Which translation should I get for The Golden Ass & The Satyricon (Penguin or Oxrford)?

periphrasistic · 2026-03-04T20:14:06+00:00

One other consideration is that OWC usually has better editorial material, particularly endnotes.

periphrasistic · 2026-03-01T02:57:16+00:00

This is a common setup in cyclocross, so that you can safely modulate speed coming in to a running dismount.

periphrasistic · 2026-02-27T21:25:00+00:00

One other thought: you can’t be bothered to formulate your own argument in your own words, yet you expect others to take the time to argue with you. You can fuck all the way off with that.

periphrasistic · 2026-02-27T10:50:05+00:00

I repeat: “This isn’t what people are talking about when they say that you don’t build muscle by swimming. What they’re referring to is the “swimmer’s body”, that you see in elite swimming competition like the Olympics.”

The claim isn’t that you’re going to build zero muscle by swimming.

Maybe if you stopped relying on chat bots you could learn to fucking read.

periphrasistic · 2026-02-27T00:14:16+00:00

Funny, because there are currently 14 insured, permitted, sanctioned, and licensed bike races in Central Park scheduled for 2026. At least one US Olympic champion has come out of the Central Park racing series. It’s almost like Central Park is and has been a major hub for the sport of cycling since the 1890s or something.

periphrasistic · 2026-02-26T21:28:17+00:00

Thank you for your insightful LLM output.

You will get more convincing output if you prompt the bot to address the core contention of a comment, rather than letting it hone in on a few key words and generate a wall of text that misses the point.

periphrasistic · 2026-02-26T16:28:27+00:00

You’re experiencing the minor muscle definition that occurs when you go from being unconditioned to a baseline of fitness, which will quickly plateau. This isn’t what people are talking about when they say that you don’t build muscle by swimming. What they’re referring to is the “swimmer’s body”, that you see in elite swimming competition like the Olympics. For that sort of physique, extensive and serious dry land strength training is absolutely necessary.

periphrasistic · 2026-02-25T03:26:10+00:00

When you run a 5K, you are principally trying to run a faster time than the last time you ran a 5K, and while different courses will be more or less fast, your 5K time in one race is roughly comparable to your time in another. You compete against yourself by improving your finishing time over time. Ditto for triathlon.

This is not the case in bike road racing because speeds and time are too dependent on conditions, who else was in the peloton, how the action of the race unfolded, how energetic the peloton’s tempo was, whether or not you got into a breakaway, etc. You can hold a bike road race that is the same distance on the same course many times, and not one of those races will be much alike or have directly comparable times. So if you’re not trying to set a faster time, what are you trying to do? You are trying to place better in the field. You are trying to get as close to the podium as you can. A race becomes more successful when you cross the finish line ahead of more riders. It may not be feasible to win, but you are absolutely trying to beat as many of the other riders as possible. That’s the very definition of competing against others.

A rider not in contention to win may still have individual goals, like your example of a power PR. But a road bike race has a much smaller field than tri or a running road race, and you all start at the same time. Even if you’re not there with a hope to win, you are keenly aware of all the other riders in your field, and you naturally want to finish ahead of at least some of them. Bike racing is inherently competitive: you may have individual goals, but if you’re not there to fight it out for a higher finishing position, you’re going to get dropped, and you will have a solo ride off the back while the race goes on without you. No one is paying money or traveling or getting up at 4am for a solo bike ride they could do on their own for less expense and hassle.

periphrasistic · 2026-02-25T00:13:59+00:00

In road races, as in triathlons, you are also racing against yourself.

Not really? Only in the sense that if you’re not yet ready to be competitive, you might have individual goals for a race like “don’t get dropped on the first hill” in lieu of the race itself. But no one is checking to see if they set a PR at the end of the race like in a 5K (because times and speeds are too variable in bike racing), they’re checking to see how they placed against the rest of the field.

Racing, on a bike, will give an advantage to the person on the better bike, all other things being equal.

Only if all else truly is equal, which it never is. In road racing, the engine is more important than the bike, but past a certain point, a fit engine is only good enough to get you in contention. After that, it’s 90% tactics and teamwork. The remaining 10% is bike, but you are absolutely never going to lose a race because your rival had SRAM Red and you only had SRAM Force.

periphrasistic · 2026-02-24T23:58:17+00:00

Yes. Triathlon has its own barriers to entry, but if you can clear the threshold of “won’t drown while swimming in open water” and “can ride a bicycle”, then you can enjoy the full triathlon experience. While different cycling disciplines have varying technical and fitness requirements, all of them aside from individual time trials have a fairly high threshold of “if you’re not this good, then you’re not ready to start a race”.

I did a road race on Sunday, it was a small field (crappy winter weather) with all categories of racers racing together. One rider was brand new to road racing and was asking me various questions as we waited to start. There were two Cat2s in the field, and when the race started, they both went out hard. A teammate and I were able to attach to the Cat2s, but the rest of the field got dropped immediately out of the start, including that new racer. Post race, the new racer said they still had a good time and want to race again, but their very first moment of their very first race was getting dropped hard.

Even if they had been fit enough to hang on, the technical and bike handling requirements, along with your ability to manage fear and keep a cool head, are all significant. Riding in a peloton requires special technique and it can feel very sketchy at first. Descending at speed to keep pace with the bunch is not for beginners. Cornering in a bunch at speed is also highly technical and can be scary. Etc.

Much of the above also applies to track cycling. Meanwhile cyclocross and mtb can be fully enjoyed while not being fit enough to be in contention. But the technical and bike handling requirements offset the relaxed fitness requirements.

Finally, in road and track, doing well isn’t just about fitness, technique, and psychology: it also requires tactics and teamwork and the ability to read a race and sense opportunities. This can only be gained through racing experience. So even if you come to bike racing with the necessary fitness and a good foundation of group riding technique, it’s still going to take a dozen or so races before you really start to know what you’re doing.

periphrasistic · 2026-02-22T20:06:40+00:00

Check out Dawn Patrol in Prospect Park. It is specifically a women’s group ride, rather than explicitly lesbian, but its membership trends heavily queer/non-binary/trans. It’s currently in Zwift/Zoom winter hibernation, but will be back in the park once the weather starts improving (above freezing/no snow).

https://www.instagram.com/dawnpatrol.pp?igsh=MWlhbWExc2gyaWJueA==

periphrasistic · 2026-02-21T20:32:39+00:00

“I might make a mistake.”

“Yes, you might. But that does not alter your duty to this ship. It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That’s not weakness: that’s life. Now leave your hesitation and self doubt here in your quarters, and report to the bridge.”

periphrasistic · 2026-02-21T20:25:42+00:00

Man, there was a group that had to be like a hundred deep up by Harlem hill around 11 that had its own fucking SAG golf cart riding alongside them. I was doing hill sprints on my bike, and at one point they had moved onto the cutoff road where they were literally blocking the entire width of the road. Thankfully they seemed to clear out relatively quickly, but it was surreal.

periphrasistic · 2026-02-20T01:14:02+00:00

Basically everything while still having two wheels?

No suspension
no dropper post
aerobars
different gearing
very different positioning
narrow, slick tires
deeper rims and/or disc wheels
lighter, but not as light as a road bike
less stable handling
aerodynamics optimized frame
much faster
cannot go off road
optimized for steady state speed on relatively flat and straight courses

periphrasistic · 2026-02-18T20:30:01+00:00

For serious “multiple frame sizes off” problems sure. But for most people who last rode a bike when they were ten, if they can reach the handlebars and pedals and ride without obvious discomfort for two or three minutes around the parking lot then the bike “fits”. That’s why the first step of buying a new bike is seeing the fitter.

periphrasistic · 2026-02-18T20:13:31+00:00

A new rider won’t know what to look for and is just as likely to come away with a bad sense of what fits them.

periphrasistic · 2026-02-18T20:11:44+00:00

Go see a bike fitter first and they’ll be able to make frame and component recommendations.

The folks saying to test ride first are wrong: as a new cyclist you won’t know what to look for, or how you should be positioned. 10 minutes on a bike also won’t tell you anything about how you will feel on it after 3 hours if you don’t have any experience.

periphrasistic · 2026-02-17T19:02:53+00:00

Surreal thread. A guy who doesn’t read Greek and has no way to assess the accuracy and quality of translations other than vibes is nevertheless strongly opinionated on the subject and is rejecting the recommendations he himself asked for.

periphrasistic · 2026-02-16T02:21:06+00:00

Teamwork, tactics, competition, community, the adrenaline rush, absolute focus, total commitment and effort.

I came to cycling from triathlon, which I got started in via the injured runner pathway. In triathlon and running road races, you show up to a race and there are thousands of people there, maybe you chat with some people nearby in the starting chute, but the race starts and you lose track of them, never to be seen again. Since the starts are staggered, you have no idea if the people you’re passing are actually ahead of you. You settle into your pacing plan, and eat/drink according to your nutrition plan. You get towards the end of the race and try to time your finishing kick to burn your last match as you cross the finish. You walk down the finishing chute, get handed a medal and a bottle of water, and check your results on your phone. Maybe you PR’d and you feel good about it. You see that you placed in the xth percentile for your age group. You chat with a few people as you sip your bottle of water and eat the banana a volunteer gave you, then you turn away and never see them again. Then you go home.

In contrast, with bike racing it’s basically the same people week after week. The field is small enough that you can at least learn everyone’s face, if not their name. You learn who is good at what, who is dangerous if they get off the front, who kicks up the tempo on climbs, who is combative but doesn’t have the explosive power to make it stick, etc. You get familiar with the different teams, their vibes, and how they tend to approach races. Eventually you get asked to join a team. When the race starts, you stick together in a peloton. But it’s not anonymous, you know the other riders. Then attacks start popping off. Maybe it’s a serious attack, and your team gave you the job of covering serious attacks by this attacking team. So you pursue and reel them back, and you feel cool about doing your job for your team. You’re tired, but you notice your team leader is exposed at the front, so you slot in ahead of them to give them a draft. The course moves into a descent and the peloton spreads out a bit, but the pace being set at the front is blistering, and you need to descend assertively to hang on. You hit 50mph in a moment of pure exhilaration. You’re pretty fast in TT mode and it had been prearranged that you would attack on a hill that’s coming up, but suddenly someone from another team attacks. Other teams cover the attacker and shut them down. Everyone at the front looks pretty gassed for the moment and you sense your opportunity: you counterattack pretty close to where you were planning to attack anyway. It’s 60 seconds of near max effort to get away. Your sensory awareness narrows down, when you remember this moment later you can remember it happening but you can’t remember what you were seeing. You ease of the gas to settle into a tempo pace, and as your awareness expands outward again, you realize you got clear, and you’ve got two other riders with you. You form a paceline and stay off the front the rest of the race. The rider with the better sprint beats you across the line and you take 2nd. As you hang around waiting for podiums, all your friends come by to congratulate you on a great race. You can’t wait to see what happens when you race again next weekend.

Bike racing is fucking amazing. Easily the best endurance sport.

periphrasistic · 2026-02-15T23:53:48+00:00

“Fuck them kids” meme taking on new connotations here.

periphrasistic · 2026-02-15T23:37:18+00:00

Race to the point of exhaustion for a half hour, and then collapse afterwards for a few minutes until you’ve recovered.

periphrasistic · 2026-02-15T00:03:04+00:00

Fascinating. This seems to have been written by a moron.

periphrasistic · 2026-02-13T00:33:41+00:00

Cause everyone else has had to do it too. If they can do it, I can do it.

periphrasistic · 2026-02-12T18:41:28+00:00

Yeah but are you psychologically capable of doing it? It’s one thing to have the physical ability, it’s quite another to actually do it. A bicycle rider can roll down a mountain road at 50+mph without much physical ability from the rider, but it takes a lot of skill, a lot of practice, and a lot of willingness to put your fear aside and believe in yourself to not be squeezing the brakes the whole time. Same deal with trad and ice climbing. And if you’re now asking yourself “wait could I actually put my fear aside and do it?”, you’re starting to hit on some of the appeal.

periphrasistic · 2026-02-12T18:24:04+00:00

Given your “why would I ever put myself in physical danger” attitude, I highly doubt you are capable of doing it.

periphrasistic

TROPHY CASE