Being skinny is not its all cracked up to be. It masks the signs of bowel cancer until its almost too late 
Thankfully it wasn’t but I never want to go through that again!
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Yeah, you know I’ve been following your stories. For the record, my point was when you’re worried about the weight of your brake pads, you’re a stronger rider than me! Definitely not meant as a personal attack.
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Don’t worry I never took it personally. I bet you’re plenty strong on the flat 
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I lost a brother in law to bowel cancer. It was a surprise discovery. They had that mail in test that showed nothing at all, but the physician thought it just didn’t add up, and did a standard colonoscopy, and then an MRI, and the news hit like a freight train: Stage 4 metastatic colorectal cancer. I mean, you just can’t prepare for that kind of news. He had some symptoms, but otherwise felt great, and BOOM…
I’ve had two cancer scares. They say you always remember where you were when you got ‘the call’… I remember it like it was yesterday. The first one that was wrong, but started the wheels spinning to surgery and a hernia I have to this day.
Glad you made it though. (I’m approaching the first anniversary of ‘the big one’, and trying not to think what I was doing last year at this time)
Ride on!!
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My condolences. Im still not officially tested untill next year. All my urgently commissioned tests that I had in a few weeks of eventually seeing the doc came back clear, including the camera down the throat and into the stomach. But unbeknown to me there was one test lost in that public private sector division in the UK and it took months for the private clinic to arrange my colonoscopy. In that time the symptoms started to really manifest. And by the time it had come through it was starting to burst out of my bowel. Once bursts out it rapidly goes to Stage 4 and unfortunately you know the outcome. Thankfully for me the public NHS moved fast and I was in hospital within a week and after keyhole surgery I was out in 3.5days. I think the subsequent chemo as a result of unknowness as to whether it burst out or not probably done more damage than the op but at least Im still here, 6 years and a few days after my op.
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AWESOME!!! Congratulations and wow, you beat the odds.
But 6 years to be officially tested? I was pronounced ‘cured’ at one month (prostate).
We just need to keep riding.
Life is good, damn good…
Im 6 years post operation/ cancer free now. The actual official testing is a bit of a saga. I started to get infrequent and short upset stomachs in my late 30s. I thought nothing of it at the time (it was just my bad cooking 
). I was fit and a stable weight (albeit light), rarely drank and never smoked. I then started to get uncomfortable on a soft seat in my early 40s. I still thought nothing of it I cycled 1000s of miles (circa 10,000 miles a year) in comfort and I just put it down to a side effect of that. Then at 43 I had a one of bleed, which I wrongly put down to piles as it never happened again. A few months later I was like an old man overnight. I strugled through the Flanders bergs course and LEJOG before my mates convinced me to go to the doc. I saw the doc within a fortnight and they did a blood test and within a week phoned me back, I could hear the panic in their voice 'that’s not normal (a catastrophic iron deficiency), we’re sending you for urgent tests. Most of the tests came through in weeks and they were all clear and I started to feel better on iron tablets, I actually set a whole load of power records boosted by iron tablets. So I thought nothing more. Unbeknown to me a colonoscopy by a private clinic was still to come. That probably came through 5months after seeing the doc and during that time the classic symptoms of bowel cancer developed (more frequent dehabillitating upset stomachs). The colonoscopy found it and within a week I was operated on. In summary there was years of procrastinating by me. Then the NHS doc diagnosed an iron deficiency (thankfully there was no procrastination there) and called for urgent tests. Most of which were just a few weeks. But the colonoscopy by a private clinic took about 5months to come through. After which the public NHS operated within two weeks of colonoscopy diagnosis.
Okay there was a 5months delay in official colonoscopy testing, which perhaps pushed me to the edge, but the lack of procrastination by the NHS probably saved my life. Apparently a lot of folk younger than me have lost their life, including a US MTB champion, as a result of large procrastination on not just their part (like me) but subsequent procrastination by the doc (its just piles, you’re too young for cancer etc).
Id urge anyone with symptoms no mater their age (I think the MTB champion was just 25years) to push for a colonoscopy.
Main symptoms of bowel cancer
Symptoms of bowel cancer may include:
changes in your poo, such as having softer poo, diarrhoea or constipation that is not usual for you
needing to poo more or less often than usual for you
blood in your poo, which may look red or black
bleeding from your bottom
often feeling like you need to poo, even if you’ve just been to the toilet
tummy pain
a lump in your tummy
bloating
losing weight without trying
feeling very tired for no reason
Bowel cancer can cause anaemia (when you have fewer red blood cells than usual), which can make you feel very tired, short of breath and have headaches.
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There’s a national 24h time trial in the UK, run through the night. I’ve heard tell of the front runners using an (external) rubber catheter with a tube down their leg, so they can pee easily without stopping.
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Yeah, I blew off the heightening PSA results. I could game the numbers and stop riding for a week or two and put out some good numbers, but even those numbers were rising. Eventually an MRI showed that I had a gigantic prostate, like nearly three times normal size, and at that point people started to freak out, especially when the biopsy came back positive for nerve involvement. The prostate isn’t in a ‘capsule’ like many other organs, so it just sits there ready to spew whatever is happening. Having cancer spreading up the nerves was a really bad sign. People got it in high gear and I started the pre-op opera, and had my first PET scan. Two days later I was under the robot knife in a rushed scheduled surgery. (I was given the option for the Wednesday surgery on the previous Friday. (Apparently the person scheduled for that day died)) I was one of the youngest to have the surgery (just like my hip replacement) and here I sit. Quite a whirlwind experience.
Our stories sound so similar on some levels, and here we are, ‘cured’… Ride on!!
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I’ve been trying to think of a weird one but to me it all seems normal, because I can explain why I do it (to myself).
Getting ready for a race tomorrow, I realized that I never wear deodorant to races. I’ve never read anything backing this, but I have this feeling that my anti perspirant deodorant will block my sweat a bit and not allow me to shed heat as quickly.
No idea if this is accurate, but makes sense in my head. Fortunately my armpit sweat doesn’t really smell (according to my wife at least), so it doesn’t bother me.
Does anyone else do this?
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I do now. Ultimate marginal gain… Any added stink is just a bonus for those around me.
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I have definitely been on group rides where I would do whatever it took to not ride behind excessively smelly people and profuse sweaters. This could be used as a strategy against me to force me to stay on the front or very far off the front depending on where said stinker/dripper is positioned.
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Reminds me of when I didn’t torque my rear through-axle properly before a 55min hillclimb race. My shifting started getting problematic around 35min in, and the chain would sometimes randomly jump up/down the cassette about 45min into the race. After the race was over, I saw how perilously close it was to coming out completely, and realized how lucky I was that it stayed in for the last 45sec of the race where I was in a battle with another competitor.
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But, and I realize this sounds weird, but on days when I ride my hardest, it seems that the ‘stink’ doesn’t really stink. I mean the smell seems ‘better’ somehow? Although it could be the endorphins and I really do reek. I’ve never had vultures follow me, or been declared dead so it’s not THAT bad. I tend to seat a heck of a lot too.
Oh, embarrassing confession? I was at a fund raiser ride when I pulled up and stopped and couldn’t for the life of me get my damn foot out of the toe clip pedals. I wish GoPro cameras existed back them because it would have been hysterical. Stop, fall over, STILL can’t get my damn foot out of the pedal. And people rushed over to help! Help me look like a total twit that wears that helmet all day and night. I bought Lok clipless pedals the next day and loved them! 
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I don’t wear anti-perspirant ever, just deodorant. So I wear my normal stuff.
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I usually see your posts on reddit, but hey 
You have just described me to a T. If you are doing a shorter event do you go WAY to hard for about 2 hours and then implode? I do that too.
Actually, I’ve historically done pretty well with anything sub 4hrs. After that, Jesus comes calling me home.
Dane Redmond
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Here’s my little blip of embarrassing stupidity recently. I went to Mallorca 3 weeks ago. Rode 500k all over the mountains and the whole time I was bothered by my noisy gear train. I looked it over and nothing seemed amiss but man it was annoying. Almost a grinding noise. I thought maybe it’s the waxed chain so I put some oil on but no, still loud. Maybe it’s the Force cassette I thought. Nope. Can you guess what I’d done wrong?
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Threaded the chain thru the wrong hole on the derailleur ?
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