My sister lives in one of those boxes.
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What, in Coity / Coety?? Very nice smart modern roofs, they seem to have. Seems to be very much on the up from the 1970s. A couple of houses on our old road, Heol Spencer, even seem to have swimming pools in the garden. That’s not how I remember it at all!
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No swimming pool for them. Just a 4 bed detached, smallish garden. Nice, nothing offensive. Not their choice necessarily, her husband gets the place as part of his job.
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I got the Endurace CF SLX 8.0 with some of my gratuity (base SLX model at the time). It’s a lovely bike; all you need frame/wheels wise but with Ultegra mechanical. It’s a lovely bike in the matte red. Just hangs in the garage these days! (I left at 44 so had it a few years now). Actually I bought it on an interest free Barclaycard about 8 months before I left 
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Correct, although I’m very much enjoying being an annoying government statistic at the moment.
I’m fully paid up on NI so the plan is to use this pension as my ‘salary’ as it’s roughly equivalent to the tax free allowance.
Assuming my last one or two contracts are freelance, I’ll take any money as dividends.
If I end up doing another fixed term then I’ll pay more tax but it’s not the end of the world.
I’ll start looking at the end of the month but don’t want to rush as I think it’s likely I’ll be working away from home again and want Henry to settle in to high school with me around. 
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If I decide to get a new bike, I’ll start a thread or piggyback onto the joex one from a while back. I had a quick look yesterday and they’re all soooooo expensive.
TBH I’m struggling with why I’d get a new bike as I’m perfectly happy with what I have now. I do keep thinking about some of the Dirty Reiver type routes but I reckon I’d manage with what I have.
A car is priority once back from our next holiday
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I’m guessing you won’t be paying into that pension scheme again then?
As you say, anything you earn you’d accept the tax hit which probably won’t be significant?
More for the financial thread I think.
It’s a deferred final salary pension, I left the company in 2001!
I opened a Trading 212 account yesterday but since their cash ISA is currently 5.2%, I can’t see much need to do anything more risky?
Once me and the wife have maxed out the ISAs and got the car, there will be c£20K to ‘invest’.
I put it in the Metro account yesterday (3.88% gross), will think about raising it in the financial thread when I’m back from holiday.
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When I was out on my bike in the last week or so I went past the bungalow I lived in for almost the same age range, 2-10. They did slightly extend the estate with standard Wimpy houses in the 80’s but the originals were mostly self design\build plots and the majority were bungalows. But they then came up against a hard boundary of the dual carriageway heading north which got put in during the early 80’s.
It was surreally quiet but remember the names of lots of friends etc. who lived in the houses around there and where we used to play on our bikes doing jumps and skids and hide & seek during winter.
Some of it hardly looks like it has changed for a long time, although I still did go to the nearby senior school until I was 16.
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Bollocks, looks like I’m through one aging timeline and getting increasingly closer to the next!
Scientists find humans age dramatically in two bursts – at 44, then 60 (msn.com)
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I’m pretty sure my swimming started the decline at 44. No other scientific evidence.
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Hmm, I remember an older friend saying that it all got a lot harder at 60 and it feels like that’s happening to me a bit at the moment. 
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wasn’t me was it? 
I have mentioned before on here that my physical decline once I got past 60 was noticeable
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Ageing is the reason I started hyrox type stuff , I’m no fitter tri wise three years on, in real world terms I’ve lost 60-90 seconds off a 5 k run but gained similar on the bike ( I think this is more bike fit TBH)
Swim is “ varied “ ”
Same weight 70 kilo but much stronger and robust in day to day stuff lifting , carrying general health etc.
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I’ve been making noises when I get up & down for ages.
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Wrong site for those comments !
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I’ve found it hard, particularly post Covid and certainly since having Covid last year. The most noticeable decline in speed has been in the last 3yrs though. I think I’d struggle for anything faster than a 22.30 5km right now. I’m finding it harder to keep up with LO.
I’m 59 now and despite all the spine surgery, still think I have it mentally and could always really on that for endurance type stuff (and a smattering of training 
( but honestly, everything is getting harder now.
The demands of having LO so late in life and a stressful job just add to ‘everything’.
I’ve been watching Dan Loyd’s series on GCN about overall health and fitness and his struggles with booze and nicotine.
I don’t want to ease up but I’m pretty sure I’m doing the wrong races and getting crap outcomes. I do know I feel dizzy on a lot more occasions than I used to, especially at the start of efforts.
It’s all a bit depressing really and whilst I’m not stopping any time soon, there is an adjustment to be made, just not sure what it is.
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My swimming probably peaked around 46 but largely because I started late and that’s when I was doing some structure and open water training.
I’d like to think I’m a few years behind that 44 year mark as I was running well when I was 49 but it’s fallen off a cliff in the last few years due to lack of training and injuries.
But my cycling is still fairly consistent if I get on Zwift regularly.
See what happens in 6 years I guess 
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Comparison is the thief of joy lads.
I’ve given up beating myself up about slowing times & try to live in the moment .
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Me too. Most of the time I’m just happy to be doing my sport…and according to @jeffb I’ve got another 10 years until I’m officially old.
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