INTERVIEW

Masuda: I have been involved in baseball since I can remember and was a member of a local club from 1^st to 3^rd grade of elementary school. I moved to a new address when I was in the 4^th grade, just as the J. LEAGUE was starting, and from then until the 6^th grade, I played soccer. In junior high school, I started playing soft tennis, which my father played, and I was pretty good at it. I felt like that I had completely burned out playing soft tennis, and I wanted to do something different next, then I went on to high school. But in my first year of high school, the coach invited me to play during spring break, and I continued playing soft tennis.

Meanwhile I watched an international road cycling race on TV. At the time, I knew bicycle racing, but I remember being shocked to see such a long distance race, crossing mountains such as the Alps and the Pyrenees. That was the spring of my second year in high school, and I immediately thought to myself, "I want to ride a bicycle! I want to buy one!" and I used the money I had saved up to that point to buy a road bike.

That was when I quit soft tennis and started riding bicycles. My high school did not have a cycling club, so I practiced with college students and adults at a bicycle store club.

Masuda: I moved to UTSUNOMIYA Blitzen in 2011, and in the fall of 2010, I took on a project to challenge the Japanese record for human-powered aircraft. I was flying over the ocean and the wind got the better of me, and I fell from a height of about 15 meters and was seriously injured. I entered the JAPAN SPORT COUNCIL and spent days undergoing extremely rigorous rehabilitation. Of course, I cannot ride a bicycle. I was searching for what I could do, not knowing if I was making progress or not, but just working on the menu one day at a time.

Then I moved to UTSUNOMIYA Blitzen and gradually started to ride the bicycle again, and I began to feel that I was getting stronger than before my injury. In fact, until then I had never won a single competition. But that year, I was able to win a domestic race for the first time during May and June, which resulted in a total of three wins. After that, I was able to win consistently. I feel that it was because of my injury that I was able to peel off my skin and grow.

Masuda: In my case, I participate in 40 to 50 races a year. There are also stage races such as the Tour de Hokkaido and Tour of Japan, for example, the Tour of Japan is an 8-day race where the overall winner is decided. Basically, our annual training is centered on the Japanese National Road Race Championships in June and the Japan Cup Cycle Road Race held in Utsunomiya, our hometown, in the fall. In addition to these races, I also train and make adjustments for international races such as the Tour of Japan and the Tour de Okinawa, where points are awarded.

The most important aspect of conditioning is where to take time off. It is impossible to be at peak performance all the time, and if you keep squeezing your body all the time, your immunity will be weakened. Even if you can achieve peak performance temporarily, it will not last. There are times when we train to generate power, and we also have training camps at high altitudes. It is important to maximize the effects of training while also taking good rest.

I am especially careful about my diet. I love to eat, and even though I know I shouldn't, I sometimes eat sweets with a sense of guilt. It is an occupation in which the body is very important than the ordinary persons’. That is why I am very careful about what I eat and what I put into my body on a daily basis. If you take in bad food, it can lead to injury.

Of course, physical care is also essential. Especially when cycling, the iliotibial band and the knee area are prone to inflammation due to repetitive motion. I make an effort to take good care of these areas. After training, it is important to let my body recover and get ready for the next day. In order to get a good rest, I actively take a bath and do self-massage.

Masuda: During the off-season around January and February, my mileage exceeds 3,000 km per month, and closer to the season, such as April through June, I do more "hard training" than "distance training," but it is still about 2,500 to 3,000 km. I am now 39 years old, and there are not many areas where I can dramatically improve. Rather, the challenge is how to slow the rate of decline. This is the challenge. For example, how much time I can devote to competitions while younger athletes are out playing. It is important to use time in such a way as to rest the body without using physical strength as much as possible.

Masuda: I had never used a treatment device until I was injured. The first time I used it was in 2009. During training, an unleashed dog appeared and I fell while trying to avoid it. I broke my pelvis and collarbone and had to spend about a month in therapy. At that time, the osteopathic clinic where I was getting massages had some treatment devices. I was given detailed instructions on the frequency and pulse duration settings of the ultrasound therapy devices, which is how I first encountered them. I found out that these devices are also installed in large hospitals such as orthopedic clinics. Now, I am very familiar with them and find them indispensable.

Since then, I have been using the treatment device whenever I get injured. Before, for some reason, I had Achilles’ tendon pain even though I am a cyclist. Even then, I applied a treatment device at home to treat it. I also use the treatment device when I have a bone fracture from a fall during a race, because I break bones very often. I think the actual use of the device is speeding up the recovery process. When I was injured during a human-powered flight in 2011, I applied the device every day. My trainer told me that it is not enough to just use it, but I did it twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Sometimes I use ultrasound therapy device followed by microcurrent treatment, etc.

Other times, when I broke my lumbar spine around 2018-2019, I wasn't sure if I was applying the treatment device properly myself. I was worried so I had it marked with a felt-tip pen and asked my wife to apply the treatment device every day. When I use the treatment device in this way, I feel positive and calm that I am doing everything I can and should be doing right now.

You can't really feel if the treatment device is actually working or not. But it's been scientifically proven, and it's been said that it shortens the time it takes for fractures to heal. So I think, "If I had not applied the treatment device, it would have taken longer to heal. It is hard to believe in something unless it is proven or the evidence is clear. I may use a product if I feel a real effect after trying it, but there are many questionable products in the world. In that respect, I feel safe using this product.