This post is by Phil Price, not Andrew.

A friend and I were discussing a route for a bike ride. I was pretty tired and unmotivated so I said sure but let’s do a really easy ride. I suggested taking Bay Bridge bike path from Berkeley (California) to Treasure Island. My friend had never done that, and said “is that pretty nice?” I replied “No it’s not nice at all…it’s probably the least-pleasant ride I do with any regularity.”

One might think “jeez, why would you want to do that ride, then? But consider: _something_ has to be “the worst ride I do with some regularity.” I do this one every couple of months, when I want a change from my usual rides and when I don’t want to exert myself too hard. If it really sucked I wouldn’t do it at all! It’s sort of the opposite of “damning with faint praise”: I’m praising with faint damnation.

This is peripherally related to the Reebok Principle, which came up here about eighteen months ago in a post that I think is worth re-visiting because of its comment section, which went off into pandemic-related stuff a bit and provides an interesting reminder of what people were thinking at that point.

This post is by Phil.