Skinsuits

Well, the home page says it: I got myself two new skinsuits! One is from the Republic of Anaerobia, a small outfit up in the North Bay; the other one is an eBay find. Both of them will reach me in the next few days – thank goodness eCommerce works! Why skinsuits? Well, for one, they make you look even more ridiculous than the conservative duo of black shorts and jersey (which is really a lot to say! Continue reading

Short Ride

I seized the opportunity and did a quick (50min) ride at sunset. Actually, it was six to seven, so that it is still very warm and bright outside. It is amazing how peaceful a Sunday evening can be. People are gone, the masses of summer bikers are home already, and it is with some amazement that I actually found a rider from Phoenix getting home. He must have been exhausted, because I saw him on the downslope in front of Stanford, three minutes before heading back, and still I caught up with him. Continue reading

Almost There

Fk, fk, f**k! I was so ready for it! I had slowly crept down Foothill, chosen Arastradero over Page Mill, done Portola to avoid the stupid hill before OLH, stopped for ten minutes (sharp!), drank my soda and ate an energy bar. I shot up, I even spun a round just to get into it with a little speed advantage. I had computed that an average ascent of 60ft per minute would get me there, with the initial part being slightly easier and hence slower (ascent-wise). Continue reading

A Short History of Byzanz

Midway through the abbreviated version of the history of Byzanz. The author started out with a three volume history that he had to abridge for the general public – and since I am general public, that’s what I chose to read. First things first: the history of Byzanz itself is immensely fascinating. We are talking about an empire that understands itself as the SOLE successor of Rome (with a certain appropriateness), but is actually not a real power player. Continue reading

Defeat at Old La Honda

So that’s how it went… I rode the usual Alpine uphill, having given a little too much on Foothill to swerve around the morning traffic. Stopped at the bottom of the hill, after having passed four guys from Phoenix Tech. After they started (and another one, and another one), I jumped on and tried to go as fast as I could. Man, I made it up 880ft (ascent), and then somehow the steam went out of me. Continue reading

Another Flat

Trying to ride home yesterday after a long pause (due to nothing but laziness and good excuses!) I found myself with a flat and no tools. How stupid is that? That’s how I found out that I average 18 mph on the way home on the bike, and just 3.6 mph walking… 🙂

Only the Paranoids Survive (Andy Grove)

That’s one book that came with high praise! Only the Paranoids Survive is the kind of book you have to have read to be able to keep up with everyone else that constantly talks about it. And like any required reading, I was a little uncomfortable with this one, trying to fend it off and push it away as long as I could. The first chapter than did it for me. Continue reading

Eureka!

I finally got to implement combined graphs in Perl. In the end, it was real simple, and it was mostly fighting with GD::Graph that held me up. The new graphs have a few implementation changes that I found really important: 1. The scale of x and y coordinates is constant, so that you can compare two graphs directly. Right now, if you do a mostly flat ride, it looks like a mountain climb no matter what. Continue reading

Alto Velo Again

Saturday, and for some mysterious reason no desire to ride. Maybe it’s the broken espresso machine, maybe it was the ton of chocolate I ate yesterday, freshly spurred by a visit to Albertson’s. Still, I made it all the way to Canada. Turned around at the intersection where they usually stop traffic on Sundays, because it was turning greyish after that. I was out at the same time as the Alto Velo B ride. Continue reading

Tired

Tiredness overcame me yesterday. It was a long day, and I got out of the office only after 7:30. While I had started on the path of doing an extra circle riding home on Monday, Tuesday saw me barely crossing the traffic light on Foothill to get home just in time to feast on a ton of chocolate. Interesting how work can work that way! Monday was intense, and Tuesday even worse – and as a consequence, my energy level sinks…