What riding? Well, contrary to what my training calendar shows, my riding has been pretty much non-existant. Between being in Okinawa and then coming back and really getting rained on for a couple days, the riding started to fall off. Then we got to Sunday and _I_ fell off. Yes, that's right, wiped out and everything.

We're on the Sunday morning training ride out of Otake. We head up to the mountains to do laps around the lake at full speed. Another rider and I had gotten out in front of the group by about 2km and we're cruising along at 45+kph along the river road rte 186. I'm in front going into a left hand bend when the back wheel caught the damp white line - just enough to lose traction. Down I went on the left side sliding across the pavement at 40kph. The rider on my wheel did what he could to not go down (which included riding over the top of my sliding body), but to no avail. He went down in front of me. Both of us could get up and walk away with no damage to the bikes. I think I took the brunt of the road damage - a good sized road rash on my left hip and about 6 months of negated recovery on my injured left shoulder.

It's Thursday now and my hip is still scabbing over pretty nicely, but it's rideable. I'll fit in 120km tomorrow morning if all goes well.

Next month's schedule just got very busy for cycling. As my hopes for attending WTI 1-07 fell through, my cycling schedule just jumped. I'll ride with some guys on a 300km day at least one day next month. The Iwakuni Friendship Triathlon goes on the 17th where I'll ride for a 3 person team. There's another race at the end of the month on the other side of the island for 140km. The following week or so there's a "lap" race in Okayama on a motor race track. I'm going to enter the 2 hour race just to see how my pack racing skills are going. There's another race in October on base and we're still in the planning stages for the Tour of Okinawa in November. Then, we'll start hitting the off season.

I might get a coach this year during the off season. I want to peak next year for the Tour de Kunisaki. I'd like to break the 4 hour 45 minute mark for that century race. My best time so far is 5 hrs 5 minutes. We'll see where we go from there.

VW

It's a good thing I got that 310km weekend in almost two weeks ago. Now it's down to barely 200 km this week. Between last week's trip to Okinawa and this weeks tropical storm and 100+* heat index, riding is slowly falling off.

Yesterday was a climbing day and that felt good. I've bounced back and forth between my Arione saddle and Specialized Toupe saddle. The Toupe is always very comfortable, but when the distances get up past the 100km mark - the tail end of my body reminds me how stiff it is. The Arione has a lot more give, but it just puts a whole heck of a lot of pressure down the middle. This weekend I'm going to head up to the LBS and do a ride through of all his saddles he has in stock.

Hopefully this tropical storm will blow through quick enough to make it a decent weekend to ride.

I could be... maybe... cycling in Yuma, AZ in September/October. I can't imagine the heat will be any better than the combined heat/humidity here in Iwakuni, but it will certainly be flat!

If I'm not cycling in Yuma, I'll be doing the cycling leg of the Iwakuni Sprint Triathlon in September for a couple folks that needed a cyclist. Most of the cyclists around here are triathletes first, ones that ride because it's part of the triathlon. I still prefer the cycling to any other event and think I'll continue to focus my efforts there. I know my knees are thanking me for that!

News soon on the next long rides. Looks like September could be busy if I'm not in Yuma.

VW

Re-submitting this, notifications that went out looked like garbage. I had to fix html formatting for email. Sorry for duplicate sends to everyone!

Wow, what a weekend of riding.

I woke up yesterday morning to meet with two riders - one I'd ridden with before, and the other not. We set out to do 188km, one of my favorite routes. Mistake number one of the day for me? Shoulda left the 12x25 cassette on. The climb in the middle of this route killed me. Anyway, it was tremendously hot and humid - even though we started at 7am. By the time we got back down to the coast it was after noon and it was really heating up. The speed was fast, and after an intervals training day on Friday, my legs were toast.

One of the great parts about this ride is the descent down into Tokuyama. After a morning of climbing, the road tips over and descends for about 7km at 4, 5, and sometimes 7+% grade. Two of us reached the bottom of the descent, I had the luxury of drafting three cars in a row. The other rider never got a break as the cars refused to pass him and give him a pull!

We reached the bottom, only to wait for the third rider that never showed up. We waited half an hour, and realized that if he turned wrong at the top, we'd never catch him. By the time we climbed back up and got to the possible wrong turn, he'd be nearly 40km ahead of us. So off we set to Iwakuni. I eventually got dropped by the other guy's blistering pace but met my wife in Yanai just passing the 160km mark (needed to get the century after all), and with a change of clothes we set off to find him. We retraced the entire route and the possible turn he could make and never found him. Later that evening I finally got him on the phone and he'd had a pretty long day of riding, ending in some IV fluids at the clinic. I felt horrible, still do. Hopefully we'll still get riding together, but I wouldn't blame him for not wanting to ride with us after losing him in the mountains of Yamaguchi.

Today wasn't much cooler, and the ride started later. We started out of Ueki's shop, for what I thought was going to be a relatively flat trip down and around Oshima Island. When they said "We're heading up route 42," I knew it was climbing. Sure enough, a day full of climbing. Not only that, 150km of riding for today too! Up the mountains we went into some areas I have never ridden, and man was it beautiful. I hung - mostly - with the front riders, but the great thing about riding with these guys is there's a pretty big variation in paces. So, it wasn't uncommon to pass a guy who was taking a break and have him latch onto my wheel for some time. We dropped another rider due to hydration again today. The heat and humidity is a killer. It was non-stop water on the head and in the mouth. I think I went through roughly 15 bottles of water today in 7 hours of on-the-road time, right around 5 hours on the bike.

At about 70km into the ride, "blistering pace guy" from yesterday suggested we hop in the river and cool off. With the assent of Okada-san, off we went. MAN did that feel good!



After we finished taking a dip, I thought I'd need to have my wife come and get me. I sure didn't want to get back on the bike in the heat. Especially when I knew we had to climb back out of this valley to get back to the city.

I dragged myself over the mountain, and we regrouped at the 7-11 in Saiki Town. We dropped off our dehydrated rider with Ueki and set out on "some extra distance." Little did I know, the "extra distance" meant a sprint for the next stop. I hung on to Okada-san's wheel as best I could, and when I pulled forward to give him a pull, I realized we'd dropped the pack. When we reached Rte 186 along the river, the four of us took off and this is when it became apparent there was some competition going. The roads here are windy and rolling. I know these roads so I started to plan my strategy:

Pull ahead as the road turns down and left and stand and sprint as the road comes back to the right and up. If I could stay in front over the rolling hill, I had a straight shot down hill and wouldn't be able to be caught. So off I went, I dropped them in the turn and powered up the hill. I lost steam about 50 yards from the top but thought, "surely, no one is with me." No sooner do I think this than Okada-san paces by me. So I start spinning. We're both now in 53x12 combination, maxed out in gearing. He had 20 yards on me by now and I just could not close the gap. I cried mercy and we made it to the rest stop. What a rush. I hadn't "raced" that hard since May during the base road race.

Of course, now I had to crawl back to the bike shop practically. My legs were completely spent after two long days of riding. I spend three days in Okinawa next, and my legs are going to get some well deserved rest. I might even give them the whole week off.

Here's how my goals stand for the current period:
Yr 2006: 8,991 km out of a goal of 10,000 km
July - September: 1,785 km out of a goal of 2,500 km

I certainly won't fall short on goals this year. Barring injury, I'll be over my 2006 goals and 3rd quarter goals this month.

VW