Monday 16 July 2012

Kyoto to Nara

Last week I decided I'd finally ride the route from Kyoto to Nara. A nice 45 km... apparently.

In reality it was 60 km. Which makes for a 120 km return journey. Combined with low-30s temperatures, burning sun and high humidity (i.e. typical Japanese summer conditions) it was quite a ride!

In Nara-koen (park) with the infamous (and very insistent) sacred deer.

Route info for the way to Nara can be found here:
http://kineticgps.com/route.php?r=cd44341cdb32bf1ead6770cbfbdcd5c2/120710-1013-Shijo-Omiya---Nara.kmz

Sadly my phone battery died on the way back so I don't have a GPS log for the whole trip, but you can essentially double the above.

I think 120 km on a fixed gear track bike (designed for racing at the velodrome) is pretty good going. Possibly a little stupid, but good fun* nonetheless.




* The three types of fun can be summed up thusly:
 - Type 1 Fun: Fun at the time, fun to think/talk about later
 - Type 2 Fun: Not fun at the time, but fun in retrospect
 - Type 3 Fun: Not fun at the time and not even fun in retrospect


I think this was somewhere around Type 2, so it fits in with a lot of winter climbing. Maybe I just have a penchant for suffering.

Sunday 8 July 2012

Back in the saddle!

In a slightly more upbeat follow-up to my last update, today was a lovely day (finally, it stopped raining!) and I took the opportunity to get back on my bike and get riding again.

Today's trip - the first since my little accident - was a 'gentle' 35km to see how things felt. Turns out things felt great - I could have gone and done it again when I got back, but it's probably wise to ease my broken body back into things...

So, 35km of gorgeous forested roads, surprisingly sustained climbing and putting geared roadies to shame on the aforementioned sustained climbs. And the destination was the beautiful Buddhist temple Kurama-dera, located up in the hills north of Kyoto.

Not a bad way to spend a few hours and I'm confident that I can get back into longer rides soon. Feels good!

Friday 6 July 2012

We interrupt this transmission...

Just having a small break at the moment, mainly because my face decided to get into a fight with a road. As you might expect, the road won.



Result: A broken nose, split lip, four busted front teeth and a bunch of facial lacerations. Fun!

Thankfully two weeks on I look a lot better than this - pretty much back to normal, aside from some bruising and redness where things are still healing. Should be back climbing in a month or so (just have to be careful not to hit my nose for a few weeks, so it's probably not a good idea right now).