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Today July 2020

Rain today so went for for a 8km walk jog run walk walk walk walk jog run walk walk walk walk jog run walk walk walk walk jog run walk walk walk walk jog run walk walk walk walk jog run walk walk walk walk jog run walk walk walk walk jog run walk walk walk walk jog run walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walkwalk walk walk walk walk walkwalk walk walk walk walk walkwalk walk walk walk walk walk. Definitely reminded myself why I prefer biking. I have set myself a one month challenge to do at least 5kms a day not on the bike. that's one.
 
Finished a workout last night around 8pm.
This morning I started a workout around 5am.
It seems that is NOT the amount of time I need between sessions on the trainer.
Today's ride, while "active recovery" was feeling more difficult than last night's Intermittent workout.

Weather permitting - I plan to ride out to Yabitsu on Friday morning.... so do I ride tomorrow? I think the answer is "yes" - but maybe just chill a bit.
Yabitsu is not a race - so as long as my legs can do it... I will take my time and knock it out.
 
Finished a workout last night around 8pm.
This morning I started a workout around 5am.
It seems that is NOT the amount of time I need between sessions on the trainer.
Today's ride, while "active recovery" was feeling more difficult than last night's Intermittent workout.

Weather permitting - I plan to ride out to Yabitsu on Friday morning.... so do I ride tomorrow? I think the answer is "yes" - but maybe just chill a bit.
Yabitsu is not a race - so as long as my legs can do it... I will take my time and knock it out.
Taking the Trek? Do it! And don't spare us with some pictures (actually you're never let us down in that point, though).
 
Taking the Trek? Do it! And don't spare us with some pictures (actually you're never let us down in that point, though).
That is the plan. Use the power meter to pace myself on the way up - then on the way down - stop at the tower for some pics.
Forecast looks like it may not happen... but I am being optimistic!
 
This morning I started on the trainer, 1 minute in, I quit. I grabbed the Ritchey and out the door.

Good decision.
A handful of PRs, some good views, and a ton of pheasants.

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Just a little bit of what is going on in my brain right now....
Tomorrow morning's Yabitsu ride will be the longest ride of the year for me. I have done much longer - just not recently.
It will also be the longest sustained climb I have done since I last road Yabitsu maybe 5 years ago....

I have no doubt I will be fine.
I have no worries about completing the ride.
I just have a little curiosity on how much I am willing to hurt myself.
I fully intend to PR it. I fully intend to not stop on the climb (I will take pictures on the way down).
Tomorrow will be more a mental game for me than an actual physical challenge.

The mental game is the unknown. <- That is what is giving me a touch of anxiety.

If I get rained on tomorrow - it looks like it will be on the return trip. So that is great news.
 
You'll be fine.
Long sustained climbs are by far not as scarry as those short steep ramps on a round at brisk speed.
Once you enter the climb forget about your Garmin and just listen to your legs and lungs/heart. Just spin at a smooth cadance at which you still kind of feel a light constant pressure in the muscles of your legs without hurting them. When I'm in this zone I'm really enjoying cycling uphill and could go on for hours - my problem is timing the fueling, but nothing I'd worry about too much at Yabitsu (writing this made me realize I haven't had a chance for this kind of cycling in quite a while - how I miss it).
And forget about the PR thing and just enjoy the elevation gain. In you current condition you'll PR it. Actually you probably can't even avoid PRing it.
Have a safe ride and great time.
 
looking forward to your report tomorrow @bloaker

just had a weird encounter on arakawa riding home from work. in the final kilometers already in my cool down mode (25 kmh with tailwind) a pretty fast guy slowed down next to me to say hi in english and just go on riding into the sunset. I checked the rear cam, it's not like he was drafting behind me for a while or anything, just came out of nowhere, slowed down a bit for a glance and wave at me and continued. wonder what was that all about? I was in my city clothes and a PC bag across my back, with regular spectacles etc. what similarities or closeness to me he could have felt? maybe mistaken me for someone else and realized too late? ah well...

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and I should also give due to Nico with whom I crossed paths in the morning. here he is behind me, impatient at my snail pace. you can hear him think, "oh for f.cks sake, come on"

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interesting bike there. big tyres trek, mudguards, rack bag. what was your nickname on the forum again?

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I rode downtown Tokyo yesterday, trying to fill in gaps in my max-'blob.' I suppose if you ride there often you learn where not to ride and how to avoid bad roads or endless stoplights. As for me, I'm glad to be done with Tokyo city riding.

And what is the deal with Uber-Eats. They're everywhere!

After shifting to doing more intense (for me) workouts on Zwift, seemed like it helped. 108 km ride yesterday didn't seem bad at all (except for the traffic and heat) stamina-wise. Maybe that's due to the frequent stops, but I'd like to think it is because of doing more challenging sessions on Zwift (so I'm going with that).

And my saddle choice seems to be working out OK too. (Thank you Charge Saddle) Either that, or I have my position dialed in. Anyway, none of the post-80-km soreness yesterday. Good trend.

And finally, a first... noticed some rattling on the bike. Finally realized it was coming from the upper water cage bolt. Looks like the 'nut' (the thing the bolt should screw in to) that was apparently welded to the inside of the down tube, fell off and now the bolt has nothing to attach itself to. I guess that's what you get when you try to nurse an old frame into life. I don't see any way to fix that one, so will have to figure out a different way to carry enough water. Hello Camelbak Chase.

Can't wait for a weekend of decent weather after things dry up a bit in the mountains. My new camping gear sits unused on my shelf, and I can hear it saying, "Mada????"
 
When I'm in this zone I'm really enjoying cycling uphill and could go on for hours.....
Don't want to take the hills for me, do you, by any chance?
Even the smallest hill I go up feels like I've been riding it for hours. I'm too fat to enjoy climbing.

(I agree @bloaker will PR it no worries, having dropped so much weight and ridden so consistently. I'm another looking forward to the story)
 
Breaking news: Shouldn't really jump in here, but it's such a bloody amazing effort, I can confirm at least that @bloaker is gonna have a great tale for us!
 
And what is the deal with Uber-Eats. They're everywhere!
Yeah, a metric ton of them popped up here in Sendai. From the looks of things, mostly high schoolers doing baito, but the suddenness took me by surprise. I think Uber just wants to take the opportunity and grab a lot of marketshare in the food delivery business.
 
Yabitsu is my nemesis. It has been for roughly 8 years. As you guys mostly know I am a mountain biker who happens to also ride a road bike on occassion. I grew up in a city with a max elevation change of 5 meters. F-I-V-E... 1,2,3,4,FIVE. So yeah - I am not a climber.

I do however prefer the southside climb. It is steeper - and it is also shorter. The northside is beautiful - however it just drags on and on... But when planning routes, I am usually outvoted - so this is only my sixth time climbing the southside.

Ride Prep - Yesterday was one of my favorite coworker's last day - so we feasted on indian. Samosas, Butter Chicken, & Cheese naan. Then for dinner - My 5 year old declared it was Pizza night - so 2 "American" slices of pepperoni pizza for dinner. Then in an effort to look and feel my best in the morning - the pizza was washed down with a few Sierra Nevada Pale ales. Crawled into bed around 930 and my oldest wanted me to read her some of a book. We have been reading "The Phantom Toolbooth" together - so we knocked out a chapter and I went to sleep by 10.

The Ride:
At 0500, I met up with Dave (my Zwifting nemesis) and his buddy Kevin. The plan was a max 30kph speed to Yabitsu and then everyone for themselves - regroup at the top. It took a couple minutes and then Dave and I left Kevin. We continued on just a little bit and David wanted to hammer... So I said "see you at the top" and then did my thing. Come to find out - my thing was to match David the entire way up the mountain - however 100m back. Every now and then I would close the gap to 50m, then fall back again to 100m. But I was also chilling a bit ensuring I would have enough legs to get home. David brought a rinko bag "just in case" and I had one packed, but took it out this morning to remove my bail out excuse.

I passed several landmarks I recall well. There is a switchback that almost always brought me to just shy of a stop - today I was in the big ring as I went through there. Another spot I recall usually feeling defeated - today I decided it wouldn't be the case and I looked at the power reading (250w) and I jumped out of the saddle and just railed through it at over 400w. I wasn't going to let the mental game beat my physical game today. I was able to get through that section quicker than I had expected and was met with a couple pretty views as a reward.

Dave and I were close enough to chat a bit - then he decided it was time to go for it and I wished him well. We were maybe 1km from the top, so while I understood his desire - I didn't give a shit. I maintained and pulled up to the summit maybe a minute behind him.

Both of us have lost weight and have much higher fitness than the last time we rode together... so we were honestly happy with our ride and chilled waiting on Kevin to reach the top. He wasn't too far behind - at most 10 minutes.

We took the obligatory shots with the Yabitsu sign and then agreed to stop at anything/everything of interest on the way down.

At the bottom - Kevin wanted to go to Odawara and David and I wanted brownie points with the wives - so we gave Kevin directions to 134, and we took the inland route back to Kamakura.

107km, 4h 20min, 1,085m of climbing, 21 PR's

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