Good luck to my main man Subby who will conquer Boston again on Monday.

And now congrats. Completed Boston again in sub 3:30 on another difficult weather day (at least at the start). And battled injuries along the way. Two years in a row...awesome feat! Congrats, bud!

That's so impressive. Subby is a beast.

I'm currently on the DL with an Achille's injury that is slow to heal. I guess I should be doing more to strengthen the area. Frustrating.

My sister ran Boston yesterday, finished in 3:37.

Glad my parents got to be there for it.

I figured this might be the best place to ask this question. My wife and I are in the market for a treadmill so we can keep up with our walking/running when the weather / time change. Any recommendations around the $1,000-$1,500 price point. Has anyone use the ifit with Nordic Track and how has it worked? Do you find it better than the normal built in routines?

I bought a Proform Pro 2000 two years ago and have been very happy with it. It was $1,300. I did pay $250 extra for them to deliver and assemble it. (I'm mechanically inept.) I don't use iFit or anything like that, so I can't comment on that aspect.

Found an ultra endurance ride for you, Subby. I can be a support crew member if you want to tackle this one.

The No Country For Old Men event
1000 mile map | Ultra race in Texas

Given Subby's Everesting, I have to think he could finish this one. It looks like they've only had something like 13 solo finishers since 2014.

I'll be in Fort Davis next month - that part of the state with Alpine and Marfa is really cool. I'd move there tomorrow if I could.

I'm going to be out there the weekend of the 20th for the Fort Davis Cyclefest. A mere 75 mile ride.

I am 100% in for this. I had no idea there was that much climbing in Texas!

I just wrote about Everesting if you are bored or in the bathroom or something similar. That Time We Everested – Do stupid stuff before you die

Also just finished Big Savage (380 miles, 40K of climbing - I'll write that one up soon). Next up I am going to try to be the first person to ride the Great Alleghany Passage - C&O Canal (Pittsburgh to DC, 335 miles) in under 24 hours, solo and unsupported. Will probably fail spectacularly!

Boston seems like a lifetime ago but I think I am sufficiently healed up that running can start again some time soon.

Leaving tomorrow for the Fort Davis Cyclefest ride. It is on Saturday, a 75 mile loop. My knees have been doing really well, but we'll see how they do with the amount of climbing on the course. This route is part of that 1,000 mile ride I posted.

Subby, if you are serious about doing the No Country For Old Men, let me know and we can start the planning. There is indeed a ton of climbing, and is in an extremely rugged and beautiful part of the country.

They must bring in the weird out of towners on the same weekend. I (or we if my wife decides to go) are leaving on Friday and staying in town.

I'm not sure how ready I am. I've been getting miles in but just due to consistency on weekday mornings. Long runs in the summer seem counter productive to me so I've been climbing stairs and hitting the treadmill at 15% instead to try to prepare.

Good luck!

Got home from Fort Davis a little bit ago. The weather held out for the ride, which started in a light drizzle, but the rain stopped mid morning. I made the complete circuit, but was sagged up a couple of the monster climbs. My knees started balking about the halfway point of the ride. Still rode 56.5 miles and got in 3,200 feet of climbing.

We also helped sag a sag wagon. One of the sag vehicles got a stuck caliper. We stopped and helped them get the wheel off and check the brake. We got it unstuck, but it would get immediately stuck with any application of the brakes. The guy limped it back in using the diesel engine to do the braking. I passed him on one of the big downhill sections towards the end.

Congrats on a great ride cartman! That's awesome!

I just rode from Pittsburgh to DC via the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Towpath trail. I did it solo and unsupported and finished in under 24 hours (23:43 which is the FKT for now). I'll write up something soon!

332.8 mi Ride Activity on September 26, 2019 by Chris S. on Strava

As if there was any doubt, this was not a good training strategy. First off, the Davis Mts are beautiful and one of my favorite places in Texas.

The hills really kicked my ass. I was cramping by mile 16 and struggled through the rest of the course. It got up into the mid-80s and my pathetic bald head ended up burning to add insult to injury. I loved every second though.

A cooler day would have been nice but it is never ending summer in Texas this year.

This is amazing. Spoiler alert but Subby rode from Pittsburgh to Washington DC in less than 24 hours. Its just absolutely incredible.

Subby, you are incredible. And insane!

Ok, "something soon" was a little optimistic, but I finally wrote about this!

So, is anyone here using Zwift? I just ordered the Wahoo KICKR to use for indoor training. I really tailed off with my training after the week long charity ride in New York got canceled. It integrates with Strava, as well as some other apps. Looking forward to getting going with it.

I used zwift for a while last fall and winter but stopped using it when the weather got nicer so eventually cancelled it. I enjoyed it, but it got extremely repetitive after a while. They may have more variety now though.


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I also found a site called bikemap.net that could be interesting. Has tons of routes to download that send data to a smart trainer to simulate the terrain.

Cool story Subby. I enjoyed it.

So the Wahoo KICKR and KICKR Climb showed up today. Got them set up, then did the intro ride for Zwift. It felt a lot like riding on the road. I like that when you coast, it doesn't instantly bog down. The Climb adds that touch of realism for ascents and descents.

Enjoy Cartman.

I used Zwift for about a year, but like Alan, once the weather warmed up in the second year in the spring I stopped using it and cancelled. What pushed me over the edge was not being able to separate actual outdoors climbing stats vs Zwift climbing stats on Strava. I don't have a smart trainer, so the simulated climbing seemed kind of bogus to me. Yes I went "slower" up hills in Zwift, but other than pedaling longer, didn't feel like it was a comparable effort to outdoors. Even shifting into harder gears felt cheesy. If I had a Smart trainer, that might've been different though.

You might want to check out Bkool.com too. They allow you to import old rides you've done and simulate, them similar to Zwift. At least that was what they were doing back in 2017. It wasn't nearly as polished as Zwift at the time, but I assume it has improved since then.

So I finally got my basement setup how I want it. If anyone is riding zwift, you'll recognize the lower screen. I use an apple tv to run the zwift app. I have an HDMI splitter that pushes the apple tv signal to the upper tv if I am on the treadmill and am doing Zwift Run (which is dumb, but whatever, it's something to take my attention while I run).
I have a soundbar set up for the big tv since that's where the fios and streaming stuff is usually sent, and I don't want to have to wear headphones to have to hear it. Everything is set up in that direction so I can stare out of the window into the backyard if I just want to zone out. A big fan that I use when I ride is behind the treadmill and I have put the equipment on minimalist shelving on the wall since I took the pick.
Flag covers a shelf where I store some stuff. Will probably hang some LED lights too. A few other flourishes on the way, but I am happy with how clean it is.
The bike is a Wahoo Kickr Bike. I have tried every type of trainer and got fed up with connecting and disconnecting my bikes, performing calibrations, etc. The Kickr bike is pretty bombproof and it simulates shifting really well and also has the climb functionality to simulate hill climbs and descents.
Anyway, this helps get me moving. I have zero desire to be outside in sub-freezing temps anymore and for now my job is wfh, so no opportunity to commute into the city.
Anyway, that's the update. Want to do some epic stuff this year, but we are waaaay early in the process. Having connected with this thread in a while, hope the FOFC Strava group is doing well!

I didn't realize there was an FOFC Strava group. I'm on Strava but 99% of what I do is imported from my treadmill. I'll have to go searching.

Nice collection of medals, Subby. We'll have a "Post Your Home Workout Area" update!

So I had my own mini-version of the Schilling bloody sock episode today. I ran a segment of the Boston Marathon on iFit this afternoon and felt something on my shoe was rubbing under my right ankle while warming up but I didn't pay much attention to it.

Fast forward 62 minutes and 8 miles later, I go upstairs to take a shower and notice a red spot on my shoe. "That's funny, I don't remember that being there before." Then I start taking off my sock - gigantic red spot. Then it dawns on me. I think I must have had a small cut on my ankle that my shoe rubbed for an hour. So now I assume my shoe will have a permanent reminder of my stupidity, err... bravery.

I'm stuck in a walking boot for the next few weeks due to a torn peroneal tendon. I'm already climbing the walls...

That sucks. When I had my surgery, I was completely down for 5 weeks - not just working out but for about 3 weeks, I wasn't even walking at normal pace. But I quickly got it back. I've been doing all of the iFit marathon programs - Boston, Chicago, London and New York. I'm halfway through NY to finish all 4. Since they are video, I'm running at faster pace than the videos so I've been doing about 40+ miles during each 26.2 mile program. The last couple of weeks, I've gone over 50+ miles a week, my most ever.

Once I finish this, I think I'm going to completely switch things up and go with something shorter and possibly more incline-heavy (possibly a hiking series although I prefer to run - something with some incline mixed with running would be perfect).

Did you have surgery on the peroneal? I felt an ominous double pop just as I was running and wasn't sure what was going on. I've been debating whether I should get an MRI or not but I'm leaning towards getting it just to make sure it isn't too serious to heal on its own.

Congrats on getting up to 50 miles a week! That's a good milestone.

No, it had nothing to do with running, something completely unrelated. But I was unable to do anything post-surgery for about 5 weeks.

I recently got a fancy-pants modern smart phone and realized I could use fancy-pants modern apps to track my walks so I logged onto Strava to start recording them and couldn't believe it had been 8 years since I last logged on. What I can believe is that I was in better shape then than now. Long since time I got back to it.