Wisdom through pain

Ongoing pain from an infected wisdom tooth has had my mileage down again this past week. I finally managed to come by some antibiotics (now there's a story...) so hopefully that'll clear up soon - I definitely feel better already.

Meanwhile, I managed to get out for a ride with Grecia and Cory on Sunday. Conditions were fine lower down but as we got up to Takao we began to see patchy snow and as we turned off to Mochikoshi Pass (west side) the road became impassable. We ended up posing for a couple of snowy photos, impressing a bus-load of Japanese pensioners with our bike handling skills, then finding an alternate route on a bigger road that had been cleared. A lovely ride nonetheless, and one I would like to complete when conditions are better.

My bike, wondering exactly why it is where it is...

Myself and Grecia, who is dealing with the cold remarkably well for someone from a tropical country
that does not experience winter at all...

Grecia and Cory, who looks far colder than he should!

What goes around, comes around

I had a run-in with a homicidal bus driver a few weeks ago. The guy showed a continuous pattern of blatant disregard for the safety of cyclists riding fully within the law, so it got to the point where I memorised all of his vehicle registration details and wrote a detailed account of his actions to Kyoto City Transportation Bureau.

This morning I found this letter in my mailbox. They'd even taken the time to reply in (really quite good) English. Result!

Just goes to show, in Japan at least, it's worth reporting dangerous driving.

Additionally the phrase 'unnecessary horning' will now be a part of my regular vocabulary.

A week of pain

Got another good set of stats in last week - 270km and nearly 4500m of climbing. Not bad!

It's been a painful week, though. Firstly my final wisdom tooth has been pushing through and that's had me downing (weak Japanese) ibuprofen like a madman. Turns out the adrenaline and endorphins from riding are a far better painkiller!

On Sunday we took a long ride out to Kameoka and then north into the mountains. Between low temperatures, terrible roads (including what must have been 5km of MTB trail), slush, ice, wet leaves, a dropped chain (my fault) and a puncture (not my fault - who leads a group of roadies onto an MTB trail, anyway?!) it was an eventful ride. I've been taking a few days off since then, trying to deal with this tooth and what feels like a small cold, probably as a result of such a late finish and slight underdressing on Sunday.

This is why you carry a puncture kit...

This week has been slower (first ride of the week tomorrow, hopefully) but sometimes you just need a few days rest...

A lesson in suffering

Grecia and I set out on our usual Friday morning ride today. It was sunny when we left, but that didn't last long - within half an hour we were riding through a full-on blizzard.

What followed was, as the title of this post indicates, a lesson in endurance and suffering. And bike handling skills.

We didn't complete the route, but we did get back alive and eventually the feeling returned to our extremities. I think we'd both consider that a win.

A week of climbs

Following on from the last post, I got a couple more climb-intensive routes in (including a quick bash up a nasty little Category 2 near university after class). What a great week overall.





Everything taken into account, this week I have ridden:
 - 209.3 km
 - 9hr 53m
 - 3800 m total elevation gain

I've passed my personal distance goal of 200 km for the week and I am EXTREMELY happy with that last elevation figure!