I’d worked late and hadn’t slept well, so I’d put off the decision about whether to ride, and where. At last when Nana woke up and asked (hand not quite poised over the rice cooker to prepare the world-famous onigiri) I said Tamagawa. At that I was leaving myself a lot of leeway, from Don’t-mind-me-just-nipping-out-to-Haneda-and-back up to the full-blown 140km-plus river course round trip.

I got underway just before 9 and on the road to the river was asking myself: Do I really enjoy riding, or am I just in this for the geek pleasure of working on the bike? I told myself not to make any judgments about how far I would get, but to put my head down and pedal until noon and then turn around for home. We had a reservation for dinner at 5:30, and from that I’d decided to be home by 3.

I got to the park by the river just before 10 and stopped for a brief rest and a couple of onigiri before continuing — I’d had breakfast at 5 a.m., so this was fully within reason.

I struggled on upstream towards my next goal, Kaki Koen (Persimmon Park) just 15km up the river. I was riding into the wind, or at least with a strong crosswind, the entire way, and I felt I had no energy at all. My best 5km split was 15:45 (19.1km/h), and I was struggling to maintain that.

I reached Persimmon Park just before 11. At this pace I could reach Hamura by 12, but I was struggling for every kilometer. I finished off Nana’s world-famous onigiri and checked the time: 11:20. I’m heading home.

Superman!

Suddenly I was flying along. I knew the return trip would have a tailwind, but I thought it might be fleeting at best, with patches of crosswind or even headwind. As it turned out, the wind was helping me the entire way back down the river. In terms of 5km splits, my best time was 12:52, or 23.3km/h. And at that I felt I was loafing.

I reached the first park (where I’d left city traffic for the river course) at 12:10. I’d finished the onigiri and so just needed to rest. I decided I could make it home with the water left in my bottle as the temperature was mild and the sun wasn’t shining through the cloud cover. I turned the dynamo lights from AUTO to ON, so the taillight would be glowing as I returned to traffic, but I kept my shades on.

From the outset, when I was struggling upstream against the wind, I was concerned about the two brief ascents on the return in city traffic. When the challenge came I was up to it, faring no worse than usual. After that it was simply a matter of perseverance in the face of traffic and construction. I’d told Nana to expect me between 1:30 and 2, and I’m pleased to report it was 1:16 when I turned off Garmie and messaged Nana I was home.

I really was not pushing for a good result, so I’m very satisfied to find that on a moving time of 3:10:02 I averaged 20.2km/h. Towards the end I was taking every opportunity to lift my butt off Saddle No. 5 and get a brief respite. But in the final analysis I was not suffering any major saddle sores as I have in the past. It remains to be seen how this works out on a very long ride or several days of riding in succession.