Not sure who recommended the Crystal Palace Physio Group to me but thank you. Saw them last week and knee is on the mend already. Highly recommended to anyone with any sort of cycling niggles.
So anyway what is your weekly mileage. I do 100 miles on my commute and then maybe up to 100 miles at the weekend for shopping and stuff and then a social/leisure ride. Also how many only use bikes for their transport. I do and can say there's absolutely no need for a car in London.
Not sure who recommended the Crystal Palace Physio Group to me but thank you. Saw them last week and knee is on the mend already. Highly recommended to anyone with any sort of cycling niggles.
You're welcome buddy. I was only aware of it because that's where I was advised to go by ex brother-in-law my daughter's Uncle, who was a physio at Ars*nal but now he is working for you guys. He used to work there (when it was known as Physioactive) before he got the Ars*nal job. So you can say you're in safe hands
So anyway what is your weekly mileage. I do 100 miles on my commute and then maybe up to 100 miles at the weekend for shopping and stuff and then a social/leisure ride. Also how many only use bikes for their transport. I do and can say there's absolutely no need for a car in London.
None at the moment due to recurring prostate problems. I agree about no need for a car. I've managed to reach 60 never having driven and only cycled.
So anyway what is your weekly mileage. I do 100 miles on my commute and then maybe up to 100 miles at the weekend for shopping and stuff and then a social/leisure ride. Also how many only use bikes for their transport. I do and can say there's absolutely no need for a car in London.
Varies between about 180 and 250. Commute is 30 miles each way and generally do that twice a week, with a couple of fast solo rides during the week then the club ride on a Sunday. Try and fit in a recovery ride with the missus when I can and the occasional hilly ride in the week with the club too. Now that it's turning to winter (at least it is Up North) I'll be on the turbo more often instead of the faster rides/chaingang sessions.
I do have a car, but that's because I can't commute on the bike every day (the mileage would quickly lead to overtraining) and I need it for other stuff (public transport up here is shocking). Also, I never leave my bikes anywhere in public - even locked.
here's a story from just up the road in jasper, Alberta - the perils of biking in the Canadian Rockies
FIGHT AND FLIGHT Jasperite uses bike to defend himself with, then flee from, aggressive momma grizzly Beau Michaud has been around plenty of bears.
After five years of working in the bush on trail crew, six years of walking through forests lighting and fighting fires and a decade of living in Jasper and playing on the trails, Michaud had seen his fair share of bruins.
“I’ve had countless bear encounters of all kinds,” he said. “I once saw 13 grizzlies between Beaver and Jacques Lakes.”
But he’d never had an incident. He’d never been charged before.
Until August 27.
On that day, Michaud was on a long, low-intensity bike ride. He was on his cross cycle—a hybrid road/trail bike—and was cruising at a moderate pace, transitioning from the road, to the trails, and back again. He was sticking mainly to the valley bottom; no severe climbs or descents.
Michaud had been out for upwards of three hours when he figured he’d head back towards Jasper. To get there, he decided to access Trail 7 near where the former Lake Edith road meets the Maligne Road and branch onto Trail 4E—an old trail that eventually connects to the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge area.
“I was biking along, knowing full well that there were bears on Trail 7,” he said. “The earbuds were out at this point, I was just kind of putting along.”
That’s when he first saw her.
It was a grizzly, 40 metres away. She was off the trail, but just. Suddenly, the bear stood on her hind legs. Michaud had seen this behaviour before. At this point he wasn’t too alarmed. He stood straddling his bike, watching her.
“I could see her well. As she stood up, a cub ran out onto the trail,” he said.
He was instantly on edge.
To Michaud’s initial relief, the cub ran in the opposite direction of him. The mother grizzly seemed to chase after it for a period. As soon as the cub was out of sight, however, the bear turned back towards Michaud.
Then, the huge bear started to run. Right at him.
“I thought ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’” he said.
She wasn’t kidding. The grizzly ran full speed towards him, covering the 40 m in no time.
“She came after me. There was no hesitation.”
With no time to turn around or get on his bike, Michaud jumped to his left, into the bushes beside the trail. He remembers the bear’s grunting and snorting as it barrelled after him.
“It was surprisingly fast,” he said. “I can remember her hair waving in the sun, standing on her back.”
The vegetation he found himself in consisted of half-dead pines and a small spruce tree. The scrub underneath was thick and wet from recent rains.
Michaud was only a few metres off the trail, but he couldn’t get through the thick scrub behind him. He tried to back up but ran into more bush. As the bear approached, she actually ran past Michaud before turning around and trying to come through the trees that Michaud now had positioned in front of himself.
“At that point I was trying to keep the trees between her and me,” he said.
The bear continued its pursuit, Michaud circling the patch of trees, barely keeping out of her reach. He was now yelling ‘whoa bear!’ amongst other choice words. He and the bear continued their terrifying dance, both of them circling the tree and alternately coming back to the path.
At one point, the grizzly was on the trail and Michaud was back in the bushes with his bike held out in front of him. Suddenly, she tried to come right through the trees at him. Michaud did his best to use his bike as a fence, pushing it against the bear when it got close.
“I couldn’t back up,” he said.
As the bear tried to force its way under the tree’s branches which separated them, Michaud said he was pressing his bike against the top of her head and snout. She was still grunting and breathing heavy.
“I was pushing with all my weight as much as I could,” he said.
Holding his bike by its stem and seatstays, Michaud then lifted his bike over his head and gave the grizzly a decisive blow. That strike seemed to make her forget about the pursuit and she wheeled back to where her cub had been.
“It was a good knock,” he said. “Then she backed off.”
It seemed like now was his chance to get away. He began to retreat while keeping an eye on the bear. As he hopped on his bike, he could see her sniffing her cub.
“I was trying not to lose focus on her,” he said.
As he began to pedal, Michaud looked back once more. To his horror, the grizzly was running straight at him again.
“She had the same look and the same noises were coming from her,” he said. “She was going flat out, a leap-to-bound charge.”
Michaud was now also going flat out. But the bear was gaining on him. First she was 30 feet away. Then 10. As he pedalled as fast as possible while trying not to fall—the trails were wet and slippery—he kept looking back and seeing her. She pursued him for what seemed like an eternity. Later, his Strava smartphone app told him the chase lasted two kilometres and that his peak speed was 42 km/hr.
“I wasn’t slowing down,” he said.
Finally, as he approached the Maligne Road from the trail, Michaud took one last look. The grizzly was out of sight, the chase was over. He took a few minutes to catch his breath and ponder what just happened, then called Parks Canada and told them the story. Trail 7 was closed to all users later that day.
Reflecting on the incident, Michaud knows that he should have probably been carrying bear spray, although he said if he didn’t have it ready in a split second it wouldn’t have mattered in this instance. Secondly, he figures his fitness must have helped him—both during the fight, in which he used his brute strength to knock the bear with his bike frame, and during the flight, where he needed every bit of cycle stamina to outrun the grizzly.
More than anything, however, it was a wake up call that things can go haywire in an instant.
Slammed by a 3 day snowstorm here - think that signals the end of the road biking season - time to reacquaint myself with Zwift - haven't used it for a couple of years so expecting some nice updates....
@Leroy Ambrose I came off on a roundabout nearly two years ago...wet morning, had just come up Polhill and was pedaling along heading towards Orpington and there are a couple of roundabouts in reasonably quick succession...wasn't going massively fast, probably about 25 kph, but hit some oil/something as was halfway through and front wheel went right from under me and I ended up skidding across the roundabout on my right hand side.. Fortunately it was early on a Sunday morning so there was only one car, which managed to stop rather than drive over me, but I had burns up my right thigh and right arm for weeks...couldn't walk (or wear long trousers, due to the 'burn') for two weeks and am now very, very slow on any corner/turn/bend whenever the road is anything less than completely dry... Hope you recover fully soon. Cheers
@Leroy Ambrose I came off on a roundabout nearly two years ago...wet morning, had just come up Polhill and was pedaling along heading towards Orpington and there are a couple of roundabouts in reasonably quick succession...wasn't going massively fast, probably about 25 kph, but hit some oil/something as was halfway through and front wheel went right from under me and I ended up skidding across the roundabout on my right hand side.. Fortunately it was early on a Sunday morning so there was only one car, which managed to stop rather than drive over me, but I had burns up my right thigh and right arm for weeks...couldn't walk (or wear long trousers, due to the 'burn') for two weeks and am now very, very slow on any corner/turn/bend whenever the road is anything less than completely dry... Hope you recover fully soon. Cheers
Did something similar on a min-roundabout last Xmas.
Broke a bone in my shoulder and cut my ankle down to the bone.
After extensive physio my shoulder still isn't 100% and I'm told without a major operation it probably never will be.
I'm firmly in the corners at "walking pace" camp now.
Cheers chaps. Potentially it was the speed I was travelling at which stopped it being pretty nasty - a bit slower and I'd have had time to react, which would have probably meant putting my arm put and breaking either my wrist, collarbone or both. The road rash is alright - painful but not a real problem apart from when I forgot about it last might and pulled a cardi... on. That hurt. The thigh bruise is painful though - and it's right in the middle of my pre winter training block, so will set me back quite a bit.
Speaking to a driver who witnessed it (being up north, he stopped to check I was OK - if it had been London/Surrey/Kent he'd have driven over me so I didn't slow him down) he said the front wheel literally just went from under me. Bone dry as well. The surface of the roundabout was different on the outside lane, so I suspect I just hit the change of surface as I went from the leaning right to leaning left to accelerate out of the exit.
Riding home with one hand on the bars was 'interesting'
Well, I've just seen my GP for a checkup. After examining me, my records and listening to me it's not the best news.
He says that with an injury like mine (torn ligaments back in May) my ankle will never be the same. I'll never have full movement and it will always hurt. He's referred me to a physio (finally, as my first doctor post cast never bothered, and my new doctor was very shocked by this) so I guess we will see what he says.
I rode for 5 days in August, around 4 miles a day. Could barely walk by the Friday. My new doc has told me I should cycle, but I need to be gentle and it will always hurt me. Which is gutting frankly.
I know a few of you guys have long term injuries, and I believe @Rothko is a physio, do you have any advice? Feeling pretty shite about it right now.
Well, I've just seen my GP for a checkup. After examining me, my records and listening to me it's not the best news.
He says that with an injury like mine (torn ligaments back in May) my ankle will never be the same. I'll never have full movement and it will always hurt. He's referred me to a physio (finally, as my first doctor post cast never bothered, and my new doctor was very shocked by this) so I guess we will see what he says.
I rode for 5 days in August, around 4 miles a day. Could barely walk by the Friday. My new doc has told me I should cycle, but I need to be gentle and it will always hurt me. Which is gutting frankly.
I know a few of you guys have long term injuries, and I believe @Rothko is a physio, do you have any advice? Feeling pretty shite about it right now.
you have my sympathies, not being able to ride when you love it is horrible. I've been about 2 years now off the bike due to prostate problems ( I can't get my leg over the bike) and it drives me nuts. Rylo is your man for physio.
I've literally had 5 months of doing absolutely nothing. While I was training for the London Marathon, I was suffering from what I thought was sore hip flexors. Managed to get through the training and the marathon but by mile 16, I was in so much pain I was popping Ibuprofen like M&Ms.
Gave it 2 weeks of proper rest afterwards, tried to run again but I was in agony within 50 yards. I went to the US on Honeymoon for 3.5 weeks, came back and same thing. I went to see my physio and he diagnosed it as hip joint at first. Done some strengthening exercises and it made no difference. Went back to see him then he diagnosed a suspected hernia. Had an ultrasound and the doctor who done it confirmed. I dont do hospitals, I dont do blood and I certainly dont do being cut open so had to go see a hypnotherapist for a few weeks to give me the balls to go see the surgeon.
Saw the surgeon last week and after a good prodding around my groin, he isnt convinced its a hernia. Its either a tear in the groin muscle which would have repaired itself to a degree or a variety of what is called Gilmour's Groin. Had to have a MRI scan on Wednesday and have to go see him again next week.
5 bloody months. I've been running 130-140 miles a month for the last 3.5 years with minimal issue and now I cant even run across the road to the other side.
Sadly, it appears to flair up when I've been riding gently on the turbo. I'm on the verge of losing my mind. Every single bit of fitness I'd built up over 5-6 years has disappeared into the ether.
Since laying in the scanner, both my hips have been very uncomfortable which is weird. The radiographer had me holding my breath and tensing my abs for various images so god knows what is actually wrong with me.
Thanks Baldy and JohnBoy - I'm gonna try a few gentle rides before my 1st physio apt next month. I'm just not really sure how hard to push myself.
The bugger is that it's my right ankle, and that's the leg I use to plant when stopped. I'm also not sure if I should wear an ankle support brace or not - I would assume so but I'm not sure if it's counterproductive strengthening wise.
It's silly how much pain and frustration can come out of injuring just a little part of your body.
Plantar fasciitis This fugger has been with me for 16 months, and whilst it has been nursed through around 600 miles (including the end of 2015 there) of running.
Every morning I feel like it's at square one again. It's infuriating as i'm only 28, I should be in my prime!
Plantar fasciitis This fugger has been with me for 16 months, and whilst it has been nursed through around 600 miles (including the end of 2015 there) of running.
Every morning I feel like it's at square one again. It's infuriating as i'm only 28, I should be in my prime!
One of my good mates at my run club has suffered on and off for 2 years with that dreaded b*stard of a problem. Not much you can do about it, is there? he swears by rolling a golf ball under his foot to try and massage it out. Just the thought of it makes my stomach turn.
Plantar fasciitis This fugger has been with me for 16 months, and whilst it has been nursed through around 600 miles (including the end of 2015 there) of running.
Every morning I feel like it's at square one again. It's infuriating as i'm only 28, I should be in my prime!
One of my good mates at my run club has suffered on and off for 2 years with that dreaded b*stard of a problem. Not much you can do about it, is there? he swears by rolling a golf ball under his foot to try and massage it out. Just the thought of it makes my stomach turn.
you wanna try having your prostate checked every couple of months to see if it's still swollen.
Thanks for the mention chaps. Please get in touch if you need anything. I'm a mobile therapist so always happy to do home visits. My main area is sports / deep tissue massage, but if you wanted a relaxing massage I do that also. Just to confirm it's a professional service, so no happy endings I'm afraid...
Comments
I do 100 miles on my commute and then maybe up to 100 miles at the weekend for shopping and stuff and then a social/leisure ride.
Also how many only use bikes for their transport. I do and can say there's absolutely no need for a car in London.
I agree about no need for a car. I've managed to reach 60 never having driven and only cycled.
I do have a car, but that's because I can't commute on the bike every day (the mileage would quickly lead to overtraining) and I need it for other stuff (public transport up here is shocking). Also, I never leave my bikes anywhere in public - even locked.
FIGHT AND FLIGHT
Jasperite uses bike to defend himself with, then flee from, aggressive momma grizzly
Beau Michaud has been around plenty of bears.
After five years of working in the bush on trail crew, six years of walking through forests lighting and fighting fires and a decade of living in Jasper and playing on the trails, Michaud had seen his fair share of bruins.
“I’ve had countless bear encounters of all kinds,” he said. “I once saw 13 grizzlies between Beaver and Jacques Lakes.”
But he’d never had an incident. He’d never been charged before.
Until August 27.
On that day, Michaud was on a long, low-intensity bike ride. He was on his cross cycle—a hybrid road/trail bike—and was cruising at a moderate pace, transitioning from the road, to the trails, and back again. He was sticking mainly to the valley bottom; no severe climbs or descents.
Michaud had been out for upwards of three hours when he figured he’d head back towards Jasper. To get there, he decided to access Trail 7 near where the former Lake Edith road meets the Maligne Road and branch onto Trail 4E—an old trail that eventually connects to the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge area.
“I was biking along, knowing full well that there were bears on Trail 7,” he said. “The earbuds were out at this point, I was just kind of putting along.”
That’s when he first saw her.
It was a grizzly, 40 metres away. She was off the trail, but just.
Suddenly, the bear stood on her hind legs. Michaud had seen this behaviour before. At this point he wasn’t too alarmed. He stood straddling his bike, watching her.
“I could see her well. As she stood up, a cub ran out onto the trail,” he said.
He was instantly on edge.
To Michaud’s initial relief, the cub ran in the opposite direction of him. The mother grizzly seemed to chase after it for a period. As soon as the cub was out of sight, however, the bear turned back towards Michaud.
Then, the huge bear started to run. Right at him.
“I thought ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’” he said.
She wasn’t kidding. The grizzly ran full speed towards him, covering the 40 m in no time.
“She came after me. There was no hesitation.”
With no time to turn around or get on his bike, Michaud jumped to his left, into the bushes beside the trail. He remembers the bear’s grunting and snorting as it barrelled after him.
“It was surprisingly fast,” he said. “I can remember her hair waving in the sun, standing on her back.”
The vegetation he found himself in consisted of half-dead pines and a small spruce tree. The scrub underneath was thick and wet from recent rains.
Michaud was only a few metres off the trail, but he couldn’t get through the thick scrub behind him. He tried to back up but ran into more bush. As the bear approached, she actually ran past Michaud before turning around and trying to come through the trees that Michaud now had positioned in front of himself.
“At that point I was trying to keep the trees between her and me,” he said.
The bear continued its pursuit, Michaud circling the patch of trees, barely keeping out of her reach. He was now yelling ‘whoa bear!’ amongst other choice words. He and the bear continued their terrifying dance, both of them circling the tree and alternately coming back to the path.
At one point, the grizzly was on the trail and Michaud was back in the bushes with his bike held out in front of him. Suddenly, she tried to come right through the trees at him. Michaud did his best to use his bike as a fence, pushing it against the bear when it got close.
“I couldn’t back up,” he said.
As the bear tried to force its way under the tree’s branches which separated them, Michaud said he was pressing his bike against the top of her head and snout. She was still grunting and breathing heavy.
“I was pushing with all my weight as much as I could,” he said.
Holding his bike by its stem and seatstays, Michaud then lifted his bike over his head and gave the grizzly a decisive blow. That strike seemed to make her forget about the pursuit and she wheeled back to where her cub had been.
“It was a good knock,” he said. “Then she backed off.”
It seemed like now was his chance to get away. He began to retreat while keeping an eye on the bear. As he hopped on his bike, he could see her sniffing her cub.
“I was trying not to lose focus on her,” he said.
As he began to pedal, Michaud looked back once more. To his horror, the grizzly was running straight at him again.
“She had the same look and the same noises were coming from her,” he said. “She was going flat out, a leap-to-bound charge.”
Michaud was now also going flat out. But the bear was gaining on him. First she was 30 feet away. Then 10. As he pedalled as fast as possible while trying not to fall—the trails were wet and slippery—he kept looking back and seeing her. She pursued him for what seemed like an eternity. Later, his Strava smartphone app told him the chase lasted two kilometres and that his peak speed was 42 km/hr.
“I wasn’t slowing down,” he said.
Finally, as he approached the Maligne Road from the trail, Michaud took one last look. The grizzly was out of sight, the chase was over. He took a few minutes to catch his breath and ponder what just happened, then called Parks Canada and told them the story. Trail 7 was closed to all users later that day.
Reflecting on the incident, Michaud knows that he should have probably been carrying bear spray, although he said if he didn’t have it ready in a split second it wouldn’t have mattered in this instance. Secondly, he figures his fitness must have helped him—both during the fight, in which he used his brute strength to knock the bear with his bike frame, and during the flight, where he needed every bit of cycle stamina to outrun the grizzly.
More than anything, however, it was a wake up call that things can go haywire in an instant.
“Anything can happen out there,” he said.
http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/road-bikes/boardman-cx-comp-bike
Now sporting a graze about six inches long on my forearm, a bruise the size of a grapefruit on my thigh and recovering from open wallet surgery
Yikes. Overtaking on cs3 - not recommended.
Overtaking 3 abreast on cs3 pure madness.
Broke a bone in my shoulder and cut my ankle down to the bone.
After extensive physio my shoulder still isn't 100% and I'm told without a major operation it probably never will be.
I'm firmly in the corners at "walking pace" camp now.
Speaking to a driver who witnessed it (being up north, he stopped to check I was OK - if it had been London/Surrey/Kent he'd have driven over me so I didn't slow him down) he said the front wheel literally just went from under me. Bone dry as well. The surface of the roundabout was different on the outside lane, so I suspect I just hit the change of surface as I went from the leaning right to leaning left to accelerate out of the exit.
Riding home with one hand on the bars was 'interesting'
He says that with an injury like mine (torn ligaments back in May) my ankle will never be the same. I'll never have full movement and it will always hurt. He's referred me to a physio (finally, as my first doctor post cast never bothered, and my new doctor was very shocked by this) so I guess we will see what he says.
I rode for 5 days in August, around 4 miles a day. Could barely walk by the Friday. My new doc has told me I should cycle, but I need to be gentle and it will always hurt me. Which is gutting frankly.
I know a few of you guys have long term injuries, and I believe @Rothko is a physio, do you have any advice? Feeling pretty shite about it right now.
Rylo is your man for physio.
I've literally had 5 months of doing absolutely nothing. While I was training for the London Marathon, I was suffering from what I thought was sore hip flexors. Managed to get through the training and the marathon but by mile 16, I was in so much pain I was popping Ibuprofen like M&Ms.
Gave it 2 weeks of proper rest afterwards, tried to run again but I was in agony within 50 yards. I went to the US on Honeymoon for 3.5 weeks, came back and same thing. I went to see my physio and he diagnosed it as hip joint at first. Done some strengthening exercises and it made no difference. Went back to see him then he diagnosed a suspected hernia. Had an ultrasound and the doctor who done it confirmed. I dont do hospitals, I dont do blood and I certainly dont do being cut open so had to go see a hypnotherapist for a few weeks to give me the balls to go see the surgeon.
Saw the surgeon last week and after a good prodding around my groin, he isnt convinced its a hernia. Its either a tear in the groin muscle which would have repaired itself to a degree or a variety of what is called Gilmour's Groin. Had to have a MRI scan on Wednesday and have to go see him again next week.
5 bloody months. I've been running 130-140 miles a month for the last 3.5 years with minimal issue and now I cant even run across the road to the other side.
Sadly, it appears to flair up when I've been riding gently on the turbo. I'm on the verge of losing my mind. Every single bit of fitness I'd built up over 5-6 years has disappeared into the ether.
Since laying in the scanner, both my hips have been very uncomfortable which is weird. The radiographer had me holding my breath and tensing my abs for various images so god knows what is actually wrong with me.
Thanks Baldy and JohnBoy - I'm gonna try a few gentle rides before my 1st physio apt next month. I'm just not really sure how hard to push myself.
The bugger is that it's my right ankle, and that's the leg I use to plant when stopped. I'm also not sure if I should wear an ankle support brace or not - I would assume so but I'm not sure if it's counterproductive strengthening wise.
It's silly how much pain and frustration can come out of injuring just a little part of your body.
This fugger has been with me for 16 months, and whilst it has been nursed through around 600 miles (including the end of 2015 there) of running.
Every morning I feel like it's at square one again. It's infuriating as i'm only 28, I should be in my prime!
Googled winter cycling shoes and much to my surprise they are actually a real product.
Anybody got a pair and are they worth the money over a decent pair of overshoes?
I don't think there's been a frost yet.