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Today - September 2013

I rested my legs all day yesterday as I felt them from Saturday and Sunday. Only 10 days left until my big ride and I want to completely rest the last couple of days, so not much time left to work on speed.

Today I went for an evening ride on Komazawa dori to spend uncomfortable time in my upper heart rate zones. To my surprise I managed to make it into the top-10 (among 184 contestants) on the uphill Strava segment Komazawa-Dori Kakinokizaka :)
 
I rested my legs all day yesterday as I felt them from Saturday and Sunday. Only 10 days left until my big ride and I want to completely rest the last couple of days, so not much time left to work on speed.

Today I went for an evening ride on Komazawa dori to spend uncomfortable time in my upper heart rate zones. To my surprise I managed to make it into the top-10 (among 184 contestants) on the uphill Strava segment Komazawa-Dori Kakinokizaka :)
What's your upper HR zone if you don't mind me asking , Joe?
 
@leicaman, currently I have RideWithGPS configured for 58 / 184 as my resting and maximum HR for its zone breakdown.

184 was the highest I ever hit on a sprint, though it was only a single time 6 months ago; I've hit 178/179 multiple times. 58 is my usual resting pulse as measured with the "Instant Heart Rate" app on my Android phone just sitting down at my desk. I never measured it in bed.

The RWGPS calculation for me is:

Zone 3: Aerobic (Cardio training / Endurance): 146-159
Zone 4: Anaerobic (Hardcore Training): 159-171
Zone 5: VO2 Max (Maximum Effort): 171-184
 
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@leicaman, currently if have RideWithGPS configured for 58 / 184 as my resting and maximum HR for its zone breakdown.

184 was the highest I ever hit on a sprint, though it was only a single time 6 months ago; I've hit 178/179 multiple times. 58 is my usual resting pulse as measured with the "Instant Heart Rate" app on my Android phone just sitting down at my desk. I never measured it in bed.

The RWGPS calculation for me is:

Zone 3: Aerobic (Cardio training / Endurance): 146-159
Zone 4: Anaerobic (Hardcore Training): 159-171
Zone 5: VO2 Max (Maximum Effort): 171-184
Thanks for the insight, Joe. I find it interesting to see what other peoples' HRs register. In the summer my HR is always way higher than in the winter. I really struggle to hit 160 in the winter months.
 
Well finished building up the Pinarello FP3 for her new owner.... sad to see her go :(
 
New bike/build day! Finally complete as of 1 hour ago when the new seatpost arrived. An Owen special build consisting of Owen's CAAD9 frame and stem, handlebars, Dura-ace front mech and chain, my Ultegra wheels, 105 brakes, saddle and pedals from old bike, and newly bought (though not all new) 105 group set to round out most of whats left. Built and tuned by Owen on Sunday and (basically) ready for the road. Also, rear mech view and bar tape view. Watch out.
uGFJ0Bn.jpg
 
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New bike/build day! Finally complete as of 1 hour ago when the new seatpost arrived. An Owen special build consisting of Owen's CAAD9 frame and stem, handlebars, Dura-ace front mech and chain, my Ultegra wheels, 105 brakes, saddle and pedals from old bike, and newly bought (though not all new) 105 group set to round out most of whats left. Built and tuned by Owen on Sunday and (basically) ready for the road. Also, rear mech view and bar tape view. Watch out.
uGFJ0Bn.jpg
That's a beauty John! welcome to the "c" club!
But the way you have been improving, I rather saw you kept chugging along on your old bike ;-)

Btw, I think you should have the seat clamp bolt on the front side of the seat collar. cannondale style!
 
That's a beauty John! welcome to the "c" club! But the way you have been improving, I rather saw you kept chugging along on your old bike ;-) Btw, I think you should have the seat clamp bolt on the front side of the seat collar. cannondale style!

Thank you! I don't know why it's taken me so long to join up. Only ridden it round the block so far (damned work and family getting in the way of cycling again) but the difference felt good. Will need a bit of time to get used to the lower stem height but have no complaints about the renewed potential for zipping up the hills. And after proper notice from both you and Owen the seat clamp bolt is now in its correct position.
 
More fast evening rides to prepare for the big ride in a week. After Komazawa dori on Tue night, I headed for some hill repeats on Nagaodai on Wed night and to the Pink Cow in Roppongi last night (Thu). On the way to Roppongi I broke my almost a year old PR on "R246 Ohashi-Shinsencho" and improved it by 4 seconds. I still remember how miserable I felt on that climb two years ago, the first time I rode my new bike to Shinjuku, trying to keep up with my son who was ahead of me.

I think I am getting used to riding in ways that are uncomfortable in the short term and the results are showing. Still, for the long ride in a week it will be quite different again, as I'll have to pace myself. My main goal there is to ride the full distance, regardless of how long it might take me.

At the Half-Fast meeting Tim gave a report about his Haute Route cyclosportive in Switzerland+France. Several people seem interested in joining HR next year or the year after. Depending on the type of accommodation chosen, costs are between JPY300,000 and 500,000 (or 1,000,000 if you have the petty cash for the five star package).
 
Good luck, Joe! Amazing you can handle 40hs+ in the saddle! Regarding HR - they will add the Dolomites version next year. I'm really keen on that! I love cycling in France, but my heart is really in Italy. These cyclosportifs aren't cheap, for sure, but when you consider the level of competition support and extent of the ride, it's well worth it. Frankly, I don't know how they pull it off so cheap.

1) A whole fleet of moto support. These include the famous French TdF Gendarme as well as special cyclo-moto clubs.
2) Medical service 24/7 with at least 3 Ambulances located on the stage.
3) State of the art timing.
4) Hundreds of crossing volunteers drawn from local communities and sports clubs.
5) Insanely awesome logistics support to manage 500+ riders baggage to /from each location.
6) Included rider's buffet every day!
7) Included rider's recovery massage every day!

And, oh, yeah, did I mention you are actually racing! This is not a cafe 'Gentlemen's tour', stop for pictures, WATT ride. It is a take no prisoners and ride as hard as you can or you'll get dropped every day. Race. Period. As fast and hard as you can go. Uphill and Down.

On the other end of the bunch, though, is a great tailgater party - the Lanterne Rouge keeps things lively and moving along. Spirits remain high and the goal is to finish as many riders as possible. The cut-off is still there - it's hard, but with dedicated preparation you can do it.
 
Good luck, Joe! Amazing you can handle 40hs+ in the saddle!

That we won't know for sure until Monday in a week, when it's all over :)

These cyclosportifs aren't cheap, for sure, but when you consider the level of competition support and extent of the ride, it's well worth it. Frankly, I don't know how they pull it off so cheap.

I guess there will be some economies of scale to be found once you get up to 500 participants. At 1200-1500 EUR a pop (depending whether you're a repeater or a first timer), that's 600,000-750,000 EUR total, or something in the order of 100,000 EUR a day.

Good luck to Liu Ji in the Dolomites! ;)
 
Thanks to GSAstuto, I was able to get in an 80K ride along the Arakawa on a loaner bike today. I swapped the wheels with the Mavics I have for sale and got a Strava trophy:D. I wish someone would hurry and take these wheels off my hands so I could get a set of GSAstuto carbon wheels! (See hyperlink in my signature)
 
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@Joe - amazing you were the only one to get the obscure reference - but then, Bavarian's always had some edge on this stuff....
 
I was planning a 4 hour ride on the Arakawa, leaving only after 11:00. We had a visitor due at 15:00 but when I told my wife I'd be back by then she said I didn't have to. How nice, thanks! :) I packed my two water bottles and three bananas. Later I got another bunch at a fruit shop across the street from the conbini where TCC North always meet for their Arakawa/Greenline rides. These bananas were most of my food until the evening.

It was warm out there, mostly around 31-32 C, but not too bad. There were some grey clouds, but only one brief downpour in the last hour of the ride.

30 km into the ride, already heading up the Arakawa (which takes me 1 1/4 hours to get to), I decided to go further up the river. And then I thought, I had never gone from the Kawagaoe / Sakado area in Saitama to the Tamagawa by bike, only by car. I should try that. I texted my wife to let her know I'd be home by 19:00. So the 4 hour trip turned into a 135 km, a bit over 7 1/2 hour loop including two major rivers.

Near Fussa I followed a guy on a road bike with a messenger bag. When he hadn't lost me after the 3rd traffic light, I asked him if he was a bike messenger. He said no, he wasn't. Then he commented he didn't usually see mini-velo go that fast. Then I passed him and he stayed behind me for a couple of km until I switched to the river path while he crossed the river towards Tama. Had my second best time on the 11 km downstream segment, even without the tailwind I enjoyed then. HR stayed up around 150 for the whole 11 km. I didn't think I would have that much left in the tank. Five Strava PRs on this ride.

This was a good day. I didn't make it a Century distance (160+ km), but I'll have my Century of the month next weekend with the brevet ride. It was more important to get the exercise of riding faster and psychologically, to have some long ride in the countryside before next Saturday.

The 40 hour time limit of the 600 km ride to Lake Suwa (Nagano) and back is much longer than the 16 hour battery life of my Garmin. I had made a special charging cable that doesn't end recording when I hook up an external USB battery, but I've been having mixed success with that. The problem is that the power socket is at the bottom, so gravity plus vibration have a nasty habit of prying the cable loose. Once that happens, the Garmin complains about losing external power and often shuts itself down soon after that. This time I experimented with a block of PU foam to hold the cable in place, but it didn't work. The Garmin shut down and split the recording into a 35 km and a 100 km portion, which I had to manually recombine (upload FIT files to Garmin connect, download them as GPX files and run them through my gpxmerge tool).

I think for the big ride I'll take the conservative approach and take two Garmins with me (my son has one too), recording the ride as 3 chunks of 200 km. While recording with the 2nd Garmin I'll hook up the non-recording first Garmin to the USB battery and recharge it for it's second tour of duty.
 
Went riding on Saturday with a couple of friends to Nicchitsu - the abandoned mining village in deepest, darkest Saitama. Had been wanting to go for some time. We did a comparatively short route (copied from @bloaker) involving lots of trains as my friends aren't used to longer distances at the moment.So nothing like the epic treks by @Yamabushi or @joewein. The 'Good Bits' version.

Very cool ride. (No speed records broken.) A few photos and a short movie featuring a cloud blowing through the 886m Haccho tunnel - eerie to see and spooky to ride through. Noticed an apparent anachronism: In one of the buildings,allegedly abandoned in the 1980s at the latest, I saw a police "wanted" poster featuring members of the murderous Aum Shinrikyo cult involved in the 1995 subway sarin gas attacks. Curious. It might have been added afterwards by a haikyo-comedian, I suppose.

The final 20km back down R299 to Chichibu was rather an anticlimax, but as there are no trains running in that direction I guess there's no way to finish the ride sooner.

--

In other news, riding home from Ikebukuro station I made a stupid blunder in a transition from road to sidewalk. Rubber side went sideways. I fell off the bike and broke my arm. Possibly also my wrist. So several weeks of pain and no fun for me. Cr@p

20130914-133621-nicchitsu.jpg


20130914-133949-nicchitsu.jpg
 
Cr@p, how was the bike? Seriously get well soon, I guess it was your left arm so you'll still be good for merchant banking!
 
Cr@p, how was the bike? Seriously get well soon, I guess it was your left arm so you'll still be good for merchant banking!
Sadly, I'm a lefty. And it was my left arm. So I can't even write! Fortunately the bike is fine. TimTanium Tough.

I rode home another 15 km waiting for the pain from the (hopefully just) bruising to subside. It didn't subside. Emergency room - holiday weekend - good book and face mask!
 
My collarbone break was joined by a fun old broken radial head in my arm. Took 7 weeks before I felt comfortable putting pressure on it. I feel your pain. Well, I don't. Don't want to actually. I can imagine your pain clearly, though. The frustration trumps the pain, though.

Here's a list of physio exercises I did to help allay the worst of the inevitable gimpy arm syndrome
https://secure.familyhealthtracker....0eb2841}&key=26dd85c28d515a89bff6d8625ddf298a
 
I'm back finally. Sick for the last week in August and 2 weeks of honeymooning in France in September so Strava is looking miserable. France however looked fantastic. Spent time in Nice and can say that is surrounded by cycling awesomeness. Was dying to take to the saddle but it being the HM there was other awesomeness to enjoy also. I did take up running to try to keep fit while I was over there though and logged some hikes, walks and runs on Strava. After two weeks I managed to finish a 5km run without stopping which I was quite proud of. The runs are rather hard and take up less time than a similarly damaging ride out of the city so it will be interesting if I can keep up a little running while I'm back in between rides. Overall the walks/hikes and runs that I bothered logging I did 42km in September so I guess I actually did way more. That's pretty amazing. Longest was a 15km walk between Menton and Monaco hugging the coast. All this (runs excluded) of course with the Mrs who was a bit upset with me at times for some of the verticals we ended up on in the heat. So here's hoping that if we can survive that we can survive anything ;-)

I unfortunately missed the last Half Fast meeting so I guess I'll have to hear all about the Haute Route from the man himself. Am looking forward to a ride and seeing everyone again when the weather calms down.
 
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