I finally got back out today and rode. The last week has just been downright horrible. Two reasons it has been horrible for riding.
1. Rain, every day. Last week, only two days it didn't rain. I got 190km in those two days.
2. Floyd Landis. No, it's not horrible because of Floyd Landis, but watching the Tour de France kept me up until almost 1am every night last week watching Floyd Landis do the impossible. It was awesome! Now the Tour de France is over, and I can go back to getting to bed with more than 4 hours of sleep available.
Today, I got out and rode again. Weather forecast: Overcast with chance of overnight rain. So, at 10am, I'm on the roads. Last I checked, 10am was not overnight, but it still rained on me almost the entire ride. Amazing. Simply amazing. It's been "rainy season" since the second week of May. Even the Japanese people I talk to are sick of the rain. Landslides are taking out roads, homes and everything else in sight. For the third time, "sun" is in the forecast for next week. We're all crossing our fingers.
Today's ride I took some real slow time to get out and pace out my 50km. I took some mountain-side roads to get a few pictures and had to take it slow anyway from the slick roads. One thing the rain does for us is provide us with an amazing greenness that rivals anyplace else in the world I've been - except maybe Singapore. I stopped and snapped a couple of pictures. I mostly wanted to focus on the roads I ride, but I stumbled on a set of waterfalls that just took my breath away so I captured that too.
This first one is right smack in downtown Iwakuni. I love the roads like this.
The second one is a creek that comes right down along side the road over a small spillway. Today it just grabbed my attention a little more.
This third one I took looking back on the road I came down, but just struck me how utilitarian the "yards" are. Not a speck of place to play hide and seek, but rice in every direction.
Finally, this road goes up into the mountains - mostly obscured by the clouds today. It's a heck of a climb to go up that way. A couple sections at 20% grade and mostly over 10%. Once you get into the valley on the other side, the climbing doesn't end. Great ride, but not on today's schedule. Got the 200km ride coming on Saturday.
1. Rain, every day. Last week, only two days it didn't rain. I got 190km in those two days.
2. Floyd Landis. No, it's not horrible because of Floyd Landis, but watching the Tour de France kept me up until almost 1am every night last week watching Floyd Landis do the impossible. It was awesome! Now the Tour de France is over, and I can go back to getting to bed with more than 4 hours of sleep available.
Today, I got out and rode again. Weather forecast: Overcast with chance of overnight rain. So, at 10am, I'm on the roads. Last I checked, 10am was not overnight, but it still rained on me almost the entire ride. Amazing. Simply amazing. It's been "rainy season" since the second week of May. Even the Japanese people I talk to are sick of the rain. Landslides are taking out roads, homes and everything else in sight. For the third time, "sun" is in the forecast for next week. We're all crossing our fingers.
Today's ride I took some real slow time to get out and pace out my 50km. I took some mountain-side roads to get a few pictures and had to take it slow anyway from the slick roads. One thing the rain does for us is provide us with an amazing greenness that rivals anyplace else in the world I've been - except maybe Singapore. I stopped and snapped a couple of pictures. I mostly wanted to focus on the roads I ride, but I stumbled on a set of waterfalls that just took my breath away so I captured that too.
This first one is right smack in downtown Iwakuni. I love the roads like this.
The second one is a creek that comes right down along side the road over a small spillway. Today it just grabbed my attention a little more.
This third one I took looking back on the road I came down, but just struck me how utilitarian the "yards" are. Not a speck of place to play hide and seek, but rice in every direction.
Finally, this road goes up into the mountains - mostly obscured by the clouds today. It's a heck of a climb to go up that way. A couple sections at 20% grade and mostly over 10%. Once you get into the valley on the other side, the climbing doesn't end. Great ride, but not on today's schedule. Got the 200km ride coming on Saturday.
