We slayed Hokkaido, believe it or not. Today we did another 250 km, for a total of about 675 kms in 3 days of riding. Personally, I can't believe we are here in Hakodate. My body is sore, I'm tired, and I'm also emotionally drained. We ride at a pretty fast pace and we ride for hours on end. Today we started riding at 7:15 a.m. and finished at our usual finish time (by coincidence only) of 7:45 p.m.
The biggest "event" of today was repairing some sidewall damage to one of my tires. The weather was iffy all day, with rain on and off, so at one point we pulled off the road to take our jackets off. While I was putting my raincoat (well, it's actually the raincoat I borrowed from my buddy Guy) away, I noticed a problem with my rear tire. I showed it to Jody and he told me it was my inner tube protruding ever so slightly from the sidewall.
"You can't ride anymore with that tire in that shape. We need to fix that."
So I learned what a bumper* is. It's basically a patch that goes inside the tire to prevent the inner tube from bulging out. Luckily, we were able to patch her up and keep on riding, pumping up the tire with my hand pump. I was glad to have Jody around at that moment to help.
*I have no idea where "bumper" came from, since it's really called a "boot." Nevertheless, my bizarre term makes for a good story, eh? (Addendum to blog: March 1, 2012)
Another highlight of the day was running into a guy named Fabio. He's also cycling down the country, but he's going to camping route, so he has a really heavy bike, which means he cannot cover nearly as much ground per day as Jody and I do. Anyway, we were supposed to have met him here tonight, but unfortunately he ran into some trouble yesterday and ended up one day behind schedule. We ran into him as we were going up one of the many mountains we climbed today.
So yeah, yesterday we covered about the same distance, but today we did way more climbing. That's why today was so huge: massive climbing and massive kilometers.
Some quotes:
Jo to me, about 30 minutes into the ride: Eating already?
Me to Jo, about an hour later: Eating already?
Jo: I'm tired.
Me: Wait... Did you just say you're tired?
Jo: No. I said, "How do you say 'I'm tired.' in Japanese?"
Jo, after we covered about 180 km: How come you haven't said, "I don't know how you do it." yet?
Me: I haven't said it, but I've been thinking it for the past 5 hours.
OK, that's all for now. Not the best post ever, but I claim my usual excuse: I'm tired!
We have an early ferry to catch to Honshu. I really can't believe we have made it this far this fast.
Wish us luck for tomorrow. Talk to you soon.
Today's ride stats:
Distance: 154.71 miles (248.981 km)
Elapsed Time: 12:38:10
Time in Saddle: 9:53:24
Average Moving Speed: 15.6 mph
Maximum Speed: 39.5 mph
Calories Burned: 8903
Elevation Gain: 6962
Max Elevation: 2541 ft
Average Temp: 70.8 F
No comments:
Post a Comment