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Today - July 2013

Fab day out today. Bagged another 110 km. easy pace. Was damn hot though. Went on the half-fast ride again with the 3 rivers which turned into more like 7 rivers as we detoured down to shin Yokohama to drop off on of the riders. Saw some great open spaces and shades of green as we passed different crops. Highlight was passing a house with a small lawn outside and some dude with a lawn mower!!! First time to see that in Japan.
 
[...] Baba san of Arakawa Galenge is owner of VAX Racing [...]

Vax racing?

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My cycle computer cost less than a Vax so perhaps I shouldn't complain that "out of the box" it doesn't appear to do anything of interest to me.* I ordered an OpenStreetMap for it but the generation of this map promised to take hours. (It seems as if downloading takes hours too.) Today was a Garminless day for doing something simple (and palatable in the heat). Last night I serendipitously surfed to "Ride to Okutama and back" and thought OK, why not.

*While it doesn't tell me anything, it has me tell it various things: my age, my height, my weight. I presume that all of this is going to the NSA, though I haven't yet worked out how.

My route was very much like that of the author of "Ride to Okutama and back", with a kilometre or two shaved off at both ends. Between Hamura and Ōme the bike started to produce an alarming noise (subject for another thread, perhaps), but as the interesting stuff starts after Ōme I was disinclined to turn back. On the way out I took route 45 (right bank) where possible, but there were more cars and trucks per square metre than I'd expected. The climb wasn't bad. (I was lucky that the sun didn't come out.) When I got to Okutama-ko I was nowhere near as knackered as when I'd merely reached Ōme (as far as I got) a couple of times late last year, so perhaps I'm improving. After a mere kilometre or two around the lake I made a U-turn and went back via route 411. I drank a prodigious amount of water (as well as two half-litre bottles of Calpis Soda, which is too sugary for me when not riding a bike), and when I arrived home I still wanted to drink water, so I infer that my intake wasn't excessive.

I didn't bonk and the bike didn't either. Cat-eye says 161km, door to (same) door. I didn't rush but I did try not to waste time. All told, it took me (put down your drink before you drop it while laughing) 10 hours 50 minutes. Worse, over half of the distance is flat. So alas I'm not yet ready for even the most undemanding brevet.
 
I went for a early afternoon ride to Shinjuku and back, probably just when it was the hottest. The Garmin temperature display started climbing as soon as the wheels were rolling. Route 317, which is pretty new and wide and hence gets little shade, was the hottest at 39.2 C.

It tells you something when it felt cool only because the temperature display dropped to body temperature!

I may be heading up Doshi michi tomorrow, looking for some cooler air in the mountains, seeing how Pete's Garmin showed an average of 26 C on his ride vs. 35 C on mine!
 
I didn't bonk and the bike didn't either. Cat-eye says 161km, door to (same) door. I didn't rush but I did try not to waste time. All told, it took me (put down your drink before you drop it while laughing) 10 hours 50 minutes. Worse, over half of the distance is flat. So alas I'm not yet ready for even the most undemanding brevet.

Congratulations on your first Century ride! You are well on your way now.

Just add some hills to the mix and stir well ;)
 
Yesterday Takaaki and I did an early morning run to shiraishi, parked the car in the conbini at the bottom of the hill and went for a quick 50 km that goes like this shiraishi, down sadamine and up the little goat track down and up shiraishi again. 1536m and back in the car by 9.30am.

After some intense cycling and a fairly stressful week of work. I wasn't interested in going for any records, and my legs were agreeing with that mental decision. Both runs in the 28s and could have gone for more if time had allowed.
 
Heading up to Yamanakoko today, with a possibility of Fuji 5th stage if time allows.
 
Used the free time I had after lunch to ride to Tamagawa and along for a while. Damn it's hot. Really really hot.
 
I joined Chris' HFC Hanno Loop today (as advertised). I hadn't paid much attention to the route. It turned out to be Yamabushi-toge, Shomaru-toge, Karibazaka-toge, Greenline, and a new descent back to Hanno through the enchanted forest that I hadn't done before. Greenline was lovely and cool. The rest was ba$tard hot. Quel surprise!


A few photos https://picasaweb.google.com/halffastcycling/TanabataHannoLoop
 
I was pretty wrecked last night after my 110km run and the heat so hit the sack early. Woke around 8 and decided to force my butt back on to the new test saddle in some different shorts. Was on the road 8:30 to 9:30 and damn it was hot. It's time to get up really early me thinks and just get the rides done in less heat. Took Kampachi as part of the ride and its a rather horrid road on a bike. Flew back route 1 with the wind in my back. Anyway - bagged another 22km to make it 4 rides this week. Hope you all drank a lot if you were riding today!
 
Well the Japan Elite Tour Norikura HC was canned due to heavy winds at the summit and they were woried they would lose a few of the fly weight Japanese riders so they decided not to hold the race.

So not wanting our form to go to waste we stopped of at Otsuki on the way back and did both sides of Matsuhime Toge. Matsudo dropped me just before the Dam but it was a battle Royal between me and the fly weight junior rider, brains won in the end with me constantly sprinting 50m ahead with him playing catch up - giving me enough time to recover where I would then jump off the front again. After about 5 bouts of this his mental stamina gave in and he threw the towel in, I stayed about 50m ahead of him suffering until the tight switch backs kicked in where with more effort I got a few bends between us and thus out of sight out of mind.

I finished 6 minutes behind Matsudo and our junior another 5-6 minutes off me.

Then as soon as he arrived we took off down the otherside to the river and then looped back for round 2, paced with Matsudo until the village and the free water halfway up where he slowly peeled away from me, we dropped the junior from the beginning and it was a nice paced solo climb back to the top.

Now the fun part, race on to the team bus that we had parked at the supermarket and there is one thing I can do and do really well and thats descend at ludicrous speed.

 
The weather looked hot so I decided to take in some heat conditioning riding. 'Boob Ride' is perfect for this - except the garmin had calculated HFC Mike's route at more than 1100km - hmmmm, well, I did some exploring, to say the least - but the primary climbs were toasty. Riders spit out prone like Tommy Simpson up and down both sides. The first hot ride of the year always does this. I managed to keep everything reeled in and felt pretty ok. I need a few more of these in the upcoming weeks to prep for the Haute Route. Basically I allowed myself one bottle /hr and no more than 150bpm HR (out of 175) and 250w. When either started to drift excessively - then forced myself to scale back intensity. I cheated on the way back and gulped an entire Coke and additional water before slogging back on KoshuKaido.
 
Had another rare Sunday off again today so joined my team for the usual morning Edogawa up and down and up. Forgot to turn my Garmin on again for the crucial hard stage. Good work out for my hamstring muscles and after the last ride I did with the team my walking improved dramatically the next day. Hoping to see the same results tomorrow. Still seems to be a lot of hamstring tendon/muscle missing from where they took the graft. Quite noticeable today when pinching both left and right sides to compare.
Wore my GreenEdge uniform today as well!!!
 
Did Yamanakako via Doshi as mentioned, then over to Fujiyoshida and climbed Fuji Subaru Line to the 5th station at 2300 m. Return via Odawara. That made it a proper sea level to Fuji to sea level ride. Doshi was cooking me and so was Fuji below about 1700 m. It really only cooled off properly at 2000 m. 6 bidons of water and 3-4 other drinks. Proper report will follow when I am at my PC (still on the train)
 
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Since riding up Fuji Subaru Line from Fujiyoshida in October 2011, I had been meaning to go back and do this ride from sea level (i.e. Tokyo) instead of driving out there by car. I achieved it yesterday, as a sea level - Mt Fuji 5th stage - sea level bicycle round trip:

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Strava reports 226.9 km of distance with 3,301 m of elevation. The elevation difference between Tokyo and Fuji 5gome alone is about 2,300 m.

I picked the Sunday because:
a) I try to get my Century of the month in as early as possible to make sure I don't miss a month due to unforeseen circumstances and
b) I was envious of TCC North's average temperature on their Saturday ride while I was being roasted alive in Tokyo.

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Heading up into the hills promised some escape from the heat, but it didn't turn out that way. I did the whole ride conscious of the need not to overheat and kept an eye on the HR on all the climbs. I think I drank 6 bidons of plain water, one coffee, one cocoa and a few other drinks. I ate 8 bananas, 200 g of raisins, some cookies and a bag of raisin bread.


I left home around 05:45 and by the time I crossed the Tamagawa the temperature was over 30.

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Route 413 out to Yamanakako brought no relief, except for some shade in going through forests. The views around Yamanakako were terrific, but it was just as hot there as anywhere else.

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According to RWGPS the temperature didn't drop below 30 again until I hit 1900 m, sparing me during the final 8 km of climbing Fuji Subaru Line. By then it was late afternoon, so temperatures overall dropped. Still, I could descend at 45-55 km/h without feeling cold. The descent from Fuji was so much fun. I made very little use of my brakes because there are long straights and most of it is only 5-8%.

The descent must have been a lot less fun for this guy, who was given the job of towing a broken down bus (engine fire!) down the mountain:

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Some pictures from the mountain:

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I had two choices to get home after Fuji, either descend towards Otsuki and take Chuo line and be home earlier, or head to the pass between Yamankako and Gotemba and descend to Odawara, which would give me a sea level finish, more kilometres and a cheaper ticket on Odakyu line. Easy choice :)

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JMA showing 35+ in both Saitama and the Nagoya area....
 
Gorgeous pictures Joe.
I managed 117km today in what were very hot temperatures for the UK. Must have reached about 28 degrees :) The only downside was the incredibly loud creaking noise my bike has developed in the saddle area during the week. I switched the saddle before the ridebut that made no difference. When I got in I consulted google sensei and it looks to be a design problem with the 3T palladio seatpost I have. It has a funky clamp and while some people have had no issues, many people have been unable to stop it creaking. I have cleaned & greased mine up. If that doesnt work I will be on to the LBS about returning it.
 
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