grolby

I've raced in Tennessee and in New England. While you can manage to race pretty much every week during the season in Tennessee, especially if you're willing to make some longer drives, there's really no comparison. Certainly doing 60+ races a year in the South is all but impossible without crazy hours on the road; even in New England, with a much higher population density and much bigger race scene, that would be tough, probably because of weather limiting the season a lot more. mattm's particular area of CA has both good weather for racing during most of the year and a reasonably high density of races. That's quite rare. I mean, you can race on the road in JANUARY. In most of the country, that's just laughable.

Having been a grad student - LOL. Otherwise good post, though.

Ygduf

hack

mmmmm...now that's a proper spot

grolby

Oh, and no one wants my opinion on the actual argument here. But as a guy-who-has-been-coached-but-for-various-reasons-mostly-related-to-my-life-it-didn't-work-and-I'm-not-now-but-I-suppose-I-could-be-in-the-future-maybe-but-also-maybe-not, here it is. I'm as sick of this argument as anyone, but Fudgy and matt, you guys consistently come off as waaaaay dickier on this subject by constantly feeling the need to snark at coached riders/coaches/coaching.

And the posting of memes, as though to say "LOL how silly are teh FEELs" when you KNOW that you are poking the bear when you don't have to, that's honestly kind of emotionally cowardly, if I can say such a thing about something as trivial as an Internet message board. Or will that get me accused of feel-having? Oh dear.

mattm

In WA the racing didn't start until March, and ended in August. And rain from October to June basically.

No coach there either, and I upgraded to a 2. Point being this really has not much to do with CA.

At any rate, it is what it is. We've all said our pieces and nobody is backing down. It's a real Mexican Standoff we got here!

Ygduf

Tmonk says he feels like a dick. I post a _hilarious_ picture of the feels guy spotting the frogface who is squatting with a motivation quote about feelings. Explain how it is emotionally cowardly. Here I am.

You project what you like onto my posts, but I have said what, 5 times in this thread alone that people should get coaches if they want to and disregard others opinions on the subject. I literally cannot say it more clearly. Get a coach if you want and scrape up the minimum amount of self confidence that you've made an OK decision regardless of other's opinions.

I reserve the right to criticize terrible analogies and passive aggressive posts calling me passive aggressive.

You ever notice how Ex or Kwaki never get twisted up over obvious jokes? Try living with a little confidence sometime. For a bunch of allegedly type-A bike racers I've never seen more cases of rice-paper skin.

Here, just for you if you need it: Get a coach if you want. It's OK. Get a coach if you want. It's OK. Get a coach if you want. It's OK. Get a coach if you want. It's OK. Get a coach if you want. It's OK. Get a coach if you want. It's OK. Get a coach if you want. It's OK. Get a coach if you want. It's OK. Get a coach if you want. It's OK. Get a coach if you want. It's OK. Get a coach if you want. It's OK.

Feeling better everyone? Go ahead and get a coach if you want. It's going to be alright.

p.s. I'm hiring a coach for TT work.























j/k I'm not.

TMonk

hack

The frontsies spot is awkward the first two times, just natural after that though.

furiousferret

I celebrate his whole post collection. He even quoted me once! I have that thread hanging up on my wall. Right next to my poster of him winning a race.

Sometimes I'll cry myself to sleep when he makes a dig on California but my keep telling myself its a generalization and nothing to do with me. Incessant compliments do not seem to get him to notice me. My next tactic for attention will be to make passive aggressive insults at Cat 5 racers. Just gotta make sure they are geographically too far away to retaliate.

gsteinb

I lack confidence? lol

I'm certain the obfuscation you throw around is an internet personality that you consider hilarious. Mostly what's being said is it's not. You keep explaining how it is.

My post wasn't passive-aggressive it was aggressive. And it's question was why some guys post snide remarks every time someone mentions a coach.Then in each post you say the same 'get a coach if you want' you again throw in a snide remark.

I asked a very basic question. Why does that opinion need to be expressed with the barb every time?
the answer is you think it's hilarious.
people are saying it's not. you're saying you don't care.
no one really says 'guys who self coach are clueless morons trying to figure out what an elephant is'

then your feelings are hurt because I call a passive-aggressive post, passive-aggressive

and then you name guys I should inspire to be because they didn't get embroiled in this with you?

So hey guy who likes to toss the troll word around a lot. Sounds a lot like you're trolling. And me not rolling over needs to be spun some way in order for you to score the interweb win. The question stands though. Why the barbs? It's pretty simple to have a discussion around coaching (the same one, but every discussion on here for about 10 years has been just recycled) that goes - hey I did it myself. Here are some places you can get info. Or, hey I did it myself and so did a bunch of guys.

When you pitch for a fight and then deny that's what you're doing it makes you a coward. You do that time and again here. you want a reaction and then when you get a reaction it's someone else's thin skin. Welp, my skin isn't thin, I'm surely not insecure. I'm not even mad. I'm asking the honest question which is why do you continually pollute this place with that level of interaction? These are people here you interact with every single day. Why does the baseline discourse need to be something like a game of dozens from the old neighborhood? I asked because I want to know, which is what I said from the start. I wasn't even talking to you. I asked Matt if there was some reason he didn't like coaches (there may be). I (half) jokingly asked if he hated guys who used coaches. The snark and deny may well be cultural. i.e. a california thing. I've read more than once west coast guys saying east coast guys are difficult to understand, or aggressive, or this or that. I guess that's ok? Give and take. But I asked because I want to know.

The leap is from "I don't think a coach is worth it to me."
to
"I wonder if D&D guys have coaches." i.e. "This isn't diffusing <sic> bombs." And while it may not be, the repeated one line snark towards the guys that use or advocate coaches contains that snarky superiority that I've referred to previously.

Yep

That was pretty amazing.

shovelhd

Good luck with that.

grolby

Hey, Fudgy, too busy doing ridiculous things this weekend to come back and "explain" myself. But I think I already explained myself. You never own what you're doing. Even posting an image in response to Tmonk is really not just about what Tmonk said, it's a meta-comment on everyone who is calling you out on being passive-aggressive, and it's the same move you make every time. If anyone responds to you, they're taking you too seriously, they have too many feels, they're "projecting" things onto your posts.

Here's a clue: if you think people continually project supposedly unintended messages into your posts, and this has happens over and over again over a period of years, it is something YOU are doing, not them. But of course, I don't think it's projection at all, because I'm sure you know what's going to happen every time. And yeah, you - once again - go to the same stupid well of saying the problem is that everyone has "rice-paper skin," and of course giving a crap, even if we're not even angry, is something defective with us. What? People like me, gary and you have stuck around on this board for a while, and that's a pretty sure sign that you do give enough of a **** to not just leave. Like gary, I'm not mad, I don't dislike you, but there's all this "feels = you lose" nonsense of yours that presumes ANY objection raised to you starting **** comes from hurt feelings. But it's really nothing more than frustration that you continuously feel compelled to poke the bear*, for no obvious reason, and then deny that you're doing it. There's no reason you can't put your two cents in the question of getting a coach or not, but for some reason your two cents is always a dig.

*not a reference to a specific poster

furiousferret

If those posts were directed at a newly minted cat 5 or just someone inquiring about racing, there would be no issue. Its a bit hypocritical when established forum members gang up on new posters (which is cowardly), then call a truce when it happens to one of their own. A member of the higher caste in the 33 gets the same treatment and suddenly there is a problem. Either we change the culture to be like the 41 and strictly moderate it, or keep it as is where sometimes threads get a tad bit insensitive. I vote for the latter.

Grumpy McTrumpy

I've been standing back and observing from afar for months now. I see things a bit differently than when I was actually getting involved in these dramatic sessions.

Just live and let live. Someone's acting in a way you don't like? Telling them is a sure fire way to escalate.

Maybe it's partly due to the esthetic of bike racing. Attacking, taking advantage of others' weaknesses, finding sneaky ways to win, etc.

That stuff works great in racing, poorly in interpersonal dynamics (although it's pretty common, and certainly not confined to this place or even the internet at large)

echappist

red herring. all the posters here are seasoned thus your allegation isn't apt. I also don't see any truce being called (unless if people were directed by PM to keep mum).

Ygduf

So, I totally don't get why you're mad.
@TMonk was my reply to you offensive?
@grolby would you feel better if you knew the last time someone asked me in a pm about training I advised that they follow through and get the coach they were thinking of? Because that's what I did. I'm sorry you legit can't read my words for words. I realize they might be blurry from your tears of being constantly offended. Perhaps a tissue first, next time?

^^ see, not passive aggressive in any way. I'm overcoming my emotional cowardice to make a joke about you being offended a lot; and I mentioned you and quoted you to be sure you saw it. Anyway, please don't quit bike racing because of said joke. It's just a joke and I legit believe that we have much more in common than these current differences would make it seem.

Heathpack 

I think you misunderstood. I think what @furiousferret was saying is that newbies are attacked in other threads and established posters are ok with it, there is the feeling that newbies are fair game.

But here is this thread everyone is an established poster so there's lots of chiming in to 'knock it off'.

Maybe I got the gist wrong, but that's how I read it.

YMCA

Late to the party and don't feel like reading all this, but I'm seeing fists and feet everywhere!
Can anyone summarize in one sentence?

grolby

I can only conclude that you have issues to work through.

mattm

How about an image? I really think this sums it up, is funny, and honestly deserves more traction!

YMCA

mattm, thnx
gsteinb wrote a cdr novel; is this real life?

hack

uhhh...it's internet bikes, that's as real as it gets.

TMonk

No, but I also interpreted your feels meme (hilarious btw) as really directed towards @gsteinb, not myself.

Ygduf

Well, it wasn't meant to be a multi-layer meme; I'm getting too much credit. But @gsteinb or anyone shouldn't feel bad about caring about something anyway. That's my entire presence in this thread. I personally am not paying for coaching, but everyone getting twisted up at @mattm for his "coaching isn't a requirement" stance is putting way too much weight into his preference.

Look how hard I try at this sport. Damn!

Embrace your feelings, dudes! Namaste, brothers.