Personal Records All Around!

Today another classic P.E. ride -- the Reverse Paul Jason.  The first time on this course since the visit last fall of P.E. Europe women's champion Juliane P.  This is a good training ride - about 140 kms, with 1350~1400m of elevation, split among the Akigawa climb to Kobu Tunnel, the Uenohara golf course hills, and the steep almost 450m climb up the west side of Wada Pass.

Elated, having just shaved an entire SIX seconds off my personal best for the north side climb to Kobu Tunnel.  All four of us had PRs on this climb, AND on the Ura Wada climb!

Doug, Alexander, Graham, Pete and I headed out shortly after 7:30AM. After a bit of a warm up with me pulling in front, Pete W. moved to the head of our group and the pace quickened, noticeably, all the way to Itsukaichi.  I averaged just about 30kph for the first 40 kilometers of the trip.  Graham seemed to be suffering early ... but I knew he would not fade.  Pete, who had already done other rides this week, said farewell at Itsukaichi, having ridden us into the ground even before we entered the hills.

Doug, who is now a much stronger rider than Alexander, Graham or me, kept going with us.  Doug is now training for, and seems quite looking forward to, TCC's official "king of the mountains" ride, scheduled for June 30 -- a ride that includes the always painful (and sometimes very hot) Mikuni Toge, and ends at the top of Matsuhime Toge!

Alexander, who claimed not to have been riding at all (at least not outside of town) since he our Matsuhime trip over 2 months ago, did confess to some hiking.  And when we got to the top of Wada, he recognized it from a recent hike over Jimba-san.   When I rode with him in April, I thought -- this is someone who, once he gets back in cycling shape, I will NEVER beat to the top of a climb.  I guess he rode himself back into shape today, since I did manage to get up the climb to Kobu Tunnel ahead of him, but he was stronger from there on out.  And I think he will be stronger, from here on out.  His physique reminds me a bit of Ludwig/Manfred ... so I would call Alexander "Ludwig II", except that Ludwig II was the mad Bavarian king with the wild castle MOB visited last year, and Alexander appears the very model of sanity.

After last week's post on GPS-based cycling social networks, we wanted to put in a good effort on the main two climbs of the day.  We rested a bit at the bottom of the climb to Kobu, and then were off.  I could still see Doug rounding the corner ahead of me as we were more than half way up the climb, so I knew I was putting in a good effort -- pushing the needle up to, but not way into, the red zone.  And sure enough, on Ridewith GPS I shaved 6 seconds off my time -- from 11:42 to 11:36.   The deviously placed Strava segment goes further ... all the way to an endpoint in the area between the first and second tunnels (need to remember this -- a great chance to win the KOM points after the other riders think the climb is already over).  I seem to have set a new PR for that longer segment as well.  Strava also shows that Graham's ride today set his PR there.  And Doug's time will definitely be a PR ... when he uploads the GPS data.  Likewise for Alexander, ... should he choose to join Strava and/or RidewithGPS.

The descent was uneventful, the golf course hills nasty, brutish and short, as usual and the foliage everywhere was overgrown -- stretching out over the roads, obscuring views around corners that were clear only a few months ago.

A rest at the Daily Yamazaki in Route 522, then another brief one to collect ourselves before the west approach climb to Wada.  This climb, as well, resulted in a PR for each of us.  My time of 33:23 shaved 1:07 off my former best climb there, 34:30, December 18, 2010.

Hot Graham at Wada

I am sure that without the brief rests at the bottom of these segments, I could not have beaten my previous times.  Maybe I'll go back on some beautiful fall day, take the train out to Fujino, put on my lighter climbing wheels, and really try to gun it up Wada?

Needless to say, we were pretty tired by the top of Wada -- at least Graham and I were.  I was running on empty during the ride back into town.  I ended up losing over 3kgs (water) weight over the course of the ride, despite drinking 1800mls between the start and Itsukaichi, somewhat more than that again on the remainder of the ride, plus yogurt drink, coffee drink, etc.  I need to focus on acclimatizing to and beating the heat, and staying hydrated.  I did eat various items of  food with salt (including a salted hard boiled egg), had a banana (potassium), and some "gratin" to get a bit of energy on the way back.  But I did not take Nuun tablets this time for my water bottles -- last week I brought them, and blamed them, rightly or wrongly for my not drinking enough liquid.  Need to find a better solution.

Refueling stop.

Anyway, that was my last hard training before Cascade 1200.  Now I let my legs recover and try to get enough sleep most nights over the next 12 days.

UPDATE:  Doug reports that his time up the west approach of Wada was 27:28.  Very fast.  But, unfortunately, his Garmin data is not downloading for some reason, so his time will not make it onto Strava or RidewithGPS.   I guess he might as well have stayed home.

Matsuhime!

Another great ride this weekend.

We had lots of interest, but James and Shane decided to head out a bit later than our 7AM Kaminoge start, and Gunnar somehow just missed us at the start.  So Jerome (France), Alexander (Germany) and I (USA) headed out and met Steve T. (UK) in Takao.  And with just 3 of us heading out from Tokyo to Takao, it was a bit easier to navigate intersections as lights changed from red to green and vice versa ...   And we had just as good geographic coverage as we would have had we had managed to coordinate the ride with James (UK), Shane (USA) and Gunnar (Germany).

It was Alexander's first ride with us.  As a young (33 year old) guy whose physique reminded me of many of the Germans who would pass me on the first climb every day during Transalp, I realized we would need to take maximum advantage of the fact that he had not been on the bike much since he moved to Japan last year.  He noted that he only wanted to ride 50-60 kms, and would take the train home.  We assured him that by heading out west from Takao, we would almost always be within 5 km of a train station, so he could hop the Chuo Line home at any time.

Our ultimate goal was to climb the south approach to Matsuhime Pass, but we knew Alexander would head back from Sagamiko, Uenohara, Yanagawa, Torizawa, Sarubashi or one of the other Chuo Line stations.

Steve T. then suggested that instead of boring, heavily traveled Route 20, we take Yamanashi Route 30 from Uenohara to Sarubashi.  Steve discovered Route 30 in the early years of this century, long before Tom S. or Ludwig had ever made it beyond Otarumi Pass.  Steve promised us we would enjoy these "rolling hills" and that he would show us a way to go around the back of Otsuki golf club and on some other local roads to stay off Route 20 until just before Sarubashi.

After our third or fourth climb on Route 30, as we approached 600 meters elevation again, Alexander finally started to trail us on the climbs and asked about the train station.  I pointed down the side of the hill to the left into the distant haze.  "It is somewhere over there, along the river at the bottom of the hill."

As you can see from the photo below, it was a long way down.  And there was not any road headed in that direction.  The only road continued ahead, along and up the hillside.

Yamanashi Route 30 from Uenohara to Sarubashi -- a beautiful road on a beautiful, cold Spring day

We then told Alexander the story of Paul Jason.  He was a good sport about it, and managed to make it over the rest of the "rolling hills", even when the grade was 11, 12 or even 15%.  Alexander thought that Steve must be joking when Steve mentioned that there was a nice restaurant at Katsuragawa Wellness Park ... just like Steve was joking when he said that there was only 40 meters elevation more to the top of the last hill, behind the golf club.  Or joking when he called it the "last hill", which it was not, really.

Alexander, our new rider

In any event, we did not ask Alexander to climb back up the steep hill to the restaurant at Wellness Park, and instead had lunch (and beer) at the traditional soba place in Sarubashi.  Then we bid farewell to Alexander, stopped for ice cream at the 7-11 down the street, and started the climb up Matsuhime.

I was still digesting my ice cream, beer and tempura (tendon) lunch and climbed slowly, quickly losing sight of Steve and Jerome ahead.  At the Otoge turn-off on the Fukashiro reservoir, I pulled into the rest area to take advantage of the clean rest room (with western style toilet and a nice posting on the wall advertising dam tours--just ring the intercom at the dam building entrance and, if someone is available, you can take a guided tour by elevator down into the core of the dam for a 20-30 minute excursion).  And I stretched out my aching right foot.

From there on, at least I could manage the climb from 650 to 1250 meters elevation without a foot down or much suffering, despite strong swirling winds.  At the top, Steve and Jerome were resting, flat on their backs in the sunlight and nearly asleep.

We timed this ride perfectly, since a few weeks earlier we might have found melting snow on the road down the northern slope (there was still plenty of snow and ice along the sides), and in warmer weather the exposed climb up the southern side can be very hot.

Steve and I bundle up for a cold descent down the shaded North slope of Matsuhime.  Jerome ... wears his usual Beeren team shorts and short sleeves, plus his trademark fishnet underlayer.  

It was a quick trip down the hill, along Okutama-ko (waving at Mrs. Watanabe and getting a wave back as we passed Yakyu-tei), and then down another hill to Moegi-no-yu, near Okutama town/station, where we enjoyed  the foot-soaking hot spring.  As usual, the parking lot attendant tried to get officious with us as we dismounted our bikes in a vacant space right near the foot bath.  He quieted down when I responded: "This bike is worth 1 million yen.  If you will guarantee its safety, I will be happy to park it far away.  Otherwise, I want to keep it in my sight."  A slight exaggeration, but he got the point and withdrew.

Steve hopped the train at Okutama Station, I hopped the train at Oume (just missing the express train that Steve had caught up the hill), and Jerome rode all the way home for 200km+.