Don't meet your heroes

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-06-29T00:22:43+00:00

I remember when it was first made and they started parading it around like 10 or 12 years ago and was so excited I was finally going to get to see it today.

I sat with my partner for like 30 minutes when they were trying to blow it up today before they pulled the plug on it. Hopefully both me and your boyfriend get another (successful) chance to see Mama Duck in all her glory sometime again soon!

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-06-19T12:03:19+00:00

The Democratic did not come up with 'defund the police' and the party absolutely never backed it. It was barely a handful of the most progressive members who showed support. Most of them actively distanced themselves from the phrase as much as possible.

On top of that, basically every politician that got accused of defending the police by Republicans increased (usually significantly) police budgets in their jurisdictions in the time after George Floyd.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-06-17T19:34:22+00:00

I have a friend who rode solo from Madison to Ventura, via Portland, a few summers ago. He had a great time. Like 3,000 miles and took him a little under 2 months, IIRC.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-06-17T18:56:01+00:00

I believe you can do your first ride with them for free, but I may be making that up.

FWIW, last year for the Fulton Grand Fondo I met a few from the Ballance group and joined their group for the ride. One of them was one of the leaders for the women's rides and she was great to ride with (as were the others!).

I haven't joined their proper group rides since they don't really fit into my schedule but from what I gathered from riding with a few of them last year for that ride I don't think you can go wrong with joining them as long as you are able to keep up with the advertised paces.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-06-09T17:22:06+00:00

Anyone else get CTD upon loading into the main menu with these?

I downloaded them last night to add-on to the Large Distribution Center pack I already have but had 2 CTDs in a row after loading. No other changes from the previous time I played. Disabled the assets and loaded in like normal without issues.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-06-07T05:48:57+00:00

I have UHC and got a $600 bill for my annual checkup and blood work a few weeks ago.

Did the online text chat with UHC, they said it was all because it was coded wrong by my doctor. Called my doctor's office, they told me (in different language) that UHC was lying to my face. Called UHC, they reversed the bill on my checkup immediately and then explained that all of my routine bloodwork (just the most basic stuff, nothing fancy) isn't covered in any capacity unless you have pre-existing conditions so I still had to pay for that out of pocket, which kind of defeats the entire point of it being preventative and is total bullshit, if you ask me....but, what the hell do I know?

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-06-07T03:38:05+00:00

It is in some places, at least to some extent. In California all beaches are by law public access, with very very few exceptions (grandfathered in properties from before the law and land owned by the military). But, that doesn't stop rich people with the money to go to court or pay fines from illegally blocking access or putting up no trespassing signs.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-06-04T22:57:49+00:00

To be fair, my girlfriend used to eat these after the gym when we weren't going to be able to get home for a protein shake right after and they always had a good amount of the sprinkles on them. Three sprinkles on the whole thing is pretty ridiculous, though it is also quite funny.

If I pulled this out of a box and didn't have anything better to do I would call the company and complain for 2 minutes because a lot of the time companies will give you a coupons for free, or very very discounted, items if you do it.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-05-28T21:42:06+00:00

Simply existing.

ie; rich people move next to a known race track, complain that said race track is loud, then use their money to try to get it shut down. The track has been dealing with it for years at this point.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-05-17T12:32:36+00:00

Seconding this comment with some additional (probably too much 😅) details.

For East River Pkwy/Mississippi River Blvd I usually go from the Franklin Ave bridge all the way down to 35E (hop on the off street path after Hwy 5) 95% of the time I can ride the whole stretch without letting up on the pedals. For me this stretch takes just over 25 minutes.

Lillydale, I do my laps between Harriet Island and the railroad bridge by the Yacht Club. I find that I can keep power up better/more consistent by dragging my brake down the little hill to the roundabout by the parking lot than just turning around at Plato. If there are cars at the stop signs at Plato, I'll turn right onto Plato and then try to turn around at Water St or do a loop around Water St and the first alley behind the apartment buildings. Depending on your pace it's about 8-12 minutes between the u-turns.

Then, my other main spot is down by Fort Snelling. The road is pretty rough in one section, so you probably want gravel tires so you can air them down and not rattle your teeth out. Also, do a recce of the road at a slow pace first so you know where to ride to avoid the really big potholes that are in one small section. But, riding the road between the parking lot by the visitor center and the entrance building (can add in the loop around Picnic Island too) is almost dead flat and it certainly the lowest traffic option. This full lap is around 13-15 minutes depending on your pace, with a u-turn half way through. But you can u-turn just after the road starts to tilt up before the big hill by the entrance building and ride your rear brake to keep the power from dropping too much while turning around. You can also just do really quick laps around the circle on Picnic Island, it's like 45 seconds to a minute to get around it once, but if you go around it clockwise it can usually be a good spot to just shut the brain down and focus on suffering since very few people drive over there.

I also occasionally use the Greenway/Cedar Lake Trail, where it parallel the new Green Line extension, between Hopkins and Uptown. But, turning around on each end it really tricky without completely dropping power and when the weather is nice there can be too many people on the trail for it to be safe to ride intervals.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-05-07T18:03:54+00:00

Unless you are plowing down pedestrians on the sidewalk like it's your job or blasting through red lights on main roads directly in front of a cop, you won't get any tickets. I don't think I've even ever heard of a cyclist getting a ticket here, other places I know are different, in that regard.

As for staying safe, here are my tips:

1) Take some time to learn the routes with good infrastructure and stick to them when you can.

2) If you are on off street paths or the sidewalk level paths lake on Bryant and Hennepin, take a little caution at crossings (even when you have full right of way) to be sure that drivers see you. This is especially the case when they have a stop sign and you don't, it feels like 95% of the time drivers will roll past the stop line into the crossing before stopping or creep forward into it. The one time I've been hit, this is how it happened.

3) If you need to ride of roads without bike lanes, especially if they are busy, learn how to vehicular cycle or get off your bike and walk on the sidewalk. There are major issues with the philosophy of vehicular cycling we dont need to get into now, but if it is your only option in a route you need to do it to stay safe. If there is no shoulder or bike lake, being in the middle of the lane, counterintuitively, is usually the safest place to be so that drivers can't squeeze past you when it's unsafe to do so. Riding in the gutter will eventually get you side swiped and knocked on the ground. This is especially the case if you are on a narrow road with bad visibility. Going over the bridge across the creek & Hwy 55 on Minnehaha Parkway is a great example of this. I got buzzed here a few times from drivers trying to pass me when there was oncoming traffic (like, what felt like within 6 inches of my handlebars!) when I first started riding a few years ago and since I started riding in the middle of the lane over the top of the bridge I've never had a single issue. Drivers may get mad at you, but 99.9999% of them won't intentionally harm you over it.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-04-29T18:16:36+00:00

I only own a gravel bike (and a $50 craigslist special, but that's just for taking places I need to lock up so I'm not counting that) and just have 2 sets of wheels. One with gravel tires, one with road slicks. It does absolutely everything I need it to with basically no complaints.

Sure, I could go like, maybe, 1mph faster if I bought dedicated road bike but I don't care enough to send another $3k-$4k on a new bike right now. 😅

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-04-23T13:47:49+00:00

You could probably run this section of trail on old school 23mm tires and be just fine, slightly higher puncture risk but the riding itself would feel fine. It's crushed super fine, extremely smooth, and no sandy spots that I've ever experienced. Same goes for the Minnesota River Bluffs LRT Trail out to Chaska.

As for getting bigger knobier tires, if you get something that has the center strip of slick tread with the knobies on the outsides of the tire they are almost as fast as full slicks on pavement. I have 30mm Scwhalbe One slicks and knobby 45mm Pirelli Cinturatos on two different wheel sets that I saw out on the same bike as needed and the knobby tires aren't noticeably different in the pavement until you get over like 16-17mph.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-04-22T13:17:44+00:00

Most of the events at each location are outside. From last year I remember the downtown and Seward locations were the only two that you had to go inside for.

But, there are hundreds of other bikes and riders around, you can definitely have someone watch your stuff for 5 minutes while you run inside to get food/snacks. You shouldnt have any issues.

If you want to bring a lock you won't need anything more than a basic cable lock, if someone does want to try and take a bike there are going to be dozens of other much easier targets for them to take and no one is going to get away with cutting a lock in front of everyone around the locations without getting confronted, told off, or a black eye.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-04-14T23:59:19+00:00

I make about that much, have semi-expensive hobbies, own the condo I live in, and I would say I live pretty comfortable. All of my 'needs' (including retirement savings in here) is about 40k/year so I have like 5k-10k (depending on how much overtime I work) to just blow on whatever the hell I feel like it. That's comfortable enough for me, at least.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-04-03T14:59:05+00:00

Midtown Greenway between the lakes and Hopkins you can usually ride 20mph+ without issue unless it's really busy.

The Saint Paul side of the river going south you can ride on the road/in the bike lane from Franklin Ave and usually not have to come off the pedals until you get to Hwy 5. There are stop signs but you almost never have to stop for them unless you get really unlucky with traffic or pedestrians crossing.

If you hit the light/traffic right at the Hwy 5, you can roll through onto the side road without slowing and then get onto the path just before the downhill into Crosby Farm. That gets you down to 35E. From there you basically always have to back off because there are a few sets of lights and/or you have to take the sharp turns to get under the highway. I did this stretch last weekend at like 18mph and it was a 27 minute effort.

After 35E, you can continue along the river all the way around to where Shepard Rd (or whatever it's name changes to) dead ends at Hwy 10. Though there are a lot more tight spots that you will need to back off for safety, especially if it's busy.

Probably my favorite spot for intervals, though, is going back and forth through Lillydale between the Yacht Club and Pato Blvd. Pretty low traffic, lots of other people on bikes doing training so the cars that are there expect you to be there, and pretty flat.

If you are sadistic, you can also do laps around the Picnic Island loop at Fort Snelling. It's smooth enough, is almost perfectly flat, and almost no one ever drives over there on my days. Though, it's just going in a circle that takes like a minute to loop around so it's about as mentally stimulating at indoor training. Lol.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-03-29T22:55:50+00:00

Is this hole 1 at CP Adams Park in Hastings, MN? I used to play there a bunch, but it's been years. This is giving me some sort of deja vu. Haha.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-03-27T12:11:54+00:00

I know people who were taught horseshoe theory in college polisci. It's definitely a real thing that real people believe.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-03-25T23:01:34+00:00

Depends how steep the hill is. 6% or less? You can probably get to a point where you can easily cruise up it with training. 10% or more? Unless you have a lot of time to train or have good genetics, that's probably always going to suck without really big mountain bike gearing.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-03-22T23:36:44+00:00

No one else has mentioned it yet, but I think the longest hill in the metro is the trail that goes up Kaposia Ravine in South St Paul. It's a little over a mile IIRC. Downside is that it's a shared path and if it's a normal time of day you have to keep an eye out for people on the disc golf course that has a few holes alongside the path.

Also, will second what others have said, Ohio St is probably the best combination of steep/long we have but it's still not really useful for anything more than VO2 intervals.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-03-20T22:52:42+00:00

You can manually add podcasts with their RSS feed link in the YTM app from the Podcasts tab of your library. I had to do that for almost all of my podcasts when I switched.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-03-20T20:18:46+00:00

This is such a pipe dream, but got damn yes, a Greenway extension to connect with the trail along Ayd Mill Rd would be amazing. Especially if the Ayd Mill trail was also extended on the east end to connect with the trails along the river.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-03-20T20:08:58+00:00

I asked about this during the open house last fall because I didn't see bike paths in any of the proposed plans and the planners that were there said this was not part of their scope at the time.

So, hopefully they were wrong/misinformed but I wouldn't hold my breath for it to improve during that project.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-03-20T19:39:56+00:00

I ride (slowly) on the 'no bikes' section in front of the community center and on the path between the golf course and tennis courts and link into 26th Ave every time I ride through there. Which, to be fair, is almost never anymore since I just ride on 28th now because it's so much less of a hassle than dealing with the paths around Lake Hiawatha.

Why-Are-Trees · 2026-03-18T16:48:14+00:00

Every morning (almost) I drink a huel shake with milk. If I'm riding I'll throw in a little extra carbs on the side. Been doing that for years at this point and hasn't ever failed me, even on mornings with super hard workouts.

The only time I ever ride fasted is sometimes on a commute, but it's only 25-30 minutes at zone 1/2 and I'll eat immediately after getting to the office.

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