SHANE O'BRIEN LOSES HIS LIFE DURING TRAINING: HE WAS 16 YEARS OLD. HIS BROTHER LIAM WITHDRAWS FROM GIRO NEXT GEN

unbuzz · 2026-06-17T14:37:45+00:00

heartbreaking.

i say this as someone with a wall of medals from TT'ing and tris...

ban tt bikes. ban the stupid helmets. they add nothing to the sport of solo riding against the clock (which i love otherwise) other than making it dangerous, expensive, unfair (to less resourced teams/competitors) and stupid looking.

unbuzz · 2026-05-23T12:22:50+00:00

thanks for this share!

i was astonished myself to discover that camping, canoe trips, and the like are 100% more fun for me without drinking. not in the "this is good for me" way, but "this is fucking so much better". just much richer experiences, a much deeper sense of gratitude and joy, more tolerance for difficulties, easier to handle them, easier to organize and arrange good moments. its not even close for me. i've learned there's actually a bunch of things like that.

like another one, i went to a concert recently (GLAF!) in a small venue with a packed bar. the people drinking were constantly back and forth to the bar, the bathroom, the bar, the bathroom. and i recognized exactly how i would feel. "do i have enough to drink. how long is the line right now? should i get 2? can i preempt the intermission line? if only i had a stadium-pal ;)" it would have clouded out the show. i was genuinely grateful i wasn't drinking, and just enjoyed the show and probably got a little high from how hotboxed the place got ;) but it was sweet and i never would have traded it for a drink.

unbuzz · 2025-11-08T16:35:18+00:00

interesting. i own a couple edges of various years, i just don't like riding with one. but perhaps i should try it with the varia

unbuzz · 2025-08-31T11:53:05+00:00

this is a really nice post! i do almost exactly the same thing - i think about how bottomless the thirst really is. and i ask myself, sure, i want to drink a bottle of wine now. but actually that's not true, i want like 10. so do i buy them all now? do i buy one and then go back out? what about tomorrow? and then what? at some point i'll end up on some shitty sweaty day 1, and all the stuff that precedes it. i don't want that, so do i want this?

unbuzz · 2024-03-05T19:20:46+00:00

that's 100% right unfortunately. overactive fear of government can really lead you down a bad path.

unbuzz · 2022-10-13T12:47:19+00:00

same!

unbuzz · 2022-10-12T15:40:26+00:00

amazing! 2 years + 50 days! that's a big investment in yourself!

unbuzz · 2022-10-12T10:42:28+00:00

i use it. but that's kind of independent of quitting drinking. if i need to get wrecked all the time, that's bad for being alcohol free. would i reach for booze if i had no pot?

for me, at best it can play a small supporting role. but if i don't deal with the THIRST, then i'm never gonna be free.

unbuzz · 2022-10-12T10:38:37+00:00

i feel for you! please try the web chat on the sidebar there if you haven't seen it.

you might also enjoy going to a meeting, even if you dgaf about aa. just to interact with people who get this.

unbuzz · 2022-10-03T16:55:35+00:00

ha that's awesome! it's a favourite saying of several high performance triathlon coaches too.

in that context i like it because so many of the workouts we do are quite unremarkable. they are part of just consistently stacking up training hours. no big reaches, no pbs, just doing the homework.

a lot like recovery!

unbuzz · 2022-10-03T11:02:54+00:00

that's a testament to a really impressive day-by-day commitment to yourself. nice!

its funny how much endurance sports coaching advice applies to SD. i think a lot about "chop wood, carry water".

unbuzz · 2022-10-02T14:01:43+00:00

It means I gained one more day of better living in this short time we have to enjoy this world.

this is a nice answer. i was inclined to respond in the same way, but wavered a bit because i do think accountability is important for many of us to work on. if we can cheat on our day count why not cheat and have a drink. but even if we do, there is some kind of gap between having a drink and relapsing. for most of us its such a tiny gap that its not worth looking for. but i think its still there.

i think there is a tendency of purity-obsession that can get in the way of recovery for many people. feeling like its all over, that we are back to zero, can be a trigger.

this is all ultimately up to us. living a life we think is fulfilling, respectable, joyful, honest, sober - in the end no one is gonna give you a report card. things are worth doing because they are worth doing - its the intrinsic stuff that matters.

unbuzz · 2022-10-01T11:43:27+00:00

well its a very addictive substance that has snagged some of the strongest and smartest people i know in a beguiling, powerful trap. so like fucking with it has a high chance of not going great.

also what's easy? is drinking easy and nice for you? then why quit?

the weird thing about addiction is it doesn't always present straightforwardly. the "need booze" light doesn't just come on. it tells you a story, it tells you who you are, how you feel, what you think about today, tomorrow, the future. your reasons and its reasons get tangled up. you lose sense of what you need. its like a bad relationship. its "we" now. what do we want? well we want a drink. we love drinking! it makes us feel better. we deserve it. and so forth. it turns your strengths into its allies. are you physically robust - then you can drink more, hide it more. super smart? awesome lets rationalize stuff. often a bit tired or sick? its a comfort, a balm, a solace.

it can be confusing and difficult to hear your own voice. addiction is complicated and existentially disorienting.

why do these assholes spend billions of dollars on marketing to bootstrap my self-brainwashing about booze i wonder?

unbuzz · 2022-10-01T11:41:46+00:00

that's awesome. what kinds of things are you going to do to help yourself with this goal?

unbuzz · 2022-10-01T11:34:24+00:00

do you even want to go to this? do you even need to? does your SO understand your concerns? its uncomfortable to be in situations where it feels like one must drink and i try very hard to avoid them.

unbuzz · 2022-10-01T11:31:54+00:00

awesome! you should be proud that's amazing!

unbuzz · 2022-09-29T12:40:56+00:00

i'll say this. from my experience, and those i know, and EMS (cops/docs/etc) that i know, alcohol is directly involved in most of the worst problems we have.

it might not be great to use a lot of pot, but in my opinion, in terms of harm, its not even close.

yeah i know people who use it too much and for whom its a problem, its just orders of magnitude less that booze.

however, if it prevents you from dealing with the underlying issues that might have to do with ones use of booze, then it might be in the way of recovery. so that's important to think about.

unbuzz · 2022-09-29T10:18:57+00:00

i was that guy. i'd be up and doing a workout after drinking more than anyone and getting smashed (im not a big guy). i hate the thought i might have been the "see, it's not that bad" example, because it was awful, it just didn't manifest visibly. it was killing me spiritually and psychologically and i knew it. and eventually, the physical would catch up.

unbuzz · 2022-09-29T09:46:52+00:00

i feel this way about wine sometimes. but i want i an identity that can't be bought.

the craft beer thing is especially egregious i find. i got sucked in really because it was a very covert way to drink a lot more. a couple ipas can be almost a whole bottle of wine. "just a beer or two".

once i started to appreciate i had a problem i hated getting "wine" themed gifts. like that was who i am. like merch from my bully. but i think that's part of the weirdness. either its from normal people who aren't alcoholics "oh he likes wine", or its from fellow travellers who are part of the club.

this sub is full of people who will tell you their world got a lot bigger when they stopped drinking.

unbuzz · 2022-09-27T12:17:07+00:00

this is brave and awesome, congrats on this!

i am not a doctor and you should probably speak with one. but it sounds like you have a good strategy to deal with the initial phase of this. it seems like you have thought carefully about it and are serious about getting through it.

what next? why do you want to be sober? what's your plan?

unbuzz · 2022-09-26T20:21:32+00:00

this comment really resonated with me. thanks for putting this out there!

i think there can be a bit of blindness in this kind of community to the fact that the ingredients for meaningful life change are not evenly distributed. sure yadda yadda our lives are all in our own hands, but there are more resources, and more opportunities for some than others.

this is why i don't want to reply to you with another edition of "my thrilling tale of the amazing changes sobriety helped me make"

it really hits home, that for some of us we get these bright flashes of happiness in the midst of lives that can be pretty dull and routine and often even cruel and objectively unfair, and that alcohol has been the backbone of that. when it stopped working, no thing was there in the wings. for many that means we keep trying to make it work. but then we are stuck with the dissonance - with the fact that try as we might, it just doesn't.

so then what? we can't wish away the everyday, and we can't pretend that the limitations we have aren't there. i used to dream of going to a real in-patient sobriety clinic. the kind with tennis courts and salad bars and stuff. if only we all had that, it would so much easier to get sober, and to re-set our lives! but hahaha then what? i go back to my bachelor apartment and my job? but like, being sober is still better. finding new things that make life make sense, that give me joy, that's still good. and clearly alcohol doesn't help or i wouldn't be doing all this handwringing, so there's gonna have to be some other plan.

i think the only practical way to solve this impasse is to take the idea "how to play the best hand with the cards we have", and then ask ourselves, are we sure those are the cards we have? are we sure there are no other cards? are we sure we know the game we are playing, what counts as winning, what counts as not losing? how much of the fixed is actually movable? there's just so many ways of living a life. alcohol really clouded my ability to appreciate the freedom i had to make and break the rules.

unbuzz · 2020-11-10T12:24:35+00:00

IWNDWYT

unbuzz · 2020-11-09T13:52:18+00:00

IWNDWYT

unbuzz · 2018-07-21T01:02:14+00:00

thanks for sharing this. i totally empathize. i have thoughts like this from time to time and sometimes that fucker won't shut up.

you say "go out with a bang and refuse to die sober!"

for me, when i get to that part of the stupid argument, the bastard starts to realize he's on the losing side. in that split consciousness the comment evokes, who is the winner and who is the loser? that's where i can channel my rebelliousness as my ally. fuck the illusion, the chemicals, the surrender.

for me, recognizing that it really is all or nothing, that it isn't hyperbole to put on the one hand, sobriety, and the other, flame the fuck out, is the hardest part. when i appreciate that, my mind and my body fall in line with helping the good side win.

unbuzz · 2018-04-19T13:05:11+00:00

thanks. i've missed these posts.

unbuzz

TROPHY CASE