Rollers derby! 148 hills to Kirksville

 


This was a HELLUVA DAY!  I wasn’t so sure how this would go because my legs were a little sore from all the rollers yesterday. And today presented even more of the same. More hills. Longer. Steeper.  Seriously  148 dang hills  

And I had an absolute blast.

We got a later than usual start because the hotel breakfast didn’t begin until 7 am. And that turned out to be really fortunate because a storm front swept through on our route in the hour we would normally have been on the road.

The first hour was pretty chill along Highway 36.  A little up-and-down, but pretty gentle.  Great shoulder.  Light traffic.  Then we diverted onto State Highway 11 and the rollers began in earnest.

I started off taking them pretty slowly. But then the reality of my mass kicked in.  For those of you who have forgotten your high school physics, let me quote from the authoritative source Wikipedia.

“For small height changes, gravitational potential energy can be computed using

{\displaystyle U_{g}=mgh,}

where m is the mass in kilograms, g is the local gravitational field (9.8 metres per second squared on Earth), h is the height above a reference level in metres, and U is the energy in joules.”

To put this in other terms, at the top of every hill my body mass is like a battery. And unlike these skinny little AAA batteries I’m biking with, I’m a big ole


So I would take a couple of hard pedals at the beginning of each descent and go screaming down the hill reaching speeds of 35 or 36 miles an hour. And then, letting my momentum carry me some distance up the next climb.

For some stupid reason, I started going faster and faster and faster.  And then some of my favorite jams came on my playlist, and I started sprinting up the hills.  Frequently singing aloud as I did it.  The Clash ,  Fat Joe, The Police, Rolling Stones…  

I think I scared some people.  BUT I WAS HAVING SUCH A FREAKING GREAT TIME I COULDN’T STOP.

I tried slowing down after the second SAG, but my momentum got the better of me and I just kept going faster and faster. Until I literally sprinted the last 7 miles of the ride.

(For anyone who trains with a power meter, or has a peloton, most of these hills took 350 to 450 W to crest. And I peaked out at about 650 W today. The flipside of the potential energy equation is you gotta work hard to drag mass uphill.)

I’m probably going to be sore tomorrow. But I don’t care because I was having an amazingly fun time. The weather was great. The scenery was beautiful. 



And I was moving like a freight train in my Purdue cycling kit.


Choo choo Mizzou.

——

Kirksville has a population of 17,000, and three different universities, including the world‘s first osteopathic medical school, and one named after Harry S


Another day, another 75 miles closer to Boston…


Only one more day in Missouri… We will finish tomorrow in Illinois. Getting closer to home…




Comments

  1. Peter HJune 1, 2024 at 11:22 PM

    Great description of a good day on the road. Illinois awaits!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 6, 2024 at 2:36 AM

    Sounds like a blast — for you ;-)

    ReplyDelete

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