Month: September 2012

Last Saturday saw the beginning of the longest ride I have done to date.

The plan was to just go very far.

I’ve been all the way south before, so this time I went the other way. Tainan to Taipei was a simple and fairly predictable route, making it a good choice for my first 600km.

Planning

Unlike almost all of my other long rides, this one has been in the planning stages for a week or two. Typically I just happen to get a weekend free and then jump on the chance to go for a huge ride. The downside with a lack of planning is also the limitation on the time it places on me.

Less planning, less time available.

So for this one I set a date and confirmed it with Ava. She would see to the kids and I’d go off and do my thing. This was a weekend when she was free, with the preceding and following weekends booked up with other stuff for her. So it was either this day or wait two more weeks.

Equipment

This ride also saw another first for me, a full night ride. I have done rides at night before, but never all the way from sunset to sunrise. It was also a chance to try new gear. And a chance to test how long my body goes before going poof.

So I needed to carry extra stuff, prepare for the night and test new stuff. These were:

• Lights – for all the night riding. I borrowed these from Corne, rather than buying some that I would only use once.
• Bags – something lower profile than my big panniers. Also from Corne, a Topeak bag that fitted the rails on my rear rack.
• Aerobars – for sleeping on the move, hand relief and aerodynamics. These really helped ease hand-related tiredness, and I estimate improved my speed by 5% to 8% when I used them.
• Comfy grips – for better hand relief. These possibly helped, but being able to rest my hands when using the aerobars was possible enough.

The Start – Saturday, 12:00

My morning classes ended at 11:00 on Saturday morning and I had stayed up late with double-checking my stuff before the ride. But I was ready to go.

The weather was looking good, even though the weatherman was predicting possible rain, so I threw on some fenders just in case.

So at 12:00 I got to the meeting point where I met Tom. He was going to join me until he wanted to turn around. Having company was fantastic and we chatted about his recent month and a half trip to Europe to tour by bicycle.

I was wrapped up in arm warmers and MTB gloves to keep my arms and hands from getting burnt. I also put on my helmet for a change, although that came off when the sun went down.

Parting Ways – 40km

At 40km Tom set off back to Tainan, having already covered around 25km more than that after riding in from Tainan City.

It was back to the lonely trek, which has become a very familiar part of my riding. It’s great to ride with others when I can, but there is also something great about riding alone. Paul expressed his sentiments on this in a summary post on his ride around Taiwan.

So all was well, and I just set myself into cruising mode.

There was a very small tailwind helping me along, which would come along to bite me in the butt (face, actually), on the way back.

I had been very consistent in using the aerobars, getting in to a tucked position as often as possible, somewhere around 75% of the time by me estimation. But my neck was getting tired.

The visor on my helmet, which works wonders for keeping the sun off my face and negating the need for sunscreen, meant that I had to keep my head propped up quite a bit higher than usual and after 100km my neck was sore.

After that I would spend a lot more time in the comfy upright position, until much later in my ride when my neck was recovered and my helmet was off.

Puncture Time – 135 km

I was just doing my thing when that squishy feeling started.

My rear tire was losing air, but not extremely quickly, so I quickly looked for a place to pullover and make the repairs.

As the air was coming out slowly, it was likely that the damage was small, so I already had it in mind to just patch up the hole. I would save the spare tube for a complete catastrophe, where the tube might be unusable. On second thoughts, I could have just changed it and patched up this one later if needed, but I also liked the idea of a sit down break to watch glue dry.

This was when I put new equipment to the test. It’s usually recommended to do testing beforehand, but this ain’t life or death, so just do it whatever way.

Two things…

1. Amazing minipump lent to me by Corne
2. Great bag also lent by Corne

The bag was great because it could just slip off in a second, making it much easier to take off the wheel and change the tube. It was also big enough to hold the not-so-minipump.

But that minipump was the bomb. With a foldout foot hold, handle that rotated by 90 degrees and a pressure guage, I was able to make short work of pumping the tire back up to full pressure. It ends up like a mini-floorpump. I am quite happy to drag that little extra weight for the convenience of how easy it is to complete a tube repair.

With the tube patched, wheel back on, and tire pumped up, it was time to press on. And into the night.

The Night

I have to confess that I have a particular fondness for night riding. Like most other people, I don’t particularly like busy streets at night, or the danger of inattentive drivers. It’s the other aspects that attract me to it.

The isolation, silence and peace of riding in secluded areas is deeply relaxing. The wind in your hair (or on my skin at least), the stars in the sky, the flicker of lights in the distance, and sometimes the only thing you can see is the small, faint glow of the bike light on the ground.

It’s also that focus of having your attention on the spot directly ahead of you.

Objects of all sorts go almost ignored at the sides of the road (but I am still attentive), but my main focus is right on that spot directly ahead. Focus that puts all other things out of my mind. It’s just me and the road.

The night provided little opportunity for picture taking, although now that I know my phone’s camera can take decent night shots, I’ll likely take the time to do a few more the next time around.

Familiar Territory – 220 km done (approx.)

Zhubei saw me heading back to a route that I have covered before.

When I was first got bit by the long distance bug a few years ago I was living in Xizhi in Taipei County. At that time a lot of my riding was focused on the bike paths in Taipei. Those were a good choice and got me started on reaching farther and farther distances.

But after a few riverside rides it became clear that for real distance I would need to start venturing onto the roads.

The roads tend to be straighter and lend themselves much better to faster speeds. They also have convenience stores to provide my caloric requirements along the longer rides.

My first attempt at a 200km was a failed attempt due to time restraints. That ride started at midnight and by the time I got to the tunnel shown above it was time to turn around or I would not make it to work. I believe it was 187km that time, but I did make it back to work on time.

I put my head down a bit and focused on getting a little more speed into the ride, having slowed down for quite a while due to various pains and aches besides my legs.

Finally, it was time for the last peaceful stretch into Taipei.

The Riverside – 320km

After going through an unexpected amount of traffic for these wee hours of the morning, I was happy to jump onto the riverside path for the final burst to Taipei 101. It was like a trip down memory lane, taking in the same sights and sounds as I had experienced all those times before.

It was a short stretch and I rode up onto the bridge to Keelung Rd, and went directly to Taipei 101.

The Anti-Climax – 332km

At 332km I propped my bike against a pole outside Taipei 101.

In my own mind I had images of being alone, and taking a nice shot with the building in the background and taking in the beauty of the massively phallic symbol that has become the image of Taipei.

What I got instead was… drunken youths. Some throwing up, and others excitedly discussing which nightclub they were going to next. I think I’m showing my age, but that isn’t what I was hoping for.

Next time I’ll make the destination the top of Yangming Mountain or something like that.

So, I got to cuss at a Taxi driver who tried to run the red as I was coming through an intersection, take a photo, then go to 7-11 for some nourishment.

Danshui – 358km

Danshui was showing all it’s beauty in the early morning.

There were cyclists out for riding and the sun was rising peacefully over the mountains.

The also marked the beginning of the end of the Taipei City stretch, something which I was very happy to be done with for the most part.

From here it was out along the coastal road until the alternative route along number 15 that would take me past the airport and all the way back to Zhubei.

Hsinchu – 430km

By this stage I was really feeling tired.

I had taken a 20 minute nap earlier in the day, somewhere along the number 15 and was doing fine sleepwise, but the aches and pains were getting quite intolerable.

Besides my average speed dropping due to a slight headwind, I was spending a lot of time standing up to relieve the pressure on my sitting bits.

I will be investigating new saddles as this one is just totally unsuitable for rides of this distance. For shorter, faster rides, when the hard effort by the legs forces the body upward away from the seat, this one would be fine. But with the all day ride, there is a lot more sitting in place, which requires a much different design to be comfortable. It may be a great saddle, but not for me.

The standing up further slowed my efforts as every moment standing slowed my forward movement. The aerodynamics of being on the aerobars is essential for getting the most speed for your power input.

In Hsinchu I also noticed how many bike paths there were, they were very tempting, but my goal was in sight, and these paths would have slowed my already slow forward progress.

The sunny skies continued and there was some relief in the shade of the elevated expressway when it restarted after a stretch on the No. 1. It also included the rivermouth view above.

Sheer Exhaustion

It might sound a little silly, but this is the part of the ride that I like the most.

It’s at this point that I really have very little left.

Thoughts of calling ahead for a lift home, or flagging down a blue truck to take me somewhere down the road, fill my head. I’ve never actually done that, but it does go through my head.

And it’s at that same point where I had to decide to just take the last 100km one step at a time.

I put myself out of my body as if I was two people. It was a tad surreal. One was the rider, pushing to make it to the finish. The other was the coach, who would help the rider to count out the intervals and keep him on track.

My legs were strong enough to keep going, so I started my counting.

Riding By The Numbers – A Coping Technique

My counting technique goes like this…

Decide on a number of turns of the cranks (ie. add one every time my right foot was at the bottom of it’s stroke). In my case I chose 400, which at a cadence of 80RPM would be a 5-minute interval. I choose turns of the cranks because they are very natural to count, being a physical count, rather than following the time on a clock, which would move focus away from the turning of the cranks. Each push puts my total closer to the end, rather than some time.

I then put myself down on the aerobars and kept turning the cranks until I came to that number. I would count every number right until the 400. Then I’d shift 2 or 3 gears harder, and stand for some slow relaxing 50 to 100 turns of the cranks.

And so, for the final 70km or go, it was just 400, 50, 400, 50, 400, 50, until I got home. Sometimes the 50 was more like 100, but focusing exclusively on the counting, on a goal immediately at hand, I was able to mentally split the daunting task into a whole lot of very simple mini-tasks.

And finally, just a smidgen after 21:00 I was back in my little town. Body aching and ready to soak my tired body, I went straight for the fridge, gobbled down a whole lot of stuff I can’t remember, had a scrub in the shower (amazing how dirty you get from 33 hours on the road), then went straight to bed.

Cloud 9

As I write this I still living on the fumes of that ride. Everytime I notice my still-aching legs, memories of my trip come to mind and I’m filled with a euphoria that I don’t quite know how to put into words.

I received a call from Queenie in Taipei today and she asked me, “What’s next, 800km?”

And that might just be it, as my distances increase, the old rides seem so easy.

Once I’ve knocked one off the list, there is no way to go but up. I think I need some big hills to knock me down to size.

For now, I hope you enjoyed this ride report.

———-

Still tired, but happy,
Peter

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