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Today Today - December, 2013

jdd

Maximum Pace
Hardest Crash
Jul 26, 2008
3,512
2,058
Rather than extending November any longer, here's December.

And here, more rain. The never-ending story...
 
December, huh!? Strava tells me I've done 9990.9 km so far this year. Garmin Training Centre says the total is 9,876.2 km. Whatever - it's only kilometres, but I shall be trying hard to get into five figures. I missed two complete months - February (new motorbike to play with) and mid-Sep to mid-Oct (broken arm).

Oh yes - I have a new bike to play with! My latest steed is a still-shiny GS Astuto carbon CX (cyclocross) rindo warrior. Nowhere to park it, so something else is going to have to be hauled up on on the skyhooks.

Thanks to Tim and Eric for putting her together.

Teaser pic for Sibreen
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Tokyo - Takao - Yabitsu - Enoshima - Machida - Tokyo on Sunday
Today I did my long ride of the month. Including December that's 16 calendar months in a row now with at least one ride over 160 km. I like to get it done on the first weekend, so that if any travel or other unexpected obstacles come up I don't miss my chance. I decided to join Sal's Takao-to-Yabitsu Half Fast ride, riding out to Takaosanguchi station and continuing on after the Yabitsu-south descent until I had my distance. Leaving home at 06:00, Tamagawa looked spectacular with mist rising from the water and a completely snow covered Mt Fuji in the background.

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Around 08:20 I pulled into Takaosanguchi and found Sal and Jason waiting. It turned out to be just the three of us, which means Sal and Jason always only had to wait for a single person at the top of every climb.

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At the top of the first climb I found Sal waiting with a lady cyclist, who turned out to be one of the guests at the AJ NishiTokyo party last night. The world is a small place when you're a cyclist.

Here is Lake Miyagase:

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From there we continued on to Yabitsu. The land slide damage from the summer is not properly fixed yet. From Dec 2 to 21 there will be road works with road closures. Good timing - we managed to slip in just before that starts.

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Somehow I missed Sal and Jason at the top of Yabitsu. Perhaps they had given up waiting and headed on. So I headed down and to the coast, then on Rt1 to Enoshima:

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I rushed against the fading daylight up the river towards Yamato, then for the last 10 km or so to Machida switched to the Machida-Enoshima brevet route always used by AJ NishiTokyo, then another 30 km or so on the tank road and along the Tamagawa, back to Setagaya dori.

I rode the last 4 hours back to Setagaya in darkness. At least it was nowhere near as cold as it had been at 06:00. I did not have to put my winter gloves back on again.

206 km with 1950 m of climbing - my longest distance since the 600 km brevet in September and many nice views. I felt deeply satisfied.
 
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Very fine fall riding yesterday. Always great riding with you Joe - yeah after I caught up to Sal at the top, we only waited a little bit. Was pretty cold and looking forward to getting that chilly descent out of the way. Glad to see you got in your double metric century!

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Huge thank you to the Sal train for the great pull on Route 1 and guiding me for 150km through Yokohama and Tokyo through to home. Was awesome riding on the expressway - I'm surprised we didn't roll through the toll gates and keep going!
 
At the moment I'm finding myself in the #1 position for Japan on Strava for their December cycling competition (The Anchor), as I guess no one else uploaded more than 206 km on the first day of the month. Even worldwide 14/9982 isn't bad :D (6 of the 13 who rode more are enjoying long daylight hours down under)
 
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Oh please!! You must be the best then, congratulations.

At the moment I'm finding myself in the #1 position for Japan on Strava for their December cycling competition (The Anchor), as I guess no one else uploaded more than 206 km on the first day of the month. Even worldwide 14/9982 isn't bad :D (6 of the 13 who rode more are enjoying long daylight hours down under)
 
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Wow. You really are amazing.

At the moment I'm finding myself in the #1 position for Japan on Strava for their December cycling competition (The Anchor), as I guess no one else uploaded more than 206 km on the first day of the month. Even worldwide 14/9982 isn't bad :D (6 of the 13 who rode more are enjoying long daylight hours down under)
 
Looking at the RWGPS data for yesterday's Takao-Yabitsu-Enoshima loop, it was 3-5 C when I rode from Tokyo to Takao (leaving at 06:00). I don't have much faith in the accuracy of the Garmin's thermometer any more, but the numbers in this case seem plausible, given we encountered frost in places. I wasn't wearing any shoe covers and especially my right foot was feeling very chilly when I got to Takao. I was wearing two pairs of socks for good measure, wools socks on top of cotton socks and they didn't feel tight in my shoes so I don't think it was lack of circulation. Still, when I took off all my socks and only put the wool socks back on, I no longer had a problem! It turned out the cotton socks were moist with sweat and that had made them worse than useless for insulation.

I'll stay away from cotton socks for cold rides now and will start hunting for a good pair of wool socks, as my old ones are quite worn.
 
Oh yes - I have a new bike to play with! My latest steed is a still-shiny GS Astuto carbon CX (cyclocross) rindo warrior.

Out of curiosity, what kind of gearing (front chain rings, rear cassette) did you go for on this bike? What width tyres do you run?
 
Out of curiosity, what kind of gearing (front chain rings, rear cassette) did you go for on this bike?
Yes, I have both front chain rings and a rear cassette. Nice shiny ones.
What width tyres do you run?
Whatever the tyres are that Tim recommended I start with. I haven't looked closely at the numbers.
 
Out for about 1:45 yesterday, 2:15 today. No rain (some drizzle today) but the ground was still wet.

Had to brush some mulch out of the cassette this morning--I guess my tire somehow decided to pick up and place a couple wet leaves there during yesterday's ride.
 
This evening: witnessed a Billy NoLights J-cyclist clad in ninja clothes and riding the wrong way up R246 in the dark through a red light get sent flying by a pizza delivery scooter. Ouch. Fortunately no great harm done. (Yes I had my first aid kit!)

Shortly afterwards, stalked Jayves for a while as he was cycling home - rather late I must say. Pretty sure he didn't notice me.
 
Do you know OTBO? Off-the-bike-obesity? No riding for me in two weeks as all but my track (only) bike are being overhauled. Direct quality of life impact here.

So what does one do without a ride in December? Buy stuff! I will have my dream bike built by Equilibrium Cycle Works here in Tokyo. Stainless with couplers, di2 and disc brakes, oh yeah. Deciding on the frame design is easy when working with a skille builder. But what part to put on it? Stages power meter on ultegra cranks, sisl2 spidercranks, oh the options...
 
Built my new bike last night, heading out of town today.... still have not ridden it outside Chinatown.... :(
 
Do you know OTBO? Off-the-bike-obesity? No riding for me in two weeks as all but my track (only) bike are being overhauled. Direct quality of life impact here.

So what does one do without a ride in December? Buy stuff! I will have my dream bike built by Equilibrium Cycle Works here in Tokyo. Stainless with couplers, di2 and disc brakes, oh yeah. Deciding on the frame design is easy when working with a skille builder. But what part to put on it? Stages power meter on ultegra cranks, sisl2 spidercranks, oh the options...


I know this all too well. 11kg in 4 months and tons of new stuff.

Maybe talk to Tim about the PowerTap disc hub?
 
Do you know OTBO? Off-the-bike-obesity? No riding for me in two weeks as all but my track (only) bike are being overhauled. Direct quality of life impact here.

Do you own a pair of running shoes? ;) I know it's not the same, but it's another form of exercise that can start the moment you leave your front door.
 
Do you own a pair of running shoes? ;) I know it's not the same, but it's another form of exercise that can start the moment you leave your front door.

Blasphemy, the only time I'm running is cx with my bike shouldered. I might look into it, but its just not enjoyable to me. Just slightly better than swimming.
 
Consider it bike-less CX training then. Perfectly legitimate! :D
 
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