I don't recall discussing it before.

Maybe we should have a discussion about whether to have that discussion?

ttku

Greetings.

Y’all done real good. ✊🏼

I do keep up.

Here's some fresh content from Lower Appalachia.

Something (right picture) to make LesterOfPuppets homesick.

One of my cycling friends/club-mates has gone deep down into the rabbit hole of power metrics and "training." In the past 2 years, he has found himself a trainer and is doing all types of workouts on Zwift per his trainer's orders. He is on two Zwift racing teams and does two races/week (one is a TTT and one is a standard race). He has all these goals to maximize his power output for 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, etc., and posts long narratives about his "rides" on Zwift about how he felt and what his power was etc.

I understand that he is a control/data freak and I accept that. The "problem" (and it's clearly MY PROBLEM, not his) is that he now is so fixated on his training and racing sessions that he will skip our "fun" rides most of the time because a fun/social ride is NOT in his coach's or his program. He does commit to ONE ride/week with us on Saturdays, but refuses the social rides on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.

Of course I need to just accept this, but it does bother me because I feel like he looks at cycling not as an activity to get joy from, but a data acquisition activity to analyze metrics and maximize them. I want to suggest he is doing it all wrong, but of course I should just let it go.

BTW he has zero interest in real racing. He is way too risk adverse to pin on a number and race for real.

Any comments?

Unless you can work a witty comment or light joke about it into a conversation sometime, there's not much to be said.

everyone has their own idea of fun I guess? YMMV. If he has the energy/desire to post lengthy narratives about his sessions, maybe he is getting a kick out of it?

doing a TTT on Zwift with real life friends is actually pretty fun. you can chat on Discord (or whichever platform), and once rider(s) drop out, they can stay tuned in and offer real time splits, play Director Sportif etc. I do the SCNCA/states IRL TTT most years and have an elite title from 2019 (in the 4-man open). Real TTT is also a blast and hard to execute for entirely different reasons than doing it in Zwift, which has it's unique challenges.

TT in general (TTT or ITT) is a pretty cool discipline. It's all about execution. There can be so much circumstance in road. Not in time trial. It's a neat headspace and rewards practice, whether real or in Zwift.

Yeah, of course this is like arguing that he should be eating chocolate rather than vanilla ice cream. His "ride," his choice.

Actually he does not eat any ice cream, he follows a somewhat ascetic lifestyle because he thinks it will improve his lifespan. I think that also drives his cycling/training goals.

I swear, I was just watching a video on this very thing. The topic was the difference between cyclists who ride into their 70s vs those who don't, and the difference boiled down to whether they are into cycling per se, or only as a means to an end, generally better numbers. The numbers types often lose interest when their numbers inevitably plateau, and then decline.

I personally would not be a part of any program that told me I couldn't just tool along down any of the "tree tunnel" back roads at a leisurely pace if I felt like it.

Yeah, but so was the French Revolution....

More years in your life, or more life in your years?

How fast do I have to be able to ride in order to live to 100?

or in the case of Keith Richards - you can have both I guess?

Check it out, y’all. Today is National Cheesesteak Day. If you can’t get one where you live, you need to re-lo.

I like the current corvettes, the '25 models that look like a Batmobile. Hawt!

Yikes! If you ever play any crap like that again I'll ban you on the spot.

you got a problem wit' dat??

That's my point. I have tried to nudge him towards the joy of riding. You can lead a horse to water, but this one is NOT drinking.

That calls for a trip to my local Cheesecake Factory.

fixed?

That's not how it works.