Samstag, 24. November 2012

The Night is a Friend

The darker period of the year calls for some adaptions, but as long as the trails are snow free and not completely muddy so that wheels are blocked by solid packs of clay etc. there's actually no reason to stop riding offroads.
Since I invested in some serious lights (Sigma EVO PowerLED) darkenss has lost some of its threats. So currently I do a night rides every week (and I haven't been mistaken for a ..... by the hunting community as I do not blend completely with the dark woods - you remember the lights!!! and I also sport some red rear lights in flashing mode as I guess that's not typical for deers and wild boars etc.).
Jolly good ahow - you never exhaust yourself, the night takes care of the appropriate speed.

The best part of every ride is the final single-track downhill I try to do every time: trying to catch the tip of the own light beam :-)

Donnerstag, 15. November 2012

Strava - an Android app

Pretty cool and free. You set up an account, record your ride with your smartphone and afterwards the track is uploaded to your account (a drawback is that the recording is done in feet and miles). The track uses google maps, gives you the overall elevational data, the trip time and distance as well as speed. All very nice but the sensational thing is it splits the ride automatically in climb segments and starts a ranking. So next time you ride this climb again you can immediately check your performance. You afterwards can select whether the outing was a ride or a run.
At the moment I'm loving it!
So today's ride of just an hour looks like this:

The Account Screen

The Track
The Profile and Climb Segment


Freitag, 2. November 2012

A Year in a Nutshell

What were this year#s highlights? Pretty rethorical questions as the answer invariably is EVERY RIDE!!!
Nevertheless some rides/events were more spectacular than others, though not necessarily more rewarding.
Still there are things to talk about around the campfire:




It started in January in Malta with a very special Gozo coastal ride (Chapeau to Ron and the friends!!!);
Granada the splendid city with the impressive hinterland - apart from sightseeing I rode the MTB to Pico Viznar with Julian, a German musicab and cyclist;
later I did a short distance in a marathon relay school team together with my students at the Vienna City Marathon;
I accompanied my long standing and older friend Equo on a short distance (36km) MTB-Marathon - he beat me by at least 5 minutes;
beginning of July I tried to finish the Weinviertel Trail Race - didn't succeed this year though, but definitely finishing next year (it's a fight against saddle soreness), but then 200 km in one sweep aren't that bad either;
Trimania as the cycling leg was quite a burner (at least for my hamstrings), my daughterHannah ran well and her friend Julia swam like a fish;
a 2-days ride with my son and a family picknick on the Buschberg;
Lignitz again - relaxing and thrilling as I did the first serious Alpine rides on  my brandnew Scott Fully;
5-Hügel-Tour: an outing with friends in September, fantasically relaxed ride;
an Alpine trail down from the Schlossalm in Gastein (800 m downhill altitude on a slippery single trail with  a fantastic bike (Scott Genius!!!);
a NiteRide in good form.
These events can make a year a spectacular one: go out - ride- enjoy!!!