Yesterday, I went for another trip. My original plan was to go along a similar route as on my last trip with TriTeam Chaos, but from the other direction and with a slightly smaller distance of about 53 km. Instead of climbing Exelbergstraße in the 17^th district, I went for a route via Sievering, which is part of the 19^th district. Once more, the climb (see the elevation profile below) was extremely exhausting and I almost gave up. However, when I reached the highest point of my planned route, I decided to change the route a little bit so I would actually go back a longer way. In the end, I even went around the block once more to reach exactly 60 km. I was extremely tired by then I’m not sure if I can make another trip that long in the near future. If you want to help raise my motivation and support my health and Free Software all at once, please donate to FSFE using the “Tracking for Freedom” as the payment reference. If you are new to the whole project of “T4F”, read more about it here.

The trip's elevation profile

Note: At the very left, the altitude is definitely wrong. It seems the barometer delivered incorrect data during the first 15 minutes or so. This might also influence the total climb measured.

The usual numbers:

Note: The climb was measured using a non-calibrated barometric altimeter; the amount of energy consumed was calculated from the measured heart rate and physiological parameters.

The GPX file recorded with my eTrex can be found here.

Most of you probably know that there is a fine line between genius and insanity. I think there’s probably no place that reflects this fact better than the small village of Maria Gugging, right outside of Vienna. Today, I did a very light climbing training and passed this town, which used to be the home of a mental hospital, but today the Institute of Science and Technology, which is an institute of basic research (sometimes referred to as “elite university” by the Austrians) that tries to hire the best scientist from all over the world, is located right at the same place. Unfortunately, my eTrex ran out of battery pretty exactly at the spot of maximum altitude of this tour. This is why the GPX file about this trip was recorded with my Forerunner. Before I started, I added another centimeter of height to my saddle’s position, following Alex Kolar‘s advice. I didn’t feel much difference, but since he’s the expert, it was probably a good decision. Maybe I’ll have to do more adjustments in the future. When I went out on the street with my bike, the first thing I realised was a pretty heavy wind. Also, the sky was rather cloudy and everything felt like an upcoming shower. I first wasn’t sure if I should start at all, but then, what’s the price for freedom? So I went for the trip nonetheless, and I actually enjoyed it very much because the temperature was quite comfortable and even when the wind became extremely strong from time to time, it was not as bad as I had feared. I returned home rather late and I was quite thankful for my decision to put a basic illumination to my bike.

The usual numbers:

Note: The amount of energy consumed was calculated from the measured heart rate and physiological parameters.

The GPX file recorded with my Forerunner can be found here.

p.s. If you don’t have an offline GPX viewer, you can view the file here. Caution: The tool used on this site is not 100% free because using it on commercial sites requires the author’s permission (see here (German) for the legal details). Unfortunately, it also defaults to use Google Maps, but you can switch to OSM, which I recommend.

Today, I finally managed to do my second cycling trip for the “Tracking for Freedom” project. While I originally wanted to follow the Danube southbound and return the same way, I managed to take the wrong path at some point and so I improvised the remaining route. Instead of returning via the Donauinsel, I crossed the Danube at the Freudenau power plant and drove across Simmering and the central cemetery. Afterwards, chose the “Zweierlinie” from Karlsplatz to Vienna’s Landesgericht. This last part however proved to be a rather bad decision. There were lots of rather slow cyclists on the bike lane and so my average speed went down quite fast. Of course I could have chosen the car lane, but I’m not tired of life.

Some figures:

Note: The climb was measured using a non-calibrated barometric altimeter; the amount of energy consumed was calculated from the measured heart rate and physiological parameters.

The GPX file recorded with my eTrex can be found here.

Today I went for my first “Tracking for Freedom” trip. Having not used my bike for almost half a year, it was pretty exhausting. I probably should have chosen a shorter distance. The first 20 kilometres were very nice and I didn’t have any problems. After changing from the left to the right riverside of the Danube in Greifenstein, I decided to return to Vienna via the Wienerwald instead of following the right river bank. The climb to Maria Gugging turned out to be quite exhausting and it also lowered my average speed. The following descent however was very nice. Nonetheless, my legs were tired and so the last kilometres from Klosterneuburg back to Vienna were rather painful.

Some figures:

Note: The climb was measured using a non-calibrated barometric altimeter; the amount of energy consumed was calculated from the measured heart rate and physiological parameters.

The GPX file recorded with my eTrex can be found here.