Yesterday was my first chance to commute to work on Kuroko, my lovely new ride. It dawned a bit grey but looking quite suitable for riding. Until I checked the weather forecast, that is: gale force wind warnings! I stepped out onto the balcony. Yes, it was a bit windy, but I didn’t think it would much of a problem.
As soon as I mounted up, I knew I’d made the right decision. The wind was manageable, and it’s less of a factor given my bent-over position on Kuroko. In fact the riding felt so good that instead of going straight to the office when I got to Futakotamagawa, I descended nearly to the river and then climbed back up — just out of sheer exuberance.
On Futakotamagawa Climb, a brief Strava segment of 260m with an 11m rise (and covering only half the actual climb), I posted a personal best of 58s for an average of 16.4km/h and a maximum of 18.4km/h. I’ve done this same segment once before on Kuroko as part of the Haneda round-trip. On that occasion, coming to the climb after about 50km in the saddle instead of today’s 12km, I averaged 13.8km/h.
If you’re climbing hills for fun, you’re doing OK.
Joe Lejog
I can’t exactly compare this part of the commute with earlier efforts as the hill climb at the end adds almost 1km to the total, but the 37:55 looks pretty good compared to the 37:39 I clocked the last time I did the ride on Ol’ Paint (sans hill climb and extra 1km). So it looks like I did a bit better overall, and that’s reflected in the 1km/h gain over the 20.3km/h average that I racked up on the previous occasion. The total elapsed time was also similar, 42:06 yesterday vs 42:28 previously.
For the ride home I managed to ignore the lure of the hill, so I have a heads-up comparison of Kuroko vs Ol’ Paint: nearly a two-minute improvement at 33:18 compared to 35:10. On the other hand I assume the total elapsed time was more influenced by traffic (and possibly train crossings) as it came to 38:57 yesterday compared to 44:48 previously.
But more importantly than those numbers, I arrived home feeling fresh and wishing I had further to go — not a bad way to end a day of work!
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