A Biker's Smile

stats of the week: run 12km, cycled 276km

3LaenderGiro (Austria-Italy-Switzerland)
168km, 3,500hm, 8:49 hrs, 1,315th of 1,681 men, 519th of 721 men aged 50-57

Being 2 years older but with 2 more years of cycling experience I managed to cut 47 minutes off my recent time on this challenging route, passing Stelvio and Oven Pass. Two years ago I had to dismount my bike with just 1km to the finish, this time I made it to the end by a constant smile. Smiling was undoubtedly increased by overtaking the unconcerned novice race biker Holger K. just at the same point where I had to walk last time.

My Local Alps

stats of the week: run 22km, cycled 278km, 2 gyms

Most people who have never been to the industrial region where I live, the "Ruhrgebiet", think it's a rather flat piece of land.

However, on my Wednesday bike ride I managed to collect 970 meters of height difference over a distance of only 53 kilometers!

The surprising awareness is that it would be possible to add up the same amount of gained height like biking in the Alps. Anyway, next Sunday's elevation map is still looking more demanding:
(official pic by dreilaendergiro)

Cross Training

stats of the week: run 10km, cycled 335km

Did more climbing work this week, enjoying another local pass, the one to Veserde. It's a climb which let you imagine to be in the Alps ... However, after finshing today's long ride of 160km and more than 1,500 m of climbing I felt even too tired to read the Sunday newspaper!

Cross training is highly recommended for runners. Not just cycling. Very popular here in my home town Witten is Dragon boating on the river Ruhr. The boat shown on the left is full of runners ...

Climbing Work

stats of the week: run 12km, cycled 330km, 1 gym

The week taught me that a lot work is to be done to reach the cycling performance I had last year. Though it was a good week and the mileage was higher than expected. And I was able to collect some ascents like the pass of Asker Steet which I enjoyed twice this week.