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Today Nov 2018

Today I cleaned up the bike room.
I also spent some time inventorying stuff I no longer really use.
A couple weeks ago, I sold my trainer. I now have 2 bikes listed on pinkbike and plan to list one more....

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In other news, I bought another bike....

Bikes getting the AXE...
1) The Intense. It is my park bike. The new bike will replace it.
2) The Single Speed. I love it, but I will most likely convert my Ti bike to SS, so it will be redundant.
3) The Fargo. This bike kills me. It sits unridden for long periods, then I ride it and fall in love all over again.

Letting go of bikes is tough for me when I truly appreciate them. Even if unridden.
The Intense is insanely good at what it does and if I lived near Suwako, I would probably ride it daily.
The Fargo is a great commuter - but I bought my surly and that is overlapping too much and makes the Salsa expendable... again.
The SS is a casualty of me buying a Stanton as a geared MTB. It has almost killed the purpose of the ti bike. I would rather sell the SS and convert the ti bike to SS than sell the Ti bike.

The other alternative is shipping the Salsa to Indiana for use when I am there and the SS to North Carolina for riding when I am there...
Sadly, both NC and Indiana don't have a place to ride my intense.
 
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Had a half day at work today so got to enjoy a nice ride to Moroyama when I got home. Wore my winter kit again, but this time with a summer Uniqlo vest underneath and felt pretty comfortable. I've also begun to figure out the new settings on my light and I'm liking it more and more!

Btw, do they ever plan to link up the 73 north of Hanno? I was looking on Google maps and there's some kind of construction going on at one end and then a road with a barrier at the other.
 

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@bloaker That's quite an unstable stable. N+1, N-2, N+1:ashamed: (and can't help but admire the princess castle beneath the bikes.. your kid's gotta love that)

(BTW... are you a fellow Hoosier?)
 
@bloaker That's quite an unstable stable. N+1, N-2, N+1:ashamed: (and can't help but admire the princess castle beneath the bikes.. your kid's gotta love that)

(BTW... are you a fellow Hoosier?)

The bike room is fantastic. There are 2 more bikes not in the picture. one is in my office at work and the other is tucked under the loft on the other side of the little castle.

As far as Hoosier, nope. My wife was born in Boston, however her family moved to Muncie prior to being 1 year old. They are still there. It is amazing my wife escaped! :D
I am from Virginia, but NC, WV and VA all feel like home.
 
Muncie, eh. I know it well. Some great biking down near Bloomington in the Hoosier National Forest.
 
do they ever plan to link up the 73 north of Hanno
Stranger things have happened in the name of Concrete, but - having walked it - I'm going to venture a fairly confident "no way". The missing section is barely a mule track. While I don't recall any stairs or scrambling, it's a proper hike - my friend wasn't impressed! The mountainside is mined-out now. All the buildings and industrial activity you see at the east end of the gap on Street View are gone, and the site abandoned. Can't see any economic value in a road.
 
Stranger things have happened in the name of Concrete, but - having walked it - I'm going to venture a fairly confident "no way". The missing section is barely a mule track. While I don't recall any stairs or scrambling, it's a proper hike - my friend wasn't impressed! The mountainside is mined-out now. All the buildings and industrial activity you see at the east end of the gap on Street View are gone, and the site abandoned. Can't see any economic value in a road.
Thanks for clearing that up, Mike. I've been riding out in Hanno a lot more recently and I wondered whether it was worth going up the 73 at some point. Probably best avoided on the bike as you say.
 
Beautiful view of the mountains from the train on my way to work this morning. What a great day for a ride!
 
Muncie, eh. I know it well. Some great biking down near Bloomington in the Hoosier National Forest.
This summer I will most likely ride the Cardinal Trail starting/ending in Muncie. Something to do while everyone else just sits around and watches TV.
 
@bloaker There is a pretty strong biking community around Bloomington and the trails in the Hoosier Nat. Forest have "Bloaker" written all over them. Well worth if if you get the chance.
 
Something strange happened to me last night.
After getting home I decided to go out for a round...but I forgot my bike.
Somehow it wasn't the same. Maybe that's why I was back home after only 35min and 7km.
People real do strange things to avoid basic endurance sessions on rollers.
Thank you, Winter! (It actually feels like winter here. Cold and dark.)
Selling the rollers and buying warmer cloth and brighter lights?!?!
At least HIIT or the like are kind of fun (because they're shorter).
Anyway, today my legs hurt more than after a tough session on the bike.
Looking forward to a round actually on two wheels tomorrow.
 
I do OK on rollers... I cannot stand a trainer tho.

But I do agree. The right gear and anytime is bike time!

Speaking of which... I am heading into the woods soon. Hope everyone has a safe ride today!
 
Just back from the Edogawa.
Lovely weather on the way back if a little chilly on the way up.
The Autumn colours are awesome and the clarity at this time of year is amazing.
I went up the same river on Friday and with Mt.Fuji on my left and Mt.Tsukuba on my right it felt like if I reached out both arms at the same time I would be able to touch them.An awesome time to ride in and around Tokyo.
 
Not cycling related, but I did the Fuji Marathon yesterday. My first marathon, and my first run over 30km.
The weather was pretty much perfect. A bit chilly at the start but warmed up nicely fairly quickly. The scenery was stunning.
The course itself is mostly flat...except for a big tabletop in the middle. I quickly realized that the lack of any major hills near where I live had failed to prepare me for a long uphill drag. Muscles I wasn't used to using started barking, and I was hobbled quite a bit the last 10k or so. Finished 30 minutes or so outside my target time, but well inside the cut-off time. While the last half was a bit of a struggle, the first half in particular was amazing, and the support from the locals was fantastic. Definitely planning on doing another marathon, although I think I'll target one with a slighly flatter course...

And numbers for the day:
42.2km and 518m of climbing

Fuji-4.jpgFuji-3.jpgFuji-2.jpgFuji-1.jpg
 
Not cycling related, but I did the Fuji Marathon yesterday. My first marathon, and my first run over 30km.
The weather was pretty much perfect. A bit chilly at the start but warmed up nicely fairly quickly. The scenery was stunning.
The course itself is mostly flat...except for a big tabletop in the middle. I quickly realized that the lack of any major hills near where I live had failed to prepare me for a long uphill drag. Muscles I wasn't used to using started barking, and I was hobbled quite a bit the last 10k or so. Finished 30 minutes or so outside my target time, but well inside the cut-off time. While the last half was a bit of a struggle, the first half in particular was amazing, and the support from the locals was fantastic. Definitely planning on doing another marathon, although I think I'll target one with a slighly flatter course...

And numbers for the day:
42.2km and 518m of climbing

Honestly, your goal for your first Marathon should be to finish.

Congrats on the race! If anything it is proof you were willing to put up with the months of suffering through the training.
 
Honestly, your goal for your first Marathon should be to finish.
Yep, that's the conventional wisdom, and I definitely understand why (who wants to feel like a 'failure' after running a friggin' marathon, right?)

But - I find it easier to keep pushing if I have some sort of goal to work for. If 'just finish' is my only goal, I'm probably not mentally strong enough to keep running - 'I can walk, just finishing is fine'. Finishing was my 'A' goal, and a target time was my 'B' goal. Kept me pushing to the end.
 
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@WattsUp
Plus, if you know how to pace yourself on long bike rides, you know when you are pushing too hard also in other endurance sports. And you know how to motivate yourself to overcome the suffering. :)
 
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