I lost myself.

The temperatures have been so low for the last three weeks now, it became almost impossible to get out for a decent ride. At -7 C, all I can bear with my best bike gear is about 2 hours. Today it is -10 outside, and it seems, as the forecasts say, it will be this cold for at least another week, not ot mention the snowfall.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love riding my bike in the snow, I love to stroll around with my dog or just to walk around for kicks, but it's the hastle with the preparation which pisses me off. On the last night ride the day before, I had 3 jackets on to keep myself warm, plus my snowboard gloves and overshoes.

I was carefully prepared for the cold, yet I had pitfalls: The suspension on the front wheel froze and, the best always comes last, my Lupine lights went out of battery in the middle of nowhere around 30 minutes to go. Fully charged, they last normally like 9 hours.

No matter how good you prepare yourself, something can and will always go wrong. Shit happens. Especially if you're riding a human powered full suspension mountain bike alone in the dark woods, on the snow, in the night. That's why it's a good idea, to have a backup plan before you go. Almost all the "What if's" should be taken into consideration, even if you consider yourself experienced enough to make the right decisions at the right time.

At the moment when my lights went out, I knew I should have eventually called home and ask my wife to pick me up. But at those temperatures, after riding almost for 2 hours, I did sweat so much inside all those jackets, which would, if not worse, at least make me sick till someone arrived at the spot.

I had to keep on moving, so I referred to my back up plan and took an alternative route which happened to be fairly illuminated. I chose to ride on the shoulders of the main roads, where I could easily be seen (my backlight on the helmet was still on) and did not risk any unnecessary moves to bring myself and others into further danger. Snow covered roads reflect the light, which helped a lot.

It took me a little bit longer than usual, but after 30 minutes, I was safely back home.

There might be some important lessons to learn from my encounter, but it's not my intension here to put together a complete survival 101. Here are my [mountain biking related-] 50 cents, if you intend to spend some time outside at unusual temperatures below zero, especially nights:

• Take your cell phone with you. It can be in silent mode but should be on all the time. Many new phones have GPS built-in so that you might send or tell your coordinates to be found.
• Charge your batteries and use such which fit cold temperatures the best. Lithium should be the best choice.
• Simulate the route in your head before you start the ride, place virtual checkpoints on the route and calculate the approximate times when you'll reach those at your normal pace.
• Tell your <____> how long you'll be out for and whereabouts you're gonna be.
• Always bring something to eat and, no matter how good you are on your mountain bike, always ride with a full equipped backpack (tools, pump, extra clothes, cap etc)
• Always take a reliable flashlight with you.
• One more Trail? A quick overtime might be okay, but never extend your ride to extreme lengths.
• If something happens, first inform the next person on your list and then act.

And finally: If you have a bad feeling, even without any rational reason, do not do it! Remember, this is not a Nike commercial, it's fricking cold out there.

It snowed a lot last night. I can't remember a time in the 10 years we’ve been living in Dusseldorf that it snowed this often, this much. Especially this year it seems to have hit the bull’s eye as long as the dates are concerned: A white Christmas preceding a white New Year, all holidays in powder snow.

After spending countless hours in the snow the last 2 days and taking melting snow’s muddy legacy for granted, I was pretty sure to stay home on this very last day of the official holiday. But the first look in the morning from our bedroom window told another story. Almost thirty centimeters of fresh snow covered our terrace, all white. Again. Sun is shining. Again.

My biking gear hadn’t recovered from yesterday’s long ride, so I decided to do something else: Take Sammy, our dog, to a [long] walk. I am not a dog guy, that is for sure, I never was, but recently I’ve been discovering odd similarities between the dog and myself, so we started developing an interesting friendship.

Sammy is 7 dog years old, so according to a dog age calculator, he must be something around 40 of our age. That alone reveals the best bet: Although both of us share a mellow age, we both behave like premature idiots. And two premature idiots are two too much for a sunday morning walk.

Like the common breed of maverick mountain bikers craving desperately for recognition, who relentlessly abuse even the shortest ride for a race, the lamest hill for a villainous attack, only to demonstrate who’s the most wicked sheriff in town, we misused a beautiful sunday morning stroll to a crushing 2-hour hike, full of nasty sprints, vicious tricks and yes, massive retaliation. 

After the first 15 minutes it was clear, that one of us was going to drop dead somewhere on the trail, but all we were interested in, was to see who it would be. As we reached McDonald’s to buy the sunday morning Latté, I was the first to cross the line. My face so soaking wet from sweating, the lady on the teller had to offer me a glass of water to cool myself down.

“Can I get a cup of coffee and 6 chicken nuggets, please? No deals, no sauce or whatsoever, just the nuggets.”

So I got my coffee, he his nuggets. I must admit, the lady was a bit offended, the customers on the line too, as they momentarily realized that I was disgracing McFood. They all saw Sammy’s 3 foot long tongue roaming out of his slimy mouth and his evil-smiling face. Before all Super-Size-Me’s freaked out however, we were long gone.

Sammy got his revenge very soon though, he was now deploying his dirtiest tricks. As I leaned down to him to put on his leash with my coffee mug in one hand, he shook his butt so hard, I dropped the mug. The half of the coffee was gone and he was pretty sure, that I wasn’t going go in there to buy another cup after what just happened. Nicely done!

Time for me to retaliate. I threw one of the hot nuggets into the air (this is the standard move for the dog to catch it on air), fished it with my mouth and ate the sucker instantly. Eat this!

We both didn’t realize at that very moment, that we were being watched furiously by the whole evil fast food army sitting by the window. It was a harrowing moment for me, as I knew, that my fast food career was unquestionably over.

On the way back home, we continued to exchange tender gestures as Sammy paced up for a final sprint. Golden retrievers are no masterminds but they surely can run. If it wasn’t for those tiny ice blocks on the trail which kept on creeping into his paws and caused him enough pain to give up, he’d be the undisputed winner of our sunday walk. This won’t be our last.

This is not going into my records as a training session, as I went for a snow ride right after we came back home, but it was by far the most demanding exercise of the week. 

There was once a tv ad, where two guys meet in a sauna. One of them sweating like hell with a modest beer belly asks the other guy who’s apparently top fit, how he manages to be so in such good shape. 

“Running?”

“Not really”

“Biking?”

“Uhm, no. I don’t have a bicycle”

“Gym, Yoga?”

“No”

“What do you do then, to be so good shape, man?”

“I have a dog!”

True that.

Thanks to the beautiful sunny weather, The Beautiful Girls, Manu Chao, John Butler, Kyuss and JJ Grey, I spent the whole daytime outside on the grippy snow. Amazing how much music fits into a 5-hour ride.

When you tell a friend, that you're going for a 24-hour bike race and that solo, the first reaction is usually disbelief. That then rapidly fades away and gets replaced by a mere "how are you gonna do that?"

Yes, how. Yes me.

I am working on it, against all odds. I prioritize and train; organize and get the most of the time which is left to me after work and family obligations. I got 168 hours per week and I need at least 20 of those hours to get in good shape. I know, it'll be damn hard, but at least I'm gonna give it a try.

8 months to go. For the last few weeks I've been training every single day and it seems still not enough. Honestly, it's not even close.

Mountain biking is not my job. It's a hobby. I keep asking myself, what kind of a hobby is that, once you allocate 20 hours or more of your week's time, cut your sleep and sacrifice the rest for one single purpose, which irritates people and even causes laughter among your friends and family? I must be mad, but I love this sport, I love outdoors. Mountain biking has become my "lifestyle" about 6 years ago and I still enjoy every ride like the very first time.

I pray everyday for good weather, though bad weather doesn't keep me from going out for a ride. I wish I had more time to ride, more time to travel for riding. I wish we lived in Spain, where the weather is always nice. I wish, it didn't rain so much here.

It was today yet another cold and snowy winter day, the first day of the year. I even didn't sit this one out. A short ride it was, 2 hours of playing in the woods with my bike. Outside, that's where I reign and roam, it's my hood.

The forecast says, it'll snow the next few days and it'll get colder. Rough! But once when you're in such deep shit (as willingly as I was to put myself into), nothing would really change your game, even the filthiest weather.

Only 8 months left and in BTO's words, you ain't seen nothing yet!

Our Skype status changes to "this is gonna be my year!" on January 1st for the next 2 weeks and even that fades away as we watch our fancy new year's resolutions get beaten up by our old habits.

So smoke on and don't pay for that gym!

A little understatement might help here, so I downtuned my new year's wish:

I HOPE THIS NEW YEAR DOES NOT SUCK!

This might fail too, though. Well, whatever.

If you are a mountain biker living in the midst of Germany, October happens to be the last call for good weather. Cold weather prevails over the entire winter, dark days are accompanied mostly by rain, later by snow. These nasty conditions almost kill one‘s motivation to step outside, they even make it more challenging to utilize the outdoors for training purposes.

Even with particular gear, setting out for a long ride at rain has been a severe challenge for me. After deciding to go solo for the 24 hours of Duisburg Mountain Bike Race in August next year, I knew that my normal training workload will never be sufficient to survive a 24-hour bike race. I would need more time to ride.

I am working regular office hours, that is from 8 to 6 daily, but my wife and I are up very early as all of our 3 kids are attending the high school, and at least one of them has to be driven to school every day. Last year, I opted for mtb-commuting to the office, which had been an unexpected hastle of a different kind, despite the new and close location of our new office. A direct commute would take around 15 to 30 minutes depending on the route I choose, which is quite a trade-off for a decent training session. It hasn‘t been fun either, as I needed to dress up in casual clothes after getting totally warmed up on the trail. I couldn‘t even finish two complete chapters of an audiobook before arriving at the office.

Desperately seeeking for a solution, I decided to ask my family and my fellow co-workers, if I could utilize lunch breaks for the preparation and asked even for an extension thereof, so that I get a daily allotment of at least 2 hours of training time. They said yes and I registered for the event. 

It has been a home run since then.

The downside of abusing the daily commutes for a mountain bike training is, that you have to carry everything with you, from your laptop to your personal stuff and even the fresh clothes you had in mind to wear for that particular day. This makes up to 6-8 kilos filling your backpack depending on your schedule. Not only can you not ride as aggresively as you wish, as riding in the slippery woods proves to be a very risky undertaking with small crashes occuring repeatedly, but also and thus most importantly, you choose uninspiring routes to minimize this risk, which makes the ride dull, even boring.

On the contrary, lunch rides have become great fun. 

I am usually done with my work before the ride starts, so I can relax and enjoy my ride. Our office lies in the middle of a mountain biking region with some great local trails directly at our doorstep, which provides instant pay off, if you just want to go out and play. 

And I saved the best part for last: I am absolutely free to choose whenever I want to take my lunch break! So, if it rains in the morning, I‘ll take a late lunch break and ride in the afternoon; and if, on the contrary, anytime the weather is nice, off I go! Oh, and if it rains all day, as it frequently does in November, there‘s still the gym a few minutes away. Last exit, so to speak.

This has been working very nicely for me for two weeks now and I hope it stays this way. BTW, my Garmin GPS just displayed today‘s sunset time: 4:38 PM! Can you believe it? Dark times require intelligent measures and this is definitely not rocket science.

Ride on.

When you're sick, days are boring. All I see, is my desktop.

Both of them.