Today I received an email from my mom. Apparently my neith Sara-Mia, a 2 year old found a picture of me in my mom’s car. It is now her “comfort-item” in the BMW. She holds it in her hands and says, “ Mati – Honolulu”. That would be me then. Sara-Mia calls me “Mati”. My sister tried to teach her ‘Tante Marion aus Honolulu’ (Aunti Marion from Honolulu -in English), but even if she is able to toss in whole sentences in the middle of a conversation, she kind of refuses to pick up ‘Tante Marion’. This is a good thing. Being called “Tante” in Germany has something negative on it. We call fat slow people Tante. We call old fat slow people Tante. Not sure why Germans do that.
Today, I spend time thinking about Sara-Mia on my long Pali-Loop ride. Long rides are always dangerous for getting into some serious thinking. So here is the second good reason, why ‘Mati’ is preferred to ‘Tante Marion’. Obviously “Mati” is shorter than saying “Tante Marion”. About 50% shorter. Lets say we would condense 2 or 3 words into just 1 word. Lets think further: if my professor cut his blablabla-privat-stuff by 50% during a usually 3 hour lasting lecture, I would save 1.5 hours. Figure that out, I could go for a nice run or swim or bike ride or just sleep longer!! It would be of high interest to me which language actually uses the least amount of words. I would love to learn it!! Time for googling it out.

Travel to Germany

I flew to Germany today for a 10 day vacation with my family. It’s a long trip. Honolulu to SanFran was 4.5 hours, I had a 4 hour stop over and the flight from SanFran to Frankfurt is 10:30 hours. During the trip I live on Ginger Oatmeal Cakes from Kokua Market. The fights were ok, except that on the SanFran-Frankfurt flight, my TV did not work. 11 hours without TV is a tough thought to accept. An old Czech man was sitting next to me and although he did neither speak German nor English he understood what dilemma I was in. Half way into James Bond he took back in his teeth braces, poplen out his earplug, turned towards me with a big smile and hold the earplugs into my face. I guess that was the intention to kindly invite me to share his TV experience. I chose to decline. Even if I had my own earplugs.
My dad picked me up at the airport.The drive from the airport to my home is about 4 hours going on Autobahn. Driving on the Autobahn can be frustrating often. If there is truck traffic (TUE - SAT), you go 60 km/h for HOURS because one truck is trying to pass another truck, blocking the flow of traffic. Like this one guy in the picture, trying to get ahead of Dixi Toilletts. Ego Problem, most likely.


We were lucky this time, no traffic jam, except one 10 minute of slower driving. We were at 180 average, hitting the 200 once in a while.


I would have been great to have driven a black Ferrari Spider 360 Convertible (Mike!).


It does not really feel fast driving fast on the autobahn. I get a better rush driving my about-to-die-Ford Escort down Pali Hwy. Anyways, my butt was sore from sitting, so I decided to let my dad drop me off 5 miles to our house and I ran the rest home. That was nice. The sun set and the fresh air was crispy. I like how the air smells back home. I am glad I decided for the family-visit trip and not for Canada on my own.

Manoa Room for rent

I have room for rent:
Bright room with private bath and large (private) balcony available April 1st. The house is vegetarian and girls only. Included in the $790 is internet, cleaning and utilities. It is a very quiet living environment. The picture is taken from the balcony. Friday's Waikiki fireworks included, as well!

Free wireless locations on Oahu

Today has been a day that I'd rather delete from my history. I slept 11 hours waking up tired and covered in cold sweat. Not sure what was going on during the night. I got up, changed into my biking cloths, made coffee and spilled it over my laptop. That is the 2nd time that happens. I could kill myself right now. Being in a little financial crisis, that really sucks. I brought it CyberLife at Liliha and fortunately it still works and don't need to get a new one. Now I am waiting to hear the diagnosis and how much its treatment will cost. That hurts. Whenever things like that happen (when I can't stand myself for being so stupid) I get really negative about all sorts of things. And angry. blaaeh. Cut. It will be good for something. At least that's what they said last Saturday at New Hope Church. I have been there 3 times in my life so far and their way to communicate that everything happens for a reason always sounds so simple. We'll see what happens.
I am at Kahala Mac store writing this and figured it would be good to get to know free wireless locations on Oahu. If you are reading this and know of a free hotspot, please let me know! Locations I have used are:
Morning Brew, Kailua
Muddy Waters, Kailua
Starmarket, Kapahulu
WholeFoods, Kahala
Down To Earth, University Ave
Costco, Hawaii Kai (the parking spots behind the entrance on Mauka side)
Blaisdell Center, Ward

Cheers.

Mokuleia TT

Aerodynamics in Biking

Lets take two athletes. They are doing a 20 km Time Trial. Without being aero, Rider A takes 30 minutes, Rider B takes 40’. With an aerodynamic bike set up including body positioning, aerowheels, aerohelmet and aerodynamic bike set up, Rider A would be 1:26 minutes faster, Rider B would be 1:47 minutes faster. This is interesting: The SLOWER rider gains more than the faster rider!!
Further interesting to see was how body positioning, wheels, helmet and bike set up contribute to time savings during a 40 km TT:
Aerodynamic disc wheels save 40-60 seconds
Aerodynamic helmet saves 1.5 minutes
Aerodynamic body position saves 2.5 minutes

I conclude the following:
1. Slow riders gain more being aerodynamic than fast riders and deserve high-end TT products.
2. Buy an aero-helmet. Rudy Project has a excellent variety at different prices.
3. Get a Bike Positioning. Considering that a bike positioning not only makes you that much faster but also lets you push hard while being comfortable, it is worth getting one.

I rode a long Pali Loop early in the morning and since it was raining I kept my ipod in the pocket. Usually when doing a long ride, all kinds of ideas pop up. One thing I realized is that the knowledge of a road cyclist is beneficial when having an old broken car like mine. My car is embarrassing going up Pali. I even slow down the drivers behind me in the farthest right lane. I wonder, how close I have to drive to the car in front of me to get a real good drafting effect going up Pali.
The other thing that I thought about was that last year, several guys impressed me being able to pee while riding. Today I found out that this is NOTHING. Next time when cycling along back roads, try taking off your shoe and sock, shake out a gravel and put everything on neatly again! While riding!
In the afternoon I went to my Rolfer, Dr. Barry Nutter, who has been working with me for 6 weeks now. I like going there just because the massage table guarantees a view onto downtown from the 13th floor. Pure luxus. Also Dr. Nutter knows what he is doing. Anybody who carries around an injury that neither got cured by massage, acupuncture, physical therapy or resting should try Rolfing. Simply explained, rolfing is the manipulation of soft tissue and works on the fascia. The fascia is a tissue interconnecting muscles, bones, organs, nerves and blood vessels. Through working on the fascia, rolfing re-aligns the whole body from head to toe, external to internal. Check out Dr. Barry at http://drbarrynutter.com. He also does Chiropractic and other healing services.

I went to Palolo Pool today, not to swim as usual but to coach Ashley, one of my new athletes. After the session with her, I met with Rory Seiter and his girlfriend, Mosha (sorry if I spell that wrong) to correct their swim stroke. Rory took a couple of awesome underwater shots, which I will post soon. I found something positive about the very cold water of palolo pool. Not many people go there, so less sweat and pee. Less sweat and pee, less bacteria and more visibility. I like Palolo Pool!

Rory is managing my website. He worked for Rudy Project and now is the designated driver of the truck for the 2009 USAT Endurance Mobile Tour. Check it out at http://usatri.blogspot.com/ . He even will have a trailer with an endless pool that’ll be set up at the races for people to try. Pretty cool!