Tips for Cycling in Japan... with Ted

So I ventured on a ride the other day with my supervisor. I should have known when he suggested we meet before 6am that he meant business.
After all, I knew this guy is hard to the core when it comes to cycling. He has the record for fastest ride across Canada on a tandem (in 14 days, 10 hours!) and in all the years he has taught at SFU he has never once had a parking pass. He won't drive to school in the morning, he rides his bike - EVERY day. No matter what. I was impressed by this already, and then he told me he goes up this mental hill near the top of Burnaby mountain called Cardiac/Max Heart Rate/Heart Attack Hill. You get the idea - this is one biznatch of a hill. The primary objective when climbing this thing is just to keep moving forward!

Anyways, in my naievity (I blame my age), as a half-decent triathlete I figured I'd be able to trail him for a couple hours on the bike without too much trouble. Damn I hate it when I'm wrong!
He worked me so badly I felt like I hadn't trained in months.
But even while he was leaving me in his dust on yet another grueling climb, I was devising a plan for next time so that I wouldn't get so thoroughly done in.
Part of my problem I think, was that I wasn't mentally prepared. I seriously rolled out of bed just in time to put my contacts in, throw on some spandex and get to the meeting spot. I barely got a hello out of him before he was on his bike and ripping down the road toward the mountains.
I feel sorry for this guy's wife - I doubt he has any idea what foreplay is.
No time for any lead up, it's straight to the action.

I don't like making performance excuses, but there are certainly a lot of ways I can improve for next time!

So here's the point form list of thoughts I had while cycling with Ted in Japan. I think I'm going to have to re-read it before I ride with him each time!

-Most crucial - they drive on the left here! That means don't, I repeat DO NOT swerve right to avoid a car because you'll put yourself right in front of it. (Luckily I didn't have to learn this the hard way)

- Always remember - you're not out to sight see. Every time you lose your focus on riding to appreciate the surroundings he's put another 4 revolutions on you.

- Don't expect a social outing either. If you get more than 10 words in the whole time you're ahead of the game. Not everyone enjoys talking as much as you.

-Bring food. And water. You never know where you're going to end up and chances are there won't be a circle K out there when you need it.

- Eat breakfast. Even though those last few minutes of sleep feel so good, you can't boost yourself up any mountains running on last night's gyoza.

- Make sure you're bike is running perfectly the night before a Ted ride. Taking a minute to make even the most minor of adjustments will force you into a sprint for the next 10 minutes to make up the distance he just put on you. Also make sure all your gear is completely on. Trying to get the velcro on your gloves done up takes a long time when you're trying not to lose someone over the horizon

- Use the mirrors. In many of these narrow backroads in Japan the have a convex mirror mounted on the outside of the corner to help you see if any cars are coming - potential lifesavers

- What goes up must soon come down. After a good hour and a half of mostly uphill, you know the downhill must be coming... and boy did it ever. It was the funnest, fastest and most technical decent of my life. The last 45min-an hour of the ride were amazing.

- Watch out for monkeys. Apparently they can gang up on you if you stop for a wee in the woods and steal your bananas

- Be prepared for some crazy views. Even though I was hurting bad, riding through all these small little villages was amazing. The Japanese style architecture against the backdrop of rice fields and mountains first thing in the morning was unreal. Wish I had a camera at that point (and time to take pics!)

All complaining aside, the ride was really quite amazing. I was hurting pretty bad after, but not bad enough to prevent me from running 20k that afternoon.
My biggest problem I think was that I was starting to go hypoglycemic by the end of it (I couldn't find my Powergels in my morning rush).

Damn life is hard! Ha ha. Now I'm just looking forward to the next surprise route.