Tuesday 28 May 2013

Castelli Challenge: Failed

Yeah, it wasn't happening. Didn't even reach the 2/3 mark (quite), which I'm a little disappointed about. I got screwed over by the sudden increase in temperatures, really, leaving no time to acclimatise. Completing a challenge isn't worth the risk of wrecking yourself.

Did get some good riding in, though. Lots of quality time in some beautiful places - I could probably have completed this if I just did lots of flat rides but I decided to head into the mountains instead. Since it was a challenge designed to commemorate the pivotal climbing stages of the Giro d'Italia, I feel like I did it some justice even without finishing it.




Meanwhile, last Saturday we all got together to watch the penultimate (and final mountain) stage of the Giro, accompanied by lots of quality cheese (a rare treat in Japan) and beer/wine. Good times with a lot of very good people.






This week looks rather rainy (today is foul and it's set to get worse at least through to Thursday) so I'm not hopeful of much good riding before the weekend! Oh well, let's see what happens...

Saturday 25 May 2013

Roadside Veterinary Assistance

Have you ever seen a man trying to resuscitate a flattened roadkill snake with a bicycle pump?




You have now.

Sadly I think there is as much chance of that snake coming back to life as there is of me completing the Castelli challenge (which ends tomorrow): absolutely zero. It just hasn't worked out time-wise and the sudden temperature rise has totally screwed me. A shame, although I have been getting some quality miles in, which is also important.


Ugh.


I'm going to try to get one more ride in tomorrow to at least hit the 2/3 mark. Let's see.

Friday 24 May 2013

Casually Deliberate

As per The Rules:

Rule #80 // Always be Casually Deliberate
Waiting for others pre-ride or at the start line pre-race, you must be tranquilo, resting on your top tube. This may be extended to any time one is aboard the bike, but not riding it, such as at stop lights.

If you are caught in a photo, you'd better look pro...




Nailed it.

Tuesday 21 May 2013

Seiryo Omote or: "Shut Up, Legs"

I was talking to a friend recently and he listed the 'official' Three Worst Climbs in Kyoto. They went like this (in order of horribleness):
  1. Seiryo Omote
  2. Momoi Pass
  3. Hanase Omote
I've done Hanase Omote a few times now. It's brutal but doable. I've done Momoi Pass once, and would never do it again - the road is hideously bad (slippery, riddled with potholes, super steep with zero traction) - at least, not on a road bike.

I had not done Seiryo Omote. That changed this morning, when I woke up at 6am (to avoid the worst of the heat, although it was still absurdly humid all morning) and joined Grecia, Vincent, Peter, Cory and Koji for a 'short ride'...




This is Seiryo Omote:












Which culminates in this:










Yep, it's every bit as bad as I thought it would be. Legs burning, lungs gasping, rear wheel slipping on loose gravel as the gradient ramped up... total horror show. Worse than Hanase? Definitely. Worse than Momoi? I'm not convinced, actually. Momoi is definitely shorter (from the Hanase site, anyway) but the road is much worse and it really is brutally steep. This is ever so slightly more reasonable.

Regardless, it was an interesting morning...

Grecia and I at the top of Seiryu Omote. She looks happy, somehow. I think I was too busy cursing out the climb!

We then blasted down the back side - Seiryu Touge - and back up Hanase Touge (a lengthy, tiring climb in its own right!) then down Hanase Omote to Kyoto.

A well-deserved American brunch was then had in cyclists' favourite diner Speakeasy.


Koji (centre) and Vincent (right) brunching it up in Speakeasy.


In summary: OUCH.

Sunday 19 May 2013

Great Descents: Hanase Omote

Well, here I am, slowly plugging away at that challenge. After tomorrow's ride, assuming it's not rained off, I'll be about 320km deep... requiring me to do another 500km in a week. It's Festive 500 all over again, except hot. Ugh.

After my ride on Tuesday I took a few days to recover and frankly still haven't been feeling that great. I think the heat got to me more than I would like to admit. I set off yesterday with the aim of putting in about 150km and turned back at the top of Hanase Omote, which absolutely killed me - managed about 80km total. Not what I was after, but better to play it safe than run myself into the ground.



I think the problem is that temperatures have increased about 10 Celcius in about a week, which leaves no time for acclimatisation. Came just at the wrong time for me, too. Still, it is mid-May - it should not be this hot. It doesn't seem to be cooling down much and it is muggy as hell. Pretty disgusting already. If this keeps up, the summer proper is going to be an absolute scorcher... well, more than usual...

Meanwhile I've been borrowing a friend's GoPro Hero3 Black camera, which is small and light enough to be mounted all over the place... including on my helmet. Thus I have been filming quite a bit - I have a whole ride's worth of footage to finish editing and piecing into a video, and I also filmed last Sunday's CycloFemme ride (a global ride event designed to get women into cycling, which Grecia organised here Kyoto). It's a neat bit of kit.

I took it on Friday... and managed to overheat it. This is apparently a common problem, and a pretty disappointing one. Not sure if it's down to the hardware or just the fact that it's sat on top of my helmet in direct sunlight, but still, it should be able to cope with this. I set it to record the entire descent of Hanase Omote, which is spectacular, but it overheated and crashed about 4 minutes in. I did at least manage to record and save that first section, however, which is the best - switchbacks galore - and I was absolutely ripping it down the hill (I hit 70 kmph, or 43 mph, apparently) so the video is pretty cool anyway. Check it out below (I recommend viewing in HD and full-screen).




I hope to film more descents soon (hey, I love descending... fast) so check back for those!

Wednesday 15 May 2013

Heat = Misery

Rode something of an impromptu two-parter today, with two different friends - first leg with Grecia (the more sane of the two for suggesting we start at 6:30am, I guess), second with Cory.





Total distance: 160.5km (100mi)

So that turned out to be another century. Oops.

It was made more interesting... and horrible... by the conditions. According to one road sign, it hit 35 Celcius today. It was seriously hot all day, right from the early morning.

Temperatures recorded at JMA stations at 2pm today - of course Kyoto is the hottest.
Road temperatures are probably a couple of degrees higher.

The day was dominated by looking for places to fill up bottles, grab a salty snack, reapply sun screen and throw cold water over your head.

Twice I had to take a time-out and just get off the bike, sit in the shade for 15 minutes and chug water. Heat exhaustion and heatstroke are not things you want to mess with, and in conditions like these you have to act preventatively or you can really mess yourself up.


Bibs and jersey, covered in dry sweat salt. Pretty amazing how much you lose.


I hope it cools down a little. It should not be this hot in mid-May...

Tuesday 14 May 2013

Summertime Blues

It's only early May but summer is well and truly here already. Temperatures topping 30 Celcius (a road sign claimed 33C while I was out riding yesterday!) tend to make life pretty interesting on the bike...



Think you can drink enough? Think again! You're perpetually chugging water and electrolyte drinks, then you come home still dehydrated and chug some more. A couple of days ago I came home and put back a 1l bottle of water without stopping. In any other circumstances I'd be impressed.

Think you won't burn? Good luck. You have to slather on more sun cream about every half hour because you sweat so much of it off... even the 'water resistant' stuff... to have even a hope of not burning.

Think you'll get a nice tan? Well I hope you like lines. If you want a full-body summer tan, cycling probably isn't the sport for you.


It's only going to get worse...


September, you cannot come soon enough...

Monday 6 May 2013

Can't win 'em all... but I'm gonna win this one!

Well, real life got in the way and I didn't manage another ride after my century before the challenge ended, so I failed to complete it. Not really annoyed - work has to come first (and my work is a whole other story right now...) and there are other things more important than just riding. So oh well!

However, I managed 86% completion (1138km) which is still a good deal of riding in one month. And at least I get a 75% completion badge, which is neat I guess.



Starting in a week - when I'm clear of work deadlines again - is another pretty hardcore challenge: Castelli's Battaglia in Montagne. Ride 813km (the total distance of 5 iconic Giro d'Italia mountain stages) in 14 days. I feel like it should be an elevation challenge rather than a distance one, but oh well.



I'm really starting to enjoy longer rides so I'll be giving this a good crack for sure. Stay tuned!