Manatees Roar into the 20s! CLOSED (Page 116)

Well, we used up the brilliant plan to get me here--it was truly miraculous on all fronts and needed to be as we knew I was getting critically ill in Australia with no help except symptomatic support from our GP and physical therapist. So that's probably the more important brilliant plan. He sends me cat pictures nearly every day as well. It's additionally hard because we work together a lot and it's just that much more of a pain in the butt not to be able to bounce stuff off each other in person. 

Plus, he doesn't work out if I'm not there. It's very weird. Him of all people. I guess he has his own way of pining away poor thing!

I know that you had to deal with some pretty major health issues these past few years. That makes the whole global pandemic thing all the more scary!

Regarding work, yes, it's a lot more difficult to brainstorm or troubleshoot when you are working remotely. I've been working from home since March and mostly it's gone really well (Zoe is a great office mate! well, she does bark in her sleep sometimes...) but right now, I am on a project where I need to set up user permissions. If I could sit in a room with the others on the team, we could have the whole thing resolved in under 45 minutes. Remotely, however, it's taking a whole lot longer than that!

For the 2.5 months i worked from home (minus one in office day/week), there were definitely times i missed having people to discuss things with, but now that I've been in the office full-time for about 5 months, I think I'd give up those in-person discussions if I could work from home again! 

Monday the is the monthly Zoom call, if anyone is interested.

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The last  Monday  of the month at 11:30am eastern (10:30 central, 9:30 mountain, 8:30 pacific).  

Monday Meetup: https://bit.ly/RacingManatee

Password: manatee

YIKES ... sounds wise. It really concerns me, things hitting close to home for Manatees.

I don't know how you do it. I had 90 minute presentation last week and barely survived!

Stay safe!

I feel much the same way. This next 6-12 months is going to feel long. I am optimistic that by June or August of next year, we'll be in a much better position. Getting from here to there is going to take some doing. Stay safe, everyone!

Good morning, I'll be there this morning, if all goes according to plan. Which it should, since I took the day off.

Dangit, I missed it! Did you guys already switch to daylight savings in the U.S.?

Not yet, our time change is on November 1st. 

Chris and I managed to solve most of the world's problems.  I'm sure that if you had been there, all of the problems would have been solved!

Dangit! They would have! All the ones you and Chris don't sort out, I do in my head while exercising. But when I'm finally showered and fed, I don't remember any of the solutions!

So...my co-worker to every Thursday & Friday for the month of October off.  I told him back in September that we were considering taking a week at the end of October.  We made it happen.  I worked Monday morning so that I could catch my co-worker up on things that came up on Thursday and Friday, then we drove 5 hours in heavy rain to our get-a-way.  It rained and was cold pretty much the whole time we were there which was a shame because we choose a spot with lots of hiking trails, a lake where we could canoe, etc so we could enjoy all the fall colors and outdoors.  Instead, we spent a lot of fo time indoors.  I did an outdoor walk/run/hike on Tuesday morning.  It was half the pace of my normal runs pace but the idea was to just do something and it didn't really matter too much what.  On Wednesday I was found a treadmill so I was able to get an actual run in, but it was shut short since we had to leave early for me to make it back to work by noon.  Most years October is my month off from training.  It is amazing that on vacation in October when it is 35 degrees outside and wet that I am out in the dark running up 12% grade mountains.  It really opened my eyes to how important races are in my training.  When I have a race I can't miss days because it will put me off track for the race.   I will just say that I haven't been this motived going into the dark cold fall months in years.  I have a little goal to do a virtual 15K in two weeks.  It isn't really planned and isn't really a sure thing, but just its possibility is keeping me training and motivation.

That's really too bad about the rain but glad you were able to get out.

You're the guy who's got even more jobs than I do! Heh. Hi, I'm Yanti.

Disc brakes have better stopping power in wet conditions. Hydraulic are a better(more expensive) option than cable. Disc brake pads matter as well, some are designed for wetter conditions. Disc brakes give a nice ability to feather the brakes pretty well, at least that has been my experience with the mtb.

I went to Georgia to ride gravel bikes in the mountains a few weeks ago with my 2011 rim braking Giant TCX. The other three guys were on disc brakes. My descents were a bit harrowing, and not solely because I ride on the flattest terrain known to mankind. 

Now for a caveat on mechanics, which has been my personal experience and hopefully is not normal. The first brake job I had done on my mtb with hydraulic brakes left me with no front brakes. The next mechanic was unable to rectify the first guy's errors. I finally did a brake bleed and pad change, bedded in the brakes and all was good. 

Originally posted by mtnbikerchk

Originally posted by cdban66

Originally posted by JBacarella Does anyone have experience with disk brakes? If so hydraulic or cable and is one better than the other. I'm considering hydraulic, because it's so wet here and I am a voluminous sweater. I have had oxidation issues with cables.

Disc brakes have better stopping power in wet conditions. Hydraulic are a better(more expensive) option than cable. Disc brake pads matter as well, some are designed for wetter conditions. Disc brakes give a nice ability to feather the brakes pretty well, at least that has been my experience with the mtb.

I went to Georgia to ride gravel bikes in the mountains a few weeks ago with my 2011 rim braking Giant TCX. The other three guys were on disc brakes. My descents were a bit harrowing, and not solely because I ride on the flattest terrain known to mankind. 

Now for a caveat on mechanics, which has been my personal experience and hopefully is not normal. The first brake job I had done on my mtb with hydraulic brakes left me with no front brakes. The next mechanic was unable to rectify the first guy's errors. I finally did a brake bleed and pad change, bedded in the brakes and all was good. 

YEP. I've had discs on my mountain bikes since 2002ish - mechanical at first then a swap to hydro around 2007? I WISH my road and tri bikes had disc brakes. It's the only thing I'd change about my Madone if I could. Coming down chemin duplesis in IMMT 2016 in the POURING RAIN was a scary experience with rim brakes! And I also agree, a good brake bleed will fix most issues

I have hydraulic disc brakes on my gravel bike. Of course, other than a couple of rides in the smokey mountains, i've mainly ridden it on flat terrain, so I can't join the chorus of they are awesome on (wet) descents, but they do look cool

We have a city ordinance that requires masks in public, but I think that some people in town tried it for about 7-10 days before giving up and the rest of town didn't even try.  Many of the businesses require masks (i.e. grocery stores, etc)  that is about the only place that you will see anyone with a mask on.  We didn't have any trick-or-treating in town this year.  We were planning on staying home and doing Halloween crafts in the afternoon, followed by a chili feast with dry ice in the punch bowl followed by a family Halloween movie (no blood and gore).  My brother ended up inviting us to his home for chili and donuts so we took the 75 minute drive to their town of population 1,091 people.  They had a main street trick-or-treat with about 25 businesses open with trick-or-treating booths out on the sidewalk.  There were about 150 kids there with their families.  My family and my brother's family were the only ones with masks on.  We had a cold clear night and the full moon was awesome. 

After we got back to my brother's house for chili and donuts he got a Facebook notice that our friend was giving out full-sized candy bars at her house.  She was 5 minutes from my brother so we loaded up the dads and the 9-12-year-old kids (leaving the 5-6-year-olds with the moms) and went trick-o-treating to our friend's house.  She organized the Choctaw Nation Trail of Tears run that my brother and I did as a 10-man relay team covering about 550 miles in five days from where the Choctaw Tribe was relocated from in Mississippi to their current location in Oklahoma.  She also was the race director of a Halloween 5K that we all did last year.  The Halloween race was canceled this year and so instead talked about how we all would rather be doing a 5K together than eating full-sized candy bars together.  Seeing our friend was a highlight for me.  There hasn't been very much spontaneousness or in-person conversations with friends this year. We had our mask on so we didn't actually eat full sized candy bars together.  We saved them for later.  ;-)

I did the 2016 IM 70.3 St. George in the rain.  The end of that bike course is a 6-7 mile descent out of Snow Canyon.  We had a wide lane to ride in and all the turns had large radii and were banked so I just let gravity take over and hit a top speed of 46 MPH.  Yes, it was a little scary but I wasn't trying to slow down and we had a good 10 bike lengths between riders so it felt safe (or safe enough).  I have always felt that it helps to be a little bit crazy if you are a triathlete.  :-)  

Somewhere in an earlier discussion I may have linked a 72 second video of Alaphilippe descending on the Col du Galibier in Le Tour, 2019. I don't propose that you descend like a pro, but the point is, he starts that 72 second video behind everyone, finishes that 72 second video up front and the reason why is that he can dive harder into those corners due to the stopping power of disc brakes. Oh yeah, he is fearless too. Or nuts, depending on your outlook 

I'm really glad that you were able to get away. That has been so beneficial to my mental health this year!