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The Tour De Romandie Bike Ride
Yesterday I went for a bike ride and I was head towards Gland via Genolier but changed the route due to a dog walker when I wanted to turn East. I turned West instead and noticed some people and flags by Crassier. I thought “Was there an accident” as I also saw a police car. Eventually, as I saw more and more people standing by the side of the road I understood that it was for the Tour De Romandie. At the 25km from Geneva marker I took a picture of the sign.
The sensation of cycling along a cycle race route ahead of the race riders is interesting. You have a crowd. The place where I usually see crowds when I am cycling is Zwift, so my frame of reference for yesterday’s experience was Zwift. Silly, isn’t it? That’s where I have the crowds. I even had one or two people cheer me on as I rode. The riders were at least half an hour behind me, maybe more. Their average speed was 42km per hour, compared to my 22.6 kilometres per hour.
In the last year Romain Bardet, a professional cyclist, rode 9,141 kilometres compared to my 228 kilometres per hour. If they ride at twice my speed it’s because they ride an enormous amount. If a car was used that much you’d think people need to take a break from it. Cycling is a sport where professionals cover huge distances on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis.
If I want to compare myself I should compare myself to through hikers. I walk what they walk, but in a different context, and year round, rather than in three to six month bursts.
And Finally
You know when the Tour De Romandie and other events are close by because you see the helicopters. You have one flying higher above the cycling race, and the second flying lower down, to get the aerial shots as the cyclists make their way across the landscape. It’s when I was near Founex that I could see the helicopters flying low and slow, to cover the cycling race.
Hugo and Static Files
Yesterday I was experimenting with the Static folder in Hugo. Hugo and other static site generators has a folder where you can usually put content that you don’t want to have changed. You can add php, css, js and more. By making this an option it is possible to have your blog as markdown files that are updated and published every time you make changes while other files remain intact.
PHP Files
I spent time converting Roman civilisation content to PHP, as well as the geography section. Now that I have invested that time in learning to use PHP in production I don’t want to lose that content by adding it as markdown pages. With PHP and HTML pages I have full creative control on how content looks and behaves.
Legacy Content
Back in the 90s and the Zeros (2000s, but I like saying zeros), we would share photos of an event by creating a gallery and sharing that. These galleries are simple html with a page for each image, and plenty of pages to update and navigate between. These pages can be brought into the 21st century but by parking them in the static folder in Hugo we keep access to them, until we have written the json or other file type to display these photo galleries as a single page app.
Hugo’s Behaviour
There is an explanation of what Hugo does to Static files. When files and folders are added to the static folder they are added to the watch list, if Hugo is running. This means that static content will automatically be updated and available on the local instance.
Static Files and the Public Folder
When you add static files to a Hugo sight Hugo will track changes and show them via the web server but they are not added to the public folder. It is up to us, to make sure that the files that are static are updated and uploaded to the server if and when we make changes to them.
That static files are not added to the publish folder is useful. I was worried that by adding thousands of files to the static folder thousands of files would be uploaded every time I wrote a blog post and published it. This isn’t the case. I do not need to take a break from blogging with Hugo, whilst I experiment with the static part, and prepare a new folder architecture.
Looking Forward
To avoid confusion, as I experiment I put all the static files in a sub-folder. In so doing I avoid the risk of duplicate file names or file names with the same names, but different extensions, confusing Hugo. I aim to keep it clean, until I have decided on what I want to achieve with my experimentation.
And Finally
I have been struggling with Eleventy and Hugo whilst it’s easy to setup one stream of content, it is not easy to have two or more in parallel. For this reason using the Static folder allows me to keep the part that already works, separate from the part that I am still working on. It enables me to put my experiment into production sooner, and to stop going around in circles.
Experimenting with CWT Vulcan
Recently a CWT Vulcan system was installed on a pipe in the building where I live and the calcar that I had watched being deposited in a kettle stopped depositing, and even started to disintegrate. Within a week, or less the calcar almost vanished.
To over-simplify it, you wrap a coil around a pipe, with an electronic ciruit board and it uses electric currents, through electrophoresis to take calcium and magnesium from complex to simple structures. In the process calcar no longer builds up. It goes a step further and cleans the calcar, as was shown by the kettle example. You can read more about the process from this source. If that’s not technical enough you can read this paper.
According to a sheet of paper the system needs two watts of power. Once it is installed you can leave it to do its work. The difference is noticeable very quickly. One test was to boil water five times in a sauce pot, so I did. I could barely see any calcium build up and when I wiped it with a cloth the small traces wiped away.
I am used to filling a kettle with water, boiling it, and making tea or coffee. I played with Moka pots to make coffee and with kettles and moka pots I saw a build up of Calcar. With water treated by the CWT Vulcan system the kettle and Moka pot clean themselves thanks to the treated water.
When you use Brita filters you need to shake them in water, and then you need to flush water through them twice, and then you can use them for a month, before repeating the process. With CWT Vulcan devices, once it’s installed you’re done, and you get softer water.
When you’re washing dishes, or rinsing glasses water drips from the glass or other container and leaves traces. With the Vulcan treated water there is no deposit left behind. Before the Vulcan water treatment system leaving a drop of water to evaporate would leave a trace of rust coloured calcar behind. I’m convinced of the value of this system within two or three tests and the company suggests six tests.
One of the tests is the rusty nail test. The problem is that I don’t know where I can find a rusty nail. The closest I come to a rusty nail is a rusty double edge shaving blade. Upon consideration I could test it with a wok that is several decades old by now. It has traces of rust, when you forget to oil it before storage.
And Finally
What I appreciate with this system is that it requires two watts of power and it does what it’s designed to do. You don’t need to replace filters every few weeks, or months and there is little to no waste. I love gadgets so I’m convinced by this solution. Originally I thought it was moronic to spend thousands of francs on a system that would then require thousands of francs per decade to keep running. With this system once it’s installed there are no, or fewer costs.
A Skateboarding Journey
When I was younger I switched from skiing to snowboarding and I loved the sensations. I loved how quickly I adapted my skiing knowledge to snowboarding. Within hours I felt okay. I often feel that I could have progressed faster if I had been in a group with people who were just experiencing winter sports for the first time.
When I was a child I sometimes played with a skateboard but I just went up and down a street. We played as children do.
For a while I thought that I would take off rollerblading instead of walking or cycling. Within a short amount of time I came up against the fact that I live in a hilly place with cars that do not respect pedestrians, cyclists or other slow moving people. As a result of this I lost interest in skating, but was attracted by the notion of skateboarding.
Two Shoes
The beauty of the skateboard is that you have four wheels, that allow you to go faster, when the surface is right, but when it isn’t you just step, or stumble, off of the board, and you walk until it is friendly for the skateboard again. It allows you to go faster than a walker, when the conditions are right, and walk when they’re not. It gives you the best of both worlds.
Finding Balance
For the first two or three hundred meters I really struggled with giving the board direction, but also with balancing. It would veer to the right when I wanted to go to the left. Eventually I found a slight decline and that’s when I practiced riding the board, and reacquainting myself with the feel of skateboarding. Eventually balancing switched back from the front of my focus, to instinct, and that’s when I could begin to control the board, and get it to do what I wanted again. I was a little surprised by how quickly I remembered the right habits.
Switching from Snoarboading to Skating
Taking snowboarding knowledge and applying it to skating is easy. I was surprised that within an eleven kilometre loop I felt more comfortable. I carried the board more than I rode it but that’s because the slopes are steep and I’m not used to the sensations yet, but also because the steep slopes are roads, with cars. By pushing my ability too fast I could endanger myself, especially near roads. I practiced on agricultural roads where traffic is at a minimum. If bikes or pedestrians were walking I reverted to walking. It’s about being safe, and in control.
Purpose
I was going to say that I want to learn to skateboard again because it’s faster than walking. It is faster than walking but that’s not the only benefit. Skateboarding is exertional. It requires the use of different leg muscles and it’s a proper workout, rather than just walking. For up hill bits, downhills, and rough terrain I will continue to walk, but where the terrain is flat enough, and traffic is low enough, I can skate. By mixing the two I will be practicing interval training, without it being called interval training. With experience going to the train station and back, and going to the shops and back, will be faster.
And Finally
Skateboards are easy to transport, whether by car, by train, or even by foot. Theoretically you can always have it with you, for when opportunities present themselves. I’m happy that I felt comfortable within an hour or two of riding, even if most of that time was walking to a comfortable location.
They say that things are like riding a bike. I think that skateboarding is like snowboarding. It doesn’t take long to remember how to do it.
Playing With Garmin Coach
Today I began playing with Garmin Coach. I decided to try one of the running programs. It’s the first of January, first day of the year, and I have already been for two walks and a run. The run was a calibration run so I ran too fast and too hard so I burned out on the first task. I ran at 16km/h and 230 steps per minute for a short burst before tiring and slowing a bit.
In the end I did not reach the 5 minute mark, but only by 45 seconds or so. With a different gradient I probably would have made the five minute mark, as well as with a more rational pace. I was tricked. I read that I was meant to do a hard run to the maximum of my ability so I tried.
When I got home I saw that it said “a moderate pace” so I think I pushed too hard for the first run. Now I feel physically tired. That’s due to the sound of fireworks for hours over the new year.
When you do a workout on the Garmin Instinct, without audio queues the watch asks “Do workout, you select yes, and it gives you the visual queues for when to warm up, run and rest. It then ends the workout but does not stop the track. This means that if you have to walk the rest of the way home, or to a car, you can, and it will be included in the workout.
That the watch displays workout information like this is practical because you don’t need to count “from 0 to 2 minutes I do this, then from 2 to 5 I do that, etc. You simply say yes to the workout and that’s enough. Next time I need to check audio queues from the watch, and another time, audio queues from the phone via earphones.
As I am just one workout in I have not formed a concrete opinion on the workout.