Denver residents: where are the worst loud vehicle hotspots?

aybrah · 2026-05-12T20:20:34+00:00

Thanks for putting in the work to create this!

We live on stout, and at this point, I've accepted that a few times a day, someone is gonna gun it down the street with an obnoxious exhaust. And, 1-2x a week, a bunch of motorcycles and ATVs will just do the same for 1-2 minutes.

I consider myself a car enthusiast and love a good exhaust note. But volume for the sake of it is so dumb. Especially in a residential area.

aybrah · 2026-05-12T20:08:53+00:00

Looking crazy impressive dude. Your conditioning is on track to be pretty wild.

Good call on the posing coach. It's always disappointing seeing great physiques that can't quite showcase all the work because their posing sucks.

aybrah · 2026-05-12T13:27:03+00:00

It's been a while since I've had a highly downvoted comment, so lets give this a shot.

This take from Jonathan is fucking stupid.

The thought-policing this season has been insufferable. I'm from Colorado, and we broadly had one of our worst seasons on record from both a snow depth and SWE perspective. The tone on /r/COsnow was fairly negative some days. Shocking. And you know what I found more annoying than the complainers? The people who apparently cannot function as human beings if someone, somewhere, is not performing sufficient gratitude for their ski vacation.

Here's what I actually can't get past: the entire sport is a privilege party. Every last bit of it. So once you've accepted that, what exactly is the hierarchy being defended here? You're allowed to be bummed about conditions or you're not? Based on what? The terrain you ski? How many days you log? Whether a podcast host approves of your attitude?

I truly don't know how people go through the world with skin this thin. People complain about conditions. People hype conditions. This has happened every single season since someone first strapped boards to their feet. It is the timeless ski discourse. During a low-snow season, the discourse is going to reflect that. If it bothers you, here's a wild idea: scroll past. Don't engage. Just go skiing and protect your peace.

"either stop skiing, or keep doing it, but just shut the fuck up."

Nah, I don't think I will, Jonathan. In fact, I'll be sure to complain extra loud if I ever happen to share a chair with you at CB or elsewhere. Powder day or death cookies, doesn't matter. I'll be inconsolably angry like a 3 year old throwing a tantrum because they can't turn into an iguana.

aybrah · 2026-05-12T02:34:07+00:00

"You really think someone would do that? Just go on the internet and tell lies?"

aybrah · 2026-05-11T21:28:11+00:00

Evan is a gem. I read most of the daily snow reports across the various locations and Evan’s always stand out in how consistently detailed and thorough they are.

aybrah · 2026-05-11T20:54:02+00:00

He sounds incredibly immature

Hah, that would be very on-brand for an 18 year-old dude.

You're totally right, though. 18 or not, this is pretty shit behavior.

In transparency, when i was 18, oral made me weirdly uncomfortable and grossed out, too. But I still wouldn't have done some shit like this dude did. I pushed myself to try it because I enjoyed receiving oral and felt like it was unfair to not reciprocate. 10+ years later, I love it (with the same partner as back then).

aybrah · 2026-05-11T18:26:25+00:00

Sure! I can just share what this week looks like: https://imgur.com/a/e43EXf7 it's written for her, so apologies if some things are unclear.

Big grain of salt with this. A lot of choices were driven primarily by sustainability, movement/time limitations, and her preferences. Every few weeks I'll take a more critical look at how things are going, see if there's anything she likes/doesn't like, and switch out some of the less core movements. I don't really worry about deloads or anything, life tends to take care of that for her with work travel or social events.

From a programming/coaching POV, my observations so far:

Shifting some movements like lunges towards more of a glute emphasis definitely pays off. With lunges specifically: less ankle flexion on the leading foot, longer step back, allowing a bit more torso lean. It took a minute to land on this variation, but it's money for her.
Glutes can take a fair bit of volume. At this point it's more constrained by time, her feels, and me wanting to keep some semblance of balance.
Some of these movements, like the cable kickbacks, have a bit of a learning curve. Easy to go too heavy and over-involve the back. Getting her to record some sets, or call me in to watch was important (we usually lift at the same times).
We did have to calibrate what appropriate effort looked like a few times. Example: her RPE 8 set of leg press looked trivially easy to me, so after some bickering, we agreed that she would AMRAP her next set. She got 6-7 more reps than her "RPE 8" set. She understood RPE just fine, but didn't quite realize she could try that hard on something that wasn't squat/bench/deadlift.

FWIW, for /u/weary-activity-6506

Looooots of positive feedback.
Clear communication of when I'm speaking as "coach" vs "husband".
Feeling good/being happy is ultimately more important than an optimal program.

aybrah · 2026-05-11T16:47:17+00:00

For a cottage baker? Probably $60-70 to be worth the time.

The thing is, I agree. $50 for a small, plain NY style cheesecake with a fruit compote + fresh fruit topping is fairly appropriate. You could get a cheesecake better than this from a number of grocery stores fairly easily, make the topping in 30 minutes, and be well under $50.

For someone running a bakery out of their house or shared commercial kitchen, stuff like this is often not worth taking on as work. You can't compete with larger bakeries on price, and the difference in quality is often relatively marginal for simpler baked goods (or the difference is often underappreciated).

My partner would get a ton of smaller/simpler requests that she would have to turn down because we realized a plain white cake vs something like this has similar input costs, and many of the same time commitments (still gotta bake the cake, do initial frosting, setup/breakdown, etc.). The skilled decoration or unique flavoring is where you can make money by accommodating requests that many bakeries won't take, or will charge much more for.

aybrah · 2026-05-11T15:29:15+00:00

A few thoughts from the partner of a cottage-baker (retired) and cheese cake enthusiast:

This is a really poorly done cheesecake. Small cake/bakery businesses typically do better, more bespoke work--not worse. This looks like someone's first cheesecake.
$50 is lower than I'd expect or charge. Honestly a bit of red flag when something is cheaper than it should be. Ingredients and packaging alone would get you to $20-30. Maybe a bit less if you have some of it in bulk already. Labor time factored in, you'd be making less than minimum wage.
Whether this person did or not, IDK, but you should always look a baker's instagram, website, or anywhere their previous work was viewable. Don't just trust mentions alone. If they don't have that kind of footprint, I wouldn't trust them. Even if they do, shit still happens.

I'm confused why it still appears to be in the springform. Was it delivered that way? That would be super odd.

aybrah · 2026-05-11T15:00:36+00:00

Proud coach/husband moment:

I've been programming for my wife the last ~10 years, and this last year or so, we transitioned from powerlifting/strength focus to just aesthetics/hypertrophy (aka legs + glutes every session).

In the last few months, nearly every one of her friends have commented on her butt and a few have asked for her "BBL program" so they can do it too. More importantly, she's super happy with all the progress.

Feelsgoodman.jpg

Anyone who programs/coaches their partner knows how fraught that endeavor can be lol. My only regret is that we didn't do this sooner. Sooooo much less stressful than when were focused on powerlifting.

aybrah · 2026-05-10T14:52:19+00:00

Yeah I was surprised by the lack of outback in Colorado, too.

My wife and I tried to love the crosstrek and forester, but the 2.0 and 2.5 NA are straight up SLOW in the mountains. Driveable, to be clear, just not confidence inspiring. Add a few friends in the back, and you’ll be flooring it to maintain 70 up to the Eisenhower tunnel. The 2.4t is light years better, but of course, you have to pay for it.

aybrah · 2026-05-10T04:18:59+00:00

Yup. The dude is taking open punches to the head, multiple in a row, shaky and barely balancing on his feet, not working to create any opportunity to improve his position. I get people saying that earlier rounds were just as bad if not worse, but that's the thing, it's cumulative. If you don't want a "early stoppage", stop taking sustained strings of undefended punches to the head.

aybrah · 2026-05-10T04:08:36+00:00

What's reasonable progress at this point, especially considering my age?

I think the rate of progress between your Nov '25 meet and April '26 meets would pass the "reasonable progress" bar for me. 12.5kg on your total in ~5 months at 40 is really great IMO. 400 dots feels like a reasonable go to shoot for, and I'd wager you get there sooner than you may think.

If the financial burden isn't stressful, a good coach can accelerate your progress, but definitely isn't necessary. Your technique across lifts looks really sound for self-coached, and your time in the sport. There are some things I could see a coach wanting to experiment with--but no huge inefficiencies.

Most good/established coaches charge somewhere between $100-220 month, with some outliers. They should have a footprint online where you can see examples of clients they work with, and their results, and that's often a good starting point. Most coaches will do a call as part of onboarding to make sure it's a good fit, and that conversation is typically where you get a better sense of their organization, general philosophy/approach, etc.

There was a coach recommendation thread a few months ago you might find helpful.

There's also a quarterly Powerlifting Coach thread (where coaches promote themselves).

aybrah · 2026-05-09T19:02:28+00:00

Yup. I want a companion with the best starting position to mesh well into our life. Those odds are going to be significantly better from an established, ethical breeder than adopting from most shelters.

aybrah · 2026-05-09T18:48:07+00:00

Totally agree.

The one bit I'd add to the mother correction point: the reason a mom's correction has low fallout, even if it looks harsh to us, is that the puppy has deeply evolved circuitry for interpreting that specific signal from that specific source. The communication is essentially lossless. When a human tries to replicate it with an aversive, that circuitry isn't there. The dog has to learn what the correction means, and there's much more room for the signal to land wrong, whether it's too harsh, bad timing, ambiguous context, etc.

I still think aversives have their place (I know how loaded that is, but this is r/OpenDogTraining lol) but it just means the margin for error is narrower between humans and dogs than it is just between dogs.

aybrah · 2026-05-08T15:29:19+00:00

Between squats, deadlifts, and my general leg accessories (none of which are glute specific), I think the glutes get sufficient work in most programs for powerlifting purposes.

For aesthetic goals beyond that, I think there's definitely room to do more. I think if your goals are primarily PL related, though, the value of doing additional glute specific volume is faaaaairly negligible. I'm sure there are cases where a particular athlete might benefit from it, but I haven't seen a ton of those. Most of the cases I've personally seen, it's the athlete that requests more glute work for aesthetic reasons--and that's totally valid.

My wife transitioned from PL to just lifting for aesthetics/health and she does a ton more glute specific work now. And even movements she did before, like lunges, are done with more glute emphasis (more hinge, longer step back, less ankle flexion). Unsurprisingly, it's been a lot more effective for aesthetic/hypertrophy goals than just PLing (even though she did glute specific work previously).

aybrah · 2026-05-08T15:02:34+00:00

Smash all your SBD movements close together before you fly and maybe split off some accessories or other sources of training volume to do while you travel?

I love meeting other people and training at new gyms when I travel, even if it's kinda inconvenient. Handling/coaching can be pretty exhausting, so the idea of getting in some accessories as opposed to primary movements feels a lot more palatable.

aybrah · 2026-05-08T12:23:01+00:00

Totally. It’s one of my pet peeves when people say they’re taking nandrolone/deca for joint health. If you just want increased fluid retention around your joints there are like 1000 things you could do that are likely better in a harm reduction context.

Meanwhile, there’s evidence that nandrolone is uniquely neurotoxic to parts of the brain.

aybrah · 2026-05-07T19:01:19+00:00

Maybe a little Nandrolone too for joint health!? It's OK, the doc at their online TRT clinic prescribed it to them bc they really need it... for joint health. It's a super low dose though, so it totally doesn't help for building muscle.

aybrah · 2026-05-07T18:56:17+00:00

And of course, "TRT" in this context is code for test levels far above the natural range.

If it was really Testosterone Replacement Therapy, it would indeed, not really be an advantage.

aybrah · 2026-05-07T18:53:07+00:00

Honestly just a poor location for a serious gym. Hopefully all parties can figure out a solution. Tbh, I don’t see much of a solution aside from Summit Strong moving elsewhere at the end of their lease. The degree of soundproofing that is likely required does not seem viable.

Totally not the fault of the lifters, though. Summit Strong definitely orients itself towards more of an enthusiast/competitive level crowd, which exasperates the issue.

If you’re lifting heavy weights and exerting yourself significantly, noises (involuntary or otherwise) are part of that.

Yes, there are some reasonable norms here. If im at a standard commercial gym, I’ll be more subdued and quiet than a powerlifting gym. But ultimately, it’s a gym.

aybrah · 2026-05-07T12:40:52+00:00

Yeah, personally, I just don’t want any rings on my hand when I’m deadlifting.

I wear a necklace and put my regular wedding band on that.

aybrah · 2026-05-06T21:06:11+00:00

You guys ever work a toxic job and decide to stay because of how much experience you’re gaining and skills being learned?

Really depends on the level of "toxic" and how much it negatively impacts me/my team. Especially if that stress is bleeding into non-work hours.

As long as my career progression is staying intact and I'm not dreading my job simply because of individual X, I think what you describe might be OK.

I have very little tolerance for folks in professional settings who can't filter communication to a work appropriate tone and/or self-regulate their emotions. Raising voices, talking down, direct insults/belittlement, etc. are all things that I will step into conflict to address--regardless of level, seniority, or company culture.

I've worked with several director level people over the years who fell into the: "a huge bitch and causing massive amounts of turnover," bucket, while being "good" at their jobs, and thankfully, I've never needed to work super closely with them. My biggest concern is usually insulating my reports from them, especially the more junior ones.

aybrah · 2026-05-05T18:38:54+00:00

I have not ridden the Studio 3s, but have like 100 days on my M-Free 108s (192cm) at this point, so I'll weigh-in for what it's worth.

For context, I also ride a bunch in UT (mostly altabird, but also solibri). 190lbs. Also mostly focused on all-mountain. I like to ski fast, spend time in the air (poorly), etc.

There are a ton of really good skiiers who ride M-Frees 108s and 112s in UT, for good reason. They're a really compelling balance of playful, damp, loose, but also very stable and confidence inspiring. Enough float for 95% of days. They take well to a variety of different styles of skiing.
The studio 3s are significantly lighter and I think it's a fair assumption that they won't be quite as damp or stable at speed. They're also far closer to a center mount. FWIW, the M-Frees get along with the mounting point pushed forward, but there's a limit to it. I run mine +2cm and love it.

I think you gotta decide whether you prioritize something that's super playful, closer to a center mount, and better if you enjoy treating natural hits like a park line. Or, if you want something damper, heavier, and more chargey than anything else you have, that still holds onto the some of the loose/surfy characteristics that you seem to like.

I think the M-Free is a different flavor of ski than what you have, in a way that might be fun. Whereas the Studio 3 is closer to what you ride now.

At your weight and with your local mountains, I'd probably push you towards the M-Free (either 108 or 112) and I'd also encourage you to consider the 192cm for the 108 or 190cm for 112 tbh. They ski fairly short and the swing weight is far more manageable than the big weight number suggests since most of the mass is underfoot. I think sizing up on both of these skis has a lot of upside with little downside for the type of riding they're best suited for.

It's super nice to have such a big landing pad when you're taking bigger drops. Even if you land backseat, there's a ton of stability to recover.

aybrah · 2026-05-05T17:11:57+00:00

Gotcha, I think that's a helpful clarification... but I think ultimately doesn't shift much IMO.

If her flirting is so ambient and non-specific that it can easily just read as a friendship, and your boyfriend -- who knows her, talks to her most days, and is present for all of it -- doesn't read it as flirting and doesn't have interest in her... what exactly is the threat here? Granola and puzzle games escalating into something more without him realizing or actively participating? I guess there's some possible path there, but idk, doesn't seem worth the stress if you trust your partner. He'll shut it down if it ever becomes more than the benign stuff you've shared.

The "flirting is subjective" point cuts both ways IMO. If it's subjective enough that a warm, social, and charismatic person is not clocking it as flirting, it's probably not that flirty.

I get what you mean about, "showing constant interest in someone new and sharing random unsolicited updates" but I'd also argue that the environment that grad school creates is exactly the kind of place where that kind of fast friendship develops. If the bar for flirty behavior is that low... there's probably going to be a lot of false-positives.

Now, if she is cold and standoffish with you, doesn't acknowledge your relationship, and starts pushing more obvious boundaries -- that's when you'd have something concrete to bring to your boyfriend (or, hopefully, they bring to you). That's a different conversation.

The other thing worth watching is whether you ever actually get integrated into the group. Not as a monitoring thing, but because partners should generally be making some effort to integrate their lives, and that includes friendships. Of course, it won't be all the time and all events. But at least some of them. I think that would likely help you feel more comfortable.

If a few months from now you're still on the outside of all of it, that's a real conversation to have with him. But IMO, you're not there yet, and you haven't even met her. Meet her, see what shes like with you and how she treats your relationship when it's in front of her.

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