Did The Pros Closet Lose My Bike?
Substack demonyms, breaking: running consistently makes you faster, a tri bike missing in the mail, self-publishing content on the internet
I ordered a tri bike from The Pros Closet two weeks ago.
It still hasn’t shipped.
I reached out twice last week. Someone from their customer support team eventually followed up, saying that the bike is “on the short-list.”
That was 5 days ago, and I’m beginning to suspect that their “short list” is more subjective than I would like.
I suspected that a company liquidating all of their inventory might face some challenges on the order fulfillment front. I’m not too bothered - I’ll give it a few more days before reaching out again.
Hopefully they don’t lose the bike in the mail.
Is there a demonym for Substack writers?
The platform supports a bunch of different content formats. On other sites, we call them writers, bloggers, podcasters, or YouTubers.
Do we refer to everyone as a Substacker now? Substackian?
With all of Substack’s available content mediums, the platform can be many things to many people. Over the past few weeks, I’ve published a few longer-form posts sharing my experiences with failure while training for endurance events.
I’m now 8 weeks out from a trail marathon - one that I previously trained for twice. This time around I plan on making it across the finish. That starts with showing up to the starting line on race day morning. Going forward, I plan to experiment with these updates in a “newsletter” rather than “blog” format.
I’ll publish longer-form articles and blog-esq content directly on this project’s new site, gatebreakendurance.com. It will provide a platform-agnostic space for all of my endurance related musings. At the moment, my primary focus is on “done” rather than “perfect.” So, bare with me as this newsletter and the site build momentum - both warrant a mid-90s “under construction” marquee.
Takeaway: Expect more updates with a “newsletter” vibe each week on Substack
The experience of buying a used bike online has me reflecting on the last one I bought, which I purchased for my first triathlon:
Stealing a bike may seem like a crime (because it is)
Scoring a killer deal on a used bike feels like a crime (but it isn't)
Earlier this summer, I swapped $200 for a basically-new Trek road bike with a stoned 19-year-old college student in Suburban St. Louis. I felt like I had committed a crime (I didn't).
As for the seller - pilfering his parent's underutilized belongings in exchange for easy weed-money may have actually been a crime.
I like to think he received prior authorization, but for all I know his dad is still pissed that I'm putting more miles on his bike than he ever did.
Keep reading How to Score a Killer Deal on a Used Road Bike for Triathlons on gatebreakendurance.com.
What’s next?
Trail-marathon training updates
I’ve been more focused on talking about talking about training than actually talking about training
With 4 weeks in the training logs, it’s time for a proper retrospective and update. Expect one next week.
Spoiler: training consistently works
Last Sunday, I ghosted my training plan and ran a 10km personal-best instead of the prescribed slow recovery miles
Pro: it feels good to run slightly faster
Cons: randomly ignoring your planned training to attempt PRs makes coaches mad
