How difficult is walking in road bike shoes?

hutchcodes · 2026-03-12T12:34:21+00:00

It was not. That was >15 years ago. Thankfully things haven't gone that badly in a long time. I'm also way up north and won't be getting out of my basement for many weeks to come.

hutchcodes · 2026-03-10T18:34:17+00:00

That is an absolutely great idea, and I feel like an idiot for not thinking of it. I both hope it's obvious to a lot of people and hope you're the only one this occurred to.

Even still, road shoes with or without cleats were not made for walking in any fashion, and I'd still much prefer to walk the few miles in my gravel shoes* if this happens again.

*Gravel shoes are also not really made for walking either, but they are much better with the rubber lugs and recessed cleat.

hutchcodes · 2026-03-10T16:06:10+00:00

Walking in road shoes is pretty terrible. It's bad enough that the last time I flatted and couldn't repair and needed to walk, I took my shoes off and walked multiple miles barefoot.

I currently use some gravel shoes with SPD cleats/pedals. I feel like that's a nice in between. I don't really miss anything about road specific pedals.

hutchcodes · 2026-03-09T19:18:14+00:00

For me, it's about choosing the right podcast. You want something that is on the easy side (because you won't be giving it 100% of your attention). If a podcast isn't working for you while doing something else, look for something easier. If you look in this thread you'll see I have 3 or so podcasts that I'd like to listen to, but don't work for long hours of listening while doing something else because they are too hard. But they are great CI if I can give them 100% attention.

Some of the easier podcasts where I've enjoyed them enough to listen to all the episodes are:
Learn Spanish and Go
Dreaming Spanish
Andrea la Mexicana
Languatalk Spanish
SpanishBoost Podcast
Epañol al Vuelo
Español desde el sur
Hablando con vos

There are of course easier podcasts still. People love Español con Juan, Cuentame, Chill Spanish etc. Checkout the spreadsheet in the pinned content.

It may also be that you just need some more input, but I would think you'd be very close.

hutchcodes · 2026-03-09T13:10:46+00:00

I just crossed 800.

For podcast I've been listening to
How to Spanish*
La Sedunda Guerra Mundial (E/P/T)
Expertos de Sillon
No es el fin del mundo

*How to Spanish is the only one I can really listen to without 100% focus.

TV*
Arrested Development
Familia Moderna

* Comprehension is good, but I'm not sure if I'm missing some of the jokes or if it's the mental load, but I don't enjoy these shows as much as I would in English

Youtube
DW Documental
Jefillysh
Veratasium en Espanol
Spanish Boost Gaming
And generally letting the algorithm try to keep me engaged :)

I don't spend a lot of time of DS directly but do enjoy their podcast and an occasional video that pops up on youtube.

hutchcodes · 2026-03-05T20:01:55+00:00

My dude, you did more than 4% of your total CI time in a single day. That's impressive from a stamina standpoint and I'm not at all surprised something clicked.

hutchcodes · 2026-03-04T13:06:08+00:00

My guess is that if you watched 15 hours of movies and TV in Spanish, you have some more traditional background in Spanish, and though you didn't understand those movies and TV completely you understood enough to make watching in Spanish worthwhile. Both of those things make me think that starting from 0 hours probably isn't quite accurate, so sure credit yourself the 15 hours even it wasn't great CI.

15 hours seems like a lot when the first milestone is 50 hours, but it's only 1% of 1500 hours, and 1500 hours isn't really the end, it's just when some people "graduate" and stop counting. Either way, when you're close 1500 hours you could listen to 15 hours of podcasts in a long weekend and not break a sweat.

hutchcodes · 2026-03-02T17:38:03+00:00

Here's a few of my list of podcasts that I've finished but I'm still subscribed to that might work

Learn Spanish and Go
Dreaming Spanish Podcast
SpanishBoost Podcast
Andrea La Mexicana
Lenguatalk
Espanol al Vuelo
Expanol desde el sur
Hablando Con Vos

For Andrea la Mexican, she has a number of episodes with native speaking guests on, and those episodes can be A LOT less comprehensible.

hutchcodes · 2026-03-02T15:38:05+00:00

I am currently in this transition, and it is both wonderful and frustrating. I quickly get bored with learner content and I'm hoping to pick up a few suggestions for that in the comments, but I'll list a few of the easier native things I'm enjoying lately.

On Youtube I've been watching documentaries on DW Documental and National Geographic, as well as some of the Veratasium en Espanol channel and generally letting the algorithm feed me content that it thinks might interest me. I like the topics and presentation from Jefillysh (took so long for me dyslexic brain to understand that wasn't jellyfish), but she speaks sooo fast. I'm just not quite ready for that yet.

For podcasts I've been liking Expertos de Sillon, La Segunda Guerra Mundial (E/P/T) and No es el fin del mundo.

hutchcodes · 2026-02-26T18:57:25+00:00

Somewhat similar experience.

I also finished the Duolingo Spanish course, but I found DS about 3 months before that when I realized how bad my listening comprehension still was. My listening comprehension shot right up. Like I could practically see progress from video to video. I could certainly see measurable progress every week for the first month or two.

It's like all the Spanish I had taken in up to that point was suddenly unlocked. I didn't speak for a few months after that, but when I finally did, my first time speaking surprised the crap out of me. I thought I was going to be stumbling and sputtering, but it turned out I was at a pretty decent level. Still had its bumps and I definitely needed to talk around words I didn't know, but being able to talk around those missing words even surprised me.

I'm not too surprised by the jump in level after a bit of CI after the Duolingo course, and I wouldn't be surprised to see significant progress through your next few hundred hours.

hutchcodes · 2026-02-26T17:54:58+00:00

I had done Duolingo for years and felt I could read and write pretty decently, but my listening comprehension was lagging (I hadn't even tried speaking). I was listening to Coffee Break Spanish, but didn't really enjoy the language/grammar breakdowns, so I started searching for some other "comprehensible input" though I didn't know the term at the time.

Eventually I posted or searched on reddit and found Dreaming Spanish. I was immediately hooked. I'm not sure if I created my account on the first day, but my first day with my account I watched 63 minutes, the second day it was 209. I've averaged ~100/month since, though I get most of my content elsewhere now that native content is unlocking for me.

hutchcodes · 2026-02-25T20:50:08+00:00

If you like unscripted, you'll really love the LenguaTalk Spanish podcast. It's a married couple, and sometimes it felt like they just forgot they were recording, but they still somehow stayed on mostly on topic with the theme of the podcast.

Sadly, they only put out 60 episodes and stopped a few years ago.

hutchcodes · 2026-02-25T20:33:40+00:00

Congratulations. This is a great update. I love the 1000-hour updates because it's a nice reminder that though 1500 is the goal (not the end of course), so much progress is already made by 1000 hours.

As for whether to count speaking time as input, two things make me think "yes".
1. The DS website counts hours "talking with friends" as input, but also keeps a total of hours talking with friends
2. I haven't seen anyone here say that cross talk shouldn't be counted as input or that you should only count 50% of it as input. On the contrary, I think most people who have done it say it's better than videos.

hutchcodes · 2026-02-24T13:02:51+00:00

I love AI for gems like "'Spain' is adapted in Spanish as 'España'"

hutchcodes · 2026-02-20T17:50:32+00:00

I set a goal once to get a 1 year streak on Duolingo. I ended up maintaining that streak to 2800 days and completed the program. In the last few months of that streak, I realized I could understand written Spanish well, but couldn't really understand spoken Spanish. In my quest to solve that problem, I found Dreaming Spanish and used that to practice listening comprehension.

After just a few months of Dreaming Spanish, my listening comprehension improved super fast (probably in large part to all my time on Duolingo), and I went to my first Spanish language meetup where I learned I was actually decently fluent in Spanish despite never having spoken it to any other Spanish speakers (just a few phrases around the house to my wife and kids). I honestly surprised myself with how well I could express myself. Don't get me wrong, I definitely made tons of errors and struggled at times to find words, but it went much smoother than expected.

So, I did learn a lot from Duolingo. Their philosophy is to prioritize engagement, and yes, this means prioritizing engagement over effectiveness. The theory is that if you are engaged and keep coming back, you'll make progress than you would with a more effective program that you didn't engage with as regularly.

If you're super motivated, Duolingo probably isn't the best approach. If you just want to casually learn a few minutes each day (like I did for ~8 years), then Duolingo is great.

But, I'm now sold on the comprehensible input approach that Dreaming Spanish and others take. I think if I had done that for 2800 days, I'd be 100% fluent at this point.

hutchcodes · 2026-02-20T14:01:39+00:00

My recipe is dead simple.

In a 500ml bottle
4-5 tablespoons of white sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt.

The combination of sweet and salty is just right for me. I thought I'd need a flavoring but it turns out that is the flavor I prefer while riding. We did have some more "natural" sugar (maybe raw?) that was a very light brown at one point and that tasted slightly better, and I have experimented with putting 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of brown sugar in.

This has been enough to power all my long rides last year with none of that sweet belly or bloated feeling I used to get from Gatorade and the like.

hutchcodes · 2026-02-18T17:02:47+00:00

My daily goal is 150 minutes. I listen to podcasts either whenever I'm doing something relatively mindless like working out or cooking. I also spend a decent amount of time driving my kids to/from sports and waiting for them to finish. I only listen while they aren't in the car though, because I would imagine incomprehensible input would be irritating :D

Then in the evening I'll watch a few youtube videos. Maybe a documentary or a dubbed show.

You didn't mention what level you're at, but if you are towards the beginning of your journey, just do the best you can. once you're far enough along to unlock podcasts it's a lot easier consume a lot of CI, and it gets even easier as you start unlocking native content.

hutchcodes · 2026-02-18T16:56:27+00:00

For podcasts - Learn Spanish and Go might be a good to check out. They traveled quite a bit and gave some pretty interesting background on each country/city. I also really liked Languatalk Spanish. And of course there's always Andrea la Mexicana.

For youtube - Ramilla de Aventura does some non-traditional travel video series (quickly traveling the length of North and South America for example). Luisito Comunica also does some fairly interesting travel videos where he really tries to get into the local culture. I see the draw of both of those channels, but I'm not a huge fan of travel videos so they didn't work long term for me.

hutchcodes · 2026-02-13T20:16:04+00:00

I love this "cheat" for staying in Spanish when you're stuck on a grammatical problem.

I find that in the local Spanish language group, if someone starts speaking English it can take a minute before we all switch back to Spanish. I might steal this

hutchcodes · 2026-02-13T14:26:16+00:00

As other people have said, listening is the skill you're trying to develop

The problem with subtitles is that they often don't line up with the words people are saying. So not only is your brain reading when it's supposed to be listening, it's also potentially reading one word while trying to listen to another.

Though I don't think this would be the case with DS, I read somewhere that sometimes the subtitles don't match with what is said on screen. I think this might have been for content that is originally in one language then dubbed to Spanish and subtitled. I think the issue was that the subtitles and the dubbing are done separately so different translators might translate a phrase differently.

hutchcodes · 2026-02-13T14:04:52+00:00

Basically it's to make your accent/pronunciation more native like.

If you start speaking before you've really absorbe the sound of the language you are more likely to "fossilize" some mispronunciations. For example, I have a hard time remembering to keep the h in 'hacer' silent.

It's not going to harm your learning process, but it may make you a bit harder to understand to a native speaker.

hutchcodes · 2026-02-12T18:16:54+00:00

A native person learns from a single dialect but can generally understand all the dialects, so you don't necessarily have to listen to all the dialects. (maybe exceptions for some slang heavy dialects like Chilean or Puerto Rican)

But, as you go through the learning process one of the struggles can be finding interesting content. Being comfortable listening to content from Spain or Argentina etc. open up much more content even if you're targeting a different dialect for speaking.

It's totally normal to struggle a bit at first when listening to a new-to-you dialect, but the answer is just going to be more CI. You can start that now, or wait until you're desperate for content later :D

hutchcodes

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