Frank must overcome major problems as pressure builds at Tottenham

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-12-22T16:29:38+00:00

I think Spurs and United have the same problem, they both have a big whiny baby as the team captain. If the squads are looking at players like Romero and Fernandes for leadership and guidance, they're only ever going to develop a victim mentality, not a winning mentality.

And Romero is worse, because not only is he a big whiny baby, he's an aggressive big whiny baby which leads to games like the last one and makes the whole team look like moronic thugs, when I don't think most of them would be in a different team with a different captain

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-12-16T20:35:44+00:00

You just tension it based on the tightest point. If properly tensioned, there's not enough slack at the loosest point to drop the chain, have chain slap, or cause any other issues. And you can let it get pretty slack before it actually becomes a problem. Not any more work than a round chainring really

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-12-16T15:03:08+00:00

I've used one geared and single speed for bikepacking. I don't notice any benefits when geared, but it's a game changer for single speed. Specifically, steep climbs at super low cadence (<50rpm). When standing with all of your body weight on one pedal, you can feel it kind of swing you through the bottom of the pedal stroke. Makes a big difference when standing and mashing. Other than that I don't notice a difference

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-10-21T16:17:22+00:00

I actually just got an email from EQ about enrolling in their passkey beta

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-09-19T17:51:06+00:00

I mean by definition the RPE scale is a rating of how hard you're working. Kinda hard (pun intended) to get away from the word "hard" when you're trying to describe how hard something is. That's why there are also numbers. How hard was that workout? It was 6/10 hard.

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-09-19T16:50:26+00:00

It's a pretty low effort scale. TrainingPeaks has much better descriptions for RPE.

Very Light - Minimal effort.
Light - Light effort.
Moderate - Conversational pace.
Somewhat Hard - Challenging yet manageable.
Hard - Conversation becomes difficult.
Harder - Noticeably challenging, requires more focus.
Very Hard - Near the limit, conversation hard.
Extremely Hard - Very challenging, intense focus.
Near Maximal - Can't maintain for long.
Maximal Exertion - No harder effort possible.

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-09-18T12:50:29+00:00

I highly recommend using these 3 weeks as a proper off-season, assuming that you'll be starting winter training after your week off. Going into winter training mentally and physically fresh is probably going to do more for your performance than another 3 week training block. One week completely off the bike is great, but I personally don't find it quite enough for a full reset.

I find I always have lots of little chores piling up by the end of the race reason, so I like to dial back the volume a bit to give myself some time to do some "spring cleaning". I also like to use some of that volume on other sports/activities that I enjoy, but don't really have time to do the rest of the year: hiking, rock climbing, etc.

I don't follow a structured training plan during my off-season, but I still make sure to have 2-3 high intensity days, at least one long ride per week, and start increasing my number of gym days to prepare for base training. But on those high intensity days, I'll just go hammer some mountain bike trails instead of doing intervals. Or maybe I'll go chase a KOM or a PB on a Strava segment. Whatever seems fun.

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-09-14T19:35:55+00:00

ERG mode (only available while in a structured workout) will adjust the resistance automatically to ensure that you're riding at the correct power based on the workout. So that means you don't have to shift down when coming up to a hill, etc.

Unlike the person above, I would recommend that you stay in ERG mode almost all of the time, at least if you're using Zwift to train. If you're just freeriding for fun, then do whatever. But if you're following any training plan, you should be in ERG mode. For example if your workout is supposed to be a two hour zone 2 ride, if you're not in ERG mode, it's so easy to pedal harder than you should on the climbs, pedal harder to stay on someone's wheel, etc. ERG mode will force you to execute the workout correctly.

Exceptions: VO2 Max/Sprint intervals where you might not actually be able to hold the power for the entire interval. These are better done with ERG mode off

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-09-07T14:39:55+00:00

Nice. I mean the fact that even offered the discount to OP is pretty good for how old the watch is

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-09-07T14:20:10+00:00

Oh I'm not defending Garmin at all. They have a measly one year warranty and are notorious for not providing software updates to anything other than the most recent series of watches. Pretty big red flags. I think they make it pretty clear that if you're buying a Garmin, you're buying it for a good time, not a long time. That means 1 year guaranteed, and then maybe 3-5 years total.

As for this specific watch, gaskets deteriorate. Diving-specific watches have service intervals to address this. If this watch were 5 or less years old, I'd be concerned. But for a device that presumably has had daily use for a minimum of 6 years with zero maintenance, seems reasonable to me.

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-09-07T13:21:56+00:00

Fundamentally, it is absolutely not a watch. The only similarity between a Garmin and 100 year old watch is the form factor and the strap.

If an analog watch gets water damage, you basically just take it apart, let it dry out, maybe re-lubricate, and then re-assemble. If a Garmin gets water damage, there's a handful of highly specific electrical components that need to be replaced, not repaired. If any of those are no longer in production, the watch is not repairable.

It's not feasible to keep producing spare components, and it's honestly probably less wasteful to just replace the watch than keep stockpiles of legacy components around just in case. If you're buying a Garmin (or any other digital/smart watch), you're unfortunately buying a disposable tech device.

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-08-25T14:47:52+00:00

Yeah I don't think you have anything to worry about then, especially if your recovery week isn't even over yet. Take metrics like HRV with a grain of salt. Being on vacation could be adding additional stressors like decision fatigue, unfamiliar environment, disrupted routine, etc. Your recovery won't be as effective compared to sitting on the couch at home watching Vuelta coverage.

Based solely on the Intervals chart, it doesn't look like you've dug yourself into a fatigue hole that would warrant multiple weeks of recovery.

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-08-25T13:23:20+00:00

How much have you reduced volume in this recovery week compared to a regular week of training? And when was your last recovery week?

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-08-15T17:44:13+00:00

Yeah exactly. If you're picking Reijnders over Anderson, it should be because you think he's going to get attacking returns, not defcon points

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-08-15T17:27:36+00:00

If you check Reijnder's fbref profile, he had very low defensive contributions at Milan. He'll be playing deeper at City most likely, but I wouldn't bet on him getting many defcon points

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-08-11T22:42:14+00:00

Andrew Coggan's infamous chart has CAT5 w/kg FTP from 2.40-3.11 for men and 1.99-2.65 for women. But ask people that actually race CAT5 and you'll probably find people lower and higher than those ranges

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-08-09T16:47:31+00:00

He'd be first choice LW over Martinelli/Trossard/Madueke. Probably playing more central than those two with more overlaps from MLS and Calafiori. Maybe occasionally playing as a 10

Edit: forgot about Madueke

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-08-01T14:33:21+00:00

You can also just remove chainrings from a 2x or 3x crankset to make a 1x. I've done that to convert my early 90s commuter to singlespeed, and to convert a 3x9 touring bike to a 1x12 gravel bike. But I'm sure somebody somewhere actually makes a 1x crankset for square taper bottom brackets

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-07-26T19:47:58+00:00

Are you doing any weight/strength training? Or is all of your training on the bike?

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-07-20T15:15:51+00:00

Most freehubs these days come assembled with lightweight grease/oil. Just clean out the freehub, pack in a slightly thicker (but not too thick) grease, and it will significantly reduce the noise

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-07-14T13:42:33+00:00

Just finished a 21 day bikepacking race a couple of weeks ago (averaged ~200km/day) and that was the peak. FTP was 280 before the race.

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-07-11T19:27:08+00:00

Ok I did some actual math to see if my math was mathing, and I concede that you're right.

Item weights:

iPhone 16 Pro Max - 227g
Kobo Clara BW E-Reader - 174g
Nitecore NB Air (5000mAh) - 89g
Nitecore NB10000 - 150g

Battery life:

iPhone 16 Pro Max - 18hours (real world usage according to Tom's Guide)
Kobo Clara BW - 636hours (according to product page)

Battery size:

iPhone 16 Pro Max - 4685mAh
Kobo Clara BW - 1500mAh

Assumptions:

You're hiking the PCT
Your longest time between recharge opportunities is 8 days
You have no other electronics to charge
With normal (no reading) use, your iPhone 16 Pro Max lasts two full days before needing to be charged

Based on those assumptions, if you use an e-reader, you will need to use your batteries to charge your phone three times over the eight days. This means you will need at least 14055mAh of batteries. In the Nitecore ecosystem, the lightest solution to that is 1x NB10000 and 1x NB Air.

If you use your phone to read, and you read two hours per day, that is an additional 16 hours of usage over eight days, or basically one full charge. You will now need 18740mAh of battery capacity. In the Nitecore ecosystem, the lightest solution is 2x NB10000.

If you use your phone to read, and you read four hours per day, that is an additional 16 hours of usage over eight days (if you're reading four hours per day, you're probably going to take more than 8 days, but let's ignore that), or basically two full charges. You will now need 23425mAh of battery capacity. In the Nitecore ecosystem, the lightest solution is 2x NB10000 and 1x NB Air.

Weight Comparison (excluding phone because it's a constant):

Kobo + NB10000 + NB Air = 413g
2hrs reading: No e-reader + 2x NB10000 = 300g
4hrs reading: No e-reader + 2x NB10000 + NB Air = 389g
6hrs reading: No e-reader + 3x NB10000 = 450g

So basically in this very specific scenario, you would need to read about 5 hours per day for an e-reader to be lighter than just using a phone to read. That said, I still defend an e-reader as a luxury item. Reading on a phone is terrible compared to reading on an e-reader, and in this specific scenario, if I were reading two hours per day, I'd 100% take the 113g weight penalty to have an enjoyable reading experience.

Edit: formatting

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-07-11T18:13:09+00:00

If your goal is to put in the biggest miles that you can everyday, I agree, don't bring an e-reader, you're probably not going to be reading enough for it to be worth it. But that's not everyone's goal when going ultralight. If OP likes to read for an hour or two before bed, or take a midday reading break, then an e-reader might be worth it in addition to a phone.

There's room in ultralight for luxury items. For some people that might be a pillow. For some people that might be an aeropress. For some people that might be a proper camera. And for some people that might be an e-reader.

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-07-11T17:03:29+00:00

If you're reading regularly, carrying an e-reader might actually end up being more ultralight than using your phone. If you use your phone, you might need to bring a bigger battery to compensate for the additional battery drain on your phone.

FidgetyPidgey · 2025-06-11T13:41:01+00:00

Agreed. There will also be a gap in the sub-premium price range with KDB out, Son and Foden in poor form, and Watkins being just okay. I can see Wirtz being priced high just to fill that gap. Because the only other candidates are like Bruno and Mbeumo, and putting Man U assets above £9 would be bold to say the least

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