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Sunday Cycling Situation

Sunday July Fourth ironically marks the fourth consecutive day of rain in Tokyo, and thus by extension, without a single revolution of Red Chameleon's crank. She, like me, has been sitting indoors anxiously awaiting the very moment we can roll out on the tarmac and get some exercise. Rainy season this year is not merely a nuisance like normal, but is turning into a fully fledged monster.
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Fantastic Friday Flooding

Unfortunately for the second consecutive day, Tokyo is under attack from above. Wet warriors continue to descend upon the city, water purposely pounding the pavement, leaving no dry survivors in their wake.
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rain falling down upon umbrellas
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Powerful Precipitation Thursday

When I laid my head down on my pillow for a few hours of deep sleep last night, it was lightly raining with no apparent intention of stopping. My alarm went off as planned at 4am, and I did not even need to leave the comfort of my bed to know how powerful the rain was pounding Tokyo.
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Wickedly Wet Wednesday

The post-rain weather today resulted in an exceptionally mild and exceedingly comfortable temperature this morning, almost to the point where I contemplated wearing a shirt with some sleeves. I quickly erased that nonsensical thought from my nonsensical brain and rushed out the door, only to find it was lightly drizzling. I walked down the steps to the street and pondered whether I should ride or just call it quits. The sky looked like hell was about to descend upon the city, so maybe a ride was not the wisest thing to do. But a wise man I am not, and I decided a ride, even a wet one, would be better than no ride at all.
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rain falling down upon umbrellas
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Torrential Tepid Tuesday: Why Ghost?

Mother nature has been quite upset with Tokyo since late last night, summoning her wet warriors to descend from the sky, bringing with them torrential downpour. As I awoke at 4am to prepare to hit the tarmac, I realized my riding hopes were dashed thanks to the sound of the assault she convened. Since I cannot ride this morning, please allow me to discuss why I have opted to migrate from Wordpress to Ghost.
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Monday Morning Motivational Movementation

Awoke this morning to a beautiful early Monday with outstanding weather. When the door swiftly shut as I walked through it towards the garage, the temperature was perfectly mild with a slight hint of wind, and minimal humidity. The lovely climate helped increase my motivation to start the week off on the right food - no pun intended - with a metric half century, with one objective in mind: hit my weekly goal of 180k since I missed it the previous two.
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Sexy Top Tube Bag Swap-Out

Today was never going to be a cycling day after eating a ton of very tasty celebratory food and drinking a substantial amount of wine last night. I never expected I would be in a condition to ride, so I hit the sheets last night with the understanding I would not be waking up at 4am to head out for any amount of kilometers, despite my body excited to get on the tarmac for a workout. Instead, I opted for a couple extra hours of recovery sleep, and decided to use some of the cooler morning hours for a bit of limited bike maintenance and to swap out the older top tube bag for a newer, sexier, customized one.
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Satisfying Saturday Spinning

It was easy to wake up this morning because even before I hit the sheets last night for a few hours of sleep I was stoked to ride. I quickly hopped outta bed, hella motivated to rock out a nice 50k ride. Even before departing, I had decided to do a full metric half century and not turn around earlier, even if I was getting pummeled with rain. Luckily the weather is absolutely gorgeous today, perfect for riding, and never once faltered.
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Friday Meeting Extravaganza

ave much rather been out on the tarmac riding another 35-50k, my body likely needed the rest and relaxation due to a combination of multiple late nights followed by early wake-ups.
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Trials & Tribulations Thursday

Despite not feeling one hundred percent, and at full strength when I awoke this morning, almost to the extent I was slightly nauseous, I felt amazing out on the tarmac today. I was able to maintain high speeds for longer distances, and was consistently speeding through segments I normally have less energy when tackling. It is an interesting dichotomy, but somehow I brushed that annoying feeling aside and ended up really enjoying today's ride.
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Whirlwind Wednesday Morning Sweating

Since I failed to ride yesterday due to being abnormally tired, this morning I woke immediately at 4am and was bright eyed and bushy tailed. After hopping out of bed and taking care of the necessities, I jumped into my superhero cycling gear, downed 750ml of water for hydration, ate a very small bowl of oatmeal just to get some energy, and then headed out on the tarmac for an awesome ride. The temperature this morning was perfect, with little to no noticeable humidity, and an ever so slight yet comforting breeze.
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Healthy Lifestyle Begins with Commitment

At the end of 2019, after having lived in airports, airplanes, and hotels for the vast majority of the year - accumulating around 190,000 miles in business travel - I was not in a good place in terms of my eating habits, weight, and overall lifestyle. It was quite obvious I needed to make some type of positive, and potentially drastic, lifestyle changes towards a healthier way of life. As the world rang in 2020, and the festivities evaporated, I dove head first into some major changes to ascertain their effectiveness on my state of
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sleeping in bed with smartphone while dog & cat watch
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Terribly Tired Tuesday

Today I was unable to wake up and get out for a ride, feeling much more tired than normal at 4am. I actually did awake at that early hour, but was still feeling far too sleepy to actually pull myself out of bed. I ended up rolling over and drifting back into dreamsville for another ninety-ish minutes of sleep even though I do not feel terribly tired.
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Monday Morning Motivational Meditation

It felt a bit peculiar riding for a second time in less than twenty-four hours, not really providing any convincing amount of recovery time for my body, but the weather was too comfortable to pass up. After awaking at 4:15am, for a split second I considered heading back in bed and using the recovery time as an excuse for not heading out. But I quickly brushed that nonsense aside and commenced my pre-ride ritual.
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Suddenly Slow Spring Spinning

Well look at that! After all the crazy rain the last 36-ish hours, even all through this morning, a sudden turn of events has the sky blasting blue over the western side of Tokyo 23! Sometime around 11:30am to noon the sky turned a bright ocean shade of blue, and the rain stopped storming down upon the neighborhood. This was the chance I had been secretly waiting on, and as luck would have it, I now was faced with an opportunity to finally hit the streets!
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Soaking Stale Sunday

The rain was ostensibly supposed to stop sometime around midnight, allowing the pavement to slowly dry over the course of the next few hours. Instead, it turned out to be a nonstop late night of mother nature emptying her tear ducts over Tokyo. When I awoke at 4am to check the weather situation, I looked out the window only to see the rain continuing to beat down my neighborhood. With that, I headed back to sleep and decided to wait it out a bit, all to no avail.
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rain falling down upon umbrellas
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Soggy Saturday Sadness

As expected, the weather reports were surprisingly accurate, with Saturday turning into nothing but soggy sadness. The rain has been non-stop since around 4am this morning, thus there will be no riding at any point today.
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Juneteenth Morning Coffee Ride

Friday is finally upon us, and today is a nice break from work thanks to the Juneteenth holiday remembrance. The weather is absolutely beautiful today, with very little wind, and the perfect temperature for riding at 5am. Today I met a friend at a local Starbucks, and we hung out, shot the breeze and caught up, while drinking coffee outside under the lovely rays shining down from the sun. I rocked out a full 50k ride this morning, feeling hella motivated, and just utterly enjoying the climate.
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Thursday Morning Wet & Dirty Quickie

aining most of Wednesday, and throughout part of the late night, thus getting out on the tarmac was a gamble. Luckily it turned out the rain had stopped some hours ago, although death was looming above. I woke up at 5am with the intent to leave at 7am after an early morning weekly leadership meeting, which got suddenly cancelled 15 minute prior to game time. This was great news because it allowed me to sneak in a few extra kilometers, so I hopped on the Red Chameleon and headed out an hour earlier than expected.
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rain falling down upon umbrellas
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Weary Wet Wednesday

When I hit the sack last night a torrent of water was falling down upon my balcony, but I expected it to let up sometime in the middle of the night, allowing me to hop on my S-Works Aethos at 5am and do somewhere in the neighborhood of 35-50k. Those hopes were dashed when I awoke at 4:15am only to find the rain had either not stopped, or decided to blanket the city with more terror.
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