{"id":2645,"date":"2015-11-25T22:59:28","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T13:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2015-11-25\/2645"},"modified":"2015-11-25T22:59:28","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T13:59:28","slug":"flat-windless-trip-to-osaka-blustery-hilly-trip-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2015-11-25\/2645","title":{"rendered":"Flat, Windless Trip to Osaka; Blustery, Hilly Trip Back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 58mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nRiding in the Big City<\/span>\nGorm travels through Osaka City, last June\n\u4eca\u5e74\u306e\u516d\u6708\u3001\u30b4\u30fc\u30e0\u3055\u3093\u3001\u5927\u962a\u5e02\u5185\ntaken while moving at 31 kph (19 mph)\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nApproaching Osaka Station<\/span>\n\u5927\u962a\u99c5\u5230\u7740\ntaken while moving at 25 kph (15 mph)\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I've ridden my bike to Osaka three times so far. The first<\/span> time\nwas this ride in June<\/a>; I'm using photos from that ride on today's post.<\/p>\n\n

The second time was last month with a non<\/span>-Cycling friend<\/a>, and the third\nwas yesterday, by myself.<\/p>\n\n

A drunk man in the train knocked Anthony's phone to the ground, smashing its screen. Anthony being a kid,<\/span>\nand the drunk man being a drunk<\/span> man, Anthony felt he could do nothing but suck it up. Part of sucking it up means\nvisiting the closest Apple Store to have the screen replaced, so I took<\/span> the opportunity to make a ride<\/span> of it.<\/p>\n\n

There was little wind for most of the ride down, and few people were out on the path, so I could<\/span> make good time. It took a<\/span> bit over two hours (2:03) to make the 52km (32mi) trip, which seemed fast to me, so I expected<\/span>\nthat I would<\/span> have made new PRs (personal records) on all the segments of the trip down.<\/p>\n\n

I didn't. After returning home, checking the data for the ride on Strava<\/a>\nrevealed that I had<\/span> been faster that first time in June<\/a>, when\nI was<\/span> weaker, had less experience, was stopping for photos, and had a heavier<\/span> bike. This made no sense to me.<\/p>\n\n

Then I thought about the wind. On that first trip, Manseki had mentioned that we had a nice<\/span> tailwind that made the ride easier.\nI hadn't<\/span> noticed it. One certainly<\/span> notices a headwind<\/span> or a crosswind,<\/span> and they just sap the energy from you, but I didn't<\/span> have\nthe experience to realize how much of a benefit<\/span> I got<\/span> from the tailwind.<\/p>\n\n

It turns out that I the benefit was huge... bigger than all the advances I've made in my riding (and my bike) since then<\/i>.<\/p>\n\n

I have ample experience with the pain of headwinds, which just suck the energy from you like a vacuum<\/span> set to turbo mode. For\nexample, last month's 200km speed trial around Lake Biwa<\/a> had horrible\ngusty crosswinds for most of the trip. Every time a big<\/span> truck passed me, I thanked<\/span> it for the momentary respite from the wind, a\nrespite<\/span> that felt like the hand of God came by to give me a little<\/span> shove. In the end<\/span> I made<\/span> the 180km (112mi) circumnavigation in\n6:10, but if the wind had been calm I feel<\/span> it would have been noticeably faster (or, at least, noticeably easier).<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1600 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nUmeda Sky Building (\u6885\u7530<\/span>\u30b9\u30ab\u30a4\u30d3\u30eb)<\/span>\nwe stopped by during that June ride\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n

While Apple worked on Anthony's iPhone, I tooled<\/span> around Osaka city a bit,<\/span> and amused myself with\na short<\/span> little hill<\/a> that I was<\/span>\nable to get 7th-best on. That I could<\/span> get anything close to an overall top-10 told me that no serious riders\nhad ever given it a serious<\/span> go while using Strava, but it's still nice to rank.<\/p>\n\n

I actually thought I would have gotten the #2 position based on my own software running on my phone,\nwhich displayed my time for the segment in real time; it said I'd done one of the attempts in 31 seconds.\nOh well, nothing's ever exact with GPS anyway.<\/p>\n\n

I eventually returned to Apple and waited until the appointed time for the repair to be done,\nand they apparently waited too because when the time came, they told me they couldn't repair it.\n(Why didn't they just tell me when they found out, instead of waiting two hours?) I had<\/span> to end up\npaying for a new<\/span> phone. )-:<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/4, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nLeaving the City Center<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

I'm happy the ride down to Osaka yesterday didn't have a headwind,<\/span> but the wind kicked up as I approached<\/span> Osaka,\nand got very gusty for the rest of the day. Some screenshots from www.windyty.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n

\nCalm<\/span>\nKyoto wind yesterday morning at the start of my ride.<\/div>\n\n
\nBlustery Noon in Osaka<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
\nGusty<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Unfortunately, my chosen route home through the mountains north of Osaka would first require an hour and a half<\/span> of city riding\ndirectly into the wind.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1000 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nYou Win Some, You Lose Some<\/span><\/span>\nI appreciated the space given to bicycles,\nbut the thick blue stripes made for a very<\/span> bumpy, unpleasant ride\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 33mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/4, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nFinally Entering the Mountains<\/span>\n( again, all these photos are from more or less the same route I took<\/span> with friends in June )\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/4, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nHazy Osaka<\/span>\nwith all the wind yesterday, it was clearer\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>640 sec, f<\/span>\/5, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nCrossing Paths<\/span>\na rider heading to Osaka passes us\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>640 sec, f<\/span>\/5, ISO 800 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n“<\/span>Don't Feed the Monkeys”<\/span><\/span>\n$100 fine\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f<\/span>\/1.7, ISO 2000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nShort Tunnel<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>640 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nPretty Countryside<\/span>\nstandard fare in the mountains all over Japan\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

The goal in heading north from Osaka was to do the climb to the top of Mt. Myoken (\u5999\u898b\u5c71).<\/span> We had to<\/span> abandon that for lack of time before, and I worried<\/span> that I'd have to do the same yesterday,\nwith the iPhone repair having taken so long and the sun setting so much earlier, but\nI was<\/span> able to make it<\/a>.\nI didn't<\/span> spend the time to walk up the steps to the lookout platform — I didn't<\/span> have my camera with me anyway —\nand so I headed<\/span> East to hightail it home.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 40mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/5, ISO 250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nNot Following the Rules<\/span>\ntaken while moving at 50 kph (31 mph)\n( we could have been busted even if the limit was presenting “<\/span>miles per hour”<\/span> )<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/5, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nMore Mountains, More Pretty Countryside<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/5, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nManseki Climbing<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 28mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n“<\/span>Station of the Heart”<\/span><\/span>\nweird train “<\/span>thing”<\/span> in the middle of nowhere\n(I can't read most of the signs, but two say “<\/span>lookyloos prohibited”<\/span>)\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 46mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f<\/span>\/2.6, ISO 400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nDescending Toward Kyoto<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

Having left the house at 7am and expecting to be home long before dark at 5pm, I didn't<\/span> even think to\nbring my so-I-can-see<\/i> light<\/a>. I did have<\/span>\nso others can see me<\/i> lights on both the front and rear, but they aren't enough to take some of the\nsteep descents on the way home in the dark.<\/p>\n\n

Luckily, I made it down and into the city before dark, though it was well dark by the time I got<\/span> home around 6pm.<\/p>\n\n

I was a lot more tired last night than I thought<\/span> I should<\/span> be, but then I realized<\/span> today that it was my longest\nride that didn't go around Lake Biwa. Here it is on my cycling heatmap<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

The ride bumped my Eddington Number<\/a> up to 35.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I've ridden my bike to Osaka three times so far. The first time was this ride in June; I'm using photos from that ride on today's post.<\/p>

The second time was last month with a non-Cycling friend, and the third was yesterday, by myself.<\/p>

A drunk man in the train knocked Anthony's phone to the ground, smashing its screen. Anthony being a kid, and the drunk man being a drunk man, Anthony felt he could do nothing but suck it up. Part of sucking it up means visiting the closest Apple Store to have the screen replaced, so I took [...]","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\/2645"}],"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=2645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}