The sun is shining. For a day or two the grey Autumn weather is gone. This would be a good time for a spontaneous bike ride. The issue with this is that Strava is great for sharing activities that are planned in advance, and those that have passed. It’s easy to get kudoes. It isn’t easy to converse.
They have instant messaging but it is only available via the mobile phone app, rather than from the web interface.
A week ago I proposed a bicycle ride to Mies, before stopping at the Port de Crans for coffee. Quite a few people joined the chat but no one committed to turning up. I woke up in the morning and said “I’m thinking of setting off early, since no one had confirmed. When no one said “wait, wait, wait” I set off on my bicycle ride.
The conditions were excellent. I was warm, the roads were quiet, and the views were pleasant.
Routine is extremely important. With routine the question is not “whether you can be bothered” but “I will do this.” You go from asking “if” to automatically assuming that on Wednesday morning you will ride, and sunday morning you will ride. If a ride is cancelled for A or B then you’re asking “if”, but you’re also making other plans.
This weekend, for example, I saw that it would rain today.
Strava intends to float itself on the stock exchange. In my experience of Twitter, Facebook and other social media apps this is the beginning of the end for the app. In my experience when an app such as Zwift gets VC funding it loses control of its app. Users go from being the customer to investors becoming the client. In this situation user experience degrades continuously.
Years ago, when I was using Zwift, they got VC funding, and within days bluetooth pairing between the speed and cadence sensors and Zwift failed and their solution was “Have you tried turning it off and on again” rather than “Which devices are you using, we’ll see if we can recrate the bug and patch the issue?
I was perfectly happy hiking in solitude for years in a row, but eventually, as normal life returned, after the pandemic I felt a sense of isolation, especially on weekends. I would see groups walking together and I longed to revert to that habit. Eventually I did and now for more than a year I have been on regular group hikes and bike rides.
I enjoy group hikes and bike rides but as an introvert I usually don’t start speaking with people near the end of an event, and if the event comes to an end then I usually don’t see people again for weeks, or even months.
Within the last two weeks children have headed back to schools. As a consequence of this schools, towns, villages, and ‘states’ are banning mobile phones for children and teenagers. In theory this is a fantastic, and simple solution. In practice this is failing society.
Plenty of adults, from my generation, and younger, are media illiterate. They use computers for work, and used them for uni and for school, but they didn’t use them for pleasure.
On Sunday I rode with the Le Cercle No Pressure Club group ride from Nyon to Montricher via Vich to Begnins, and From there to Gimel and then onto Bière and eventually Montricher.
Easier Start Normally groups default to climb from Nyon to Coinsins, and from Coinsins up towards Genolier and Le Muids before going across towards Bière. By choosing the route we chose we got to have a more restful ride.
If I drove four hundred and thirty kilometres I would either be going on holidays or wasteful with petrol. To do the same thing on a bike is much better for the health of the planet and my own. The reason for this is simple. Good cardiovascular health.
Normally I would not consider riding this many times in a week. My rule was to ride twice per week, not more. If I ride more than twice per week, especially alone, I find car driver behaviour to be toxic.
Yesterday I rode with Group 2 rather than Group 1 with TDC. I believe I could keep up for a second time. I also believe that when you’re cycling hard three times a week it takes a lot of energy.My experience last Saturday showed that I was pushing myself too hard by riding by cyclists stronger than me three times in a week, especially after riding close to my max on Wednesday, Thursday and then Sunday.
When I look at Facebook, BlueSky and Threads I see a lot of content that should never be. I see sentences and phrasing that provoke hostility, and I see article headlines and more that provoke polarisation. In essence I think that social media is no longer a social network. I believe that social media is about emotions, rather than conversations, especially negative emotions.
I bring this up because I can go for hours, or even days without looking at threads or FB and when I do I am struck with how negative posts are.