cycling

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    Big Red Wins The Blue, But Still A Toot For Astuto

    I’ve finally got one of my 2025 goals back on track in what has been my most prolific month for cycling in several years, courtesy of a dry, hot July. This morning I caught up with my target of averaging 1,000 or more kilometers per month across the year. This distance is nothing near my cycling heyday when I would ride almost three times that length regularly, but it’s good enough with all the life circumstances going on. I’m commuting often, going to school, and serving on the estate’s body corporate, all of which are taking decent chunks out of my life on a near daily basis. I also need…

  • Nothing Is So Freeing As Liberating From Berating

    Almost precisely a year ago, I got to through off the shackles of near constant torment to hurl myself into an opportunity that I could not have even imagined presenting itself. As a result, I’m now feeling valued and appreciated in my workplace and not just within my family and among friends. Every day for years I’d been copping vicious, relentless abuse, but that is over. In some ways, the opportunity has made life a little more challenging, but it has also given me enough of a boost to be able to throw myself headlong into taking issues on, instead of being paralyzed by fear of failure. Not quite the…

  • He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Ego…(But He Really Is Weighty)

    Actually, that title’s a lie and my enormous ego is tremendously cumbrous, probably to the extent that it’s been the bane of my life. My over-sized ego’s up to its old tricks now–especially when cycling–at a time when I need to be humble. Maybe it’s because of being the baby of a big family or what, but all my life I’ve constantly craved attention and it’s driven me to do some pretty stupid things right through to old age, when conventional wisdom suggests I should be smart enough not to fall for that. Stuffing myself into body hugging Lycra is among the less painful acts of folly I engage in…

  • Waking Up Early Helps Dreams Come True

    I don’t want to sound like I’m virtue signaling or anything like that, but my experience has been that the more active I am in the early morning, the greater the likelihood that I’ll gee myself up into being a decent person and go about making the most of the day. It’s helped a lot in the past few days that we have had simply astounding weather in Tokyo, with glorious sunrises (and sunsets), creating spectacular views. And I’m aslo blessed today because Mrs. Kangaeroo has kicked me out of the kitchen and is cooking up a storm for us to dine with a group of former co-workers for lunch…

  • Sweat Is Simply Fat Having A Cry

    Cycling has been one of my later life joys, and even though one of my original goals of weight control through riding bikes has failed spectacularly, it has brought me immense pleasure, with rides like this week’s explaining why. I was limited by life circumstances in how much I could get on the bike this week, but when I could it was magnificent, and the weather the past couple of days has matched that. I’ve been able to witness spectacular skies as the sun rose and set, as well as ride off all the cobwebs of a week spent largely desk bound with duties. Working from home has been excruciatingly…

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    No Making A Blue When It Comes To Big Red

    As anyone who knows Australian slang could tell you, anything with a hue as azure as the latest bike in my fleet could only possibly be given a name like Big Red. So that’s exactly what it got, and that’s not making a blue in the slightest. Big Red came to us in a bit of an accident. Someone stole the all-terrain, all-weather bike I’d built up to trek across the country (and then it returned four months later in the exact place it had been taken from). Mrs. Kangaeroo felt pity for me that my efforts (and money) had gone to waste and let me buy Big Red secondhand…

  • Riding A Bike Is The Cycle Of Life

    My life has been filled with great loves, some enduring, most fleeting, but few can compete with the relationship I have with cycling. Most Japanese kids can cycle before they reach school, but I was one of the few in Australia who did that. I didn’t know it at the time, but I grew up in a cyclist’s paradise, filled with hills and winding roads and delightful scenery. There were a few people who were really keen on riding–the Kaye brothers and Dean Fay are the ones who come to mind–but for the most part, road cycling wasn’t that prominent a sport. This is despite Australia punching above its weight…

  • Mirror, Mirror On The Paddy, Tell Me Now, ‘Who’s Your Daddy?’

    Tempted by the rice paddies, which now look like mirrors as they are filled with water and the stems planted, I rode through western Tokyo along the Tama and Aki rivers into Itsukaichi to climb and take beautiful photos. It’s been a while since I have ridden in the mountains, but the stars aligned today and I decided I’d try to see whether I could still do it. I’m about 30 kilograms heavier than the last time I rode higher than 400 meters in elevation, which I reckon was about four years ago. And now I’ve just remembered that I rode a climb earlier this year, so I am lying….

  • Break Affords A Break From Brakes

    Arthritis has crept through my hands over the past few years, crippling my fingers and robbing me of any power. This has made braking difficult while cycling, effectively ruling out hitting mountains and group rides because I can’t be sure of being able to brake in time. But a break in a finger has provided a break from braking. All my cycling plans for the year have been put on a backburner for the time being. I had intended to get back to daily riding and going for longer rides on weekends to try and get back to the riding I was doing a few years ago. But arthritis, especially…

  • Return To The Fold (And Returning Skinfolds)

    Once again, my outrageous fortune–which swings between good and bad–came into the fore again yesterday when I went out to get one of my bikes for a ride and was greeted by the sight I never expected to see. It was my GS Astuto bike, but one that had been stolen almost four months ago, and now, here it was, lying in the exact same place from where it had been taken! A few accessories like bags, the tool kit and the massive chain that had locked the bike up were gone. But otherwise, it was functioning almost perfectly; the sole flaw being that the disc brakes that were crucial…