I rode my first January Century on Sunday. It came to 200 km (
on Strava), with temperatures between -2 C and 8 C (28F to 46F). I left late-ish around 08:00 and didn't get back until almost midnight, riding the last 7 hours after sunset.
Soon after I got out of Tokyo and rode along the Arakawa river, I got my first view of the year of Mt Fuji.
First Mt Fuji:
Besides extending my CaM streak to 101 months, the main objective was to clear some Veloviewer tiles, i.e. ride in places I had never visited before. My Max Square was at 29x29 which put me at the #2 in Japan (my friend Mike is way ahead at 49x49), but if I cleared 19 tiles I could extend it to 31x31 and stay ahead of the third ranking cyclist. I managed to do that and clear another 33 tiles, paving the way for a further expansion.
The last 10 or so tiles were collected in the dark.
I stayed comfortable most of the ride by wearing enough layers. I wore old socks over my shoes, with holes cut for the SPD cleats, to keep my feet warm. Long underwear under my fleece pants and four layers (base layer, LS jersey, fleece jersey, wind breaker) on my upper body for the colder part of the day. I also used a neck warmer and covered my ears when it got to freezing or below.
Most of the riding was around farmland, with some gravel sections and in small towns. Despite the cold I found it very enjoyable. It was sunny and mostly clear. The Kanto plain is pancake-flat and I saw snow-capped mountains to the north in Gunma and Tochigi and to the east in Ibaraki, but the Saitama mountains to the west didn't seem to have any snow yet.
Family home:
Cotton needs picking:
Rallye graveyard:
I felt very satisfied when I came back home, with all my goals accomplished. Because of frequent stops for navigation to plot a course through the map tiles, my bottom never felt uncomfortable despite the distance.
I will probably ride my first brevet of the year in March, followed by a Fleche ride on the first April weekend. I still have almost three months to prepare for that 360+ km ride.