2024 in Strava Music
179 activities, 294 hours and 12 seconds, and 7.992,5 km. The last number shows you that I am at peace with myself because I did not care to do something for 7,5 km just to get to a round number for yearly distance. Like age is just a number, numbers are just numbers in general. This applies to yearly distance, too.
Like last year, I named all of my outdoor rides after a song (typically taking a line or two from the lyrics) that somehow felt fitting. The reason could be anything - I might have listened to the song on the ride (only on streets without motor traffic), or the lyrics somehow reflect what I felt.
Let’s dive into it, shall we?
January
Okay, hear me out. This looks a lot lazier than it actually was. I actually did 13 workouts in January, but only one was outdoor. And funnily enough, that was when I met the boi, who just returned from a three year career in olympic weight lifting. But he’s such a cyclist, it was barely noticeable.
| Date | Ride | Song | Map | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-01-05 | Shake it out, shake it out | Florence and the Machine - Shake it out |  | Looks like the boi is back from olympic weightlifting and I met him. |
February
February completely wrecked my puncture stats.
| Date | Ride | Song | Map | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-02-08 | Stilettos and broken bottles | Robyn - Dancing on my own |  | Oh, the irony. Went through the no-go area (a stretch of bike path above a club called “Grelle Forelle”) and got a puncture. With one of the most puncture resistant tyres, the Conti 4 Seasons. |
| 2024-02-08 | Had a Heart of Glass | Blondie- Heart of Glass |  | Went home, changed the tube, went out again. Different route though to avoid the no-go area because you know what they say: “fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can’t get fooled again”. Okay, they don’t say it, but he did |
| 2024-02-09 | You change your passion for glory | Survivor - Eye of the Tiger |  | Usually, I ride westwards on the right side of the Danube. Don’t know why, it’s just something I do. Maybe it’s because the left side is more exposed, so if you have a nice westerly wind, you get some tailwind going home. On this day, there was a really nasty wind from the east. So I changed passion for glory and the right for the left side. |
| 2024-02-10 | Many songs have been written: This is one of them. | Mo’Horizons - Yes Baby Yes |  | As far as regular loops go, this is the most regular of all. |
| 2024-02-16 | World, my finger is on the button | Chemical Brothers - Galvanize |  | Galvanize! |
| 2024-02-17 | My time is spent, but baby, please don’t tell ‘em just where I went | Lord Huron - Time to Run |  | Hugo and me are real geniuses. There’s a forecasted probability of rain, and instead of going to the north, we head directly into the Wienerwald, an area where it’s guaranteed that the clouds will hang there, bringing rain with them. We’ve been looking at blue skies roughly 20k to the north for a good part of this very wet ride. |
| 2024-02-22 | My hearts aflame / My body’s strained but god I like it | TV on the Radio - Wolf like me |  | Sweet Spot intervals. Ugh. |
| 2024-02-25 | I say what’s, what’s cooler than being cool? (Ice cold!) | Outkast - Hey ya! |  | It’s not often that I blow my ride preparation as thoroughly as this time. Dressed for sunshine and 10° centigrade, got around -1°, mist and cloud cover. Had to stop three times to bring some blood back into my hands. Thanks Josh for borrowing your gloves. It saved me. |
March
Another march, another trip to the island. Trainerroad was completely freaking out and flagging every day RED!RED!RED! for no good reason. “Relax!” I wanted to tell it. “It’s just bike riding!”, but of course you can’t reason with a piece of software.
| Date | Ride | Song | Map | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-03-02 | I just want to spend eternity / Right where I am, on the sunnyside of the street | The Pogues - The Sunny Side of the Street |  | Riding my bike just makes me happy. I’m a man of simple pleasures. |
| 2023-03-03 | Somebody told me / I know where to go | Stone Temple Pilots - Kitchenware & Candy Bars |  | A mashup of two distinct domains of viennese cycling that seldom mingle: Donauradweg and Wienerwald. I liked the result. |
| 2024-03-06 | Inertia keeps / Moving up slowly | Massive Attack - Inertia Creeps |  | One of my goals for 2024 is to be a bit less repetitive in my route selection. But apparently, I’m also lazy. |
| 2024-03-09 | Body count body body body count | Body Count - Body Count’s in the House |  | Another flat? This time on the other tyre that is indestructible? (the Vittoria Corsa Graphene) In 20 years of riding, I had six flats (I kid you not), half of which in 2024. |
| 2024-03-09 | Remember I tried not to be wary / This failed me once too much | Helmet - Milquetoast |  | Oh, and I forgot to bring a CO2 cartridge to the party, so I had to walk for a bit before a fellow cyclist borrowed me his pump. Then I rode home. Fuck this shit. |
| 2024-03-13 | We move towards the stars / And all that we touch becomes ours | White Lies - Farewell to the Fairground |  | Naaa, cycling is just too great to be disheartened by a flat tyre. |
| 2024-03-15 | Ain’t nothin′ gonna to break my stride / Nobody gonna slow me down, oh no | Matthew Wilder - Break my Stride |  | Another trip to Mallorca, nicely settling in on the first day. |
| 2024-03-16 | Shot through the heart / And you’re to blame / You give love a bad name | Bon Jovi - You Give Love a Bad Name |  | It’s good to be back. |
| 2024-03-17 | Dumb ways to die / So many dumb ways to die | Dumb Ways to Die |  | On the top of the climb to Betlem, there’s a rock next to the street. Behind the rock, there’s a near vertical mountain wall. Around 20 german influencers where balancing on the rock trying to get a group picture for the ‘gram. Not so smart. I didn’t stick around to see what happened but I wish them all the very best. |
| 2024-03-18 | You keep samin’ when you oughta be a’changin’ | Nancy Sinatra - These Boots are Made for Walking |  | Remember when Rastaman and Joker are on R&R and Joker gets his camera stolen? Some sort of R&R. Same with this ride. Who plans a climb on a rest day? Me, that’s who. |
| 2024-03-19 | You didn’t have to stoop so low / Have your friends collect your records and / then change your number | Gotye - Somebody that I used to know |  | I think that is a really clever musical reference. (Bonus Track - A great choreography) |
| 2024-03-20 | Para bailar La Bamba / Se necesita una poca de gracia | Los Lobos - La Bamba |  | Another day, another coffee ride. When we came back to the hotel, this song was playing in the lounge area. Quite fitting if you ask me. |
| 2024-03-21 | I’m gettin’ bugged driving up and down the same old strip / I gotta find a new place where the kids are hip | The Beach Boys - I Get Around |  | Rode a nice back alley that looked familiar but we both were absolutely, positively sure that it’s impossible that we’ve been there before, just to find out on wandr that in fact we really did ride it before. |
April
From here on this year is Amazing with a capital ‘A’ and a ‘Z’ in the middle because I got a new bike and everything is amazing with a new bike.
| Date | Ride | Song | Map | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-04-04 | Won’t be long ‘til summer comes / Now that the boys are here again | Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back In Town |  | I promptly fell for the Mallorcan Malaise after returning, and it took me some time to be fit enough to get back on a bike |
| 2024-04-05 | ’Twas a wonderful craft, she was rigged fore and aft / And oh, how the wild wind drove her | The Pogues & The Dubliners - The Irish Rover |  | 🚨 New bike day, it’s new bike day. 🚨 And oh how shiny and nice it is. After eight years on the Propel, giving the Orca a whirl is fun. |
| 2024-04-06 | I know that you’re gonna have it your way or nothing at all / But I think you’re moving too fast | Ten Fé - Waterfalls |  | Still not fully healthy, but also not willing to stay inside anymore. |
| 2024-04-11 | Run boy run! Running is a victory | Woodboy - Run Boy Run |  | Sometimes, when your body doesn’t want to cooperate, just getting on the bike feels like a truce, at least. |
| 2024-04-12 | Kein Gott! Kein Staat! Lieber was zu saufen! | Deichkind - Hört ihr die Signale |  | This season feels like the anarchists guide to unstructured training. |
| 2024-04-13 | It’s been seven hours and 13 days | Prince - Nothing Compares 2 U |  | The Sinead O’Connor version starts with “It’s been seven hours and 15 days”. The difference between me and Prince is that I quite like O’Connor’s version. Of course it’s not the only difference, but a significant one. |
| 2024-04-15 | I wear my sunglasses at night | Corey Hart - Sunglasses at night |  | Early morning ride with Christian. We were both wearing sunglasses, just wanting to point that out. |
| 2024-04-18 | ’Cause I Wanna be Anarchy | Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK |  | Josh really brings out the anti-capitalist in me. Which is one of the many things I appreciate about him. |
| 2024-04-28 | Well, I’m just a modern guy / Of course, I’ve had it in the ear before | Iggy Pop - Lust for Life |  | Had enough punctures on the canal - not going to make that same mistake. |
May
June
Summer is the time when most cyclists accumulate a lot of distance. It’s also the time when I don’t, because we go on vacation. 2024, that was 🇬🇷 and of course I didn’t bring my bike. But since I get up two hours before anyone else even without my bike, I needed something else to keep me occupied. In this case, I tried ‘running’. The one thing cyclists are especially bad in.
| Date | Ride | Song | Map | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-06-02 | Deep and rich like silt on a riverbed / Just as neverending | Tool - Undertow |  | |
| 2024-06-05 | You’re too rude / You’re too bad. | Bob Marley - Bad Boys |  | Riding for over 20 years now, I’ve seen some interesting behaviour in motorists. But that guy today was in a league of his own. I have never seen someone so unnecessarily rude and obnoxious before. |
| 2024-06-08 | Running up that hill | Kate Bush - Running up that hill |  | Yeah, so, just that you know, I’m really not into running. Accordingly, I also am really bad at running. But when in Greece … what’s a guy supposed to do? So, running it is. Or in my case - Walking. |
| 2024-06-10 | She told me to walk this way. | RUN DMC - Walk This Way |  | Yeah, walking reference. |
| 2024-06-12 | Here comes Johnny, gonna tell you the story / Hand me down my walkin’ shoes | Dire Straits - Walk of Life |  | That’s really clever, isn’t it? |
| 2024-06-14 | I said, “Hey, babe take a walk on the wild side” | Lou Reed - A Walk On The Wild Side |  | That felt more like “steep uphill speed hiking”, but had a marvellous view of the bay on top. |
| 2024-06-16 | I’m walking on sunshine, wooah | Katrina & The Waves - Walking on Sunshine |  | |
| 2024-06-18 | Go on and go, walk out the door / Turn around now | Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive |  | |
| 2024-06-19 | And happiness I’ve known proves that it’s right / Because you’re mine, I walk the line | Johnny Cash - I Walk the Line |  | Something odd happened. I started to kinda like running. Good thing vacation is over and I get to be back on the bike before this gets out of hand. |
| 2024-06-21 | Ich gehe weiter als ich wollte / Heiss-kalt heiss kalt. | MIA. - Kreisel |  | Threshold intervals too long for the usual route. |
| 2024-06-23 | Wir Menschen lassen unsere Meisen nicht | MIA. - Mausen |  | The bike is my gym. And just like you’re not asking a gym rat why they’re going to the same gym all the time, you shouldn’t ask me about my route selections. |
| 2024-06-24 | And will you please say hello / To the folks that I know / Tell ‘em that I won’t be long / And they’ll be happy to know / That as you saw me go / I was singing this song | Johny Cash - We’ll Meet Again |  | You can either join a meeting on Monday, 9 a.m., or you can go on a bike ride, singing a happy song. |
| 2024-06-25 | It’s amazing / When the moment arrives / You know you’ll be alright | Aerosmith - Amazing |  | That was a really fast ride. 6 people and over 33km/h average. But as always - you’re gonna be just fine. |
| 2024-06-29 | In der Natur / Da friert es dir am Steiß, wenn du dich bückst | Deichkind - In der Natur |  | Unfortunately, nature is not always your friend. |
| 2024-06-30 | We’ll head south, just hold my hand now | White Lies - Farewell to the Fairground |  |
July
July was kind of special in my life, because I decided to let more happiness into my life.
August
Showtime! I am sure you are unaware, but I decided to go back to something I really, truly suck at: Time trialling. It’s one of the biggest ironies that I fell in love with the cycling discipline I am physically and mentally badly equipped for. My threshold power sucks compared to my 4 minute power, I am bad at positive self-talk beyond a couple of minutes, and I have trouble finding a feeling of flow just above the hurt-threshold. All of this would make me either an ungifted pursuiter, or a fine couch potato. But not a time triallist. The month was ended with a great adventure - riding from Linz to Vienna with two friends.
September
Is this what some people call “the off-season”? Because looking at my training diary, not a lot going on here. Prep for 2025 started mid-month.
| Date | Ride | Song | Map | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-09-04 | Also letztens hab ich so’n Zitronenjoghurt gegessen und dann war der alle / Und dann hab ich so den Löffel rein gestellt und dann is der immer umgefallen der Becher / Also das fand ich echt schwach vom Universum | Deichkind - Mehr als lebensgefährlich |  | Mid-week easy spins are incredibly dangerous. |
| 2024-09-06 | Freitags ist sie nie da. | Die Fantastischen 4 - Die da?!? |  | If you know, you know :D |
| 2024-09-11 | So be easy and free / When you’re drinking with me / I’m a man you don’t meet every day | The Pogues - I’m a man you don’t meet every day |  | Alright, alright, that’s not the original. So sue me. |
| 2024-09-21 | The boys and me are drunk and looking for you / We’ll eat your frigging entrails and we won’t give a damn | The Pogues - Boys from the County Hell |  | It started as a friendly ride with Michael and, after meeting some old friends, it ended with a team time trial back into Vienna. |
| 2024-09-23 | Body Count in da house | Body Count - Body Count in the house |  | Ice-T hitting a sweet spot. |
October
“Back to the grind” with a mix of indoor and outdoor rides. I really try to avoid clichés, but sometimes, training is just training.
| Date | Ride | Song | Map | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-10-01 | Nallinivu alianalaurmat / Uummati attanarsimat | Elisapie - Uummati Attanarsimat (Heart of Glass) |  | |
| 2024-10-05 | I am one of those / Melodramatic fools | Green Day - Basket Case |  | |
| 2024-10-09 | So move aside make way, for Fireman Sam! | Fireman Sam Theme |  | Austrian firemen are always here to compensate lousy road block signage with shouting and cursing. |
| 2024-10-11 | Head like a hole / Black as your soul / I’d rather die than give you control | Nine Inch Nails - Head like a hole |  | |
| 2024-10-12 | If I ever feel better / Remind me to spend some good time with you | Phoenix - If I ever feel better |  | |
| 2024-10-16 | Boredom’s not a burden anyone should bear | Tool - Stinkfist |  | |
| 2024-10-21 | It’s coming up threes, boys / Keeps coming up threes, boys | The Pogues - If I should fall from grace with god |  | Interval work is honest work. |
| 2024-10-24 | I wanna feel sunlight on my face | U2 - Where the streets have no name |  | I do not feel great linking a U2 song (for obvious Bono-related reasons) but this is an iconic song and an iconic video. Also, the line just made sense because I really was longing for going outside and feeling sunlight on my face. Plus: Larry Mullen Jr. is one of the best rock drummers. |
| 2024-10-26 | I thought I was the only one, but that was just a lie | Soundgarden - 4th of July |  | Sometimes, there’s a delta between what I am trying to express and what the song actually means. In this case, all I’m trying to say is that I did not expect that many cyclists out on the road, given the weather and temperatures. |
November
November was mild, but still too cold for me.
| Date | Ride | Song | Map | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-11-02 | Fearless on my breath / Gentle impulsion | Massive Attack - Teardrop |  | Did you know that I don’t write the comments directly after the ride, but more often at the end of the year? That makes it tricky to understand why I chose the song I chose. This is one of those occasions. So just enjoy a nice OG trip-hop song. |
| 2024-11-05 | Wilma’s Rainbow | Helmet - Wilma’s Rainbow |  | A rainbow of Will’s regrets. |
| 2024-11-06 | Terror rains drenchin’, quenchin’ the thirst of the power dons | Rage Against the Machine - Bulls on Parade |  | Looks like the Power Don won. Like so many others, these news left me empty-headed. |
| 2024-11-09 | Hey girl / Hey boy / Superstar DJ′s / Here we go | The Chemical Brothers - Hey Boy Hey Girl |  | Tulbinger Kogel is actually too steep for me. But what isn’t? |
| 2024-11-16 | You smile like the cartoon, tooth for a tooth / You said that irony was the shackles of youth | REM - What’s the frequency, Kenneth? |  | Is listening to REM in 2024 ironic, and if so, do I want to know? |
| 2024-11-23 | Is it so wrong to want rewarding? / To want more than is given to you? | Bloc Party - The Prayer |  | I hate Over-Unders, but unfortunately, they work. And I am a big boy with big plans, so I need to do what works. |
| 2024-11-30 | Like Carlito’s Way there are no exit signs / Freeze me there until I am numb | Manic Street Preachers - Black Dog On My Shoulder |  | In german, we have the phrase “etwas zu Tode reiten”, and I really don’t want to do that but it is cold. |
December
And just like that, the year’s over.
| Date | Ride | Song | Map | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-12-05 | Männer sind auch Menschen, Männer sind etwas sonderbar | Herbert Grönemeyer - Männer |  | 🤷♂️ |
| 2024-12-14 | When you’re on the street / When evening falls so hard | Johny Cash - Bridge Over Troubled Water |  | ”The position of the Sun in the sky is a function of both the time and the geographic location of observation on Earth’s surface.”, as Wikipedia puts it so eloquently. And further, “The effect of axial tilt is observable as the change in day length and the altitude of the Sun at solar noon (the Sun’s culmination) during the year.” What they wanted to say is: It gets dark really soon in winter. |
| 2024-12-19 | Up to Camden where the cold north winds blow / Sucked along by a winter shower | The Pogues - London Girl |  | Cold wind did what cold winds are famous for: Blowing and being cold. |
| 2024-12-21 | Please could you stay awhile to share my grief / For it’s such a lovely day | Portishead - Mysterons |  | Sometimes around the end of the year, you brace for the worst, but when the sun is out, 3° is actually quite lovely. |
The Great 2024 Strava in Music Sing-Along
135 songs, 9 hours and 22 minutes of hits, hits, hits. Grab the dexamethasone, clear your calendar and hit it!