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#31
12-06-2021, 08:38 AM
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Greg 
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#32
12-06-2021, 08:59 AM
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The HTFU responses are never about age it's about not having a family/house to take care of.
It would be real easy to be a HTFU guy again if I ditched my wife and kid, but it's certainly not worth the mental trauma and having a good family situation is more rewarding than being around the hard core cycling crowd with the millimeter thin acquaintances that masquerade as friendships. Funny thing if you DO have a family and responsibilities and you're getting older just trying to HTFU and sit there and ride your bike all the time is a recipe for injury anyway, riding that much seems to require more prep work, cross training, foam rolling, blah blah blah as you get older. If you're the type of rider who always had the ability to bury yourself as you get older your mental toughness provides a great way to write checks your body + preparation can't cash. Fall and Winter time require more hours of maintenance on bikes as well which again just makes everything that much harder to find time for. I mostly managed to ride every weekend, mostly taking my son MTBing, but too much of the above "just ride the bike all the time behavior" meant I overdrew too much and hurt my shoulder in the summer, I pretty much spent the entire fall burning up 99% of my fitness matches doing weightlifting & PT to fix my shoulder. I'm not really sure what's happening long term, I did a lot of damage to my shoulder from so much biking over the years + crashes, I'm not really sure I can actually keep it healthy on a typical roadie type of training regime anymore. We do have mountains of fall cleanup and winter prep chores as well, not having a stick up your butt about "training hours" sure makes it a lot less stressful to get through that stuff. Last edited by benb; 12-06-2021 at 09:02 AM.
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#33
12-06-2021, 09:02 AM
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Today, we have sunrise at 7:42AM and sunset at 4:17....good lights make this a non-event, but still...daylight is better. Biggest issue for my riding now is those "atmospheric rivers" that keep hitting the PNW...ugh. I don't mind wet roads, but draw the line at pouring rain! Well, weather, and some landscaping projects that have been eating my weekends and beating up my body.
__________________
2003 CSi / Legend Ti / Seven 622 SLX
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#34
12-06-2021, 09:27 PM
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Inflatable dolls with emotion sensing AI...its the future
Quote:
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#35
12-06-2021, 10:33 PM
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I must have missed the HTFU responses, but I'm old and that **** doesn't bother me.
Things will get better for you younger folks, my wife and I have children and grandchildren and are able to spend as much time as we want with them, even though the closest ones are 1400 miles from us. We decided that after 30 years, home ownership wasn't for us anymore, too much wasted time cleaning the pool, raking leaves, cutting grass, shoveling snow, etc! Renting a townhome now means we can ride, run, backpack etc everyday and hour of the year! 5000 miles of loaded touring 2500 miles running 100 nights of free camping(bike touring, backpacking, distance running) We don't train for the sake of training, everything we do is for the experience of living! Our biggest mistake was waiting to retire in our late 50's and to start living that late in life!!!!
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#36
12-07-2021, 07:32 AM
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Anyone else have Fall responsibilities that keep you off the bike???
I have 2 high school age boys that are involved in athletics throughout the school year so once school starts, I’m busy with their activities 6 days a week. I’m hoping the older son will have his driver’s license by spring but I’m not counting on it. Being a Cross Country/Football/Wrestling/Lacrosse/Track and Field dad is fun, but it leaves very little spare time. Especially this year and when their school is a construction site with no athletic fields so we’re driving them all over the city to different practice facilities.
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#37
12-07-2021, 07:45 AM
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Leaves
It used to take me 15-20 hours to do the leaves on my property. I get it done professionally for $260. They do a better job, too. Why did I wait so long.....
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#38
12-07-2021, 08:22 AM
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Won’t find me in a house, I love having zero maintenance and someone else to clean my pool, gym, fire pits, etc. no leaves to worry about here, just dust. Last edited by Likes2ridefar; 12-07-2021 at 08:24 AM.
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#39
12-07-2021, 09:58 AM
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I tried to reduce that kind of stress as much as possible, although it doesn't mean I use the extra time to ride.
When we were looking at houses in the area, we saw a single family house in a condo complex. A regular 3BR, 2.5BA house, just in a condo complex, so maintenance etc handled. Land owned by association, some minor rules, etc. We put it on the back burner as we were looking at "nicer" houses. I rode to each house we looked at to get a feel for the area. I rode to one on a Mountain Road (bottom gear, all I could do not to fall over, for about 6-7 minutes). On the way there I passed a guy mowing his lawn. Maybe 1.5 hours later I rode by him again, on the way to the (temporary) apartment, still mowing. Got home, told the Missus what I saw, and maybe we should look at the "full maintenance" condo house. It was 30% less money cost-wise (but with association fee the mortgage was maybe 20% less monthly overall), full lawn, driveway, tree, roof, sides (aka painting/repairs to the outside), etc. Moved in in 2008, has been great since. I enjoy snow clearing with a machine so I have a snow thrower, I use it to detail the driveway after the plow guys go through. We didn't even bring the mower here, gave it to my brother. I used the race promotion leaf blowers a couple times but not for leaves in the last 10 years. Roof redone once. Gutters also. Outside paint and some wood replaced. Driveway repaved. Some overgrown stuff cleared out, replaced with grass. Front walk redone three times (it's on a steep hill so it tends to slide down the hill). Had a pipe back up, causing water damage in the house. Our policy paid the association deductible, so we were out $500 on the claim, our homeowners was out $2000, and the association insurance paid about $30k. I wasn't really a condo fan before, but in this situation, a good association, a lot of single family homes (20? out of 120 units), great school... I don't see a reason to move, ever, unless we can't drive or go up and down stairs. My winterization projects are: rotate the snow tire wheels onto the cars (I do the car, the guys at work do the Suburban). Put the summer wheels in the garage. Clear out the one bay that inevitably gets filled during the summer with stuff, so we can bring both cars in. Start up the snow thrower, make sure it runs (I leave it fully loaded through the year, add a lot of fuel injection cleaner in the gas, been doing that with my snow thrower, generators, leaf blowers, for 20 years, no issues). Done.
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#40
12-07-2021, 10:30 AM
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Having been on the shady side of death more than once, I'll tell you this;
How fast, far, long you can ride a bike doesn't come close to the joy of love given and recieved from family and close friends. I know guys I used to race with who never really let it go. Now, in thier 60s and 70's they've literally ridden everyone off their wheel who ever cared about them. All that HTFU and sacrifice to be a low grade A/bad azz B rider with an empty house. Ride your bike, have fun and use it as a tool to get more out of the important parts of life.
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#41
12-07-2021, 08:15 PM
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Sooo...you're not the guy we ask about what bike to bring on a beach vacation with the family or a honeymoon in the Bahamas
 Sage words, thanks for the perspective Quote:
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#42
12-08-2021, 12:21 PM
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#43
12-08-2021, 02:36 PM
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It's like you're not friends with them anymore, but they're not friends with anyone. They're not friends with you anymore because you're not fast enough, or you're not willing to go ride 8 hours with them on a Saturday when you have a bunch of family obligations. And meanwhile you've gotten into other interests and friendships and somehow they seem more meaningful than a friendship based purely on how many watts you can put out on a given day. Sure it's painful to realize this is what's going on but I'm happier coming out on the other side of it.
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#44
12-08-2021, 03:00 PM
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i know and occasionally ride with a few guys like this, and there are plenty of various state, nat'l and world title jerseys on the resumes. they were hypercompetitive when young racers and they're still hypercompetitive as age grade masters.
....and when they're 90 and in a wheelchair, they'll still be racing the next guy to the cafeteria.  some people are just wired differently. Quote:
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#45
12-08-2021, 03:56 PM
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Shorter days are the biggest culprit for me. I work for a company that transports furniture, and the arrival of the holiday season means that I am busy delivering pieces that will be used to entertain guests at parties. Sofas, tables, media consoles, you name it. I'm able to stay fit from all of the lifting, but setting up a living room or a dining room doesn't satisfy like the brisk wind in my face and the sharp air entering my lungs. Maybe this is the year I get a smart trainer.
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