.

Could thy be a little bit bigger when you uploaded them on the activity ? They are just like thumb nails now.
Great amendment anyway!

Not the full set, though? I've been having a game of "where was that again?"

I often add photos to my training, just for the lolz. Now I have millions of images in my personal gallery. I'm not sure how to process this, since they're not linked back to any particular training entry.

However, ZORBAX65, whose training I often look at just because they post some really great photos , has a million million new photos!

PS. all the images are missing from the training entries of ZORBAX65, but hopefully they'll be restored soon.

Agree with Bowman. Great idea but can you make them a bit bigger?

If we only have one photo, could it be proper-sized, rather than teeny-tiny on the page? (Yes, you can click through and see it, but that's not as good.(

*or Fetch fixes a few more of the ones you have voted for

Or that, yes

The weekly time by activity is good Fetch, thanks! Mine is only 2 tone. And highlights our holiday weeks!

They positively squish the rest!

Thank you. Very nice.

Excellent. I find the feature requests overwhelming but perhaps I@ll have another go

lovely!

Very nice!

Oooooo off to check it out - thank you!

I this !!!

** that was my strategy um. I thought I’d be able to vote when it got to 175 but then I swear the goal changed to 150! 😀 (I could be misremembering it being 175 but it seemed very close when I was down to having voted on 176.)

I like the sound of your day

That’s a good day for sure.

Nice outing. Just to confirm (i think there is safety in numbers) the Guinness Zero is indeed the best out there as AF option (unless you dont like Guinness). I have served to to guests (as a test) and no one has identified my slight of hand so far.

No speed no sweat?

Nearly Jenny - I think most translations I've seen have it as "No hurry, no sweat"

Ok. Duolingo Welsh is the best I can do

The gist is absolutely the same, and for all I know yours might be more accurate

Great action pic of Stephen! We seem to spend a crazy amount of time removing Garden Balls from Monty too…

I too am doing Duolingo Cymraeg Smiled at "8-bit taste buds"

ottima giornata rilassante

Another fan of Guinness Zero here. Also had an AF Gordon's G&T in a can recently, that was vairy nayce too.

Concur with the view on Guiness Zero. Which I wasn't expecting (it to be good, not Fetchies and I to have concensus).
Our dog ignores bowls of fresh clean cool tap water, and goes for rainwater in puddle form given the choice.

Cracking choon.

I have Fetch emails in my contact list, sometimes I get them, sometimes I don’t- but the outlook algorithm still sends me 20 phishing emails about a package in customs from the same adress every day- so it’s rubbish!

I have all my emails from you in a folder in my Outlook account (plus any replies), and a separate folder for anything FERC related. There are 282 items in the FE folder (including the "Welcome" email) and 65 in the FERC folder.

I'd be interest to know what percentage of emails are being "filtered" without consent!

This was a really informative blog post, Ian. Thank you. For some reason, the emails I'd been getting from you have been going into my Gmail "promotions" folder, along with emails I get from companies I've agreed to accept adverts from. This means it sometimes takes me a good while to get round to seeing it and reading it. I will make sure try to change the settings for your messages.

There is little a lolly won't help.

*Waves* i do listen honest, just not to emails

I'm w Rich

*goes off to read email*

There’s a raspberry magnum in the freezer I think.

Nice! Among my friends, Whinlatter is regarded as the hilliest one. I have done it pushing my son in a running buggy. It is hilly but good.
Dollar Glen may simply be someone's personal parkrun; for 'freerunning' possible. However, freedom runs do need to be run on official courses.
I searched on the parkrun website, and found no parkrun called Dollar Glen. There is a place called Dollar in Scotland, but it has no parkrun. The nearest parkrun is the University of Stirling parkrun.
https://support.parkrun.com/hc/en-us/articles/200565333-What-is-parkrun-Freedom-
parkrun.org.uk

I ken Dollar Glen, and I'm pretty sure there will never be an official parkrun there, for multiple reasons. The runner-attacking buzzards, for one.

You mean the pacers? 😀

It took a LOT of scrolling to get to Thornbury... I would suggest a text box that you could at least start typing in, though I suppose it's going to be a rare need to edit

On a desktop, when the select box is in focus, you can press the letter T.

Wonder if it's Colin Glen parkrun, just misspelt

Thanks. I had the scrolling thing too

Good idea - the "how hard is your parkrun?" feature by the guy that does that thing on the rest of the internet (I divide the internet into "Fetch and ... everything else", on the basis that "everything else" is all the same and dangerous and there be dragons etc.) I replied to your Fetch email btw, cos you asked us to. Oh and and loads of new feature ideas that I'll request, off the back of the ones you've just done e.g. paste in to forum chats = excellent, but then, can we have paste into blog too and route and training? And "my parkrun" is great, but can you put core team, RD, just a runner etc. And what about having our stats of number of runs there and logging volunteering etc. Incoming...! Have a nice meal, whatever it may be. G

Nice idea. Our local Cliffe Castle is hilly and three laps

Hahaha! The "Dollar Glen parkrun" is nothing more than a name. Clearly an ironic sense of humour from 57.5DOP at getting a 5k run that has 500 metres of elevation - a "what if" for a truly extreme parkrun in some virtual world. Although the "Dollar Hill Race" follows that insane ascent up Saddle Hill as a warm-up. Dollar has no parkrun, but we have lots of other local ones (I've worked in Dollar for almost 30 years!)

I've mapped Flatts Lane (https://www.fetcheveryone.com/routes-view.php?id=1802882), is pretty hilly, but has a HS of only 9, which seems a bit low to me (but that *may* be because my watch has really odd ideas about how elevation works).

There used to be a list somewhere of "parkruns by total ascent", and FL was in the top 7 or so? Not as much ascent as (e.g.) Whinlatter (which was first on that list) - but personally I FL is one one of the hardest I've done, because the climbs.
The route page says 118m of ascent - which seems a bit on the low side to me, but again, that may be my watch.

Is it, perhaps, something to do with it being a 2 lapper? (Queen Elizabeth is another one that feels pretty hilly to me but has a HS of 9). Or is it just that I don't understand how HS works?

Very good. I suspect most of my runs ought to have a "very low" HS, but I do see some stonking anomalies in the GPS data. As you said, "we're at the mercy of the accuracy of elevation data here, so I guess the lookup service has served up some batcrap." But Garmin regularly tells me the the York Ouse flows up and downhill...

I'm a bit confused, and probably misunderstood something above. If there's no horizontal distance component used, and your definition is "just a summation of all the hills on your route" then why not just use Ascent ? What else is there to take in to account ? Apart from the dodgy seaside parkrun, the others I looked at seem to be roughly 10% of Ascent in meters - but not looked at many

I have simplified the calculation. It is Σ (metres_travelled_on_hill X gradient_of_hill / 1000)

Aah, there's a gradient component - gotcha. Thanks

Instead of a Hillscore, why not have a Chocolate_Biscuits_Deserved score?

Does the data for the elevation come from the GPX files or from somewhere else?

I like this! The Barranco Del Infierno is definitely worth a visit for those Fetchies travelling to Tenerife. I suspect the others in the top 5 are beyond me!

It wood be interesting to see what is the (genuinely) hilliest parkrun by hillscore. I’ll start with Lullingstone with 14.

I have run Kawana parkrun and i can confirm there is a hill. You run up to the top of the headland, round the lighthouse at the top and then back to the start. It is quite a small hill though. On my saved route for the same course it gets a hillscore of 2. (https://www.fetcheveryone.com/routes-view.php?id=1778995)

If you are on the Sunshine Coast and looking for a hilly parkrun I can recommend Nambour (particularly if it has rained and the creek crossing is closed) https://www.fetcheveryone.com/routes-view.php?id=1821205. This is (at least was) known as the toughest parkrun in Australia. Hillscore 15

For 3, I feel strongly that you shouldn't have to ask. You can put it behind a link if you want so it doesn't clutter but it should be easily accessible. Looking good though.

Only just got round to these two blogs. Just an additional observation on your question E - I think yes/no is too blunt. In my experience most cyclists behave well but there are enough that don't (a particular bugbear of mine is cyclists who ignore red traffic lights), for me to be unwilling to give a blanket yes to the question

I drive and cycle commute, cycling home around midnight from work this morning I came across the worst cycling behavior I hate. 2 teenagers weaving across both sides of the road without any lights on their bikes.
Yesterday cycling to work I had walked along the footpath past roadworks that had closed the road, a lycra clad road cyclist approached and cycled straight through and over the footpath at speed and it was on a slight corner where you're unable to see anything. Imo serious disrespect for footpath users.
I don't use cycle paths where every 200 yards or so you have to stop and cross a road junction otherwise yes I use them where I can.

Nice

TBH, there's so much vitriol poured out towards cyclists by letter writers and commenters in the local press that I'd be scared to ask most of those questions! Despite York's allegedly cycle-friendly aspirations!

But those letters are the ones that get published because they stir up reactions. Would it be nice to know that (say) 95% of people are perfectly accepting of cyclists?

Are you looking specifically for a road survey?
As I run & walk in the New Forest, I have a special hatred for those cyclists who ride anywhere and ignore the 'rules'.
Last week in the Lakes, around and on fells, I came across fantastic people cycling and some of the other kind. Being Dicks (whatever their name) while riding a bike. (And some real nutters. Who runs up the fells?)
And in Dumfries I met some fantastic cyclists and saw hundreds of people participating or watching or helping. All enjoying the event.

There have been a few consultations on cycle infrastructure in London recently. Might be worth nicking their questions. I'm not at home but if you remind me I can did some out. It's also good practice to explain what you plan to do w the information and ask for consent. But you knew that. And be careful w the gender question.

Not saying this is a bad idea, but if we were doing this at the university, we'd need to run it through ethics because of collecting personal data (age/gender/email address). You might even need to do a risk assessment for those posting the survey on facebook groups if they're doing it under their own name because of the potential for abuse/cyber stalking/doxxing.

i think this has good intentions. My fear (as someone who runs surveys for a living) is that if your starting point - even unintentionally - is "list all the reasons you hate cyclists" then that's the kind of person you're going to attract. Image if this survey's starting point was "tick all the good things about cycling and cyclists" [don't cause pollution / they're smiley people, etc] then you'll get a very different response. I think it's definitely a good idea to do something like this though. Good luck.

Sounds like you need a little group of those of us that work w surveys. I agree w GG btw obvs

Both of the GGs

D - do you drive a motor vehicle. Could this be split to be car/van or motorbike? I think I'm a better driver because I ride a motorbike and therefore I'm always on the lookout for other motorbikes as well as cyclists.

I really like a comment that Chris Boardman once made - 'there is no such species as cyclists'. There are people who ride bicycles and many of them also drive motor vehicles. Hence when I see something like 'do you think cyclists behave well on the road?' to me it reinforces the attitude that cyclists are somehow different people. Also most of us have seen people acting badly on a bike and others that are fine, so how do we respond?

I once had to complain to our local council who started a transport survey with ' Are you a pedestrian, cyclist or driver? (tick one box).

Organisations do run such surveys, e.g. local authorities trying to encourage cycling. LindsD's question, 'What do you plan to do with the information?' is a good one.
You have five aims. Will a survey meet them all?
Cycling UK and British Cycling might be able to provide you with information on what your survey would be asking without you running into issues of diversity and confidentiality. That could meet aim 1.
They might be able to give you ideas of what cyclists might value most in what FetchEveryone offers, and what additions might most appeal to them.
That leads to aim 2: publicise FE as a cyclist friendly site. Do you have a list of the features that are useful for cyclists, for the publicity?

Aim 3: I think the national cycling organisations could supply this information.
Aim 4: I worry that this would encourage negativity from agitators, rather than returning constructive suggestions or positive publicity.
Aim 5: I think it is the case that most people are pretty positive about cyclists and cycling. The others are not likely to be persuaded by a survey, sadly.

When did you last read the Highway code? Would be a good question

I'd like to be the only person that ticks a box "I would if I could but I can't." And yes, a FB post about cyclists is an excellent way to increase site traffic. It brings out all the latent hate and misanthropy.

Under F I would add “insisting on riding on the road when there is a purpose built cycle path right next to it.” That is the one thing some “serious” cyclists do that really get’s my goat. (Takes cover, I know cyclists are entitled to use the road… but but but it just seems pig headed and stupid to a non cyclist)

Something about "cyclists" and "people riding bikes"

i think this is good idea. I dont ride very much as i am concerned by state of roads and idiots not leaving room for cyclists. Had couple close calls. As always there are 2 sides and i regularly see selfish behaviour by people on bikes. Which will have drivers ranting. That being said implications of incident are always more severe for someone on a bike.

In my defence WayoftheDodo ..
1) The Salisbury A36 cycle path is built so you have to give way every 50 yds (or so) to incoming/outgoing traffic to the shop carparks, garages, Kwikfit etc. And separated from pedestrians by a white line. So it's not, a real hazard for all.
I always cycle on the road section and ignore that bit of cycle path. For my own safety. And 90% of the time, I'm keeping pace and not slowing the traffic down
2) The Romsey section. I cycled it once. I'm not sure which was worse. The brambles or condition of the tarmac. Both real dangers and incompatible with cycling. So that's another road section for me.

I was going to post something similar. Lots of those round here. Or bike paths that just stop and leave you on the wrong side of the traffic w no easy way of getting over.

Personally, I try to follow marked cycle routes where I can (I plan ahead using the CyclOSM map option in 'Routes'), though they're not always very clearly marked or well thought out, and there are a few that are not so great for road bikes (or don't make it clear you have to lug your bike over footbridges in places), so if there was some sort of tool where cyclists could add handy notes about certain routes, that would help with planning ahead and avoiding certain pitfalls - a bit off-topic, but just something that came to mind.

I know this isn't the place for an in-depth discussion, but just to pick up on the point made by WOTD (which is definitely a valid comment because it's a point regularly made by non-cyclists): unfortunately not all cycling lanes are good. Some are badly designed and so makes the cyclist feel more vulnerable than not having a cycle lane. As a cyclist I do get annoyed when other cyclists don't use 'good' cycling lanes, but I often don't use cycling lanes that I know are more dangerous to use and/or covered in glass and sharp objects because they don't get cleaned as often as roads. But WOTD's point does highlight an important issue.

Indeed, cyclists are entitled to use the road:
Use facilities such as cycle lanes and tracks, advanced stop lines and toucan crossings (see Rules 62 and 73) where they make your journey safer and easier. This will depend on your experience and skills and the situation at the time. While such facilities are provided for reasons of safety, cyclists may exercise their judgement and are not obliged to use them.
gov.uk
So, if it is not safer or easier, there is no reason, so far as the highway code is concerned, to use cycle infrastructure.
What is to be wondered at is:
The poor state of such infrastructure, which deters people from using it.
The two thirds reduction to the active travel budget made by the current government, which reduces the benefits that active travel gives to people and society, including lower NHS costs, lower road wear, lower pollution, lower congestion, and improved productivity. It does look like a short sighted cut to me.

It does help, when trying to understand someone else, to walk in their shoes for a while. Or to try to cycle on those cycle paths.

Sorry to take over your blog, Fetch.

They should make all cycle lanes like these in Dumfries


And have police outriders, with a radio car and a maintenance / spare wheel car following. Wth an optional camera bike



And stewards to keep people out the way/

Then I'd use them

Hope that input helps the survey. Although I understand there's quite a few people in and around Dumfries very upset with the inconvenience of the road closures. Quite a few others who thought it was one of the best things ever to come to the town.

Thanks everyone, all valid points in reply to my comment on cycle lanes. The one I'm most familiar with is wide, has a better surface than the road and is regularly cleaned. Most cyclists use it very happily (I've spoken to lots of them). A small minority insist on using the road, despite the risk from the traffic... I agree I really should get a bike and try it for myself.

Could you include something to determine how many Badgers have keen killed by cyclists compared to motorists?

I’d personally be interested in whether attitudes are different in rural vs urban areas. I think our locals are pretty used to cyclists on the rural roads.

Yes, I did and I use it sometimes for recreating a walk or similar.

well that's good

I didn't know about that. Thanks! Will try it sometime at home.

I do this all the time. It is an excellent thing

I send to my Garmin and also to my Digital OS app on my phone

I did not know this and has immediately removed at least three stages from the way I've done this for years!!

Yes - it's great for bike rides - I bought the bike Garmin on purpose so I don't have to carry a bit of paper with directions on!!

I do it to my Apple Watch and it works really well (via WorkOutDoors app).

To me this is news, and fabulous!

Cool. I usually import it into Garmin but this may be a bit easier. I assume you cant make FE send it straight to Garmin?

I do this loads. Here's a funny one though... if I download a gpx from walkhighlands.co.uk then I cannot open the file in garmin. I need to upload the file to fetch, then download the gpx from there.

It's even easier if you use a Suunto. After the download my phone just asked if I wanted to open the GPX and have me the option to open it in the Suunto app then I just tapped save.

Thanks.

I did not know this! I have been using fetch to plan the routes then trying to copy it as a Garmin course. I am amazed & will try it for tomorrow :D

This is great advice, I didn’t know this.
I’ve created routes for my Garmin a few times, but via Garmin app etc. thanks!

@Nightjar - it's a permissions thing. I've asked the question.

are you looking for comments / suggestions about it? If not, oh well sorry, here's one anyway. Marking a task as Complete seems to make it disappear forever. Could there be an option to have it marked as complete / crossed out, or sumfink, with a separate option to 'reinstate' it later or delete it for good? I might complete a repetitive task once and then, a few days later, need to re-add it because it's due again. If you're not looking for comments, ignore the above. It wasn't me, I never said nuffink, OK?

That's a good suggestion

Smart.

Lovely, thank you

Handy little tool given that I often tend to take a look at FE first thing each morning. I just can’t seem to change the date in the little white box - tried it on my phone in both portrait and landscape in case I was missing something.

Love this

Just read the below blog *gulp* but so glad though it's worked out without scrapping the car. Don't forget to run it in though.

I likes your thing.

Nice

I didn’t even know about shortcuts, so now have my first one

Nice. Will maybe keep my personal TDL there (the work one is all sub tasks and delegations so may need to stick with Microsoft there! - I am a great fan of sub tasks, as it goes)
Good to know the car has recovered. Tyres. I slow punctured one in the lakes and getting it fixed while still getting me and partner in grime to the race then home for work on Monday was, hmm, a lot cheaper than a new engine but a bit of a shock to the system.

Nice. I have to do lists everywhere. Like Funky Chicken I can't figure out how to edit the date.

If there’s a nail or similar in your tyre they can repair it for £20 rather than replace the whole thing.

I like this 😁

It looks like the dates are only changeable on desktop at the moment. I'll try to get that fixed.

Ooh, I like this! Thanks Fetch

Cor! Thanks!👍

Hope that's it for car woes and your cycle goes well x

Tremendous video clip, early versiom of clockwise. That is a lot of money.

I enjoyed that movie - haven't watched it for years!

Cars can be money pits can't they. Fingers crossed it's all resolved now.

Oof - I hope you have a good warranty on the repairs

Get rid of it, thats the best suggestion I can make.

I hate cars. Always feel at the mercy of garages, and the complexity and somewhat disposability of modern cars. Hope this is all sorted for you now. G

Hope it keeps going for a few more years after that lot!

Hope the car lasts for many years to come now. Glad the wing mirrors have a good life expectancy m.

I feel your pain. I recently had a head failure on my car: including transport and repair, parts, labour etc the final bill was over £5.5k.

Hoping for happy car days ahead.

Ouch. I'd stick with my original suggestion now - swallow hard, flog it for as much as you can, and buy something else. I did smile about the state of the wing mirrors though.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you.

ouch

Hope that's all now!

I hope that's it too - we had to spend a bit on our car recently - enough to make us contemplate getting a new (well new to us) car - only to realise we couldn't really afford even a decent secondhand one at the moment!

I hope that's it too!

I hope all the issues are resolved and it lasts you many more years. This is the trouble with second hand cars and any car with age. I once bought a car that was a money pit, it's unfortunate bad luck.

Great video but ouch to the expense

E-cargobike and public transport. It's the future!

Ouch, ouch, ouch!

Oooof I was just told what mine will cost to get it MOTd, and thought that was steep. You have my sympathy.

Waiting for news of the test run ...

By the way, I have just a spotted a continuity error in the video (even though I have seen it dozens of times!) - the car moves sideways closer to the hedge while Fawlty is fiddling with the key in the ignition!

Ouch 😱

This is great!

From a quick look at mine it looks like they give much lower scores for short rides than for long ones.  Last month I did 2 TTs on essentially the same course - 10 and 50 miles.  I get a score of 118.68 for 50 and 54.34 for the 10.  Those should be both close to max effort, same course, same rider, same bike etc (and if anything the conditions for the 50 were possibly worse).  On a different course I was fastest woman in a 10 mile TT with a score of 57.7.  I scored over 120 on a 100 mile TT last year. Not as directly comparable, but also a long effort, I got 100.22 on a 83 mile club ride on a road bike at a much lower effort.  I'm not *that* much of a distance monster.  (Not a criticism - I can imagine it's *very* tricky to tease out all the factors!)

YP - you were the record setter for much of the female data!

Brilliant Thanks, Fetch!

Nice to have YP's prowess confirmed by the Fetch algorithms.

In a comparison against all cyclists I'd expect to be maybe 70 - 75% - decent enough to win small races but nowhere near the best (I've been overtaken by enough female pro triathletes on our club TT to see the difference!). Maybe a bit higher if you add some age grading in. I think it's the short rides which are too low, but there could well be times on much faster courses than the ones which I ride which skew it.

ooh, I like that, nice work Fetch. I have some surprisingly nice FBIs for a generally pants cyclist!

Excellent! I had a look at some of my larger retrospective bike rides.

I like this The Utmost bike league I struggle with - I just seem to go up and down like a yoyo!!

Does RachE still have any data on here? She’s about as close to elite as you’re going to get.

I’m guessing my mountain biking scores won’t be good… will take a look.

Yeah… it doesn’t work for mountain biking. Just to be sure, I went to my last race where I came third and rode at 92.9% MHR… and got an FBI score of 11.42

I wonder if you could use similar logic to that on roots and rain…? rootsandrain.com

Just so you know, my ride classified by me in post as an electric bike ride got an FBI score. I don't know whether this is acceptable or unintended. It's not something I mind about one way or the other since it is a supporting activity for my running.

Will have to see how some of Sophie's rides rate. Unfortunately her exploits in the last week were indoors and without distance. And she doesn't start and stop the garmin right at the start and end of a race, seems she occupied with other things

I have FBI entries on my training already - it means that I stopped at the Fishing Boat Inn for a pint

Good old Mr Weekes

I refuse to be dead

Cus it feels nice to be able to do it.

It’s the sure and certain knowledge that my extraordinary genius has yet to be realised.

By appreciating life.

Sheer bloody mindedness, and my upbringing!

Nothing new but a +1 for breaking things down. The virtual marathon in April was actually 4 x 10ks plus a bit extra. Made it seem much more doable.
We're all grateful to Mr Weekes!

Spite.

Brilliant👍😀
There's a!ways usually something a bit different round the corner of you chose to get there and - more often than not - something better😊

The same as AL. Taught never to give up. Not always a positive.

We are grateful to Mr Weekes.

Very much in favour of breaking things down. "Can I manage one more mile at this effort level?" is my go-to when I'm tempted to think I'm going to talk myself into struggling.
Keeping going? Optimism, defiance, and a little bit of vanity.

I tend to work on "just" small chunks too - Can I just run to that lamp post, can i just run to the next junction, can I just get to the bridge, can I just keep going until I see the......
And the thing is to find a new "just" target before or as I reach the previous one!

What keeps me going? Tea and about twice a night.

cosa mi fa andare avanti? Ancora oggi ho difficolta a rispondere ( 40 anni di palestra e 20 anni di corsa) forse perche ormai fa parte della mia vita e se mi fermo è come si fermasse la vita!!! So che prima o poi dovrò accettare lo stop e forse ancora peggio la morte ma per ora non ci penso e ogni giorno cerco ancora di sopravvivere, perche se non ti muovi....vuol dire solo una cosa .... sei morto!!!
p.s spero che possiate tradurre con google!!!

When I was a teenager working in a sports shop one of my jobs was to put new rubber grips onto cricket bat handles. Special tool and everything!

Breaking things down has been key in my weight loss over the last year - each day focus on doing the good habits and only that, then the weight takes care of itself. So I adopt that approach to everything now. Have a goal in mind, but work out what I need to do to get there, what is the first step, concentrate on doing that bit until it's done, then do the next bit.

You're just going about your business, thinking about what you'll make for tea and whether you can get away without hoovering the stairs, and suddenly someone asks you a question like that and makes you all existential and that. FFS.

As a relative newcomer to ultra runs, I would agree 100% with breaking things down. As I left one checkpoint on Saturday, I realised that, although I knew exactly where the next checkpoint was and the exact route to it, I didn’t know exactly how far it was. So I turned back and asked. Once I knew exactly how many miles it was, everything felt fine! (And I still didn’t know - or try to calculate - how far/long to the finish!)

Blogged. Thank you for this.

I'm pleased to hear Mr Weekes found you.

Confounding the Naysayer keeps me going.

Great blog.

I know that my mental health is shit when I don't run or when I'm not running enough and am unfit.

To keep me going on a run when I'm struggling, I count. Once every 4 steps. I know that if I count to 100, it's usually around a quarter of a mile.

I don't have willpower, I rely on changing the environment such that what I want happens almost of itself.

I break things down all the time. I rode South Downs Way by tackling it at 10x 10 mile rides, resetting my Garmin at each feed stop and starting off again as though it was just the one ride of about 10 miles to do.

This is old advice, but here goes. Don't extrapolate, stay in the moment, and do break down into chunks. For example, in an Ultra, next mile, or next uphill, or next CP.

Amor Fati, innit. Which means love of fate. It’s an old, old concept dating back a couple of thousand years to Stoic Philosophy. Guys like Marcus Aurelius bang on about in Meditations (A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it) and Epictetus in either the Enchiridion or Discourses (Do not seek for things to happen the way you want them to; rather, wish that what happens happen the way it happens: then you will be happy).
The ancient Greeks & Romans didn’t call love of fate Amor Fati, that comes from a fella by the name of Fred Nietzsche (I’m so glad autocorrect spalls that for me) who said “Do not seek for things to happen the way you want them to; rather, wish that what happens happen the way it happens: then you will be happy.” (You ever seen so many happens in one sentence before?)

Ha! Apparently Fred & Epictetus said the same thing! What Fred said was “ My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it—all idealism is mendaciousness in the face of what is necessary—but love it”

Yeah, it's breaking things down into smaller chunks for me too. 'Eating the elephant'

What keeps me going? The thought that tomorrow I might not be able to.

Good question. Probably because I know that, in the end, it will result in a better outcome than giving up. I use habit/routine a lot as well (get up and get out before your brain can talk you out of it).
I'm extremely grateful for Mr Weekes as well. This place is my spiritual home.

Goodness, Fetch. Startling news.

For me, currently, I'm not so much keeping going, as haven't completely stopped. Better days ahead, hopefully.

I just have a mantra in my head. It's David Goggins voice saying 'Don't stop when you're tired, stop when you're done' - I get it to match the cadence of my running.

It's funny you should mention David Goggins. I got a nice heckle on Saturday from some young lads, who yelled "They don't know me, son". I had to come home and ask my boy to explain the reference, but it was clearly meant as encouragement, so it was very nice.

Mostly I do things that I find satisfying, and I keep going because I like to feel satisfied. Well done, Mr Weekes.

When I struggle to get out the door, I think 'Would I rather still be working, or running in this weather?', always works for me.
Also, I never have yet regret a run afterwards

Fetch - brilliant !!! I'd be chuffed to bits of I got that heckle The other one you may hear is 'Who's gonna carry the boats ?'

Bravo Mr. Weeks.
I started running because of a bereavement, and I keep going because I'm still here and I can. It's a real positive from a tragic event, as it's transformed my life, and I've done more than I ever imagined possible.

These days, my daughter. Wanting to show her that being active is fun and good for you (even when it's really not) & trying to help me be around for longer to see her grow.

That bowling machine sounds lethal! 😉😂

Howzat!

Do you have a link the bowling place please?

B3 by any chance?

Yes it's B3 Here you go Lammo: b3cricket.com

Great thanks

Impressive!

I did all the show room signage when they started up. Ex Gunn & Moore if I recall? Don't know if they still do, but they were making bats for Ben Stokes amongst others, and shipping them out plain so the players could add their own brand sponsors logos.

If they did retro G&M labels, I'd buy some of those.

Where's the third bat from the right, top row? Have you or the boy taken a souvenir?
And thanks again for the image auto load.

Love the bat factory. And all v positive

Thanks for the image upload update.... I'm sure they won't miss one bat.....

I’d still need the skills to convert that lump of wood into a bat!

One of our local speed cameras is always very flattering about my cycling - '20 Slow Down!'


(I spend *very* little time pedalling at 20mph - although it seems to trigger no matter how slowly I approach it)

I like that fastest 5k table. Hadn't seen that before. Some very impressive 100kmh cycling 😃