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He’s obviously been listening to Mikel Arteta

Who is this and are they worth listening to?

Since we’re now the Oxfordshire kids thread, it was knock and run in my village near Witney… I was thoroughly bemused by some of these other variants. That said I don’t really remember playing knock and run per se, but we definitely had a game of how many gardens you could trespass through without getting caught. Don’t think that had a name though.

He posted an emotional thank you video to trinity on his YouTube. I got the impression that he just reached the end of the road there as they are predominantly a development team. He also posted about 777 implying that this change was for this cross season only and that he had more exciting team announcements to come later in the season.

Been following him since he was doing CX Skills tutorials on his YouTube channel as a teenager. Seemed like a great kid and I’m so pleased to see his progression into the seniors.

Does anyone have any experience with personal ECG monitors?

I have (currently) undiagnosed, suspected exercise induced super ventricular tachycardia and have been advised to try a personal ECG monitor to try and catch an episode in action. So far as I can tell there are several possibilities none without their drawbacks for my use case (I have made some notes on personal pros and cons below). Any thoughts or alternatives welcomed.

KardiaMobile

A little device that clips to the back of your phone, you touch the two pads to get a 30s reading. They seem to have a 1 lead (£84) and 6 lead (£125) options. Pros: cheapest option, recommended by NICE, 6-lead version may be a more detailed diagnostic tool (or may not be... who knows, I'm not a doctor). Cons: It attaches to the phone and I'm always trying to look for ways to carry less stuff not more - I hate the idea of being tied to my phone and you need the app open to use it. I think there is a high risk I'd either lose it or simply not have it with me when needed. I imagine fumbling with the app on a cold and rainy ride would be a PITA.

Apple Watch

Apple Watch series 4 and later, plus the Apple Watch Ultra have ECG capability. you put a finger on the big button and get a 30s reading. Apple Watch 9 are currently £399 and the Ultra is £799. Pros: watch mounted ECG probably maximises the chances I'll have the watch on me... but... Cons: the Apple Watch is a comparatively poor sports watch so I'd likely not wear it for running/cycling and I deeply don't want to let any more notifications into my life.

Garmin Watches

Fenix 7 Pro and other higher spec models (including epix) (£650-£750+). 30s reading via placing one finger on the bezel and another on one of the buttons. Pros: I already wear a Garmin 935 all the time and so this would be a straight swap and I'd be almost guaranteed to have it on me when needed, high quality exercise watch with lots of other features (some of which I'd use, others I wouldn't). Cons: Expensive and the ECG monitor is turned off in the UK so I'd need to find someone to buy one for me in the US and bring it over... not impossible, I have plenty of colleagues who travel trans Atlantic frequently, but a faff. Or, I just found a spoof GPS workaround.

Fourth Frontier

ECG heart rate strap acts like a regular heart rate strap but records continuous ECG during exercise. £429. Pros: continuous egg during exercise so I wouldn't need to worry about stopping to carefully and correctly activate the ECG to get a reading. This might also provide added detail about what was happening before or after an episode (but I don't know if this is useful), or record episodes that I fail to notice. Cons: it's a heart rate strap so I wouldn't have it with me 24/7 - so far all my known episodes have been during or immediately after exercise, but who knows about the future.

Again I know nothing specific but my guess is that a lot hinges on the expected lifespan of the product (and the lifespan of whatever baseline product they are comparing to). All my camelback plastic bottles are all between 10-13 years old and they still have many years in them, and since I usually lose bottles before they become unusable I don’t really expect a metal one to last longer.

Don’t time out 😀

I know nothing about mountain biking and I've never owned a mountain bike, but I've been increasingly inspired by adventures like SRMR and other epics. Realistically I'm not going to do any ultra racing any time soon, but in an attempt to stave off middle age dullness and decrepitude, and as a 40th birthday present to myself, I'd like to try and ride the Southern Upland Way (a ~200km walking route across Scotland that is also MTB-able). Obviously this is also an excuse to buy a new bike so I now need the hive mind to tell me what to get.

After a little bit of googling my current favourite is the Trek Procaliber (maybe 9.6). I think I can stretch to around £2k if I get it through cycle2work which needs to go through one of the local LBSs, so one of the big name brands seems easiest. I think an XC bike would be best for this kind of ride, but also I do a little bit of cross and I'm pretty drawn to trying some XC races too. I'd also really love an off-road Tri if I ever get back into swimming/running. One concern might be luggage capacity, but from SRMR and others, many riders seem to use strap on luggage, and this kind of "long" distance adventure is going to be a rarity.

Thoughts? The Specialized Chisel comp also looked nice?

very rep.

So I probably need to head off to another thread to decide what MTB to buy first 😀. I might be able to stretch to something around 2k tops if I do it through C2W.

I don't have any clear idea really. My long held aspiration has been to run it as a multi day ultra, but I'm off running for the medium term and so my thinking switched to riding it. You are right that it is a walking trail (there is a road cycling route too) but I did see a couple of YouTube videos suggesting people had cycled at least parts of it and so I assumed that it would be ok?

The slight difficulty is that I'd be sort of starting from scratch. The attraction is that part of my family is from the village at the exact halfway point and my dad's front door literally opens onto the trail, so I have some level of emotional connection. The downside is that I don't even own a mountain bike, I've never done a multi day bike packing thing, and with a 2yr old, I don't have time to train 😀. Hence that I was hoping to find someone who had done it previously to maybe give me some advice (or talk me out of it!).

If it all goes to pot I might revert to the road version but, frankly, traffic puts me off the idea of long distance road rides at the moment.

Edit: page 1 of the FAQ says it's legal to ride but difficult.

Has anyone ridden the Southern Upland Way trail (the off-road route, not the new road version)? I'm wondering if it would make a nice adventure for my 40th but I'd be starting almost from scratch so just wondering how viable/challenging it is likely to be?

So presumably this would plausibly result in UK users being banned from any overseas based sites who CBA to fall foul of UK based legislation? A bit like many US sites just block UK users due to not wanting to comply with GDPR legislation.

How did it go? Nowadays I struggle to visualise a real physical board I’ve become so used to the 2d version.

@mashton I think I just sent you a challenge on chess.com. This wasn’t totally deliberate since the app recommended you as a past opponent and I just accepted thinking you were challenging me. Nevertheless, very happy to play and I’m sure you'll smash me if your rapid rating is anything to go by!

^ yup, I have these and the little screw on the side loosens the brake lever so that you can fit the bing adjuster thing.

The main reason not to would be to avoid over training or burnout. If you are confident that you can manage / avoid those issues then I think it’s fine.

For this reason I am increasingly inclined towards a white poppy that attempts to move away from the (in some circles) jingoistic focus on British victims of war and towards remembrance of all those impacted by conflict, and advocacy for peace in general.

The logic (as described to me by the doc) is that currently the doctor only has the information to guess at a diagnosis and the episodes are so rare and intermittent that any regular tests, and even any stress tests, are unlikely to yield the evidence needed to reach a clear diagnosis. The risks are apparently low, but there is sufficient evidence that something is wrong to try and reach a more certain diagnosis... apparently capturing an episode using a home ECG would help.

I'm 39 - I don't know where that puts me on the young /old spectrum as far as heart helth is concened... if the rest of my body is to believed then I'm probably somewhere near a cliff edge.

So I'm a little earlier in the process.

Over the past 4-5 years I have had occasional episodes where, during or immediately after bouts of interval training, my HR spikes to 220-250 and stays there for a few minutes before returning to normal (screenshots of two examples attached). I guess I've had maybe 4 or 5 confirmed incidents (where I've both noiced the sensations and also caught it on an HRM) plus a handful of other suspected episodes. Shortly before COVID, I went to the GP about it, and while they seemed pretty unconcerned they sent me for an ECG and echocardiogram - I never heard back from them and what with COVID emerging I just assumed that no news was good news.

I think my previous episode was in 2021, but then a couple of weeks ago it happened again, but this time, rather than experiencing an elevated HR for ~3minutes, it was going for nearer 20. This prompted me to go back to the GP who said that the reason I never heard back about the previous tests was that the results appear to have been lost. He suspects that the cause is "exercise induced SVT" (supraventricular tachycardia). Again, he wasn't overly concerned - he said that he'd be concerned if I was experiencing several episodes per week, not approximately one per year, but he did say that if it ever stays high for 20minutes again, or if I get a shorter episode accompanied by any of the following symptoms: chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness then it was ambulance time.

I'm now waiting on a new bout of tests, but the GP felt that these would inevitably fail to provide a diagnosis since my episodes seem to be triggered by high intensity efforts. Even a stress ECG in a lab was unlikely to uncover anything since I only get episodes in about 1% of interval workouts. So he recomended getting a portable ECG to see if I could capture an episode.

Does anyone have any experience with these? He recoomended Kardiomobile, but I see that a growing number of watches (Apple Watch, Garmin Fenix 7 pro etc) also have this functionality, as well as ecg heart rate straps.

Maybe @Velocio can help?

My suggestion of "Cycling with atrial fibrillation (AFib), arrhythmia and other heart issues" is only a suggestion and there may be other keywords relevant to the title.

Hey @Big_Ted, I hope everything is going well?

How would you feel about broadening the title to something like:

Cycling with atrial fibrillation (AFib), arrhythmia and other heart issues

I ask because I have some questions about a possible pending diagnosis of (what might be) exercise induced superventricular tachycardia (SVT) and this seems like the closest thread. Also adding heart to the title might make it more searchable since I couldn't find it again once I'd closed the tab.

Of course, I can post elsewhere if you prefer to keep this thread AFib focussed, but I'm not sure how many other heart threads this forum needs 😀.

Does the new puzzle mode inflate puzzle ratings? I'm 1800+ now which was well out of reach before the change.

Yeah I liked it but needed a hint on about the 3rd move.

Anyone racing the Reading leg of the Wessex league this weekend (Bill Higson Memorial)?

I’ve not raced, nor ridden my cx bike (or even ridden off road) since I wrecked the drivetrain pre-covid. I just picked it up from the lbs after a near full rebuild (every single bearing replaced, new dive train etc.) so I’m a little bit apprehensive how it’ll all go.

And yet I have a mate who did Triple-Deca Ironman off 10-12 hours training a week, with a full-time job and a young family. During the Trip-Dec, he broke the standalone record for Deca-Iron twice, at about 20-22 days into the competition. Guy's a freak though.

I genuinely don't intend to disparage your mate (about whom I know nothing), but I wonder how his family feel about the balance too. I mention because I'm topping out at about 4hrs a week and on occasional weeks might sneak 7 - that's with a full-time job plus family etc. I know other people with similar commitments who regularly get double-digit weeks but seem to do none of the childcare. It's not for me to say one approach to family life is better or worse, but when I see people who seem to "do it all", I know that they have a balance that I wouldn't want and that my wife wouldn't tolerate.

Re rear loading the training. That is how I used to do my IM training, and even my rowing training before I started triathlon. In my case, it was usually a result of poor planning and panic training in the last 12-16 weeks but I got some good results (~9:5x:xx). The last few weeks would include a lot of intensity and even the generic rides would be "as fast as I can for xx duration" so included a lot of high Z3, and low Z4. But I would say that I also got a lot of overuse injuries. I'm sure a steady build is far more stainable and is what I'd aim for if I ever had time for more serious training in the future.