McBlog

6 riders. 10 laps.3 wins, 2 seconds, 1 3rd, and the rest I didn’t contest. Not bad for me. Felt good although still having problems keeping with the pack around the course. I think it must be some psychological thing and I need to work on sticking with the group no matter what. I manage to get back to them for the crucial sprint but that won’t work in a race. Got to stop letting gaps open up no matter how I feel.
Trying to upload my Polar data but for some reason the lap top is not recognizing the cable and can’t find the driver. I think my new Nortan Symantec Virus software that makes this thing run slower than my Windows 95 Aptiva has something to do with it. I have gone witjout virus software on this since 2003 and decided I better get some to make sure I had no problems. It found 2 spywares (harmless ones) and that’s all. Now my laptop is virtually useless and I hear it’s hard to uninstall the software. It’s like I’ve paid for this virus that is supposed to help me.
I have a feeling if I reboot with the cable plugged in it may pick up the driver but will wait till tomorrow to do that as booting up which used to take about a minute takes 10 now. Good one Mr. Norton.
Feeling really fit lately. The 96km ride on Tuesday afternoon helped. The running has helped. (Need to do more of that). The weekly weight sessions at the gym have toughened me up too. (Been upping the weights a bit). Peaking in the off season? Is that good or bad?

Finished work early around lunch time and met up with a friend at Abiko station and went for a roundabout ride.
From home, down the Edo river to the Tone-Unga canal. Followed that to Tone river to Abiko and up to the station. From the station we headed straight down to the Tega-Numa (swamp) lake and went counter clockwise around the lake and headed towards the the Tone river. My friend departed East to Narita and I ventured West and decided to explore a new way home. My Garmin though was missing the vital maps so I had to judge where I was and follow the sunset a bit till it got too dark. Once I hit route 6 near Toride I went up the Kokaiwa river to Moriya and it got very dark, then to Kokinu to route 3 which was a straight ride home. My Garmin maps kicked in though and I could easily get home in the end. Was hard keeping out of the way of traffic on the dark unlit country roads with trucks trying to get back from their shifts. Quite surprised how far I went. The Kokaiwa river was very nice and I may even go back again tomorrow to see it in daylight.

Here is the route as I remember it. Not sure of the roads around Moriya. Will double check that later form the Garmin which only recorded the last hour of the journey.

Here is the route.

Finding it hard to get out of bed on Sundays and I was late this morning for training. My two Airedales Lunar & Sora always want to go with me, so this morning I took them across the bridge to the halfway point for the Semas Cycling group and took a few photos with everybody. Almost did my back in with them pulling me every which way like Clydesdales.

After coming home and giving Lunar a bit of a haircut in the warm sun, I was feeling guilty about not having ridden much this month and got the bike out, got changed, camera in my pocket, i-pod in my ear and up to Sekiydao I went. I picked out a rider about 200m ahead and paced myself to catch him at the 11km bridge where the first set of traffic lights are.

After passing him on schedule I picked up the pace a bit and made sure nobody could pass me till I got to the castle. A hot can of chocolate then a few photos on both sides of the river. A short movie clip of a kayaker, then I headed East down the Tone river back home.

My bike posing in front of Sekiyado Castle at the end of the Edo river.

Cosmic Front wheel posing in front of an old tree.

There is a tetropod factory opposite the castle.

Looking back from Saitama side of Edo river.

The weir where the kayakers play with the swash

Just as I was about to go for my run today I noticed thatthe dogs had picked the lock to the front gate and gone for their walkies. My sons and I spent the next 45 minutes racing around on the shopping bikes looking for them. Luckily they had eaten no children, killed no cats or gotten run over. I hope they didn’t cause anybody any strife. That was worth about 5km of cycling mileage I reckon.

Then with ipod blasting, calves straining I set of down the river for a change to wards Nagareyama and at about the 4.5km mark crossed over the bridge and into Saitama. Followed the gold course and river back to Noda bridge and home again. I estimated by counting the km posts on the river that I did exactly 10km but according to this quick map my ride it was 9.6km

After being passed by a faster runner at abnout the 6km mark my racing instincts kicked in and I picked up the pace a bit. Got into a good rhythm and was going well. At least until my right calf muscle put on the brakes and told me to slow down again. Felt good. Nice and sunny, no cool breeze and nice views of golfers and the sun starting to set.

Hope I didn’t burn my legs out too much for tomorrow’s ride. I want to get in at least 100km tomorrow or my January mileage will be worse than last year and last year Jan was embarrassingly low.