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Today August 2015

Went to Otsuki and did the 4.5 loop again (alone), the smaller tunnel leading to the first climb is still closed
As usual, I went over the gate, lots of debris, small rocks and tree branches, ok for climbing but not for downhill.
There's new, more sturdy gate further that requires jumping over.
And the gate at the exit moved as well.
There's a construction going on - reinforcing the sidewalls - preventing landslide so if you ever took the route on a workday the segment is likely to have complaining workers on-site.
Other than this expected closed road everything is the same, and no, the ride did not get easier the third time - especially with all the heat.

02/08/2015 Ōtsuki-shi, Yamanashi-ken, Japan

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Salt is good for cyclists right ? - now you can replenish salt from those dispensers ;)


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I took advantage of my jet lag to get out this morning before the real heat. It was plenty hot anyway.

There is weight to be lost and form to be clawed back after a relaxing holiday stuffing my face and riding softly. At least between spending two hours restoring my bike from its abused and packed conditions outside in the sun yesterday and riding as hard as I felt I wanted to this morning I reckon I'll slim down again in no time.

After uploading my data to Strava I see a nice addition to the StravistiX extension for Strava on Chrome. Showing the difference to the current KOM and then to your previous best time.

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This may have been there for a while but I don't think I have the extension on my laptop or if I do maybe another extension is interfering with it.

Time for breakfast.
 
I had wanted to join @kubatyszko for the epic Otsuki ride but time constraints meant I had to do a 110km early AM instead.

The first couple of hours of riding were fine but in the last two I felt my body starting to 'shut down' a little (stopping for too long in Enoshima instead of just contining was a terrible idea).

I spent the rest of the day fairly zombified and am pretty sure I had heat exhaustion (なつばて).

Despite the above, this week I will start one of the Strava premium training plans (really just to see if it's good or s**t).

Be careful out there folks.
 
I saw Saitama's biggest tree on my ride yesterday.
Apparently it's the 16th biggest tree in Japan (measured by circumference around the trunk).

It was 42C on the way out and 40C on the way back, but temperatures were as low as 30C in the shade of the Greenline.


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Discovered the best ever recovery drink for this weather....
1/4 glass of pineapple juice
1/4 glass of pickle juice (Polish dill)
Fill up with cold water!
Hits the spot!
 
God alive.

Fully got heatstroke / heat-exhaustion / whatever today. Started riding about 2:45pm with an aim to bang out a fast 100km on the river as it cooled down.

Yeah, well...

About 40 mins in I start getting a really bad headache, dry mouth feeling, and stomach ache. Dizzy too and really weak. All of a sudden I get the full on unstoppable agony feeling in my intestines that only means one thing... Dealt with that and then carried on riding. Felt slightly better but not good, but Ganbarou'd to the to the 50km turn round point. Turned round into a massive headwind. Just what I needed. Battled my way home through that, drinking endless water bottles and stopping loads. Couldn't cool down and seriously felt totally weak like jelly.

Finally got home. Had a shower, and laid down for a bit. Tried to stand and, and my whole reality just phased over into nothing. Came round laid half across my bed after what must have been about a minute.

Currently sat here trying to cool down with the aircon on -1 million Kelvin, and a whole water melon sliced up on front of me.

Be careful out there. It was amazing how fast it came on.
 
My cousin did that Ride London thing on the weekend in England. Did anyone else watch the highlights? They had a Brompton race which David Millar entered. Was very lol.
 
In London for two weeks (work) but didn't know early enough to get in on the Ride London.
In fact thought I wouldn't get much riding in until I stumbled on this today and went for a static ride at lunchtime.
Not cheap (£30 a session or £129/m if you can commit for 6mths) but real bikes with active power-based resistance (computrainer) all hooked up to a massive screen. Staff were super helpful; I had my shoes and kit with me - everything else provided (they even provide shoes if you don't want to change cleats to SPD-SL or just don't have them with you). You register online in advance and after the first session they have the bike set up to your size, with the seat you like and the key details (FTP, weight, etc) all entered ready for you to go. On screen you see the power-based ride profile, huge cycling video and each rider has a box around the edge of the screen with their key live data (power, cadence, heart rate, Power per kg, etc)
After the ride they e-mail you some fairly impressive post ride analysis (here's mine from todays' lunchtime ride)
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They were running the RideLondon race as the video for the class I took.
 
Its interesting that someone would take the trouble to purpose-build trainer bikes but still use a tire-driven design.
 
Maybe its cheaper? and probably more so looks and feels like what people are already riding. They are going to the cyclist market, not the fitness or weightless market.
 
got a cateye volt 300, installed it on the mtb and did my first night ride along a portion of the tamagawa on the kawasaki side. the crunch of the gravel under my tires, and the relatively different sights (dark, some couples huddled on the grassy banks, kids lighting fireworks) and sounds (just the gravel and my tires) along the tamagawa was just what the doctor ordered to melt the stresses of the day away. after about an hour, i am sweaty and ready to jump on the shower then to bed.
 
Maybe its cheaper? and probably more so looks and feels like what people are already riding. They are going to the cyclist market, not the fitness or weightless market.

Cheaper to build since direct-drive trainers are marginally more expensive (and there aren't as many on the market to choose from), but I would bet in the long run it would cost more because of tire wear. Although of course they would probably run the tires until they burst because there's no need to actually use them on the road.... So maybe not. Direct drive is quieter and smoother, though.
 
I suspect the choice of direct-drive vs tire driven was the cost of the power resistance component. That's a massive up-front cost. The tyres are probably negligible, and wear at the rate of usage so can be absorbed in the per ride charge (I noticed they were using trainer specific tires so they last a fair time). Noise is not an issue - they have music pumping out that drowns the noise of the bike.
The other factor is the bike design and the base unit design itself which might have driven the choice of power resistance unit . I haven't been able to find who is supplying the bike frame - its a very particular design.

Have to say I prefer direct drive too. I noticed on one section of 10% simulated hill section that the tire was slipping a tiny amount when I was on the strongest part of my downward stroke - gave it a very non-"real" feeling
 
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