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Half Fast Weekend rides 3 & 4 August

Half-Fast Mike

Lanterne Rouge-et-vert
May 22, 2007
4,644
3,700
Updates:

1. Added Sunday ride to Kamakura
2. Added Joe's ride-out for BOOB
3. Corrected date for Gourmet BBQ

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Welcome to August, cyclists

First a quick report. We assembled 51 bikers and hikers in Norikura last weekend. While indulging our hobby(s), together we raised 300,000 yen for our adopted and very deserving charity Shine On! Kids (f.k.a. Tyler Foundation). Many thanks and well done to everyone who participated in this event.

Now for the weekend's cycling menu:

Saturday 3rd August

The Okutama BOOB Ride (Warren)

Following on from Norikura, on Saturday 3rd I'll be doing the double Tomi-no-Mori (Mt Mito, Hinohara). This is a popular cycle route (Map) out of Musashi-itsukaichi, also known as the Okutama BOOB Ride.
Be on the Chuo Special Rapid Service that leaves 07:37 Tokyo station (T2); or 07:46 Yotsuya (I get on); or 07:52 Shinjuku (T12). We change at Tachikawa (grabbing breakfast), so people coming from West Tokyo can join there, boarding the Itsukaichi train leaving at 08:32 (for Musashi-Itsukaichi). We arrive 09:08 and will be under way by 09:20 with a 7-11 stop 2.3km up the road.
We will do 1050m of ascent in the morning including a beautiful descent down to Lake Okutama. After lunch those who want to bail can ride 13km to Okutama Station (Ome line). The rest of us will ride back over the hill (660m ascent) and back to Musashi-itsukaichi. The entire ride can be done in 4.5 hours, but we will take 6.5hrs with stops.
Warning – this is a long ride, 90km, with a lot of climbing (those who did the complete Norikura Day 1 Intermediate ride will find it as hard), so no beginners. Bring your bike bag for the train and your smile for the hills, Warren. [email protected] o8o 2oo5 8654
For anyone interested in riding up the Tamagawa to the start point, Joe will be at the Setagaya Dori (r3) Tamagawa bridge at 07:00 for the 37 km ride to Musashi-itsukaichi station.

Odaiba Beginners' Ride (Sal)

Meet at 10.00 a.m. in front of the Grand Hyatt for a 15 km trundle to Odaiba beach paradise to have a wee picnic and a beer and watch the improbably tiny dogs on strings. Then 15 km back. All welcome - assuming you have a bike and know how to ride without training wheels. Wear a helmet. Don't wear earphones.

Leader: Sal [email protected] o9o 7816-4612

Sunday 4th August

Early Haneda Early Beginners' Early Ride (James)

Meet at 06.00 a.m. (yes - six in the morning) in front of the Grand Hyatt for a 15 km trundle to Jonan-jima beach paradise to have a wee picnic and a beer and laugh about how ridiculously early it is. Then 15 km back. Based on recent reports, this "beginners' ride" will be at thunderbolt pace unless someone turns up to slow them down.

Kamakura Ride (Ira)

Meet at 8:00 a.m. at Higashi Tamagawa Park near Futago-tamagawa station. http://goo.gl/maps/kyL1
Enjoy a ride that goes West up our three rivers till the mountains near Hachioji and then heads south all the way to the Pacific Ocean. We ride up the Tamagawa, the Asakawa, and the Yudonogawa Rivers for about 33 km. Then ride the unknown river (Idono-gawa) 10 km to get to the Sakaigawa River. Then South down the Sakaigawa for over 30 km to some back roads for about 10 km into Eno-Shima. Then ride the coast for 7 km to Kamakura. Here we look to hit the beach, find food and drink, in Kamakura or ride to Zushi. Finally later in the day take the train back to Tokyo, from Kamakura or Zushi Station or ride back to wherever you like.
Total 90 km - 110 km. Easy to Medium pace, but distance makes this an intermediate ride. Most of the ride is on river roads, until we hit the coast. No big hills. Make sure to have plenty of water and a bike bag for the train ride home.
Leader: Ira Stevens o8o-5673-9o42 (call or send text to here)
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Forward planner
Sat 10th August - Tokyo Bay Fireworks Ride
Sat 17th August - Tamagawa Fireworks Ride
Sun 29th September - Gourmet BBQ Ride (movie)
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That's all for now, folks. Keep the rubber side down!
--Mike--
Mike Sims-Williams
Deputy Benevolent Dictator
Mobile o8o-34o3-o239
Half Fast Cycling, Tokyo
Web | Facebook | Strava | Picasa | YouTube
Wear a helmet. Don't wear earphones.
 
I'll join Warren's ride on Saturday and will be riding in along the Tamagawa (Tokyo side bike path) and Rt7. If anybody is interested in riding to Musahshiitsukaichi together, I'll be at the traffic light at the Setagaya Dori (Rt3) Tamagawa bridge / Tokyo side (near Komae) at 07:00 for the 37 km ride to Musahshiitsukaichi station.
 
I'll join Warren's ride on Saturday and will be riding in along the Tamagawa (Tokyo side bike path) and Rt7. If anybody is interested in riding to Musahshiitsukaichi together, I'll be at the traffic light at the Setagaya Dori (Rt3) Tamagawa bridge / Tokyo side (near Komae) at 07:00 for the 37 km ride to Musahshiitsukaichi station.

I'd hoped to do just this ride just this weekend, but am booked for dinner tomorrow. (It's a globetrotting friend who's rarely both in Japan and free.) Oh well, another time.
 
Still recovering from my crash so won't be riding, but definitely want to ride to Kamakura sometime - haven't done that yet. Have fun everyone.
 
Hope you heal alright, Sheep! Kamakura is nice, I take most of my foreign visitors there.

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Just checked out the Boob Ride profile - is there somewhere you can buy drinks near the turn around point?
(I'm guessing not on the long slog up).

Seems tough to go 2hrs on two bottles..
 
And, are there any vending machines near the turn around point?
I like my drinks cold and sugary.

There are vending machines in villages on the way up to Tomin no Mori and at Tomin no Mori itself. There are more vending machines outside the noodle shops a few hundred metres to the right of the BOOB turn-around point (we'll probably have lunch there anyway). There's a spring before the climb back up again. You pass more vending machines when you pass Tomin no Mori the second time on the way back. Then it's just another hour mostly downhill back to the 7-11, with the same vending machines and springs as on the way up. There is no danger of dying from thirst on that mountain, but I recommend taking two water bottles.

rommelgc and I will ride from Setagaya to Musashiitsukaichi and should be there before everyone else arrives by train.
 
Great pictures, Half-Fast Mike and an impressive haul of PR's on Strava! Thanks to macrophotofly for leading the ride, which left me totally exhausted last night.

In the morning rommelgc texted me that he couldn't make it, but when I went to the arranged meeting point anyway, I was nicely surprised to see Half-Fast Mike, Jayves and microcord. Together we set off up the river, probably much faster than I should have gone considering the length of the bra straps and the cup size (188 km, 2111 m). microcord seemed to have no problems keeping up (thumbs up!).

Three of us then headed out on Rt7 while he continued up the river. We got to Musahiitsukaichi station about 20 minutes before the train, leaving time for some pre-ride pastries and coffee. There were 8 of us altogether. I got to meet wexford for the first time (great sense of humour!).

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After a brief stop at the 7-11 at 2.3 km from the station we started the proper segment. Half-Fast Mike went ahead all the way to Kazahari toge and then returned to take pictures of us as we were arriving at Tomin no Mori.

Here's an old onsen at the village before the final climb to Tomin no Mori, across the street from a mountain spring and a shop that sells icecream:
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Waterfall on the last 2 km or so:
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Entering the clouds:
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Regrouping at Tomin no Mori:
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Warren and I getting ready ride on:
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The last 3 km over the hill weren't bad (only the 1st km of it is real climbing, then it's mostly rolling hills). Then came the 12 km descent down to Lake Okutama, which is one of the most fun descents I can think of. The road is in excellent condition, very smooth, long sweeping curves for which you never have to brake too hard.

We all had lunch at one of the noodle restaurants near the turn-around point and cheered the slices of grapefruit served on the house after our main course.

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It was nice to meet SteveT who dropped in just as we were finishing our meal:

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Then came the climb back up from the lake to Kazahari toge. Determined to set a PR on this last major climb of the day, I rode it pretty much as if I didn't have to go another 80 km afterwards. I achieved my goal, but later found the logged time included about 10 minutes of not moving as we regrouped at the top before the descent past Tomin no Mori. If you want the best time to register for the climb on Strava, either move a bit past the Kazahari rindo entrance gate to be on the safe side with GPS before you rest, or keep on moving.

Descent towards the station: Ice cream break at the shop across the street from the onsen:
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You've earned that one, Half-Fast Mike!
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wexford enjoying some cool carbs:
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We got back to the station where we split. Mike and I cycled back to the Tamagawa. I really felt my legs at this stage. At home I mostly slept in various places before finally going to bed. I always try to go faster in a group and that is much more tiring than simply riding for distance, but it will help me for brevet rides, where I need to stay under cut-off times.

Great ride, great group and very lucky with the weather! Thanks again, macrophotofly/Warren and everyone who could join!
 
That was the best ride I've been on so far. The first hill just went on and on and on. I've been trying to build up some leg strength so I took the lower parts in a rather tall gear and just concentrated on powering up. That worked well while there was a small flat part or a small descent that followed to recover. I was soon down in a 39T23 though and finally a 39T25 which I ground up way too slowly legs dying and my breath heave-hoeing. The colombian had gotten away leaving a trail of other bodies to follow up the hill. The hill was so long though that I recovered myself and caught him up again only to be dropped on the next steep bit again. Finally I saw Mike coming down the hill which gave me renewed energy and again I recovered and hit the hill hard looking for the top. Never found it and was enjoying the descent before I thought of it. Finally pulled into parking area 1 and enjoyed the view with a banana and some figs. Decided the others might be waiting at the top so thought I'd climb back up and find them with my yellow energy buz. That was nice as I got to see the top of the climb for when we'd do it again the next time up.

The descent to ramen was nice and long and gave me some time to practice right handers which I'm hopeless at. Not that I'm good at left handers. Seems I prefer going up hill. Ramen was really tasty. The legs didn't feel so genki leaving ramen but I enjoyed the pain of the next ascent more knowing it was only about 13 or 14k and knowing a few land marks near the top. Ground the 39T23 the whole way up this time. Was really happy rolling over the top and seeing the group waiting. Twas a tad cold while we waited some more but the descent awaited and it was even longer so I got loads more practice on the descents in. Ice-cream went down so well.

I think the best part of the ride was getting home and feeling fresh. I hadn't bonked and felt great. Little on the sore side today though. Was quite funny when I happened to bump into Warren in a burger joint in Shinjuku at lunch time. Anyway - can't wait for my next time up there. Big thanks to all for all the org and the laughter.
 
Great to have everyone along for this ride. I really enjoyed it too. Great photos Mike and Joe. On the first mountain descent I slung my GoPro onto the back of my helmet and Mike had his on the front of his bike. Once we've cut them together it should make for an amusing bit of footage (especially given my somewhat slower descent speed then Mike, who managed to avoid crashing into me, just, a few times)
 
I just realised that the ride didn't match the TCC Okutama BOOB segment on Strava, even though it included all of it. When I go to the segment page and click "My Results", the 2013-08-03 ride isn't listed. It's annoying when Strava does that to me. Warren/macrophotofly and Half-Fast Mike, did any of you have this problem?

Oh well, that gives me one more excuse to go back there for a repeat!
 
I just realised that the ride didn't match the TCC Okutama BOOB segment on Strava, even though it included all of it. When I go to the segment page and click "My Results", the 2013-08-03 ride isn't listed. It's annoying when Strava does that to me. Warren/macrophotofly and Half-Fast Mike, did any of you have this problem?
I have never matched that segment. Conclusion: it's a stupid segment and not important.
 
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