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Race The PEAKS Round 8 Oku-Nikko

WhiteGiant

Maximum Pace
Nov 4, 2006
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I heard about this "race" from a friend. Well, technically it's a "fun ride", but who do they think they're kidding? Seriously, they get a bunch of cyclists on a 193km course with over 5,000m of climbing, and they don't expect at least some of them to want to finish first? That's called "a race"!
Here is the link: https://www.longridefan.com/thepeaks/5205/

It's on Sunday, May 30, 2021.
Starting times vary from 5:30am (for those who want the full 12 1/2 hours in which to complete the ride) to as late as 8am (for those who think they can finish within 10 hours).

The course is a little weird, in that it starts about 28km from the westernmost point, heads west first to the aforementioned "westernmost point" and then turns around and comes straight back (up a sizeable hill). From there, it goes past the original starting point and proceeds, over many more hills, to the easternmost point, where once again it turns around and retraces the road back to the original starting point.

It might be easier to just post the course map:


It's a little pricy and places are limited, but I've already signed up (for the 5:30am start - Not because I think I'll need all that time, but because I want to get home early).
Let the training begin :)
 
o_O That's a lot of pain in one day.
 
5,121 metres of climbing over 193 km... absolutely brutal.

Just over a month to go. How's the training coming along Travis? Here's hoping the "race" goes ahead as planned.
Jon, thanks for saving my time and converting the data to metric system :)

As for comparison, a full Izu peninsula loop has 3,100m of elevation gain over 200km of distance.
Yeah, that race/fond sounds a bit too much of pain for me to handle.
 
Well, that didn't go as expected.

In truth, I was kind of hoping this one would fly under the radar. I had hoped this post might get lost in the depths of some server archive abyss. But I suppose it can't hurt to tell the story:

The ride was held as schedule, a 5:30am start on a Sunday morning. The weather report the day before had threatened rain, but thankfully the JMA's hit rate was once again off the mark, and it eventually turned into a very nice day.

checkin.jpg
I arrived at the morning check-in at 5am - It seems everyone else was more eager than I was. They were all there early.

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Waiting for my turn to start - finally, at 5:50am, I could start.

There were (I'm guessing) about 300~400 people lined up to start at that hour, with staggered starts of 6 riders every 15~20 seconds, and I was finally underway at around 5:50am. The first short (5km) climb was up to Konsei-toge (金精峠), where there is a 1km-long tunnel. That climb took about 25 minutes, and I averaged 246w, according to Strava (and my Quarq). After exiting the tunnel, the downhill was fantastic – great views, and very fast – and it went all the way down to the turnaround point. That was basically the first checkpoint. The way it worked was, at each checkpoint you were given a small tag (to prove that you had passed there) which you were supposed to hook to your bike using a small carabiner-like clip that they provided. Once you got to the goal, you would have to have all of the tags to be recorded as a "finisher". Also at the checkpoint was the first feed-station – this wasn't so much a race as an endurance fun-ride – so food was provided. Unfortunately, I can't tell you if it was any good, as I had brought all of my food on the bike (in a top-tube bag), and it was my plan not to stop at all except when absolutely necessary. So, once I had picked up my first checkpoint tag, I turned around without even looking at the food they had there, and went straight back up the hill, back towards the Konsei-toge tunnel again.

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On the way back up to Konsei-toge tunnel.

It's 21km from the first checkpoint back up to the tunnel, with the majority of the climb averaging 6%. Strava says I averaged 221w, and it took 1hr:25min for me to get there. From the tunnel, we would continue retracing our steps back to the original starting point to pick up our second checkpoint tag. Similar to the first checkpoint there was food available, and quite a few riders were milling around and taking their time, but I was having none of it – Straight back to the grind for me. After descending a bit further downhill, we turned left onto Sanno-Rindo (山王林道), a small road that goes up and over Sanno-toge, and then down to Rte.23, near Kawamata lake.

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Going past the hotel we stayed at - Photo, courtesy of my wife.

This section of road just happened to go past the hotel where I was staying with my wife (and dog). They met me there on the road as I rode past at around 8:40am. After a quick kiss and a "gambare!" and I was on my way again.

The climb up to Sanno-toge (山王峠) is relatively short, but it feels quite a bit steeper than the first two climbs – Strava says 4.2km at 7%. Here I averaged 212w for what took 23 minutes. Once over the top though, it would be mostly downhill for the next 36km. This would offer some time to recover and eat a bit more of the food from my top-tube bag. There was one small detour on the way, where we had to turn off Rte.23 and onto a small "rindo" (forest road) that bypasses a long tunnel. It was along this small road, at the "Setoai Observation souvenir shop", that they had set up the third checkpoint about 90km into the ride. I don't remember if they had food there; I just grabbed my checkpoint tag and continued onwards. The rindo joins back onto Rte.23 on the other side of the tunnel that we had just gone over, and continues down further. There was a dedicated food-station along this flatter stretch of road at about the 100km-mark, but once again I went by without stopping.

We were coming to the end of our time on Rte.23, and we would soon have to turn right onto Rte.169, where the fourth climb would begin – 13km at 6% - It would take me 1hr:10mins, and I'd average 190w for the climb. This was to be my last climb for the day. Once I was over the top, there was a 10km descent down to the fourth checkpoint. This downhill was such a blast, and I overtook a few riders in my zest to get down there. I knew my wife was waiting there for me with some fresh water bottles (should I need them), and some well-wishes (should I need them too)…

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Arriving at checkpoint 4, just before I retired - Looking rough, and not feeling like riding anymore.

Let's take a break for a minute, and go back over some numbers. I don't know if you've been paying attention, but perhaps you may have noticed a pattern – Looking at the wattage numbers for each consecutive climb: 246w, 221w, 212w, 190w… and falling! Even as I was ascending that fourth climb, I knew that attempting to finish this ride "might be the death of me" – If not literally, then it at least had the potential to steal a part of my soul. At the fourth checkpoint, where I would eventually retire, I had ridden 127km, and climbed nearly 2,800m over 5hr:45min. And although there was "only" 70km left to ride – it doesn't sound like a lot – there was still another 2,200m of climbing. With my power noticeably decreasing with every uphill pedal stroke, the possibility of going the rest of the way at anything near a decent pace seemed more and more out of reach. I think I had already decided to quit before I had even reached the top of that last (4th) climb… and when I arrived at the checkpoint and saw a perfectly good car sitting there, its upholstery singing a siren's song to my aching muscles, my mind was truly made up.

"So, what happened!?"
The very simple answer is I lost the motivation to train hard enough in the last few months before the race/ride. The slightly longer answer is that I think I started training for it much too early. I started training specifically for this event over 6 months ago, and my power numbers peaked after about 3 ½ months from when I first started. For the final 2 months, seeing the numbers go in the wrong direction was demoralizing. And the final month was more akin to "damage control", rather than any actual increases.

In hindsight, I should have just ridden as much as possible – simply for the enjoyment of it – for the first 3 months, and then started in earnest with the TrainerRoad workouts for the final 3 months. Instead, by starting too early, the TR training sessions became a chore and it was very difficult to remain consistent.

Now, with all that said, I'm actually not too disappointed. No, I didn't manage to finish, and no, it wasn't the result I was after… But, for the distance I rode and amount of climbing I was able to do in that time (5hr:45min, give or take) I'm surprised I did as well as I did. Also, I felt totally fine the next day. I'm very sure that if I had attempted to finish, or actually made it all the way, it would have taken me several days to recover. As it was, I was able to enjoy the rest of that Sunday afternoon, eating gyoza in Utsunomiya, and I was fine to drive home from there. No way could I have driven a vehicle if I had continued riding that day.

Check out STRAVA here
 
phew, the way you started the report I was fearing at least hospitalization or something 😟

time to change the nickname to @whitetrek ? 😉
 
Congratulations on this massive effort, Travis, and forgive me for giving in to my curiosity. Let's face it: having Utsunomiya gyoza with your loved ones clearly outweighs destroying yourself on another 2,200m of climbing. Kudos! :)
 
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