2ni’s Blog

For one, sth completely different. Howto for some awesome cookies:

Zutaten:
* 150 gr Butter
* 100 gr Zucker
* 80 gr Rohrzucker
* 180 gr Mehl
* 2 Pack Vanillezucker
* 1 Ei
* 100 gr Haselnüsse gehackt (ich nehm da jeweils gehackte Mandelsplitter)
* 1/2 TL Backpulver
* 1/4 TL Salz (nehm da meist etwas mehr)
* 150 gr Schoggistückli

Zubereitung:
1. Butter und Zucker schaumig rühren
2. Vanillezucker dazu
3. Ei zugeben
4. Mehl, Salz, Backpulver dazu
5. Nüsse und Schoggi dazu

Teig ganz einfach in kleinen Häufchen aufs Blech klecksen und bei 175 Grad 12 - 14 Minuten backen

Distance:   48.19km (singletrail: about 13km)
Elevation:  931Hm
Duration:   3h01
Avg. Speed: 15.9km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

Inspired by TobiTobi I chose the well known Altberg extended by the Elefantentobel.

The trip goes along the Limmat until after Höngg in Zurich. Interesting part of Zurich! Didn’t know this scenery there so far. At the beginning it was quite cold and foggy, but short after going up I got into the sun! After about 250Hm you’ll reach the Altbergtrail. You’ll follow the trail on normal forest tracks until you reach the restaurant Waldschenke

From the Altberg I crossed the ETH Hönggerberg (they have very modern sports facilities, haven’t seen that one until now!), going trough Käferberg until Irchel then going up to the Zoo of Zurich on some interesting trails (tricky one going up as well). Shortly after passing the Zoo and the skating park of Dolder I reached the Elefantentobel trail which follows a small stream. Nothing special there, but okay as track extension.

With this track I reached my year goal of 100′000 elevation meters by cycling (normal work drive excluded).

I recently developed a little tool, which was able to add ascent alerts to your garmin tcx course file. It was ok to use, but had still some issues and I had to choose some settings every time I wanted to patch one of my training files.

So I upgraded my tool by keeping some gauss filtering and mainly adding the Douglas-Peucker algorithm for more reliable results.

I’m now quite happy and it’s even faster and easier to use. You can try the tool with any tcx garmin course file.

Go to the tcx extender

Distance:   72.12km (singletrail: about 19km)
Elevation:  1944Hm
Duration:   5h01
Avg. Speed: 14.3km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

Inspired by TobiTobi I did my longest mountainbike track yesterday. I knew most interesting parts of the whole trip, but it was still interesting. Sometimes it was too muddy and slipery to bike

There are 4 hills to climb: Üetliberg, Heitersberg, Lägern (Hochwacht) and Altberg.

5′186 Hm left to reach the 100′000 by cycle this year.

Bekanntlich steigen die Krankenkassen auf 2010 zum Teil massiv. Bei mir um satte 26%.
Grund dafür ist, dass ich eine hohe Franchise gewählt habe und diese nicht mehr so stark begünstigt werden darf.

Würde ich an einem HMO-Modell teilnehmen, wäre die Erhöhung deutlich niedriger. Doch habe ich 2 Gründe, wieso ich das HMO-Modell nicht möchte:

1. Ich will nicht 3 Tage auf einen freien Termin meines Arztes warten.
2. Wenn ich eine Sportverletzung habe, weiss ich, dass ich zum Spezialisten muss. Der Umweg über den Hausarzt kostet *mich* dabei nur zusätzlich Geld.

Es gibt dennoch eine Möglichkeit, sich nicht zu verpflichten zuerst zum Hausarzt zu gehen und der Preiserhöhung trotzdem zu trotzen:

1. Ich wähle einen Hausarzt nach Wahl. Der kommt nur ins Spiel, wenn ich ernsthaft krank/verletzt bin.
2. Ich trete dem HMO-Modell mit dem oben gewählten Arzt bei.
3. Bin ich nun krank, gehe ich zB zur Permanence am HB. Wo ich hingehe, spielt mir keine Rolle, denn ich zahle in der Regel den Betrag sowieso selbst (Franchise erreiche ich kaum).
4. Sollte ich vermuten, dass ich ernsthaft krank bin, oder bemerkt dies die Permanence, dann breche ich hier ab und gehe zum Hausarzt.

Im besten Fall gehe ich selten zum Arzt, kann frei wählen wohin ich gehe und zahle trotzdem pro Monat weniger Krankenkassenbeiträge. Verloren habe ich dabei nichts, weil ich die Franchise nie erreiche.
Im schlimmsten Fall bezahle ich die Franchise doppelt, in der Annahme, dass ich bereits bis fast zur vollen Franchise beim Arzt meiner Wahl (nicht Hausarzt) war und ab jetzt eine längere Erkrankung oder Verletzung habe.

Ich gehe aber davon aus, dass ich sehr selten zum Arzt gehe und deshalb meine monatlichen Kosten dank HMO-Modell stark reduzieren kann, ohne mich daran zu binden.

Ich habe nicht definitiv herausgefunden, was passiert, wenn ich im HMO-Modell nicht zum Hausarzt gehe, ausser dass die Kosten dann nicht gedeckt sind. Aber da ich bei einer schlimmeren Krankheit sowieso zum Hausarzt gehe (auch wenn der Befund zu Beginn von einem anderem Hausarzt diagnostiziert wurde), sehe ich keine Nachteile.

Distance:   41.39km (singletrail: about 6km)
Elevation:  1736m
Duration:   4h21
Avg. Speed: 9.4km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

On the last day we took again some shorter trip, but boah. Just hard. If you are the person able to cycle 25% and more (!) of grade over a longer period, ie 3-5km on a stony path, this is your paradise! You’ll be rewarded with a nice flowing single trail slightly going down from the top.

If on the other hand you prefer to cycle most of the part, you should do the tour in the opposite direction.

8′000 Hm left to reach the 100′000 this year.

Distance:   53.23km (singletrail: about 16km)
Elevation:  1850m
Duration:   6h05
Avg. Speed: 8.7km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

Second day in Ticino with Röbi we chose some longer tour, which was highly promoted on different websites. We were not disappointed. We already did the upgoing part to Monta Bar this year, but it was amazingly easier this time!

Then came a 12km long singletrail all around the valley. Great! Fantastic. Not everything was cyclable though (just some smaller parts) and the trail is not that easy neither. But “Freude ohne Ende”.

We stayed in a bed&breakfast at Isabelle Bernasconi’s place we can highly recommend. Very nice. And by chance 2 of our tracks were just quite near the house

Distance:   35.29km (singletrail: about 8km)
Elevation:  1532m
Duration:   3h49
Avg. Speed: 9.2km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

Röbi and me went on a 3 day short holiday trip to Ticino to do some biking. As the weather was predicted to be lousy in the north, this came very handy. Even it was quite cold in the south as well.

First trip started near Minusio and the plan was to bike along the south mountain parts to profit from the warming sun. Well, it was cold and the tour wasn’t too much on the sun. The upgoing part is all on paved roads until almost to the top. The last part you probably will need to walk some 15min. From the top it goes down on some nice singletrails until you get back to the starting point.

Nice trip for these cold season.

Distance:   28.7km (singletrail: about 6km)
Elevation:  743m
Duration:   2h01
Avg. Speed: 14-1km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

I was looking for a short track around Zurich today. I came across the Birmensdorfer-Runde (see “Zurich”) which I bookmarked some time ago.

The tour is not too bad and has some interesting single trails you wouldn’t expect. Some are quite easy, some require some higher skills. The most difficult part is almost at the end, going down the Biketrail from Üetliberg.

I’ll definitely redo it, probably by night.

PS: At some point I didn’t find the path and had too drive around until I got it. Maybe I’ll get the correct path next time.

Distance:   22.3km (singletrail: about 7.5km)
Elevation:  1054m
Duration:   2h22
Avg. Speed: 9.5km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

Short but hard tour. It starts quite ok, with a decent ascend. But soon it’ll be very steep. Especially from about the middle station from Parsenn until to the Panoramaweg it’s very hard. Rocky street and probably always more than 20%.

As soon as you get to the Panoramaweg you have about 7.5km of singletrails in front of you. After Schönboden it’ll go down, sometimes very steep as well until you reach some forest tracks to Davos.

Not for beginners.