Cycling Asylum

This is my new sanctuary or asylum - depending on your viewpoint of indoor riding. Given the weather conditions over here, this is where I have spent most of my riding time over the past 2 weeks.

Even though I had to take a whole 2 weeks off the bike after arriving here, I have found that I now routinely ride approximately 60% farther and weigh approximately 50+% less than I did in the U.S. Unfortunately, my average cadence hasn't really changed - I guess converting to the metric system can't improve everything :-) Yes, in an effort to fully immerse myself into the local culture, I reset all of my cyclometers to function in KMs.

For the time-being, it gets very hot in this room. Similar to Andreas's recent predicament, I can't find a fan anywhere because it is still winter. I could open the window behind me to let in some fresh cold air, but doing so would likely risk violating the quiet hour rules that are in effect during the non-traditional riding hours that I like to keep. Now, these aren't my apartment's own quiet hour rules, but it's the law. At least for most of Germany, as far as I can tell. Quiet hours are generally from 10:00pm-07:00am and 01:00pm-03:00pm daily. Sunday is 24 hours of quiet time. This means no lawn mowing, children playing loudly outdoors, no loud TV's/Radios, etc. during these hours. Thank goodness I have a fluid trainer and rollers, and not a true "windtrainer".

So until I can either find a fan or alter my riding schedule to accomodate the few non-quiet hours, I will continue to suffer miserably in the stifling heat of my laundry room.

Bis später