{"id":2566,"date":"2015-04-29T21:10:22","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T12:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2015-04-29\/2566"},"modified":"2015-04-29T21:10:22","modified_gmt":"2015-04-29T12:10:22","slug":"coffee-at-cowbell-short-but-intense-bike-ride-in-northern-kyoto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2015-04-29\/2566","title":{"rendered":"Coffee at Cowbell: Short but Intense Bike Ride in Northern Kyoto"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

I had a wonderful little bike ride today, 48km distance with 1,720m of\nelevation gain (30 miles of distance with 5,600 feet of elevation gain).\n(The report of the\nride at Strava<\/a> reports longer distance and less elevation gain, but I\ntrust<\/span> Google's elevation data for Kyoto more than I truest<\/span> my phone's\nGPS\/GLONASS unit's elevation.)<\/p>\n\n

Things didn't start well.<\/p>\n\n

I went downstairs to my bike to find the rear tire quite flat, likely a\nslow<\/span> leak from the\nspoke problem<\/a> I had<\/span> on the ride last week. I'd ridden<\/span> 70km after it was\nfixed so I thought<\/span> it was fine, but apparently not.<\/p>\n\n

I could have changed the tube myself, but I worried<\/span> that the problem\noriginated in the wheel and so a new<\/span> tube would quickly go flat as well, so\nI pushed<\/span> the bike to my cycle shop<\/a>\nand had them check it out.<\/p>\n\n

\niPhone 6 Plus + iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f\/2.2 at an effective 29mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>15 sec, f<\/span>\/2.2, ISO 50 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nFixing a Flat<\/span><\/span>\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

A short wait and $15 later I had a new<\/span> tube and\na diagnosis<\/span> that my wheel was fine. At noon I<\/span> set off for the mountains.<\/p>\n\n

40 minutes and 14km later I arrived at Kurama Temple (\u978d\u99ac\u5bfa),<\/span> and took a short<\/span> break\nto buy a bottle<\/span> of sports drink...<\/p>\n\n

\niPhone 6 Plus + iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f\/2.2 at an effective 29mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>2200 sec, f<\/span>\/2.2, ISO 32 —\nmap & image data<\/a>\n— nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nEntrance to the Kurama Shrine<\/span>\nmarks the “<\/span>real”<\/span> part of the climb\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

This is where we had paused last week for cyclist photo ops<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Anyway, I quickly took off for Hanase Pass (\u82b1\u80cc\u5ce0).<\/span>\n\nI would<\/span> be my third attempt, the first having\nbeen 2½ months ago on my first real ride<\/a>, and\nthe second a week<\/span> ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

I'd climbed 200m in the 14km it took to get here, but now would almost quadruple that\nin less than half the distance... from here it's 6.2km of unrelenting slope.<\/p>\n\n

This time I had one single secondary goal: make it to the top without\npausing. (My primary goal, as always, is make it to the top without\ngiving up<\/i>).<\/p>\n\n

So, I let myself fall into the easiest gear right away, and I just<\/span>\nstayed there for the 38 minutes it\ntook<\/a> to the top. This time was 9:04 faster than the first, with its slushy roads<\/a>\nand heavy camera. It was 4<\/span>:22 faster than last week, which lacked the snow\nbut not the\ncamera<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Oddly, my heart rate never got above 138 bpm. Mostly my body could\nhandle the climb just fine... the bigger problem is that I'm really\nweak-willed when it comes to physical exertion for its own sake. That's why\nmy primary goal is always “<\/span>don't give up”<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n

Anyway, I was pleased to arrive at the top without having stopped for\nanything, and like I said,<\/span> my body can handle the slow pace, so I just<\/span> kept on\ngoing down the other side. This was my first time to go down without the\nroad being a sheet<\/span> of ice, and it was exceedingly pleasant.<\/p>\n\n

Five minutes of lovely downhill sweeping curves later, I was at<\/span> “<\/span>Cowbell<\/a>”<\/span>, a\nrestaurant<\/span> in the middle of nowhere:<\/p>\n\n

\niPhone 6 Plus + iPhone 6 Plus front camera 2.65mm f\/2.2 at an effective 31mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1200 sec, f<\/span>\/2.2, ISO 32 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nSelfie at Cowbell<\/span>\n\u55ab\u8336\u30ab\u30a6\u30d9\u30eb\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

I ordered a cup of coffee and sat outside. I hadn't<\/span> had anything to eat\nyet today, and I wasn't<\/span> hungry, but I thought<\/span> I should<\/span> have some energy for the return climb.\nI didn't<\/span> want either of the two food items they had on the\nmenu (toast and curry rice), so I asked<\/span> whether they'd make an onigiri\n(rice ball) for me, and they kindly did:<\/p>\n\n

\niPhone 6 Plus + iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f\/2.2 at an effective 29mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/2.2, ISO 32 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nRice Ball<\/span>\nwith umeboshi<\/i><\/a>\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

I didn't want cramps on the way back, so sat and read a book<\/span> for 50 minutes, then headed back.<\/p>\n\n

It was my first time to ride up the back side of the mountain, and it\nended up giving me the best feeling of accomplishment. I was in<\/span> a middle<\/span>\ngear just flying<\/i> up, waiting for the difficult\/steep sections that would\nrequire dropping down to the easiest gear, at which point I'd settle into a “<\/span>just get it done”<\/span>\npace.<\/p>\n\n

And suddenly I was at the top. I was<\/span> shocked<\/i>.<\/p>\n\n

I knew this section was nowhere near as tough as the first climb (it\nturns out that it's just 170m of elevation gain over the course of 2.7km),\nbut the hard parts never came, and it took just 13:10 (flying downhill on\nthe way in had taken five minutes). Felt great!<\/p>\n\n

Then from the pass back down to Kyoto, standing on the pedals, flying\ndown and around corners at an average speed of 36kph, waving “<\/span>hi”<\/span> to\ncyclists riding up. Felt great.<\/p>\n\n

Tomorrow should be a much longer ride... (UPDATE: it was<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a wonderful little bike ride today, 48km distance with 1,720m of elevation gain (30 miles of distance with 5,600 feet of elevation gain). (The report of the ride at Strava reports longer distance and less elevation gain, but I trust Google's elevation data for Kyoto more than I truest my phone's GPS\/GLONASS unit's elevation.)<\/p>

Things didn't start well.<\/p>

I went downstairs to my bike to find the rear tire quite flat, likely a slow leak from the spoke problem I had on the ride last week. I'd ridden 70km after it was fixed so I thought it was [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,1,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2566"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}