I posted the other day about ripping a calf muscle while playing "livingroom soccer" with my son, and lamented that I'd be out of action for a while, because after a certain age, the body just doesn't heal as well as it used to.

I took a careful approach, resting the leg as much as possible and having Kentaro Kataoka look after it daily.

Surprisingly, I found that I could hobble after a few days, and that it was good enough to make a ginger test bicycle ride after only a week. It was still uncomfortable at times when walking, [...]
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It's still six weeks before the fall colors arrive in Kyoto, so here's a look forward with a few shots from various outings last year.

My cycling buddies would be surprised to know that they likely pass this garden fairly often. (Those curious about the location can follow the map link under the photo).

今回の更新は去年の秋のいろいろ。

Other posts from the outings that these photos came from include:

"Great Day in Kyoto’s Colorful Northern Mountains, and at Strava’s Kyoto Office" "Cycling to Kyoto’s Ochiba Shrine Amid the Fall Colors" "The Tenjuan Temple (Fall Colors and a Wigglegram)" "Wigglegram of a Pleasant Couple [...]
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今年の一月（八ヶ月前）、万石さんと万石さんの知り合い樋口さんとサイクリングをしました。 やっと記事をアップします。遠いの山田舎の息障寺まで行きました。

I'm finally getting around to post about a great day of cycling last January (8 months ago), with Manseki and an acquaintance of his, Higuchi-san, to a far-flung temple I knew of in the middle of nowhere.

We met up in front of the Ishiyama Temple in Otsu.

It's a lovely, photogenic temple that I first visited four years ago, and now ride by fairly often.

It's perhaps difficult to see in the photo above, but just flanking either side of the entrance are huge bamboo New Year displays, the one on the right in the process of [...]

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Now that I'm out of action for a while, I'll try to make some headway in my blogging. This post is sort of a followup to last month's "Lovely Bicycle Ride Revisiting Uji Countryside Photographed Five Years Ago", because I returned to the area on my next ride to continue exploring.

The ride ended up being lovely, appearing on Strava as "Uji #3 - Wet & Slimy Satisfaction 宇治市の満足":

I hit as many mountain climbs as I could fit in, so the ride ended up with over 3000m (10,000') of climb, but I was just enjoying to explore, so taking [...]

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I guess this gets chalked up in the "it sucks getting old" column. Last night while playing some light "livingroom soccer" with Anthony, during a minor little sideways move I heard a loud pop and sensed what felt like a slap to my left calf. Then pain.

息子と一緒に室内サッカーを遊ぶ途中にふくらはぎが肉離れを起こしました。あんまり激し運動の時ではないので、一寸不思議。年齢の事かな？嫌です。 しばらく自転車無し。

It seems that the soleus ripped. It's a big muscle in the calf next to the bone, under the bigger muscle that gives the calf its shape. It's sort of useful for tangential physical activities like "standing", "walking", and "bicycle riding".

The sound was eerily light and airy, just like the [...]

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