Category: Biking

my biking experience in Arlington/Cambridge

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Rheinlust — Part 2

We went to the very nice Rheinlust Biergarten, this time, the hour not being too late, the river Rhein was clearly visible. Markus went for the ‘Ana classic’ the Currywurst mit Pommes/weiss (Mayo only) und ein Kölsch natürlich. He loved both beer and Currywurst and brought up the common question: Why don’t we have this in the U.S.? Well, that is a good question but we know why!

Martin joined us arriving on his fine bike without chain and just a v-belt. We learned from him that he climbs now since twenty years and has fixed partner in crime. His hands and most importantly his forerarms speak volumes of the routes he must have climbed bz now.

All good otherwise, we had a great time!

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Nightwatch with the two little Ones

Today I had a long long day. I had to be at MIT for my first meeting at 7am. So I got up at about 6am and got my morning routine out of the way and mounted my freshly serviced bike to hit the road and get to the office on time. The meeting would not finish in fact I spent until 3pm without interruption in 5 meetings. Even with a professional this is rather exceptional day. When I was close to a completely flat brain activity diagram I even launched some calls to my most beloved collaborators. Finally around 5:30pm I headed of to the courts and I spent a good 1 hour and 30 minutes on the courts. I was mostly very un-energetic but I succeeded in beating up my standard opponent, “John the Greek”.

Ana picked me up and finally we ended up home where Markus and Ivan decided to watch a movie instead of doing the Nightwatch… Blake and Gisele stayed and now we will start our night watch. Gisele wants to watch a bunny… let’s see what bunnies we will find with google.

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Squash is great again

This week I have been on the court three times already and the Achilles tendon is holding up pretty good, in particular today I almost did not notice anything. I did do quite a number of stretches to make sure the tendon is nicely worked through and I took a little bit of Ibuprofen to take of the inflammation but that was yesterday today all was great.
I am starting to wonder what will be the next little thing I will be whining about …. I played with Jon and Serrat today and is was quite some fun. I need to be faster and get might standard shots tighter to the wall. I am in pretty good shape, I believe mostly due to the biking with keeps my fitness level, and of course because of my squash sessions. I beat up Jon as usual and won one against Serrat, and lost the other. I still think he does not really play 100% against me but mostly wants to make me run. Well, let’s see how it develops. Squash is great!

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Biking at Low Temperatures

As it is well known in boy scout circles: ‘It is never too cold, you might just be improperly dressed.’ So following this proverb I have adjusted my biking gear to reflect the sub zero temperatures. Last Friday morning it was -14 C when I rode to MIT the usual path. The Wednesday night before I had my first sub zero ride in the evening after a long squash game. I was so exhausted and had bad headwind that it took me almost 45 minutes to get home. Luckily it was not yet as cold so I survived with my simple jeans. The morning afterwards I did get a pair of nice skipants and the -14 C ride was almost pure pleasure. Today I completed the equipment with a pair of really decent winter boots (wonderful leather on the outside but fully waterproof through several more modern layers: ‘Chippewa since 1901’). One more thing…. I still need some decent gloves, mine kind of suck 🙂

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Tire Pressure

Today, I have figured out why I am not anymore arriving on time for the MIT Group meetings…. My speed is down from over 25 km/h to less then 23 km/h. The reason is very simple, my tire pressure is going down and therefore the friction is significantly higher. So the bottom line to all bikers: maintain your tier pressure and you are not going to be late for meetings.