I think of all the routes I've done long distance so far, this route is my favorite. It has a monster climb right in the middle of it, but everything else is ok/kinda tame. The elevation profile looks something like this: (right click, and select "view image" to get full size)
It was fantastic weather for a ride today and the overall ride experience was just great. I hydrated wonderfully for the first 5 hours-ish of the ride. Then the heat really kicked in on the city streets around Kudamatsu and I was sucking down water at the "cyclic" rate. By the time I got to Oshima Bridge, I was definitely feeling it. I wasn't really "spent", but I knew I was going to make it home with plenty of time to spare before work so I stopped at the 7-11 and grabbed an ice cream cone and some cool water. Then I took a 22km recovery pace back to Iwakuni (even though I still averaged a good 30-32kph al the way home). There were some sections coming over the climb that I had to hop off and walk for a bit, but nothing too long, 10 meters or so at best.
The route map has been added to the cycleiwakuni map lists here:
http://www.cycleiwakuni.com/routemap.php?id=14
I also added the GPX file for the route here:
http://www.cycleiwakuni.com/GPX/chugoku188.gpx
My bottom bracket and drivetrain were making some serious noise on the way home. Going to look at those tomorrow before I hopefully ride again on Saturday. The weather is looking like rain all the way through the weekend right now. Yuck!
Avg HR: 150, Max HR: 179
Distance: 187.83 km
Time: 06:24:26
Avg. Speed: 29.315 kph
Pace: 2:03 min/km
Start Time: 6:00:00 AM
Non-riding Time: 00:42
Finish Time: 13:06
It was fantastic weather for a ride today and the overall ride experience was just great. I hydrated wonderfully for the first 5 hours-ish of the ride. Then the heat really kicked in on the city streets around Kudamatsu and I was sucking down water at the "cyclic" rate. By the time I got to Oshima Bridge, I was definitely feeling it. I wasn't really "spent", but I knew I was going to make it home with plenty of time to spare before work so I stopped at the 7-11 and grabbed an ice cream cone and some cool water. Then I took a 22km recovery pace back to Iwakuni (even though I still averaged a good 30-32kph al the way home). There were some sections coming over the climb that I had to hop off and walk for a bit, but nothing too long, 10 meters or so at best.
The route map has been added to the cycleiwakuni map lists here:
http://www.cycleiwakuni.com/routemap.php?id=14
I also added the GPX file for the route here:
http://www.cycleiwakuni.com/GPX/chugoku188.gpx
My bottom bracket and drivetrain were making some serious noise on the way home. Going to look at those tomorrow before I hopefully ride again on Saturday. The weather is looking like rain all the way through the weekend right now. Yuck!
Avg HR: 150, Max HR: 179
Distance: 187.83 km
Time: 06:24:26
Avg. Speed: 29.315 kph
Pace: 2:03 min/km
Start Time: 6:00:00 AM
Non-riding Time: 00:42
Finish Time: 13:06
