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Today July 2021

I was out for 4/5 hours yesterday. 1.5 litres of water with electrolytes. Needed more when got home as my scales read just over a 2kg post ride weight drop. Also a mid-ride reapplication of the Nivea water gel sunblock would have been in order if I had remembered to pack it in the frame bag. These days I wear a wide brimmed sun hat to protect my forehead which is always sunbloc free to avoid the dreaded stinging eyes. Be careful out there. DSCN6412.JPG
 
I was out for 4/5 hours yesterday. 1.5 litres of water with electrolytes. Needed more when got home as my scales read just over a 2kg post ride weight drop. Also a mid-ride reapplication of the Nivea water gel sunblock would have been in order if I had remembered to pack it in the frame bag. These days I wear a wide brimmed sun hat to protect my forehead which is always sunbloc free to avoid the dreaded stinging eyes. Be careful out there. View attachment 32024

300g drop in 2 hours this morning with 1700ml water and 2 of those salt tablets for this sweaty bastard.
 
Why would horse and buggies be banned?
This is an Amish area I am in right now. The "Cardinal Greenway" I am on is for bikes/runners/walker.
There are a bunch of signs on the trail saying 'no horses' but it seems maybe some Amish feel if a horse has a buggy, then it is OK?

I think originally it said no motor vehicles, so the Amish just used the trail. Bikes are supposed to yield to horses - but since it is build for bikes, this isn't going to happen. Then add to is horse poo and they take up most the trail... just a mess. So I am guessing the signs are just to make it very clear to the Amish that no horses means no horses.
 
This is an Amish area I am in right now. The "Cardinal Greenway" I am on is for bikes/runners/walker.
There are a bunch of signs on the trail saying 'no horses' but it seems maybe some Amish feel if a horse has a buggy, then it is OK?

I think originally it said no motor vehicles, so the Amish just used the trail. Bikes are supposed to yield to horses - but since it is build for bikes, this isn't going to happen. Then add to is horse poo and they take up most the trail... just a mess. So I am guessing the signs are just to make it very clear to the Amish that no horses means no horses.
So it is a dedicated bike trail. Makes sense. Although, sliding through the road apples left by the horses could improve bike handling skills. 😁
 
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I finally did my July Century ride (163 km, on Strava). It was hot and humid. The longest ride since the June Century 4 weeks ago had only been 15 km. @microcord announced a Saturday ride from the 7-11 on Onekan to Yabitsu via several rindos, which I decided to join as it would be good to see friends again.

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Onekan was busy with cyclists and I found myself with a group of them at a traffic light, admiring my Elephant Bikes NFE. Their bikes were steel, two of them ridden by senior cyclists were fixed gear. I don't know enough about Keirin to know if they were track bikes. Anyway, with answering questions about my bike and where I was from, I arrived with not much time before the group ride start at the conbini and didn't even have enough time to properly say hi to all the ride members.

We headed west towards Miyagase. I had expected the day to be overcast, but I could already see blue sky and knew this would be a hot one. I managed to more or less keep up with the group for the first 1 1/2 hours but when we regrouped at the first rindo I told everyone I was going to drop off and they shouldn't wait for me. I know my limit and I had been exceeding it trying to keep up with the group. I didn't want to risk heat stroke. @microcord also dropped off and initially we rode together, but I as I kept taking breaks to cool off he moved further and further ahead of me. I never caught up with him or the rest of the group.

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After the descent from that first rindo I refilled both my my bidons with cold water and also used the milk tea plastic bottle that I had already finished as a spare. I don't know how many liters I drank yesterday but I can tell you that I peed very little of it after the first conbini toilet stop. Almost all of it must have come out as sweat.

It was only a short climb from the end of the descent to the gated entrance of the Karasawa rindo, the backdoor to the north side of Yabitsu where we had planned to go. It stopped there for about one minute before deciding to head up to Miyagase-ko instead. There was a waterfall up on a stream several km west of the lake that I had visited on a scorching hot summer day a few years before and the idea was again very appealing.

Next I passed a rest area at the lake, which had some shaded benches. I ate one of my sandwiches there, drank some more and then took a 20 minute nap in the shade, enjoying a cool breeze off the lake.

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I came across this lone shoe by the side of the road. The matching one or their owner were nowhere to be seen. I looked over the barrier down to the lakeshore but couldn't see anyone down there, so I headed on. After a brief stop at the lakeside michi no eki to wash off sweat and drying myself with towel I had bought at a conbini, I headed via a closed rindo to the blue bridge. There were many bird watchers there as usual, with huge telephoto lenses. It was quiet, I was surrounded with nature and there were no big climbs.

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After the blue bridge I turned west to follow the road upstream. I loved the turquoise water surrounded by boulders and the lush green of the forest between steep mountains rising on both sides

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There were a few small waterfalls and plenty of moss everywhere.

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After about 2 km I came to a gate with a bear warning sign. There was also a notice that the road was closed 1 km up the road. I decided to try if I could pass there, but it turned out the road was completely impassable at that spot even by bicycle:

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Where the road had been was only a gaping water-filled hole. The concrete wall that separates the road bed from the river and that was supposed to protect it against getting washed out was still there, but perhaps it didn't reach deep enough to connect to bedrock and so whatever was below the tarmac got washed into the river through water that either gushed in from the river side or from the mountain side. Apparently it's been like this since at least February 2020. I had no choice but to turn around.

Next I headed to the Familymart in Toya for ice cream and coffee. I was still before the halfway point for my century distance. Wanting to minimize climbing for the rest of the day, I decided to ride upstream to Ome, have an early curry and nan dinner at Sherpa and return to Setagaya.

In Hachioji the temperature dropped from 33 deg C to 32 and it felt almost cool ;)

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Sherpa was quiet, with guests only on two other tables as it was only later afternoon.

It cooled off further after dinner and was down to 27-28 C around sunset. That was so much more comfortable. When I turned off the bike path near at the K19 bridge (Tamagawara bridge) it was down to 24-25 C. I saw lightnings flash in the sky and heard thunder. It got windy but there was no rain. Counting seconds, the lightning was pretty close, i.e. 1 km or less. I am not scared of lightning in areas where there are high buildings or power lines, reckoning their grounded lightning deflectors are a more attractive path for the current than yours truly on a bicycle with its rubber tires.

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Near Komae heavy raindrops started falling. Quickly that turned into a heavy downpour. I took shelter under a roof in front of an apartment building, also putting on my windbreaker (who brings a windbreaker on a 30+ C summer ride? Me!). I got a call from my son, offering to come and pick me up by car. But I was still 10 km short of my distance goal and didn't really want to abandon it after all the sweat invested. So I told him I'd wait for the rain to ease off, which it did after about 15 minutes. I got back on my bike and finished my ride.

With my July Century complete, I am now at 107 consecutive months of "(at least one) Century a Month". A Century in August would make it 9 complete years.
 
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That first climb @joewein and I did was to Hanbara-goe. It seemed, even to me, to take ages. Who knows how it seemed to @djentleman and the others waiting for me at the top. On the way up, I passed a man resting at the side of the road with his Moulton/Bridgestone, which had only a single, large chainwheel. He reached the top only slightly after I did; with a 27-tooth chainwheel, I couldn't indulge in self-pity.

At the top of Hanbara-goe I was relieved to hear of a radical change of plan: down to Miyagase-ko, ride around it, and then lunch.

Lunch at 長さん (Naga-san? Chō-san?) resuscitated me, but we had to get back east from there. I for one wasn't in the mood for the interminable conurbation between Dōshi-michi and Onekan, so Makime-tōge it was. I ascended that at walking speed and decided not to inflict myself on the others any longer. I'd head to Sagami-station, and no, I didn't care if I'd have to wait half an hour for a train. Here, I had to decide: left for Sagami-ko (appealing, but shameful) or right for Takao. I downed a bottle of something from a drinks machine as I wondered which. I felt a lot better and headed for Takao. I dislike the climb from the west at the best of times, which this wasn't. But the descent to the east was superb: no car in front of me, none behind, all the way from the top to beyond the somewhat mysterious "Trick Art Museum".

And with more konbini stops and more chilled sugary drinks, I rode home: total 152.9 km. Distinctly less than a century, of course.

Mrs Senior Rider on a (Futaba) fixie was most excited to see my gaudily green Panasonic, repeatedly pointing at it and exclaiming "Panasonic!".

The most striking brand name I saw was on the back of the jersey of one of the many riders who overtook me going west along Onekan. One word: PENETRATE.

And I too saw the shoe!
 
morning ride in Ube
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looks like l rode 49 km
 
riding today with dutch hills. coming downhill at 60kmph a deer stag runs across the road 10M in front of me. It had quite a mane and my first thought was BEAR.
I'm glad you're OK. You don't want to collide with *anything* at that sort of speed. It's bad enough if you're inside a ton of steel...
 
820km of Cornfields....
That is the most accurate synopsis of my trip back to the US.
I have deliberately avoided cities, so I am riding around cornfields most of the time.

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Good news is I found yet another trail system in Anderson and it was quite fun playing on slightly wet trails with a bald back tire on a gravel bike.
Thanks to Amazon, no more bald rear tire this morning.

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Raining season is officially over in Kanto and Koushin'etsu (Nagano-Niigata). I had a sunny ride yesterday and gave the bike a proper wash to get all the crap off it. Get yourselves out there!
I think ended a little earlier over on this side--from last saturday to/including this morning, 7 days out of 8.

And this week I did a century. (over the week, sun-today)
 
So I decided to take part in the Rapha alt tour challenge today and ride at least the distance of Lachlan Morton's (planned) last leg of 108.4km.

Decided to do on my gravel bike, in sandals, with hydration pack full of ice, frame bag with tube etc. Ended up with 116km and the heat today was really almost too much for me, and I really suffered. I'd planned to leave at 6am and got up early, but thanks to my morning unko not getting the same alarm didn't leave until 8am.

I drank 9L, so was thankful for the Camelbak as 2 bidons would not of been enough today. I don't want to look at my bike for a while. I've no idea how Lachlan Mortan managed 5,500km in what, 17 days?

Stay safe out there on rides, this time of year for Olympics is batshit crazy, they can't even do the convenience store stops, (be interesting to see on road race) heat stress is going to be in the news.
 
Stay safe out there on rides, this time of year for Olympics is batshit crazy, they can't even do the convenience store stops, (be interesting to see on road race) heat stress is going to be in the news.
It's also hot in Italy, southern France and Spain of course, but the humidity here is something else. I just can't wrap my head around a race in these conditions.
 
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